ry fine!--years indeed! Why, I shall be a seedy old bachelor!
That would never do! And Amy Ashe, whom I have had in my eye ever since
she was in pinafores, will be married to some other fellow!"

"Don't set your heart on Amy," said Katy. "She's not seventeen yet; and
I don't think her mother has any idea of having her made into Ashes of
Roses so early!"

"There's no harm in having a girl in one's eye," retorted Phil,
disconsolately. "I declare, you all look so contented and so satisfied
with yourselves and one another, that it's enough to madden a fellow,
left out, as I am, in the cold! I shall go back to St. Helen's with Dr.
and Mrs. Hope."

The others, left to themselves in their happy loneliness, gathered
together in the big room after the last guest had gone. Geoff touched a
match to the ready-laid fire; Clover wheeled an armchair forward for her
father, and sat down beside him with her arm on his knee; John and
Lionel took possession of a big sofa.

"Now let us enjoy ourselves," said Clover. "The world is shut out, we
are shut in; there are none to molest and make us afraid; and, please
Heaven, there is a whole, long, happy year before us! I never did
suppose anything so perfectly perfect could happen to us all as this.
Now, papa,--dear papa,--just say that you like it as much as we all do."

Elsie perched herself on the arm of her father's chair; Katy stood
behind, stroking his hair. Dr. Carr held out his hand to Johnnie, who
ran across the room, knelt down, caught it in both hers, and fondly laid
her cheek upon it.

"I like it _quite_ as much as you do," he said. "Where my girls are is
the place for me; and I am going to be the most contented old gentleman
in America for the rest of my days."

THE END

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