“I am well aware of it, my dear,” returned the cherub, “and I resign you willingly.”

“Willingly, sir? You ought to be brokenhearted.”

“So I should be, my dear, if I thought that I was going to lose you.”

“But you know you are not; don’t you, poor dear Pa? You know that you have only made a new relation who will be as fond of you and as thankful to you⁠—for my sake and your own sake both⁠—as I am; don’t you, dear little Pa? Look here, Pa!” Bella put her finger on her own lip, and then on Pa’s, and then on her own lip again, and then on her husband’s. “Now, we are a partnership of three, dear Pa.”