"I have noticed even the robins get angry if you watch them
building their nests."
"But they, at least, build their own nest, father. The cock-robin does
not go to his parents, and the hen robin to her parents, and say, 'Give
us all the straw you can, and put it down at the foot of our tree; but
don't dare to peep into the branches, or offer us any suggestions about
the nest, or expect to have an opinion about our housekeeping.'
Selfishness spoils every thing, father. I think if a rose could be
selfish it would be hideous."
"I don't think a lover would make my Charlotte forget her father and
mother, and feel contempt for her home, and all in and about it that she
does not want for herself. Why, a stranger would think that Sophia was
never loved by any human heart before! They would think that she never
had been happy before. Nay, then, she sets more store by the few
nick-nacks Julius has given her than all I have bought her for twenty
years. When yonder last bracelet came, she went on as if she had never
seen aught of the kind in all her born days. Yet I have bought her one
or two that cost more money, and happen more love, than it did. Eh?
What, Charlotte?"
There were two large tears standing in his blue eyes, and two sprang
into Charlotte's to meet them. She clasped his hand tight, and after a
minute's silence said,--
"I have a lover, father; the best a girl ever had.
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