Her father drew her to him, and placing one hand under her chin raised her face to his, then he stooped and did what her stepmother had not done—he kissed her.
"And is this where you hide yourself?" he asked. "Are you fond of books?"
"I love them!" Christina answered with glowing eyes.
Her father smiled.
"And so do I, so we shall be friends at once."
He sat down, and took her on his knee.
In a few minutes Christina was chatting unreservedly to him, asking him innumerable questions about things that had puzzled her.
"What do these words mean that are stamped across all your books? Nurse doesn't know, do you?"
"It is our family motto. Don't you know it? It means this in English: 'Fear dwells not here.' The Maclahans have neither been better or worse than most folks, but right back to the first annals of their history, no cowardly deed has been done by them. They have not known what fear is."
There was silence, then very timidly from Christina: