“It will not be by any means her first visit to Roselands,” he remarked in a tone of surprise.

“Oh, no, sir! only the first after hearing of those interesting episodes in her mother’s life.”

“But the house is not the same.”

“No, sir; yet the hall and parlors, your rooms and mine are about where and what they were in the old house.”

“Ah! well I hope Rosie will enjoy it.  And that you may do so, I shall leave you now, begging you to go at once to bed.  Good-night, daughter.”

“Good-night, my dearest, best of fathers,” she responded, putting her arms round his neck as he stooped to give her a parting caress.

Calhoun and Arthur Conly were now joint proprietors at Roselands.  “Aunt Maria,” an old negress born and bred on the estate, was their housekeeper, and managed so well that they found themselves as comfortable as in the days of their mother’s administration.

They, with one younger sister and brother, were all of the once large family now left to occupy the old home, and these younger two were there now only for the Christmas holidays, and at their close would return to distant boarding-schools.  Ella, the sister, was eighteen; Ralph two years younger.

The house whence the mother and grandfather had been carried out to their last long home but a few months before, could not be made the scene of mirth and jollity, but to a day of quiet social intercourse with near and dear relatives and friends none could object; so the family at Ion had been invited to dine there the next day, and had accepted the invitation.

Lulu had been greatly interested in Grandma Elsie’s party of children as it told of had been invited to Ion for these holidays; but she did not covet such a father as Mr. Dinsmore; he was much too strict and severe, she thought, with all his petting and caressing, and she would far rather have her own papa.  Still Grandma Elsie’s lot, when a little girl, seemed to her an enviable one, so beautiful and so rich, and with a nice old mammy always ready to wait on and do everything for her; and she (Lulu) was sure she wouldn’t have minded much when such a father as Mr. Dinsmore was vexed with her; he wouldn’t have found it so easy to manage her; no indeed!  She almost thought she should enjoy trying her strength in a tilt with him even now.

Lulu was a rebel by nature, and ever found it difficult to combat the inclination to defy authority and assert her entire independence of control.

But fortunately this inclination was in great measure counterbalanced by the warmth of her affections.  She was ready to love all who treated her with justice and kindness, and her love for her father was intense.  To please him she would do or endure almost anything; that more than any other influence had kept her on her good behavior all these weeks.

She had sometimes rebelled inwardly, but there had been no greater outward show of it than a frown or a pout, which soon vanished under the kind and gentle treatment she received at the hands of Grandma Elsie and Mamma Vi.