I
knew no one would ever dare to be rude to my beautiful daughter. Now I
see I was wrong to set earthly blessings before spiritual ones; but I
think you understand how I felt, Elisabeth."

"Yes, I understand; and God understands too."

"Then don't you think He is punishing me, my dear?"

"No; I think He is training Felicia--and perhaps you too, dear Mrs.
Herbert."

"Oh! I wish I could think so. But you don't know what Felicia has been
to her father and me. She was such a beautiful baby that the people in
the street used to stop the nurse to ask whose child she was; and when
she grew older she never gave us a moment's trouble or anxiety. Then we
pinched and pared in order to be able to afford to send her to Fox How;
and when her education was finished there wasn't a more perfect lady in
the land than our Felicia. Oh! I was proud of her, I can tell you. And
now she is ashamed of me, her own mother! I can not help seeing that
this is God's punishment to me for letting her marry an unbeliever." And
Mrs. Herbert covered her face with her hands and burst out into bitter
sobs.

Elisabeth took the weeping form into her strong young arms. "My poor
dear, you are doing Him an injustice, you are, indeed. I am sure He
minds even more than you do that Felicia is still so ignorant and
foolish, and He is training her in His own way. But He isn't doing it to
punish you, dear; believe me, He isn't. Why, even the ordinary human
beings who are fond of us want to cure our faults and not to punish
them," she continued, as the memory of Christopher's unfailing patience
with her suddenly came into her mind, and she recalled how often she had
hurt him, and how readily he had always forgiven her; "they are sorry
when we do wrong, but they are even sorrier when we suffer for it. And
do you think God loves us less than they do, and is quicker to punish
and slower to forgive?"

So does the love of the brother whom we have seen help us in some
measure to understand the love of the God Whom we have not seen; for
which we owe the brother eternal thanks.

CHAPTER X

CHANGES

Why did you take all I said for certain
When I so gleefully threw the glove?
Couldn't you see that I made a curtain
Out of my laughter to hide my love?

"My dear," said Miss Farringdon, when Elisabeth came down one morning to
breakfast, "there is sad news to-day."

Miss Farringdon was never late in a morning. She regarded early rising
a