You understand-- ?" "Of course, Andrew.

You did perfectly right.

She's likely to ask a good many questions now that she's growing up." "Oh," he cried despairingly, "she's already asked them! It's a heartbreaking business, I tell you.

Many a time when she's piped up in our walks or at the table with some question about her father and mother I've ignored it or feigned not to hear; but within the past year or two I've had to fashion a background for her.

I've surrounded her origin and antecedents with a whole tissue of lies.