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198 Well, there was no great difficulty in deciding. Here was some balm for her poor torn heart and wounded pride. Now, at least she could prove to Blake that she had never loved him. She could show him that if he despised her there were others more highly placed than he who thought her worthy of being lifted to a rank far beyond any that he could offer her. And yet—the stab was agony—she loved him. She had never realized it so keenly as now.

Mrs. Valliant watched her in breathless interest. She, too, had seen the flash of the diamonds, and she had no doubt of what the note contained. She, too, was in her way as innocent as her daughter. She knew nothing of the wickedness of the world or the ways of men like Lord Astar.

"Elsie," she cried, "Oh, tell me, what is it?"

"It is from Lord Astar," replied Elsie dreamily.

"Yes, yes, I know. But show me—how beautiful!" She held the ornament to the light, and then away from her, and gazed at it in an ecstasy of pleasure. "It is magnificent—a present for a queen. Oh, Elsie, and it is settled! And you let Minnie Pryde go on with her chatter, and you never told me—me, your mother, and I have been so anxious! He proposed to you to-day. I knew it was coming. I saw that it was coming. No one could have watched him yesterday without seeing—he couldn't tear himself away, he couldn't keep his eyes from you. "Was it to-day, Elsie, that he proposed?"

"No, he hasn't proposed to me."

"But the letter?" said Mrs. Valliant bewildered. "What does he say? It can only mean that."

"Yes," said Elsie slowly, "I suppose it means that." She gave the note to her mother, who read it eagerly, and then looked at Elsie with an expression of bewildered joy, mixed with a certain vague terror. Then she read the note again aloud, and her expression became one of confident triumph.

"Yes, of course it means that. 'His dearest wish—that you will accept my love.' I think it is beautiful, so delicate, such a romantic way of putting things; and to send this! It's like what one reads in books—oh, Elsie, and he is so