Bee. "I shall dress as
I always do. Father, don't you think that we ought to attend to that
before we go shopping?"

"Yes. Deeds of kindness should take precedence over all else. Now,
girls, I am going into the study to read for a time. I know that you two
must have a great deal to say to each other. Beatrice has had to be
content with just me a long time.

"Good-night, Uncle William!" Adele ran to him and put up her lips for a
kiss. "You are just horrid to run off to those old bugs and things. If
you run away too often, I'll throw them into the river."

Bee looked up horrified at her cousin's pertness.

"Good-night, you butterfly," responded Doctor Raymond, kissing his
niece, and seeming not at all dismayed by her threat. "Don't let me
catch you tampering with my bugs, as you call them. Good-night,
daughter!"

"Good-night, father," replied the girl without glancing at him. He had
laughed just as if he had enjoyed Adele's nonsense. He had not kissed
her since the first night of his homecoming, and her heart throbbed at
the thought of how easily Adele could get what she would have given
anything for.

Her father hesitated a moment, then, catching sight of her expression,
he crossed the room to her side, and putting his hand under her chin,
raised her face gently and looked into her eyes.

"Aren't you going to kiss me too?" he asked.

Bee's eyes filled, and she was unable to speak, as was always the case
when she was deeply moved. He waited, wondering at her silence, when all
at once he spoke with a quick intake of his breath:

"There is a look of your mother about you tonight, Beatrice. I never
noticed it before. Child, child,--"

He withdrew his hand from her chin, turned, and quitted the room
abruptly.

"What made him do that?" cried Adele. "Doesn't he like you yet, Bee?"

But Bee's eyes were shining through her tears.

"He said that I looked like my mother," she breathed. "Oh, Adele! Did
you hear him?"

"Well, what of it? I don't see anything so wonderful in that. Everyone
says that I am the perfect image of mamma. It would be natural for you
to look like your mother."

"But he loved her dearly, dearly," said Bee. "If he thinks that I am
like her he will love me too. He just _must_ like me," she broke forth.
"Why, Adele, I think I should die if he didn't."

"Oh, no; you wouldn't, Bee. I don't think you know how to manage him.
Now I can make him do anything I wish. I could show you a few little
tr