again. And you have been behaving very badly ever since, showing a most
unamiable temper. I have overlooked it, hoping to see a change for the
better in your conduct without my resorting to punishment; but I think
the time has now come when I must try that with you."

He paused for some moments. Wondering at his silence, she at length
ventured a timid look up into his face.

It was so full of pain and distress that her heart smote her, and she
was seized with a sudden fury at herself as the guilty cause of his
suffering.

"Lulu," he said, with a sigh that was almost a groan, "what am I to do
with you?"

"Whip me, papa," she burst out; "I deserve it. You've never tried that
yet, and maybe it would make me a better girl, I almost wish you would,
papa," she went on in her vehement way; "I could beat myself for being
so bad and hurting you so."

He made no answer to that, but presently said in moved tones, "What if I
had come back that night to find the dear little daughter I had left a
few hours before in full health and strength, lying a crushed and
mangled corpse? killed without a moment's time to repent of her
disobedience to her father's known wishes and commands? Could I have
hoped to have you restored to me even in another world, my child?"

"No, papa," she said, half under her breath; "I know I wasn't fit to go
to heaven, and that I'm not fit now; but would you have been really very
sorry to lose such a bad, troublesome child?"