Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/148

138 "we will have a little cottage all covered with roses, and I will do all the work for you; but it will be long, long years before I am grown up."

She felt him sigh, "Oh! the years, the lonely years."

"But I will be with you," she said; "you won't be lonely then." He stroked her hair.

"I love you," she whispered, nestling closer to him.

"And I you," he answered. He kissed her, and then her nurse came to take her away.

She half hoped he would tell her not to go, but he did not. Before she was at the door he had his head upon his hands, gazing into the fire. Twice she called to him "Goodnight" before he heard, and turned to her with a start to answer,—

"Good-night, my darling."

While she was with him he never bid her go or stay, it seemed indifferent to him which she did. "She is nothing to him," the nurse said to her fellow-servant. And the child heard and sobbed herself to sleep. When the morning came she went to him.

"You do love me," she said; and he