“Nonsense, papa!” said Maud, blushing.
“Tell me, then, why I should spend so much money on a stranger.”
“You know you’ve got plenty of money, papa, and he has been very unfortunate. He’s such a nice-looking boy too.”
“I suppose if he were only unfortunate, and not nice-looking,—if he had red hair, and a face marked with the small-pox,—you would not be so anxious to have me help him along?”
“No, I don’t suppose I should feel quite so much interest in him,” Maud admitted. “Do you like homely persons as well as handsome ones, papa?”
“Why, that is rather a delicate question to ask. All I can say is, that I love you just as much as if you were good-looking.”
“That’s as much as to say I am not,” returned Maud.
“I didn’t say so.”
“But you meant so. However, everybody says I look like you; so, if I am homely, you are also.”
“You’ve got me there, Maud,” said Mr. Lindsay, laughing. “After this I shall never dare to question your good looks.”