d on its heels to negative it.
The last one added, "Deep regret," and therefore bore balm.

And then, after several more days, came a message which was all but a
letter:

It seems impossible to arrange for absence at present. Will you not
bring your father and come to my home on Wednesday? Will meet train
arriving seven-fifteen. Journey will not hurt Mr. Warne, and visit
here will interest him. Please do not refuse.
E. C. JEFFERSON.

Well! What girl ever had a suitor of this sort? one too busy to come or
write, yet who, on the strength of a few words spoken in the presence of
others, ventured to send for the lady of his choice to come to him, that
he might speak those other words so necessary to the conclusion of the
matter. Georgiana sat re-reading the slip of yellow paper, while her
heart beat hard and painfully. For with the invitation had come
instantly the bitter realization--they could not afford to go! Her
recent trip on the occasion of Jeannette's illness had taxed their
always slender resources, and until the money should come in for the
last bale of rugs sent away, there was only enough in the family
treasury to keep them supplied with the necessities of life.

The time had come--undoubtedly it had--when she must confide in Father
Davy. Not that he would be able to see any way out, but that she could
not venture to refuse this urgent request without his approval.

Georgiana tucked away in her belt the last long telegram, and went to
her father. He lay upon his couch, the blue veins on his delicate
forehead showing with pitiful distinctness in the ray of November
sunshine which chanced to fall upon him.

Georgiana knelt beside him. "Father Davy," she said, with her face
carefully out of his sight, "I have a little story to tell you--just the
outlines of one, for you to fill in. When I was in New York Mr.
Jefferson--Doctor Craig, you know,"--she had told him this part of the
tale when she had first come home,--"asked me when--when he might come
here."

She paused. Her father turned his head upon the crimson couch pillow,
but he could not see her face.

"Yes, my dear?" he said, with a little smile touching his lips. "Well,
that sounds natural enough. He knows he is always welcome here. When is
he coming?"

"He isn't coming. He can't get away. He has tried three different
times, and cancelled it each time. He seems to be very busy, too busy
ev