The girl’s expression changed. “I don’t know,” she returned. “Of course, Eleanor and I will go back to ‘Forest House’ for a while. Aren’t you glad that Uncle has been able to pay off the mortgage? When Nellie and Lillian go to Miss Tolliver’s and Phil to college I don’t know exactly what I shall do. Mrs. Curtis and Tom have asked me to make them a visit in New York next winter.”
The captain frowned again. It was well that Madge was looking over the water and not at him, for she never could have told why he looked so displeased.
“You and Tom Curtis are very good friends, aren’t you, Madge?” said Captain Jules abruptly.
Madge smiled to herself. She felt as though she were in the witness box. Was her dear old captain trying to cross-examine her?
“Of course, I like Tom better than almost any one else. He is awfully good to me. You know you like Tom yourself, so why shouldn’t I?” she ended wickedly.
“I like him. Certainly I do. He is a fine, upright fellow and his money hasn’t hurt him a mite, which you can’t say of the most of us. But it’s a different matter with you, young lady, and I want you to go slowly.”
“But I am not going at all, Captain,” laughed Madge. “It seems to me that I want only one thing in the world, and that’s to find my father. Sometimes I am afraid that perhaps I shall never find my father after all!”
Captain Jules coughed and his voice sounded rather husky. It had a different note in it from any that Madge had ever heard him use to her.
“Don’t play the coward, child,” he said sternly; “just because you have had one defeat don’t go about the world saying you must give up. It may be that your father did that once and is sorry for it now. Keep up the fight. No matter how many times we may be knocked down in this world, if we have the right sort of courage we’ll always get up again.”
Madge sat up very straight. Her blue eyes flashed back at Captain Jules with an expression that he liked to see. “I am not going to give up my search,” she answered defiantly. “One hears that it is Fate which separates two persons. If I find Father, I shall feel that I have won a victory over Fate. But I can’t help longing to tell my father that I know that he is innocent of the fault for which he was disgraced and dismissed from the Navy, and that I have the proof in my possession that would make it clear to all the world as well as to me.”