Elsie in the South

"You may be perfectly sure I don't want to, papa," she returned with a gleeful, happy laugh. "It is just a joy and delight to me to feel that I belong to you and always shall as long as you want to keep me."

"Which will be just as long as you enjoy it – and we both live," he added a little more gravely.

Then releasing them with an injunction not to waste too much time over their toilet, he passed on down the stairway while they went on into their tiring-room.

"Oh, Lu," said Grace as she pulled down her hair before the glass, "haven't we the best and dearest father in the world? I like Chester ever so much, but I sometimes wonder how you can bear the very thought of leaving papa for him."

"It does not seem an easy thing to do," sighed Lucilla, "and yet – "

But she paused, leaving her sentence unfinished.

"Yet what?" asked Grace, turning an inquiring look upon her sister.

"Well, I believe I'll tell you," returned Lucilla in a half-hesitating way. "I have always valued father's love oh, so highly, and once when I happened accidentally to overhear something he said to Mamma Vi, it nearly broke my heart – for a while." Her voice quivered with the last words, and she seemed unable to go on for emotion.

"Why, Lu, what could it have been?" exclaimed Grace in surprise, and giving her sister a look of mingled love and compassion.

With an evident effort Lucilla went on: "It was that she was dearer to him than all his children put together – that he would lose every one of them rather than part with her. It made me feel for a while as if I had lost everything worth having – papa's love for me must be so very slight. But after a long and bitter cry over it I was comforted by remembering what the Bible says, 'Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself.' And the words of Jesus, 'For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.' So I could see it was right for my father to love his wife best of all earthly creatures – she being but a part of himself – and besides I could not doubt that he loved me and each one of his children very, very dearly."

"Yes, I am sure he does," said Grace, vainly trying to speak in her usual cheery, light-hearted tones. "Oh, Lu, I don't wonder you cried over it. It would just kill me to think papa didn't care very much about me."

"Oh, Gracie, he does! I know he does! I am sure he would not hesitate a moment to risk his life for any one of us."

"Yes, I am sure of it! and what but his love for you makes him so unwilling to give you up to Chester? I can see that Ches feels it hard to wait, but father certainly has the best of rights to keep his daughters to himself as long as they are under age."

"And as much longer as he chooses, so far as I am concerned. I am only too glad that he seems so loath to give me up. My dear, dear father! Words cannot express my love for him or the regret I feel for the rebellious conduct which gave him so much pain and trouble in days long gone by."

"Dear Lu," said Grace, "I am perfectly sure our dear father forgave all that long ago."

"Yes, but I can never forget or forgive it myself. Nor can I forget how glad and thankful he was that I was not the one killed by the bear out at Minersville, or his saving me that time when I was so nearly swept into Lake Erie by the wind; how closely he hugged me to his breast – a tear falling on my head – when he got me safely into the cabin, and the low-breathed words, 'Thank God, my darling, precious child is safe in my arms.' Oh, Gracie, I have seemed to hear the very words and tones many a time since. So I cannot doubt that he does love me very much; even if I am not so dear to him as his wife is."

"And you love mamma, too?"

"Yes, indeed! she is just like a dear older sister. I may well love her since she is so dear to papa, and was so kind and forbearing with me in those early years of her married life when I certainly was very far from being the good and lovable child I ought to have been. She was very forbearing, and never gave papa the slightest hint of my badness."

"She has always been very good and kind to us," said Grace, "and I love her very dearly."

"And papa showed his love for me in allowing Chester to offer himself because he had saved my life – for otherwise he would have forbidden it for at least another year or two."

"Yes, I know," said Grace. "We certainly have plenty of proofs that father does love us very much."

"But we must not delay at this business, as he bade us hasten down again," Lucilla said, quickening her movements as she spoke.

"No; I'm afraid he is beginning to wonder what is keeping us so long," said Grace, following her example.

They had no idea how their father was engaged at that moment. As he reached the lower hall Frank Dinsmore stepped forward and accosted him. "Can I have a moment's chat with you, captain?" he asked in an undertone, and with a slightly embarrassed air.

"Certainly, Frank. It is a very modest request," was the kindly-toned response, "What can I do for you?"

"Very nearly the same thing that you have so kindly done for my brother, sir," replied the young man, coloring and hesitating somewhat in his speech. "I – I am deeply, desperately in love with your daughter, Miss Grace, and – "

"Go no farther, my young friend," interrupted the captain in a grave though still kindly tone. "I have no objection to you personally, but Grace is entirely too young and too delicate for her father to consider for a moment the idea of allowing her to think of such a thing as marriage. Understand distinctly that I should be not a whit more ready to listen to such a request from any other man – older or younger, richer or poorer."

"But she is well worth waiting for, sir, and if you would only let me speak and try to win her affections, I – "

"That must be waited for, Frank. I cannot and will not have her approached upon the subject," was the almost stern rejoinder. "Promise me that you will not do or say anything to give her the idea that you want to be more to her than a friend."

"That is a hard thing you are requiring, sir," sighed Frank.

"But quite necessary if you would be permitted to see much of Grace," returned the captain with great decision. "And, seeing that you feel toward her as you have just told me you do, I think the less you see of each other – or hold intercourse together – the better. Should she be in good, firm health some six or eight years hence, and you and she then have a fancy for each other, her father will not, probably, raise any objection to your suit; but until then I positively forbid anything and everything of the kind."

"I must say I find that a hard sentence, captain," sighed the would-be suitor. "It strikes me that most fathers would be a trifle more ready to make an eligible match for a daughter of Miss Grace's age. She is very young, I acknowledge, but I have known some girls to marry even younger. And you will not even allow her to enter into an engagement?"

"No; I have no desire to rid myself of my daughter; very far from it. For my first set of children I have a peculiarly tender feeling because – excepting each other – they have no very near relative but myself. They were quite young when they lost their mother, and for years I have felt that I must fill to them the place of both parents as far as possible, and have tried to do so. As one result," he added with his pleasant smile, "I find that I am exceedingly loath to give them up into any other care and keeping."

"But since we are neighbors and distant connections, and my brother engaged to Miss Lu, you do not absolutely forbid me your house, captain?"

"No; you may see Grace in my presence – perhaps occasionally out of it – provided you carefully obey my injunction to refrain from anything like love-making."

"Thank you, sir; I accept the conditions," was Frank's response, and the two separated just as Lucilla and Grace appeared at the top of the stairway near which they had been standing, Frank passing out to the veranda, the captain moving slowly in the opposite direction.

"There's father now!" exclaimed Grace, tripping down the stairs.

"Papa," as he turned at the sound of her voice and glanced up at her,

"I've been re-arranging my hair. Please tell me if you like it in this style."

"Certainly, daughter; I like it in any style in which I have ever seen it arranged," he returned, regarding it critically, but with an evidently admiring gaze. "I am glad and thankful that you have an abundance of it – such as it is," he added sportively, taking her hand in his as she reached his side. Then turning to Lucilla, "And yours, too, Lulu, seems to be in well-cared-for condition."

"Thank you, papa dear; I like occasionally to hear you call me by that name so constantly used in the happy days of my childhood."

"Ah! I hope that does not mean that these are not happy days?" he said, giving her a look of kind and fatherly scrutiny.

"Oh, no, indeed, father! I don't believe there is a happier girl than I in all this broad land."

"I am thankful for that," he said with a tenderly affectionate look into her eyes as she stood at his side gazing up into his; "for there is nothing I desire more than the happiness of these two dear daughters of mine."

"Yes, father dear, we both know you would take any amount of trouble for our pleasure or profit," said Grace gayly; "but just to know that we belong to you is enough for us. Isn't it, Lu?"

"And are so dear to him," added Lucilla. "I couldn't be the happy girl I am if I didn't know that."

"Never doubt it, my darlings; never for a moment," he said in a moved tone.

"Oh, so here you are, girls!" exclaimed a familiar voice just in their rear. "I have been all round the verandas, looking for you, but you seemed to be lost in the crowd or to have vanished into thin air."

"Certainly not that last, sister Rose," laughed the captain. "I am happy to say there is something a good deal more substantial than that about them."

"Yes, I see there is; they are both looking remarkably well. And now I hope we can have a good chat. There has hardly been an opportunity for it yet – there being such a crowd of relations and friends, and such a commotion over the wedding – and you know I want to hear all about what you did and saw in Florida. Also to tell you of the improvements we are talking of making at Riverside."