my fault."

"Indeed no, darling! You are tender and forgiving as an angel! Oh,
Elsie, in all the world yours is the only true heart I have found."

She lay there and allowed him to speak those words; she suffered
terribly in her shallow, cowardly way, but she could not force her soul
to be courageous even then. In time her volatile nature might turn
determinedly from the dark tragedy. She probably would convince herself
that she was powerless; that, since it could do no good to grieve over
Elizabeth and her mournful fate, it was better that she should dismiss
all recollection of it from her mind, drown her regrets, enjoy such
pleasures as presented themselves, and build up a new world between her
and the past.

But as yet she could not do that; she was completely unnerved and
incapable of any resolution. She writhed there in pitiable pain and
caught at every straw for comfort.

"You won't forget your promise, Grant?"

"What, dear?"

"To send money--that she may live, you know."

"I will not forget, rest satisfied. I will attend to it this very day;
don't think about that any more."

"How can I help thinking? You might as well tell me not to breathe; I
must think!"

"The end has come; it can do no good to look back!"

Almost the very words Elizabeth had so many times repeated during those
last terrible days; the recollection went like a dagger to Elsie's soul.

It was a long time before she could be restored to anything like
composure; then Mellen forbade her to talk, fearing the consequences of
continued excitement.

"You can sleep, now, darling; you will be better in the morning."

"And you will take me away from here, Grant?"

"Yes, dear; whenever you like."

"I don't care about the place--the farther the better! I cannot stay in
this house--I should die here. But not to Europe--oh, you won't take me
to Europe?"

He only thought the sudden terror in her voice rose from a fear of the
voyage or some similar weakness.

"You shall choose, Elsie; just where you please. We will go to the West
Indies--as you say, the farther the better."

"Yes, Grant, yes."

"Now shut your eyes and go to sleep."

"You won't leave me," she pleaded.

"No; I shall stay near you all night."

"It is so dreadful," she went on, glancing wildly about the room; "I
should go mad to wake up and find myself alone."

"You shall not, dear; indeed you shall not."

She grew quiet then; after a little time he heard Victoria i