ek-end
boarders came and went, and the landlady had a pretty granddaughter,
there were strings of ardent admirers who came and went like the
weeks, and in all probability transferred their week-end affections as
frequently and with as great pleasure as they did their person, and
the old lady was too sensible to place any reliance in their
earnestness, while Dawn too was very level-headed in the matter. Thus
Ernest, if considered anything more than my friend, would have merely
been placed in the week-end category. The old lady, not feeling so
vigorous as usual, was anxious to have Dawn settled, and had tried to
put a spoke in "Dora" Eweword's wheel by threatening Dawn with
deprivation of her coveted singing lessons did she not receive him
favourably. Dawn in a fit of the blues, probably brought on by seeing
the announcement of Ernest's departure, had accepted Eweword
conditionally. The conditions were that he should wait two years and
keep the engagement entirely secret, and she had promised her grandma
that she would think of marriage with him at the end of that time,
provided her vocal studies should be continued till then.

"That's the way I'll keep grandma agreeable to pay for the lessons,
and in that time, do you think, I'll be able to go on the stage and do
what I like and be somebody?" asked the girl from out the depths of
her inexperience.

"And what of '_Dora_'?"

"He can go back to Dora Cowper then. I'll tell him I was only 'pulling
his leg,' like he said about her. It will do him good."

"You might break his heart," I said with mock compassion.

"Break his heart! _His_ heart! He's got the sort of heart to be
compensated by a good plate of roast-beef and plum-pudding--like a
good many more!"

"Will he consent to this?"

"He'll have to or do the other thing; he can please himself which. I
don't care a hang. He said that if I would marry him soon he would let
me continue the singing lessons and get me a lovely piano,--all the
soft-soap men always give a girl beforehand. I wonder did he think me
one of the folks who would swallow it? Couldn't I see as soon as I was
married all the privileges I would get would be to settle down and
drudge all the time till I was broken down and telling the same
hair-lifting tales against marriage as aired by every other married
woman one meets;" and Dawn, her cheeks flushed and her white teeth
gleaming between her pretty lips, looked the personification of
furious irritat