CHAPTER XXXVII.
BROKEN OFF.
Frank Hallett and Elsie met later in the morning. Lady Waveryng had prepared him for the meeting, and had told him the story which Ina had related to her of the misadventure of Elsie and Trant. This was how Lady Waveryng had put the affair. She affected to treat it as the most natural thing in the world, that the two should have lost themselves in the mountains. The only marvel was, she declared, that they had ever been found again. Trant had fallen against a rock, and had hurt himself. No doubt he had been making heroic efforts to carry Elsie back again. This accounted for their having been found quite near the Falls. They had taken refuge in a sort of cave. Elsie was very well, only terribly shaken in nerves, which could not be wondered at. Nor was it surprising that she shuddered at the thought of the whole affair, and could not bear to be asked about it, and Lady Waveryng concluded by begging Frank not to worry her at present with questions.
Lady Waveryng knew perfectly well that there was something behind, and Frank knew that she knew, and attributed her reserve to the fact of some disclosure of Elsie's feelings in regard to Blake. When he heard that Blake had found her, and that the two had ridden together through the night, he could well imagine that the pent-up emotion of both had found vent. He did not suspect Trant of having played a treacherous part. Lady Waveryng did, though it is fair to say that her suspicion was not based upon any revelations of either Elsie or of Ina, who indeed did not know, but upon her own notion of probabilities. Lady Waveryng had a faint regret that she did not know the exact details of what might have furnished a sensational episode for a chapter on Australian mountain scenery; and then she shuddered at the mere thought of describing in cold blood, for the delectation of a curious public, any scene that was connected with the tragedy of her brother's death. She broke down, and
