“Uncle, you will not be angry with me?”
“I don’t know, Alice; I hope not.”
“I have always been a good girl, Guardy, haven’t I?”
“Yes, Alice, a very good girl.”
“I have never teased you, or wanted to have my own way, have I?”
“Well, Alice, you have not teased me more than was reasonable that a young woman should do, and I don’t know that I ever particularly wanted you to go any way you did not yourself like.”
Captain Bradshaw spoke playfully, but he quite guessed what Alice was going to say, and was fully prepared to resist her.
“Uncle, you had heard before of Frank having lost all his money?”
“Yes, I had heard it before, Alice,” Captain Bradshaw said, and then muttered to himself, “and serve him right too.”
“Uncle,” Alice said, pleadingly, “can you bear to think of Frank with his young wife and a baby being in want, in absolute want?”