"I have been having some suffering lately, and am worried about things, those sort of things that don't come to little girls." "Of course they don't, father, but when I'm a woman I'll have them. I'll take them instead of you." "Now listen, my darling." "Father, before you speak ... I know you are going to say something very, _very_ solemn; I know you when you're in your solemn moments; I like you best of all then. You seem like Jesus Christ then. Don't you feel like Jesus Christ, father?" "Never, Sib, never; but the time is going by, the train is signalled. My dearest, what is it?" "Mayn't I go back to town with you? I like the country, I like Gus and Freda and Mabel, but there is no place like your study in the evening, and there's no place like my bedroom at night when you come into it. I'd like to go back with you, wouldn't it be fun! Couldn't you take me?" "I could, of course," said the man, and just for a moment he wavered. It would be nice to have her in the house, all by herself, for the next two or three days, but he put the thought from him as if it were a temptation. "No, Sib," he said, "you must go back to your mother; it would not be at all right to leave your mother alone." "Of course not," she answered promptly, and she gave a sigh which was scarcely a sigh. "It would have been nice all the same," said Ogilvie. "Ah! there is my train; kiss me, darling." She flung her arms tightly round his neck. "Sibyl, just promise before I leave you that you will be a good girl, that you will make goodness the first thing in life. If, for instance, we were never to meet again--of course we shall, thousands of times, but just suppose, for the sake of saying it, that we did not, I should like to know that my little girl put goodness first. There is nothing else worth the while in life. Cling on to it, Sibyl, cling tight hold to it. Never forget that I----" "Yes, father, I will cling to it. Yes, father!" "That I wish it. You would do a great deal for me?" "For you and Lord Jesus Christ," she answered softly. "Then I wish this, remember, and whatever happens, whatever you hear, remember you promised. Now here's my train, stand back. Good-by, little woman, good-by." "I'll see you again very, very soon, father?" "Very soon," answered the man. He jumped into the carriage, the train puffed out of the station. A porter came up to Sibyl and spoke to her. "Anybody come to meet you, Miss?" "No, thank you," she answered with dignity; "I was seeing my father off to town; there's my twap waiting outside." The man smiled, and the little girl went gravely out of the station. Sibyl went back to Lord Grayleigh's feeling perplexed. There was an expression about her father's face which puzzled her.