"Massa, my chile frettin' herself sick."
"She must not do that," he said, with a touch of sternness in his tone.
"Please, sah, s'pose my chile kaint help it?"
"She must help it. Tell her I say so."
"Oh, massa, ain't you gwine forgib my chile? She am mighty sorry she been an' gone an' done such t'ing; she ain't neber gwine do de like ob dat no mo'."
"I trust not," he said; "I shall have to be very severe with her if she does. No, I am not ready to forgive her yet. Such conduct as she has been guilty of cannot be passed over with a trifling punishment. She must be made to realize that her offence is a very serious one."
A wave of his hand with the last word gave Chloe to understand that the interview was at an end.
Elsie's heart beat high betwixt hope and fear as she sat waiting and listening for Chloe's returning footsteps, and for her father's, which might perhaps accompany or precede them.
"Oh, mammy, what did he say? will he forgive me? may I go to him now and call him papa?" she asked, half-breathlessly and with an eager, longing look, as her nurse came in. Then reading the answer in Chloe's sad and troubled countenance, she dropped her face into her hands and sobbed aloud.