are right. And now, daughter dear, I must bid you
good-night. But first I want you to promise me that you will determinately
cast this care on the Lord, and not let it rob you of needed sleep."

They had both risen, and as he spoke he took her in his arms and held her
close to his heart.

"I will, papa, in obedience to Him and to you," she said, while for a
moment her arm was about his neck, her head laid upon his breast.

CHAPTER XIII.

"On you most loved, with anxious fear I wait,
And from your judgment must expect my fate."
--_Addison_.

Naturally Elsie's first waking thoughts on the following morning were of
Violet and her future. She was not a "match-making mamma," not at all
desirous to be rid of her daughters, and had never once thought of Capt.
Raymond as a possible suitor for Violet.

He was not a very young man, and it was difficult to realize that Vi was
grown up enough for her hand to be sought in marriage by even one near her
own age, much less by the father of a family whose eldest child could not
be very many years younger than she.

"She surely cannot fancy him!" the mother said to herself with a sigh of
relief; but instantly came the remembrance that the disparity of years had
been still greater between herself and the husband she had loved with all
the strength of her nature--so loved that never for a moment could she
admit the idea of the possibility that any other could fill his place in
her heart. What more could she ask for her beloved child, for this life,
than such wedded bliss as she herself had known?

But how could she spare her! especially so soon after resigning her sweet
namesake daughter to another. It was only the unselfishness of her mother
love which could at all reconcile her to the thought.

She longed to know whether she were likely to be called upon to make the
sacrifice, but generously resolved to use no means to discover the state
of her child's feelings until the captain had spoken. In the mean while
she would neither make an opportunity for him nor throw any obstacle in
his way.

Her toilet was scarcely complete, and she had just dismissed her maid,
when a tap on her dressing-room door was followed by her father's
entrance.

"Ah, papa! good-morning!" she said, her face growing bright with pleasure.
"Are you well, my dear father?" going to him and putting her arms about
his neck.

"Perfectly, my darling," he said, care