“O Uncle Ray!” protested Celia, instantly.  “Haven’t I had as much fun as you?”

“Hardly.  Between Mrs. Fields and Miss Ellen Donohue I don’t know when I’ve been so enlivened.  I hardly know which of the two has afforded me more downright amusement, each in her way.  But Celia, I tell you, Roderick and Helen, has been one brave girl, and that’s all there is of it.”

“You’ll find no dissenting voice here,” Celia’s father declared, and her mother added: 

“Nobody who knows her could expect her to be anything else.”

Celia looked away, her cheeks flushing.

“So now I want her to have her reward,” said Captain Rayburn.  “Let me take her with me for the year abroad.”

Celia started, glancing quickly from her father to her mother, neither of whom looked so surprised as she would have expected.  Both returned her gaze thoughtfully.

“How about the going to college?” Mr. Birch questioned.  “I thought that was the great ambition.”

“She shall have a four year’s course in one if she comes with me.  I shall spend much time in the libraries and art collections.  My friends in several cities are people it is worth a long journey to meet.  Undoubtedly such a year would be valuable at the end of a college course, and it may appear to you that the studies within the scholastic walls in this country had better come first.  The point is that I am going now.  I may not be, at the moment Celia takes her diploma.  And the question of her health seems to me also one to be considered.  Months of enforced quiet haven’t been any too good for her.”

“There’s not much need to ask Celia what she would like,” Mr. Birch observed.

The girl studied his face anxiously.  “But could you spare me?” she asked.  “If it means that mother would have to take my place again——­”

“It won’t mean that,” said Captain Rayburn, stoutly.  “My plans cover two maids in the Birch household, the most capable to be obtained.”

“See here Jack,” said Mr. Roderick Birch, quickly, “you can’t play good fairy for the whole family—­and it’s not necessary.  As soon as I am at work in the office again this close figuring will be over.”

“I want my niece Charlotte to go to her school of design,” the captain went on, imperturbably.

“We mean that she shall.”

“I wish you people would let me alone!” he cried.  “Here I am, your only brother, without a chick or a child of my own.  Am I to be denied what is the greatest delight I can have?  By a lucky accident my money was safe in the panic that swept away yours.  Pure luck or providence, or whatever you choose to call it—­certainly not because my business sagacity was any greater than yours.  You wouldn’t take a cent from me at the time, but you’ve got to let me have my way now.  Celia goes with me—­if you agree.  Charlotte goes to her art school, and if you refuse me the fun of assuming both expenses, I’ll be tremendously offended—­no joke, I shall.”