Her Father.

Otago Witness, Issue 2085, 8 February 1894, Page 49

Her Father.

Pretty Maud Saunders had been waiting in the parlour for her lover's return for what seemed to her an age. Her heart turned to stone as she thought of him — young, slender, but brave to rashness and recklessness — closeted alone with her stern father in the grim old library. The door opened at last, and he stood before her unscathed, a flush on his cheeks and an expression in his eye. "Did you see papa, Jack ? " she asked, with great trembling eagerness.

He held her in his arms for one moment without speaking. "Yeß, darliDg," he said at last.

"And what did he say ? " anxiously inquired the girl. "Oh, do tell me what he said ? He refused you, your eyes tell me. He will not give me vp — he refused you ; bub I will be — I am — yours. Ido not fear his anger. Come without delay, let us fly."

But he only looked down into her pleading face, and shook his head slowly, like a man in a dream. " Tell me," she cried again. " I cannot wait. Was he brumal aud cruel to you? Wbat did he do ? What did he say ? " John Baker drew a long, deep breath, and again looked down at the troubled face turned up to meet his glance. He sighed, and whiepared slowly, "He only said, 'Thank heaven ! ' and went on reading."