“Is Mamma Vi there?” asked Lulu, still lingering.

“No; yonder she is; don’t you see?” said Grace, nodding her head in the direction of the awning under which nearly their whole party were now seated:  “there’s nobody there but papa.  Oh hurry, Lulu, or he will whip you, I’m afraid.”

“Don’t you ever say that before anybody, Gracie,” Lulu said, low and tremulously; then turned and walked rapidly toward the stairway that led up the bluff to the cottages.

At a window looking toward the bluff the captain stood, watching for Lulu’s coming.

“She is not yielding very prompt obedience to the order,” he said to himself; “but what wonder?  The poor child doubtless dreads the interview extremely; in fact, I should be only too glad to escape it; ’tis no agreeable task to have to deal out justice to one’s own child—­a child so lovable, in spite of her faults.  How much easier to pass the matter over slightly, merely administering a gentle reprimand!  But no, I cannot; ’twould be like healing slightly the festering sore that threatens the citadel of life.  I must be faithful to my God-given trust, however trying to my feelings.  Ah, there she is!” as a little figure appeared at the top of the staircase and hurried across the intervening space to the open doorway.

There she halted, trembling and with downcast eyes.  It was a minute or more before she ventured to lift them, and then it was a very timid glance she sent in her father’s direction.

He was looking at her with a very grave, rather stern, countenance, and her eyes fell again, while still she shrank from approaching him.

“You are not very glad to see me, I think,” he said, holding out his hand, but with no relaxing of the sternness of his expression.

“Oh, papa, yes! yes, indeed I am!” she burst out, springing to his side and putting her hand in his, “even though I suppose you are going to punish me just as you did the last time.”

He drew her to his knee, but without offering her the slightest caress.

“Won’t you kiss me, papa?” she asked, with a little sob.

“I will; but you are not to take it as a token of favor; only of your father’s love that is never withdrawn from you, even when he is most severe in the punishment of your faults,” he answered, pressing his lips again and again to forehead, cheeks, and lips.  “What have you done that you expect so severe a punishment?”

“Papa, you know, don’t you?” she said, hiding her blushing face on his breast.

“I choose to have you tell me; I want a full confession of all the wrong-doing you have been guilty of since I left you the other day.”

“I disobeyed you last night, papa, about taking a long walk by myself; but it was because I forgot to notice how far I was going; at least, I didn’t notice,” she stammered, remembering that she had wilfully refrained from so doing.

“You forgot? forgot to pay attention to your father’s commands? did not think them of sufficient importance for you to take the trouble to impress them upon your mind.  I cannot accept that excuse as a good and sufficient one.