“Oh, and I assure you I mean to be a mother to you,” said Polly. “It shan’t be said now that you haven’t anyone to look after you. _I_ mean to look after you. I am not at all satisfied with some of your goings on. A gentleman shouldn’t make too free with them that are beneath him. Yes, yes, Harry, darling; it’s too early to begin on that point; but he shall know my mind, and _I_ mean to look after him. Now this is what I call comfortable,” said Mrs. Despard, looking round with a beaming smile; “quite a family party, and quite a nice tea; though the beef’s dry to my taste (but =I= never was one for cold victuals), and everybody satisfied----” “Lottie,” said the Captain, looking up from his beef with some sternness, “you seem the only exception. Don’t you think, my child, when you see everybody so happy, that you might find a word to say?” “Oh, don’t hurry her,” said Polly; “we’ve took her by surprise. I told you not to, but you would. We’ll have a nice long talk to-morrow, when she gives me over the housekeeping; and when she sees as I mean to act like a mother, why things will come right between her and me.” The Despards were not highly educated people, but yet a shiver ran through them when Polly, unconscious, said, “We’ve took her by surprise.” The Captain even shrank a little, and took a great deal too much mustard, and made himself cough; while Law, in spite of himself, laughed, looking across the table to the place where Lottie sat. Lottie noticed it the least of all. She heard every word they all said, and remembered every word, the most trifling; but at the moment she scarcely distinguished the meaning of them. She said, “I think, papa, if you don’t mind, I will go to my room. I am rather tired; and perhaps I had better give some orders to Mary.” “Oh, never mind; never mind about Mary, if it’s on my account. I shall look after her myself,” said Polly. “What’s good enough for the Captain is good enough for me; at least, till I settle it my own way, you know. I don’t want to give any trouble at all, till I can settle things my own way.” “It is not I that have to be consulted,” said Captain Despard; “but if you are going to sit sulky and not say a word, I don’t see--what do you think, my pet?--that it matters whether you go or stay----”