"Why, Betty!" she exclaimed, "are you here? I thought you went with the
rest to the 'squantum.'"

"Just what I thought in regard to your highness," returned Betty,
glancing up from her book with a laugh. "I stayed at home to enjoy my
book and the bath. What kept you?"

"Papa," answered Lulu with a frown; "he wouldn't let me go."

"Because you put on that dress, I presume," laughed Betty. "Well, it's
not very suitable, that's a fact. But I had no idea that the captain was
such a connoisseur in matters of that sort."

"He isn't! he doesn't know or care if it wasn't for Mamma Vi," burst out
Lulu vehemently. "And she's no business to dictate about my dress
either. I'm old enough to judge and decide for myself."

"Really, it is a great pity that one so wise should be compelled to
submit to dictation," observed Betty with exasperating irony.

Lulu, returning a furious look, which her tormentor feigned not to see,
then marching into the adjoining room, gave tardy obedience to her
father's orders anent the dress.

"Are you going in this morning?" asked Betty, when Lulu had returned to
the little parlor.

"I don't know; papa didn't say whether I might or not."

"Then I should take the benefit of the doubt and follow my own