# Outlaw and Lawmaker/Chapter 23

CHAPTER XXIII.
A SURPRISING ANNOUNCEMENT.
Ina Gage was waiting anxiously for the re-appearance of Frank Hallett. Mrs. Valliant's uneasiness about Elsie had been quickly allayed. She had soon got into the fretful mood. Mrs. Valliant was one of those women in whom sweetness is apt to turn to a pettish sense of ill-usage. "There's never any calculating on Elsie's moods," she said to Ina. "She was quite well and happy when she got here. Something has gone wrong. Ina, you don't think it's possible that she has refused Lord Astar."
"I think it is very possible," said Ina; "and if she has refused him, and feels that you will be vexed, it is quite easy to understand why she went home."
"But why couldn't she have come to me, why go off in that extraordinary fashion with Frank Hallett? I am glad it was Frank Hallett, and not that Mr. Blake. Look here, Ina; if anything has gone wrong about Lord Astar, take my word for it that the fault is Mr. Blake's."
In other respects Mrs. Valliant was enjoying the ball. ​She liked the fine sight. Lady Waveryng had been particularly nice to her, and so had Lady Stukeley. Mrs. Valliant exulted in the discomfiture of Lady Garfit, to whom it was quite evident that the Waveryngs had not taken a fancy, and though her enjoyment was considerably marred by Elsie's departure, and though she suffered some qualms of doubt and disappointment thereat, especially as Lord Astar had taken no notice of her beyond the first greeting, she was of a hopeful nature and accustomed to vagaries on the part of Elsie, and trusted that all would come right in the end.
She was at supper when Frank returned. Ina, who had been one of the privileged guests at the royal table, had got out before the general company, and he met her as he was looking for her mother.
"Mamma is in the supper-room," said she. "Tell me about Elsie."
She saw at once signs of emotion and elation on Frank's face.
"Ina," he said, "you must congratulate me. She wished everyone to know. She said she wanted them to know tonight."
A strange look came into Ina's face, an odd far-away look. He thought, at first that she had not quite taken in his meaning.
"She has said that she will marry me," he said simply. Ina drew a deep breath, and a faint colour came into her cheek, which had been very pale.
"Oh, Frank! Then it is settled?"
"Yes, it is settled; as far as anything can be settled. I told her that she should be free to break it off at any time, if she felt that she did not care for me enough. She is still free, of course. But she says she does not wish that, and that her promise is a binding one. Will you tell Horace, and anyone else that you please?"
"And Lord Astar?"
"Lord Astar!" Frank exclaimed passionately. "I have to thank Lord Astar," he added with some bitterness, "for ​having brought this about. Don't talk to Elsie about Lord Astar. She does not wish it. The day after to-morrow—no, to-morrow, for it's morning now—he will have gone out of our lives—for ever, I hope."
There was a rush of people returning from the supper room. Ina turned—"There is mamma," she said. Mrs. Valliant was on Blake's arm. It struck Frank as odd that Blake should devote himself to Elsie's mother. He went towards her, and Mrs. Valliant turned with faded coquetry to Blake.
"Here is Mr. Hallett come to give me news of my naughty daughter." She made a step towards Hallett. "Did you leave Elsie? And will you help me to find our fly? though I don't know what to do. It is so awkward. You see we came with the Prydes, and they won't want to go yet. Minnie is living on in hopes that the Prince will ask her to dance, but he has danced with none of the girls except my Elsie; he has been devoting himself to Lady Waveryng, which is quite natural, of course."
"My trap is at your service," said Blake, "if you would like to go back to your daughter. I am very sorry Miss Valliant was not well. I hope she is better."
"Thank you," said Hallett, stiffly; "Miss Valliant was only tired. I have got a fly here and I will take you home," he said to Mrs. Valliant. "Shall we go and find Miss Pryde, and explain that we are going? I believe that I was engaged to her for the dance before supper. I must make my apologies."
Mrs. Valliant took his arm, and Blake went up to Lady Horace. As they walked through the ball-room, Hallett said—
"Mrs. Valliant, I have got some news for you. Elsie has promised to be my wife."
Mrs. Valliant turned on him a bewildered face. "Lord Astar!" she gasped. "Lord Astar had asked her to marry him. I expected to hear that everything was settled."
"Lord Astar did not ask Elsie to marry him," Frank said sternly. "He meant nothing more than idle flirtation, ​Mrs. Valliant; please don't speak to Elsie about Lord Astar. I have to beg this of you. She never cared for him. She wants to forget—to forget that she ever thought it possible for a moment that she could care——"
"I don't understand," said Mrs. Valliant, in a perplexed manner.
"Elsie and I understand each other," answered Frank. "We understood each other this summer on the Luya. I was only waiting—waiting till Elsie had made up her mind. And now she has made it up, she says, for good and all. There's nothing now but for you to say that you will give her to me. I am not afraid that you will say no. We talked of this before."
"Yes, we talked of this before," repeated Mrs. Valliant, still bewildered. "Of course I'm very glad, Mr. Hallett; Frank, I suppose I ought to say now. I am very glad that you care for Elsie and that she cares for you. She did not tell me there was any understanding between you—she rather let me think—but there, it's no use going back on what Elsie says—she will always go her own way, and she doesn't take me into her confidence. It's a little hard, considering that I'm her mother, and that I think of nothing but of her good. Ina was quite different, Ina always talked to me and told me things. I'm sure this evening when we started—if anyone had told me that Elsie would go back from the Government House ball engaged to you I should have laughed in their face. If it had been Mr. Blake I should have been less surprised. But it only shows——"
Mrs. Valliant stopped short, struck by the expression of Hallett's face. "I beg your pardon," she said humbly; "but you know Mr. Blake did pay Elsie a great deal of attention when he first came."
"And that is past," said Frank, decidedly; "and I know that the subject is almost as distasteful to Elsie as the subject of Lord Astar's attentions. Elsie has promised to be my wife, Mrs. Valliant. I mean to take care of her. I don't mean that she shall be vexed or worried by anything that it is in my power to shield her from. But never mind that. ​Won't you give me your blessing and accept me as your son, and tell Elsie when you see her to-night that you are glad?"
"Yes, I will," said Mrs. Valliant. "It's the best thing that could have happened. I won't talk about Mr. Blake or about Lord Astar to Elsie or anybody, but this I must say, that I am glad it's you, and not Blake. I never liked that man somehow, and I'm certain—as certain as I'm standing here—that he is fond of Elsie. I could see it this evening in the way he looked, and the way he talked."
Frank said nothing. This should have been poor comfort, and yet there was an odd pleasure in the hearing of it. He was better pleased that Blake should love Elsie, and should be disappointed, than that he should have been flirting with her merely for the gratification of his own vanity and the humiliation of hers.
They found the Prydes. Mrs. Valliant's excited manner told that something had happened. She was not proof against Minnie's eager whispered questioning.
"Is she engaged?" Minnie asked. "Oh, do, only just tell me that."
"Yes, she is engaged," answered Mrs. Valliant. "It's all quite sudden and unexpected though; I am sure I might have known it was coming months ago, but Elsie is so odd and so reserved. She might just as well have told me it was Frank Hallett, instead of letting me beat about the bush and getting herself so talked about with other people."
"Frank Hallett!" exclaimed Minnie, in genuine astonishment. "Well, I never thought it would come about like this. I thought there was something up with Lord Astar, though Daddy said it was nonsense, and that he'd never be allowed to marry a girl like Elsie. I beg your pardon, Mrs. Valliant, I don't mean of course that Elsie wasn't as good as any of them, but you know what I mean."
"No, I do not," said Mrs. Valliant, with dignity. "Lord Astar had serious intentions, I know for a fact. Why Elsie has refused him I cannot think. But of course, Elsie knows ​her own heart best, and if she has cared for Frank Hallett all this time——"
"Rubbish!" said Miss Pryde. "I know Elsie is not in love with Frank Hallett. Anyone could see that. If she is in love with anybody I should say it was with Mr. Blake—I am sure it seemed so in the beginning of the winter. But I think she is very wise, and I am sure I hope she will he happy."
Minnie Pryde was not slow in imparting her news to her partners, and amongst them to Blake.
"Yes, it is really true," she said. "Mrs. Valliant told me, and Mrs. Valliant as good as told me that Elsie had refused Lord Astar for Frank's sake. I don't believe it, do you?"
"I think Miss Valliant is quite capable of even that," said Blake. "When did the engagement take place? I am curious to know."
"This evening. He must have proposed in the cab on the way home. What can have made Elsie go away? There is something behind, I am certain; and I shall find it out to-morrow."
The news spread through the ball-room. "So your sister is engaged to that typical young Australian, Frank Hallett?" said Lady Waveryng, to Ina. "I'm glad of it, my dear, for I think she is a young lady who will be the better for settling down, and I meant to give you a little hint that it was not quite wise of her to flirt so desperately with Lord Astar."
"I'm sorry for Morres Blake," said Lord Waveryng later, "for I've a very shrewd suspicion that he was a good deal more gone than he cared to own on the beautiful Elsie. Well, she has done very well for herself. Old Stukeley tells me that young Hallett is a rising man, and very well off."
"My dear, you look dead," said Lady Waveryng, kindly, struck by her sister-in-law's paleness. "You ought to go home. Let Waveryng go and find Horace."
"Horace is in the supper-room," said Lord Waveryng, rather grimly. "Yes, I'll fetch him, with pleasure."
​"Ina," said Lady Waveryng, "I want to talk to you. I want you to let us come up with you to the Dell, as soon as the Prince has gone. You are too wildly dissipated, you Leichardtstonians, even for me. I don't think this life is healthy for Horace—too much larking round, driving four-in-hand, billiards at the club, and nipping and champagne suppers. Horry is so stupidly social and good-natured; it has always been his fault. I think he is a little disheartened about the Dell, isn't he? It hasn't paid as well as he thought. He was telling Waveryng that he wanted to take up more land and make a larger place of it; and that would give him more occupation, wouldn't it?"
"Yes," said Ina, faintly; "he wants more occupation."
"You don't keep him in order, my dear," Lady Waveryng went on. "That's what Horry always wanted. He ought to have married a martinet, not a sweet, docile, submissive little creature like you: you let him sit upon you too much. Did he tell you that I gave him a lecture the other night for leaving you so much alone?"
"No. But you mustn't, indeed, Lady Waveryng—Emily, I mean. Horace is very kind, and if I am sometimes alone, it is what I like. You mustn't ever scold Horace because of me. He is the best husband in the world."
"Well, I'm glad to hear it," said Lady Waveryng, putting up her eyeglass. "He has certainly got the best wife in the world. And what I want to tell you is that you must get him to go up to the Dell, and take us very soon. We haven't much longer to be here: and Waveryng is quite ready to do something, if he sees that the money is not going to be thrown away—Waveryng likes the idea of taking up land and founding a sort of estate; and we might come out again, you know, and see how you are getting on."
Ina expressed her gratitude. Presently Lord Waveryng came with Lord Horace, who was excited and full of Elsie's engagement. "I've been telling 'em in the supper-room," he said. "A capital fellow, Frank Hallett; the best fellow in the world! By Jove, Astar was hit, I can tell you! You should have seen his face! I shall chaff Elsie about it ​tomorrow. Look here, Ina, you can get over to Fermoy's all right," he said, as they went out after having said goodnight to the Waveryngs. "I'll put you in the fly, and then I'll go to the Club. I've promised some fellows to look in."
Ina made no protest. Lord Horace was surprised at her quietness.
"What has come to you?" he said. "You are like a death's head. I wish you would brighten up a bit. You make people think I ill-use you. Em gave me a talking to the other night for neglecting you. If you want to make yourself out a martyr, for heaven's sake don't try it on with my people. You won't get any good of that. Em is devoted to me. She always was."
"I am very glad," said Ina faintly. "I never complained, Horace. I want you to be happy in your own way. I am a little tired to-night, that's all. Em wants us to go back to the Dell, dear, and to take them with us, and I think we had better go."
"Waveryng means to fork up, I suppose," said Lord Horace, sulkily. "It's a little hard to drag a fellow up just when there's a chance of amusing oneself. But I suppose we had better go, and you can ask Elsie to come with us if you like. We'll get up a kangaroo hunt, or bush races, or something to amuse Waveryng."
So it was settled, and Ina rejoiced in the thought that for her the Leichardt's Town season would shortly come to an end. She was a brave little person, this poor Ina, and no one guessed that the fox was gnawing her under the cloak that she wore so decorously.
Mrs. Valliant had a few words with Elsie that night. What she had were not altogether satisfactory. The house was dark and Elsie had gone to bed when Mrs. Valliant and Frank stepped on to the verandah. It was Peter, the Kanaka, who told them that Miss Elsie was in her room. Frank went away, and Mrs. Valliant sought her daughter.
Elsie was lying awake, her tangled hair all about her pillow, and Mrs. Valliant fancied that she had been crying, her ​eyes looked so red and so bright. But she was now, at any rate, perfectly composed.
"I suppose Frank has told you," she said, as soon as her mother entered. "You were quite wrong, mamma," she went on in a hard tone, "it would have been much better if you had not advised me to wear Lord Astar's star. It only gave him the right to insult me."
"Elsie!" cried Mrs. Valliant. "How was I wrong? What do you mean?"
"You were wrong in thinking that Lord Astar could possibly wish to marry me. He only wanted me to run away with him. He made me understand quite clearly—I didn't at first—that marrying and running away with a girl were two different things."
"And you can tell me this—quietly like that!" cried Mrs. Valliant. "I'd have wanted to kill him."
"I think I did want to kill him," said Elsie, in a low voice.
Mrs. Valliant raged hysterically after the manner of a wild woman.
"Does he think that because you have no father or brother there is no one to call him to account? There is Horace. Horace shall know. Horace is as good as he is; and Ina has married into a great family. No one shall insult my daughter. I will go to-morrow to Government House. I will insist upon an explanation and an apology."
"No, mamma, you won't do anything. You will put the whole thing out of your mind, as I am going to do from this night. We brought it on ourselves, and I have deserved everything."
"And Frank Hallett knows?"
"Frank is a hero and a gentleman," cried Elsie. "There is no one like him in the world. I shall marry him, mamma, and I shall make him as good a wife as it is in my nature to be. I don't think I'm really bad. I think I can make him happy. That's all that matters."
"I think a great deal matters besides that," said Mrs. Valliant. She was in a tearful mood, and kissed Elsie, and ​talked about the trousseau, and about the difficulty of finding money for it, and the disadvantage to a girl of having no male relatives, all in the same breath. Then seeing that Elsie was moody and unresponsive, she stopped, picked up the finery which the girl had taken off, smoothed the ribbons, put the roses in water, and folded the gloves, and then came back to the bed. "Well, good-night," she said timidly. "I shall not call you to-morrow. I shall watch and bring you your breakfast when I know that you are awake."
She was moving away when Elsie impetuously stretched out her arms from the bed. "Good-night, mother; dear mother. We'll try to be better to each other, dear, than we have been; I'll try to be more like Ina."