in
his own mind; "the sweetest Navy blue, and the brightest Army red, and
little bits of silver lace so quiet in between them! I am sure I don't
know what to call a quarter of it; but the finest ship ever seen under
full sail, with the sun coming through her from her royals to her
courses--"

"Now, papa, don't be so ridiculous. You know that I am not a fine ship
at all, but only a small frigate, about eighteen guns at the outside, I
should say--though she would be a sloop of war, wouldn't she?--and come
here at any rate for you to command her, if you are not far too lofty an
Admiral."

"Do you love your old father, my dear?" said he, being carried beyond
his usual state by the joy in her eyes as she touched him.

"What a shame to ask me such a question? Oh, papa, I ought to say, 'Do
you love me?' when you go away weeks and months almost together! Take
that, papa; and be quite ashamed of yourself."

She swept all her breast-knots away anyhow--that had taken an hour to
arbitrate--and flung back her hair that would never be coiled, and with
a flash of tears leaping into laughing eyes, threw both arms round her
father's neck, and pressed her cool sweet lips to his, which were not at
all in the same condition.

"There, see what you've done for me now!" she cried. "It will take
three-quarters of an hour, papa, to make me look fit to be looked at
again. The fashions are growing so ridiculous now--it is a happy thing
for us that we are a hundred years behind them, as Eliza Twemlow had the
impudence to say; and really, for the daughter of a clergyman--"

"I don't care that for Eliza Twemlow," the Admiral exclaimed, with a
snap of his thumb. "Let her show herself as much as there is demand for.
Or rather, what I mean to say is, let Miss Twemlow be as beautiful as
nature has made her, my dear; and no doubt that is very considerable.
But I like you to be different; and you are. I like you to be simple,
and shy, and retiring, and not to care twopence what any one thinks of
you, so long as your father is contented."

Dolly looked at her father, as if there were no other man in the world
for the moment. Then her conscience made her bright eyes fall, as she
whispered: "To be sure, papa. I only put these things on to please you;
and if you don't like them, away they go. Perhaps I should look nicer in
my great-aunt's shawl. And my feet would be warmer, oh ever so much! I
know where it is, and if you prefer the look of it--"

"