e kindest thing you can do
for George now is to let him go without any more explanations.'

Ella stopped; again her mind became a blank. What had she come for; what
was it she felt she must say? While she hesitated, George was already at
the other door; he seemed anxious to avoid hearing her; in another
second he would be gone.

She cried to him piteously. 'George, dear George, don't leave me!... I
can't bear it!'

'This is too ridiculous!' exclaimed her mother angrily. 'What is it that
you _do_ want, Ella?'

'I want George,' she said simply. 'It was all a mistake, George. Flossie
mistook---- Oh, you don't really think that I have left off caring for
you? I haven't, dear, indeed I haven't--won't you believe me?'

'I had better leave you to come to an understanding together,' said Mrs.
Hylton, not in the best of tempers, for she had been more sorry for
George than for the rupture he came to announce, and she swept out of
the room with very perceptible annoyance.

* * * * *

'I thought it was all up with me, Ella; I did indeed,' said George, a
minute or two later, his face still pale after all this emotion. 'But
tell me--what's wrong with the furniture I ordered?'

'Nothing, dear, nothing,' she answered, blushing. 'Don't think about it
any more.'

'No? But your mother was talking about it too,' he insisted. 'Come,
Ella, dear, for heaven's sake let us have no more misunderstandings! I
see now what an ass I was not to wait and let you choose for yourself;
these aesthetic things are not in my line. But I'd no idea you'd care so
much!'

'But I don't now--a bit.'

'Well, I do, then. And the house must be done all over again, and
exactly as you would like it; so there's no more to be said about it,'
said George, without a trace of pique or wounded vanity.

'George, you are too good to me; I don't deserve it. And indeed you must
not--think of the expense!'

His face lengthened slightly; he knew well enough that the change would
cost him dear.

'I'll manage it somehow,' he declared stoutly.

Would her mother help them now? thought Ella, and felt more than
doubtful. No, in spite of her own wishes, she must not allow George to
carry out his intentions.

'But you forget Carrie and Jessie,' she said; 'we shall hurt their
feelings so if we change now.'

'By Jove! I forgot that,' he said. 'Yes, they won't like it--they meant
well, poor girls, and took a lot of trouble. Still, you're