'She calls me Winnie.'
'Well, Winnie, my dear, I trust you are a good girl and say your prayers.'
'I say my prayers.'
'What has your mother taught you to say?'
'I say, Our Father'
'Anything else?'
'Yes, I say God bless dear mother, for ever and ever, Amen.'
'And do you never pray God to bless your dear father, who is—in Tierra del Fuego?'
'He may be my father, but he cannot be my dear father. I have never seen him to love him, and he does not care for me, as he never writes or asks anything about me. If he has been in England he has never come to see either of us. He has never sent me a kiss.'
Suddenly Holwood stooped, caught the girl's head between his hands, and pressed his lips to her brow.