na is more happy in the mansion of the Vanderlyns! So things
occur as we do not expect."

There came to him the sound of chattering voices on the stair. He
hurried to the door.

"Anna, Anna!" he called into the hallway.

An instant later and she sprang up the last flight and ran into his
opened arms. "Father!" she cried happily. There was an unwonted flush
upon her cheeks, a new, soft glow within her eyes, a certain subtle
dignity about her bearing which he failed to note, but which she knew
was there and which the keener eyes of M'riar saw and were much
puzzled by.

"Father!" she cried again, and held him in so close a clasp that his
face reddened quite as much because she choked him as because his
heart was beating high with happiness at sight of her.

"Come, come," said he, and led her to a chair by the window which
commanded a small vista of back-yards--the only glimpse of
out-of-doors the tiny tenement apartment offered. "My liebling! My
little Anna! It is good to hold you so, again!" He clasped her in his
arms.

"'Yn't it beautiful!" M'riar muttered, gazing at them. "W'ite as snow
'is 'air looks, w'en 'ers that is that dark, is hup hagainst it close,
like that!"

"Dear old father!" Anna cried, as she drew back. She took him by the
shoulders, now, and, with her beautifully modelled, firm young arms,
held him away from her so that she might examine him. With loving
scrutiny she studied every line of the old face. Instantly she noted
the weary droop of tired eyelids. "Are you sure you are quite well?"

He smiled. "Always I am well, when you are with me. Always well when
you are with me, Anna."

"You look tired. Ah, it is not easy for you when you play--"

His heart stood still for half-a-dozen beats. Could it be possible
that she had learned how he had lied to her about the place in which
he played? Had she learned that it was not a park of elegant
importance?

"It is a fine, a splendid park," he interrupted. "Some day I shall
take you there, with M'riar, and shall show you. Not at once. At
present I must be quite sure to please and so must play without
distraction. Your presence might confuse me, so that I could not give
satisfaction; but, someday, when things are a little better--then I
take you with me."

As he lied away her fears his soul was bitterly inquiring what his
daughter who had such respect for him and for his music, would think
if she could hear him as he stood upon a rough-board platfo