hose days of anxious
care. How matronly she looked! So patiently listening to, and
answering every wish of the little ones.

At last they were all satisfied; and Susie seeing, as she thought, her
father deeply interested in the morning paper, stole away to the
trysting-place.

* * * * *

"I cannot leave him, Frank. _Indeed, I never_ can without his blessing
resting on me. No, no!" she cried, as she saw the disappointed and
stern expression of her lover's face, "I have tried, in vain, to make
my mind up to it. How can I give up either? loving you both so well."

"You have trifled with me, Susie; you have broken your promise, too.
You will, most likely, never see me after this morning, if I go from
you. Are you determined?"

"Yes, dear, dear Frank, I am determined not to go unless father
blesses and bids me go. I will trust my happiness to him, and God, who
ruleth all things," Susie answered, looking very sorrowful,
notwithstanding her faith.

"Then, good-by."

She raised her face, pale and pleading, to his:

"Kiss me good-by, Frank, and say, 'God bless me,' please," she
whispered.

He did as she pleaded, but there was an injured air in his manner. As
he parted from her, she sprang after him, crying:

"Forgive me, Frank, if I have wounded you. Know that to me it is
worse. One little parting look of love, darling!"

"Oh, Susie, how can you?" He pressed her again to his heart, looked
lovingly enough: but his eyes, as plain as words could, repeated
Tennyson's lines:

"Trust me all in all,
Or not at all."

And, determined to make one more appeal, he said:

"Susie, darling! love! trust me for happiness. You will never repent
it. Come!"

"No, no. Go!"

He turned off quickly, angrily then; and Susie sank, sobbing, on the
grass.

"My daughter!"

She raised her eyes, heavy with tears. Beside her, with a sad but kind
and gentle face, her father stood. With him, a puzzled, doubtful
expression on his features, her lover.

"Oh, Frank, I am so--so glad to see you again!" she cried, with as
much joy beaming in her eyes as though their parting had been for
years.

"Yes; as it is so very long since you saw him last!" her father said,
with a pleasant smile.

"I feared it would be for years, perhaps forever," Susie said, in a
low voice, anxiously regarding her father, and longing to beg an
immediate explanation of her lover's return.

"My daughter, what did you inte