meant to make a great match if I could. I never hid that from you. It was partly because of Mr. Blake, and to get away from everything, that I wore Lord Astar's diamonds. Mamma thought that he wanted to marry me. We were both of us blind; foolish, oh, how utterly foolish! we didn't think how I must seem to him fair game. And he must have laughed. It makes me laugh now."
She burst into hysterical merriment that was terrible to hear.
"Don't, Elsie; don't—don't laugh like that, my dear. There is no shame to you, because he was a villain. The unutterable cad! He has dared"
"At first I thought he meant that we should run away, to be married. He said if I would meet him the next day; and he would get off going with the Prince, and take me to Sydney; and afterwards to England. And then—when I understood"
"What did you do? My God, if I had heard him"
"I don't know what I did. I tore the thing off, I think I threw it at him. And he tried to keep me. And then I came to you; I thought at once of you, Frank. I knew that you would take care of me."
He took her hand in his, and put his arm round the little trembling form.
"I will take care of you, with my life. Only give me the right."
"The right," she repeated, as if she did not realize what it meant. "Oh, I knew that I could trust you, Frank, there is no one like you." She clung to him, and her shivering ceased. "Frank," she went on, in a broken childlike way—"He didn't kiss me; I didn't let him kiss me. That's all the comfort I have. No one ever kissed my lips except" and she fell to shivering again.
For answer, Frank Hallett bent down very quietly and kissed her forehead. He laid her head against his shoulder, and she seemed to find comfort in the caress. "Elsie," he said, "I want you to listen to me. You know how I love you—no, you never can know quite how I love you. I
