thing that a young man should not be? Oh, no! it was
quite, quite impossible, all the more so that she longed, longed
intensely; longed from the very bottom of her heart, to accept!

Elma straightened herself in her chair, protesting, explaining,
thanking, and refusing in confused broken sentences, to which none of
her hearers paid the least attention. Mrs Greville and her son waived
objections aside with the easy certainty of victory, while Cornelia
cried briskly--

"You don't hev a choice! I undertook to bring you out, but I won't take
you back if I know it, until you ken sit behind a horse without going
off into hysterics every time he tosses his mane. Your mother'd be a
heap more scared to see you coming back looking like a death's head,
than to hear that you were comfortably located with a friend till you
pulled round. I guess there's nothing for you to do but to say `Thank
you,' as prettily as you know how, and settle down to be comfortable.
Why make a fuss?"

That last exhortation was decisive! Elma blushingly subsided into the
silence which gives consent, and was forthwith escorted to the room
which was to be given over to her use, there to rest quietly until it
should be time to dress for dinner.

"Unless she would like to go to bed at once. Do you think that would be
the better plan?" Madame asked Cornelia in a whispered aside, but that
young lady was quick to veto a retirement which would be so detrimental
to the progress of the "cure" which she had at heart.

"Why, no, indeed! To be left alone to worry herself ill, brooding over
the whole affair, is about the worst thing that could happen to her just
now. It was only a play-baby spill, but it seems the worst accident
that the world ever knew to her. She's got to be roused! I'll sit up
here and see that she rests quietly for an hour, and then I'll fix her
up for the evening, so she can lie on a sofa and listen while you talk.
I must get home by seven o'clock to soothe the old ladies. It would be
real sweet if you'd lend something to take me back! I'm afraid I ken't
walk all the way."

Madame laughed pleasantly.

"I wish we could keep you, too, but it would not be kind to Mrs Ramsden
to leave her with only a message to-night. I must hope to have the
pleasure another time. You American girls are so bright and amusing,
and I love to be amused. My son wishes me to have a companion, but a
well-conducted young woman who knew her place would