She bent down and kissed Lulu’s lips, and the little girl threw her arms about her neck with impulsive warmth, saying, “Dear Grandma Elsie, I love you and thank you ever so much!  And I mean to try ever so hard to be good,” she added, with a blush and hanging her head shamefacedly.  “I know I’m often very naughty; papa said I gave him more anxiety than Max and Gracie both put together; and I’m afraid I can’t be good all the time, but I do mean to try hard.”

“Well, dear, if you try with all your might, asking help from on high, you will succeed at last,” Elsie said.  “And now I will leave you to wash and dress.  I see your trunk has been brought up and opened, so that you will have no difficulty.”

With that she passed on into Violet’s rooms to see how Gracie was.  She found her sleeping sweetly in Violet’s bed, the latter bending over her with a very tender, motherly look on her fair young face.

“Is she not a darling, mamma?” she whispered, turning her head at the sound of her mother’s light footstep.

“She is a very engaging child,” replied Elsie.  “I think we are all fond of her, but you especially.”

“Yes, mamma, I love her for herself—­her gentle, affectionate disposition—­but still more because she is my husband’s child, his dear baby girl, as he so often called her.”

“Ah, I can understand that,” Elsie said, with a loving though rather sad look and smile into Violet’s azure eyes, “for I have often felt just so in regard to my own children.  What does Arthur say about her?”

“That she is more in need of rest and sleep than anything else at present.  He will see her again to-morrow, and will probably be able then to give me full directions in regard to her diet and so forth.”

“You will come down to supper? you will not think it necessary to stay with her yourself?” Elsie said inquiringly.

“Oh, no, mamma!  I shall dress at once.  I should not like to miss being with you all,” Violet answered, moving away from the bedside.  “Ah!” with sudden recollection, “I have been quite forgetting Max and Lulu.”

“I have seen them to their rooms,” her mother said, “and now I must go and attend to Rosie and Walter, and to my own toilet.”

“Dear mamma, thank you!” Violet said heartily.

“My dear, I consider them quite as much my children, and therefore my especial charge, as yours, perhaps a trifle more,” Elsie returned with sprightly look and tone as she left the room.

Agnes was in attendance on her young mistress, and was presently sent to ask if Lulu was in need of help, and to say that her mamma would like to see her before she went down-stairs.

“I don’t need anything till I’m ready to have my sash tied,” answered Lulu, “and then I’ll come in to Mamma Vi and you to have it done.  She was very good to send you, Agnes, and you to come.”

“La! chile, it’s jus’ my business to mind Miss Wilet,” returned Agnes.  “An’ she’s good to eberybody, ob cose—­always was.”