id and
successful wooing of Elsie. No grass grew under his feet this time, you
may be sure. He fell in love the very first evening, deeply and
heartily, and he lost no opportunity of letting Elsie know his
sentiments. There was no rival in his way at the High Valley or
elsewhere, and the result seemed to follow as a matter of course. They
were engaged when the party went back to Burnet, and married the
following spring, Mr. Dayton fitting up 47 with all manner of
sentimental and delightful appointments, and sending the bride and
bridegroom out in it,--as a wedding present, he said, but in truth the
car was a repository of wedding presents, for all the rugs and portieres
and silken curtains and brass plaques and pretty pottery with which it
was adorned, and the flower-stands and Japanese kakemonos, were to
disembark at St. Helen's and help to decorate Elsie's new home. All went
as was planned, and Clarence's life from that day to this had been, as
Clover mischievously told him, one paean of thanksgiving to her for
refusing him and opening the way to real happiness. Elsie suited him to
perfection. Everything she said and did and suggested was exactly to his
mind, and as for looks, Clover was dear and nice as could be, of course,
and pretty,--well, yes, people would undoubtedly consider her a pretty
little woman; but as for any comparison between the two sisters, it was
quite out of the question! Elsie had so decidedly the advantage in every
point, including that most important point of all, that she preferred
him to Geoff Templestowe and loved him as heartily as he loved her.
Happiness and satisfied affection had a wonderfully softening influence
on Clarence, but it was equally droll and delightful to Clover to see
how absolutely Elsie ruled, how the least indication of her least finger
availed to mould Clarence to her will,--Clarence, who had never yielded
easily to any one else in the whole course of his life!

So the double life flowed smoothly on in the High Valley, but not quite
so happily at Burnet, where Dr. Carr, bereft of four out of his six
children, was left to the companionship of the steady Dorry, and what he
was pleased to call "a highly precarious tenure of Miss Joanna." Miss
Joanna was a good deal more attractive than her father desired her to
be. He took gloomy views of the situation, was disposed to snub any
young man who seemed to be casting glances toward his last remaining
treasure, and finally announ