“I really don’t know where he finds them,” returned Captain Raymond, gallantly; but she was already out of hearing.

“Nor I,” said Violet, replying to his last remark; “mamma seems to me to be as nearly perfect as a human creature can be in this sinful world.”

“Now don’t feel troubled about it, Ned,” Zoe was saying to her husband, who was again at her side.  “I think it was just right that she should be made to apologize to you, for she was dreadfully saucy.”

“Yes; but I provoked her, and I ought to be, and am, greatly ashamed of it.  I fear, too, that in so doing I have brought a severe punishment upon her.”

“Why should you think so?”

“Because I know that such a task could not fail to be exceedingly unpalatable to one of her temperament; and don’t you remember how long she stood out against her father’s authority last summer when he bade her ask Vi’s pardon for impertinence to her?”

“Yes; it took nearly a week of close confinement to make her do it; but as he showed himself so determined in that instance, she probably saw that it would be useless to attempt opposition to his will in this, and so obeyed without being compelled by punishment.”

“Well, I hope so,” he said.  “She surely ought to know by this time that he is not one to be trifled with.”

It seemed to Lulu a long time that she was left alone, shut up in the little bedroom of the cottage, though it was in reality scarcely more than half an hour.  She was very glad when at last she heard her father’s step in the outer room, then his voice as he opened the door and asked, “Would you like to take a walk with your papa, little girl?”

“Yes indeed, papa!” was her joyful reply.

“Then put on your hat and come.”

She made all haste to obey.

“Is Gracie going too, papa? or anybody else?” she asked, putting her hand confidingly into his.

“No; you and I are going alone this time; do you think you will find my company sufficient for once?” he asked, smiling down at her.

“Oh yes, indeed, papa; I think it will be ever so nice to have you all to myself; it’s so seldom I can.”

They took the path along the bluffs toward “Tom Never’s Head.”

When they had fairly left the village behind, so that no one could overhear anything they might say to each other, the captain said, “I want to have a talk with you, daughter, and we may as well take it out here in the sweet fresh air, as shut up in the house.”

“Oh, yes, papa; it is so much pleasanter!  I can hardly bear to stay in the house at all down here at the seashore; and it seemed a long while that you left me alone there this afternoon.”

“Yes, I suppose so:  and I hope I shall not have occasion to do so again.  My child, did you ever consider what it is that makes you so rebellious, so unwilling to submit to authority, and so ready to fly into a passion and speak insolently to your superiors?”