“Of course not!” exclaimed Faude, coloring violently, “but who expects——­”

“I do, sir; I expect the husbands of my daughters to be as pure and stainless as my sons’ wives.”

“I’m as good as the rest, sir.  You’ll not find one young fellow in five hundred who has sowed fewer wild oats than I.”

“I fear that may be true enough, but it does not alter my decision,” returned Mr. Travilla, intimating by a bow and a slight wave of the hand, that he considered the interview at an end.

Faude withdrew in anger, but with an intensified desire to secure the coveted prize; the more difficult of acquisition, the more desirable it seemed.

He persuaded his mother to become his advocate with Mrs. Travilla.

She at first flatly refused, but at length yielded to his entreaties, and undertook the difficult, and to her haughty spirit, humiliating mission.

Requesting a private interview with Elsie, she told her of the wishes of Clarence Augustus, and plead his cause with all the eloquence of which she was mistress.

“My boy would make your daughter a good husband,” she said, “and indeed, I think any woman might feel highly honored by the offer of his hand.  I do not understand how it is, Mrs. Travilla, that a lady of your sense fails to see that.”

“I appreciate your feelings, my dear Mrs. Faude,” said Elsie gently.  “I am a mother too, you know, and have sons of my own.”

“Yes, and what possible objection can you have to mine?  Excuse my saying it, but the one your husband advanced, seems to me simply absurd.”

“Nevertheless it is the only one; except that our child’s heart is not enlisted; but either alone would be insuperable.”

“She hardly knows him yet, and could not fail to learn to love him if she did.  Be persuaded my dear Mrs. Travilla, to give him a chance to try.  It is never well to be hasty, especially in declining a good offer, and this, let me tell you, is such an one as you will not meet with every day, lovely and attractive in every way, as your daughters are.

“Ours is an old, aristocratic family; none better to be found in our state, or in the Union; we have wealth too, and I flatter myself that Clarence Augustus is as handsome a man as you would find anywhere; amiable in disposition also, and would, as I said before, make an excellent husband.  Will you not undertake his cause?”

“Believe me, it is painful to me to refuse, but I could not, in conscience.”

“But why not?”

“Simply for the reason my husband gave.  We both consider moral purity more essential than anything else in those we admit to even friendly intercourse with our children; especially our daughters.”

“My son is not a bad man, Mrs. Travilla, very far from it!” Mrs. Faude exclaimed, in the tone of one who considers herself grossly insulted.

“Not, I am sure, as the world looks upon these things,” said Elsie, “but the Bible is our standard; and guided by its teachings we desire above all things else, purity of heart and life in those who seek the friendship of our children; and very especially in those who are to become their partners for life, and the future fathers or mothers of their offspring, should it please God to give them any.”