REBELLION.
The next morning Violet began her housekeeping; a not very arduous undertaking, as competent servants had been brought from Ion for her establishment as well as for that next door.
It was pleasant to her and the captain to sit down to a well-appointed table of their own.
Max and Lulu too, coming in fresh and rosy from a stroll along the beach, thought it extremely nice that at last they had a home of their own with their father and so sweet and pretty a new mamma to take the head of the table.
The oysters and fish, just out of the ocean that morning, and Aunt Phillis"s corn-bread and m.u.f.fins were very delicious to the keen young appet.i.tes, and as Gracie was reported much better, every one was in good spirits.
The captain and Violet had both been in to see her and ask how she had pa.s.sed the night, before coming down to the breakfast-room.
Immediately after the meal the captain conducted family worship. That over, Max and Lulu seized their hats, and were rushing out in the direction of the beach, but their father called them back.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Down by the waves," said Lulu.
"To the beach, sir," said Max.
"Without a word to any one!" he remarked a little severely. "How do you know that you are not wanted by your mamma or myself? We are going directly for a drive on the beach and I had intended to take you both along. Now I am inclined to leave you behind."
The children hung their heads, looking crestfallen and disappointed.
"O Levis, please let them go!" pleaded Violet, laying her hand persuasively on her husband"s arm. "I am sure they did not mean to do wrong."
"Well, my love," he answered, "I will overlook it for this time for your sake. But, Max and Lulu, you must understand that you are under authority and are not to leave the house without first reporting yourselves to your mother or me and asking permission, stating where you desire to go and about how long you expect or wish to stay."
"Yes, sir," said Max; "but if you and Mamma Vi should both happen to be out?"
"Then you may go to Grandpa Dinsmore or Grandma Elsie."
"Yes, sir," Max answered in a pleasant tone; adding, "I"m sorry to have displeased you, papa, and will be careful in future to obey the orders you"ve just given."
But Lulu remained silent, and her countenance was sullen. She had been so long in the habit of defying Mrs. Scrimp"s authority that now she was disposed to resist even her father"s control in small matters, and think she ought to be permitted to go and come at her own sweet will, and the thought of being subjected to the sway of her new mother and her relatives seemed to the proud, pa.s.sionate child almost beyond endurance.
The expression of her face did not escape her father"s observation, but he thought it best to take no notice of it, hoping her angry and rebellious feelings would soon pa.s.s away and leave her again the pleasant, lovable child she had been a few moments since.
The carriage was already at the door.
"I think the air would do Gracie good," he remarked to Vi, "and the drive not prove too fatiguing if I support her in my arms. We have room for one more than our party. Will not your mother go with us?"
"Thank you; I"ll run in and ask her," Vi said, tripping away.
Elsie accepted the invitation, remarking gayly, "I have no housekeeping cares to prevent me. I"m just a daughter at home in her father"s house,"
giving him a loving look and smile, "as I used to be in the glad, free days of my girlhood."
The captain came down with Gracie in his arms, hers about his neck, her little pale face on his shoulder. She looked thin and weak, but very happy.
Grandma Elsie and Mamma Vi greeted her with loving inquiries and tender kisses.
"Do you feel strong enough for the drive, dear?" asked the former.
"Yes, ma"am; with papa to hold me in his strong arms."
"Papa"s dear baby girl!" murmured the captain low and tenderly, imprinting a gentle kiss on the pale forehead.
Mr. Dinsmore came over, handed the ladies and Lulu into the carriage, then held Gracie till her father was seated in it and ready to take her again.
It was a bright, fair morning with a delicious breeze from the sea, and all enjoyed the drive greatly, unless perhaps Lulu, who had not yet recovered her good humor. She sat by her father"s side, scarcely speaking, but no one seemed to notice it.
Gracie was asleep when they returned, and her father carried her up to her room and laid her down so gently that she did not wake.
The others had paused in the veranda below. Zoe and Rosie came running over to say the bathing hour was near at hand, and to ask if they were going in.
"I am not," Elsie said.
"Nor I," said Violet, "I"m a little tired and should prefer to sit here and chat with mamma."
"I"d like to go in," said Max. "When papa comes down I"ll ask if I may."
"Mamma," said Rosie, "I don"t care to go in to-day, but may I go down on the beach and watch the bathers?"
"Yes, daughter. Take a servant with you to carry some camp-chairs and to watch over Walter, if he wants to go with you."
"You"ll come too, won"t you?" Rosie said to Lulu; "it"s good fun to watch the people in the water."
"I"ll have to ask leave first," replied Lulu in a sullen tone. "Can you wait till papa comes down?"
"That is not necessary since your father has invested me with authority to give you permission," remarked Violet pleasantly. "You may go if you will keep with Rosie and the others. But, Lulu, my dear, I wish you would first go up to your room, take off those coral ornaments and put them away carefully. They do not correspond well with the dress you have on, and are not suitable for you to wear down on the beach at this time of day."
She had noticed, on first seeing the child that morning, that she had them on, but said nothing about it till now.
"You said you gave them to me to keep!" cried Lulu, turning a flushed and angry face toward her young step-mother; "and if they are my own, I have a right to wear them when and where I please, and I shall do so."
"Lucilla Raymond, to whom were you speaking?" asked her father sternly, stepping into their midst from the open door-way.
The child hung her head in sullen silence, while Vi"s face was full of distress; Elsie"s but little less so.
"Answer me!" commanded the captain in a tone that frightened even insolent Lulu. "I overheard you speaking in an extremely impertinent manner to some one. Who was it?"
"Your new wife," muttered the angry child.
The captain was silent for a moment, trying to gain control over himself.
Then he said calmly, but not less sternly than he had spoken before, "Come here."
Lulu obeyed, looking pale and frightened.