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Her father answered, with a cheerful firmness of conviction he

could scarcely have assumed, "Quite sure, my darling! More than

that," he added, as he tenderly kissed her: "my future is far

brighter, Lucie, seen through your marriage, than it could have

been--nay, than it ever was--without it."

"If I could hope that, my father!--"

"Believe it, love! Indeed it is so. Consider how natural and how

plain it is, my dear, that it should be so. You, devoted and

young, cannot fully appreciate the anxiety I have felt that your

life should not be wasted--"

She moved her hand towards his lips, but he took it in his, and

repeated the word.

"--wasted, my child--should not be wasted, struck aside from the

natural order of things--for my sake. Your unselfishness cannot

entirely comprehend how much my mind has gone on this; but, only

ask yourself, how could my happiness be perfect, while yours was

incomplete?"

"If I had never seen Charles, my father, I should have been quite

happy with you."