He had not seen his child for two years, during which time she had grown up into a mature and lovely woman.

I could forgive the jealous pride with which he would look into her face, and the constant tenderness of his allusions to her when she was away from his side.
"'I do not think, Mr.Perkins,' he would say to me, sometimes, 'that I can let you have my Eugenia, unless you will go South.

I am sure I cannot part with her again.' "'Why not come North, Mr.Ballantine ?' I would suggest.
"But he would shake his head as he made some disparaging remark in regard to the North, and playfully insist that I must go with him to the sunny South.

It was about the first of September that I asked that our marriage might take place at an early day.

But the father shook his head.
"'Be content that the flower is to be yours.