"Is it not strange?" she said. "'From Natalie to Natalushka:' that is, from myself to myself. What can it mean?"
"Have you not asked your father, then, about his mysterious messenger?" Brand said. He was always glad to ask
this girl a question, for she looked him so straight in the face with her soft, dark eyes, as she answered,
"He has only now come home. I will directly."
"But why does your father call you Natalushka, Natalie?" asked Lord Evelyn.
There was the slightest blush on the pale, clear face.
"It was a nickname they gave me, I am told, when I was child. They used to make me angry."
"And now, if one were to call you Natalushka?"
"My anger would be too terrible," she said, with a smile. "Papa alone dares to do that."
Presently her father came into the room.