"You see that God does not accept forgetfulness as a sufficient excuse, or any excuse for sin."
"Then you won't, of course," muttered Lulu, carefully avoiding looking into the kind face bending over her; "how am I to be punished? I don't feel as if anybody has a right to punish me but papa," she added, with a flash of indignant anger.
"I heartily wish he were here to attend to it," was the response, in a kindly pitying tone. "But since, unfortunately, he is not, and my father, too, is absent, the unpleasant duty devolves upon me. I have not had time to fully consider the matter, but have no thought of being very severe with you; and perhaps if you knew all the anxiety and sore distress suffered on your account this evening—particularly by your mamma and little sister—you would be sufficiently punished already."
"Did Mamma Vi care?" Lulu asked, in a half-incredulous tone.
"My child, she was almost distracted," Elsie said. "She loves you for both your own and your father's sake. Besides, as she repeated again and again, she was sorely distressed on his account, knowing his love for you to be so great that to lose you would well-nigh break his heart."
A flash of joy illumined Lulu's face at this new testimony to her father's love for her, but passed away as suddenly as it came.
"I do feel punished in hearing that you were all so troubled about me, Grandma Elsie," she said, "and I mean to be very, very careful not to cause such anxiety again. Please tell Mamma Vi I am sorry to have given her pain; but she shouldn't care anything about such a naughty girl."
"That, my child, she cannot help," Elsie said; "she loves your father far too well not to love you for his sake."
After a little more kindly admonitory talk she went away, leaving a tender, motherly kiss upon the little girl's lips.
At the door Grace met her with a request for a good-night kiss, which was promptly granted.