again."

"But you won't be hard with her, poor dear?"

"Hard with her, Aunt Wealthy? hard and cruel to my darling whom I
love better than my life? I trust not; but it would be the height of
cruelty to allow this thing to go on. The man is a vile wretch guilty
of almost every vice, and seeking my child for her wealth, not for
herself. I have forbidden her to see or ever to hold the slightest
communication with him again."

"Well, it is quite right if your opinion of him is correct; and I
hardly think she is likely to refuse submission."

"I have brought up my daughter to habits of strict, unquestioning
obedience, Aunt Wealthy," he said, "and I think they will stand her in
good stead now. I have no fear that she will rebel."

A half hour with her best Friend had done much to soothe and calm our
sweet Elsie; she had cast her burden on the Lord and He sustained her.
She knew that no trial could come to her without His will, that He
had permitted this for her good, that in His own good time and way He
would remove it, and she was willing to leave it all with Him; for was
He not all-wise, all-powerful, and full of tenderest, pitying love for
her?

She had great faith in the wisdom and love of her earthly father also,
and doubted not that he was doing what he sincerely believed to be for
her happiness,--giving her present pain only in order to save her from
keener and more lasting distress and anguish in the future.