“Yes, always,” he said, holding her close, as something very dear and precious.  “And I believe my little girl has always loved me even when I have been quite severe in the punishment of her faults.”

“Yes; oh, yes, indeed, papa! because I have always felt that I deserved it; often a much more severe punishment than you inflicted; and that you didn’t do it because you liked to, but because you wanted to make me good.”

“And happy,” he added.  “I think you are never happy when disobedient, wilful, or ill-tempered.”

“No, indeed, papa! and I’m thankful to you that you have never indulged me in those things.”

“And I think, with Lu, that you are one of the best of fathers, Levis,” remarked Violet.

“It is certainly very pleasant to be so highly esteemed by one’s wife and daughter, whether deserving of it or not,” he said, with a pleased little laugh; “yet I am not at all sure that such flattery is quite good for me.”

“I don’t believe any amount of praise could ever hurt you, papa,” Lulu said, with a look into his eyes of ardent love and reverence; “you do seem to me to be just perfect; never doing or saying anything wrong.”

“I think it must be my little girl’s great love for her father that makes her so blind to his faults and failings,” he replied, in low, tender tones.

“A blindness certainly shared by your wife,” remarked Violet lightly.  “We have been married five years and I have yet to hear the first unkind word from my husband’s lips.”

“He would be an exceedingly unreasonable man who could find fault with such a wife as mine,” was his smiling rejoinder.

“But to change the subject, I suppose we may look for the rest of our party about the last of next week?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“I shall be ever so glad to see them—­especially dear Grandma Elsie and Rosie and Walter; but oh, I wish the Fairview folks were coming, especially Eva,” remarked Lulu, ending with a sigh of regret.

“Ah, well, daughter, perhaps Evelyn may be here before the winter is over,” the captain said, exchanging a slightly amused glance with Violet.

“Oh, I hope so!” exclaimed Lulu; “but of course one can’t expect to have everything one wants in this world.”

“No, certainly not,” her father said; “it would be by no means good for us if we could.”

“Not for me, I know; but oh, I have a great, great many blessings—­health and strength and such a dear kind father to love me, provide for me, teach me, and train me up in the way I should go,” she concluded, with a smiling look up into his eyes.

“That is what I am trying to do, at all events,” he returned, holding her close, “though I sometimes fear I may not always have taken the wisest way.”

“Is it because you have succeeded so poorly that you fear so, papa?” she asked.  “If so, don’t be troubled about it, because I don’t believe it’s from any mistake of yours, but only that I’m so very naughty and unmanageable.”