so cruel as to tear Elfreda away from such bliss,"
laughed Grace. The stout girl's predeliction for waffles was known to
all her intimate friends.

"How did you know my pet weakness?" Elfreda's round eyes grew rounder
with well-simulated surprise. "Did Grace tell you? Grace, I'm amazed to
think you would thus betray my fatal waffle hunger, even to Mrs. Gray."
Noting the old lady's increasing rise of good spirits, Elfreda purposely
pretended ignorance with a view of keeping up the sudden access of cheer
which Jean's visit had diffused.

"Don't you remember that morning you came to Wayne Hall for breakfast
and asked anxiously if there would be waffles?" teased Mrs. Gray. "It
was at the time Grace and I went to Overton to set Harlowe House to
rights."

"Oh, yes! So it was." Elfreda looked owlishly innocent. "That was the
time you got my waffle number. It seems a long while since then, doesn't
it, Grace?"

"Yes." An absent gleam flickered in Grace's eyes, causing Elfreda to
wish she had not asked the question. It was replaced almost instantly by
a glint of pure amusement. Memories of Overton invariably brought back
Emma Dean. Merely to think of Emma meant to smile. "I wonder what Emma's
doing to-night," she said irrelevantly. "She must be back at Overton by
this time, wrestling with the management of Harlowe House."

"We ought to make her a flying visit," proposed Elfreda, well pleased
with this sudden turn in the conversation.

"I'd love to see her," agreed Grace, "but----" She hesitated. "I
shouldn't care to go away from home now. After Jean goes north we are
likely to hear news almost any day. You see, I have pinned my faith on
his ability to accomplish miracles."

"Well, we can wait a week or so and see," declared Elfreda. "If things
stay just the same and we hear nothing of interest from him, we can
leave Overton on Saturday, spend Sunday with Emma and come back to
Oakdale on Monday."

"I think it would do you good to see Emma, Grace," approved Mrs. Gray
with a touch of her old decision. "We can do nothing but hope, pray and
wait. Your trip to New York to see Miriam married was on the whole
depressing. Emma will put new life into you. She's such a comical,
delightful girl. Now that our case is at last in competent hands, we
must make a special effort to be cheerful. I've failed sadly this summer
in practicing what I am preaching. Now I intend to try to make up for
it. But if I am to make good my promise to El