"Just as you do me, papa," she said, a little sadly. "Haven't you always loved me, though I've sometimes been very, very naughty indeed?"
"Yes, always," he said, holding her close, as something very dear and precious. "And I believe my little girl has always loved me even when I have been quite severe in the punishment of her faults."
"Yes; oh, yes, indeed, papa! because I have always felt that I deserved it; often a much more severe punishment than you inflicted; and that you didn't do it because you liked to, but because you wanted to make me good."
"And happy," he added. "I think you are never happy when disobedient, wilful, or ill-tempered."
"No, indeed, papa! and I'm thankful to you that you have never indulged me in those things."
"And I think, with Lu, that you are one of the best of fathers, Levis," remarked Violet.
"It is certainly very pleasant to be so highly esteemed by one's wife and daughter, whether deserving of it or not," he said, with a pleased little laugh; "yet I am not at all sure that such flattery is quite good for me."
"I don't believe any amount of praise could ever hurt you, papa," Lulu said, with a look into his eyes of ardent love and reverence; "you do seem to me to be just perfect; never doing or saying anything wrong."
"I think it must be my little girl's great love for her father that makes her so blind to his faults and failings," he replied, in low, tender tones.
"A blindness certainly shared by your wife," remarked Violet lightly. "We have been married five years and I have yet to hear the first unkind word from my husband's lips."