"
She had already mounted a few steps of the stairway, as he had said he
could not stay. His outstretched hand held hers in a last good-by, but
instead of going he touched a fold of the damp edge of her gown. "It
is very wet," he said. "You are shockingly careless." And then,
without daring to meet the divine eyes bent upon him, he lifted her
hand reverently to his lips, and so went forth into the night and the
storm.
"Rose," said the Commodore, interrupting her at the head of the
stairs, "who is it that has just gone?"
"Mr. Dunlop," said his daughter hesitatingly; "he overtook--he met--I
met him on my way home, and he came with me." The young girl's face
was a flame, and her heart was a song. She felt that she was
aggressively, barbarously happy, and tried to modify the unruly
emotion out of deference to her father's anticipated anger. He looked
extremely annoyed.
"I am sorry to seem arbitrary," he said, "but in future, my dear, it
will greatly oblige me if you will so conduct yourself towards that
young man as to discourage him from meeting or overtaking you, or
accompanying you home.
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