‘All right, Lizzie dear,’ replied the other. ‘Ta-ta, girls! I dare say I shall see you again before long;’ and so they interlinked arms, and went down the road together lovingly. Tessie and I turned and looked into each other’s faces. ‘Is it not sickening?’ I asked her, after a pause. ‘It frightens me,’ she answered; and as I saw her pale face and lips, I believed that the insight she had experienced to falsehood had really caused her fear. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] CHAPTER VII. ALL FOR TESSIE. It was about this time that my eyes became first opened to the fact that old Mr. Lovett, notwithstanding his benevolent aspect and many protestations of affection, was exceedingly selfish with regard to his daughters. How those girls worked for, waited on, and believed in him! From the making of his bed and the setting in order of his room, to the starching and ironing of his muslin bands and the cooking of his particular dainties, Tessie and Ange did everything for him with their own hands. And what was better, they did it cheerfully. There was never any question with them as to _which_ should undertake the duties; they only vied with one another to perform them first. I never saw two daughters more devoted to their father in my life: yet there was a difference in the manner with which they served him. Ange did it with blind unwavering faith in the privilege she enjoyed. It was impossible not to read her perfect admiration and pride in the expression of her face. Her father was the highest creature in the world to her, and she the most favoured of girls to be able to call him hers. But with Tessie’s service, willingly though it was rendered, there was mingled a sort of pitying fondness—more like the protecting love we accord to a child, proud though we may be of him, than the humility with which we wait upon our superior. I used to think—and I thought a great deal in those days, more perhaps than was good for me—that the affection of Ange for her father resembled what a wife’s should be for her husband (but so very seldom is); whilst Tessie’s was more like that of a mother. But without thus analysing their mainsprings, no doubt remained as to the love and duty they both displayed for him. And he took it all as his due. I could have forgiven him that, considering the relationship he bore to them, had he only appeared sometimes to consider them in return.