"I am keeping nothing back from you.

If there really be any reason for your father's frequent absence, it is our duty to wait till he chooses to communicate it; and this is not difficult to those who love and trust him as we do." "And yet your eyes are tearful, and you do seek to hide your anxiety from me.

If you will not, I will ask my father myself." "No, you shall not," said the baroness, in a tone of decision.
"My father!" cried Lenore; "I hear his step." The stately form came rapidly toward them.

"Good-evening, my home treasures!" he called out.

Then clasping wife and daughter at once in his arms, he looked so cheerfully at them that the baroness forgot her anxiety and Lenore her question.