“My de‑ar, this is becoming awful⁠—” her father was emphatically beginning: when she stopped him.

“Pa, tell me. Did you marry money?”

“You know I didn’t, my dear.”

Bella hummed the Dead March in Saul, and said, after all it signified very little! But seeing him look grave and downcast, she took him round the neck and kissed him back to cheerfulness again.

“I didn’t mean that last touch, Pa; it was only said in joke. Now mind! You are not to tell of me, and I’ll not tell of you. And more than that; I promise to have no secrets from you, Pa, and you may make certain that, whatever mercenary things go on, I shall always tell you all about them in strict confidence.”