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300 "No. I have often told you that I am not afraid of you."

"Prove it then."

"Besides," she added, laughing, "look here, Frank gave me this, and I have been practising. It is a precaution against Moonlight."

She showed him a tiny pocket pistol, which she took from under the jacket of her habit.

He laughed again, too. "You won't need it. And I don't believe you could hit a haystack if you tried, I promise that I won't even ask you to kiss me. I'll take your hand in mine, and I'll look into your eyes, and I'll say 'Good-bye, Elsie Valliant'——"

"No, no; not that," she cried—"not good-bye, Elsie Valliant. Only good-bye."

"As you like. Will you come. They are all going off except Mrs. Allanby."

It was so. Frank Hallett turned as he followed Lady Waveryng. "Won't you come with us, Elsie?"

"No," she said, and laughed. "Two is company, you know, and three is trumpery: and I don't fancy climbing the waterfall."

"I daresay you are right," he said, a little wistfully: "you must not tire yourself, and you mustn't lose yourself if you wander about. Don't let us miss each other, we ought not to be too long."

"Oh, Mr. Trant has promised to take care of me," she said lightly.

"And as I have been here before," said Trant, "and know the country, Miss Valliant would be quite safe even if we did miss each other. I could take her back to the camp."

Frank looked a little uneasy. "You had better stay quietly here," he said, "like Mrs. Allanby, who is too tired to stir another step."

Mrs. Allanby was reclining in a graceful attitude against a rock, and Lord Horace not far from her was in an absent manner prodding the crevices of a