“Oh, Max, don’t!” she cried, with a burst of tears. “I could kill myself for it! I don’t know what possessed me! I didn’t really mean to say the words, but I thought out loud before I knew it.”
There was no time for any thing more, for they had reached the door of the dining-room, and, as they passed in, Lulu hastily wiping away her tears, found themselves in the presence of their parents who had just sat down to the table.
Max and Lulu took their places in silence, the latter carefully keeping her eyes down, that she might not meet those of her father. He asked the blessing, then helped the plates, giving her, when her turn came, what he knew she liked, without question or remark. She ate in silence, the others chatting pleasantly among themselves as usual.
Presently a servant, passing a plate of waffles, handed them to Lulu.
The captain thought it not best, as a rule, for the children to eat hot bread at night, but he sometimes made exceptions.
“Papa, may I have one?” she asked.
“I have nothing to say about it,” was his reply.
Violet gave her husband a look of surprise.
Lulu’s lip quivered. “I’ll not take it,” she said in a low tone to the servant; then, a very little louder, and with a perceptible tremble in her voice, “Mamma Vi, please excuse me,” and hardly waiting for an answer, she rose and left the room.
Again Violet looked at her husband. “I fear the child is not well,” she said enquiringly.