‘By God,’ cried Dick, ‘I believe you are the best of the lot.’
‘Dick, my boy,’ replied the Admiral, winking, ‘you mark me, I am not the worst.’
‘Then why,’ began Dick, and then paused. ‘But Esther,’ he began again, once more to interrupt himself. ‘The fact is, Admiral,’ he came out with it roundly now, ‘your daughter wished to run away from you to-day, and I only brought her back with difficulty.’
‘In the pony carriage?’ asked the Admiral, with the silliness of extreme surprise.
‘Yes,’ Dick answered.
‘Why, what the devil was she running away from?’
Dick found the question unusually hard to answer.
‘Why,’ said he, ‘you know, you’re a bit of a rip.’
‘I behave to that girl, sir, like an archdeacon,’ replied Van Tromp warmly.
‘Well—excuse me—but you know you drink,’ insisted Dick.