"Sweet little flower blossomed into this world of sin and sorrow! Elsie,
dearest, remember that she is not absolutely yours, her father's, or mine;
but only lent you a little while to be trained up for the Lord."
"Yes, papa, I know," she answered with emotion, "and I gave her to Him
even before her birth."
"I hope she will prove as like you in temper and disposition as she bids
fair to be in looks."
"Papa, I should like her to be much better than I was."
He shook his head with a half-incredulous smile. "That could hardly be, if
she has any human nature at all."
"Ah, papa, you forget how often I used to be naughty and disobedient; how
often you had to punish me; particularly in that first year after you
returned from Europe."
A look of pain crossed his features. "Daughter, dear, I am full of remorse
when I think of that time. I fully deserved the epithet Travilla once
bestowed upon me in his righteous indignation at my cruelty to my gentle,
sensitive little girl."
"What was that, papa?" she asked, with a look of wonder and surprise.
"Dinsmore, you're a brute!"
"Papa, how could he say that!" and the fair face flushed with momentary
excitement and anger towards the father of her child, whom she so
thoroughly respected ind so dearly loved.
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