"If Master Puggy and Master Dawn are brave, they never do the brave things that Miss Tina does. They're always talking and singing about it, but Miss Tina does it without any talk. And I know which of them I'd like to be!"
Lucy smiled and said nothing; but in her heart she agreed with Susy.
That same evening Mr. Maclahan was walking with his little girl round the picture gallery at the Towers. He often went up there after dinner to smoke a cigarette, and if Christina were not already in bed, she would slip out of the schoolroom and join him. She was never tired of hearing stories about her ancestors, and would gaze wistfully at their stern proud faces, as she would ask:
"And do you think I shall grow up like them, father?"
Mr. Maclahan's mind was full of what his little girl had done. He stopped suddenly, and putting his hand under her chin turned her small face up to him.
"You have the right spirit, little woman, in spite of your size. How do you manage it? Has fear by this time departed from you?"
Christina shook her head solemnly.
"I am afraid I shall always be afraid, father; but I think my text will keep me from being a coward. And if I can't say, 'Fear dwells not here,' don't you think my text will do as well:
"'What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee'?"
Her father, looking down upon her, said with deep feeling in his tone: