“O papa,” panted Lulu, “what a horrible looking man! He looked at me as if he’d like to kill me.”
“How would you enjoy meeting him alone?” asked her father.
“Oh! not at all, papa! I’d be frightened half to death!”
“I think you would; and what is more, I think he—and many another of the same class—would be a more dangerous creature for you to meet alone than any wild beast. Do you need any further reply to your question of a moment ago?”
“O papa! no indeed! and I shall never disobey you again by roaming about by myself. I see now that you were kind to punish me for it.”
“I thought it far kinder than to let you run the risk that such disobedience would bring,” he said. “And,” he went on presently, “there are others who, though not so forbidding in appearance, are very nearly if not quite as dangerous: who coax and wheedle children and by that means get them into their power and carry them away from their parents and friends, to lead miserable sinful lives. I think it would break my heart to lose my dear little Lulu in that way; so, my darling, heed your father’s warning, and never, never listen to them.”
“Indeed I’ll not listen to them!” she exclaimed in her vehement way, “but I am sure nobody could ever persuade me to go away from you, my own dear, dear father!”
“Ah,” he said with a sigh, “I think you forget how, a few weeks ago, you attempted to run away from me without persuasion from any one.”
“But that was because I thought you didn’t love me any more, papa,” she answered humbly; “but now I know you do,” she added, looking up into his face with eyes full of ardent affection.
“Never doubt it again my precious child, never for one moment doubt that you are very, very dear to your father’s heart,” he said with emotion, bending down to give her a tender kiss.