“I should hardly have thought it of you, my dear,” returned her father, first glancing at himself; and then at the dessert.

“I understand what you mean, Pa, but it’s not that. It’s not that I care for money to keep as money, but I do care so much for what it will buy!”

“Really I think most of us do,” returned R. W.

“But not to the dreadful extent that I do, Pa. O-o!” cried Bella, screwing the exclamation out of herself with a twist of her dimpled chin. “I am so mercenary!”

With a wistful glance R. W. said, in default of having anything better to say: “About when did you begin to feel it coming on, my dear?”