For a little while they all sat silently watching the sleeping babe; then Arthur glanced at the clock, and, with a low-toned promise to be back in an hour, rose, and left the room.
"Excuse me for a little, dear," the captain said to Violet, and softly followed Arthur out to the hall.
"Can you spare me a moment?" he asked.
"Yes, full five of them, if necessary," was the jovial reply.
Arthur"s heart was so light in consequence of the improvement in his young patient, that a jest came readily to his lips.
"Thank you," returned the captain warmly, then went on to describe Lulu"s condition, and ask what should be done for her.
"Relieve her mind as speedily as possible with the good news of the certainty of the baby"s recovery, and, if you choose, the other glad tidings you brought us yesterday," Arthur answered. "The mental strain of the past two days has evidently been too much for her: she must have suffered greatly from grief, remorse, and terror. Relief from those will be the best medicine she could have, and probably work a speedy cure.
Good-evening."
He hurried away, and the captain went at once to Lulu.
She was on the bed where he had left her, but, at the opening of the door, started up, and turned to him with a look of wild affright.
"Papa!" she cried breathlessly, "is--is the baby?--Oh, no! for how glad your face is!"
"Yes, baby is very much better; in fact, quite out of danger, the doctor thinks. And you? have you not slept?" he asked, bending over her in tender solicitude; for she had fallen back on her pillow, and was sobbing as if her heart would break, weeping for joy as she had before wept with sorrow, remorse, and penitence.
He lifted her from the bed, and sat down with her in his arms.
"Don"t cry so, daughter, dear," he said soothingly, softly caressing her hair and cheek: "it will make your head ache still more."
"I can"t help it, papa: I"m so glad, so very, very glad!" she sobbed; "so glad the dear baby will get well, and that I--I"m not a murderess.
Papa, won"t you thank G.o.d for me?"
"Yes," he said with emotion,--"for you and myself and all of us."
When they had risen from their knees, "Now I hope you can sleep a while, and afterward eat some supper," he said, lifting her, and gently laying her on the bed again.
"O papa! I wish you could stay with me a little longer," she cried, clinging to his hand.
"I cannot stay now, daughter," he said; "but I will come in again to bid you good-night."
He leaned over her, and kissed her several times. She threw her arm round his neck, and drew him down closer.
"Dear, dear papa!" she sobbed: "you are the best father in the world!
and oh, I wish I was a better girl! Do you think I--I"m a curse to you now?"
"I think--I believe you are going to be a very great blessing to me, my own darling," he answered in tones tremulous with emotion. "I fear I was hard and cruel in what I said when I came to you that first time last night."
"No, papa, I deserved it every bit; but it "most broke my heart, because I love you so. Oh, I do want to be a blessing to you, and I mean to try with all my might!"
"My dear little girl, my own little daughter, that is all I can ask," he said, repeating his caresses.
Then he covered her up with tender care, and left her, weary and exhausted with the mental suffering of the last two days, but with a heart singing for joy over his restored affection and the a.s.surance of the baby"s final recovery.
She expected to stay awake till he came again, but in less than five minutes was fast asleep.
The captain found Max and Gracie hovering near as he pa.s.sed out into the hall.
"Papa," they said, coming hastily forward, "may we go in to see Lulu now?" Max adding, "I was too angry with her at first to want to see her, but I"ve got over that now." Grace: "And mayn"t she know now that we"re going to keep you always at home?" taking his hand in both of hers, and looking up coaxingly into his face.
"No, my dears, not to-night," he said: "she has cried herself sick--has a bad headache, and I want her to try to sleep it off."
"Poor Lu! she must have been feeling awfully all this time," Max said.
"I wish I hadn"t been so very angry with her."
"You look very happy--you two," their father said, smiling down at them.
"So do you, sir," returned Max; "and I"m so glad, for you"ve been looking heart-broken ever since you came home."
"Pretty much as I have felt," he sighed, patting Gracie"s cheek as he spoke.
"We are just as happy as we can be, papa," she said; "only I"--
"Well?" he said inquiringly as she paused, leaving her sentence unfinished.
"I"m just hungry to sit on your knee a little while; but," ruefully, "I s"pose you haven"t time."
"Come into the nursery with me, and you shall sit there as long as you like, and are willing to keep perfectly quiet, so as not to disturb baby."
"Oh! thank you, papa," she returned joyously, slipping her hand into his. "I"ll be as quiet as a mouse."
"I hope my turn will come to-morrow," remarked Max. "I"ve a hundred questions I want to ask."
"As many as you like, my boy, when I have time to listen; though I don"t promise to answer them all to your entire satisfaction," his father replied, as he pa.s.sed on into the nursery, taking Grace with him.
Max went down-stairs, where he found Evelyn Leland sitting alone in one of the parlors, waiting till her aunt Elsie should be ready to go back to Fairview.
"Max," she said, as he came in, and took a seat at her side, "you have just the nicest kind of a father!"
"Yes, that"s so!" he returned heartily: "there couldn"t be a better one."
"I wish he would let me see Lu," Evelyn went on: "I was in hopes he would after the doctor had told him the baby was sure to get well."
"I think he would, but that Lu has cried herself sick, and he wants her to sleep off her headache. He refused to let Gracie and me in for that reason."
"Poor thing!" Evelyn exclaimed, tears springing to her eyes. "I should think it must have been almost enough to set her crazy. But how happy she will be when she hears that your father isn"t going away again, and means to keep her at home with him."
"Yes, indeed; she"ll go wild with joy; it"s what all three of us have wanted to have happen more than any thing else we could think of.
"I"ve often envied boys that could live at home with their fathers; though," he added with a happy laugh, "I"ve said to myself many a time, that mine was enough nicer than theirs to make up for having to do without him so much of the time; at least, I"d never have been willing to swap fathers with one of "em. No, indeed!"
"Of course not," said Evelyn. "And I"m so delighted that Lu and I are not to be separated! I can hardly wait to talk with her about it, and the good times we"ll have together."