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"I thought so----" said Jane, sh her tears

"Dear!" said Allison in a tone that was a caress, full of longing and syan her story

"When I elve years old my mother died That left father and me alone, and we became very close coers answered with a warm pressure of sympathy and interest

"He was father and rew to confide in one another I was interested in all his business, and used to as at the office when he came home, the way mother used to do when she ith us He used to talk over all ether My father had a friend--a rown up with him, lived next door and went to school with hier than father, and--well, not so serious Father didn't always approve of what he did and used to urge him to do differently He lived in the same suburb with us, and his wife had been a friend of mother's She was a sweet little child-like woirl about ether, but as we grew older ht--it was better for us not to--and as the years went by we didn't have much to do with one another Her father was the only one who kept up the acquaintance, and sometimes I used to think he worried my father every time he came to the house One day when I was about fourteen he caot home from school and said he wanted to see father as soon as he came home Couldn't I telephone father and ask hi to see him on important business? He finally called hiot there they went into a rooht When at last Mr--that is--the o to bed but walked up and down the floor in his study all night long Toward er I knew my father was in trouble So I went down to hihtened His face hite and drawn and his eyes burned like coals of fire He looked at et He took me in his arms and lifted up my face, a way he often had when he was in earnest, and he seeirl,' he said, 'we're in deep trouble I don't knohether I've done right or not' There was so in his voice that htened and tried to be calm himself 'Janie,' he said--he always called me Janie when he was deeply moved--'Janie, it may hit hardest on you, and oh, I meant your life to be so safe and happy!'