both feel deeply for them, and are personally grieved for the
injury to our darling little niece."

"Yes, indeed! the pretty pet that she is!" returned Zoe, wiping her
eyes.

Gracie was on the veranda looking for her father, and, catching sight of
him in the avenue, ran to meet him.

"How is baby now? Can you tell me?" he asked, taking her hand, and
stooping to give her a kiss.

"Just the same, I suppose, papa," she said. "Oh, it's very hard to see
it suffer so! isn't it, papa?"

He nodded a silent assent.

"Papa," she asked, lifting her tearful eyes to his face with a pleading
look, "have you seen Lulu yet?"

"No."

"O papa! do go now! It must be so hard for her to wait so long to see
you, when you've just come home."

"I doubt if she wants to see me," he said, with some sternness of look
and tone.

"O dear papa! don't punish her very hard. She didn't hurt the baby on
purpose."

"I shall try to do what is best for her, my little girl, though I very
much doubt if that is exemption from punishment," he said with an
involuntary sigh. "But if she is in haste to see me," he added, "there
is nothing, so far as I am aware, to prevent her from coming to me."

"But she's afraid, papa, because she has been so very, very naughty."

"In that case, is it not kinder for me to keep away from her?"

"O papa! you know she always wants things--bad things--over."

"The bad thing she has brought upon the poor baby will not be over very
soon," he said sternly. "I must go now to it and your mamma."

He did so; and sharing Violet's deep grief and anxiety, and perceiving
that his very presence was a comfort and support to her, he remained at
her side for hours.

Hours, that to Lulu seemed like weeks or months. Alone in her room, in
an agony of remorse and fear, she waited and watched and listened for
her father's coming, longing for, and yet dreading it, more than words
could express.

"What would his anger be like?" she asked herself. "What terrible
punishment would he inflict? Would he ever love her again, especially if
the baby should die?

"Perhaps he would send her away to some very far-off place, and never,
never come near her any more."

Naturally of a very impatient temperament, suspense and passive waiting
were well-nigh intolerable to her. By turns she walked the floor, fell
on her knees by the bedside, and buried her face in a pillow, or threw
herself into a chair by table or window, and hid it on her fol