"You are a very obstinate girl!"
"That attribute of my character I fancy I inherit from daddy-professor's side of the family," the girl returned bluntly.
"I shall be shamed to death! I must accept the Perritons' invitation. I already have accepted it. They will think you a very queer girl, to say the least."
"I am," her niece told her, the gray eyes smiling again, for Louise was soon over her wrath. "Even daddy-prof says that."
"Because of his taking you all over the world with him as he did. I only wonder he did not insist upon your going on this present horrid cruise.
"No. I have begun to like my comfort too well," and now Louise laughed outright. "A mark of oncoming age, perhaps."
"You are a most unpleasant young woman, Louise."
Louise thought she might return the compliment with the exchange of but a single word; but she was too respectful to do so.
"I am determined to remain here," she repeated, "so you may as well take it cheerfully, auntie. If you intend staying with the Perritons any length of time, of course I shall see you often, and meet them. I haven't come down here to the Cape to play the hermit, I assure you. But I am settled here with Cap'n Amazon, and I am comfortable. So, why should I make any change?"
"But in this common house! With that awful looking old sailor! And the way he talks! The rough adventures he has experienced—and the way he relates them!"