ll.

"Papa--it's about the Dragon--and I've been wrong. Very wrong. Yes; I
know I have. I was foolish." She was silent again. Was she going to
cry, after all? The Baron shot a nervous glance at her from the corner
of his eye. Then he said, "Hum!" He hoped very fervently there were to
be no tears. He desired to remain in a rage, and lock his daughter
up, and not put anything into her stocking this Christmas Eve; and
here she was, threatening to be sorry for the past, and good for the
future, and everything a parent could wish. Never mind. You can't
expect to get off as easily as all that. She had been very outrageous.
Now he would be dignified and firm.

"Of course I should obey Father Anselm," she continued.

"You should obey me," said Sir Godfrey.

"And I do hope another Crusade will come soon. Don't you think they
might have one, papa? How happy I shall be when your wine is safe from
that horrid Dragon!"

"Don't speak of that monster!" shouted the Baron, forgetting all about
firmness and dignity. "Don't dare to allude to the reptile in my
presence. Look here!" He seized up a great jug labelled "Chateau
Lafitte," and turned it upside down.

"Why, it's empty!" said Elaine.

"Ha!" snorted the Baron; "empty indeed." Then he set the jug down
wrong side up, and remained glaring at it fixedly, while his chest
rose and fell in deep heavings.

"Don't mind it so much, papa," said Elaine, coming up to him. "This
very next season will Mistletoe and I brew a double quantity of
cowslip wine."

"Brrrrooo!" went Sir Godfrey, with a shiver.

"And I'm sure they'll have another Crusade soon; and then my brother
Roland can go, and the Drag-- and the curse will be removed. Of
course, I know that is the only way to get rid of it, if Father Anselm
said so. I was very foolish and wrong. Indeed I was," said she, and
looked up in his face with eyes where shone such dear, good, sweet,
innocent, daughterly affection, that nobody in the wide world could
have suspected she was thinking as hard as she could think, "If only
he won't lock me up! if only he won't! But, oh, it's dreadful in me to
be deceiving him so!"

"There, there!" said the Baron, and cleared his throat. Then he kissed
her. Where were firmness and dignity now?

He let her push him into the chimney-corner, and down into a seat; and
then what did this sly, shocking girl do but sit on his knee and tell
him nobody ever had such a papa before, and she could never possibly