A nap and a nice supper had refreshed Lulu a good deal; but she felt weak and languid, and was lying on the bed again when her father returned to her room.
She looked up at him wistfully as he came and stood beside her, then her eyes filled with tears.
"What is it?" he asked, lifting her from the bed, seating himself, and drawing her into his arms: "what is your pet.i.tion? for I read in your eyes that you have one to make."
"Papa, you won"t send me away--very--soon, will you?" she pleaded in tremulous tones, her arm round his neck, her face hidden on his shoulder.
"Not till I go myself; then I shall take you with me."
"To a boarding-school?" she faltered.
"No: I"m going to put you in a private family."
Her face was still hidden, and she did not see the smile in his eyes.
"What kind of people are they, papa?" she asked with a deep-drawn sigh.
"Very nice people, I think: the wife and mother is a very lovely woman, and the four children--a boy and three girls--are, I presume, neither better nor worse than my own four. The gentleman, who will teach you himself, along with the others, and have the particular care and oversight of you, is perhaps rather stern and severe with any one who ventures to disobey his orders; but I am quite certain, that, if you are good and obedient, he will be very kind and indulgent, possibly a trifle more indulgent than he ought to be."
Lulu began to cry again. "I don"t like men-teachers!" she sobbed. "I don"t like a man to have any thing to do with me. Please, please don"t send me there, papa!"
"You want me to relent, and let you stay on here if they will have you?"
"No, no, papa! I don"t want to stay here! I don"t want to see anybody here again, except Max and Gracie; because I"m so ashamed of--of what I"ve done. I couldn"t look any of them in the face, for I know they must despise me."
"I am sure you are mistaken in that, my child," he said gravely. "But what is it you do desire?"
"To be with you, papa. Oh, if I could only go with you!"
"And leave Max and Gracie?"
"I"ll have to leave them, anyhow, if you take me away from here; and, though I love them very much, I love you a great deal better."
"I"m afraid you would have a doleful time on shipboard, with no young companions, n.o.body to see or speak to but your father and the other officers."
"I wouldn"t care for that, or any thing, if I could only be with you.
Papa, you don"t _know_ how I love you!"
"Then, I"ll take you with me when I leave here; and you need never live away from me any more, unless you choose."
"Papa," she cried, lifting her head to look up into his face, with glad, astonished eyes, "do you really mean it? _May_ I go with you?"
He held her close, with a joyous laugh.
"Why, I understood you to say, a moment since, that you didn"t want to be in the care of a man,--_any_ man."
"But you know I didn"t mean you, papa."
"But I am the gentleman I spoke of a little while ago, as the one in whose care I intended to put you."
"Papa," she said, with a bewildered look, "I don"t understand."
Then he told her; and she was, as Max had foreseen, almost wild with delight.
"Oh!" she cried, "how nice, _nice_ it will be to have a home of our very own, and our father with us all the time! Papa, I think I sha"n"t sleep a wink to-night, I"m so glad."
"I trust it will not have that effect," he said, "I hesitated a little about telling you to-night, lest it might interfere with your rest; but you seemed so unhappy about your future prospects, that I felt I must relieve you of the fear of being sent away among strangers."
"You are so very good and kind to me, papa," she returned gratefully.
"Where is our dear home to be?"
"I don"t know, yet," he said. "I have not had time to look about in search of house or land; but I hope to be able to buy or build a house somewhere in this region, as near Ion as a pleasant location can be found."
"I hope you"ll find a house ready built, papa," she said. "I shouldn"t know how to wait for one to be built."
"Not if, by waiting, we should, in the end, have a much nicer, pleasanter one?"
She considered a moment. "Couldn"t we rent a house to live in while we get our own built?"
"I think that plan might answer quite well," he said with a smile. "I had no idea you were such a business woman. Probably that is what we will do, for I am as anxious to get to housekeeping as even you can be."
"But, papa," she exclaimed, with a look as if struck by a sudden and not very pleasant thought, "may I--will you be vexed if I ask you something?"
"Suppose you find out by asking?"
"I--I hope you won"t think it"s impertinence, papa, I don"t mean it for that," she said with hesitation, hanging her head, and blushing; "but--but--I hope it isn"t mamma Vi"s money we"re to live on?"
He put his hand under her chin, and lifted her face, so that he could look down into her eyes; and she drew a long breath of relief as she perceived that he was smiling at her.
"No," he said. "You come honestly by your pride of independence. I would no more live on mamma Vi"s money than you would."
"Oh, I"m so glad! But--then, how can you do without your pay, papa?"
"Because my heavenly Father has prospered me, and given me money enough of my own (or, rather, lent it to me; for all we have belongs to him, and is only lent to us for a time) to provide all that is necessary for my family, and educate my children.
"Now we have had a long talk, which has, I trust, made my dear little girl much happier; and it is time for you to go to your bed for the night."
"I don"t like to have you leave me," she said, clinging about his neck; "but you were very kind to stay so long. Won"t you come soon in the morning?"
"You are not a prisoner any longer," he said, caressing her: "you are free to leave this room, and go where you choose about the house and grounds to-morrow."
"But I don"t want to. O papa! I can"t face them! Mayn"t I stay in my room till you are ready to take me to our own home?"
"You will have to face them sometime," he said; "but we will see what can be done about it. Would you like to see Max and Gracie to-night?"
"Gracie, ever so much; but Max--I--I don"t know how he feels toward me, papa."
"Very kindly. He has been asking permission to come in to see you; and Gracie has pleaded quite hard for it, and to have you forgiven, and told the good news."