She smiled round at him and answered:
“I know, Dad. She IS a pig, isn't she?”
This comparison with an animal of proverbial stubbornness was not encouraging. Then his hand was squeezed to her side and he heard her murmur:
“I wonder if all daughters are such beasts!”
He understood well that she had meant: 'There is only one thing I want—one thing I mean to have—one thing in the world for me now!'
And he said soberly:
“We can't expect anything else.”
“Oh, Daddy!” she answered, but nothing more.
Only four days later she came to his study with a letter, and a face so flushed and troubled that he dropped his pen and got up in alarm.
“Read this, Dad! It's impossible! It's not true! It's terrible! Oh! What am I to do?”