"Yes, until I return. I must ask you to tell no one that I have gone for the government. We may fail--the newspapers must not know yet. Everyone must think I am simply travelling."
Keineth was silent and perplexed. It did not occur to her to ask her father why she could not go with him. He had often gone away before and she had always stayed in the old house with Tante. But it had never been for a whole year!
Suddenly she cried out: "I'll be very brave, but--oh, Daddy!"
He laughed, although he held her very close.
"Do you think, my dear, I would go away until I felt very certain that you were going to be happy? I'm not sure how well you'd like it at Aunt Josephine's--it would be very different. Still--you'd have that French maid of hers for a nurse and go out with her and Fido for his walk and ride in the yellow motor and have all kinds of frilled dresses and feathered hats--" He was imitating Aunt Josephine's voice in a very funny manner that made Keineth laugh.
Keineth thought very quickly of all the things she loved to do that she knew Aunt Josephine would not allow her to do, but she did not want to speak of them, for it might make her Daddy unhappy. Her father went on, more seriously:
"But I have another plan. I will tell you about It and you may choose between that and Aunt Josephine's." (Keineth suddenly felt very grown up.) "Coming up from Washington I ran into Mr. William Lee, an old friend of mine--a man I knew in college. I used to think the world of him. I hadn't seen him for fifteen years! He lives in the western part of the state. I knew Mrs. Lee, too,--she was a friend of your mother's and they were very fond of one another. We talked for a long time over old times. He showed me kodak pictures of his children--he has four. Do you know what I thought when I looked at them?"
"What, Daddy?"
"That I was cheating my little girl out of a great deal that every child has a right to--the pure joy of giving. When I looked at those youngsters of his--husky, bare-armed, round-cheeked children, I knew they were getting a lot of happiness you'd never know in this little corner of ours--the kind of happiness you can only have when you are young." Keineth was puzzled. "What do you mean, Daddy?"
"Oh, running, jumping, swimming--tennis--baseball! Why, the knowing other children well--even the quarrelling," he stopped, frowning. "I had it all when I was little and here I am cheating you. Aunt Josephine is right when she says I'm not fair to you--but I don't think you'd get it even with her!"