er this information, and his really fond heart could not gaze on
her without admiration. She was now nearly fifteen, though in looks,
manners, and conversation, from being kept under such continual
restraint, she always appeared at first sight very much younger.
Childlike in every movement, even her impetuosity might have aided the
deception; and Lady Helen herself had so often indolently answered
questions concerning her daughter's age, she believed she was about
twelve or thirteen, that at length she really believed it was so. It was
Annie and Miss Malison's interest to preserve this illusion; for were
she recognised as fifteen, many privileges might have been acceded to
her, very much at variance with their interest. Annie had no desire for
a rival to present herself, which, had her sister appeared in public,
would undoubtedly have been the case; Lilla gave promise of beauty,
which, though not perhaps really so perfect as Annie's, would certainly
have attracted fully as much notice. She was drawing a tiny wreath of
brilliant flowers on a small portfolio, which she was regarding with a
complacency that added brilliancy to her animated features. At her
father's well-known step she looked up in some little terror, and rose,
as was her custom whenever she first saw him in the morning; her fear
could not check the sparkling lustre of her eye, and Grahame, taking her
hand, said kindly--

"I have some news for my little girl, which I trust will prove as
agreeable as I have every reason to hope they may. Mrs. Douglas will
gladly consent to receive my Lilla as an inmate of her happy family."

The flush of animation, the sparkling lustre of her eye faded on the
instant, and she turned away.

"Why, our kind friend, Mrs. Hamilton, bade me hope this would be
pleasing intelligence; has she deceived me, love?" continued her father,
drawing her with such unwonted tenderness to him, that, after a glance
of bewilderment, she flung her arms round his neck, and for the first
time in her life wept passionately on her father's shoulder.

"Can it be pleasure to hear I am to go from you and mamma?" she
exclaimed, clinging to him with all the passionate warmth of her nature,
and forgetting all her terror in that one moment of uncontrolled
feeling. Her simple words confirmed at once all that Mrs. Hamilton had
said in her favour, and the now gratified father seated her, as he would
a little child, on his knee, and with affectionate caresses