e which reigned over the
whole place, had so much impressed me that I could not resist uttering
an exclamation at her words. She spoke of Mr. Raymond as having
nothing in the wide world but herself, yet he was rich enough to be
master of what appeared to me the pomp of kings; and I told her so.

She regarded me curiously. "Is grandpa rich?" she asked. "He says
sometimes that the greenhouses cost so much money that they will send
him to the poorhouse. I do not think grandpa can be rich. But if he
were rich," she cried out indignantly, "that makes no difference: he
has nothing but me--nothing to care about. There was poor grandmamma:
she died--oh so long ago!--and my uncles died when they were little
boys not so old as I. And mamma--she stayed the longest: then she
died. No, grandpa has nothing left but me."

"Your father too: he has only you. I wonder you do not live with your
father, Helen."

She shook her head. "Oh, you don't know," she returned. "I couldn't
leave grandpa. Oh, Floyd, if you knew how it hurts me to tell papa
that I must stay here! He does not understand. He will say, 'I want my
little girl: you can't guess how badly I want my little girl.'" She
finished with a great sob which shook her from head to foot. I pitied
her very much, and I could easily comprehend that she was too delicate
still to be allowed to have any sort of trouble. So I asked her to go
down to the shore with me, and while we went I told her all the funny
things I could remember until I made her laugh. She was quick and
sympathetic; and her spirit was so strong, yet so repressed, that
the moment she was really glad it seemed to have the exuberance of a
bird's joy at freedom after imprisonment.

I have reason, beyond that of mere admiration for its admirable
picturesqueness, to remember and note down the form of the shore at
The Headlands. The house stood on the highest part of the promontory,
and there was a gradual descent to the end of the bluff, which
terminated in a line of black rocks, some of which were firmly
embedded in the soil, while others lay piled above each other as they
had been tossed by some horrible convulsion of the sea. In one place
there was a perpendicular precipice of eighty feet, washed by the
waves at its base; but the beach was easily accessible from every
other point, although in some places the descent needed sure feet and
agile limbs. But I had always been the best climber in Belfield, and I
ran up and do