t."

"Then we will have the matter cleared up."

"How?"

"Myra shall go and see him, and ask him why he has treated her so
badly."

"But it will be such bad form."

"I don't care what it is! It would be much worse form for us to let the
poor thing take to her bed and die."

"But surely she is not so bad as that," whispered Guest, who felt moved
by the sob he heard in his companion's throat.

"Worse, worse," whispered Edie. "You don't see what I do. You don't
know what I do. Breaking hearts are all poets' nonsense, Percy, but
poor Myra is slowly wasting away from misery and unhappiness. Uncle
doesn't see it, but I know, and if something isn't done soon I shall
have no one left to love."

"Edie!"

"I mean like a sister. O Percy, I'd rather see her forgive him and
marry him, however wicked he has been, than live like this."

A few chords in a minor key floated through the drawing room, and Edie
shivered.

"Tell me," she said after a few minutes, "do you think he acted as he
did because he didn't love her--because he felt that he couldn't take a
woman who had been engaged to someone else?"

"I'm sure he loves her with all his heart, and I feel as certain that he
would not let such a thing stand in his way."

"Then I'm reckless," said Edie excitedly. "I don't care a bit what the
world may say. Myra shall go to him and see him."

"She would not."

"I'll make her, and if uncle kills me for it afterward, well, he must."

"I should like to catch him trying to," said Guest.

"No, no; I don't mean that. Then what do you think of my plan?" said
Edie. "You should come here to fetch us to some exhibition--to see
something; any evening would do. We could let them be together for a
little while and then bring them back."

"Capital!" said Guest; "only isn't that my plan, little one?"

"Oh, what does it matter which of us thought of it?"

"Not a bit," he said, pressing the hand that lay so near him; and a
little later on, with the understanding that if Myra would consent the
attempt should be made, Guest left the house.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

AT HER OWN HEART'S BIDDING.

Some time elapsed before the announcement that the consent had been won.

"She wanted to all the while," Edie said; "but her woman's dignity kept
her back."

The girl was quite right, and it was only in a fit of mad despair that
Myra had at last agreed in acknowledging the force of her cousin's
words.

"Percy says he thinks M