thority, I should feel compelled to take severe measures with you. I
have now decided what those measures are to be. Henceforth, so long as
you continue rebellious, you are to be banished entirely from the family
circle; your meals must be taken in your own apartment, and though I
shall not reduce your fare to bread and water, it will be very plain--no
sweetmeats--no luxuries of any kind. I shall also deprive you entirely of
pocket-money, and of all books excepting your Bible and school-books, and
forbid you either to pay or receive any visits, telling all who inquire
for you, why you cannot be seen. You are also to understand that I forbid
you to enter any apartment in the house excepting your own and the
school-room--unless by my express permission--and never to go out at all,
even to the garden, excepting to take your daily exercise, accompanied
always and only by a servant. You are to go on with your studies as
usual, but need not expect to be spoken to by any one but your teacher,
as I shall request the others to hold no communication with you. This is
your sentence. It goes into effect this very hour, but becomes null and
void the moment you come to me with acknowledgments of penitence for the
past, and promises of implicit obedience for the future."

Elsie stood like a statue; her hands clasped, and her eyes fixed upon the
floor. She had grown very pale while her father was speaking, and there
was a slight quivering of the eyelids and of the muscles of the mouth,
but she showed no other sign of emotion.

"Did you hear me, Elsie?" he asked.

"Yes, papa," she murmured, in a tone so low it scarcely reached his ear.

"Well, have you anything to say for yourself before I send you back to
your room?" he asked in a somewhat softened tone.

He felt a little alarmed at the child's unnatural calmness; but it was
all gone in a moment. Sinking upon her knees she burst into a fit of
passionate weeping. "Oh! papa, papa!" she sobbed, raising her streaming
eyes to his face, "will you never, _never_ love me any more?--must I
never come near you, or speak to you again?"

He was much moved.

"I did not say _that_, Elsie," he replied. "I hope most sincerely that
you _will_ come to me before long with the confessions and promises I
require; and then, as I have told you so often, I will take you to my
heart again, as fully as ever. Will you not do it at once, and spare me
the painful necessity of putting my sentence into executi