Mr. Tapp went down to the dock again after a time. Lawford had the _Merry Andrew_ all ready to set out on the proposed fishing trip. The sloop was a pretty craft, clinker built, and about the fastest sailing boat within miles of Cardhaven. Lawford was proud of her. "So you're back at last, are you?" snapped the Salt Water Taffy King. He was a portly little man with a red face and a bald brow. His very strut pronounced him a self-made man. He glared at his son, whose cool nonchalance he often declared was impudence. "I've been waiting some time for you, dad. Hop aboard," Lawford calmly said. "You took your time in getting back here," responded his father, by no means mollified. "And you knew I was waiting. But you had to stand and talk to a girl over there. Cicely says it is that picture actress who is staying at Cap'n Abe's. Is that so?" "I presume Cicely is right," his son answered. "There is no other here at present to my knowledge." "Of all things!" ejaculated Mr. Tapp. "You are always making some kind of a fool of yourself, Lawford. Don't, for pity's sake, be _that_ kind of a fool." "What do you mean, dad?" and now the young man's eyes flashed. It was seldom that Lawford turned upon his father in anger. "You know very well what I mean. Keep away from such women. Don't get messed up with actor people. I won't have it, I tell you! I am determined that at least _one_ rich man's son shall not be the victim of the wiles of any of these stage women." The flush remained in Lawford's cheek. It hurt him to hear his father speak so in referring to Louise Grayling. He, too, possessed some of the insular prejudice of his kind against those who win their livelihood in the glare of the theatrical spotlight. This gentle, well-bred, delightful girl staying at Cap'n Abe's store was a revelation to him. He held his tongue, however, and held his temper in check as well. "I don't see," stormed I. Tapp, "why you can't take up with a nice girl and marry. Why, at your age I was married and we had Marian!" "Don't you think that should discourage me, dad?" Lawford put in. "Marian is nobody to brag of, I should say." "Hah!" ejaculated his father. "She's a fool, too. But there are nice girls. I was talking to your mother about your case last night. Of course, I don't want you to say anything to her about what I'm going to tell you now. She's got the silliest notions," pursued Mr. Tapp who labored under the belief that all the wisdom of the ages had lodged under his own hat. "Expects her daughters to marry dukes and you to catch a princess or the like." "There are no such fish in these waters," laughed Lawford. "At least, none has so much as nibbled at my hook." "And no nice girl will nibble at it if you don't come ashore once in a while and get into something besides fisherman's duds." "Now, dad, clothes do not make the man."