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Rh had a fit of unrestrained weeping, which did her good, and enabled her to throw herself more sympathetically into poor Elsie's difficulties.

"My dear," she said, "I see that there is a good deal you don't want to talk about, and it must be horrid for you to think of having been three days out in the bush with that odious man. But there's one mercy about the bush: it seems to me that nothing matters and nobody minds anything; and you see, if you had been cast on a desert island with a man, it wouldn't have been your fault, and this is much the same thing; now don't trouble to make any explanations. I've told Waveryng not to bother you, and I shall tell Mr. Hallett the same thing. Ina told me that Mr. Trant had an accident, and, of course, poor man, if he sprained his ankle, he could not be expected to cleave a way for you through the precipices."

"It was not his ankle—it was his forehead," said Elsie, blushing deeply, but accepting the pious fraud.

"Well, that is worse," said Lady Waveryng. "I daresay he was unconscious."

"No—he—it was not serious; but he was unconscious," Elsie said incoherently. "Oh, Lady Waveryng, if you would explain a little to Frank. He is so good: he will understand how I hate talking about Mr. Trant."

"Don't fret," said Lady Waveryng, kindly. "I understand. I will make things as easy as they can be for you. Elsie," she added, kissing the girl in a motherly fashion, "take my advice. If you are going to marry Frank Hallett, tell him everything, everything. But ask him for breathing space. And if you are not going to marry him, don't be in a hurry about marrying anybody else. Give yourself and other people a chance to prove themselves. And I want to say something to you: Ina is going home with us, for a year, or for always, just as she pleases. She is my sister, you know, as well as yours. If you want breathing time, my dear, come with us, too, and be another sister. You will be very welcome at Waveryng, and I will take care of you."