"This will destroy for ever what little influence he possessed with
Juliet, and will close the Captain's doors against him. If I do not
improve my present advantage, may I die a poor dependent upon the bounty
of a Hurdlestone!"
Again he laughed, and strode onward to the Lodge, humming a gay tune,
and talking and whistling alternately to his dog.
He found Miss Dorothy and her niece at work; the latter as pale as
marble, the tears still lingering in the long dark lashes that veiled
her sad and downcast eyes. The Captain was rocking to and fro in an easy
chair, smoking his pipe and glancing first towards his daughter, and
then at her starch prim-looking aunt, with no very complaisant
expression.
"By Jove, Dorothy! if you continue to torment that poor child with your
eternal sermons, you will compel me to send you from the house."
"A very fitting return for all my services," whimpered Miss Dorothy;
"for all the love and care I have bestowed upon you and your ungrateful
daughter! Send _me_ from the house--turn _me_ out of doors! _Me_, at my
time of life;" using that for argument's sake which, if addressed to her
by another, would have been refuted with indignation; "to send _me_
forth into the world, homeless and friendless, to seek my living among
strangers! Brother, brother, have you the heart to address this to me?"
"Well, perhaps I was wrong, Dolly," replied the kind-hearted sailor,
repenting of his sudden burst of passion; "but you do so provoke me by
your ill-humor, your eternal contradiction, and your old-maidish ways,
that it is impossible for a man always to keep his temper.
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