CHAPTER XIII.
"On you most loved, with anxious fear I wait, And from your judgment must expect my fate." -- _Addison_.
Naturally Elsie's first waking thoughts on the following morning were of Violet and her future.

She was not a "match-making mamma," not at all desirous to be rid of her daughters, and had never once thought of Capt.
Raymond as a possible suitor for Violet.
He was not a very young man, and it was difficult to realize that Vi was grown up enough for her hand to be sought in marriage by even one near her own age, much less by the father of a family whose eldest child could not be very many years younger than she.
"She surely cannot fancy him!" the mother said to herself with a sigh of relief; but instantly came the remembrance that the disparity of years had been still greater between herself and the husband she had loved with all the strength of her nature--so loved that never for a moment could she admit the idea of the possibility that any other could fill his place in her heart.

What more could she ask for her beloved child, for this life, than such wedded bliss as she herself had known?
But how could she spare her! especially so soon after resigning her sweet namesake daughter to another.

It was only the unselfishness of her mother love which could at all reconcile her to the thought.
She longed to know whether she were likely to be called upon to make the sacrifice, but generously resolved to use no means to discover the state of her child's feelings until the captain had spoken.

In the mean while she would neither make an opportunity for him nor throw any obstacle in his way.
Her toilet was scarcely complete, and she had just dismissed her maid, when a tap on her dressing-room door was followed by her father's entrance.
"Ah, papa! good-morning!" she said, her face growing bright with pleasure.
"Are you well, my dear father ?" going to him and putting her arms about his neck.
"Perfectly, my darling," he said, caressing her.