She took a third course, and, raising her eyebrows at the unnecessarily loud knocking with which the young man announced his arrival, retreated in good order into the garden, where her father, in a somewhat heated condition, was laboriously planting geraniums.

She had barely reached him when Bella, in a state of fearsome glee, came down the garden to tell the captain of his visitor.
[Illustration: "Bella, in a state of fearsome glee, came down the garden to tell the captain of his visitor."] "Who ?" said the latter, sharply, as he straightened his aching back.
"Young Mr.Hardy," said Bella, impressively.

"I showed 'im in; I didn't ask 'im to take a chair, but he took one." "Young Hardy to see me!" said the captain to his daughter, after Bella had returned to the house.

"How dare he come to my house?
Infernal impudence! I won't see him." "Shall I go in and see him for you ?" inquired Kate, with affected artlessness.
"You stay where you are, miss," said her father.

"I won't have him speak to you; I won't have him look at you.