“Oh, I hope you don’t think I’m jealous,” cried Stella. “Kate doesn’t have things half nice enough. She ought to have them nicer than mine, for she is the eldest. We amused ourselves very well, thank you, papa. Kate couldn’t move without Algy Scott after her wherever she turned. You’ll have him coming over here to make love to you, papa.” “I think you might say a word of something a great deal more important, Stella.” “Oh, let me alone with your seriousness. Papa will hear of that fast enough, when you know Charlie is---- I’m going upstairs to take off my things. I’ll bring the diamonds if I can remember,” she added, pausing for a moment at the door and waving her hand to her father, who followed her with delighted eyes. “What a saucy little thing she is!” he said. “You and I have a deal to put up with from that little hussy, Katie, haven’t we? But there aren’t many like her all the same, are there? We shouldn’t like it if we were to lose her. She keeps everything going with her impudent little ways.” “You are in great danger of losing her, papa. There is a man on the road----” “What’s that--what’s that, Katie? A man that is after my Stella? A man to rob me of my little girl? Well, I like ’em to come after her, I like to see her with a lot at her feet. And who’s this one? The man with a handle to his name?” “Yes; I suppose you would call it a handle. It was one of the men that were out in the boat with her--Sir Charles----” “Oh!” said Mr. Tredgold, with his countenance falling. “And why didn’t the t’other one--his lordship--come forward? I don’t care for none of your Sir Charleses--reminds me of a puppy, that name.” “The puppies are King Charles’s, papa. I don’t know why the Earl did not come forward; because he didn’t want to, I suppose. And, indeed, he was not Stella’s sort at all.” “Stella’s sort! Stella’s sort!” cried the old man. “What right has Stella to have a sort when she might have got a crown to put on her pretty head. Coronet? Yes, I know; it’s all the same. And where is this fellow? Do you mean that you brought him in my carriage, hiding him somewhere between your petticoats? I will soon settle your Sir Charles, unless he can settle shilling to shilling down.” “Sir Charles is walking,” said Katherine; “and, papa, please to remember that Stella is fond of him, she is really fond of him; she is--in love with him. At least I think so, otherwise---- You would not do anything to make Stella unhappy, papa?” “You leave that to me,” said the old man; but he chuckled more than ever. Katherine did not quite understand her father, but she concluded that he was not angry--that he could not be going to receive the suitor unfavourably, that there was nothing to indicate a serious shock of any kind. She followed Stella upstairs, and went into her room to comfort her with this assurance; for which I cannot say that Stella was at all grateful.