"
"And you think that would be an ample and delicate return for the
countless kindnesses shown me by himself, and his people last summer?"
"Oh, hang himself and his people!" was the Commodore's mental comment.
Aloud he said, "Well, the young fellow could hardly leave you to
perish under the horse's heels. What he did was only common decency."
"Then, perhaps, it would be as well to treat him with common decency.
Don't you think that desirable quality is omitted from your course of
treatment?" Her tones were those of caressing gentleness, but the
flame of the firelight was not more red than the cheek on which it
gleamed.
"Why, bless me, Rose, I don't want you to give him the cut direct.
There is no need to put him either in paradise or the inferno. Better
adopt a happy medium."
"Yes; but purgatory is rather an unhappy medium."
"Well, my dear, I have nothing more to say. I suppose it is natural
that you should set aside the counsel of a man who has loved you for
nineteen years in favour of the attention of one who has known you
about the same number of weeks."
"Papa, you are unjust!" The repressed tears came at last, but they
were dried as quickly as they dropped.
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