"My dear, could your papa afford handsome things like these?" she said.
Leonora flushed rose red.
"Not always," she said. "But he was very extravagant whenever he had money. He made a great pet of me, and sometimes—when he had good luck—he bought the loveliest things for me. Perhaps, if he had taken more care of his money, you need not have been burdened with the care of his orphan daughter now."
There was a dejected tone in her voice that went straight to the housekeeper's womanly heart.
"Oh, you poor fatherless child!" she cried. "Do you think I could mind dividing my savings with Dick West's child? He was a bonny lad, was Dick! I always loved him, although he was no real kin to me, and only my husband's brother."
Leonora's eyes shone very bright now through the tears that filled them.
"Oh, Aunt West, you will love me too a little, then—for poor papa's sake!" she cried, and Mrs. West answered, with sudden warmth and tenderness:
"Indeed I will, dear. You shall be like my own daughter to me."
A moment later she added, ruefully:
"I'm sorry I could not have a nicer room for you, Leonora. But, you see, I thought this would do very well for a child."