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Rh "The Elective Affinities! Do you believe in that theory?"

"No. I can't tell. I have had so little experience"

"I should have thought that you had had a considerable experience."

"You mean"—she stopped and blushed.

"Well," he said, "I mean that you must have tested some of the laws of human chemistry, and are at least in a position to judge what kind of qualities you yourself are most likely to attract."

"Oh, no," she exclaimed with child-like candour which amused him. "I can't judge in the least. They are all so unlike."

"They must at any rate have one common quality."

"That of being commonplace," she said.

He laughed and slipped the bridle over his left arm. "Come, Osman. Good-bye, Miss Valliant."

Elsie Valliant set her heart upon doing any particular thing, she usually had her way. She had set her heart upon going to Goondi during the election week, and so she persuaded Lady Horace to take her. They rode to the Bean tree Crossing, as the Telegraph Station and German Settlement near them was called, and there picked up the coach to Goondi. It was only a one day's expedition, after all. Two coaches passed in the day, one in the morning and one at night.

Lady Horace was not very hard to persuade. Perhaps she was more excited about the chances of Hallett's return than she chose to show. Perhaps she was a little anxious about her husband, of whom they heard vaguely as "shouting drinks," to the electors, driving four-in-hand about the