, and reaching up her clasped
hands laid them on his shoulder--"Tristram--Tristram is very fond of
me."

"Good Lord!"

Captain Jemmy raised a hand to disengage her grasp from his shoulder,
but let it fall again.

"He told me so this morning at sunrise," she went on rapidly. "You
see, it was May morning, and I went out to gather the dew, and he was
there, in the garden already, and he said--well, he said what I told
you; and being so masterful--"

"I can't say I've observed that quality in the young man; but no
doubt you've had better opportunities of judging."

"You shan't talk like that!" she broke out almost fiercely. It was
curious that this girl, who until this moment had always trembled
before her father, now began to dominate him by force of her passion.

"Oh, I mustn't, eh? Devil take the fellow! He tumbles out of one
mess into another, and plays skittles with my peace of mind, and in
return I'm not allowed a word!"

"Father, you will fetch him back?"

"Now, how the--"

"But you must."

"Indeed!"

"Because I love him dearly--there! I have nobody left but you,
father." She knelt and caught his hand, exchanging audacity for
entreaty in a second.

"Little maid," said her father, with a tenderness as sudden,
"get up--your feet must be as cold as ice, on these slates.
Go in, and go to bed."

"Let me stay a little. I can't sleep indoors. It was so happy this
morning, and to-night the trouble is so heavy!"

Captain Jemmy vanished into the lumber-room for a moment, and
reappeared, tugging an old mattress after him and bearing a tattered
window-curtain under his left arm. He spread the mattress on the
balcony, motioned his daughter to sit, and wrapped her feet warmly in
his purple dressing-gown. Then, as she lay back, he spread the
curtain over her, tucking it close round her young body. She thanked
him with dim eyes.

"Sophia," he began, with much severity, "you say you have only your
old father in the world, and I'm bound to say you seem to find it
little enough. My dear, are you aware that you've just been
disappointing my dearest hopes?"

"Don't say that!"

"I begin to think I mustn't say anything. I have brought you up
carefully, instructing you in all polite learning, and even in some
of the abstruser sciences. I have meant you, all along, to be the
ornament of your sex, and now--the devil take it!--you prefer, after
all, to be an ornament of the other! I intended you, by your