steak cooked that way in the
cook-book, and there was a pudding," said Charlotte, incoherently,
and she began to weep against her father's shoulder.

In reality, the girl's nerves were nearer the overstrained point now
than they had been before. She was so glad to have her father home,
she was so dazed by her new happiness, and there was something about
her father's white face which frightened her in a subtle fashion.
There was a changed meaning in it beside the sick look.

"Poor little girl!" Carroll said again. "Did you have to stay here
alone all night?"

"No, papa. I stayed just as long as I could, and then I went out, and
I ran--"

"Where, dear?"

"I ran to--"

Carroll waited. Charlotte had turned her face as far away from him as
she could as she leaned against him, but one ear was burning red.

"I ran to the--Andersons'. You know Mr. Anderson, that time when I
was so frightened by the tramp-- You know I stayed there to tea,
that-- Mrs. Anderson was very kind," said Charlotte, in a stammering
and incoherent voice.

"Oh," said Carroll.

Suddenly Charlotte raised her head, and she looked at him quite
bravely, with an innocent confidence. "Papa," said she, "you needn't
think I am ever going to leave you, not until Amy and the others come
back, because I never will. You never will think so?"

"No, darling," said Carroll. His face grew paler.

"But," continued Charlotte, "when I went to the Andersons' last
night, I rang the bell, and I pounded with the knocker, too, I was so
frightened, and Mr. Anderson came right away. He had been to New York
himself, to the theatre, and he had not been home long, and--"

Carroll waited.

"I am never going to leave you, papa," said Charlotte, "and I love
you just as much. I love you just as much as I do--him, only, of
course, it is different. You needn't think I don't. There is nobody
like you. But he--if you don't mind, papa, I think I will marry Mr.
Anderson sometime, the way Ina did Major Arms."

Carroll did not speak for a moment. He continued looking at her with
an expression made up of various emotions--trouble, relief, shame.

"He is a very good man," said Charlotte, in a half-defensive tone.
"He is the best man I ever saw, except you, papa."

Carroll bent down and kissed her. "You are very sure you love him,
are you, dear?" he said.

"Why, papa, of course I am! I never could see how Ina could love
Major Arms enough to marry him, but I can see how anybody