“Who makes coffee for your father?”
“Oh father thought that I made it for him. But Dr. Lake knew!”
“I will read history with you this winter. Dine and I intend to study German with Gus Hammerton; you can study with us, if you will.”
“Ugh!” groaned Sue, “as if that were as much fun as getting married.”
“It may help along. Who knows?” laughed Tessa.
“I’m going to make Miss Gesner a visit next month. She asked me to-day. But they are such old men? Mr. John Gesner is an old beau! Mr. Lewis is lovely, so kind and polite. And Miss Gesner is charming when she doesn’t try to educate me. Their house is grander than Old Place and they keep more servants. I’ll forget all about Old Place before spring. Mr. John Gesner likes girls.”
“Sue.”
“Well! Don’t be so solemn.”
“If I were to die and leave a little girl in the world as your mother left you, I would hope that some one would watch over her, and if the time came, through her own foolishness, or in the way of God’s discipline, for a disappointment to come to her, I would hope that this friend would love her as I love you to-night. She would warn her, advise her, and encourage her! Don’t go to visit Miss Gesner; she is selfish to ask you; you are bright and lively and she likes to have you to help entertain her friends—but you will not be so good a daughter to your father if your heart is drawn away from his home; the best home that he can afford to give you.”
“There’s danger at home and danger abroad,” laughed Sue. “Don’t you wish that you could put me in a glass case?”