"But, my darling, the world could not go on if people were never serious. Why, the sun does not always shine: there are clouds over it sometimes." "But it's always shining behind the clouds, Mr Bayle says." "And so is papa's love for his darling shining behind the clouds--the serious looks that come upon his face," cried Millicent. "There, you must remember that." "Yes," said the child, nodding, and drawing two clusters of curls away from her mother's face to look up at it laughingly and then kiss her again and again. "Oh! how pretty you are, mamma! I never saw any one with a face like yours." "Silence, little nonsense talker," cried Millicent, with her face all happy smiles and the old look of her unmarried life coming back as she returned the child's caresses. "I never did," continued Julia, tracing the outlines of the countenance that bent over her, with one rosy finger. "Grandma's is very, very nice, and I like grandpa's face, but it is very rough. Mamma!" "Well, my darling." "Does papa love you very, very much?" "Very, very much, my darling," said her mother proudly. "And do you love him very, very much?" "Heaven only knows how dearly," said Millicent in a deep, low voice that came from her heart. "But does papa know too?" "Why, of course, my darling." "I wish he would not say such cross things to you sometimes." "Yes, we both wish he had not so much trouble. Why, what a little babbler it is to-night! Have you any more questions to ask before we go up and fetch papa down and play to him?" "Don't go yet," cried the child. "I like to talk to you this way, it's so nice. I say, mamma, do people get married because they love one another?" "Hush, hush! what next?" said Millicent smiling, as she laid her hand upon the child's lips. "Of course, of course." Julie caught the hand in hers, kissed it, and held it fast. "Why does not Mr Bayle love some one?" A curious, fixed look came over Millicent's face, and she gazed down at her babbling child in a half-frightened way. "He will some day," she said at last. "No, he won't," said the child, shaking her head and looking very wise. "Why, what nonsense is this, Julie?" "I asked him one day when we were sitting out in the woods, and he looked at me almost like papa does, and then he jumped up and laughed, and called me a little chatterer, and made me run till I was out of breath. But I asked him, though." "You asked him?" "Yes; I asked him if he would marry a beautiful lady some day, as beautiful as you are, and he took me in his arms and kissed me, and said that he never should, because he had got a little girl to love--he meant me. And oh! here's papa: let's tell him. No, I don't think I will. I don't think he likes Mr Bayle." Millicent rose from her knees as Hallam entered the room, looking haggard and frowning. He glanced from one to the other, and then caught sight of himself in the glass, and saw that there was a patch as of lime or mortar upon his coat.