but remember that
you cannot so atone for your sin against God; nothing but the blood of
Christ can avail to blot out that account against you, and you must ask
to be forgiven for His sake alone. We will kneel down and ask it now."

Violet glanced again and again toward the cottages on the bluff,
wondering and a trifle impatient at her husband's long delay, but at
length saw him approaching, leading Lulu by the hand.

There was unusual gravity, amounting almost to sternness, in his face,
and Lulu's wore a more subdued expression than she had ever seen upon
it, while traces of tears were evident upon her cheeks,

"He has been talking very seriously to her in regard to the ill-temper
she has shown during the past few days," Violet said to herself. "Poor
wayward child! I hope she will take the lesson to heart, and give him
less trouble and anxiety in future."

He kept Lulu close at his side all the evening, and she seemed well
content to stay there, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her
waist, while she listened silently to the talk going on around her or to
the booming of the waves upon the beach not many yards away.

When it was time for the children to retire, he took her and Grace to
the house. At the door he bent down and kissed Grace good-night,
saying, "I shall not wait to see you in your bed, but shall come in to
look at you before I go to mine."

"May I have a kiss too, papa?" Lulu asked in a wishful, half-tremulous
voice, as though a trifle uncertain whether her request would be
granted.

"Yes, my dear little daughter, as many as you wish," he replied, taking
her in his arms and bestowing them with hearty good-will and affection.

"I'm sorry--oh, very sorry for all my naughtiness, papa," she whispered
in his ear while clinging about his neck.

"It is all forgiven now," he said, "and I trust will never be repeated."

Lulu was very good, submissive, and obedient during the remainder of her
father's stay among them.

She was greatly distressed when, two weeks later, orders came for him to
join his ship the following day. She clung to him with devoted,
remorseful affection and distress in prospect of the impending
separation, while he treated her with even more than his wonted
kindness, drawing her often caressingly to his knee, and his voice
taking on a very tender tone whenever he spoke to her.

It was in the evening he left them, for he was to drive over to
Nantucket Town and pass the night th