“No, sir; I meant to, but—O papa, I just can’t study when I have so much else to think about.”
“Can’t is a lazy word, my daughter,” he replied. “You have a strong will—which is not altogether a bad thing, though it has given both you and me a good deal of pain and trouble in past days. I want you to exert it now and force your truant thoughts to fix themselves upon the business in hand. Will you not? because it is your duty, and to please your father who loves you so dearly?”
“Indeed, I will, papa; and perhaps I shall succeed if I try with all my might,” she answered, holding up her face for a kiss, which he gave very heartily.
Returning to her seat, she set to work with such earnestness and determination that when summoned to recite she was able to do so to the entire satisfaction of both her father and herself.
Max and Grace did equally well, and tutor and scholars withdrew from the school-room in a happy frame of mind.
A carriage was coming up the drive, bringing Grandma Elsie and Mrs. Raymond on their return from the proposed shopping expedition, and at once Lulu was all excitement to see what they had bought for her.
“May I see my dresses, Mamma Vi?” she asked, following Violet and her mother through the hall and up the wide stairway.
“Yes, Lu, certainly,” replied Violet, “though I’m afraid you will not think them very pretty to look at,” she added, with a deprecatory smile. “You know I could only try to carry out your father’s wishes and directions.”
“And that I am sure is just what a little girl who loves her father so dearly, and has such confidence in his judgment, would wish to have done,” Grandma Elsie remarked, in a pleasant tone. “I think the goods we have selected will make up into very neat dresses, entirely suitable for the occasions on which you expect to wear them, Lulu, my dear child.”
“Yes, Grandma Elsie, and I mean to be satisfied, even if they don’t look pretty to me, because I know that you and papa and Mamma Vi are much wiser than I, and if papa is satisfied with my appearance, I suppose it really doesn’t make any difference what other folks think,” returned Lulu, seating herself on a sofa in her mamma’s boudoir and undoing the package handed her by a servant.