"No; not if we are at anchor in the bay yonder. Well, you came to say good-night to your father in the usual way, I suppose?"
"Yes, sir; but mayn't I stay with you for a little while? I am not at all sleepy, and should enjoy pacing back and forth here with you a few times."
"Very well, daughter," he returned, taking her hand and drawing it within his arm.
They walked to and fro for a time in silence. It was broken at length by Lucilla. "To-morrow is Friday, but you don't think it would be unlucky to start on a journey for that reason, father?"
"No, child; it is the coming storm, and not the day of the week, that seemed portentous to me. I have sailed more than once on Friday, and had quite as prosperous a voyage as when I had started on any other day of the week."
"It seems to me absurd and superstitious," she said, "and I know Grandma Elsie considers it so. Papa, isn't that cloud spreading and growing darker?"
"Yes; and I think I must give orders at once to get up steam, lift the anchor, and move out into the bay. Say good-night, now, and go to your berth."
Violet, arrayed in a pretty dressing gown, stepped out of her stateroom door into the saloon as Lucilla entered it. "Are we about starting, Lu?" she asked. "I thought I heard your father giving an order as if preparations for that were going on." Lucilla replied with an account of what she had seen and heard while on deck. "But don't be alarmed, Mamma Vi," she concluded; "father thinks there will be no danger to us lying at anchor in Put-in Bay, and I think we will be able to pass the time right pleasantly."
"So do I," said Violet; "but it will be sad if he has to expose himself to the storm. However, I suppose that will hardly be necessary if we are lying at anchor. Yes, I think we are a large enough and congenial enough company to be able to pass a few days very pleasantly together, even though deprived of all communication with the outside world."
"So we won't fret, but be glad and thankful that we can get into a harbor before the storm is upon us, and that we have so competent a captain to attend to all that is needed for our safety and comfort," returned Lucilla. "But I must say good-night now, for papa's order to me was to go to my berth."