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Rh Mrs. Valliant; please don't speak to Elsie about Lord Astar. I have to beg this of you. She never cared for him. She wants to forget—to forget that she ever thought it possible for a moment that she could care"

"I don't understand," said Mrs. Valliant, in a perplexed manner.

"Elsie and I understand each other," answered Frank. "We understood each other this summer on the Luya. I was only waiting—waiting till Elsie had made up her mind. And now she has made it up, she says, for good and all. There's nothing now but for you to say that you will give her to me. I am not afraid that you will say no. We talked of this before."

"Yes, we talked of this before," repeated Mrs. Valliant, still bewildered. "Of course I'm very glad, Mr. Hallett; Frank, I suppose I ought to say now. I am very glad that you care for Elsie and that she cares for you. She did not tell me there was any understanding between you—she rather let me think—but there, it's no use going back on what Elsie says—she will always go her own way, and she doesn't take me into her confidence. It's a little hard, considering that I'm her mother, and that I think of nothing but of her good. Ina was quite different, Ina always talked to me and told me things. I'm sure this evening when we started—if anyone had told me that Elsie would go back from the Government House ball engaged to you I should have laughed in their face. If it had been Mr. Blake I should have been less surprised. But it only shows"

Mrs. Valliant stopped short, struck by the expression of Hallett's face. "I beg your pardon," she said humbly; "but you know Mr. Blake did pay Elsie a great deal of attention when he first came."

"And that is past," said Frank, decidedly; "and I know that the subject is almost as distasteful to Elsie as the subject of Lord Astar's attentions. Elsie has promised to be my wife, Mrs. Valliant. I mean to take care of her. I don't mean that she shall be vexed or worried by anything that it is in my power to shield her from. But never mind that.