back to your work."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

"I suppose I must give them tea!" was Mrs Ramsden's comment upon
hearing of the visit which had been planned for the afternoon. Her
depression was broken by a struggling sense of elation, for it was not
every day that Madame deigned to accept hospitality from her neighbours.
She despatched a messenger to the confectioner's to purchase a pound of
plum cake, a muffin, and half a pound of macaroons, the invariable
preparations under such circumstances, and gave instructions that the
best silver and china should be brought out of their hiding-places, with
the finest tablecloth and d'oyleys. At three o'clock Elma discovered
her removing the covers from the drawing-room cushions, and folding them
neatly away in the chiffonnier. Something in the simple action touched
the girl, and broke down the hard wall of reserve which had risen
between her mother and herself during the past painful week. She
stretched out impulsive arms, and stooped her head to kiss the troubled
face.

"You funny little mother! What do cushions matter? Geoffrey will never
notice them, and Madame"--she hesitated, unwilling to hurt her mother's
feelings by hinting at Madame's opinion of the satin splendours so
carefully preserved from sight--"Madame won't care! ... She is not
coming to admire fancy-work!"

Mrs Ramsden lifted a flushed, tear-stained face to look at her daughter
standing before her, lovely and slender in the blue muslin gown which
had been Cornelia's gift. The daintiness of the dress, its unaccustomed
smartness and air of fashion, seemed at the moment a presage of the
threatened separation. At the sight, and the sound of the softened
voice, the tears streamed afresh, and she cried brokenly--

"Elma! Elma! My child! I beg you at the eleventh hour--think!
consider! remember all that I have striven to teach you! ... You have
prayed to resist temptation--what is the use of your prayers if they
don't avail you in your hour of need? Elma, I know it will be hard!
Don't think I shall not suffer with you--but if it is right. ... There
is no happiness, my child, if we depart from the right course!"

"I know it, mother," said Elma, calmly. "If you or Madame can convince
me that I should be doing wrong in marrying Geoffrey I will give him up!
I promise you that, and you must promise me in return that you will try
to see things from our point of view as well as your own. Remember,
it's