“O papa, take her for one of your pupils, won’t you?” cried Lulu in her most eager, coaxing tones.
“If she wishes it, and can be located in the near neighborhood,” he said.
“Oh, I have a thought!” exclaimed Lulu. “Why can’t she live with Mrs. Allen and Susie at the cottage?”
“Ah, that strikes me as a very good suggestion,” the captain replied. “What do you think of it, Violet, my dear?”
“I highly approve,” returned Violet, “unless it may crowd them too much.”
“Ah, in that case I can easily add another room, or two of them if deemed desirable,” he said. “They might stand a little crowding for a time, till they satisfy themselves as to their congeniality of disposition—for even good people sometimes find that they are more comfortable apart than thrown constantly together; and that having been satisfactorily proved, I would make the addition. But we need decide nothing in regard to these matters to-night. There is the bell for prayers, after which Lulu must go to her nest, and you and I, my dear, will, I think, be ready for ours.”
When the short service was over, Lulu bade Violet good-night; then turning to her father, asked, “Must I say it to you too now, papa?”
“No, daughter,” he replied. “I will step in your room for a moment when you are about ready for bed. I suppose it would hardly do to omit it on the first night after our return from our wanderings,” he added, smoothing her hair caressingly as she stood by his side.
“No, indeed, sir,” she returned with an earnestness that made him smile; “and please do not think it will do at any time; unless you are sick or have some company you cannot leave to give me even a minute. Ah, how thankful I ought to be, and am, that my father is so different from poor Marian’s!”