Mrs. Mordaunt was very happy in the child's companionship, and found the task of teaching her very congenial.
But for the little girl she would have had many lonely hours, since Dan was absent all day on business.
"I don't know what I shall do, Althea, when you go to school," she said one day.
"I don't want to go to school. Let me stay at home with you, mamma."
"For the present I can teach you, my dear, but the time will come when for your own good it will be better to go to school. I cannot teach you as well as the teachers you will find there."
"You know ever so much, mamma. Don't you know everything?"
Mrs. Mordaunt smiled.
"Compared with you, my dear, I seem to know a great deal, but there are others who know much more."
Althea was too young as yet, however, to attend school, and the happy home life continued.