“Can we be happy together, Alice dear?”
“I am sure we shall,” answered the warm-hearted girl impulsively. “Indeed, I will try to make you happy.”
——
CHAPTER II.
Late the next morning, Mrs. Gregory was sitting in the parlor with little Eddie at her side, where he had been enchained for five long minutes by the charms of a fairy tale. But as some one glided by the door he bounded away, crying,
“There’s sister Clara! Clara, come and see my new mamma!”
Presently, however, he came back with a dolorous countenance, complaining,
“She says I have no new mamma, and she does not want to see her either. But I have,” he continued emphatically, laying hold on one of her fingers with each of his round, white fists, “and you will stay always, and tell me stories, wont you? Was that all about Fenella?”
“We will have the rest another time, for there is the dinner-bell, and here comes your father.”
The joyous child ran to his father’s arms, and then assuming a stride of ineffable dignity led the way to the dining-room.