I don't know how to wait to hear from him! I
wish a letter would come!"

"It is almost too soon to hope for it yet, dear child; but I trust we
may hear before very long," said Violet.

At that moment there came a little tap at the door; and the sweetest of
voices asked, "Shall I come in?"

"Oh, yes, mamma!"

"Yes, grandma Elsie!" answered the two addressed.

"I thought our little girl might like some help with her toilet for the
evening," Elsie said, advancing into the room. "But--is any thing wrong?
I think you are looking troubled and unhappy, Lulu."

Violet explained the cause; and Elsie said, very kindly, "I don't want
you sent away, Lulu, dear. No one could desire a better behaved child
than you have been of late; and I have written to your father to tell
him so, and ask that you may stay with us still. So cheer up, and hope
for the best, little girl," she added, with a smile and an affectionate
kiss.

Lulu had risen, and was standing by Elsie's side. As the latter bent
down to bestow the caress, her arms were thrown impulsively about her
neck with a glad, grateful exclamation, "O grandma Elsie! how good you
are to me! I don't know how you could want to keep me here, when I've
been so bad and troublesome so many times."

"I trust you have been so for the very last time, dear child," Elsie
responded. "Think how it will rejoice your father's heart if he learns
that you have at length conquered in the fight with your naturally
quick, wilful temper, which has been the cause of so much distress to
both him and yourself."

"I do think of it very often, grandma Elsie," Lulu returned, with a sigh
that seemed to come from the depths of her heart. "And I do want to
please papa, and make him happy: but,--oh, dear! when something happens
to make me angry, I forget all about it and my good resolutions till
it's too late; the first thing I know, I've been acting like a fury, and
disgracing myself and him."

"Yet don't be discouraged, or ever give up the fight," Elsie said.
"Persevere, using all your own strength, and asking help from on high,
and you will come off conqueror at last."

About the same time that this little scene was enacting at Ion, Elsie
Leland, passing the door of Evelyn's room, thought she heard a low sob
coming from within.

She paused and listened. The sound was repeated, and she tapped lightly
on the door. There was no answer; and opening it, she stole softly in.

Evelyn sat in an easy-chair