"If I might do her hair," said Wyn, laughing, and throwing a look of such arch and friendly confidence towards Elaine that the shy girl smiled back at her with a sudden glow.
"Oh, you may do as you like with my hair, if the aunts will only let me sit to you!" she said, with eager change of feeling.
"Leave the aunts to me, Elsie—I'll manage them," said Mr. Fowler, reassuringly.
"To think that I must go home and lose all this interest and enjoyment," cried Lady Mabel, in some feigned, and a good deal of real regret.
"Why need you go, Mab?" asked Claud.
"Oh, my dear boy, I must! Edward is coming down to fetch me, and there are my darlings to see after. My holiday is over. But I shall comfort myself with hoping to have Elsa to stay with me when I am settled. Edward writes me word that we shall be obliged to have a house in town this winter—my husband has been so ill-advised as to get into Parliament," explained she to Mr. Fowler.
"Oh, yes; I remember hearing very gladly of his success," was the cordial response. "Also that his electioneering was most ably assisted by Lady Mabel Wynch-Frère, who was received with an ovation whenever she appeared in public."
He was bending over her as he spoke, handing her the strawberries, and she smiled up at him with sudden passion of Irish eyes.
"Any effort in the good cause," she said, with fervency.
"Exactly, in the good cause," he responded. "You may speak out—we are all friends here."