"My child! oh! my girl!"
"Good-bye, dear mother."
"Oh, Priscilla! Do not leave us so!"
"This is the only way."
"But, you—you are not yet wedded."
Priscilla smiled.
"You must leave that to Jerry-Jo and me. And now a kiss—and the dear cheek against mine. So!"
"But you will come back——" Theodora sank gently to the floor. She had fainted quite away!
Priscilla bent with her, she lifted the white head to her knee, and again addressed her father.
"You are satisfied?" she asked. The shield was down between them. Man and woman, they stared, understandingly, in each other's eyes.