ery still,
because of the baby's illness, and the blinds down in her room, so that
there was neither light nor noise to rouse her.

Her first thoughts on awaking were a little confused: then, as with a
flash, all the events of yesterday came to her remembrance, bringing
with them bitter upbraidings of conscience, and torturing anxieties and
fears.

Would the baby die? oh! perhaps it was already dead, and she a
murderess! the murderess of her own little sister--her father's child!

If that were so, how could she ever look him, or anybody else, in the
face again? And what would be done to her? was there any danger that she
would be put in prison? oh! that would be far worse than being sent to a
boarding-school, even where the people were as strict and as
disagreeable as possible!

And she would be sorry, oh, so sorry! to lose the baby sister, or to
have her a sufferer from what she had done, for life, or for years, even
could she herself escape all evil consequences.

All the time she was attending to the duties of the toilet, these
thoughts and feelings were in her mind and heart; and her fingers
trembled so that it was with difficulty she could manage buttons and
hooks and eyes, or stick in a pin.

She started at every sound, longing, yet dreading,--as she had done the
previous day,--to see her father; for who could tell what news he might
bring her from the nursery?

Glancing at the little clock on the mantel, when at last she was quite
dressed, and ready for her breakfast, she saw that it was more than an
hour past the usual time for that meal; yet no one had been near her,
and she was very hungry; but, even if her father had not forbidden her
to leave the room, she would have preferred the pangs of hunger to
showing her face in the dining-room.

Presently, however, footsteps--not those of her father--approached her
door.

"Miss Lu," said a voice she recognized as that of her mamma's maid,
"please open de doah: hyar's yo' breakfus."

The request was promptly complied with; and Agnes entered, carrying a
waiter laden with a bountiful supply of savory and toothsome viands.

"Dar it am," she remarked, when she had set it on the table. "I s'pose
mos' likely yo' kin eat ef de precious little darlin' is mos' killed by
means ob yo' bein' in a passion an' kickin' ob her--de sweet
honey!--down de steps."

And turning swiftly about, her head in the air, the girl swept from the
room, leaving Lulu standing in the m