"I can"t see anything disgraceful about it, mother. I am sure it is far better to earn one"s own living than to be always depending upon others. But I shall not disgrace you, so you need not worry about that."
"What do you intend to do?"
"I have several things in view, and I know that daddy will provide me with money to carry them out."
"He will do nothing of the sort. His mind is as fully made up as mine that you are to marry Mr. Donaster. Don"t you think that we are more capable of judging for your good than you?"
"I have very serious doubts about that. I know you will consider me ungrateful for saying so, but you ask me, and so I am forced to tell the truth."
"Well, I declare!" and Mrs. Randall looked her astonishment. "What has come over you, Jess? I never knew you to talk like this before. You seem to have lost all confidence in your parents" judgment."
"Not all, mother. But I know how you interfered with the boys"
welfare, and look how they have turned out. There was a time when they wished to go to work and win their own way in the world. But you would not let them, and spoiled their lives by giving them too much money to spend, and telling them that it was not dignified to work. And look what they are now; helpless to do anything for themselves, and a burden to you. Daddy agreed with everything you said, and see what has happened. You made a sad mistake with them, and I am determined that it shall not be so with me."
The girl was trembling violently as she finished, and she had risen to her feet. The colour had fled from her face, and her hands were firmly clasped before her. Her mother also rose, and confronted her daughter.
"You are a rebellious and an ungrateful girl," she charged. "To think of your saying such things after all we have done for you. What do you mean?"
"Just what I have said, as you will find out. It is about time for me to a.s.sert myself when you are determined to shackle me to a creature I detest."
"Mr. Donaster is a gentleman, and the son of a gentleman, so you must not refer to him in such an offensive manner. I absolutely forbid it."
"He may be a gentleman according to the standard of some, but not according to mine. He is nothing but an unbearable cad, and with no more character than a jelly-fish. And to think of my having to put up with a thing like that for the rest of my life. Why, I would rather be dead."
"It would be almost a relief to me if you were," and Mrs. Randall gave a deep sigh of despair. "A daughter as wilful as you will only bring disgrace upon her parents."
"I am surprised at your saying such a thing," the girl replied. "One would almost imagine you are not my mother at all, you are so heartless. Would a real mother be willing to sacrifice her only daughter?"
Mrs. Randall gave a sudden start, and looked keenly into the eyes of the girl standing so defiantly before her. "Does she suspect anything?" she asked herself. Then she gave a nervous laugh, and resumed her seat.
"Leave me alone now," she ordered. "I see it is no use talking to you any more to-night, you are so unreasonable and headstrong. Your father will have to take you in hand. He will soon knock this nonsense out of your head. He is determined that you shall marry Mr. Donaster, and you might as well make up your mind to that first as last."
"Mother, I shall go now. But let me tell you, as I shall tell daddy, that nothing on earth can make me marry the man I do not love."
"Tut, tut. Love has nothing to do with marriages these days," Mrs.
Randall impatiently replied. "There is no such a thing as love in marriage, it is merely a matter of convenience."
"If I believed that, I should never marry, mother."
"And don"t you?"
"Indeed I do not."
"What do you know about love?"
"I know, perhaps, more than you think." The girl"s face was now deeply flushed, and this her mother noted.
"Jess, what is the meaning of this? Is there someone else in whom you are interested besides Mr. Donaster? Tell me. I must know the truth at once. It is no use trying to conceal it from me."
The girl"s eyes dropped, and she turned her face partly away to hide her emotion.
"In Mr. Donaster I am not even interested," she confessed. "But in another, I am more than interested, for I love him with my whole heart.
There, you now know the truth, and so you can say and do what you like.
Goodnight."
Without another word, the girl turned and hurried out of the room, leaving her mother speechless with anger and amazement.
CHAPTER III
THE "EB AN" FLO"
Just how it happened Samuel Tobin, owner and captain of the "Eb and Flo," was never able to explain with any degree of clearness. He knew that he was on his knees, scrubbing the floor of the little cabin and humming
"Here I"ll raise my Ebenezer, Hither by Thy grace I"ll come,"
when a form darkened the narrow doorway overhead.
Then followed a scream of fright, and before he had hardly time to look around she was lying by his side, a confused heap of silk, lace, and flowing dark-brown hair.
"Well, I"ll be jiggered!" Samuel exclaimed, scrambling to his feet.
"What in time----?"
A merry laugh interrupted him, as the girl sprang lightly to her feet, arranged her disordered dress, and brushed back her hair.
"My! that was a surprise," she remarked, glancing at the steps down which she had just tumbled. "I didn"t know they were there."
"Ye didn"t, eh?" and Samuel looked curiously at his unexpected visitor.
"Thought ye was walkin" into a parlour, I s"pose."
"Do you own this boat?" the girl suddenly and somewhat anxiously asked.
"Well, I thought I did, Miss, until you arrived, but now I ain"t quite sartin. I feel somethin" like Bill Sloc.u.m said he did when a bear dropped in on him one night when he was campin" out on his back medder."
"What did he do?"
"Oh, Bill, jist lit out an" left the bear in charge, the same as any sensible man would do."
"I hope you do not compare me to a bear," and the girl smiled.
"No, I wouldn"t like to do that, Miss. But ye must have had some mighty good reason fer comin" down them steps the way ye did. It"s a wonder to me yer neck wasn"t broken."
"I have a good reason," was the emphatic reply. "I am running away."
"Runnin" away!" Samuel"s eyes opened wide in amazement, and he stared hard at the girl. He would have been less than human if his pulse had not quickened, and his heart beat faster, for she was truly possessed of more than ordinary beauty and grace of figure. Her large dark expressive eyes betrayed anxiety, and her cheeks were flushed. Once she gave a slight start and glanced nervously up the steps as if expecting to see someone following her.
"Yes, I am running away," she repeated, "and I want you to hide me on this boat."