One foot tucked under her, she sat in a veranda swing, now and then touching her toe to the floor to keep swaying. She wore a sand-colored sport suit whose matching hat lay beside her on the floor. Her vivid, laughing face, with its big gray eyes and pink cheeks, its scarlet lips and white teeth was framed by a mop of dark brown wavy hair, now tossed by the strong breeze from the sea. The veranda overlooked the ocean, and the sunlit waves, stretching far away from the great cliff were dotted in the foreground with small craft. Frederick Varian sat on the veranda rail, a big, rather splendid-looking man, with the early gray of fifty years showing in his hair and carefully trimmed Vandyke beard. His air was naturally confident and self-assured, but in the face of this chit of a girl he somehow found himself at a disadvantage. “Betty, dear,” he took another tack, “can’t you understand the fatherly love that cannot bear the idea of parting with a beloved daughter?” “Oh, yes, but a father’s love ought to think what is for that daughter’s happiness. Then he ought to make the gigantic self-sacrifice that may be necessary.” A dimple came into Betty’s cheek, and she smiled roguishly, yet with a canny eye toward the effect she was making. But Varian looked moodily out over the sea. “I won’t have it,” he said, sternly. “I suppose I have some authority in this matter and I forbid you to encourage any young man to the point of a proposal, or even to think of becoming engaged.” “How can I ward off a proposal, Dad?” Betty inquired, with an innocent air. “Don’t be foolish. Of course you can do that. Any girl with your intelligence knows just when an acquaintance crosses the line of mere friendship——” “Oh, Daddy, you are _too_ funny! And when you crossed the line of mere friendship with mother,—what did she do?” “That has nothing to do with the subject. Now, mind, Betty, I am not jesting,—I am not talking idly——” “You sound very much like it!” “I’m not. I’m very much in earnest. You are not to encourage the definite attentions of any——” “All right, let Rod Granniss come up here then, and I promise not to encourage him.” “He shall not come up here, because he has already gone too far, and you have encouraged him too much——” “But I love him, Daddy,—and—and I think you might——” “Hush! That’s enough! Don’t let me hear another word now or ever regarding Granniss! He is crossed off our acquaintance, and if he persists in staying here, we will go away!” “Why, Father, we’ve only just come!” “I know it, and I came here, thinking to get you away from that man. He followed us up here,——” “He was here before we came!” “But he didn’t come until he knew we were coming.” “All right, he came because he wanted to be where I am. And I want to be where he is. And you’d better be careful, Father, or I may take the bit in my teeth and——”