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 has been alternately my joy and my despair; and I am resolved to leave no effort untried to rescue her from the dominion of her fierce temper.

“The task would doubtless have been far easier could I have undertaken it years ago, in her early infancy.  But I trust it is not yet too late to accomplish it, with the help and the wisdom I may have in answer to prayer.

“No, I am sure it is by no means a hopeless undertaking, looking where you do for needed strength and wisdom; and I rejoice almost as much for Lulu’s sake as for Vi’s, that you have now come among us to stay.  I will try to see her in the morning, and do what I can to make it easy for her to join the family circle again.