over the room, he did not speak.  Babie looked up from her work with an amused smile of infinite congratulation.  There was a glance from his mother.  Then, as Babie put it, the Prince saw the Sleeping Beauty, and, with a strange long half-strangled gasp and clasped hands, went down on one knee.  At that very moment Elvira stirred, opened her eyes, put her hand over them, bewildered, as if thinking herself dreaming, then with a sort of shriek of joy, flung herself towards him, as he held out his arms with “My darling.”

“O Allen, can you forgive me?  And oh! do marry me before they can come after me!”

So much Mother Carey and Babie heard before they could remove themselves from the scene, which they felt ought to be a tete-a-tete.  They shut the lovers in.  Babie said, “Undine has found a heart, at least,” and then they began to piece out the story by conjecture, and they then discovered how little they had really learnt about Janet.  They supposed that the Hermanns must be living and practising at Saratoga, and in that case it was no wonder she could not come home, the only strange thing was Elvira’s expecting it.  Besides, why had not Mrs. Gould taken alarm at the name, and why was her husband never mentioned?  Was there no message from her?  Most likely there was, in the note that was lost, and moreover, Elvira might be improved, but she was Elvira still, and had room for very little besides herself in her mind’s eye.

They must wait to examine her till these first raptures had subsided, and in the mean time Caroline wrote a telegram to go as early as possible to Mr. Wakefield.  It showed a guilty conscience that Mrs. Gould should not have telegraphed to him Elvira’s flight.

When at last Mrs. Brownlow held that the interview must come to an end, and with preliminary warning opened the door, there they were, with clasped hands, such as Elvira had never endured since she was a mere child!  Allen looking almost too blissful for this world, and Elvira with eyes glistening with tears as she cried, “O Mother Carey, you never told me how altered he was, I never knew how horrible I had been till I saw how ill he looks!  What can we do for him?”

“You are doing everything, my darling,” said Allen.

“He of course thinks her as irresponsible as if she had been hanging up by the hair all this time in a giant’s larder,” whispered Babie to Armine.

But Elvira was really unhappy about the worn, faded air that made Allen look much older than his twenty-nine years warranted.  The poor girl’s nerves proved to have been much disturbed; she besought Barbara to sleep with her, and was haunted by fears of pursuit and capture, and Gilbert claiming her after all.  She kept on starting, clutching at Babie, and requiring to be soothed till far on into the night, and then she slept so soundly that no one had the heart to wake her.  Indeed it was her first real peaceful repose since her flight had been planned, nor did she come down till half-past ten, just when Mr. Wakefield drove up to the door, and Jock had taken pity on Allen, and set forth to undertake Sir Samuel for the day.  Mr. Wakefield was the less surprised at the sight of the young lady, having been somewhat prepared by her telegraphic inquiry about Allen, which he had not communicated to the Brownlows for fear of raising false expectations.