, I hope," was the reply.

"Won't it be delightful!" exclaimed she. "You will take us to see
ballets and everything."

"When I am playing and singing fragments of operas," said Rosabella,
"I often think to myself how wonderfully beautiful they would sound,
if all the parts were brought out by such musicians as they have in
Europe. I should greatly enjoy hearing operas in Paris; but I often
think, Papasito, that we can never be so happy anywhere as we have
been in this dear home. It makes me feel sad to leave all these pretty
things,--so many of them--"

She hesitated, and glanced at her father.

"So intimately associated with your dear mother, you were about to
say," replied he. "That thought is often present with me, and the idea
of parting with them pains me to the heart. But I do not intend they
shall ever be handled by strangers. We will pack them carefully and
leave them with Madame Guirlande; and when we get settled abroad, in
some nice little cottage, we will send for them. But when you have
been in Paris, when you have seen the world and the world has seen
you, perhaps you won't be contented to live in a cottage with your old
Papasito. Perhaps your heads will become so turned with flattery, that
you will want to be at balls and operas all the time."

"No flattery will be so sweet as yours, _cher papa_," said Floracita.

"No indeed!" exclaimed Rosa. But, looking up, she met his eye, and
blushed crimson. She was conscious of having already listened to
flattery that was at least more intoxicating than his. Her father
noticed the rosy confusion, and felt a renewal of pain that unexpected
entanglements had prevented his going to Europe months ago. He
tenderly pressed her hand, that lay upon his knee, and looked at her
with troubled earnestness, as he said, "Now that you are going to make
acquaintance with the world, my daughters, and without a mother to
guide you, I want you to promise me that you will never believe any
gentleman sincere in professions of love, unless he proposes marriage,
and asks my consent."

Rosabella was obviously agitated, but she readily replied, "Do you
suppose, Papasito, that we would accept a lover without asking you
about it? When _Mamita querida_ died, she charged us to tell you
everything; and we always do."

"I do not doubt you, my children," he replied; "but the world is full
of snares; and sometimes they are so covered with flowers, that the
inexperienced slip into them unaw