“We at least, little one,” he said, “can say that ‘all things work together for good.’ But now, there are other things that we must talk about. You have come back, Marian, to a very different home from the one you left. Your father was a poor man when you went away; he is a rich one now. Are you glad?”
“Oh yes, daddy,” she answered, simply, “for your sake, and because I think my daddy is just the best man in the world to have charge of money. And you know,” she added, archly, “that, in that respect, your daughter is after your own heart.”
“I know that well.”
“You must let me help you more than ever, daddy.”
She seemed scarcely to have realized the fact that she was heiress to all his wealth.
“You shall, my dear,” he said, fondly; “but you mustn’t forget that all I have will be yours one day.”
She started violently.
“Well now, I declare!” she gasped. “I had scarcely thought of that. I was so glad and thankful to have found my father, that I forgot he had brought me a fortune. Well, daddy, that won’t make any difference. We’ll still do our best to put all this money to the right use. And, as for my being your heiress—you must understand, sir, that you’ve got to live for ever; so there’s an end of that.”
She had withdrawn herself from his embrace, and, kneeling back, was looking at him with dancing eyes.
“Well, darling,” he said, with an indulgent smile, “we must leave that. But there is something else that I must tell you. When I was arranging about the disposal of all this money, in case I should be taken away, I thought of my little Marian; and I had it set down in my will that you were to have everything after me, if you should be found. But, beside that, I directed the lawyers to invest for you the sum of £50,000. But, let me see, I think I must have told you about this at the time.”