grounds with shining eyes. "I am always glad to get back to it, no
matter where I have been."

"I too," said Lucilla; "unless my father is somewhere else," she added,
giving him a most loving look.

"Ah, I wasn't thinking of being in it without papa," said Grace. "I'd
rather live in a hovel with him than in a palace without him."

"I don't doubt it, my darling," he returned. "I am entirely sure of the
love of both of you, and of all my children."

"And of your wife, I hope," added Violet in a sprightly tone.

"Yes, indeed, my love, or I should not be the happy man I am," he
responded; then, as the carriage drew up before the entrance to the
mansion, he threw open the door, alighted, and handed them out in turn.

"The children seem to be tired," remarked Violet; "do you not think they
might as well go at once to their beds, my dear?"

"Yes," he said. "Grace also; for she looks as weary as they."

"Thank you, papa," she said. "I am tired enough to be glad to do so. But
don't be anxious," she added with a smile, as he gave her a troubled
look; "I am not at all sick; it is only weariness." And she held up her
face for a kiss, which he gave heartily and with a look of tenderest
fatherly affection.

The two little ones claimed their turn; then Violet and the three went