“That I wish it. You would do a great deal for me?”
“For you and Lord Jesus Christ,” she answered softly.
“Then I wish this, remember, and whatever happens, whatever you hear, remember you promised. Now here’s my train, stand back. Good-by, little woman, good-by.”
“I’ll see you again very, very soon, father?”
“Very soon,” answered the man. He jumped into the carriage, the train puffed out of the station. A porter came up to Sibyl and spoke to her.
“Anybody come to meet you, Miss?”
“No, thank you,” she answered with dignity; “I was seeing my father off to town; there’s my twap waiting outside.”
The man smiled, and the little girl went gravely out of the station.
Sibyl went back to Lord Grayleigh’s feeling perplexed. There was an expression about her father’s face which puzzled her.
“He ought to have me at home with him,” she thought. “I have seen him like this now and then, and he’s mostly not well. He’s beautiful when he talks as he did to-day, but he’s mostly not well when he does it. I ’spect he’s nearer Lord Jesus when he’s not well, that must be it. My most perfect father wants me to be good; I don’t want to be good a bit, but I must, to please him.”