rough the hall on his way from Lulu's room to the nursery,
Capt. Raymond met "grandma Elsie."

She stopped him, and asked, in a tone of kindly concern, if Lulu was
ill, adding, that something she had accidentally overheard him saying to
the doctor had made her fear the child was not well.

"Thank you, mother," he said: "you are very kind to take any interest in
Lulu after what has occurred. No, she is not quite well: the mental
distress of the last two days has been very great, and has exhausted her
physically. It could not, of course, be otherwise, unless she were quite
heartless. She is full of remorse for her passion and its consequences,
and my only consolation is the hope that this terrible lesson may prove
a lasting one to her."

"I hope so, indeed," Elsie said, with emotion. "Yes, she must have
suffered greatly; for she is a warm-hearted, affectionate child, and
would not, I am sure, have intentionally done her baby sister an
injury."

"No, it was not intentional; yet, as the result of allowing herself to
get into a passion, she is responsible for it, as she feels and
acknowledges.

"And so deeply ashamed is she, that she knows not how to face the
family, or any one of them, and therefore entreats me to allow her to
seclude herself in her own room till I can take her to the home I hope
to make for my wife and children ere long."

"Poor child!" sighed Elsie. "Tell her, Levis, that she need not shrink
from us as if we were not sinners, as well as herself. Shall I go in
to-morrow morning, and have a talk with her before breakfast?"

"It will be a great kindness," he said, flushing with pleasure, "and
make it much easier for her to show herself afterwards at the table. But
I ought to ask if you are willing to see her there in her accustomed
seat?"

"I shall be glad to do so," Elsie answered, with earnest kindliness of
look and tone. "She was not banished by any edict of mine or papa's."

"No: I forbade her to leave her room while the baby was in a critical
condition. Yet I think she had no disposition to leave it,--shame and
remorse causing a desire to hide herself from everybody."

"It strikes me as a hopeful sign," Elsie said; "and I do not despair of
one day seeing Lulu a noble woman, the joy and pride of her father's
heart."

She held out her hand as she spoke.

The captain grasped it warmly. "Thank you, mother, for those kind and
hopeful words," he said with emotion. "For the last year or two, she