An uneasy conscience made Lulu unusually irritable. “I do wish, Mamma Vi,” she said pettishly, “you’d let me alone. I—”
“Lulu,” interrupted a voice, speaking from the adjoining room, in grave, slightly stern accents, “bring that book to me.”
Both Violet and the little girl started at the sound, neither having had any suspicion of the captain’s near vicinity. He had come in quietly just in time to overhear the short colloquy, while the portiere separating the two rooms concealed him from their view. It was quite accidental; he having no intention or thought of listening to any thing not meant for his ear.
Violet, not wishing to be witness of a scene between her husband and his child, quickly and quietly withdrew by way of the hall, while Lulu rose and obeyed the order, appearing before her father with flushed face and downcast eyes, and silently placing the book in his outstretched hand.
He had come in somewhat weary, more in mind than body, and thrown himself into an easy-chair.
He did not speak for a moment, and she stood, flushed and trembling before him, her eyes on the carpet.
At length he said, with a heavy sigh and in tones more grave and sad than stern, “I thought I had, in my Lulu, a daughter whom I could implicitly trust to be obedient and respectful to me and her mamma, whether in my presence or absence; I thought she cherished a sincere affection for her kind young mother, and was quite sure that she loved, honored and reverenced her father. But what I have accidentally overheard in the last few minutes has, I am deeply grieved to say, robbed me of that cheering belief.”
Lulu hastily brushed away a tear. “Papa,” she began in a trembling voice.
“No,” he said, “I will hear nothing from you now. Go to your room and stay there till I come to you. I want you to think over your conduct since leaving the school-room this morning, and after due reflection upon it, in solitude, give me your honest opinion of it.”
A wave of his hand dismissed her, and she went silently from the room, up to her own, and sat down by a window overlooking the meadow where the ponies were browsing.