pon the familiar furniture with a strange
feeling of desolation; an over-powering sense of loneliness came over
her; she missed the dear face that had been familiar to her from her
earliest infancy, and had ever looked so lovingly upon her; the kind arms
wont to fold her in a fond embrace to that heart ever beating with such
true, unalterable affection for her; that breast, where she might ever
lean her aching head, and pour out all her sorrows, sure of sympathy and
comfort.

She could not stay there, but passing quickly out on to the balcony
upon which the windows of her room opened, she stood leaning against
the railing, her head resting upon the top of it, and the silent tears
dropping one by one upon the floor.

"Oh, mammy, mammy!" she murmured half aloud, "why did you leave your poor
heart-broken child? How can I live without you--without any one to love
me?"

"Elsie," said Mr. Dinsmore's voice, close at her side, "I suppose you
think me a very cruel father thus to separate you from your nurse. Is it
not so?"

"Papa, dear papa, don't say that," she cried with a burst of sobs and
tears, as she turned hastily round, and taking his hand in both of hers,
looked up pleadingly into his face. "I know you have a right to do it,
papa; I know I belong to you, and you have a right to do as you will with
me, and I will try to submit without murmuring, but I cannot help feeling
sad, and shedding some tears."

"I am not blaming you for crying now; it is quite excusable under the
circumstances," he replied in a slightly softened tone, adding, "I take
no pleasure in causing you sorrow, Elsie; and though I have sent away
your nurse, I have provided you with another servant, who will, I think,
be respectful and kind, and attentive to all your wishes. If she is not,
you have only to complain to me, and she shall be at once removed, and
her place supplied by another. And I have good reasons for what I am
doing. You have resisted my authority for a long time now, and I must try
the effect of placing you under new influences. I fear Chloe has, at
least tacitly, encouraged you in your rebellion, and therefore I intend
to keep you apart until you have learned to be submissive and obedient."

"Dear papa," replied the little girl meekly, "you wrong poor mammy, if
you think she would ever uphold me in disobedience to you; for on the
contrary, she has always told me that I ought, on all occasions, to yield
a ready and cheerful obedienc