“Into a favorable consideration, papa.”
“As to that, I cannot promise.”
Maud, however, felt tolerably assured that she had gained her point, as indeed she had. Mr. Lindsay had been dreading his Australian trip mainly because it would separate him from his daughter. Now he began to look forward to it with interest and pleasure. Strange to say, the thought of taking his daughter had never before occurred to him. Yet there seemed no good reason for not doing it. She was young, and there was plenty of time to obtain an education, as she had herself said. Besides, the remark of her governess had considerable truth in it. Observation would be a valuable source of information.
He consulted Miss Pendleton, offering her a year’s vacation on half salary, and found her very ready to accept it. It was many years that she had been teaching in different families, and the prospect of a year’s respite, with such pecuniary inducements as would relieve her from loss or anxiety, was a pleasant one. It would enable her to visit the family of a married sister, and renew the familiar intercourse which her mode of life for many years had rendered impracticable.
So it happened that when the packet Rubicon sailed, in the list of passengers were Mr. David Lindsay and daughter.
Mr. Lindsay was sea-sick a fortnight, Maud scarcely at all. The dismal hours in which he was a victim to this disagreeable complaint were made much less intolerable by the services and bright, cheerful companionship of his daughter, so that the merchant more than once felt thankful that he had yielded to her entreaties, and made her the companion of his trip.
Maud and her father were standing by the side of the vessel, looking out at the broad waste of waters, without any definite object in view. Suddenly Maud exclaimed, “Papa, look there, and tell me what you see!”
She pointed to the east. He shook his head. “Your eyes are better than mine, Maud,” he said. “I can see nothing.”
“Papa,” she said, energetically, “I am sure I can see a boy in the water supported by a plank.”