t been so perversely
obstinate in refusing to yield to Mr. Price, here would have been his
reward--a whole evening among the wonders of the Vicarage museum. It
was maddening! But the misguided boy felt that he had gone too far to
retrace his steps. It was too late, he ignorantly told himself; for
Alick knew not that it is never, it can be never, too late to confess
and make amends for a fault--so long as there is breath to bravely
speak out the remorseful confession.

'We know, father, about it,' Theo's quiet voice was saying. 'Mrs.
Vesey guessed you might just possibly forget the message, so she sent
me a note, next day. It's all arranged, and we are all going. Father,
dear, wouldn't it be possible for you to come with us too?' The girl
had left her seat at the head of the table, and came round to lean on
the back of her father's chair. It seemed to Theo that if the captain
could be induced to join his family's life-pleasures, he would come, in
time, to be a refuge and a help in their life-troubles also; so she
pleaded.

'Tut! tut! tut! Don't be absurd, my dear Theo. It's quite unlike you.
I thought you, at least, understood what a life full of urgent
importance mine is, until the _magnum opus_ is achieved. After
that--well, well, we'll see!'

'Yes, but, dear, just one little holiday! I know the book is a great
labour, but you might take one afternoon from your work, and come with
us--just for once!'

'No, no, child! When a man has put his hand to the plough he has no
right to turn back. And you ought to know better than tempt me, I say.
But with regard to you young people it is very different; you haven't a
care, so you can't do better than be happy, that is, at the appointed
time. There's a time for everything, the Book says, doesn't it? Now
then, my dear, let me get away back to my work, if you please.'

The fiery old sailor held a firm conviction that he had an imperative
duty to perform in this world, in the shape of his proposed literary
work. Duty had been, hitherto, the sailor's god through thick and
thin. To do him justice, the captain had not the faintest notion of
the gusts of rebellious discontent that often enough swept over the
little household he imagined to be so well ordered. Deeply attached to
his boys and girls, one and all, though he was, he took no heed of the
fact that the minds of the mere children, as he considered them to be,
were fast awaking up--growing apace with the