"But you will not be severe with her?" Rose said pleadingly. "You know it was only her great love for her little brother that made her for a moment forgetful of her duty to you. And I am sure she is repenting bitterly now."
"I have no intention of inflicting corporal punishment, if that is what you apprehend," he said; "but I think I ought to make her aware, for a day or two at least, that she is in disgrace with me."
"I am so sorry," sighed Rose; "for though to some children that would be a very slight punishment, I know that to her it will be positively dreadful."
"Yes," he returned, echoing her sigh, "she is extravagantly fond of her father's caresses and endearments, but so is he of hers, and I doubt if the punishment will be more severe to the one than to the other of us."
"What's de mattah, chile? What's de mattah wid you an' little massa?" Aunt Chloe asked, with an anxious, troubled look, as Elsie rushed into her own apartments crying very bitterly.
Amid heavy sobbing and floods of tears the little girl related what had passed between her father and brother, winding up with the story of her interference and its result.
"Oh, darlin' chile, dat was bad!" exclaimed Chloe. "You shouldn't neber do no sich ting as dat! Dat be bery bad ting fo' little massa, what you been an' gone an' done. De Bible say chillens mus' min' dere fader and mudder."
Elsie made no reply, but throwing herself on a couch, half buried her face in a pillow in the effort to shut out the sound of Horace's cries, which penetrated even there.
Until they ceased she scarcely thought of anything but that he was being hurt; but when all grew quiet with the ending of the conflict, she was suddenly struck with the enormity of her offence and the dread certainty that her father was greatly and justly incensed at her unwarrantable interference between him and her brother.
She was astonished at her own temerity, and trembled at thought of the probable consequences. That some sort of punishment would be meted out to her she had not the slightest doubt, and as her father was wont to be prompt in action, she fully expected a visit from him as soon as he was done disciplining Horace.