talked about the trousseau, and about the difficulty of finding money for it, and the disadvantage to a girl of having no male relatives, all in the same breath. Then seeing that Elsie was moody and unresponsive, she stopped, picked up the finery which the girl had taken off, smoothed the ribbons, put the roses in water, and folded the gloves, and then came back to the bed. "Well, good-night," she said timidly. "I shall not call you to-morrow. I shall watch and bring you your breakfast when I know that you are awake."
She was moving away when Elsie impetuously stretched out her arms from the bed. "Good-night, mother; dear mother. We'll try to be better to each other, dear, than we have been; I'll try to be more like Ina."
CHAPTER XXIV.
"GOOD-BYE, ELSIE VALLIANT."
Lord Horace's evening at the club and Minnie Pryde's confidences to her after-supper partners had spread the news of Elsie's engagement far and wide. At the meeting of the Assembly the next afternoon, Frank Hallett was congratulated both by his own side and by several members of Mr. Torbolton's ministry.
"I thought it was going to be one of my colleagues," said the Premier, with a significant look at Blake; "but this is much better, and I congratulate you heartily."
Frank did not ask Mr. Torbolton why this was much better, since presumably Mr. Torbolton should have wished his colleague to be preferred in any suit on which he had set his heart, but accepted the congratulations in a grave reserved manner which was not much like that of a triumphant lover. He took his seat, and went about his business, and even made a speech, and all the time there was present with him the wonder whether it was really himself—Frank
