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222 Won't you give me your blessing and accept me as your son, and tell Elsie when you see her to-night that you are glad?"

"Yes, I will," said Mrs. Valliant. "It's the best thing that could have happened. I won't talk about Mr. Blake or about Lord Astar to Elsie or anybody, but this I must say, that I am glad it's you, and not Blake. I never liked that man somehow, and I'm certain—as certain as I'm standing here—that he is fond of Elsie. I could see it this evening in the way he looked, and the way he talked."

Frank said nothing. This should have been poor comfort, and yet there was an odd pleasure in the hearing of it. He was better pleased that Blake should love Elsie, and should be disappointed, than that he should have been flirting with her merely for the gratification of his own vanity and the humiliation of hers.

They found the Prydes. Mrs. Valliant's excited manner told that something had happened. She was not proof against Minnie's eager whispered questioning.

"Is she engaged?" Minnie asked. "Oh, do, only just tell me that."

"Yes, she is engaged," answered Mrs. Valliant. "It's all quite sudden and unexpected though; I am sure I might have known it was coming months ago, but Elsie is so odd and so reserved. She might just as well have told me it was Frank Hallett, instead of letting me beat about the bush and getting herself so talked about with other people."

"Frank Hallett!" exclaimed Minnie, in genuine astonishment. "Well, I never thought it would come about like this. I thought there was something up with Lord Astar, though Daddy said it was nonsense, and that he'd never be allowed to marry a girl like Elsie. I beg your pardon, Mrs. Valliant, I don't mean of course that Elsie wasn't as good as any of them, but you know what I mean."

"No, I do not," said Mrs. Valliant, with dignity. "Lord Astar had serious intentions, I know for a fact. Why Elsie has refused him I cannot think. But of course, Elsie knows