allowance for dress in addition, as I shall wish to see you
suitably dressed for our position here. Let me hear how soon you can
come, and I will arrange that you shall be met at the station. Tell
Agatha I commend her for her prudence in refusing to let her money be
used for speculation. I hope it will be a lesson to Gwendoline in the
future. Her self-confidence needed to be shaken.

'Your affectionate cousin,
'JAMES DANE.'

Elfie read and re-read this through in a mist of tears.

'O God,' she murmured, 'anything but this! I cannot go. It would be
slow torture! Do Thou guide and direct me, and help me to decide; but
oh, if it is possible, do Thou open another door for me!'

Poor Elfie knew well enough that if she asked her sisters' advice, they
would be all agreed as to the impossibility of her accepting her
cousin's offer. She knew her Cousin Helen would not make her house a
happy or an easy home to live in, for she was a weak, nervously-strung
woman, with an irritable temper and an abject fear of her husband,
whose will was absolute law. And in the secret depths of Elfie's heart
there was a strong disinclination, even though she would not own it to
herself, to leave home at present. Though Alick Lester had not said
much to her, she knew well enough what his state of feelings were about
her; his frequent visits were becoming very pleasant to her, and to
leave it all, and perhaps never see him again, was hard to contemplate
calmly. He often talked to her of going abroad, and she feared he
might do so at once, were she gone. Yet, as she looked the matter
straight in the face, she could not but acknowledge to herself that she
had no right to refuse it.

'I will not live on Agatha's money; she would share her last crust with
any of us, but I am young and strong, and this has come when I am
looking out for employment. Many a girl would be thankful to have such
a home offered her. I must go and do my best, and I must decide
myself, without listening to the others. But oh, it will be a hard
life after our happy little home together here!'

The battle was won after she had knelt in prayer, and when she joined
her sisters again she was her sunny self.

But when she let them read the letter, they were all indignant at the
thought of it.

'I should think you would rather sweep a crossing than go!'

'To be a dependent on Cousin James, and a member of his household,
would be more than flesh and blood c