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So the evening passed on and bedtime came. Mrs. Ellerslie had retired

for the night, and the doctor was happily snoring in his chair. Deep silence had fallen over the two remaining wide-awakes, but at last Reginald said, 'a penny for your thoughts, if they are for sale!'

But they are not! And they were not about you, sir, I assure you !' answered Elsie, saucily.

'Oh, what a snub!' exclaimed Reginald, laughing, and so you won't tell me what they were about?'

'No,' answered Elsie, 'I will not, Mr. Inquisitive.'

Well, suppose I ask you another question? Look up, Elsie !' he said, as, rising, he came and stood before her and caught both her hands in his. 'Do you know, I sometimes think that my present happiness is too great to last. I don't know why I think so, but at times the fear comes over me that I shall wake up some morning and find it all a dream, gone and over forever. Tell me once again, Elsie, that you love me.'

This was putting it in hard words for Elsie to answer; she made a compromise.

'Why, Reg,' she said, 'your illness has unsettled you! I must tell auntie your brain needs nursing as well as your body! What a foolish boy

you are!'

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'I am yours, Reginald-yours only -now and forever, as long as life lasts!'

The next day Elsie would have given worlds, had they been her's, to recall those words and free herself from the solemn promise she had made. But Reginald bent and kissed her quickly and passionately as he said:

'I would sooner lose my life than you, Elsie, so you must not wonder if I like to feel secure of you. Good night, dear!' for she had taken up her work as if for departure.

The next morning Elsie went over to see Mrs. Thorold. The rupture between her and Clair had made no difference in her friendship with his mother. 'What if she did refuse our boy' the latter said to her husband, who felt rather sore at Elsie's rejection of his son, a girl's heart is her own to do as she pleases with, and if Clair did not suit her fancy, we have no right to blame the girl or shun her for it.' So when Elsie presented herself at the rectory that morning she received a hearty welcome from the kindly old lady, who wore a more than usually smiling face. She was sitting in the breakfast-room, with a child of above four summers on her knee-a flaxen-haired, blue-eyed little creature, who nestled still more closely in Mrs. Thorold's arms at Elsie's entrance.

'Good morning, Mrs. Thorold!' said the latter. I felt rather lowspirited to-day, and so came over for you to cheer me up.'

You are heartily welcome, dear,' replied the old lady; but whatever can you have to make you low-spirited? One would think you could have no troubles!'

'Well, I have not many. I suppose I am ungrateful for my blessings. But, Mrs. Thorold, who is this?'

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Ah, I have been waiting for you to ask that! This is my little grandchild, Elsie.'

'Your grand-child?' Elsie's heart almost stopped. Your grand-child?'

she repeated. Then Clair had been married all the time he had been paying his addresses to her. This was the explanation of that-but Elsie always stopped here.

'Yes, Elsie-my grand-child. Run away, little Dora, now; go and see Bridget and ask her to give you a piece of cake. She has my name, you see,' she continued, turning to Elsie as the little one ran off, delighted with her errand. O, Elsie, Elsie, God has given me more to day than I deserve! He has given back to me her whom I never expected to see again in this world. I will tell you the story, my dear, if you have time to spare to hear

it; but I did not want to speak before the child. Elsie, did you ever hear that I had a daughter Margaret?'

'A daughter?' Elsie drew a quick breath of relief. 'No' she said.

'But I had,' said Mrs. Thorold; 'she went away five years before you came to N-. In the summer of that year a family named Esmond came to the city. One member of it was a young man, handsome enough, perhaps, but rather too fast for old people's notions. At least, I thought him not good enough for my daughter. But, from the first, he paid her the greatest attention, and I saw that she returned his affection. Well, the end was that he proposed to her and was accepted, although Mr. Thorold had told him that he would not feel justified in giving his daughter into the keeping of one who led so irregular a life. Margaret cried and stormed when her father refused to consent to the marriage; but he was inexorable. This went on for some weeks, and then, one morning, I found a note on Margaret's dressing table, reading thus:-" Mother, this morning, when you get up, I shall be the wife of Arthur Esmond.

We shall be married at St. George's, and you and my father can see the registry there to satisfy yourselves that I am really married. Forgive me for acting thus but, mother, I cannot give up Arthur, and father will not let me

marry him at home. Ask him to forgive me; and don't forget your poor Margaret." Yes, she had run away, Elsie. Poor girl she was always high-spirited and impatient of restraint, and so when her affections were engaged she broke bonds altogether, and took her own way. She found it a hard way, Elsie, as all such do. You may be sure my heart felt sore enough for many a month after my daughter's departure, and I thought that Clair would be ill, he fretted so. We never heard anything of her until a year ago, and then Clair saw her. Poor boy, he came home in a state of great excitement. "Mother, father!" he said, "I have seen Margaret. She has lost her husband, and is very poor, with one little child, a girl. May I not tell her to come home? O, you don't know how she longs to see you both! Say yes, father! Say yes, O, do!" 66 Henry, you will let our child come home? You cannot refuse her now, all alone and friendless as she is?" I pleaded with my husband. But he was immovable. "She has chosen, she must abide by her choice," he said, and all further entreaties on our part were in vain. Even Clair was forbidden to see her, and though it almost broke his heart, he obeyed. He wrote to his sister and told her all, adding, that if it rested with him she should come home instantly, and tried in every way to comfort and cheer her. It was in this very city Clair saw her. He encountered her under the firs by the gate, where she had come to get one look at her old home. I said that this was a year ago; but last night she came back again. I found her and her child outside the door, which should never have closed but to close her in. A perishing wanderer, a homeless beggar on her own home's doorstep. I did not wait then for anyone's consent; I had her raised up and carried in and laid in her own old bed, with her child beside her. And little Dora is that child, and Margaret, my daughter, has come back to me.

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'I-I-I don't know whether I am not very strong now or not; I don't know what it was, Mrs. Thorold.'

'Poor child, I should not have told you that tale; you are not well this morning, and I see that I have added to your illness: Now you must stay to dinner with me, and then you may go home.'

'No, I cannot stay!' answered Elsie. I did not tell aunt that I was coming; she will not know where I am. I will go now, Mrs. Thorold; I am quite strong enough.' But her kind old friend would not let her go until she had recovered a little more from the effects of her faint. Then she tied on her hat, wrapped her up in a shawl besides her jacket, and went to the door with her, bidding her lie down directly she got home, and to take care of herself, or she would be ill. Elsie sped quickly on her homeward way, her haste and excitement conquering her weakness, and soon reached the Grange.

Reginald met her at the door.

Why, Elsie!' he cried, where have you been? Dinner is waiting, dear, and mother is growing anxious about you. But, Elsie, what is the matter? Your eyes are so wild-looking, and your cheeks so pale. Are you ill?'

'No; I am quite well. At least— O, don't tease me, Reginald!'

He was hurt and grieved by her tone, but he said nothing-only opened the door for her to pass into the house.

'Tell them to go on with dinner,' she said, as she was going up stairs. I will be down directly.' But she did not appear until the Dr. had left the table, and Mrs. Ellerslie was just going. Reginald had risen also, and was sitting in a chair by the window. Elsie sat down at the table, but in a few minutes she rose and left the room by the door leading into the drawing room.

Reginald looked after, and presently got up and followed her. Elsie,' he said, going up to her, as she stood by the window, looking out, or seeming to, Elsie, something has happened to trouble you-what is it? There ought to be confidence between us. Will you not tell me, Elsie ? What is it, dear?'

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he stood. He listened for a moment, and his suspicion was confirmed. He stepped forward and entered the room, the sound of his footsteps lost in the yielding carpet. By the table, her head buried in her hands, knelt Elsie. He stood in astonishment for a moment only, but in that instant he heard her say, between her sobs: 'O, Clair, Clair if I had but known this!'

Reginald's heart almost ceaesd to beat! No doubt of her meaning, no hope for himself came over him. The instant she had spoken he knew that all his fears and misgivings, as to the durability of his day-dream, were now realized--darkly, bitterly realized. He sat down on a chair close by and waited to recover sufficient calmness to enable him to speak. Then he rose and advanced towards his cousin.

'I

'I have heard it all, Elsie,' he said in a stern, grave voice-stern from the very effort to make it steady. do not blame you, but since I have heard so much, you must tell me the whole'.

With a quick cry of surprise the girl sprang up at the sound of his voice. 'O Reginald! what have I done?' she cried, cowering before his look, although there was no trace of harshness in it.

'Nothing; you did not know I was there. It was fate that brought me, I suppose. Elsie, you must tell me now what you heard yesterday. Whatever it is, it is making you miserable, and you won't tell me because you think it will pain me. I can guess that much, I want you to tell me the

rest.

Now Elsie, what is it?'

His tone was so quietly determined (though not in the least angry), that it checked Elsie's tears, but she made no answer. He stepped up quickly to her and caught her in his arms, holding her as if it were a last embrace, as if some one were trying to wrest his treasure from him. He bent his head until it was close to hers, as he said: Elsie, my darling, I am not

angry with you! It is for your own dear sake I ask you what I do. Tell me, where were you yesterday?'

'At the Thorold's,' answered the girl.

'And-and-?' Reginald could go no further.

'And what?' asked Elsie. 'And whom did you see?' 'Mrs. Thorold;' was the answer, spoken in almost a whisper.

'Only her, Elsie? Only her?'

The girl looked up with flashing eyes at him who thus questioned her. 'I would tell you,' she said, indignantly, if I had seen anyone else! Yet, O yes, there was a little grandchild of Mrs. Thorold's there.'

'A grandchild of Mrs. Thorold's, Elsie? Surely you are mistaken?' He loosed his arms in his surprise, and Elsie slipped out and stood before him.

'No, I am not,' she said, and then the whole tale came out, all that Mrs. Thorold had told her.

Reginald listened quietly to the end, then he said: 'I knew most of this before, Elsie, but what has it to do with you? Why does Margaret Esmond's history affect you so deeply?'

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'O Reginald, Reginald!' she cried, and she raised a face of quickened misery and regret to his; it was because I saw Clair Thorold speaking with his sister under the firs that I sent him away. I did not know he had a sister, and I heard her say :'O Clair you once loved me!' and Clair answered, and love you still, Meg.' I thought that all the time he had been deceiving me and was enengaged to this girl. I was so angry, that for the moment I almost hated him, but I hastened away from the spot, for I would not play the listener, and when he came two days afterwards, I sent him from me with angry words. And now I know why he seemed so surprised and grieved, though I would not listen to a word from him then. After all he was perfectly innocent, and I treated him so cruelly and all for nothing!'

Reginald's face had grown so white and stern whilst Elsie was speaking, that it would have frightened her had she been looking at him, but towards the last she had buried her face in her hands. She raised it quickly when he said, in a tone so unlike his own, that she could not believe it was he who spoke So you did like Clair Thorold, after all, Elsie?'

The girl did not answer, but Reginald took her silence as an affirmative. 'And you like him still, Elsie?'

He stood before her, his lips compressed with pain, his hat, which he had carried with him into the room, in one hand, and his eyes filled with a light Elsie had never seen there before. She could not answer him for very fear of the anger, which, in her humility, she thought she deserved. Instead, she sank upon a chair beside her, and burying her face in her hands burst into a fit of hysterical sobbing and weeping. Thus Reginald left her. Without a word, he turned and passed out of the room, let himself out of the front door, and pulling his hat low over his eyes, strode away down the path into the highway, and so on out into the open country, in the opposite direction to the city, and no one saw him again until tea-time. 'He had left the house,' Elsie said, in answer to her aunt's enquiry at the dinner-table, a few minutes before the bell rang, and had not come in since.'

Both her uncle and her aunt noticed the girl's pale face and excited manner, but neither made any remarkfor, inwardly, they both decided that she and Reginald had had some slight quarrel. All young people quarrel sometimes,' they thought, and this explained Reginald's absence as well as Elsie's excited manner. And so the girl was left unquestioned, for they'll make it up again directly,' thought the old folks. They never dreamt of anything serious being the matter.

That night Reginald sat down in his room and wrote a letter to Clair

Thorold. A long afternoon by him. self had led him to decide the course he must pursue, the only path that honour would allow. Elsie should never be bound to him whilst her heart was elsewhere. He understood it all now. It was out of pure pity

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and kindness for him that she had said, Yes, to him that day which seemed now so far away, although it was only three months ago. He was too noble to suspect his cousin of any meaner motive than this, and so he thought: 'She did that much for me, I owe it to her to make her this reward. Now I know, Elsie, why you cried, "O no!" when I asked you for your hand. O, if you had told me then it is so much harder to bear after three months of happiness.' His letter was only a short one. If you still love my cousin Elsie, Clair,' he wrote, come home and try your fortune once more. It was all a wretched mistake that parted you two; that mistake is now rectified, and I think if you come back you may be more successful than you were a year ago. Come quickly.' He folded it up, put it in an envelope and stamped it, and the next morning it was duly posted. Once convinced of the right path, he did not flinch from taking it. did he pause when he had turned the corner; he went straight on with unfaltering steps, each one of which placed a wider distance between him and the 'paradise on earth' he had lived in for three short months-each one of which led him nearer to—Ab, No! There was more trouble in store for Elsie than she ever dreamt of! When Reginald had left the house, in the impetuosity of his sudden pain and bitterness, he had forgotten all but thecrushing blow that had fallen on him. Wind, frost-and all consideration of the danger of exposing oneself to them without other protection than a hat could afford-were entirely forgotten, and in his rapid walk, occupied with his bitter, angry thoughts, he felt nothing to remind him of their

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