Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/146

136 troubling him. She was full of weariness and grief. Had he not said all the nests were broken in the world and the little birds within them dead? She ran by his side, choking down her tears, for the young are very strong in their nobleness.

When she at last reached home, and away from her father's eyes, she ran into her nurse's arms and let her tears fall.

The good woman hushed her and understood.

"He forgets you in his own trouble," she muttered. "It is not right." She smoothed the child's hair and looked into her face. "What a pity you are not like your mother, darling; it would have drawn him to you. But, being like himself, he shuts you too away from happiness along with his own heart."

The child dried her tears to listen to her nurse. Was she saying something against her father?

"I will ask him to let you go to your aunt's," the woman continued. "It's not right for a child to be in this sad house."

The child flung herself away. What! leave her father! Never! She was going to live