"All I have for your thoughts! What wouldn't I give to know them!"
Her face became rosier than the firelight warranted as she laughed
outright and shook her head.
"No matter," he said; "I am content to hear you laugh like that."
"Yes, yes," added the banker; "Helen's laugh is sweeter to me than
any music I ever heard. Thank God! we all can laugh again. I am
getting old, and in the course of nature must soon jog on to the
better country. When that time comes, the only music I want to
hear from earth is good, honest laughter."
"Now, papa, hush that talk right away," cried Helen, with
glistening eyes.
"What's the matter?" Mrs. Kemble asked, waking up.
"Nothing, my dear, only it's time for us old people to go to bed."
"Well, I own that it would be more becoming to sleep there than to
reflect so unfavorably on your conversation. Of late years talk
about money matters always puts me to sleep."
"That wasn't the case, was it, my dear, when we tried to stretch a
thousand so it would reach from one January to another?"
"I remember," she replied, smiling and rolling up her knitting,
"that we sometimes had to suspend specie payments.
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