“I was afraid you were not here, and so I couldn’t come in to do the doctor’s errand; and I didn’t want to tell him so. I didn’t want him to know why. It does seem, father, as if I’m in danger of having everybody find out about my naughtiness and—and my punishment,” she said, blushing and hanging her head, the troubled look again on her face.
He did not answer immediately, but sat for some minutes silently caressing her hair and cheek. Then, “My little girl,” he said, in low, tender accents, “I think I may fully trust you now. I remove the prohibition, and give you full permission to come in here when you will as freely as ever.”
“Dear, papa, thank you! oh, thank you very much!” she cried joyfully, repaying him with the sweetest kisses and smiles.
“Do you love me very much?” he asked.
“Oh, more than tongue can tell! I always did; always shall; I’m sure, sure I can never love anybody else half so dearly!”
“Suppose I should again become as cold, stern, and severe to my little girl as I once was?” he said, with a tremor of pain and remorse in his tones, and pressing her close to his heart as he spoke.
“I should love you still, papa,” she answered, tightening her clasp of his neck, and showering kisses on his face; “but, oh, don’t ever be so! it would break my heart if you should quit petting me, and not let me sit here and hug and kiss you.”
“Don’t fear it, my precious one,” he said with emotion; “you could scarcely suffer more than I from a cessation of these sweet love passages between us.”
CHAPTER XXVI.
“’Mid pleasures and palaces though I may roam,