"I will come, of course, Molly." He looked up at Lola with a smile. "This little girl is worried about her father, who is on the ocean, but I have told her that God always considers the prayers of little girls who pray for those they love." "You believe that?" questioned Lola with something very like a sneer, "or do you think it is the proper thing to tell a child?" "I believe it," said the old man gently, "or naturally I would not teach it to this little girl. I have told her that God's power is infinite, but that his purpose is not always easy for us to understand. I know, however, that such prayers as hers must do great good to her and to him she prays for. Don't you?" "No," replied Lola coldly, "I do not." She resented the look of cool inquiry in this man's eye; he was a famous writer, they had told her, an authority on many subjects of which the very names were new to her. Well, he could not study her, or if he tried he would find that she was not the empty-headed creature his rather amused look seemed to say he thought her. "I know nothing of the kind," she went on calmly, "and I am surprised that a man like you can believe such worn-out old superstitions." "That need not surprise you, that we believe, this child and I," he said gently. "Belief is so very easy to us. She is very young, and I am very old, and to such belief comes naturally. It is, I think, because the very young are fresh from God's presence and because the very old are drawing nearer to it." He rose as he spoke and, taking the child's hand, bowed to Lola kindly and went into the hotel, the little dog following them gravely. "I've had enough of this," declared Lola, rising angrily. "I'm bored to death! You people do as you please; I'm going to bed!" CHAPTER XVI A SERIOUS LETTER "This is my idea of the work I'd like to do for my living," said Mrs. Harlan with a yawn, as she tilted her sun-shade a little forward and settled herself deeper in the soft sand. "All I need now to be perfectly happy is to have one of you read to me until I fall asleep." "Lola looks as though she could sleep without that," said Bob, glancing at her lazily. "You went to bed early enough last night; couldn't you get any rest?" "I do feel a little tired," answered Lola. "I slept some, of course, but not for hours." "That's queer," exclaimed Dick. "I knocked on your door when I went upstairs about eleven, and you didn't answer. If you were awake you must have heard me. You didn't leave your room again, did you?" "Why should I?" She sat up rather flushed, and turned to him angrily. "Where would I have gone? What are you talking about? Why do you always say such absurd things?" "Come now, Lola," broke in Mrs. Harlan soothingly. "Dick hasn't said anything dreadful. Don't be cross, please, and spoil a day like this." "No, don't, for pity sake don't let's have any rows," said Bob earnestly; "nothing in the world so bad for my digestion."