But I am very anxious to see you and your father friends again, for I cannot bear to see you both looking so unhappy.
"You have a good father, Elsie, and one that you may well be proud of--for a more high-minded, honorable gentleman cannot be found anywhere; and I am quite sure he would never require you to do anything very wrong.
Have you any objection, my dear, to telling me what it is ?" "He bade me read to him, one Sabbath-day, a book which was only fit for week-day reading, because it had nothing at all in it about God, or being good--and I could not do that; and now he says I must say I am sorry I refused to obey him that time, and promise always to do exactly as he bids me in future," replied Elsie, weeping; "and oh! Mr.Travilla, I cannot do that.

I cannot say I am sorry I did not disobey God, nor that I will disobey him in future, if papa bids me." "But if that was a sin, Elsie, it was surely a very _little_ one; I don't think God would be very angry with you for anything so small as that," he said very gravely.
"Mr.Travilla," Elsie replied in a tone of deep solemnity, "it is written, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in _all_ things which are written in the book of the law to do them;' _that_ is in the Bible; and the catechism says: '_Every sin_ deserveth the wrath and curse of God!' And oh! Mr.Travilla," she added in a tone of anguish, "if you knew how _hard_ it is for me to keep from giving up, and doing what my conscience says is wrong, you wouldn't try to persuade me to do it." Mr.Travilla knew not what to say; he was both perplexed and distressed.
But just at that moment a step was heard coming down the path.

Elsie recognized it instantly, and began to tremble, and the next moment her father entered the arbor.
Mr.Dinsmore felt a pang of jealousy at seeing his little girl in Travilla's arms, which he would have been ashamed to acknowledge to himself, but it caused his tone to be even more than usually stern and severe as he hastily inquired, "What are you doing here, Elsie--crying again, after all I have said to you?
Go to your room this moment, and stay there until you can show a cheerful face!" Mr.Travilla set her down, and she obeyed without a word, not even daring to look at her father.
There was a moment of embarrassing silence after she had gone.
Then Travilla said, "It seems Elsie stumbled upon me here quite unexpectedly, and I detained her somewhat against her will, I believe, and have been doing my best to persuade her that she ought to be entirely submissive to you." Mr.Dinsmore looked interested, but replied with a sigh, "I fear you did not succeed; she is sadly obstinate, and I begin to fear I shall have to use great severity before I can conquer her." Mr.Travilla hesitated a moment, then said, "I am afraid, Dinsmore, that she has the right of it; she quoted Scripture to me till I really had no more to say." Mr.Dinsmore looked displeased.
"_I_ should think," he said almost haughtily, "that the fifth commandment would be answer enough to any argument she could bring to excuse her disobedience." "We do not all see alike, Dinsmore," remarked his friend, "and though I do not say that you are wrong, I must acknowledge that were I in your place, I should do differently, because I should fear that the child was acting from _principle_ rather than self-will or obstinacy." "_Give up_ to her, Travilla?
never! It astonishes me that you could suggest such a thing!" exclaimed Mr.Dinsmore with almost fierce determination.

"No, I _will_ conquer her! I will break _her will_, though in doing so I break my own heart." "And _hers_, too," murmured Travilla in a low, sad tone, more as if thinking aloud than answering his friend.
Mr.Dinsmore started.

"No, no," he said hurriedly, "there is no danger of _that_; else she would certainly have given up long ago." Travilla shook his head, but made no reply; and presently Mr.Dinsmore rose and led the way to the house..