"Have you gone to bed, Katherine, or are you up?" Mrs. Dean inquired, for the room was dark. "I'm up; why, auntie?" "Your father said to tell you he wanted to see you, if you had not retired." Mrs. Dean stopped a moment to inquire for Kate's headache, and as she left the room Kate heard her sigh heavily. A happy thought occurred to Kate as she ran downstairs,--she would have her father put a stop to Walcott's attentions; if he knew how they annoyed her he would certainly do it. She entered the room where he waited with her sunniest smile, for the stern, gruff-voiced man was the idol of her heart and she believed implicitly in his love for her, even though it seldom found expression in words. But her smile faded before the displeasure in her father's face. He scrutinized her keenly from under his heavy brows, but if he noted the traces of tears upon her face, he made no comment. "I did not suppose, Kate," he said, slowly, for he could not bring himself to speak harshly to her,--"I did not suppose that a child of mine would treat any guest of this house as rudely as you treated Mr. Walcott to-night. I sent for you for an explanation." "I did not mean to be rude, papa," Kate replied, seating herself on her father's knee and laying one arm caressingly about his neck, "but he did annoy me so to-night,--he has annoyed me so often of late,--I just couldn't endure it any longer." "Has Mr. Walcott ever conducted himself other than as a gentleman?" "Why, no, papa, he is gentlemanly enough, so far as that is concerned." "I thought so," her father interposed; "I should say that he had laid himself out to entertain you and your friends and to make it pleasant for all of us whenever he has been here. It strikes me that his manners are very far from annoying; that he is a gentleman in every sense of the word; he certainly carried himself like one to-night in the face of the treatment you gave him." "Well, I'm sorry if I was rude. I have no objection to him as a gentleman or as an acquaintance, if he would not go beyond that; but I detest his attentions and his love-making, and he will not stop even when he sees that it annoys me." "No one has a better right to pay his attentions to you, for he has asked and received my permission to do so." Kate drew herself upright and gazed at her father with eyes full of horror. "You gave him permission to pay attention to me!" she exclaimed, slowly, as though scarcely comprehending his meaning; then, springing to her feet and drawing herself to her full height, she demanded,-- "Do you mean, papa, that you intend me to marry him?" For an instant Mr. Underwood felt ill at ease; Kate's face was white and her eyes had the look of a creature brought to bay, that sees no escape from the death confronting it, for even in that brief time Kate, knowing her father's indomitable will, realized with a sense of despair the hopelessness of her situation.