"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 execution ?" he asked, raising her gently, and drawing her to his side.
"Dear papa, you know I cannot," she sobbed.
"Then return at once to your room; my sentence must be enforced, though it break both your heart and mine, for I _will_ be obeyed.

_Go_!" he said, sternly putting her from him.

And weeping and sobbing, feeling like a homeless, friendless outcast from society, Elsie went back to her room.
The next two or three weeks were very sad and dreary ones to the poor little girl.

Her father's sentence was rigidly enforced; she scarcely ever saw him excepting at a distance, and when once or twice he passed her in going in and out, he neither looked at nor spoke to her.