O papa, it is such a _happy_ thing to have
the dear Lord Jesus for your friend!"
"It is strange how everything seems to lead your thoughts to Him,"
he said, giving her a wondering look.
"Yes, papa, it is because I love Him so," she answered, simply;
and the father sighed as the thought arose, "Better than she loves
me, even as she told me herself. Ah! I would I could be
_all_--_everything_ to her, as she is fast becoming to
me. I cannot feel satisfied, and yet I believe few daughters love
their fathers as well as she loves me;" and fondly pressing the
little hand he held, he looked down upon her with beaming eyes.
She raised hers to his face with an expression of confiding
affection; and, as though she had read his thoughts: "Yes, papa,"
she said, "I love _you_ dearly, dearly, too; better than all
the world besides."
Breakfast--always a plentiful and inviting meal at Roselands--was
already upon the table when they returned, and they brought to it
appetites sufficiently keen to make it very enjoyable.
Elsie spent the first hour after breakfast at the piano,
practising, and the second in her papa's dressing-room, studying
and reciting to him; then they took a long ride on horseback, and
when they returned she found that quite a number of the expected
guests had already arrived.
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