single moment."

"Nor I of you, dearest," he answered, bending down to kiss her pale
cheek, then taking a seat close beside her; "but I had to seek solitude
for a time while fighting a battle with myself. Since that I have been
with Lulu."

He concluded with a heavy sigh, and for a moment both were silent; then
he said with grave tenderness,--

"I fear you will find it hard to forgive her: it has been no easy thing
for me to do so."

"I cannot yet," returned Violet, a hard look that he had never seen
there before stealing over her face; "and that is an added distress, for
'if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.' I think I can if my baby recovers; but should
it--be taken away--or--or, worse by far, live to be a constant
sufferer--oh, how can I ever forgive the author of that suffering! Pray
for me, my dear husband," she sobbed, laying her head on his shoulder.

"I will, I do, my darling," he whispered, passing his arm about her, and
drawing her closer; "and I know the help you need will be given.

"'Ask, and it shall be given you.'

"Perhaps it may aid the effort, if I tell you Lulu did not intentionally
harm her little sister, and is greatly distressed at her state. She
thought it was Rosie's dog pulling at her skirts; and I own that that
explanation makes the sad affair a little less heart-rending to me,
though I could not accept it as any excuse for an act done in a fury of
passion, and have punished her very severely for it; that is, for her
passion. I think it is right, under the circumstances, that you should
know that I have, and that it is my fixed purpose to keep her in
solitary confinement, at least so long as the baby continues in a
critical condition."

"Oh! I am glad to know it was not done purposely," Violet
exclaimed,--though in a tone hardly raised above a whisper,--lifting her
tearful eyes to his face with a look of something like relief: "knowing
that, I begin to feel that it may be possible to forgive and forget,
especially if the consequences do not prove lasting," she added with a
sob, and turning her eyes to the little wan face on the pillow. "But I
certainly take no delight in the severity of her punishment: in fact, I
fear it may destroy any little affection she has had for her baby
sister."

"No," he said, "I am not at all apprehensive of that. When she found I
was about to punish her, she said she almost wanted me to; that she felt
l