gone to look for you, and it seemed to relieve him. He had a feeling like me, that Mr. Blake would find you. But oh! Elsie, I never noticed before how pale you are—how different. My dear have you been wandering all this time—did you have food to eat? How did you lose yourself? Where is Mr. Trant?"
"He—he had an accident," Elsie said. "Shehan is with him. Don't ask me about him, Ina; try and keep them from asking too many questions. Some day I will tell you all about it, but not now. You're not fit for it, nor am I. The very thought of it makes me shudder."
"Did he lose you on purpose, then?" said Iua. "I hated that man. He wanted to marry you, Elsie. He loved you in a wrong way. Where were you all this time?"
"We were in a cave in the mountains. I was quite safe. We lost ourselves. Mr. Trant did not behave badly on the whole, Ina. It wasn't his fault, perhaps. Oh, is nothing anybody's fault?" she cried, and became hysterical with fatigue and excitement.
Lady Waveryng came in just at the right time, and forbore, at Ina's request, to worry Elsie with questions, but, like the tender practical lady she was, took Elsie to her room, and a bath and hot coffee, and Miss Briggs' ministrations, and then when she had seen that Elsie was all right, and had said a few reassuring words about Ina, and spoken with tears of Horace and her own love and regret for him, and intention that Ina should henceforth take his place in her heart, Lady Waveryng went to tell her lord the good news of Elsie's return, and to see that Frank Hallett was likewise informed.
Lady Waveryng was the stay of everybody in those days, shrewd, practical, dignified, and full of womanly sympathy, which she continued to manifest in the course of that miserable episode of Mrs. Allanby. Later on, when the way was smoothed for her return to social life, Mrs. Allanby had cause to bless "Em" Waveryng.
