e
with enthusiasm.

Mr. Reeve hated to spoil the pretty picture, but said, in the interested
tone so comforting when used by older people in speaking to young folk: "I
am sure we can evolve some plan. I shall be very glad to speak to Miss
Preston before I return to the city, and haven't the slightest doubt that
great things will come of it."

"How lovely! You're just a darling! I'm going to hug you right here behind
the curtains!" cried Toinette, as she sprung up and clasped her arms about
his neck.

"Haven't you one or two more favors you'd like to ask?" said Mr. Reeve,
suggestively.

"No, not another one, just now," she answered, laughing softly. "Too many
might turn your head, and mine, too. But it is so good to have you home
once more. You don't know how lonely I've been without you, daddy. There
wasn't anyone in the world who cared two straws for me till you came back
and I came here. But I've got you now, and I'm not going to let you go
very soon again, I can tell you. You are too precious, and we are going to
have lovely times together by-and-by when I grow up, aren't we?"

"We are not going to wait till then, sweetheart; we are going to begin
right off, this very minute. I can't afford to waste any more precious
time; too much has been wasted already," he said, as he raised the pretty
face and kissed it, and then, drawing her arm through his, added: "Now let
me do the honors. Introduce me to your friends, and let me see if seven
years' knocking about this old world has made me forget the 'Quips, and
Cranks, and Wanton Wiles, Nods, and Becks, and Wreathed Smiles' I used to
know."

They left the snuggery, and, blissfully conscious of her honors, Toinette
presented her father to the girls. Just how proud they were of the marked
attention he showed to each I'll leave it to some other girls to guess. He
danced with them, took them to supper, sought out the greatest delicacies
for them, and played the gallant as though he were but twenty instead of
forty-two. "He treated us just as though we were the big girls," they
said, when holding forth upon the subject the next day.

Twelve o'clock came all too soon.

Mr. Reeve remained over night, and the following day found an opportunity
to have a long talk with Miss Preston--a talk which afforded him great
satisfaction for many reasons.

Toinette, with several of the other girls, escorted him to the train, and
gave him a most enthusiastic "send-off."

In the cou