o do anything else," he did not meet her eyes,
"if you want to stay at home a year or so before you get married, it
would please us better than anything else. And when you want to marry
Gene, we're expecting it, you know."

"Yes, I know," she fingered the lapel of his coat uneasily. "Do you care
how soon I get married?"

"Are you still sure it is Gene?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Then I think you should choose your own time. I am in no hurry. But
any time,--it's for you, and Gene, to decide."

"Then you haven't set your heart on my teaching?"

"I set my heart on giving you the best chance possible. And I have done
it. For the rest, it depends on you. You may work, or you may stay at
home a while. I only want you to be happy, Fairy."

"But doesn't it seem foolish to go clear through college, and spend the
money, and then--marry without using the education?"

"I do not think so. They've been fine years, and you are finer because
of them. There's just as much opportunity to use your fineness in a home
of your own as in a public school. That's the way I look at it."

"You don't think I'm too young?"

"You're pretty young," he said slowly. "I can hardly say, Fairy. You've
always been capable and self-possessed. When you and Gene get so crazy
about each other you can't bear to be apart any longer, it's all right
here."

She put her arm around his neck and rubbed her fingers over his cheek
lovingly.

"You understand, don't you, father, that I'm just going to be plain
married when the time comes? Not a wedding like Prudence's. Gene, and
the girls, and Prue and Jerry, and you, father, that is all."

"Yes, all right. It's your day, you know."

"And we won't talk much about it beforehand. We all know how we feel
about things. It would be silly for me to try to tell you what a grand
sweet father you've been to us. I can't tell you,--if I tried I'd only
cry. You know what I think."

His face was against hers, and his eyes were away from her, so Fairy did
not see the moisture in his eyes when he said in a low voice:

"Yes, I know Fairy. And I don't need to say what fine girls you are, and
how proud I am of you. You know it already. But sometimes," he added
slowly, "I wonder that I haven't been a bigger man, and haven't done
finer work, with a houseful of girls like mine."

Her arm pressed more closely about his neck. "Father," she whispered,
"don't say that. We think you are wonderfully splendid, just as you are.
It is