The Buccaneer felt at the moment as all parents must feel who desire to
preserve their children in innocence, and yet themselves lead vicious
lives. To the wicked, lies are as necessary as the air they breathe, as
common for use as household stuff. Had Barbara been what is now termed a
clever girl, the Buccaneer might have employed her, not as an agent of
falsehood--that his delicate love of his child would have
prevented--but as an instrument, perhaps, to work some delay in a
wedding that humanity, independent of one or two new and latent causes,
called upon him to prevent; but in any plot where finesse was necessary,
he saw that Barbara would be perfectly useless; and before taking his
departure, he only told her she might, if she pleased, inform Mistress
Cecil, but at the same time begged of her not to repeat to any one else
that he had been there. This Barbara promised to do; and on the
assurance that he would soon return, and enable her to show her lady
that, instead of being the wild man they both took him for, he was a
very peaceable (how the Buccaneer smiled at the word!) person, she
suffered him to depart, and then went into her little room, to arrange
her ideas, and mingle thanksgivings that she had found a father, with
prayers for his safety.