"You dear good papa!"
"Some girls of your age, heiresses in their own right, would merely have said, 'I'm going,' never asking permission."
"Ah, but I like to be ruled by you. So please don't give it up. Now about Enna?"
"If I had any authority in the matter, I should say, you shall not give her a cent. She doesn't deserve it from you or any one."
"Then I shall wait till you change your mind."
Mr. Dinsmore shook his head. "Ah! my little girl, you don't realize how much some one else's opinions will soon weigh with you," he answered, putting an arm about her and looking with fatherly delight into the sweet face.
"Ah, papa!" she cried, laying her cheek to his, "please don't talk so; it hurts me."
"Then, dearest, I shall not say it again, though indeed I was not reproaching you; it is right, very right, that husband and wife should be more than all the world beside to each other."
Elsie's cheek crimsoned. "It has not come to that yet, father dear," she murmured, half averting her blushing face; "and—I don't know which of you I love best—or how I could ever do without either: the love differs in kind rather than in degree."
He drew her closer. "Thank you, my darling; what more could I ask or desire?" A slight tap on the door and Mrs. Dinsmore looked in. "Any admittance?" she asked playfully.