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.




CHAPTER VI.


"The storm of grief bears hard upon her youth,
And bends her, like a drooping flower, to earth."

ROWE'S FAIR PENITENT.


"You are not looking quite well yet, Mr. Dinsmore," remarked a lady
visitor, who called one day to see the family; "and your little daughter,
I think, looks as if she, too, had been ill; she is very thin, and seems
to have entirely lost her bright color."

Elsie had just left the room a moment before the remark was made.