“Listen, Father! Follow me with care. It is very difficult for me to explain exactly.” Clarinda wept and bent over in her grief, then murmured with intensity. “Can’t you understand? Can’t you understand?”
Her father saw her body shaken with emotion and the tears steal between her fingers. He was terribly oppressed.
He advanced a few steps and laid his hand gently upon her head, his touch was sympathetic. She looked up at him with her tear-stained face, and hope entered her heart.
“Poor little Clarinda,” he began with tenderness in his voice. “I know your difficulty. Let’s talk it over.” He sat down in the corner of the divan by her side.
Clarinda fixed the stool again under his feet and replaced the pillow under his head, then she tucked herself into the bend of his arm and Clarinda’s golden head lay in comfort on his shoulder, a feeling of bliss and security in her heart. She waited for him to speak.
“Now let’s see if I can analyze this terrible condition. You would be surprised how observant I am,” he began. “You think Peter doesn’t love you as he did. You, in your silly mind have let your imagination get the better of you. This is probably what happened: Peter in the press of his duties has neglected you, or you think he has, which is about the same thing in the end. This neglect was not in itself a great matter nor of much importance, but was probably in some little attention he gave you.”
Clarinda listened intently.
“Let’s say for example, that he broke some custom that he had built up—a custom that had come to be part of your life, and that you looked forward to as much as you do, for instance, to your fruit in the morning. You have deduced from this infraction that he doesn’t love you as in the beginning.”
Clarinda opened her eyes in astonishment. He was placing before her clearly, exactly what she had wanted to tell, but could not. With a few words he arrived at the bottom of her trouble. Clarinda shook her head and tucked herself closer to his side.
“How wonderful you are, Father,” she whispered. “How exactly you tell me what I wanted to explain.”