hink we will still
have time for a little stroll through the grounds before dark."

Elsie had very little to say during their walk, but moved silently along
by her father's side, with her hand clasped in his; and he, too, seemed
unusually abstracted.

It was quite dusk when they entered the house again, and when the little
girl returned to the study, after Chloe had taken off her wrappings,
she found her father seated in an easy-chair, drawn up on one side of
a bright wood fire that was blazing and crackling on the hearth.

Elsie dearly loved the twilight hour, and it was one of her greatest
pleasures to climb upon her father's knee and sit there talking or
singing, or perhaps, oftener, just laying her head down on his breast
and watching the play of the fire-light on the carpet, or the leaping
of the flame hither and thither.

Mr. Dinsmore sat leaning back in his chair, apparently in deep thought,
and did not hear Elsie's light step.

She paused for one instant in the doorway, casting a wistful, longing
look at him, then, with a little sigh, walked softly to the other side of
the fire-place, and seated herself in her little rocking-chair.

For several minutes she sat very quietly gazing into the fire, her little
face wearing a very sober, thoughtful look. But she was startled out of
her reverie by the sound of her father's voice.

"Why am I not to have my little girl on my knee to-night?" he was asking.

She rose instantly, in a quick, eager way, and ran to him.

"If you prefer the rocking-chair, stay there, by all means," he said.

But she had already climbed to her accustomed seat, and, twining her arms
around his neck, she laid her cheek to his, saying, "No, indeed, papa;
you know I don't like the rocking-chair half so well as your knee; so
please let me stay here."

"Why did you not come at first, then?" he asked in a playful tone.

"Because I was afraid, papa," she whispered,

"_Afraid_!" he repeated, with an accent of surprise, and looking as if he
felt a little hurt.

"Yes, papa," she answered in a low tone, "because I have been so very
naughty this afternoon that I know I don't deserve to come."

"Did you not hear me say I forgave you?" he asked.

"Yes, papa."

"Very well, then, if you are forgiven you are taken back into favor, just
as if you had not transgressed; and if you had quite believed me, you
would have come to me at once, and claimed a daughter's privilege, as
usual," he said very