She choked back a sob.
"I've got nothing to say against Aunt Maria," said Harry.

"She's been very kind to come here, and she's done all she could, but--well, I think in some ways, some one else--Father thinks you will be much happier with another mother, dear." "No, I sha'n't." Harry hesitated.

The child's voice sounded so like her dead mother's that he felt a sudden guilt, and almost terror.
"But if father were happier--you want father to be happy, don't you, dear ?" he asked, after a little.
Then Maria began to sob in good earnest.

She threw her arms around her father's neck.

"Yes, father, I do want you to be happy," she whispered, brokenly.
"If father's little girl were large enough to keep his house for him, and were through school, father would never think of taking such a step," said Harry Edgham, and he honestly believed what he said.