added, "I sha'n't love you any less if you whip me ever so hard, because
I shall know you don't like to do it, and wouldn't except for the reason
you've given."

"No, indeed, I should not," he said; "but you are to stay behind
to-night when the others go to the beach."

"Yes, papa, I will," she answered submissively, but with a perceptible
tremble in her voice.

Grace and Max were coming to meet them, so there was no opportunity to
talk any more on the subject, and she walked on in silence by her
father's side, trying hard to act and look as if nothing was amiss with
her, clinging fast to the hand in which he had taken hers, while Grace
took possession of the other.

"You ought to have three hands, papa," laughed Max a little ruefully.

"Four," corrected Grace; "for some day little Elsie will be wanting
one."

"I shall have to manage it by taking you in turn," the captain said,
looking down upon them with a fatherly smile.

Violet and some of the other members of their party were still seated
where they had left them on the benches under the awning just out of
reach of the waves, and thither the captain and his children bent their
steps.

Sitting down by his wife's side, he drew Grace to his knee and Lulu