"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.