"There! there! I am only joking," Sydney said, shocked at the effect which her attempt to suggest the impending separation had produced.

"You shall come with me, darling; we will walk in the park together." Kitty's face brightened directly.

She proposed extending their walk to the paddock, and feeding the cows.

Sydney readily consented.

Any amusement was welcome to her which diverted the child's attention from herself.
They had been nearly an hour in the park, and were returning to the house through a clump of trees, when Sydney's companion, running on before her, cried: "Here's papa!" Her first impulse was to draw back behind a tree, in the hope of escaping notice.