Page:Traits and Trials.pdf/285

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FRANCES BEAUMONT.
279

and Miss Elphinstone scarcely waited for the door to open before she led Fanny in. "I forgot to tell you that you were coming home," said her companion, for the next moment she was kneeling at her mother's feet, and Edith’s arms were about her neck! Tears, caresses, and blessings, filled up the first quarter of an hour; when a young man, who had hitherto been concealed in the window seat, came forward, and claimed a little notice.

Fanny at once recognised her cousin George Beaumont. He had discovered his relations that very morning, through a chance interview on business with Mr. Elphinstone.

The cottage where Mrs. Beaumont now lived had been Mr. Elphinstone's birth-day present to his daughter; and the object of their journey out of town had been to fetch Edith and her mother; a happier party never assembled than dined that day in the cottage parlour, for there Emmeline had insisted on dining. Edith could not satisfy herself with looking at her sister, she would not