“Yes, daughter.  Take a servant with you to carry some camp-chairs and to watch over Walter, if he wants to go with you.”

“You’ll come too, won’t you?” Rosie said to Lulu; “it’s good fun to watch the people in the water.”

“I’ll have to ask leave first,” replied Lulu in a sullen tone.  “Can you wait till papa comes down?”

“That is not necessary since your father has invested me with authority to give you permission,” remarked Violet pleasantly.  “You may go if you will keep with Rosie and the others.  But, Lulu, my dear, I wish you would first go up to your room, take off those coral ornaments and put them away carefully.  They do not correspond well with the dress you have on, and are not suitable for you to wear down on the beach at this time of day.”

She had noticed, on first seeing the child that morning, that she had them on, but said nothing about it till now.

“You said you gave them to me to keep!” cried Lulu, turning a flushed and angry face toward her young step-mother; “and if they are my own, I have a right to wear them when and where I please, and I shall do so.”

“Lucilla Raymond, to whom were you speaking?” asked her father sternly, stepping into their midst from the open door-way.

The child hung her head in sullen silence, while Vi’s face was full of distress; Elsie’s but little less so.

“Answer me!” commanded the captain in a tone that frightened even insolent Lulu.  “I overheard you speaking in an extremely impertinent manner to some one.  Who was it?”

“Your new wife,” muttered the angry child.

The captain was silent for a moment, trying to gain control over himself.  Then he said calmly, but not less sternly than he had spoken before, “Come here.”

Lulu obeyed, looking pale and frightened.

He leaned down over her, unclasped the coral ornaments from her neck and arms, and handing them to Violet, said, “My dear, I must ask you to take these back.  I cannot allow her to keep or wear them.”

“O Levis!” began Vi in a tone of entreaty; but a look and a gentle “Hush, love!” silenced her.

“Now, Lucilla,” he said, resuming his stern tone of command, “ask your mamma’s pardon for your impertinence, and tell her you will never be guilty of the like again.”

“I won’t!” exclaimed Lulu passionately.

At that, her father, with a look of utter astonishment at her presumption, took her by the hand and led her into the house, upstairs and to her own room.

“My daughter,” he said, “I must be obeyed.  I could not have believed you would be so naughty and disobedient so soon after my return to you, for I thought you loved me.”

He paused for a reply, and Lulu burst out with passionate vehemence, “You don’t love me, papa!  I knew you wouldn’t when you got a new wife.  I knew she’d steal all your love away from your own children!”

In that moment of fierce, ungovernable anger all Vi’s sweet kindness was forgotten and old prejudices returned in full force.