diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15607-8.txt | 19031 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15607-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 403842 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15607-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 411800 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15607-h/15607-h.htm | 19190 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15607.txt | 19031 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15607.zip | bin | 0 -> 403784 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
9 files changed, 57268 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15607-8.txt b/15607-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05a6002 --- /dev/null +++ b/15607-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19031 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Family Pride, by Mary J. Holmes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Family Pride + Or, Purified by Suffering + +Author: Mary J. Holmes + +Release Date: April 12, 2005 [EBook #15607] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILY PRIDE *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Mary Meehan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + FAMILY PRIDE + + OR + + Purified by Suffering + + BY MARY J. HOLMES + +Author of "Dora Deane," "The English Orphans," "Homestead on the +Hillside," "Tempest and Sunshine," "Lena Rivers," "Meadowbrook," "Cousin +Maude," etc., etc. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE FARMHOUSE AT SILVERTON. + + +Uncle Ephraim Barlow, deacon of the orthodox church in Silverton, +Massachusetts, was an old-fashioned man, clinging to the old-time +customs of his fathers, and looking with but little toleration upon what +he termed the "new-fangled notions" of the present generation. Born and +reared amid the rocks and hills of the Bay State, his nature partook +largely of the nature of his surroundings, and he grew into manhood with +many a rough point adhering to his character, which, nevertheless, taken +as a whole, was, like the wild New England scenery, beautiful and grand. +None knew Uncle Ephraim Barlow but to respect him, and at the church +where he was a worshiper few would have been missed more than the tall, +muscular man, with the long, white hair, who Sunday after Sunday walked +slowly up the middle aisle to his accustomed seat before the altar, and +who regularly passed the contribution box, bowing involuntarily in token +of approbation when a neighbor's gift was larger than its wont, and +gravely dropping in his own ten cents--never more, never less--always +ten cents--his weekly offering, which he knew amounted in a year to just +five dollars and twenty cents. And still Uncle Ephraim was not stingy, +as the Silverton poor could testify, for many a load of wood and bag of +meal found entrance to the doors where cold and hunger would have +otherwise been, while to his minister he was literally a holder up of +the weary hands, and a comforter in the time of trouble. + +His helpmeet, Aunt Hannah, like that virtuous woman mentioned in the +Bible, was one "who seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with +her hands, who riseth while yet it is night, and giveth meat to her +household." Indeed, for this last stirring trait Aunt Hannah was rather +famous, especially on Monday mornings, when her washing was invariably +swinging on the line ready to greet the rising sun. + +Miss Betsy Barlow, too, the deacon's maiden sister, was a character in +her way, and was surely not one of those vain, frivolous females to whom +the Apostle Paul had reference when he condemned the plaiting of hair +and the wearing of gold and jewels. Quaint, queer and simple-hearted, +she had but little idea of any world this side of heaven, except the one +bounded by the "huckleberry" hills and the crystal waters of Fairy Pond, +which from the back door of the farmhouse were plainly seen, both in the +summer sunshine and when the intervening fields were covered with the +winter snow. + +The home of such a trio was, like themselves, ancient and unpretentious, +nearly one hundred years having elapsed since the solid foundation was +laid to a portion of the building. Unquestionably, it was the oldest +house in Silverton, for on the heavy, oaken door of what was called the +back room was still to be seen the mark of a bullet, left there by some +marauders who, during the Revolution, had encamped in that neighborhood. +George Washington, too, it was said, had once spent a night beneath its +roof, the deacon's mother pouring for him her Bohea tea and breaking her +home-made bread. Since that time several attempts had been made to +modernize the house. Lath and plaster had been put upon the rafters and +paper upon the walls, wooden latches had given place to iron, while in +the parlor, where Washington had slept, there was the extravagance of a +knob, a genuine porcelain knob, such, as Uncle Ephraim said, was only +fit for the gentry who could afford to be grand. For himself, he was +content to live as his father did; but young folks, he supposed, must in +some things have their way, and so when his pretty niece, who had lived +with him from childhood to the day of her marriage, came back to him a +widow, bringing her two fatherless children and a host of new ideas, he +good-humoredly suffered her to tear down some of his household idols +and replace them with her own. And thus it was that the farmhouse +gradually changed its appearance both outwardly and in, for young +womanhood which had but one glimpse of the outer world will not settle +down quietly amid fashions a century old. And Lucy Lennox, when she +returned to the farmhouse, was not quite the same as when she went away. +Indeed, Aunt Betsy in her guileless heart feared that she had actually +fallen from grace, imputing the fall wholly to Lucy's predilection for +a certain little book on whose back was written "Common Prayer," and at +which Aunt Betsy scarcely dared to look, lest she should be guilty of +the enormities practiced by the Romanists themselves. Clearer headed +than his sister, the deacon read the black-bound book, finding therein +much that was good, but wondering why, when folks promised to renounce +the pomps and vanities, they did not do so, instead of acting more stuck +up than ever. Inconsistency was the underlying strata of the whole +Episcopal Church, he said, and as Lucy, without taking any public step, +had still declared her preference for that church, he, too, in a +measure, charged her propensity for repairs to the same source with Aunt +Betsy; but, as he could really see no sin in what she did, he suffered +her in most things to have her way. But when she contemplated an attack +upon the huge chimney occupying the center of the building, he +interfered; for there was nothing he liked better than the bright fire +on the hearth when the evenings grew chilly and long, and the autumn +rain was falling upon the roof. The chimney should stand, he said; and +as no amount of coaxing could prevail on him to revoke his decision, the +chimney stood, and with it the three fireplaces, where, in the fall and +spring, were burned the twisted knots too bulky for the kitchen stove. +This was fourteen years ago, and in that lapse of time Lucy Lennox had +gradually fallen in with the family ways of living, and ceased to talk +of her cottage in Western New York, where her husband had died and where +were born her daughters, one of whom she was expecting home on the warm +July day when our story opens. + +Kate, or Katy Lennox, our heroine, had been for a year an inmate of +Canandaigua Seminary, whither she was sent at the expense of a distant +relative to whom her father had been guardian, and who, during her +infancy, had also had a home with Uncle Ephraim, her mother having +brought her with her when, after her husband's death, she returned to +Silverton. Dr. Morris Grant he was now, and he had just come home from a +three years' sojourn in Paris, and was living in his own handsome +dwelling across the fields toward Silverton village, and half a mile or +more from Uncle Ephraim's farmhouse. He had written from Paris, offering +to send his cousins, Helen and Kate, to any school their mother might +select, and as Canandaigua was her choice, they had both gone thither a +year ago, Helen, the eldest, falling sick within the first three months, +and returning home to Silverton, satisfied that the New England schools +were good enough for her. This was Helen; but Katy was different. Katy +was more susceptible of polish and refinement--so the mother thought; +and as she arranged and rearranged the little parlor, lingering longest +by the piano, Dr. Morris' gift, she drew bright pictures of her favorite +child, wondering how the plain farmhouse and its inmates would seem to +her after Canandaigua and all she must have seen during her weeks of +travel since the close of the summer term. And then she wondered next +why Cousin Morris was so much annoyed when told that Katy had accepted +an invitation to accompany Mrs. Woodhull and her party on a trip to +Montreal and Lake George, taking Boston on her homeward route. Surely +Katy's movements were nothing to him, unless--and the little, ambitious +mother struck at random a few notes of the soft-toned piano as she +thought how possible it was that the interest always manifested by the +staid, quiet Morris Grant for her light-hearted Kate was more than a +brotherly interest, such as he would naturally feel for the daughter of +one who had been to him a second father. But Katy was so much a child +when he went away to Paris that it could not be. She would sooner think +of the dark-haired Helen, who was older and more like him. + +"It's Helen, if anybody," she said aloud, just as a voice at the window +called out: "Please, Cousin Lucy, relieve me of these flowers. I brought +them over in honor of Katy's return." + +Blushing guiltily, Mrs. Lennox advanced to meet a tall, dark-looking +man, with a grave, pleasant face, which, when he smiled, was strangely +attractive, from the sudden lighting up of the hazel eyes and the +glitter of the white, even teeth disclosed so fully to view. + +"Oh, thank you, Morris! Kitty will like them, I am sure," Mrs. Lennox +said, taking from his hand a bouquet of the choice flowers which grew +only in the hothouse at Linwood. "Come in for a moment, please." + +"No, thank you," the doctor replied. "There is a case of rheumatism just +over the hill, and I must not be idle if I would retain the practice +given to me. Not that I make anything but good will as yet, for only the +Silverton poor dare trust their lives in my inexperienced hands. But I +can afford to wait," and with another flash of the hazel eyes Morris +walked away a pace or two, but, as if struck with some sudden thought, +turned back, and fanning his heated face with his leghorn hat, said, +hesitatingly: "By the way, Uncle Ephraim's last payment on the old mill +falls due to-morrow. Tell him, if he says anything in your presence, not +to mind unless it is perfectly convenient. He must be somewhat +straitened just now, as Katy's trip cannot have cost him a small sum." + +The clear, penetrating eyes were looking full at Mrs. Lennox, who for +a moment felt slightly piqued that Morris Grant should take so much +oversight of her uncle's affairs. It was natural, too, that he should, +she knew, for, widely different as were their tastes and positions in +life, there was a strong liking between the old man and the young, who, +from having lived nine years in the family, took a kindly interest in +everything pertaining to them. + +"Uncle Ephraim did not pay the bills," Mrs. Lennox faltered at last, +feeling intuitively how Morris' delicate sense of propriety would shrink +from her next communication. "Mrs. Woodhull wrote that the expense +should be nothing to me, and as she is fully able, and makes so much of +Katy, I did not think it wrong." + +"Lucy Lennox! I am astonished!" was all Morris could say, as the tinge +of wounded pride dyed his cheek. + +Kate was a connection--distant, it is true; but his blood was in her +veins, and his inborn pride shrank from receiving so much from +strangers, while he wondered at her mother, feeling more and more +convinced that what he had so long suspected was literally true. Mrs. +Lennox was weak, Mrs. Lennox was ambitious, and for the sake of +associating her daughter with people whom the world had placed above +her she would stoop to accept that upon which she had no claim. + +"Mrs. Woodhull was so urgent and so fond of Katy; and then, I thought it +well to give her the advantage of being with such people as compose that +party, the very first in Canandaigua, besides some from New York," Mrs. +Lennox began in self-defense, but Morris did not stop to hear more, and +hurried off a second time, while Mrs. Lennox looked after him, wondering +at the feeling which she called pride, and which she could not +understand. "If Katy can go with the Woodhulls and their set, I +certainly shall not prevent it," she thought, as she continued her +arrangement of the parlor, wishing so much that it was more like what +she remembered Mrs. Woodhull's to have been, fifteen years ago. + +Of course that lady had kept up with the times, and if her old house was +finer than anything Mrs. Lennox had ever seen, what must her new one be, +with all the modern improvements? and, leaning her head upon the mantel, +Mrs. Lennox thought how proud she would be could she live to see her +daughter in similar circumstances to the envied Mrs. Woodhull, at that +moment in the crowded car between Boston and Silverton, tired, hot, and +dusty, worn out, and as nearly cross as a fashionable lady can be. + +A call from Uncle Ephraim aroused her, and going out into the square +entry she tied his gingham cravat, and then handing him the big +umbrella, an appendage he took with him in sunshine and in storm, she +watched him as he stepped into his one-horse wagon and drove briskly +away in the direction of the depot, where he was to meet his niece. + +"I wish Cousin Morris had offered his carriage," she thought, as the +corn-colored and white wagon disappeared from view. "The train stops +five minutes at West Silverton, and some of those grand people will be +likely to see the turnout," and with a sigh as she doubted whether it +were not a disgrace as well as an inconvenience to be poor, she repaired +to the kitchen, where sundry savory smells betokened a plentiful dinner. + +Bending over the sink, with her cap strings tucked back, her sleeves +rolled up, and her short, purple calico shielded from harm by her broad, +motherly check apron, Aunt Betsy stood cleaning the silvery onions, and +occasionally wiping her dim old eyes as the odor proved too strong for +her. At another table stood Aunt Hannah, deep in the mysteries of the +light, white crust which was to cover the tender chicken boiling in the +pot, while in the oven bubbled and baked the custard pie, remembered +as Katy's favorite, and prepared for her coming by Helen +herself--plain-spoken, blue-eyed Helen--now out in the strawberry beds, +picking the few luscious berries which almost by a miracle had been +coaxed to wait for Katy, who loved them so dearly. Like her mother, +Helen had wondered how the change would impress her bright little +sister, for she remembered well that even to her obtuse perceptions +there had come a pang when, after only three months abiding in a place +where the etiquette of life was rigidly enforced, she had returned to +their homely ways, and felt that it was worse than vain to try to effect +a change. But Helen's strong sense, with the help of two or three good +cries, had carried her safely through, and her humble home amid the +hills was very dear to her now. But she was Helen, as the mother had +said; she was different from Katy, who might be lonely and homesick, +sobbing herself to sleep in her patient sister's arms, as she did on +that first night in Canandaigua, which Helen remembered so well. + +"It's better, too, now, than when I came home," Helen thought, as with +her rich, scarlet fruit she went slowly to the house. "Morris is here, +and the new church, and if she likes she can teach in Sunday school, +though maybe she will prefer going with Uncle Ephraim. He will be +pleased if she does," and, pausing by the door, Helen looked across +Fairy Pond in the direction of Silverton village, where the top of a +slender spire was just visible--the spire of St. John's, built within +the year, and mostly, as it was whispered, at the expense of Dr. Morris +Grant, who, a zealous churchman himself, had labored successfully to +instill into Helen's mind some of his own peculiar views, as well as to +awaken in Mrs. Lennox's heart the professions which had lain dormant for +as long a time as the little black-bound book had lain on the cupboard +shelf, forgotten and unread. + +How the doctor's views were regarded by the deacon's family we shall +see, perhaps, by and by. At present our story has to do with Helen, +holding her bowl of berries by the rear door and looking across the +distant fields. With one last glance at the object of her thoughts she +re-entered the house, where her mother was arranging the square table +for dinner, bringing out the white stone china instead of the mulberry +set kept for everyday use. + +"We ought to have had some silver forks before Katy came home," she +said, despondingly, as she laid by each plate the three-lined forks of +steel, to pay for which Helen and Katy had picked huckleberries on the +hills and dried apples from the orchard. + +"Never mind, mother," Helen answered, cheerily; "if Katy is as she used +to be, she will care more for us than for silver forks, and I guess she +is, for I imagine it would take a great deal to make her anything but a +warmhearted, merry little creature." + +This was sensible Helen's tribute of affection to the little, gay, +chattering butterfly, at that moment an occupant of Uncle Ephraim's +corn-colored wagon, and riding with that worthy toward home, throwing +kisses to every barefoot boy and girl she met, and screaming with +delight as the old familiar waymarks met her view. + +"There are the oxen, the darling oxen, and that's Aunt Betsy, with her +dress pinned up as usual," she cried, when at last the wagon stopped +before the door; and the four women stepped hurriedly out to meet her, +almost smothering her with caresses, and then holding her off to see if +she had changed. + +She was very stylish in her pretty traveling dress of gray, made under +Mrs. Woodhull's supervision, and nothing could be more becoming than her +jaunty hat, tied with ribbons of blue, while the dainty kids, bought to +match the dress, fitted her fat hands charmingly, and the little +high-heeled boots of soft prunella were faultless in their style. She +was very attractive in her personal appearance, and the mental verdict +of the four females regarding her intently was something as follows: +Mrs. Lennox detected unmistakable marks of the grand society she had +been mingling in, and was pleased accordingly; Aunt Hannah pronounced +her "the prettiest creeter she had ever seen;" Aunt Betsy decided that +her hoops were too big and her clothes too fine for a Barlow; while +Helen, who looked beyond dress, or style, or manner, straight into her +sister's soft, blue eyes, brimming with love and tears, decided that +Katy was not changed for the worse. Nor was she. Truthful, loving, +simple-hearted and full of playful life she had gone from home, and she +came back the same--never once thinking of the difference between the +farmhouse and Mrs. Woodhull's palace, or if she did, giving the +preference to the former. + +"It was perfectly splendid to get home," she said, handing her gloves +to Helen, her sunshade to her mother, her satchel to Aunt Hannah, and +tossing her bonnet in the vicinity of the water pail--from which it was +saved by Aunt Betsy, who, remembering the ways of her favorite child, +put it carefully in the press, examining it closely first and wondering +how much it cost. + +Deciding that "it was a good thumpin' price," she returned to the +kitchen, where Katy, dancing and curveting in circles, scarcely stood +still long enough for them to see that in spite of boarding school fare, +of which she had complained so bitterly, her cheeks were rounded, her +eyes brighter, and her lithe little figure fuller than of old. She had +improved in looks, but she did not appear to know it, or to guess how +beautiful she was in the fresh bloom of seventeen, with her golden hair +waving around her childish forehead, and her deep, blue eyes laughing so +expressively with each change of her constantly varying face. Everything +animate and inanimate pertaining to the old house was noticed by her. +She kissed the kitten, squeezed the cat, hugged the dog, and hugged the +little goat, tied to his post in the clover yard and trying so hard to +get free. The horse, to whom she fed handfuls of grass, had been already +hugged. She did that the first thing after strangling Uncle Ephraim as +she alighted from the train, and some from the car window saw it, too, +smiling at what they termed the charming simplicity of an enthusiastic +schoolgirl. Blessed youth! blessed early girlhood, surrounded by a halo +of rare beauty! It was Katy's shield and buckler, warding off many a +cold criticism which might otherwise have been passed upon her. + +They were sitting down to dinner now, and the deacon's voice trembled +as, with the blessing invoked, he thanked God for bringing back to them +the little girl, whose head was for a moment bent reverently, but +quickly lifted itself up as its owner, in the same breath with that in +which the deacon uttered his amen, declared how hungry she was, and went +into rhapsodies over the nicely cooked viands which loaded the table. +The best bits were hers that day, and she refused nothing until it came +to Aunt Betsy's onions, once her special delight, but now declined, +greatly to the distress of the old lady, who, having been on the watch +for "quirks," as she styled any departure from long-established customs, +now knew she had found one, and with an injured expression withdrew the +offered bowl, saying sadly: "You used to eat 'em raw, Catherine; what's +got into you?" + +It was the first time Aunt Betsy had called a name so obnoxious to Kate, +especially when, as in the present case, great emphasis was laid upon +the "rine," and from past experience Katy knew that her good aunt was +displeased. Her first impulse was to accept the dish refused; but when +she remembered her reason for refusing, she said, laughingly: "Excuse +me, Aunt Betsy, I love them still, but--but--well, the fact is, I am +going by and by to run over and see Cousin Morris, inasmuch as he was +not polite enough to come here, and you know it might not be so +pleasant." + +"The land!" and Aunt Betsy brightened. "If that's all, eat 'em. 'Tain't +noways likely you'll get near enough to him to make any difference--only +turn your head when you shake hands." + +But Katy remained incorrigible, while Helen, who guessed that her +impulsive sister was contemplating a warmer greeting of the doctor than +a mere shaking of his hands, kindly turned the conversation by telling +how Morris was improved by his tour abroad, and how much the poor people +thought of him. + +"He is very fine looking, too," she said, whereupon Katy involuntarily +exclaimed: "I wonder if he is as handsome as Wilford Cameron? Oh, I +never wrote about him, did I?" and the little maiden began to blush as +she stirred her tea industriously. + +"Who is Wilford Cameron?" asked Mrs. Lennox. + +"Oh, he's Wilford Cameron, that's all; lives on Fifth Avenue--is a +lawyer--is very rich--a friend of Mrs. Woodhull, and was with us in +our travels," Katy answered, rapidly, the red burning on her cheeks so +brightly that Aunt Betsy innocently passed her a big feather fan, saying +she looked mighty hot. + +And Katy was warm, but whether from talking of Wilford Cameron or not +none could tell. She said no more of him, but went on to speak of +Morris, asking if it were true, as she had heard, that he built the +new church in Silverton. + +"Yes, and runs it, too," Aunt Betsy answered, energetically, proceeding +to tell what goin's-on they had, with the minister shiftin' his clothes +every now and ag'in, and the folks all talkin' together. "Morris got me +in once," she said, "and I thought meetin' was left out half a dozen +times, so much histin' round as there was. I'd as soon go to a show, if +it was a good one, and I told Morris so. He laughed and said I'd feel +different when I knew 'em better; but needn't tell me that prayers made +up is as good as them as isn't, though Morris, I do believe, will get to +heaven a long ways ahead of me, if he is a 'Piscopal." + +To this there was no response, and being launched on her favorite topic, +Aunt Betsy continued: + +"If you'll believe it, Helen here is one of 'em, and has got a sight +of 'Piscopal quirks into her head. Why, she and Morris sing that +talkin'-like singin' Sundays when the folks git up and Helen plays the +accordeon." + +"Melodeon, aunty, melodeon," and Helen laughed merrily at her aunt's +mistake, turning the conversation again, and this time to Canandaigua, +where she had some acquaintances. + +But Katy was so much afraid of Canandaigua, and what talking of it might +lead to, that she kept to Cousin Morris, asking innumerable questions +about him, his house and grounds, and whether there were as many +flowers there now as there used to be in the days when she and Helen +went to say their lessons at Linwood, as they had done before Morris +sailed for Europe. + +"I think it right mean in him not to be here to see me," she said, +poutingly, "and I am going over as quick as I eat my dinner." + +But against this all exclaimed at once. She was too tired, the mother +said. She must lie down and rest, while Helen suggested that she had not +yet told them about her trip, and Uncle Ephraim remarked that she would +not find Morris home, as he was going that afternoon to Spencer. This +last settled it. Katy must stay at home; but instead of lying down or +talking much about her journey, she explored every nook and crevice of +the old house and barn, finding the nest Aunt Betsy had so long looked +for in vain, and proving to the anxious dame that she was right when she +insisted that the speckled hen had stolen her nest and was in the act of +setting. Later in the day, and a neighbor passing by spied the little +maiden riding in the cart off into the meadow, where she sported like a +child among the mounds of fragrant hay, playing her jokes upon the sober +deacon, who smiled fondly upon her, feeling how much lighter the labor +seemed because she was there with him, a hindrance instead of a help, in +spite of her efforts to handle the rake skillfully. + +"Are you glad to have me home again, Uncle Eph?" she asked, when once +she caught him regarding her with a peculiar look. + +"Yes, Katy-did, very glad," he answered. "I've missed you every day, +though you do nothing much but bother me." + +"Why did you look funny at me just now?" Katy continued, and the deacon +replied: "I was thinking how hard it would be for such a highty-tighty +thing as you to meet the crosses and disappointments which lie all along +the road which you must travel. I should hate to see your young life +crushed out of you, as young lives sometimes are." + +"Oh, never fear for me. I am going to be happy all my life long. Wilford +Cameron said I ought to be," and Katy tossed into the air a wisp of the +new-made hay. + +"I don't know who Wilford Cameron is, but there's no ought about it," +the deacon rejoined. "God marks out the path for us to walk in, and when +he says it's best, we know it is, though some are straight and pleasant +and others crooked and hard." + +"I'll choose the straight and pleasant, then--why shouldn't I?" Kate +asked, laughingly, as she seated herself upon a rock near which the hay +cart had stopped. + +"Can't tell what path you'll take," the deacon answered. "God knows +whether you'll go easy through the world, or whether he'll send you +suffering to purify and make you better." + +"Purified by suffering," Kate said aloud, while a shadow involuntarily +crept for an instant over her gay spirits. + +She could not believe she was to be purified by suffering. She had never +done anything very bad, and humming a part of a song learned from +Wilford Cameron, she followed after the loaded cart, returning slowly to +the house, thinking to herself that there must be something great and +good in the suffering which should purify at last, but hoping she was +not the one to whom this great good should come. + +It was supper time ere long, and after that was over Kate announced her +intention of going now to Linwood, Morris' home, whether he were there +or not. + +"I can see the housekeeper and the birds and flowers, and maybe he will +come pretty soon," she said, as she swung her straw hat by the string +and started from the door. + +"Ain't Helen going with you?" Aunt Hannah asked, while Helen herself +looked a little surprised. + +But Katy would rather go alone. She had a heap to tell Cousin Morris, +and Helen could go next time. + +"Just as you like;" Helen answered, good-naturedly; but there was a +half-dissatisfied, wistful look on her face as she watched her young +sister tripping across the fields to call on Morris Grant. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LINWOOD. + + +Morris had returned from Spencer, and in his dressing-gown and slippers +was sitting by the window of his cheerful library, looking out upon the +purple sunshine flooding the western sky, and thinking of the little +girl coming so rapidly up the grassy lane in the rear of the house. He +was going over to see her by and by, he said, and he pictured to himself +how she must look by this time, hoping that he should not find her +greatly changed, for Morris Grant's memories were very precious of the +playful child who, in that very room where he was sitting, used to tease +and worry him so much with her lessons poorly learned, and the +never-ending jokes played off upon her teacher. He had thought of her so +often when across the sea, and, knowing her love of the beautiful, he +had never looked upon a painting or scene of rare beauty that he did not +wish her by his side sharing in the pleasure. He had brought her from +that far-off land many little trophies which he thought she would prize, +and which he was going to take with him when he went to the farmhouse. +He never dreamed of her coming there to-night. She would, of course, +wait for him. Helen had, even when it was more her place to call upon +him first. How, then, was he amazed when, just as the sun was going down +and he was watching its last rays lingering on the brow of the hill +across the pond, the library door was opened wide and the room seemed +suddenly filled with life and joy, as a graceful figure, with reddish, +golden hair, bounded across the floor, and winding its arms around his +neck gave him the hearty kiss which Katy had in her mind when she +declined Aunt Betsy's favorite vegetable. + +Morris Grant was not averse to being kissed, and yet the fact that Katy +Lennox had kissed him in such a way awoke a chill of disappointment, for +it said that to her he was the teacher still, the elder brother, whom, +as a child, she had in her pretty way loaded with caresses. + +"Oh, Cousin Morris!" she exclaimed, and, still holding his hand: "Why +didn't you come over at noon, you naughty, naughty boy? But what a +splendid-looking man you've got to be, though! and what do you think of +me?" she added, blushing for the first time, as he held her off from him +and looked into the sunny face. + +"I think you wholly unchanged," he answered, so gravely that Katy began +to pout as she said: "And you are sorry, I know. Pray, what did you +expect of me, and what would you have me be?" + +"Nothing but what you are--the same Kitty as of old," he answered, his +own bright smile breaking all over his sober face. + +He saw that his manner repelled her, and he tried to be natural, +succeeding so well that Katy forgot her first disappointment, and making +him sit by her on the sofa, where she could see him distinctly, she +poured forth a volley of talk, telling him, among other things, how much +afraid of him some of his letters made her--they were so serious and so +like a sermon. + +"You wrote me once that you thought of being a minister," she added. +"Why did you change your mind? It must be splendid, I think, to be a +young clergyman--invited to so many tea-drinkings, and having all the +girls in the parish after you, as they always are after unmarried +ministers." + +Into Morris Grant's eyes there stole a troubled light as he thought how +little Katy realized what it was to be a minister of God--to point the +people heavenward and teach them the right way. There was a moment's +pause, and then he tried to explain to her that he hoped he had not been +influenced either by thought of tea-drinking or having the parish girls +after him, but rather by an honest desire to choose the sphere in which +he could accomplish the most good. + +"I did not decide rashly," he said, "but after weeks of anxious thought +and prayer for guidance I came to the conclusion that in the practice of +medicine I could find perhaps as broad a field for good as in the +church, and so I decided to go on with my profession--to be a physician +of the poor and suffering, speaking to them of Him who came to save, and +in this way I shall not labor in vain. Many would seek another place +than Silverton and its vicinity, but something told me that my work was +here, and so I am content to stay, feeling thankful that my means admit +of my waiting for patients, if need be, and at the same time ministering +to the wants of those who are needy." + +Gradually, as he talked, there came into his face a light, born only +from the peace which passeth understanding, and the awe-struck Katy +crept closer to his side, and, grasping his hand in hers, said, softly: +"Dear cousin, what a good man you are, and how silly I must seem to you, +thinking you cared for tea-drinkings, or even girls, when, of course, +you do not." + +"Perhaps I do," the doctor replied, slightly pressing the warm, fat hand +holding his so fast. "A minister's or a doctor's life would be dreary +indeed if there was no one to share it, and I have had my dreams of the +girls, or girl, who was some day to brighten up my home." + +He looked fully at Katy now, but she was thinking of something else, and +her next remark was to ask him, rather abruptly, how old he was. + +"Twenty-six last May," he answered, while Katy continued: "You are not +old enough to be married yet. Wilford Cameron is thirty." + +"Where did you meet Wilford Cameron?" Morris asked, in some surprise, +and then the story which Katy had not told, even to her sister, came out +in full, and Morris tried to listen patiently while Katy explained how, +on the very first day of the examination, Mrs. Woodhull had come in, and +with her the grandest, proudest-looking man, who the girls some of them +said was Mr. Wilford Cameron, from New York, a very fastidious bachelor, +whose family were noted for their wealth and exclusiveness, keeping six +servants, and living in the finest style; that Mrs. Woodhull, who all +through the year had been very kind to Katy, came to her after school +and invited her home to tea; that she had gone, and met Mr. Cameron; +that she was very much afraid of him at first, and was not sure that she +was quite over it now, although he was so polite to her all through the +journey, taking so much pains to have her see the finest sights, and +laughing at her enthusiasm. + +"Wilford Cameron with you on your trip?" Morris asked, a new idea, +dawning on his mind. + +"Yes; let me tell you," and Katy spoke rapidly. "I saw him that night, +and then Mrs. Woodhull took me to ride with him in the carriage, and +then--well, I rode alone with him once down by the lake, and he talked +to me just as if he was not a grand man and I a little schoolgirl. And +when the term closed I stayed at Mrs. Woodhull's, and he was there. He +liked my playing and liked my singing, and I guess he liked me--that is, +you know--yes, he liked me some," and Katy twisted the fringe of her +shawl, while Morris, in spite of the pain tugging at his heart-strings, +laughed aloud as he rejoined: "I have no doubt he did; but go on--what +next?" + +"He said more about my joining that party than anybody, and I am very +sure he paid the bills." + +"Oh, Katy," and Morris started as if he had been stung. "I would rather +have given Linwood than have you thus indebted to Wilford Cameron or any +other man." + +"I could not well help it. I did not mean any harm," Katy said, timidly, +for at first she had shrunk from the proposition, but Mrs. Woodhull +seemed to think it right, urging it on until she had consented, and so +she said to Morris, explaining how kind Mr. Cameron was, and how careful +not to remind her of her indebtedness to him, attending to and +anticipating every want as if she had been his sister. + +"You would like Mr. Cameron, Cousin Morris. He made me think of you a +little, only he is prouder," and Katy's hand moved up Morris' coat +sleeve till it rested on his shoulder. + +"Perhaps so," Morris answered, feeling a growing resentment toward one +who, it seemed to him, had done him some great wrong. + +But Wilford was not to blame, he reflected. He could not well help +liking the bright little Katy--some; and so, conquering all ungenerous +feelings, he turned to her at last and said: + +"Did my little Cousin Kitty like Wilford Cameron?" + +Something in Morris' voice startled Katy strangely; her hand came down +from his shoulder, and for an instant there swept over her an emotion +similar to what she had felt when with Wilford Cameron she rambled +along the shores of Lake George, or sat alone with him on the deck of +the steamer which carried them down Lake Champlain. But Morris had +always been her brother, and she did not guess how hard it was for him +to keep from telling her then that she was more to him than a sister. +Had he told her, this story, perhaps, had not been written; but he kept +silence, and so it is ours to record how Katy answered frankly at last: +"I guess I did like him a little. I could not help it, Morris. You could +not, either, or any one. I believe Mrs. Woodhull was more than half in +love with him, and she is an old woman compared with me. By the way, +what did she mean by introducing me to him as the daughter of Judge +Lennox? I meant to have asked her, but forgot it afterward. Was father +ever a judge?" + +"Not properly," Morris replied. "He was justice of the peace in +Bloomfield, where you were born, and for one year held the office of +side or associate judge, that's all. Few ever gave him that title, and +I wonder at Mrs. Woodhull. Possibly she fancied Mr. Cameron would think +better of you if he supposed you the daughter of a judge." + +"That may be, though I do not believe he would, do you?" + +Morris did not say what he thought, but quietly remarked, instead: "I +know those Camerons." + +"What! Wilford! You don't know Wilford?" Katy almost screamed, and +Morris replied: "Not Wilford, no; but the mother and the sisters were +last year in Paris, and I met them many times." + +"What were they doing in Paris?" Katy asked, and Morris replied that he +believed the immediate object of their being there was to obtain the +best medical advice for a little orphan grandchild, a bright, beautiful +boy, to whom some terrible accident had happened in infancy, preventing +his walking entirely, and making him nearly helpless. His name was +Jamie, Morris said, and as he saw that Katy was interested, he told her +how sweet-tempered the little fellow was, how patient under suffering, +and how eagerly he listened when Morris, who at one time attended him, +told him of the Savior and His love for little children. + +"Did he get well?" Katy asked, her eyes filling with tears at the +picture Morris drew of Jamie Cameron, sitting all day long in his wheel +chair, and trying to comfort his grandmother's distress when the +torturing instruments for straightening his poor back were applied. + +"No, he will always be a cripple, till God takes him to Himself," Morris +said, and then Katy asked about the mother and sisters--were they proud, +and did he like them much? + +"They were very proud," Morris said; "but they were always civil to me," +and Katy, had she been watching, might have seen a slight flush on his +cheek as he told her of the stately woman, Wilford's mother, of the +haughty Juno, a beauty and a belle, and lastly of Arabella, whom the +family nicknamed Bluebell, from her excessive fondness for books, a +fondness which made her affect a contempt for the fashionable life her +mother and sister led. + +It was very evident that neither of the young ladies were wholly to +Morris' taste, but of the two he preferred the Bluebell, for though very +imperious and self-willed, she really had some heart, some principle, +while Juno had none. This was Morris' opinion, and it disturbed the +little Katy, as was very perceptible from the nervous tapping of her +foot upon the carpet and the working of her hands. + +"How would I appear by the side of those ladies?" she suddenly asked, +her countenance changing as Morris replied that it was almost impossible +to think of her as associated with the Camerons, she was so wholly +unlike them in every respect. + +"I don't believe I shocked Wilford so very much," Katy rejoined, +reproachfully, while again a heavy pain shot through Morris' heart, for +he saw more and more how Wilford Cameron was mingled with every thought +of the young girl, who continued: "And if he was satisfied, I guess his +mother and sisters will be. Anyway, I don't want you to make me feel how +different I am from them." + +There were tears now on Katy's face, and casting aside all selfishness, +Morris wound his arm around her, and smoothed her golden hair, just as +he used to do when she was a child and came to him to be soothed. He +said, very gently: + +"My poor Kitty, you do like Wilford Cameron; tell me honestly--is it +not so?" + +"Yes, I guess I do," and Katy's voice was a half sob. "I could not help +it, either, he was so kind, so--I don't know what, only I could not help +doing what he bade me. Why, if he had said: 'Jump overboard, Katy +Lennox,' I should have done it, I know--that is, if his eyes had been +upon me, they controlled me so absolutely. Can you imagine what I mean?" + +"Yes, I understand. There was the same look in Bell Cameron's eye, a +kind of mesmeric influence which commanded obedience. They idolize this +Wilford, and I dare say he is worthy of their idolatry. One thing, at +least, is in his favor--the crippled Jamie, for whose opinion I would +give more than all the rest, seemed to worship his Uncle Will, talking +of him continually, and telling how kind he was, sometimes staying up +all night to carry him in his arms when the pain in his back was more +than usually severe. So there must be a good, kind heart in Wilford +Cameron, and if my Cousin Kitty likes him, as she says she does, and he +likes her as I believe he must, why, I hope--" + +Morris Grant could not finish the sentence; for he did not hope that +Wilford Cameron would win the gem he had so long coveted as his own. + +He might give Kitty up because she loved another best. He was generous +enough to do that, but if he did it, she must never know how much it +cost him, and lest he should betray himself he could not to-night talk +with her longer of Wilford Cameron, whom he believed to be his rival. It +was time now for Katy to go home, but she did not seem to remember it +until Morris suggested to her that her mother might be uneasy if she +stayed away much longer, and so they went together across the fields, +the shadow all gone from Katy's heart, but lying so dark and heavy +around Morris Grant, who was glad when he could leave Katy at the +farmhouse door and go back alone to the quiet library, where only God +could witness the mighty struggle it was for him to say: "Thy will be +done." And while he prayed, not that Katy should be his, but that he +might have strength to bear it if she were destined for another, Katy, +up in her humble bedroom, with her head nestled close to Helen's neck, +was telling her of Wilford Cameron, who, when they went down the rapids +and she had cried with fear, had put his arm around her, trying to quiet +her, and who once again, on the mountain overlooking Lake George, had +held her hand a moment, while he pointed out a splendid view seen +through the opening trees. And Helen, listening, knew just as Morris +Grant had done that Katy's heart was lost, and that for Wilford Cameron +to deceive her now would be a cruel thing. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WILFORD CAMERON. + + +The day succeeding Katy Lennox's return to Silverton was rainy and cold +for the season, the storm extending as far westward as the city of New +York, and making Wilford Cameron shiver as he stepped from the Hudson +River cars into the carriage waiting for him, first greeting pleasantly +the white-gloved driver, who, carefully closing the carriage door, +mounted to his seat and drove his handsome bays in the direction of +No. ---- Fifth Avenue. And Wilford, leaning back among the yielding +cushions, thought how pleasant it was to be going home again, feeling +glad, as he frequently did, that the home to which he was going was in +every particular unexceptionable. The Camerons he knew were an old and +highly respectable family, while it was his mother's pride that, go back +as far as one might on either side, there could not be found a single +blemish or a member of whom to be ashamed. On the Cameron side there were +millionaires, merchant princes, bankers and stockholders, professors and +scholars, while on hers, the Rossiter side, there were LL.D.'s and +D.D.'s, lawyers and clergymen, authors and artists, beauties and belles, +the whole forming an illustrious line of ancestry, admirably represented +and sustained by the present family of Camerons, occupying the +brownstone front, corner of ---- Street and Fifth Avenue, where the +handsome carriage stopped and a tall figure ran quickly up the marble +steps. There was a soft rustle of silk, an odor of delicate perfume, +and from the luxurious chair before the fire kindled in the grate an +elderly lady arose and advanced a step or two toward the parlor door. In +another moment she was kissing the young man bending over her and +saluting her as mother, kissing him quietly, properly, as the Camerons +always kissed. She was very glad to have Wilford home again, for he was +her favorite child, and brushing the raindrops from his coat she led him +to the fire, offering him her own easy-chair and starting herself in +quest of another. But Wilford held her back, and making her sit down, he +drew an ottoman beside her and then asked her first how she had been and +then how Jamie was, then where his sisters were, and if his father had +come home--for there was a father, the elder Cameron, a quiet, +unassuming man, who stayed all day in Wall Street, seldom coming home in +time to carve at his own dinner table, and when he was at home, asking +for nothing except to be left by his fashionable wife and daughters to +himself, free to smoke and doze over his evening paper in the seclusion +of his own reading-room. + +As Wilford's question concerning his sire had been the last one asked, +so it was the last one answered, his mother parting his dark hair with +her jeweled hand, and telling him first that with the exception of a +cold taken at the park on Saturday afternoon when she drove out to try +the new carriage, she was in usual health; second, that Jamie was very +well, but impatient for his uncle's return; third, that Juno was +spending a few days in Orange, and that Bell had gone to pass the night +with her particular friend, Mrs. Meredith, the bluest, most bookish +woman in New York. + +"Your father," the lady added, "has not yet returned, but as the dinner +is ready I think we will not wait." + +She touched a silver bell beside her, and ordering dinner to be sent up +at once, went on to ask her son concerning his journey, and the people +he had met. But Wilford, though intending to tell her all, for he kept +nothing from his mother, would wait till after dinner. So, offering her +his arm, he led her out to where the table was spread, widely different +from the table prepared for Katy Lennox away among the Silverton hills, +for where at the farmhouse there had been only the homely wares common +to the country, with Aunt Betsy's onions served in a bowl, there was +here the finest of damask, the choicest of china, the costliest of +cut-glass, and the heaviest of silver, with the well-trained waiter +gliding in and out, himself the very personification of strict table +etiquette, such as the Barlows had never dreamed about. There was no +fricasseed chicken here, or flaky crust, with pickled beans and apple +sauce; no custard pie with strawberries and rich, sweet cream, poured +from a blue earthen pitcher, but there were soups, and fish, and roasted +meats, and dishes with French names and taste, and desert elaborately +gotten up and served with the utmost precision, and wines, with fruit +and colored cloth, and handsome finger bowl; and Mrs. Cameron presiding +over all, with the ladylike decorum so much a part of herself, her soft, +glossy silk of brown, with her rich lace and diamond pin seeming in +keeping with herself and her surroundings. And opposite to her Wilford +sat, a tall, dark, handsome man of thirty or thereabouts--a man whose +polished manners betokened at once a perfect knowledge of the world, and +whose face to a close observer indicated how little satisfaction he had +as yet found in that world. He had tried its pleasures, drinking the cup +of freedom and happiness to its very dregs, and though he thought he +liked it, he often found himself dissatisfied and reaching after +something which should make life more real, more worth the living for. +He had traveled all over Europe twice, had visited every spot worth +visiting in his own country, had been a frequenter of every fashionable +resort in New York, from the skating pond to the theatres, had been +admitted as a lawyer, had opened an office on Broadway, acquiring some +reputation in his profession, had looked at more than twenty girls with +the view of making them his wife, and found them as he believed, alike +fickle, selfish, artificial and hollow-hearted. In short, while thinking +far more of family, and accomplishments, and style, than he ought, he +was yet heartily tired of the butterflies who flitted so constantly +around him, offering to be caught if he would but stretch out his hand +to catch them. This he would not do, and disgusted with the world as he +saw it in New York, he had gone to the Far West, roaming a while amid +the solitude of the broad prairies, and finding there much that was +soothing to him, but not discovering the fulfillment of the great want +he was craving, until, coming back to Canandaigua, he met with Katy +Lennox. He had smiled wearily when asked by Mrs. Woodhull to go with her +to the examination then in progress at the seminary. There was nothing +there to interest him, he thought, as Euclid and algebra, French and +rhetoric were bygone things, while young school misses in braided hair +and pantalets were shockingly insipid. Still, to be polite to Mrs. +Woodhull, a childless, fashionable woman, who patronized Canandaigua +generally, and Katy Lennox in particular, he consented to go, and soon +found himself in the crowded room, the cynosure of many eyes as the +whisper ran around that the fine-looking man with Mrs. Woodhull was the +Wilford Cameron from New York, and brother to the proud, dashing Juno +Cameron, who once spent a few weeks in town, Wilford knew they were +talking about him, but he did not care, and assuming as easy an attitude +as possible, he leaned hack in his chair, yawning indolently, and +wishing the time away, until the class in algebra was called and Katy +Lennox came tripping on to the stage, a pale blue ribbon in her golden +hair and her simple dress of white relieved by no ornament except the +cluster of wild flowers fastened in her belt and at her graceful throat. +But Katy needed no ornaments to make her more beautiful than she was at +the moment when, with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes, modestly cast +down for a moment as she took her place, and then as modestly uplifted +to her teacher's face, she first burst upon Wilford's vision, a creature +of rare, bewitching beauty, such as he had never dreamed about. + +Wilford had met his destiny, and he felt it in every throb of blood +which went rushing through his veins. + +"Who is she?" he asked of Mrs. Woodhull, and that lady knew at once whom +he meant, even though he had not designated her. + +An old acquaintance of Mrs. Lennox when she lived in East Bloomfield, +Mrs. Woodhull had petted Katy from the first day of her arrival in +Canandaigua with a letter of introduction to herself from the ambitious +mother, and being rather inclined to match-making, she had had Katy in +her mind when she urged Wilford to accompany her to the seminary. +Accordingly, she answered him at once: "That is Katy Lennox, daughter of +Judge Lennox, who died in East Bloomfield a few years ago." + +Lennox was a good name, while the title of judge increased its value. +Wilford would not have acknowledged that, perhaps, but it was +nevertheless the truth, and Mrs. Woodhull, who understood exactly the +claim which Mr. Lennox had to the title, knew it was true, and that was +why she spoke as she did. It was time Wilford Cameron was settled in +life, and with the exception of wealth and family position, he could not +find a better wife than Katy Lennox, and she would do what she could to +bring the marriage about. + +"Pretty, is she not?" was her question put to Wilford after answering +his inquiry, but Wilford did not hear, having neither eye nor ear for +anything save Kitty, acquitting herself with a good deal of credit as +she worked out a rather difficult problem, her dimpled white hand +showing to good advantage against the deep black of the board; and then +her voice, soft-toned and silvery as a lady's voice should be, thrilled +Wilford's ear, awaking a strange feeling of disquiet, as if the world +would never again be quite the same to him that it was before he met +that fair young girl now passing from the room. + +Mrs. Woodhull saw that he was interested, and mentally congratulating +herself upon the successful working of her plan, first gained the +preceptress' consent, and then asked Katy home with her to tea that +night. And this was how Wilford Cameron came to know little Katy Lennox, +the simple-hearted child, who blushed so prettily when first presented +to him, and blushed again when he praised her recitations, but who after +that forgot the difference in their social relations, laughing and +chatting as merrily in his presence as if she had been alone with Mrs. +Woodhull. This was the great charm to Wilford, Katy was so wholly +unconscious of himself or what he might think of her, that he could not +sit in judgment upon her, and he watched her eagerly as she sported, and +flashed, and sparkled, filling the room with sunshine, and putting to +rout the entire regiment of blues which had been for months harassing +the city-bred young man. + +If there was any one thing in which Katy excelled, it was music, both +vocal and instrumental, a taste for which had been developed very early, +and fostered by Morris Grant, who had seen that his cousin had every +advantage which Silverton could afford. Great pains, too, had been given +to her style of playing while at Canandaigua, so that as a performer +upon the piano she had few rivals in the seminary, while her bird-like +voice filled every nook and corner of the room, where, on the night +after her visit to Mrs. Woodhull, a select exhibition was held, Katy +shining as the one bright star, and winning golden laurels for beauty, +grace and perfect self-possession from others than Wilford Cameron, who +was one of the invited auditors. + +"Juno herself could not equal that," he thought, as Katy's fingers flew +over the keys, executing a brilliant and difficult piece without a +single mistake, and receiving the applause of the spectators easily, +naturally, as if it were an everyday occurrence. But when by request she +sang "Comin' through the Rye," Wilford's heart, if he had any before, +was wholly gone, and he dreamed of Katy Lennox that night, wondering +all the ensuing day how his haughty mother would receive that young +schoolgirl as her daughter, wife of the son whose bride she fancied must +be equal to the first lady in the land. And if Katy were not now equal +she could be made so, Wilford thought, wondering if Canandaigua were the +best place for her, and if she would consent to receive a year or two +years' tuition from him, provided her family were poor. He did not know +as they were, but he would ask, and he did, feeling a pang of regret +when he heard to some extent how Katy was circumstanced. Mrs. Woodhull +had never been to Silverton, and so she did not know of Uncle Ephraim, +with his old-fashioned spouse and his older-fashioned sister, but she +knew that they were poor--that some relation sent Katy to school; and +she frankly told Wilford so, adding, as she detected the shadow on his +face, that one could not expect everything, and that a girl like Katy +was not found every day. Wilford admitted all this, growing more and +more infatuated, until at last he consented to join the traveling +party, provided Katy joined it too, and when on the morning of their +departure for the Falls he seated himself beside her in the car, he +could not well have been happier, unless she had really been his wife, +as he so much wished she was. + +It was a most delightful trip, and Wilford was better satisfied with +himself than he had been before in years. His past life was not all free +from error, and there were many sad memories haunting him, but with Katy +at his side, seeing what he saw, admiring what he admired, and doing +what he bade her do, he gave the bygones to the wind, feeling only an +intense desire to clasp the young girl in his arms and bear her away to +some spot where with her pure fresh life all his own he could begin the +world anew, and retrieve the past which he had lost. This was when he +was with Katy. Away from her he could remember the difference in their +position, and prudential motives began to make themselves heard. Never +but once had he taken an important step without consulting his mother, +and then, alas! the trouble it brought him was not ended yet, and never +would be ended until death had set its seal upon the brow of one almost +as dear as Katy, though in a far different way. And this was why Katy +came back to Silverton unengaged, leaving her heart with Wilford +Cameron, who would first seek advice from his mother ere committing +himself by word. He had seen the white-haired man with his coarse, linen +coat and coarser pants, waiting eagerly for her when the train stopped +at Silverton, but standing there as he did, with his silvery locks +parted in the center, and shading his honest, open face, Uncle Ephraim +looked like some patriarch of old rather than a man to be despised, and +Wilford felt only a respect for him until he saw Katy's arms wound so +lovingly around his neck as she kissed and called him Uncle Eph. That +sight grated harshly, and Wilford, knowing this was the uncle of whom +Katy had often spoken, felt glad that he was not bound to her by any +pledge. Very curiously he looked after the couple, witnessing the +meeting between Katy and old Whitey, and guessing rightly that the +corn-colored vehicle was the one sent to transport Katy home. He was +very moody for the remainder of the route between Silverton and Albany, +where he parted with his Canandaigua friends, they going on to the +westward, while he stopped all night in Albany, where he had some +business to transact for his father. And this was why he did not reach +New York until late in the afternoon of the following day. + +He was intending to tell his mother everything, except indeed that he +paid Katy's bills. He would rather keep that to himself, as it might +shock his mother's sense of propriety and make her think less of Katy, +impulsive, confiding Katy, little dreaming as on that rainy afternoon +she sat in the kitchen at Silverton, with her feet in the stove-oven and +the cat asleep in her lap, of the conversation taking place between +Wilford Cameron and his mother. They had left the dinner table, and +lighting his cigar, which for that one time the mother permitted in the +parlor, Wilford opened the subject by asking her to guess what took him +off so suddenly with Mrs. Woodhull. + +The mother did not know--unless--and a strange light gleamed in her +eyes, as she asked if it were some girl. + +"Yea, mother, it was," and without any reservation Wilford frankly told +the story of his interest in Katy Lennox. + +He admitted that she was poor and unaccustomed to society, but he loved +her more than words could express. + +"Not as I loved Genevra," he said, as he saw his mother about to speak, +and there came a look of intense pain into his fine eyes as he +continued: "That was the passion of a boy of nineteen, simulated by +secrecy, but this is different--this is the love of a mature man of +thirty, who feels that he is capable of judging for himself." + +In Wilford's voice there was a tone warning the mother that opposition +would only feed the flame, and so she offered none directly, but heard +him patiently to the end, and then quietly questioned him of Katy and +her family, especially the last. What did he know of it? Was it one to +detract from the Cameron line kept untarnished so long? Were the +relatives such as he never need blush to own, even if they came there +into their drawing-room, as they would come if Katy did? + +Wilford thought of Uncle Ephraim as he had seen him upon the platform at +Silverton, and could scarcely repress a smile as he pictured to himself +his mother's consternation at beholding that man in her drawing-room, +but he did not mention the deacon, though he acknowledged that Katy's +family friends were not exactly the Cameron style. But Katy was young; +Katy could be easily molded, and once away from her old associates, his +mother and sisters could make of her what they pleased. + +"I understand, then, that if you marry her you do not marry the family," +and in the handsome, matronly face there was an expression from which +Katy would have shrunk; could she have seen it and understood its +meaning. + +"No, I do not marry the family," Wilford rejoined, emphatically, but the +expression of his face was different from his mother's, for where she +thought only of herself, not hesitating to trample on all Katy's love of +home and friends, Wilford remembered Katy, thinking how he would make +amends for separating her wholly from her home, as he surely meant to do +if he should win her. "Did I tell you," he continued, "that her father +was a judge? She must be well connected on that side, though I never +heard of a Judge Lennox in any of our courts." + +"It must have been when you were in Europe the first time," Mrs. Cameron +suggested, and as if the mention of Europe reminded him of something +else, Wilford rejoined: "Katy would be kind to Jamie, mother. In some +things she is almost as much a child as he, poor fellow," and again +there came into his eyes a look of pain, while his voice was sadder in +its tone, just as it always was when he spoke of little Jamie. "And now, +what shall I do?" he asked, playfully. "Shall I propose to Katy Lennox, +or shall I try to forget her?" + +"I should not do either," was Mrs. Cameron's reply for she well knew +that trying to forget her was the surest way of keeping her in mind, and +she dared not confess to him how wholly she was determined that Katy +Lennox should never be her daughter if she could prevent it. + +If she could not, then as a lady and a woman of policy, she should make +the most of it, receiving Katy kindly and doing her best to educate her +up to the Cameron ideas of style and manner. + +"Let matters take their course for a while," she said, "and see how you +feel after a little. We are going to Newport the first of August, Jamie +and all, and perhaps you may find somebody there infinitely superior to +this Katy Lennox. That's your father's ring. He is earlier than usual +to-night. I would not tell him yet till you are more decided," and the +lady went hastily out into the hall to meet her husband. + +A moment more and the elder Cameron appeared--a short, square-built man, +with a face seamed with lines of care and eyes much like Wilford's, save +that the shaggy eyebrows gave them a different expression. He was very +glad to see his son, though he merely shook his hand, asking what +nonsense took him off around the Lakes with Mrs. Woodhull, and wondering +if women were never happy unless they were chasing after fashion. The +elder Cameron was evidently not of his wife's way of thinking, but she +let him go on until he was through, and then, with the most unruffled +mien, suggested that his dinner would he cold. He was accustomed to +that, and so he did not mind, but he hurried through his lonely meal +to-night, for Wilford was home, and the father was always happier when +he knew his son was in the house. Contrary to his usual custom, he spent +the short summer evening in the parlor, talking with Wilford on various +items of business, and thus preventing any further conversation +concerning Katy Lennox, who just as their evening was commencing, was +bowing the knee reverently between her sister and her uncle, listening +while the good old man invoked the nightly blessing, without which he +never retired to sleep. But in that household on Fifth Avenue there was +no blessing asked of Heaven, no word of thanksgiving for the prosperity +so long vouchsafed, no prayer said except by the crippled Jamie, who, +remembering the Savior of whom Morris Grant had told him when across the +sea, whispered his childish prayer, thanking him most for bringing back +the uncle so dearly loved, the Wilford who, on his way to his own room, +had stopped as he always did to say good-night to Jamie, folding his +arms around him and kissing his sweet face with a fondness in which +there was something half regretful, half sad, as well as pleasing. + +It took but a short time for Wilford to fall back into his old way of +living, passing a few hours of each day in his office, driving with his +mother, reading to little Jamie, sparring with his imperious sister, +Juno, and teasing his blue sister, Bell, but never after that first +night breathing a word to any one of Katy Lennox. And still Katy was not +forgotten, as his mother sometimes believed. On the contrary, the very +silence he kept concerning her increased his passion, until he began +seriously to contemplate a trip to Silverton. The family's removal to +Newport, however, diverted his attention for a little, making him decide +to wait and see what Newport might have in store for him. But Newport +was dull this season, at least to him, though Juno and Bell both found +ample scope for their different powers of attraction, and his mother was +always happy when showing off her children and knowing that they were +appreciated. With Wilford it was different. Listless and taciturn, he +went through with the daily routine, wondering how he had ever found +happiness there, and finally, at the close of the season, casting all +policy and prudence aside, he wrote to Katy Lennox that he was coming +to Silverton on his way home, and that he presumed he should have no +difficulty in finding his way to the farmhouse. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +PREPARING FOR THE VISIT. + + +"Of course he will not, for I shall ask Dr. Morris to go after him in +his carriage," Katy said, as out in the orchard where she was gathering +the early harvest apples she read the letter brought her by Uncle +Ephraim, her face crimsoning all over with happy blushes as she saw +the dear affixed to her name. + +Katy had waited so anxiously for a letter, or some message which should +say that she was not forgotten by Wilford Cameron, but as the weeks went +by and it did not come, a shadow had fallen upon her spirits, and the +family missed something from her ringing laugh and frolicsome ways, +while she herself wondered why the household duties given to her should +be so utterly distasteful. She used to enjoy them so much, but now she +liked nothing except to go with Uncle Ephraim out into the fields where +she could sit alone while he worked nearby, or to ride with Morris as +she sometimes did when he made his round of calls. She was not as good +as she used to be, she thought, and with a view of making herself better +she took to teaching in Morris' and Helen's Sunday-school, greatly to +the distress of Aunt Betsy, who groaned bitterly when both her nieces +adopted the "Episcopal quirks," forsaking entirely the house where +Sunday after Sunday her old-fashioned leghorn with its faded ribbon of +green was seen, bending down in the humble worship which God so much +approves. But teaching in Sunday-school, taken by itself, could not make +Katy better, and the old restlessness remained until the morning when, +sitting on the grass beneath the apple tree, she read that Wilford +Cameron was coming. Then, as by magic, everything was changed, and Katy +never forgot the brightness of that day when the robins sang so merrily +above her head and all nature seemed to sympathize with her joy. +Afterward there came to her dark, wretched hours, when in her young +heart's agony she wished that day had never been, but there was no +shadow around her now, nothing but hopeful sunshine, and with a bounding +step she sought out Helen, to tell her the good news. Helen's first +remark, however, was a chill upon her spirits. + +"Wilford Cameron coming here? What will he think of us, we are so unlike +him?" + +This was the first time Katy had seriously considered the difference +between her surroundings and those of Wilford Cameron, or how it might +affect him. But Aunt Betsy, who had never dreamed of anything like +Wilford's home, and who thought her own quite as good as they would +average, comforted her, telling her how "if he was any kind of a chap he +wouldn't be looking round, and if he did, who cared; she guessed they +was as good as he, and as much thought of by the neighbors." + +Wilford's letter had been delayed so that the morrow was the day +appointed for his coming, and never sure was there a busier afternoon +at the farmhouse than the one which followed the receipt of the letter. +Everything that was not spotlessly clean before was made so now. Aunt +Betsy in her petticoat and short gown going down upon her knees to scrub +the door sill of the back room, as if the city guest were expected to +sit in there. On Aunt Hannah and Mrs. Lennox devolved the duty of +preparing for the wants of the inner man, while Helen and Katy bent +their energies to beautifying their humble home and making the most of +their plain furniture. + +"If Uncle Ephraim had only let me move the chimney, we could have had +a nice spare sleeping-room instead of this little tucked up hole," Mrs. +Lennox said, coming in with her hands covered with flour, and casting a +rueful look at the small room kept for company, and where Wilford was to +sleep. + +It was not very spacious, being only large enough to admit the high post +bed, a single chair, and the old-fashioned washstand with the hole in +the top for the bowl and a drawer beneath for towels, the whole +presenting a most striking contrast to those handsome chambers on Fifth +Avenue, or, indeed, to the one at the Ocean House where Wilford sat +smoking and wishing the time away, while Helen and Katy held a +consultation as to whether it would not be better to dispense with the +parlor altogether and give that room to their visitor. But this was +vetoed by Aunt Betsy, who, having finished the back door sill, had now +come around to the front, and, with her scrubbing brush in one hand and +her saucer of sand in the other, held forth upon the foolishness of the +girls. + +"Of course if they had a beau, they'd want a t'other room, else where +would they do their sparkin'." + +That settled it. The parlor should remain as it was, Katy said, and Aunt +Betsy went on with her scouring, while Helen and Katy consulted together +how to make the huge feather bed seem more like the mattresses such as +Morris had, and such as Mr. Cameron must be accustomed to. Helen's mind +being the most suggestive solved the problem first, and a large +comfortable was brought from the box in the garret and folded carefully +over the bed, which, thus hardened and flattened, "seemed like a +mattress," Katy said, for she tried it, pronouncing it good, and feeling +quite well satisfied with the room when it was finished. And certainly +it was not wholly uninviting with its snowy bed, whose covering almost +swept the floor, its strip of bright carpeting in front, its vase of +flowers upon the stand and its white fringed curtain sweeping back from +the narrow window. + +"I'd like to sleep here myself. It looks real nice," was Katy's comment, +while Helen offered no opinion, but followed her sister into the yard +where they were to sweep the grass and prune the early September +flowers. + +This afforded Aunt Betsy a chance to reconnoiter and criticise, which +last she did unsparingly. + +"What have they done to that bed to make it look so flat? Put on a +bed-quilt, as I'm alive! What children! It would break my back to lie +there, and this Cannon is none the youngest, accordin' to their +tell--nigh on to thirty, if not turned. It will make his bones ache, of +course. I am glad I know better than to treat visitors that way. The +comforter may stay, but I'll be bound I'll make it softer!" and stealing +up the stairs, Aunt Betsy brought down a second feather bed, much +lighter than the one already on, but still large enough to suggest the +thought of smothering. This she had made herself, intending it as a part +of Katy's "setting out," should she ever marry, and as things now seemed +tending that way, it was only right, she thought, that Mr. Cannon, as +she called him, should begin to have the benefit of it. Accordingly, the +handiwork of the girls was destroyed, and two beds, instead of one, were +placed beneath the comfortable, which Aunt Betsy permitted to remain. + +"I'm mighty feared they'll find me out," she said, stroking, and +patting, and coaxing the beds to lie down, taking great pains in the +making, and succeeding so well that when her task was done there was no +perceptible difference between Helen's bed and hers, except that the +latter was a few inches higher than the former, and more nearly +resembled a pincushion in shape. + +Carefully shutting the door, Aunt Betsy hurried away, feeling glad that +her nieces were too much engaged in training a vine over a frame to +afford them time for discovering what she had done. Katy, she knew, was +going to Linwood by and by, after various little things which Mrs. +Lennox thought indispensable to the entertaining of so great a man as +Wilford Cameron, and which the farmhouse did not possess, and as Helen +too would be busy, there was not much danger of detection. + +It was late when the last thing was accomplished, and the sun was quite +low ere Katy was free to start on her errand, carrying the market basket +in which she was to put the articles borrowed of Morris. + +He was sitting out on his piazza enjoying the fine prospect he had of +the sun shining across the pond, on the Silverton hill, and just gilding +the top of the little church nestled in the valley. At sight of Katy he +arose and greeted her with the kind, brotherly manner now habitual with +him, for since we last looked upon Morris Grant he had fought a fierce +battle with his selfishness, coming off conqueror, and learning to +listen quite calmly while Katy talked to him, as she often did, of +Wilford Cameron, never trying to conceal from him how anxious she was +for some word of remembrance, and often asking if he thought Mr. Cameron +would ever write to her. It was hard at first for Morris to listen, and +harder still to hold back the passionate words of love trembling on his +lips, to keep himself from telling her how improbable it was that one +like Mr. Cameron should cherish thoughts of her after mingling again +with the high-born city belles, and to beg of her to take him in +Cameron's stead--him who had loved her so long, ever since he first knew +what it was to love, and who would cherish her so tenderly, loving her +the more because of the childishness which some men might despise. But +Morris had kept silence, and, as weeks went by, there came insensibly +into his heart a hope, or rather conviction, that Cameron had forgotten +the little girl who might in time turn to him, gladdening his home just +as she did every spot where her fairy footsteps trod. Morris did not +fully know that he was hugging this fond dream, until he felt the keen +pang which cut like a dissector's knife as Katy, turning her bright, +eager face up to him, whispered softly: "He's coming to-morrow--he +surely is; I have his letter to tell me so." + +Morris did not see the sunshine then upon the distant hills, although it +lay there just as purple as before Katy came, bringing blackness and +pain when heretofore she had only brought him joy and gladness. There +was a moment of darkness, in which the hills, the pond, the sun +setting, and Katy seemed a great ways off to Morris, trying so hard to +be calm, and mentally asking for help to do so. But Katy's hat, which +she swung in her hand, had become entangled in the vines encircling one +of the pillars of the piazza, and so she did not notice him until all +traces of his agitation were past, and he could talk with her concerning +Wilford, and then playfully lifting her basket he asked what she had +come to get. + +This was not the first time the great house had rendered a like service +to the little house, and so Katy did not blush when she explained how +her mother wanted Morris' forks, and saltcellars, and spoons, and would +he be kind enough to bring the castor over himself, and come to dinner +to-morrow at two o'clock?--and would he go after Mr. Cameron? The forks, +and saltcellars, and spoons, and castor were cheerfully promised, while +Morris consented to go for the guest; and then Katy came to the rest of +her errand, the part distasteful to her, inasmuch as it might look like +throwing disrespect upon Uncle Ephraim--honest, unsophisticated Uncle +Ephraim--who would come to the table in his shirt sleeves. This was the +burden of her grief--the one thing she dreaded most, inasmuch as she +knew by experience how such an act was looked upon by Mr. Cameron, who, +never having lived in the country a day in his life, except as he was +either guest or traveler, could not make due allowance for these little +departures from refinement, so obnoxious to people of his training. + +"What is it, Katy?" Morris asked, as he saw how she hesitated, and +guessed her errand was not done. + +"I hope you will not think me foolish or wicked," Katy began, her eyes +filling with tears, as she felt that she might be doing Uncle Ephraim +a wrong by even admitting that in any way he could be improved. "I +certainly love Uncle Ephraim dearly, and I do not mind his ways, but Mr. +Cameron may--that is, oh, Cousin Morris! did you ever notice how Uncle +Ephraim will persist in coming to the table in his shirt sleeves." + +"Persist is hardly the word to use," Morris replied, smiling comically, +as he readily understood Katy's misgivings. "Persist would imply his +having been often remonstrated with for that breach of etiquette; +whereas I doubt much whether the idea that it was not in strict +accordance with politeness was ever suggested to him." + +"Maybe not," Katy answered. "It was never necessary till now, and I feel +so disturbed, for I want Mr. Cameron to like him, and if he does that I +am sure he won't." + +"Why do you think so?" Morris asked, and Katy replied: "He is so +particular, and was so very angry at a little hotel between Lakes +George and Champlain, where we took our dinner before going on the +boat. There was a man along--a real good-natured man, too, so kind to +everybody--and, as the day was warm, he carried his coat on his arm, and +sat down to the table that way, right opposite me. Mr. Cameron was so +indignant, and said such harsh things, which the man heard, I am sure, +for he put on his coat directly; and I saw him afterward on the boat, +sweating like rain, and looking sorry as if he had done something wrong. +I am sure, though, he had not?" + +This last was spoken interrogatively, and Morris replied: "There is +nothing wrong or wicked in going without one's coat. Everything depends +upon the circumstances under which it is done. For me to appear at table +in my shirt sleeves would be very impolite; but for an old man like +Uncle Ephraim, who has done it all his life and who never gave it a +thought, would, in my estimation, be a very different thing. Still, Mr. +Cameron may see from another standpoint. But I would not distress +myself. That love is not worth much which would think the less of you +for anything _outré_ which Uncle Ephraim may do. If Mr. Cameron cannot +stand the test of seeing your relatives as they are, he is not worth the +long face you are wearing," and Morris pinched her cheek playfully. + +"Yes, I know," Katy replied; "but if you only could manage Uncle Eph I +should be so glad." + +Morris had little hope of breaking a habit of years, but he promised to +try if an opportunity should occur, and as Mrs. Hull, the housekeeper, +had by this time gathered up the articles required for the morrow, +Morris himself took the basket in his own hands and went back with Katy +across the fields, which had never seemed so desolate as to-night, when +he felt how vain were all the hopes he had been cherishing. + +"God bless you, Katy, and may Mr. Cameron's visit bring you as much +happiness as you anticipate," he said as he set her basket upon the +doorstep and turned back without entering the house. + +Katy noticed the peculiar tone of his voice, and again there swept over +her the same thrill she had felt when Morris first said to her, "And did +Katy like this Mr. Cameron?" but so far was she from guessing the truth +that she only feared she might have displeased him by what she had said +of Uncle Ephraim; and as an unkind word breathed against a dear friend, +even to a mutual friend, always leaves a scar, so Katy, though saying +nothing ill, still felt that in some way she had wronged her uncle; and +the good old man, resting from his hard day's toil, in his accustomed +chair, with not only his coat, but his vest and boots cast aside, little +guessed what prompted the caresses which Katy bestowed upon him, sitting +in his lap and parting lovingly his snowy hair, as if thus she would +make amends for any injury done. Little Katy-did he called her, looking +fondly into her bright, pretty face, and thinking how terrible it would +be to see that face shadowed with pain and care. Somehow, of late, Uncle +Ephraim was always thinking of such a calamity as more than possible for +Katy, and when that night she knelt beside him, his voice was full of +pleading earnestness as he prayed that God would keep them all in +safety, and bring to none of them more grief, more suffering, than was +necessary to purify them for His own. "Purified by suffering" came +involuntarily into Katy's mind as she listened, and then remembered the +talk down in the meadow, when she sat on the rock beneath the butternut +tree. But Katy was far too thoughtless yet for anything serious to abide +with her long; and the world, while it held Wilford Cameron as he seemed +to her now, was too full of joy for her to be sad, and so she arose from +her knees, thinking only how long it would be before to-morrow noon, +wondering if Wilford would surely be there next time their evening +prayers were said, and if he would notice Uncle Ephraim's shocking +grammar! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WILFORD'S VISIT. + + +Much surprise was expressed by all the Cameron family, save the mother, +when told that instead of accompanying them to New York, Wilford would +take another route, and one directly out of his way; while, what was +stranger than all, he did not know when he should be home; it would +depend upon circumstances, he said, evincing so much annoyance at being +questioned with regard to his movements, that the quick-witted Juno +readily divined that there was some girl in the matter, teasing him +unmercifully to tell her who she was, and what the fair one was like. + +"Don't, for pity's sake, bring us a verdant specimen," she said, as she +at last bade him good-by, and turned her attention to Mark Ray, her +brother's partner, who had been with them at Newport, and whom she was +bending all her energies to captivate. + +With his sister's bantering words ringing in his ears, Wilford kept on +his way until the last change was made, and when he stopped again it +would be at Silverton. He did not expect any one to meet him, but as he +remembered the man whom he had seen greeting Katy, he thought it not +unlikely that he might be there now, laughing to himself as he pictured +Juno's horror, could she see him driving along in the corn-colored +vehicle which Uncle Ephraim drove. But that vehicle was safe at home +beneath the shed, while Uncle Ephraim was laying a stone wall upon the +huckleberry hill, and the handsome carriage waiting at Silverton depot +was certainly unexceptionable; while in the young man who, as the train +stopped and Wilford stepped out upon the platform, came to meet him, +bowing politely, and asking if he were Mr. Cameron, Wilford recognized +the true gentleman, and his spirits arose as Morris said to him: "I am +Miss Lennox's cousin, deputed by her to meet and take charge of you for +a time." + +Wilford had heard of Dr. Morris Grant, for his name was often on +Jamie's lips, while his proud Sister Juno, he suspected, had tried her +powers of fascination in vain upon the grave American, met in the +saloons of Paris; but he had no suspicion that his new acquaintance +was the one until they were driving toward the farmhouse and Morris +mentioned having met his family in France, inquiring after them all, and +especially for Jamie. Involuntarily then Wilford grasped again the hand +of Morris Grant, exclaiming: "And are you the doctor who was so kind to +Jamie? I did not expect this pleasure?" + +After that the ride seemed very short, and Wilford was surprised when as +they turned a corner in the sandy road, Morris pointed to the farmhouse, +saying: "We are almost there--that is the place." + +"That!" and Wilford's voice indicated his disappointment, for in all his +mental pictures of Katy Lennox's home he had never imagined anything +like this: + +Large, rambling and weird-like, with something lofty and imposing, just +because it was so ancient, was the house he had in his mind, and he +could not conceal his chagrin as his eye took in the small, low +building, with its high windows and tiny panes of glass, paintless and +blindless, standing there alone among the hills, Morris understood it +perfectly; but, without seeming to notice it, remarked: "It is the +oldest house probably in the country, and should be invaluable on that +account. I think we Americans are too fond of change and too much +inclined to throw aside all that reminds us of the past. Now I like +the farmhouse just because it is old and unpretentious." + +"Yes, certainly," Wilford answered, looking ruefully around him at the +old stone wall, half tumbled down, the tall well-sweep, and the patch of +sunflowers in the garden, with Aunt Betsy bending behind them, picking +tomatoes for dinner, and shading her eyes with her hand to look at him +as he drove up. + +It was all very rural, no doubt, and very charming to people who liked +it, but Wilford did not like it, and he was wishing himself safely in +New York when a golden head flashed for an instant before the window and +then disappeared as Katy emerged into view, waiting at the door to +receive him and looking so sweetly in her dress of white with the +scarlet geranium blossoms in her hair, that Wilford forgot the +homeliness of her surroundings, thinking only of her and how soft and +warm was the little hand he held as she led him into the parlor. He did +not know she was so beautiful, he said to himself, and he feasted his +eyes upon her, forgetful for a time of all else. But afterward when +Katy left him for a moment he noticed the well-worn carpet, the six +cane-seated chairs, the large stuffed rocking chair, the fall-leaf +table, with its plain wool spread, and, lastly, the really expensive +piano, the only handsome piece of furniture the room contained, and +which he rightly guessed must have come from Morris. + +"What would Juno or Mark say?" he kept repeating to himself, half +shuddering as he recalled the bantering proposition to accompany him +made by Mark Ray, the only young man whom he considered fully his equal +in New York. + +Wilford knew these feelings were unworthy of him and he tried to shake +them off, listlessly turning over the books upon the table, books which +betokened in some one both taste and talent of no low order. + +"Mark's favorite," he said, lifting up a volume of Schiller, and turning +to the fly-leaf he read, "Helen Lennox, from Cousin Morris," just as +Katy returned and with her Helen, whom she presented to the stranger. + +Helen was prepared to like him just because Katy did, and her first +thought was that he was splendid-looking, but when she met fully his +cold glance and knew how closely he was scrutinizing her, there arose +in her heart a feeling of dislike for Wilford Cameron, which she could +never wholly conquer. He was very polite to her, but something in his +manner annoyed and provoked her, it was so cool, so condescending, as +if he endured her merely because she was Katy's sister, nothing more. + +"Rather pretty, more character than Katy, but odd, and self-willed, with +no kind of style." + +This was Wilford's running comment on Helen as he took her in from the +plain arrangement of her dark hair to the fit of her French calico and +the cut of her linen Collar. + +Fashionable dress would improve her very much, he thought, turning from +her with a feeling of relief to Katy, whom nothing could disfigure, and +who was now watching the door eagerly for the entrance of her mother. +That lady had spent a good deal of time at her toilet, and she came in +at last, flurried, fidgety, and very red, both from exercise and the +bright-hued ribbons streaming from her cap and sadly at variance with +the color of her dress. Wilford noticed the discrepancy at once, and +noticed too how little style there was about the nervous woman greeting +him so deferentially and evidently regarding him as something infinitely +superior to herself. Wilford had looked with indifference upon Helen, +but it would take a stronger word to express his opinion of the mother. +Had he come accidentally upon her without ever having met with Katy, he +would have regarded her as a plain, common country woman, who meant well +if nothing more; but now, alas! with Katy in the foreground, he was +weighing her in a far different balance and finding her sadly wanting. +He had not seen Aunt Hannah, nor yet Aunt Betsy, for they were in the +kitchen, making the last preparations for the dinner to which Morris was +to remain. He was in the parlor now and in his presence Wilford felt +more at ease, more as if he had found an affinity. Uncle Ephraim was not +there, having eaten his bowl of milk and gone back to his stone wall, so +that upon Morris devolved the duties of host, and he courteously led the +way to the little dining-room, which Wilford confessed was not +uninviting, with its clean floor and walls, and the table so loaded with +the good things Aunt Hannah had prepared, burning and browning her +wrinkled face, which nevertheless smiled pleasantly upon the stranger +presented as Mr. Cameron. + +About Aunt Hannah there was something naturally ladylike, and Wilford +saw it; but when it came to Aunt Betsy, of whom he had never heard, he +felt for a moment as if by being there in such promiscuous company he +had somehow fallen from the Cameron's high estate. By way of pleasing +the girls and doing honor to their "beau," as she called Wilford, Aunt +Betsy had donned her very best attire, wearing the slate-colored pongee +dress, bought twenty years before, and actually sporting a set of +Helen's cast off hoops, which being quite too large for the dimensions +of her scanty skirt, gave her anything but the stylish appearance she +intended. + +"Oh, auntie!" was Katy's involuntary exclamation, while Helen bit her +lip with vexation, for the hoop had been an after thought to Aunt Betsy +just before going in to dinner. + +But the good old lady never dreamed of shocking any one with her +attempts at fashion; and curtseying very low to Mr. Cameron, she hoped +for a better acquaintance, and then took her seat at the table, just +where each movement could be distinctly seen by Wilford, scanning her so +intently as scarcely to hear the reverent words with which Morris asked +a blessing upon themselves and the food so abundantly prepared. They +could hardly have gotten through that first dinner without Morris, who +adroitly tried to divert Wilford's mind from what was passing around +him. But with all his vigilance he could not prevent his hearing Aunt +Betsy as, in an aside to Helen, she denounced the heavy fork she was +awkwardly trying to use, first expressing her surprise at finding it by +her plate instead of the smaller one to which she was accustomed. + +"The land! if you didn't borry Morris' forks! I'd as soon eat with the +toastin' iron," she said, in a tone of distress, but Helen's foot +touching hers warned her to keep silence, which she did after that, and +the dinner proceeded quietly, Wilford discovering ere its close that +Mrs. Lennox, now that she was more composed, had really some pretensions +to a lady, while Helen's dress and collar ceased to be obnoxious, as he +watched the play of her fine features and saw her eyes kindle as she +took a modest part in the conversation when it turned on books and +literature. + +Meanwhile Katy kept very still, her cheeks flushing and her eyes cast +down whenever she met Wilford's gaze; but when, after dinner was over +and Morris had gone, she went with him down to the shore of the pond, +her tongue was loosed, and Wilford found again the little fairy who had +so bewitched him a few weeks before. And yet there was a load upon his +mind--a shadow made by the actual knowledge that between Katy's family +and his there was a gulf which never could be crossed by either party. +He might bear Katy over, it was true, but would she not look longingly +back to the humble home, and might he not sometimes be greatly chagrined +by the sudden appearing of some one of this old-bred family who did not +seem to realize how ignorant they were, how far below him in the social +scale? Poor Wilford! he winced and shivered when he thought of Aunt +Betsy, in her antiquated pongee, and remembered that she was a near +relative of the little maiden sporting so playfully around him, stealing +his heart away in spite of family pride, and making him more deeply in +love than ever. It was very pleasant down by the pond, and Wilford, who +liked staying there better than at the house, kept Katy with him until +the sun was going down and they heard in the distance the tinkle of a +bell as the deacon's cows plodded slowly homeward. Supper was waiting +for them, and with his appetite sharpened by his walk, Wilford found no +cause of complaint against Aunt Hannah's viands, though he smiled +mentally as he accepted the piece of apple pie Aunt Betsy offered him, +saying by way of recommendation that "she made the crust but Catherine +peeled and sliced the apples." + +The deacon had not returned from his work, and so Wilford did not see +him until he came suddenly upon him, seated in the woodshed door, +washing his feet after the labor of the day. Ephraim Barlow was a man to +command respect, and to a certain extent Wilford recognized the true +worth embodied in that unpolished exterior. He did not, however, see +much of him that night, for, as the deacon said, apologetically: "The +cows is to milk and the chores all to do, for I never keep no boy," and +when at last the chores were done the clock pointed to half-past eight, +the hour for family worship. Unaccustomed as Wilford was to such things, +he felt the influence of the deacon's voice as he read from the Word of +God, and involuntarily found himself kneeling when Katy knelt, noticing +the deacon's grammar, it is true, but still listening patiently to the +rather lengthy prayer which included him as well as the rest of mankind. + +There was no chance of seeing Katy alone, and so full two hours before +his usual custom Wilford retired to the little room to which the deacon +conducted him, saying as he put down the lamp: "You'll find it pretty +snug quarters, I guess, for such a close, muggy night as this, but if +you can't stand it you must lie on the floor." + +And truly they were snug quarters, Wilford thought; but there was no +alternative, and a few moments found him in the center of two feather +beds, neither Helen nor Katy having discovered the addition made by Aunt +Betsy, and which came near being the death of the New York guest, who, +wholly unaccustomed to feathers, was almost smothered in them, besides +being nearly melted. To sleep was impossible, as the September night +was hot and sultry, and never for a moment did Wilford lose his +consciousness or forget to accuse himself of being an idiot for coming +into that heathenish neighborhood after a wife when at home there were +so many girls ready and waiting for him. + +"I'll go back to-morrow morning," he said, and, striking a match, he +read in his Railway Guide when the first train passed Silverton, feeling +comforted to think that only a few hours intervened between him and +freedom. + +But alas! for Wilford. He was but a man, subject to man's caprices, and +when next morning he met Katy Lennox, looking in her light muslin as +pure and fair as the white blossoms twined in her wavy hair, his +resolution began to waver. Perhaps there was a decent hotel in +Silverton; he would inquire of Dr. Grant; at all events he would not +take the first train as he had intended doing; and so he stayed, eating +fried apples and beefsteak, but forgetting to criticise, in his +appreciation of the rich thick cream poured into his coffee, and the +sweet, golden butter, which melted in soft waves upon the flakey rolls. +Again Uncle Ephraim was absent, having gone to the mill before Wilford +left his room, nor was he visible to the young man until after dinner, +for Wilford did not go home, but drove instead with Katy in the carriage +which Morris sent around, excusing himself from coming on the plea of +being too busy, but saying he would join them at tea, if possible. +Wilford's mind was not yet fully made up, so he concluded to remain +another day and see more of Katy's family. Accordingly, after dinner, he +bent his energies to read them all, from Helen down to Aunt Betsy, the +latter of whom proved the most transparent of the four. Arrayed again +in the pongee, but this time without the hoop, she came into the parlor, +bringing her calico patchwork, which she informed him was pieced in the +"herrin' bone pattern" and intended for Katy; telling him, further, that +the feather bed on which he slept was also a part of "Catherine's +setting out," and was made from feathers she picked herself, showing him +as proof a mark upon her arm, left there by the gray goose, which had +proved a little refractory when she tried to draw a stocking over its +head. + +Wilford groaned, and Katy's chance for being Mrs. Cameron was growing +constantly less and less as he saw more and more how vast was the +difference between the Barlows and himself. Helen, he acknowledged, was +passable, though she was not one whom he could ever introduce into New +York society; and he was wondering how Katy came to be so unlike the +rest, when Uncle Ephraim came up from the meadow, and announced himself +as ready now to visit, apologizing for his apparent neglect, and seeming +so absolutely to believe that his company was, of course, desirable, +that Wilford felt amused, wondering again what Juno, or even Mark Ray, +would think of the rough old man, sitting with his chair tipped back +against the wall, and going occasionally to the outside door to relieve +himself of his tobacco juice, for chewing was one of the deacon's +weaknesses. His pants were faultlessly clean, and his vest was buttoned +nearly up to his throat, but his coat was hanging on a nail out by the +kitchen door, and, to Katy's distress and Wilford's horror, he sat among +them in his shirt sleeves, all unconscious of harm or of the disquiet +awakened in the bosom of the young man, who on that point was foolishly +fastidious, and who showed by his face how much he was annoyed. Not even +the presence of Morris, who came in about tea time, was of any avail to +lift the cloud from his brow, and he seemed moody and silent until +supper was announced. This was the first opportunity Morris had had of +trying his powers of persuasion upon the deacon, and now, at a hint +from Katy, he said to him in an aside, as they were passing into the +dining-room: "Suppose, Uncle Ephraim, you put on your coat for once. It +is better than coming to the table so." + +"Pooh," was Uncle Ephraim's innocent rejoinder, spoken loudly enough +for Wilford to hear, "I don't need it an atom. I shan't catch cold, for +I am used to it; besides that, I never could stand the racket this hot +weather." + +In his simplicity he did not even suspect Morris' motive, but imputed it +wholly to his concern lest he should take cold. And so Wilford Cameron +found himself seated next to a man who willfully trampled upon all rules +of etiquette, shocking him in his most sensitive parts, and making him +thoroughly disgusted with the country and country people generally. All +but Morris and Katy--he did make an exception in their favor, leaning +most to Morris, whom he admired more and more as he became better +acquainted with him, wondering how he could content himself to settle +down quietly in Silverton, when he would surety die if compelled to live +there for a week. Something like this he said to Dr. Grant when that +evening they sat together in the handsome parlor at Linwood, for Morris +kindly invited him to spend the night with him: + +"I stay at Silverton, first, because I think I can do more good here +than elsewhere, and, secondly, because I really like the country and the +country people, for, strange and uncouth as they may seem to you, who +never lived among them, they have kinder, truer hearts beating beneath +their rough exteriors, than are often found in the city." + +This was Morris' reply, and in the conversation which ensued Wilford +Cameron caught glimpses of a nobler, higher phase of manhood than he had +thought existed, feeling an unbounded respect for one who, because he +believed it to be his duty, was, as it seemed to him, wasting his life +among people who could not appreciate his character, though they might +idolize the man. But this did not reconcile Wilford one whit the more to +Silverton. Uncle Ephraim had completed the work commenced by the two +feather beds, and at the breakfast, spread next morning in the coziest +of breakfast-rooms, he announced his intention of returning to New York +that day. To this Morris offered no objection, but asked to be +remembered to the mother, the sisters, and little Jamie, and then +invited Wilford to stop altogether at Linwood when he came again to +Silverton. + +"Thank you; but it is hardly probable that I shall be here very soon," +Wilford replied, adding, as he met the peculiar glance of Morris' eye: +"I found Miss Katy a delightful traveling acquaintance, and on my way +from Newport thought I would renew it and see a little of rustic life." + +Poor Katy! how her heart would have ached could she have heard those +words and understood their meaning, just as Morris did, feeling a rising +indignation for the man with whom he could not be absolutely angry, he +was so self-possessed, so pleasant and gentlemanly, while better than +all, was he not virtually giving Katy up? and if he did, might she not +turn at last to him? + +These were Morris' thoughts as he walked with Wilford across the fields +to the farmhouse, where Katy met them with her sunniest smile, singing +to them, at Wilford's request, her sweetest song, and making him half +wish he could revoke his hasty decision and tarry a little longer. But +it was now too late for that; the carriage which would take him to the +depot was already on its way from Linwood; and when the song was ended +he told her of his intentions to leave on the next train, feeling a pang +when he saw how the blood left her cheek and lip, and then came surging +back as she said timidly: "Why need you leave so soon?" + +"Oh, I have already outstayed my time. I thought of going yesterday, +and my partner, Mr. Ray, will be expecting me," Wilford replied, +involuntarily laying his hand upon Katy's shining hair, while Morris +and Helen stole quietly from the room. + +Thus left to himself, Wilford continued: + +"Maybe I'll come again some time. Would you like to have me?" + +"Yes," and Katy's blue eyes were lifted pleadingly to the young man, who +had never loved her so well as that very moment when resolving to cast +her off. + +And as for Katy, she mentally called herself a fool for suffering +Wilford Cameron to see what was in her heart; but she could not help it, +for she loved him with all the strength of her impulsive nature, and to +have him leave her so suddenly hurt her cruelly. + +For a moment Wilford was strongly tempted to throw all family pride +aside, and ask that young girl to be his; but thoughts of his mother, +of Juno and Bell, and more than all, thoughts of Uncle Ephraim and his +Sister Betsy, arose in time to prevent it, and so he only kissed her +forehead caressingly as he said good-by, telling her that he should not +soon forget his visit to Silverton, and then as the carriage drove up, +going out to where the remainder of the family were standing together +and commenting upon his sudden departure. + +It was not sudden, he said, trying to explain. He really had thought +seriously of going yesterday, and feeling that he had something to atone +for, he tried to be unusually gracious as he shook their hands, thanking +them for their kindness, but seeming wholly oblivious to Aunt Betsy's +remark that "she hoped to see him again, if not at Silverton, in New +York, where she wanted dreadfully to visit, but never had on account +of the 'bominable prices charged to the taverns, and she hadn't no +acquaintances there." + +This was Aunt Betsy's parting remark, and after Katy, simple-hearted +Aunt Betsy liked Wilford Cameron better than any one of the group which +watched him as he drove rapidly from their door. Aunt Hannah thought him +too much stuck up for farmer's folks, while Mrs. Lennox, whose ambition +would have accounted him a most desirable match for her daughter, could +not deny that his manner toward them, though polite in the extreme, was +that of a superior to people greatly beneath him; while Helen, who saw +clearer than the rest, read him tolerably aright, and detected the +struggle between his pride and his love for poor little Katy, whom she +found sitting on the floor, just where Wilford left her standing, her +head resting on the chair and her face hidden in her hands as she sobbed +quietly, hardly knowing why she cried or what to answer when Helen asked +what was the matter. + +"It was so queer in him to go so soon," she said; "just as if he were +offended about something." + +"Never mind, Katy," Helen said, soothingly. "If he's for you he will come +back again. He could not stay here always, of course; and I must say I +respect him for attending to his business, if he has any. He has been +gone from home for weeks, you know." + +This was Helen's reasoning; but it did not comfort Katy, whose face +looked white and sad, as she moved listlessly about the house, almost +crying again when she beard in the distance the whistle of the train +which was to carry Wilford Cameron away, and end his first visit to +Silverton. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +IN THE SPRING. + + +Katy Lennox had been very sick, and the bed where Wilford slept had +stood in the parlor during the long weeks while the obstinate fever ran +its course; but she was better now, and sat nearly all day before the +fire, sometimes trying to crochet a little, and again turning over the +books which Morris had brought to interest her--Morris, the kind +physician, who had attended her so faithfully, never leaving her while +the fever was at its height, unless it was necessary, but staying with +her day and night, watching her symptoms carefully, and praying so +earnestly that she might not die--not, at least, until some token had +been given that again in the better world he should find her, where +partings were unknown and where no Wilford Camerons could contest the +prize with him. Not that he was greatly afraid of Wilford now; that fear +had mostly died away just as the hope had died from Katy's heart that +she would ever meet him again. + +Since the September morning when he left her, she had not heard from him +except once, when in the winter Morris had been to New York, and having +a few hours' leisure on his hands had called at Wilford's office, +receiving a most cordial reception, and meeting with young Mark Ray, who +impressed him as a man quite as highly cultivated as Wilford; and +possessed of more character and principle. This call was not altogether +of Morris' seeking, but was made rather with a view to pleasing Katy, +who, when she learned that he was going to New York, had said +inadvertently: "Oh, I do so hope you'll meet with Mr. Cameron, for then +we shall know that he is neither sick nor dead, as I have sometimes +feared." + +And so, remembering this, Morris had sought out his rival, feeling more +than repaid for the mental effort it had cost him, when he saw how +really glad Wilford seemed to meet him. The first commonplaces over, +Wilford inquired for Katy. Was she well, and how was she occupying her +time this winter? + +"Both Helen and Katy are pupils of mine," Morris replied, "reciting +their lessons to me every day when the weather will admit of their +crossing the fields to Linwood. We have often wondered what had become +of you, that you did not even let us know of your safe arrival home," he +added, looking Wilford fully in the eye, and rather enjoying his +confusion as he tried to apologize. + +He had intended writing, but an unusual amount of business had occupied +his time. "Mark will tell you how busy I was," and he turned appealingly +to his partner, in whose expressive eyes Morris read that Silverton was +not unknown to him. + +But if Wilford had told him anything derogatory of the farmhouse or its +inmates, it did not appear in Mr. Ray's manner, as he replied that Mr. +Cameron had been very busy ever since his return from Silverton, adding: +"From what Cameron tells me of your neighborhood there must be some +splendid hunting and fishing there, and I had last fall half a mind to +try it." + +This time there was something comical in the eyes turned so +mischievously upon Wilford, who colored scarlet for an instant, but soon +recovered his composure, and invited Morris home with him to dinner. + +"I shall not take a refusal," he said, as Morris began to decline. +"Mother and the young ladies will be delighted to see you again, while +Jamie--well, Jamie, I believe, worships the memory of the physician who +was so kind to him in France. You did Jamie a world of good, Dr. Grant, +and you must see him. Mark will go with us, of course." + +There was something so hearty in Wilford's invitation that Morris did +not again object, and two hours later found him in the drawing-room at +No. ---- Fifth Avenue, receiving the friendly greetings of Mrs. Cameron +and her daughter, each of whom vied with the other in their polite +attentions to him, while little Jamie, to whose nursery he was admitted, +wound his arms around his neck and laying his curly head upon his +shoulder, cried quietly, whispering as he did so: "I am so glad, Dr. +Grant, so glad to see you again. I thought I never should, but I've not +forgotten the prayer you taught me, and I say it often when my back +aches so I cannot sleep and there's no one around to hear but Jesus. I +love Him now, if he did make me lame, and I know that He loves me." + +Surely the bread cast upon the waters had returned again after many +days, and Morris Grant did not regret the time spent with the poor +crippled boy, teaching him the way of life and sowing the seed which +now was bearing fruit. Nor did he regret having accepted Wilford's +invitation to dinner, as by this means he saw the home which had +well-nigh been little Katy Lennox's. She would be sadly out of place +here with these people, he thought, as he looked upon all their +formality and ceremony and then contrasted it with what Katy had been +accustomed to. Juno would kill her outright, was his next mental +comment, as he watched that haughty young lady, dressed in the extreme +of fashion and dividing her coquetries between himself and Mr. Ray, who, +being every way desirable both in point of family and wealth, was +evidently her favorite. She had colored scarlet when first presented to +Dr. Grant, and her voice had trembled as she took his offered hand, for +she remembered the time when her liking had not been concealed, and was +only withdrawn at the last because she found how useless it was to waste +her affections upon one who did not prize them. + +When Wilford first returned from Silverton he had, as a sore means of +forgetting Katy, told his mother and sisters something of the farmhouse +and its inmates; and Juno, while ridiculing both Helen and Katy, had +felt a fierce pang of jealousy in knowing they were cousins to Morris +Grant, who lived so near that he could, if he liked, see them every day. +In Paris Juno had suspected that somebody was standing between her and +Dr. Grant and how with the quick insight of a smart, bright woman, she +guessed that it was one of these same cousins, Katy most likely, her +brother having described Helen as very commonplace, and for a time she +had hated poor, innocent Katy most cordially for having come between her +and the only man for whom she had ever really cared. Gradually, however, +the feeling died away, but was revived again at sight of Morris Grant, +and at the table she could not forbear saying to him: + +"By the way, Dr. Grant, why did you never tell us of those charming +cousins, when you were in Paris? Why, Brother Will describes one of them +as a little water lily, she is so fair and pretty. Katy, I think is her +name. Wilford, isn't it Katy Lennox whom you think so beautiful, and +with whom you are more than half in love?" + +"Yes, it is Katy," and Wilford spoke sternly, for he did not like Juno's +bantering tone, but he could not stop her, and she went on: + +"Are they your cousins, Dr. Grant?" + +"No, they are removed from me two or three degrees, their father having +been only my second cousin." + +The fact that Katy Lennox was not nearly enough related to Dr. Grant to +prevent his marrying her if he liked, did not improve Juno's amiability, +and she continued to ask questions concerning both Katy and Helen, the +latter of whom she persisted in thinking was strong-minded, until Mark +Ray came to the rescue, diverting her attention by adroitly +complimenting her in some way, and so relieving Wilford and Morris, +both of whom were exceedingly annoyed. + +"When Will visits Silverton again I mean to go with him," she said to +Morris at parting, but he did not tell her that such an event would give +him the greatest pleasure. On the contrary, he merely replied: + +"If you do you will find plenty of room at Linwood for those four trunks +which I remember seeing in Paris, and your brother will tell you whether +I am a hospitable host or not." + +Biting her lip with chagrin, Juno went back to the drawing-room, while +Morris returned to his hotel, accompanied by Wilford, who passed the +entire evening with him, appearing somewhat constrained, as if there was +something on his mind which he wished to say; but it remained unspoken, +and there was no allusion to Silverton until as Wilford was leaving, he +said: + +"Remember me kindly to the Silverton friends, and say I have not +forgotten them." + +And this was all there was to carry back to the anxious Katy, who on the +afternoon of Morris' return from New York was over at Linwood waiting to +pour his tea and make his toast, she pretended, though the real reason +was shining all over her telltale face, which grew so bright and eager +when Morris said: + +"I dined at Mr. Cameron's, Kitty." + +But the brightness gradually faded as Morris described his call and then +repeated Wilford's message. + +"And that was all," Katy whispered sorrowfully as she beat the damask +cloth softly with her fingers, shutting her lips tightly together to +keep back her disappointment. + +When Morris glanced at her again there was a tear on her long eyelashes, +and it dropped upon her cheek, followed by another and another, but he +did not seem to see it, talking of New York and the fine sights in +Broadway until Katy was herself again, able to take part in the +conversation. + +"Please don't tell Helen that you saw Wilford," she said to Morris as he +walked home with her after tea, and that was the only allusion she made +to it, never after that mentioning Wilford's name or giving any token of +the wounded love still so strong within her heart, and waiting only for +some slight token to waken it again to life and vigor. + +This was in the winter, and Katy had been very sick since then--so sick +that even to her the thought had sometimes come: "What if I should die?" +but she was too weak, too nearly unconscious, to go further and reflect +upon the terrible reality death would bring if it found her unprepared. +She had only strength and sense enough to wonder if Wilford would care +when he heard that she was dead; and once, as she grew better, she +almost worked herself into a second fever with assisting at her own +obsequies, seeing only one mourner, and that one Wilford Cameron. Even +he was not there in time to see her in her coffin, but he wept over her +little grave and called her "darling Katy." So vividly had Katy pictured +all this scene, that Morris, when he called, found her flushed and hot, +with traces of tears on her face. + +In reply to his inquiries as to what was the matter, she had answered +laughingly: "Oh, nothing much--only I have been burying myself," and so +Morris never dreamed of the real nature of her reveries, or guessed that +Wilford Cameron was mingled with every thought. She had forgotten him, +he believed; and when, as she grew stronger, he saw how her eyes +sparkled at his coming, and how impatient she seemed if he was obliged +to hurry off, hope whispered that she would surely be his, and his +usually grave face wore a look of happiness which even his patients +noticed, feeling themselves better after one of his cheery visits. Poor +Morris! he was little prepared for the terrible blow in store for him, +when one day early in April he started, as usual, to visit Katy, saying +to himself: "If I find her alone, perhaps I'll tell her of my love, and +ask if she will come to Linwood this summer;" and Morris paused a moment +beneath a beechwood tree to still the throbbings of his heart, which +beat so fast as he thought of going home some day from his weary work +and finding Katy there, his little wife--his own--whom he might caress +and love all his affectionate nature would prompt him to. He knew that +in some points she was weak--a silly little thing she called herself +when comparing her mind with Helen's--but there was about her so much +of purity, innocence, and perfect beauty, that few men, however strong +their intellect, could withstand her, and Morris, though knowing her +weakness, felt that in possessing her he should have all he needed to +make this life desirable. She would improve as she grew older, and it +would be a most delightful task to train her into what she was capable +of becoming. Alas! for Dr. Morris! He was very near the farmhouse now, +and there were only a few minutes between him and the cloud which would +darken his horizon so completely. Katy was alone, sitting up in her +pretty dressing gown of blue, which was so becoming to her pure +complexion. Her hair, which had been all cut away during her long +sickness, was growing out again somewhat darker than before, and lay in +rings upon her head, making her look more childish than ever. But to +this Morris did not object. He liked to have her a child, and he +thought he had never seen her so wholly beautiful as she was this +morning, when, with glowing cheek and dancing eyes, she greeted him as +he came in. + +"Oh, Dr. Morris!" she began, holding up a letter she had in her hand, +"I am so glad you've come, for I wanted to tell you so badly Wilford has +not forgotten me, as I used to think, and as I guess you thought, too, +though you did not say so. He has written, and he is coming again, if I +will let him; and, oh, Morris! I am so glad! Ain't you? Seeing you knew +all about it, and never told Helen, I'll let you read the letter." + +And she held it toward the young man leaning against the mantel and +panting for the breath which came so heavily. + +Something he said apologetically about being snow blind, for there +was that day quite a fall of soft spring snow; and then with a mighty +effort, which made his heart quiver with pain, Morris was himself once +more, and took the letter in his hand. + +"Perhaps I had better not read it," he said, but Katy insisted that he +might, and thinking to himself: "It will cure me sooner perhaps," he +read the few lines Wilford Cameron had written to his "dear little +Katy." + +That was the way he addressed her, going on to say that circumstances +which he could not explain to her had kept him silent ever since he left +her the previous autumn; but through all he never for a moment had +forgotten her, thinking of her the more for the silence he had +maintained. "And now that I have risen above the circumstances," he +added, in conclusion, "I write to ask if I may come to Silverton again. +If I may, just drop me one word, 'come,' and in less than a week I shall +be there. Yours very truly, W. Cameron." + +Morris read the letter through, feeling that every word was separating +him further and further from Katy, to whom he said: "You will answer +this?" + +"Yes, oh yes; perhaps to-day." + +"And you will tell him to come?" + +"Why, yes--what else should I tell him?" and Katy's blue eyes looked +wonderingly at Morris, who hardly knew what he was doing, or why he said +to her next: "Listen to me, Katy. You know why Wilford Cameron comes +here a second time, and what he will probably ask you ere he goes away; +but, Katy, you are not strong enough yet to see him under so exciting +circumstances, and, as your physician, I desire that you tell him to +wait at least three weeks before he comes. Will you do so, Katy?" + +"That is just as Helen talked," Katy answered, mournfully. "She said I +was not able." + +"And will you heed us?" Morris asked again, while Katy after a moment +consented; and glad of this respite from what he knew to a certainty +would be, Morris dealt out her medicine, and for an instant felt her +rapid pulse, but did not retain her hand within his own, nor lay his +other upon her head, as he had sometimes done. + +He could not do that now, and so he hurried away, finding the world into +which he went far different from what it had seemed an hour ago. Then +all was bright and hopeful; but now, alas! a darker night was gathering +around him than any he had ever known, and the patients visited that day +marveled at the whiteness of his face, asking if he were ill? Yes, he +answered them truly, and for two days he was not seen again, but +remained at home alone, where none but his God was witness to what he +suffered; but when the third day came he went again among his sick, +grave, quiet and unchanged to outward appearance, unless it was that +his voice, always so kind, had now a kinder tone and his manner was +tenderer, more sympathizing. Inwardly, however, there was a change, for +Morris Grant had lain himself upon the sacrificial altar, willing to be +and to endure whatever God should appoint, knowing that all would +eventually be for his good. To the farmhouse he went every day, talking +most with Helen now, but never forgetting who it was sitting so demurely +in the armchair, or flitting about the room, for Katy was gaining +rapidly. Love perhaps had had nothing to do with her dangerous illness, +but it had much to do with her recovery, and those not in the secret +wondered to see how she improved, her cheeks growing round and full and +her eyes shining with returning health and happiness. + +At Helen's instigation Katy had deferred Wilford's visit four weeks +instead of three, but in that time there had come two letters from him, +letters so full of anxiety and sympathy for "his poor little Katy who +had been so sick," that even Helen began to think she had done injustice +to him, that he was not as proud and heartless as she supposed, and that +he did love her sister after all. + +"If I supposed he meant to deceive her I should wish I was a man to +cowhide him," she said to herself, with flashing eye, as she heard Katy +exulting that he was coming "to-morrow." + +This time he would stop at Linwood, for Katy had asked Morris if he +might, while Morris had told her "yes," feeling his heart wound throb +afresh, as he thought how hard it would be to entertain his rival. Of +himself Morris could do nothing, but with the help he never sought in +vain he could do all things, and so he gave orders that the best chamber +should be prepared for his guest, bidding Mrs. Hull, his housekeeper, +see that no pains were spared for his entertainment, and then with Katy +he waited for the day, the last one in April, which should bring Wilford +Cameron a second time to Silverton. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WILFORD'S SECOND VISIT. + + +Wilford Cameron had tried to forget Katy Lennox, while his mother and +sisters had done their best to help to forget, or at least sicken of +her; and as the three, Juno, Bell and the mother, were very differently +constituted, they had widely different ways of assisting him in his +dilemma, the mother complimenting his good sense in drawing back from +an alliance which could only bring him mortification; Bell, the blue +sister, ignoring the idea of Wilford's marrying that country girl as +something too preposterous to be contemplated for a moment, much less to +be talked about; while Juno spared neither ridicule nor sarcasm, using +the former weapon so effectually that her brother at one time nearly +went over to the enemy; and Katy's tears, shed so often when no one +could see her, were not without a reason. Wilford was trying to forget +her, both for his sake and her own, for he foresaw that she could not +be happy with his family, and he came to think it might be a wrong to +her, transplanting her into a soil so wholly unlike that in which her +habits and affections had taken root. + +His father once had abruptly asked him if there was any truth in the +report that he was about to marry and make a fool of himself, and when +Wilford had answered "No," he had replied with a significant: + +"Umph! Old enough, I should think, if you ever intend to marry. +Wilford," and the old man faced square about: "I know nothing of the +girl, except what I gathered from your mother and sisters. You have not +asked my advice. I don't suppose you want it, but if you do, here it is. +If you love the girl and she is respectable, marry her if she is poor as +poverty and the daughter of a tinker; but if you don't love her, and +she's rich as a nabob, for thunder's sake keep away from her." + +This was the elder Cameron's counsel, and Katy's cause arose fifty per +cent, in consequence. Still Wilford was sadly disquieted, so much so +that his partner, Mark Ray, could not fail to observe that something was +troubling him, and at last frankly asked what it was. Wilford knew he +could trust Mark, and he confessed the whole, telling him far more of +Silverton than he had told his mother, and then asking what his friend +would do were the case his own. + +Fond of fun and frolic, Mark laughed immoderately at Wilford's +description of Aunt Betsy bringing her "herrin' bone" patchwork into the +parlor, and telling him it was a part of Katy's "settin' out," but when +it came to her hint for an invitation to visit in New York, the amused +young man roared with laughter, wishing so much that he might live to +see the day when poor Aunt Betsy Barlow stood ringing for admittance at +No. ---- Fifth Avenue. + +"Wouldn't it be rich, though, the meeting between your Aunt Betsy and +Juno?" and the tears fairly poured down the young man's face. + +But Wilford was too serious for trifling, and after his merriment had +subsided, Mark talked with him candidly, sensibly, of Katy Lennox, whose +cause he warmly espoused, telling Wilford that he was far too sensitive +with regard to family and position. + +"You are a good fellow on the whole, but too outrageously proud," he +said. "Of course this Aunt Betsy in her pongee, whatever that may be, +and the uncle in his shirt sleeves, and this mother whom you describe as +weak and ambitious, are objections which you would rather should not +exist; but if you love the girl, take her, family and all. Not that you +are to transport the whole colony of Barlows to New York," he added, as +he saw Wilford's look of horror, "but make up your mind to endure what +cannot be helped, resting yourself upon the fact that your position is +such as cannot well be affected by any marriage you might make, provided +the wife were right." + +This was Mark Ray's advice, and it had great weight with Wilford, who +knew that Mark came, if possible, from a better line of ancestry than +himself, inasmuch as his maternal grandmother was a near relative of the +English Percys, and the daughter of a lord. And still Wilford hesitated, +waiting until the winter was over before he came to the decision which +when it was reached was firm as a granite rock. He had made up his mind +at last to marry Katy Lennox if she would accept him, and he told his +mother so in the presence of his sisters, when one evening they were all +kept at home by the rain. There was a sudden uplifting of Bell's +eyelashes, a contemptuous shrug of her shoulders, and then she went on +with the book she was reading, wondering if Katy was at all inclined to +literature, and thinking if she were that it might be easier to tolerate +her. Juno, who was expected to say the sharpest things, turned upon him +with the exclamation: + +"If you can stand those two feather beds, you can do more than I +supposed," and as one means of showing her disapproval, she quitted the +room, while Bell, who had taken to writing articles on the follies of +the age, soon followed her sister to elaborate an idea suggested to her +mind by her brother's contemplated marriage. + +Thus left alone with her son, Mrs. Cameron tried all her powers of +persuasion upon him in vain. But nothing she said influenced him in the +least, seeing which she suddenly confronted him with the question: +"Shall you tell her all? A husband should have no secrets of that kind +from his wife." + +Wilford's face was white as ashes, and his voice trembled as he replied: +"Yes, mother, I shall tell her all; but, oh! you do not know how hard it +has been for me to bring my mind to that, or how sorry I am that we ever +kept that secret--when Genevra died--" + +"Hush-h!" came warningly from the mother as Juno reappeared, the warning +indicating that Genevra, whoever she might be, was a personage never +mentioned, except by mother and son. + +As Juno remained the conversation was not resumed, and the next morning +Wilford wrote to Katy Lennox the letter which carried to her so much of +joy, and to Dr. Grant so much of grief. To wait four weeks, as Katy said +he must, was a terrible trial to Wilford, who counted every moment which +kept him from her side. It was all owing to Dr. Grant and that +perpendicular Helen, he knew, for Katy in her letter had admitted that +the waiting was wholly their suggestion; and Wilford's thoughts +concerning them were anything but complimentary, until a new idea was +suggested, which drove every other consideration from his mind. + +Wilford was naturally jealous, but that fault had once led him into so +deep a trouble that he had struggled hard to overcome it, and now, at +its first approach, after he thought it dead, he tried to shake it +off--tried not to believe that Morris cared especially for Katy. But +the mere possibility was unendurable, and in a most feverish state of +excitement he started again for Silverton. + +As before, Morris was waiting for him at the station, his cordial +greeting and friendly manner disarming him from all anxiety in that +quarter, and making him resolve anew to trample the demon jealousy under +his feet, where it could never rise again. Katy's life should not be +darkened by the green monster, he thought, and her future would have +been bright indeed had it proved all that he pictured it as he drove +along with Morris in the direction of the farmhouse, for he was to stop +there first and then at night go over to sleep at Linwood. + +Katy was waiting for him, and as he met her alone, he did not hesitate +to kiss her more than once as he kept her for a moment in his arms, and +then held her off to see if her illness had left any traces upon her. It +had not, except it were in the increased delicacy of her complexion and +the short hair now growing out in silky rings. She was very pretty in +her short hair, but Wilford felt a little impatient as he saw how +childish it made her look, and thought how long it would take for it to +attain its former length. He was already appropriating her to himself, +and devising ways of improving her. In New York, with Morris Grant +standing before his jealous gaze, he could see no fault in Katy, and +even now, with her beside him, and the ogre jealousy gone, he saw no +fault in her; it was only her dress, and that could be so easily +remedied. Otherwise she was perfect, and in his delight at meeting her +again he forgot to criticise the farmhouse and its occupants, as he had +done before. + +They were very civil to him--the mother overwhelmingly so--insomuch that +Wilford could not help detecting her anxiety that all should be settled +this time. Helen, on the contrary, was unusually cool, confirming him in +his opinion that she was strong-minded and self-willed, and making him +resolve to remove Katy as soon as possible from her strait-laced +influence. When talking with his mother he had said that if Katy had +told him "yes," he should probably place her at some fashionable school +for a year or two; but on the way to Silverton he had changed his mind. +He could not wait a year, and if he married Katy at all, it should he +immediately. He would then take her to Europe, where she could have the +best of teachers, besides the advantage of traveling; and it was a very +satisfactory picture he drew of the woman whom he should introduce into +New York society as his wife, Mrs. Wilford Cameron. It is true that Katy +had not yet said the all-important word, but she was going to say it, +and when late that afternoon they came up from the walk he had asked her +to take, she was his promised wife. + +They had sat together on the very rock where Katy sat that day when +Uncle Ephraim told her of the different paths there were through life, +some pleasant and free from care, some thorny and full of grief. Katy +had never forgotten the conversation, and, without knowing why, she had +always avoided that rock beneath the butternut as a place where there +had been revealed to her a glimpse of something sad; and so, when +Wilford proposed resting there, she at first objected, but yielded at +last, and, with his arm around her, listened to the story of his love. +It was what she had expected and thought herself prepared for, but when +it came it was so real, so earnest, that she could only clasp her hands +over her face, which she hid on Wilford's shoulder, weeping passionately +as she thought how strange it was for a man like Wilford Cameron to seek +her for his wife. Katy was no coquette; whatever she felt she expressed, +and when she could command herself she frankly confessed to Wilford her +love for him, telling him how the fear that he had forgotten her had +haunted her all the long, long winter; and then with her clear, truthful +blue eyes looking into his, asking him why he had not sent her some +message if, as he said, he loved her all the time. + +For a moment Wilford's lip was compressed and a flush overspread his +face, as, drawing her closer to him, he replied: "My little Katy will +remember that in my first note I spoke of certain circumstances which +had prevented my writing earlier. I do not know that I asked her not to +seek to know those circumstances; but I ask it now. Will Katy trust me +so far as to believe that all is right between us, and never allude to +these circumstances?" + +He was kissing her fondly, and his voice was so winning that Katy +promised all that was required; and then came the hardest, the trying to +tell her all, as he had said to his mother he would. Twice he essayed to +speak, and as often something sealed his lips, until at last he began: +"You must not think me perfect, Katy, for I have faults, and perhaps if +you knew my past life you would wish to revoke your recent decision and +render a different verdict to my suit. Suppose I unfold the blackest +leaf for your inspection?" + +"No, no, oh, no," and Katy playfully stopped his mouth with her hand. +"Of course you have some faults, but I would rather find them out +myself. I could not hear anything against you now. I am satisfied to +take you as you are." + +Wilford felt his heart throb wildly with the feeling that he was in some +way deceiving the young girl; but if she would not suffer him to tell +her, he was not to be censured if she remained in ignorance. And so the +golden moment fled, and when he spoke again he said: "If Katy will not +now read that leaf I offered to show her, she must not shrink back in +horror if ever it does meet her eye." + +"I don't, I promise," Katy answered, a vague feeling of fear creeping +over her as to what the reading of that mysterious page involved. But +this was soon forgotten, as Wilford, remembering his suspicions of Dr. +Grant, thought to probe a little by asking if she had ever loved any one +before himself? + +"No, never," she answered. "I never dreamed of such a thing until I saw +you, Mr. Cameron;" and Wilford believed the trusting girl, whose loving +nature shone in every lineament of her face, upturned to receive the +kisses he pressed upon it, resolving within himself to be to her what +he ought to be. + +"By the way," he continued, "don't call me Mr. Cameron again, as you did +just now. I would rather be your Wilford. It sounds more familiar. And +still," he added, "it may be better at present to reserve that name for +the time when we are alone. To your family I may as well remain Mr. +Cameron." + +This was an after thought, suggested by his knowing how he should shiver +to hear Aunt Betsy call him "Wilford," as she surely would if Katy did. +Then he told her of his projected tour to Europe, and Katy felt her +pulses quicken as she thought of London, Paris and Rome, as places which +her plain country eyes might yet look upon. But when it came to their +marriage, which Wilford said must be soon--within a few weeks--she +demurred, for this arrangement was not in accordance with her desires. +She should so much enjoy a long courtship with Wilford coming often to +Silverton, and such quantities of letters passing between them as should +make her the envy of all Silverton. This was Katy's idea, and she +opposed her lover with all her strength, telling him she was so young, +not eighteen till July, and she knew so little of housekeeping. He must +let her stay at home until she learned at least the art of making bread! + +Poor, ignorant Katy! Wilford could not forbear a smile as he thought how +different were her views from his, and tried to explain that the art of +bread-making, though very desirable in most wives, was not an essential +accomplishment for his. Servants would do that; besides he did not +intend to have a house of his own at once; he should take her first to +live with his mother, where she could learn what was necessary much +better than there in Silverton. + +Wilford Cameron expected to be obeyed in every important matter by the +happy person who should be his wife, and as he possessed the faculty of +enforcing perfect obedience without seeming to be severe, so he silenced +Katy's arguments, and when they left the shadow of the butternut tree +she knew that in all human probability six weeks' time would find her on +the broad ocean alone with Wilford Cameron. So perfect was Katy's faith +and love that she had no fear of Wilford now, but as his affianced wife +walked confidently by his side, feeling fully his equal, nor once +dreaming how great the disparity his city friends would discover between +the fastidious man of fashion and the unsophisticated country girl. And +Wilford did not seek to enlighten her, but suffered her to talk of the +delight it would be to live in New York, and how pleasant for mother and +Helen to visit her, especially the latter, who would thus have a chance +to see something of the world. + +"When I get a house of my own I mean she shall live with me all the +while," she said, stooping to gather a tuft of wild bluebells growing in +a marshy spot. + +Wilford winced a little, for in his estimation Helen Lennox formed no +part of that household to be established on Madison Square, but he would +not so soon tear down Katy's castles, and so he merely remarked as she +asked if it would not be nice to have Helen with them. + +"Yes, very nice, but do not speak of it to her yet, as it will probably +be some time before she will come to us, and she had better not have it +in anticipation." + +And so Helen never knew the honor in store for her as she stood in the +doorway anxiously waiting for her sister, who, she feared, would take +cold from being out so long. Something though in Katy's face made her +guess that to her was lost forever the bright little sister whom she +loved so dearly, and fleeing up the narrow stairway to her room she +wept bitterly as she thought of the coming time when she would share +that room alone, and know that never again would a little golden head +lie upon her neck just as it had lain, for there would be a new love, a +new interest between them, a love for the man whose voice she could hear +now talking to her mother in the peculiar tone he always assumed when +speaking to any one of them excepting Morris or Katy. + +"I wish it were not wrong to hate him," she exclaimed passionately; "it +would be such a relief; but if he is only kind to Katy, I do not care +how much he despises us," and bathing her face in water Helen sat down +by her window, gazing out upon the fresh green earth, where the young +grass was springing, wondering if Mr. Cameron took her sister, when it +would probably be. "Not this year or more," she said, "for Katy is so +young;" but on this point she was soon set right by Katy herself, who, +leaving her lover alone with her mother, stole up to tell her sister the +good news. + +"Yes, I know; I guessed as much when you came back from the meadows," +and Helen's voice was very unsteady in its tone as she smoothed back the +soft rings clustering around her sister's brow. + +"Crying. Helen! oh, don't. I shall love you just the same, and you are +coming to live with us in the new house on Madison Square," Katy said, +forgetting Wilford's instructions in her desire to comfort Helen, who +broke down again, while Katy's tears were mingled with her own. + +It was the first time Katy had thought what it would be to leave forever +the good, patient sister, who had been so true, so kind, treating her +like a petted kitten and standing between her and every hardship. + +"Don't cry, Nellie," she said, twining her arms around her neck; "New +York is not far away, and I shall come so often--that is, after we +return from Europe. Did I tell you we are going there first, and Wilford +will not wait, but says we must be married the tenth of June; that's his +birthday--thirty--and he is telling mother now." + +"So soon--oh, Katy! and you so young!" was all Helen could say, as with +quivering lip she kissed her sister's hand raised to wipe her tears +away. + +"Yes, it is soon, and I am young; but Wilford is in such a hurry; he +don't care," Katy replied, trying to comfort Helen, and begging of her +not to cry so hard. + +No, Wilford did not care, as it would seem, how much he wrung the hearts +of Katy's family by taking her from them at once, and by dictating to a +certain extent the way in which he would take her. There must be no +invited guests, he said; no lookers-on, except such as chose to go to +the church where the ceremony would, of course, be performed, and from +which place he should go directly to the Boston train. It was his wish, +too, that the matter should be kept as quiet as possible, and not be +generally discussed in the neighborhood, as he disliked being a subject +for gossip. And Mrs. Lennox, to whom this was said, promised compliance +with everything, or if she ventured to object she found herself borne +down by a stronger will than her own, and weakly yielded, her manner +fully testifying to her delight at the honor conferred upon her by this +high marriage of her child. Wilford knew just how pleased she was, and +her obsequious manner annoyed him far more than did Helen's blunt, +straightforwardness, when, after supper was over, she told him how +averse she was to his taking Katy so soon, adding still further that if +it must be, she saw no harm in inviting a few of their neighbors. It was +customary--it would be expected, she said, while Mrs. Lennox, emboldened +by Helen's boldness, chimed in, "at least your folks will come; I shall +be glad to meet your mother." + +Wilford was very polite to them both; very good-humored, but he kept to +his first position, and poor Mrs. Lennox saw fade into airy nothingness +all her visions of roasted fowls and frosted cake trimmed with myrtle +and flowers, with hosts of the Silverton people there to admire and +partake of the marriage feast. It was too bad, and so Aunt Betty said, +when, after Wilford had gone to Linwood, the family sat together around +the kitchen stove, talking the matter over. + +"Yes, it was too bad, when there was that white hen turkey she could fat +up so easy before June, and she knew how to make 'lection cake that +would melt in your mouth, and was enough sight better than the black +stuff they called weddin' cake. Vum! she meant to try what she could do +with Mr. Cameron." + +And next morning when he came again she did try, holding out as +inducements why he should be married the night before starting for +Boston, the "white hen, turkey, the 'lection cake, and the gay old times +the young folks would have playing snap-and-catchem; or if they had a +mind, they could dance a bit in the kitchen. She didn't believe in it, +to be sure--none of the orthodox did; but as Wilford was a 'Piscopal, +and that was a 'Piscopal quirk, it wouldn't harm for once." + +Wilford tried not to show his disgust, and only Helen suspected how hard +it was for him to keep down his utter contempt. She saw it in his eyes, +which resembled two smoldering volcanoes as they rested upon Aunt Betsy +during her harangue. + +"Thank you, madam, for your good intentions, but I think we will +dispense with the turkey and the cake," was all he said, though he did +smile at the old lady's definition of dancing, which for once she might +allow. + +Even Morris, when appealed to, decided with Wilford against Mrs. Lennox +and Aunt Betsy, knowing how unequal he was to the task which would +devolve on him in case of a bridal party at the farmhouse. In +comparative silence he had heard from Wilford of his engagement, +offering no objection when told how soon the marriage would take place, +but congratulating him so quietly that, if Wilford had retained a +feeling of jealousy, it would have disappeared; Morris was so seemingly +indifferent to everything except Katy's happiness. But Wilford did not +observe closely, and failed to detect the hopeless look in Morris' eyes, +or the whiteness which settled about his mouth as he fulfilled the +duties of host and sought to entertain his guest. Those were dark hours +for Morris Grant, and he was glad when at the end of the second day +Wilford's visit expired, and he saw him driven from Linwood around to +the farmhouse, where he would say his parting words to Katy and then go +back to New York. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +GETTING READY TO BE MARRIED. + + +"Miss Helen Lennox, Silverton, Mass." + +This was the superscription of a letter, postmarked New York, and +brought to Helen within a week after Wilford's departure. It was his +handwriting, too; and wondering what he could have written to her, Helen +broke the seal, starting as there dropped into her lap a check for five +hundred dollars. + +"What does it mean?" she said, her cheek flushing with anger and +insulted pride as she read the following brief lines: + +"NEW YORK, May 8th. + +"MISS HELEN LENNOX: Please pardon the liberty I take in inclosing the sum +of five hundred dollars, to be used by you in procuring whatever Katy may +need for present necessities. Presuming that the country seamstresses +have not the best facilities for obtaining the latest fashions, my mother +proposes sending out her own private dressmaker, Mrs. Ryan. You may look +for her the last of the week. + +"Yours truly, WILFORD CAMERON." + +It would be impossible to describe Helen's indignation as she read this +letter, which roused her to a pitch of anger such as Wilford Cameron had +never imagined when he wrote the offensive lines. He had really no +intention of insulting her. On the contrary, the gift of money was +kindly meant, for he knew very well that Uncle Ephraim was poor, while +the part referring to the dressmaker was wholly his mother's +proposition, to which he had acceded, knowing how much confidence Juno +had in her taste, and that whatever she might see at the farmhouse would +remain a secret with her, or at most be confined to the ears of his +mother and sisters. He wished Katy to look well, and foolishly fancying +that no country artiste could make her look so, he consented to Mrs. +Ryan's going, never suspecting the storm of anger it would rouse in +Helen, whose first impulse was to throw the check into the fire. Her +second, however, was soberer. She would not destroy it, nor tell any one +she had it but Morris--he should know the whole. Accordingly, without a +word to any one, she repaired to Linwood, finding Morris at home, and +startling him with the vehemence of her anger as she explained the +nature of her errand. + +"If I disliked Wilford Cameron before, I hate him now. Yes, hate him," +she said, stamping her little foot in fury. + +"Why, Helen!" Morris exclaimed, laying his hand reprovingly on her +shoulder. "Is this the right spirit for one who professes better things? +Stop a moment and think." + +"I know it is wrong," Helen answered, the tears glittering in her eyes; +"but somehow since he came after Katy, I have grown so hard, so wicked +toward Mr. Cameron. He seems so proud, so unapproachable. Say, Cousin +Morris, do you think him a good man--that is, good enough for Katy?" + +"Most people would call him too good for her," Morris replied. "And, in +a worldly point of view, she is doing well, while Mr. Cameron, I +believe, is better than three-fourths of the men who marry our girls. He +is very proud; but that results from his education and training. Looking +only from a New York standpoint he misjudges country people, but he will +appreciate you by and by. Do not begin by hating him so cordially." + +"Yes, but this money. Now, Morris, we do not want him to get Katy's +outfit. I would rather go without clothes my whole life. Shall I send it +back?" + +"I think that the best disposition to make of it," Morris replied. "As +your brother, I can and will supply Katy's needs." + +"I knew you would, Morris. What should we do without you?" and Helen +smiled gratefully upon the doctor, who in word and deed was to her like +a dear brother. "And I'll send it to-day, in time to keep that dreadful +Mrs. Ryan from coming; for, Morris, I won't have any of Wilford +Cameron's dressmakers in the house." + +Morris could not help smiling at Helen's energetic manner as she +hurried to his library and taking his pen wrote to Wilford Cameron as +follows: + +"SILVERTON, May 9th. + +"Mr. WILFORD CAMERON: I give you credit for the kindest of motives in +sending the check, which I now return to you, with my compliments. We are +not as poor as you suppose, and would almost deem it sacrilege to let +another than ourselves provide for Katy so long as she is ours. And +furthermore, that Mrs. Ryan's services will not be needed, so it is not +worth her while to make a journey here for nothing. Yours, + +"HELEN LENNOX." + +Helen felt better after this letter had gone, wondering often how it +would be received, and if Wilford would be angry. She hoped he would, +and his mother too. "The idea of sending that Ryan woman to us, as if we +did not know anything!" and Helen's lip curled scornfully as she thus +denounced the Ryan woman, whose trunk was all packed with paper patterns +and devices of various kinds when the letter arrived saying she was not +needed. Being a woman of few words, she quietly unpacked her patterns +and went back to the work she was engaged upon when Mrs. Cameron +proposed her going into the country. Juno, on the contrary, flew into a +violent passion to think their first friendly advances should be thus +received. Bell laughed immoderately, saying she rather liked Helen +Lennox's spirit, and almost wished her brother had chosen her instead of +the other, who, she presumed, was a milk and water thing, even if Mrs. +Woodhull did extol her so highly. Mrs. Cameron felt the rebuff keenly, +wincing under it, and saying "that Helen Lennox must be a very rude, +ill-bred girl," and hoping her son would draw the line of division +between his wife and her family so tightly that the sister could never +pass over it. She had received the news of her son's engagement without +opposition, for she knew the time for that was passed. Wilford would +marry Katy Lennox, and she must make the best of it, so she offered no +word of remonstrance, but, when they were alone, she said to him: "Did +you tell her? Does she know it all?" + +"No, mother," and the old look of pain came back into Wilford's face. +"I meant to do so, and I actually began, but she stopped me short, +saying she did not wish to hear my faults, she would rather find them +out herself. Away from her it is very easy to think what I will do, but +when the trial comes I find it hard, we have kept it so long; but I +shall tell her yet; not till after we are married though, and I have +made her love me even more than she does now. She will not mind it then. +I shall take her where I first met Genevra, and there I will tell her. +Is that right?" + +"Yes, if you think so," Mrs. Cameron replied. + +Whatever it was which Wilford had to tell Katy Lennox, it was very +evident that he and his mother looked at it differently, he regarding it +as a duty he owed to Katy not to conceal from her what might possibly +influence her decision, while his mother only wished the secret told in +hopes that it would prevent the marriage; but now that Wilford had +deferred it till after the marriage, she saw no reason why it need be +told at all. At least Wilford could do as he thought best, and she +changed the conversation from Genevra to Helen's letter, which had so +upset her plans. That her future daughter-in-law was handsome she did +not doubt, for Wilford said so, and Mrs. Woodhull said so in her letter +of congratulation; but she, of course, had no manner, no style, and as a +means of improving her in the latter respect, and making her presentable +at the altar and in Boston, she had proposed sending out Ryan, as she +was called in the family; but that project had failed, and Helen Lennox +did not stand very high in the Cameron family, though Wilford in his +heart felt an increased respect for her independent spirit, +notwithstanding that she had thwarted his designs. + +"I have another idea," Mrs. Cameron said to her daughters that +afternoon, when talking with them upon the subject. "Wilford tells me +Katy and Bell are about the same size and figure, and Ryan shall make up +a traveling suit proper for the occasion. Of course there will be no one +at the wedding for whom we care, but in Boston, at the Revere, it will +be different. Cousin Harvey boards there, and she is very stylish. I saw +some elegant gray poplins, of the finest luster, at Stewarts yesterday. +Suppose we drive down this afternoon." + +This was said to Juno as the more fashionable one of the sisters, but +Bell answered quickly: "Poplin, mother, on Katy? It will not become her +style, I am sure, though suitable for many. If I am to be fitted I shall +say a word about the fabric. Get a little checked silk, as expensive as +you like. It will suit her better than a heavy poplin." + +Perhaps Bell was right, Mrs. Cameron said; they would look at both, and +as the result of this looking, two dresses, one of the finest poplin, +and one of the softest, richest, plaided silk were given the next day +into Mrs. Ryan's hands, with injunctions to spare no pains or expense in +trimming and making both. And so the dressmaking for Katy's bridal was +proceeding in New York, in spite of Helen's letter; while down in +Silverton, at the farmhouse, there were numerous consultations as to +what was proper and what was not, Helen sometimes almost wishing she had +thrown off her pride and suffered Mrs. Ryan to come. Katy would look +well in anything, but Helen knew there were certain styles preferable to +others, and in a maze of perplexity she consulted with this and that +individual, until all Silverton knew what was projected, each one +offering the benefit of her advice until Helen and Katy both were nearly +distracted. Aunt Betsy suggested a blue delaine and round cape, offering +to get it herself, and actually purchasing the material with her own +funds, saved from drying apples. That would answer for one dress, Helen +said, but not for the wedding; and she was becoming more and more +undecided, when Morris came to the rescue, telling Katy of a young woman +who had for some time past been his patient, but who was now nearly well +and anxious to obtain work again. She had evidently seen better days, he +said; was very ladylike in her manner, and possessed of a great deal of +taste, he imagined; besides that, she had worked in one of the largest +shops in New York. "As I am going this afternoon over to North +Silverton," he added, in conclusion, "and shall pass Miss Hazelton's +house, you or Helen might accompany me and see for yourself." + +It was decided that Helen should go, and about four o'clock she found +herself ringing at the cottage over whose door hung the sign: "Miss M. +Hazelton, Fashionable Dressmaker." She was at home, so said the little +slipshod girl who answered the ring, and in a few moments Helen was +talking with Marian Hazelton, whose face showed signs of recent illness, +but, nevertheless, very attractive, from its peculiarly sad expression +and the soft liquid eyes of dark blue, which looked as if they were not +strangers to tears. At twenty she must have been strikingly beautiful; +and even now, at thirty, few ladies could have vied with her had she +possessed the means for gratifying her taste and studying her style. +About the mouth, so perfect in repose, there was when she spoke a +singularly sweet smile, which in a measure prepared one for the low, +silvery voice, which had a strange note of mournful music in its tone, +making Helen start as it asked: "Did you wish to see me?" + +"Yes; Dr. Grant told me you were--" Helen paused here, for though +Marian Hazelton's dress indicated poverty, the words "were wanting work" +seemed at variance with her whole being, and so she changed her form of +speech, and said instead: "Told me you could make dresses, and I drove +around with him to secure your services, if possible, for my sister, who +is soon to be married. We would like it so much if you could go to our +house instead of having Katy come here." + +Marian Hazelton was needing work, for there was due more than three +months' board, besides the doctor's bill, and so, though it was not +her custom to go from house to house, she would, in this instance, +accommodate Miss Lennox, especially as during her illness her customers +had many of them gone elsewhere, and her little shop was nearly broken +up. "Was it an elaborate trousseau she was expected to make?" and she +bent down to turn over some fashion plates lying upon the table. + +"Oh, no! we are plain country people. We cannot afford as much for Katy +as we would like; besides, I dare say Mr. Cameron will prefer selecting +most of her wardrobe himself, as he is very wealthy and fastidious," +Helen replied, repenting the next instant the part concerning Mr. +Cameron's wealth, as that might look like boasting to Miss Hazelton, +whose head was bent lower over the magazine as she said: "Did I +understand that the gentleman's name was Cameron?" + +"Yes, Wilford Cameron, from New York," Helen answered, holding up her +skirts and s-s-kt-ing at the kitten which came running toward her, +evidently intent upon springing into her lap. + +Fear of cats was Helen's weakness, if weakness it can be called, and in +her efforts to frighten her tormentor she did not look again at Miss +Hazelton until startled by a gasping cry and heavy fall. Marian had +fainted, and Helen was just raising her head from the floor to her lap +when Morris appeared, relieving her of her burden, of whom he took +charge until she showed signs of life. In her alarm Helen forgot +entirely what they were talking about when the faint came on, and her +first question put to Marian was: "Were you taken suddenly ill? Why did +you faint?" + +There was no answer at first, except tears, which quivered on the long +eyelashes, and then rolled down the cheeks; but when she did speak she +said: "I am still so weak that the least exertion affects me, and I was +bending over the table; it will soon pass off." + +If she was so weak, she was not able to work, Helen said, proposing that +the plan be for the present abandoned; but to this Marian would not +listen; her great eager eyes had in them so scared a look that Helen +said no more on that subject, but made arrangements for her coming to +them at once. Morris was to leave his patient some medicine, and while +he was preparing it Helen had time to notice her more carefully, +admiring her ladylike manners, and thinking her smile the sweetest she +had ever seen. Especially was this the case when it was given to Morris, +and Helen felt that in his presence Miss Hazelton was, if possible, +softer, sweeter, more gracious than before; and still there was nothing +immodest or unwomanly in her manner, nothing but that peculiar air which +attractive women sometimes put on before the other sex. She might not +have been conscious of it herself; and yet, when once she met Helen's +eyes as she was smiling gratefully upon Dr. Morris, there came a sudden +change into her face, and she bit her lip with evident vexation. Could +it be that she was fascinated by the young physician who had attended +her so long, and who, within the last few months, had grown so popular? +Helen asked herself this question several times on her way home, and +inquired of Morris what he knew of her. + +"Nothing, except that she came to North Silverton a year ago, opening +her shop, and by her faithfulness, and pleasant, obliging manners, +winning favor with all who employed her. Previous to her sickness she +had a few times attended St. Paul's at South Silverton, that being the +church of her choice. Had Helen never observed her?" + +No, Helen had not. And then she spoke of her fainting, telling how +sudden it was and wondering if she was subject to such turns. Marian +Hazelton had made a strong impression on Helen's mind, and she talked +of her so much that Katy waited her appearance at the farmhouse with +feverish anxiety. It was evening when she came, looking very white, and +seeming to Helen as if she had changed since she saw her first. In her +eyes there was a kind of hopeless, weary expression, while her smile +made one almost wish to cry, it was so sad, and yet so strangely sweet. +Katy felt its influence at once, growing very confidential with the +stranger, who, during the half hour in which they were accidentally left +alone, drew from her every particular concerning her intended marriage. +Very closely the dark blue eyes scrutinized little Katy, taking in first +the faultless beauty of her face, and then going away down into the +inmost depths of her character, as if to find out what was there. + +"Pure, loving, innocent, and unsuspecting," was Marian Hazelton's +verdict, and she followed wistfully every movement of the young girl as +she flitted around the room, chatting as familiarly with the dressmaker +as if she were a friend long known instead of an entire stranger. + +"You look very young to be married," said Miss Hazelton to her once, and +shaking back her short rings of hair Katy answered: "Eighteen next +Fourth of July; but Mr. Cameron is thirty." + +"Is he a widower?" was the next question, which Katy answered with a +merry laugh. "Mercy, no! I marry a widower! How funny! I don't believe +he ever cared a fig for anybody but me. I mean to ask him." + +"I would," and the pale lips shut tightly together, while a resentful +gleam shot for a moment across Marian's face; but it quickly passed +away, and her smile was as sweet as ever as she at last bade the family +good-night and repaired to the little room where Wilford Cameron once +had slept. + +A long time she stood before the glass, brushing her dark, abundant +hair, and intently regarding her own features, while in her eyes there +was a hard, terrible look, from which Katy Lennox would have shrunk +abashed. But that too passed, and the eyes grew soft with tears as she +turned away, and falling on her knees moaned sadly: "I never will--no, I +never will, God help me to keep the promise. Were it the other--Helen--I +might, for she could bear it; but Katy, that child---no, I never will," +and as the words died on her lips there came struggling up from her +heart a prayer for Katy Lennox's happiness, as fervent and sincere as +any which had ever been made for her since she was betrothed. + +They grew to liking each other rapidly, Marian and Katy, the latter of +whom thought her new friend greatly out of place as a dressmaker, +telling her she ought to marry some rich man, calling her Marian +altogether, and questioning her very closely of her previous life. But +Marian only told her that she was born in London; that she learned her +trade on the Isle of Wight, near to the Osborne House, where the royal +family sometimes came, and that she had often seen the present Queen, +thus trying to divert Katy's mind from asking what there was besides +that apprenticeship to the Misses True on the Isle of Wight. Once, +indeed, she went further, learning that Marian's friends were dead; that +she had come to America in hopes of doing better than she could at home; +that she had stayed in New York until her health began to fail, and then +had tried what country air would do, coming to North Silverton because +a young woman who worked in the same shop was acquainted there, and +recommended the place. This was all Katy could learn, and Marian's heart +history, if she had one, was guarded carefully. One day as they sat +together alone, when Helen had gone to the village to do some shopping +for Katy, Marian abruptly said: "I have lived in New York, you know, +and why do you not ask if I ever saw these Camerons?" + +"You! did you?--have you, really?--and what are they like?" Katy almost +screamed, skipping across the floor and seating herself by Marian, who +replied: "Much like other ladies of their stamp--proud and fashionable. +The father I never saw, but your Mr. Cameron I used to see in the street +driving his handsome bays." + +Anything relating to the pride and fashion of her future relations made +Katy uncomfortable, and she remained silent, cutting into bits a piece +of silk, until Marian continued: "Sometimes there was a child in the +Cameron carriage. Do you know who it was?" + +Delighted that she too could impart information, Katy hastened to say +that it was probably "little Jamie, the orphan grandchild, whose parents +died in Italy. Morris told me he met them in Paris, and he said Jamie's +father died of consumption, and the mother, too, either then or +afterward. At all events Jamie is an orphan and a cripple. He will never +walk, Morris says; and he told me so much about him--how patient he was +and how good." + +Katy did not see the tears which threatened to mar the silk on which +Marian Hazelton was working, for they were brushed away almost as +quickly as they came, while in her usual voice she asked: "What was the +cause of his lameness?" + +"I don't know just how it happened," Katy replied, "but believe it +resulted from the carelessness of a servant in leaving him alone, or +something." + +"A servant!" Marian repeated, a flush rising to her cheek and a strange +light flashing on her eye. + +She had heard all she cared to hear of the Camerons that day, and +she was glad when Helen returned from the village, as her appearance +diverted Katy's mind into another channel, and in examining the dress +trimmings which Helen had brought, she forgot to talk of Jamie Cameron. +The trimmings, fringe and buttons were for the wedding dress, the one in +which Katy was to be married, and which Helen reserved the right to make +to herself. Miss Hazelton must fit it, of course, but to her belonged +the privilege of making it, every stitch; Katy would think more of it if +she did it all, she said; but she did not confess how the bending over +that one dress, both early and late, was the escape valve for the +feeling which otherwise would have found vent in passionate tears. Helen +was very wretched during the pleasant May days she usually enjoyed so +much, but over which now a dark pall was spread, shutting out all the +brightness and leaving only the terrible certainty that Katy was lost to +her forever--bright, frolicsome Katy, who, without a shadow on her heart +sported amid the bridal finery, unmindful of the anguish tugging at the +hearts of both the patient women, Marian and Helen, who worked on so +silently, reserving their tears for the night time, when Katy lay +sweetly sleeping and dreaming of Wilford Cameron. Helen had ceased to +think that Hiss Hazelton had any designs on Dr. Grant, for her manner +toward Uncle Ephraim was just as soft and conciliating, and she +dismissed that subject from her mind with the reflection that it was the +nature of some girls to be very pretty to the gentlemen, without meaning +any harm. She liked Marian on the whole, regarding her as a quiet woman, +who knew her business and kept to it, but never guessing that her +feelings, too, were stirred to their very depths as the bridal +preparations progressed. She only knew how wretched she was herself, and +how hard it was to fight her tears back as she bent over the plaided +silk, weaving in with every stitch a part of the clinging love which +each day grew stronger for the only sister, who would soon be gone, +leaving her alone. Only once did she break entirely down, and that was +when the dress was done and Katy tried it on, admiring its effect, and +having a second glass brought that she might see it behind. + +"Isn't it lovely?" she exclaimed; "and the more valuable because you +made it, I shall think of you every time I wear it," and the impulsive +girl found her arms around Helen's neck, kissing her lovingly, while +Helen sank into a chair and sobbed aloud: "Oh, Katy, darling Katy! you +won't forget me when you are rich and admired and can have all you want? +You will remember us here at home, so sad and lonely? You don't know how +desolate it will be, knowing you are gone, never to come back again, +just as you go away." + +In an instant Katy was on her knees before Helen whom she tried to +comfort by telling her how she should come back, come often, too, +staying a long while; and that when she had a city home of her own +she should live with her for good, and they would be so happy. + +"I cannot quite give Wilford up to please you," she said, when that +gigantic sacrifice suggested itself as something which it was possible +Helen might require of her; "but I will do anything else, only please +don't cry, darling Nellie--please don't cry. It spoils all my pleasure," +and Katy's soft hands wiped away the tears running so fast over her +sister's face. + +After that Helen did not cry again in Katy's presence, but the latter +knew she wanted to and it made her rather sad, particularly when she saw +reflected in the faces of the other members of the family the grief she +had witnessed in Helen. Even Uncle Ephraim was not as cheerful as usual, +and once when Katy came upon him in the woodshed chamber, where he was +shelling corn, she found him resting from his work and looking from the +window far off across the hills, with a look which made her guess he was +thinking of her, and stealing up beside him she laid her hand upon his +wrinkled face, whispering softly: "Poor Uncle Eph, are you sorry, too?" + +He knew what she meant, and the aged chin quivered, while a big tear +dropped into the tub of corn, as he replied: "Yes, Katy-did--very +sorry." + +That was all he said, and Katy, after smoothing his cheek a moment +kissed his silvery hair and then stole away, wondering if every girl's +family felt so badly before she was married, and wondering next if the +love to which she was going was equal to the love of home, which, as the +days went by, grew stronger and stronger, enfolding her in a mighty +embrace, which could only be severed by bitter tears and fierce +heart-pangs, such as death itself sometimes brings. In that household +there was, after Katy, no one glad of that marriage except the mother, +and she was only glad because of the position it would bring to her +daughter. But among them all Morris suffered most, and suffered more +because he had to endure in secret, to cover up his sorrow so that no +one guessed the pain it was for him to go each day where Katy was, and +watch her as she sometimes donned a part of her finery for his benefit, +asking him once if he did not almost wish he were in Wilford's place, so +as to have as pretty a bride as she should make. Then Marian Hazelton +glanced up in time to see the expression of his face, a look whose +meaning she readily recognized, and when Dr. Grant left the farmhouse +that day, another than himself knew of his love for Katy, drawing her +breath hurriedly as she thought of taking back the words "I never will," +of revoking the decision and telling Katy what Wilford Cameron should +have told her long before. But the wild wish fled, and Wilford's secret +was safe, while Marian watched Morris Grant with a pitying interest as +he came among them, speaking always in the same kind, gentle tone, and +trying so hard to enter into Katy's joy. + +"His burden is greater than mine. God help us both," Marian said, as she +resumed her work. + +And so amid joy and gladness, silent tears and breaking hearts the +preparations went on until all was done, and only three days remained +before the eventful tenth. Marian Hazelton was going home, for she would +not stay at the farmhouse until all was over, notwithstanding Katy's +entreaties, joined to those of Helen. + +"Perhaps she would come to the church," she said, "though she could not +promise;" and her manner was so strange as she gathered up her things +that Katy wondered if in any way she could have been offended, and at +last said to her timidly, as she stood with her bonnet on waiting for +Uncle Ephraim: "You are not angry with me for anything, are you?" + +"Angry with you!" and Katy never forgot the glitter of the tearful eyes, +or their peculiar expression as they turned upon her. "No, oh, no; I +could not be angry with you, and yet, Katy Lennox, some in my position +would hate you, contrasting your prospects with their own; but I do not; +I love you; I bless you, and pray that you may be happy with your +husband; honor him, obey him if need be, and above all, never give him +the slightest cause to doubt you. You will have admirers, Katy Lennox. +In New York others than your husband will speak to you words of +flattery, but don't you listen. Remember what I tell you; and now, +again, God bless you." + +She touched her lips to Katy's forehead, and when they were withdrawn +there were great tears there which she had left! Marian's tears on +Katy's brow; and truly, it was very meet that just before her bridal day +Wilford Cameron's bride should receive such baptism from Marian +Hazelton. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +BEFORE THE MARRIAGE. + + +On the morning of the ninth day of June, 18--, Wilford Cameron stood in +his father's parlor, surrounded by the entire family, who, after their +usually early breakfast, had assembled to bid him good-by, for Wilford +was going for his bride, and it would be months, if not a year, ere he +returned to them again. They had given him up to his idol, asking only +that none of the idol's family should be permitted to cross their +threshold, and also that the idol should not often be allowed the +privilege of returning to the place from whence she came. These +restrictions had emanated from the female portion of the Cameron family, +the mother, Juno and Bell. The father, on the contrary, had sworn +roundly as he would sometimes swear at what he called the contemptible +pride of his wife and daughters. Katy was sure of a place in his heart +just because of the pride which was building up so high a wall between +her and her friends, and when at parting he held his son's hand in his, +he said: + +"I charge you, Will, be kind to that young girl, and don't, for Heaven's +sake, go to cramming her with airs and nonsense which she does not +understand. Tell her I'll be a father to her; her own, you say, is dead, +and give her this as my bridal present." + +He held out a small-sized box containing a most exquisite set of pearls, +such as he fancied would be becoming to the soft, girlish beauty Wilford +had described. Something in his father's manner touched Wilford closely, +making him resolve anew that if Kitty were not happy as Mrs. Cameron it +should not be his fault. His mother had said all she wished to say, +while his sisters had been gracious enough to send their love to the +bride, Bell hoping she would look as well in the poplin and little plaid +as she had done. Either was suitable for the wedding day, Mrs. Cameron +said, and she might take her choice, only Wilford must see that she did +not wear with the poplin the gloves and belt intended for the silk; +country people had so little taste, and she did want Katy to look well, +even if she were not there to see her. And with his brain a confused +medley of poplins and plaids, belts and gloves, pearls and Katy, Wilford +finally tore himself away, and at three o'clock that afternoon drove +through Silverton village, past the little church which the Silverton +maidens were decorating with flowers, pausing a moment in their work to +look at him as he went by. Among them was Marian Hazelton, but she did +not look up, she only bent lower over her work, thus hiding the tear +which dropped from the delicate buds she was fashioning into the words, +"Joy to the Bride," intending the whole as the center of the wreath to +be placed over the altar just where all could see it. + +"The handsomest man I ever saw," was the verdict of most of the girls as +they came hack to their work, while Wilford drove on to the farmhouse +where Katy had been so anxiously watching for him. + +When he came in sight, however, and she knew he was actually there, she +ran away to hide her blushes and the feeling of awe which had come +suddenly over her for the man who was to be her husband. But Helen bade +her go back, and so she went coyly in to Wilford, who met her with +loving caresses, and then put upon her finger the superb diamond which +he said he had thought to send as a pledge of their engagement, but had +finally concluded to wait and present himself. Katy had heard much of +diamonds, and seen some in Canandaigua; but the idea that she, plain +Katy Lennox, would ever wear them, had never once entered her mind; and +now as she looked at the brilliant gem sparkling upon her hand, she felt +a thrill of something more than joy at that good fortune which had +brought her to diamonds. Vanity, we suppose it was--such vanity as was +very natural in her case, and she thought she should never tire of +looking at the precious stone; but when Wilford showed her next the +plain broad band of gold, and tried it on her third finger, asking if +she knew what it meant, the true woman spoke within her, and she +answered, tearfully: + +"Yes, I know, and I will try to prove worthy of what I shall be to you +when I wear that ring for good." + +Katy was very quiet for a moment as she sat with her head nestled +against Wilford's bosom, but when he observed that she was looking +tired, and asked if she had been working hard, the quiet fit was broken, +and she told him of the dress "we had made," that "we" referring solely +to Helen and Marian, for Katy had hardly done a thing. But it did not +matter; she fancied she had, and she asked if he did not wish to see her +dresses. Wilford knew it would please Katy, and so, though he cared very +little about it, he followed her into the adjoining room where they were +still spread out upon the tables and chairs, with Helen in their midst, +ready to pack them away. Wilford thought of Mrs. Ryan and the check, but +he shook hands with Helen very civilly, saying to her, playfully: + +"I suppose that you are willing I should take your sister with me this +time." + +Helen could not answer, but turned away to hide her face, while Katy +showed to her lover one dress after another, until she came to the +little plaid, which, with a bright blush she told him "was the very +thing itself--the one intended for to-morrow, and asked if he did not +like it." + +Wilford could not help telling her yes, for he knew she wished him to do +so, but in his heart he was thinking bad thoughts against the wardrobe +of his bride-elect--thoughts which would have won for him the title of +hen-huzzy from Helen, could she have known them. And yet Wilford did not +deserve that name. Accustomed all his life to hearing dress discussed in +his mother's parlor, and in his sister's boudoir, it was natural he +should think more of it and notice it more than Morris Grant would do, +while for the last five weeks he had heard at home of little else than +the probably _tout ensemble_ of Katy's wardrobe, bought and made in the +country, his mother deciding finally to write to her cousin, Mrs. +Harvey, who boarded at the Revere, and have her see it before Katy left +the city. Under these circumstances, it was not strange that Wilford did +not enter into Katy's delight, even after she told him how Helen had +made every stitch of the dress herself, and that it would on that +account be very dear to her. This was a favorable time for getting the +poplin off his mind, and with a premonitory ahem, he said: "Yes, it is +very nice, no doubt; but," and here he turned to Helen, "after Mrs. +Ryan's services were declined, my mother determined to have two dresses +fitted to Sister Bell, who I think is just Katy's size and figure. I +need not say"--and his eyes still rested on Helen, who gave him back an +unflinching glance--"I need not say that no pains have been spared to +make these garments everything they should be in point of quality and +style. I have them in my trunk," and, tuning now to Katy, "it is my +mother's special request that one of them be worn to-morrow. You could +take your choice, she said--either was suitable. I will bring them for +your inspection." + +He left the room, while Helen's face resembled a dark thundercloud, +whose lightnings shone in her flashing eyes as she looked after him and +then back to where Katy stood, bewildered and wondering what was wrong. + +"Who is Mrs. Ryan?" she asked. "What does he mean?" but before Helen +could command her voice to explain, Wilford was with them again, +bringing the dresses, over which Katy nearly went wild. + +She had never seen anything as elegant as the rich heavy poplin or the +soft lustrous silk, while even Helen acknowledged that there was about +them a finish which threw Miss Hazelton's quite in the shade. + +"Beautiful!" Katy exclaimed; "and trimmed so exquisitely! I do so hope +they will fit!" + +"I dare say they will," Wilford replied, enjoying her appreciation of +his mother's gift. "At all events they will answer for to-morrow, and +any needful alterations can be made in Boston. Which will you wear?" + +"Oh, I don't know. I wish I could wear both. Helen, which shall I?" and +Katy appealed to her sister, who could endure no more, but hid her head +among the pillows of the bed and cried. + +Katy understood the whole, and dropping upon the floor the silk to +which she inclined the most, she flew to Helen's side, and whispered to +her: "Don't, Nellie, right before Wilford. I won't wear either of them. +I'll wear the one you made. It was mean and vain in me to think of doing +otherwise." + +During this scene Wilford had stolen from the room, and with him gone +Helen was herself, capable of judging candidly and sensibly. She knew +the city silk, which cost three dollars per yard, and was fastened with +buttons of gold, having Katy's initial upon their face, was handsomer +and better suited for Wilford Cameron's bride than the country plaid, +costing one dollar per yard, and trimmed with buttons at eighteen pence +per dozen, and so she said to Katy: "I would rather you should wear the +one they sent. It will become you better. Suppose you try it on," and in +seeking to gratify her sister Helen forgot in part her own cruel +disappointment, and that her work of days had been for naught. The dress +fitted well, though Katy pronounced it too tight and too long. A few +moments, however, accustomed her to the length, and then her mother, +Aunt Hannah, and Aunt Betsy came to see and admire, while Katy proposed +going out to Wilford, but Helen kept her back. Aunt Betsy remarking, +under her breath, that "she didn't see for the life on her how Catherine +could be so free and easy with that man when just the sight of him was +enough to take away a body's breath." + +"More free and easy than she will be by and by," was Helen's mental +comment as she proceeded quietly to pack the trunk which Morris had +brought for the voyage across the sea, dropping into it many a tear as +she folded away one article after another, and wondered under what +circumstances she should see them again if she saw them ever. + +Helen was a Christian girl, and many a time had she prayed in secret +that He who rules the deep would keep its waters calm and still while +her sister was upon them, and she prayed so now, constantly, burying her +face once in her hands, and asking that Katy might come back to them +unchanged, if possible, and asking next that God would remove from her +heart all bitterness toward the bridegroom, who was to be her brother, +and whom, after that short, earnest prayer, she found herself liking +better. He loved Katy, she was sure, and that was all she cared for, +though she did wish he would release her before twelve o'clock on that +night, the last she would spend with them for a long, long time. But +Wilford kept her with him in the parlor, kissing away the tears which +flowed so fast when she recalled the prayer said that night by Uncle +Ephraim, with her kneeling by him as she might never kneel again. He had +called her by her name and his voice was very sad as he commended her to +God, asking that he would "be with our little Katy wherever she might +go, keeping her in all the mewandering scenes of life, and bringing her +at last to his own heavenly home." + +Wilford himself was touched, and though he noticed the deacon's +pronunciation, he did not even smile, and his manner was very +respectful, when after the prayer over and they were alone, the +white-haired deacon felt it incumbent upon him to say a few words +concerning Katy. + +"She's a young, rattle-headed creature, not much like your own kin, I +guess; but, young man, she is as dear as the apple of our eyes, and I +charge you to treat her well. She has never had a crossways word spoke +to her all her life, and don't you be the first to speak it, nor let +your folks browbeat her." + +As they were alone, and it was easier for Wilford to be humble and +conciliatory, he promised all the old man required, and then went back +to Katy, going into raptures over the beautiful little Geneva watch +which Morris had just sent over as her bridal gift from him. Even Mrs. +Cameron herself could have found no fault with this, and Wilford praised +it as much as Katy could desire, noticing the inscription: "Katy, from +Cousin Morris, June 10th, 18--," wishing that after the "Katy" had come +the name Cameron, and wondering if Morris had any design in omitting it. +Wilford had not yet presented his father's gift, but he did so now, and +Katy's tears dropped upon the pale, soft pearls as she whispered: "I +shall like your father. I never thought of having things like these." + +Nor had she, but she would grow to them very soon, while even the family +gathering around and sharing in her joy began to realize how great a +lady their Katy was to be. It was late that night ere anybody slept, if +sleep at all they did, which was doubtful, unless it were the bride, who +with Wilford's kisses warm upon her lips, crept up to bed just as the +clock was striking twelve, nor woke until it was again chiming for six, +and over her Helen bent, a dark ring about her eyes and her face very +white as she whispered: "Wake, Katy darling, this is your wedding day." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MARRIAGE AT ST. JOHN'S. + + +There were more than a few lookers-on to see Katy Lennox married, and +the church was literally jammed for full three-quarters of an hour +before the appointed time. Back by the door, where she commanded a full +view of the middle aisle, Marian Hazelton sat, her face as white as +ashes, and her eyes gleaming strangely wild even from beneath the +thickly dotted veil she wore over her hat. Doubts as to her wisdom in +coming there were agitating her mind, but something kept her sitting +just as others sat waiting for the bride until the sexton, opening wide +the doors, and assuming an added air of consequence, told the anxious +spectators that the party had arrived--Uncle Ephraim and Katy, Wilford +and Mrs. Lennox, Dr. Morris and Helen, Aunt Hannah and Aunt Betsy--that +was all, and they came slowly up the aisle, while countless eyes were +turned upon them, every woman noticing Katy's dress sweeping the carpet +with so long a trail, and knowing by some queer female instinct that it +was city-made, and not the handiwork of Marian Hazelton, panting for +breath in that pew near the door, and trying to forget herself by +watching Dr. Grant. She could not have told what Katy wore; she would +not have sworn that Katy was there, for she saw only two, Wilford and +Morris Grant. She could have touched the former as he passed her by, and +she did breathe the odor of his garments while her hands clasped each +other tightly, and then she turned to Morris Grant, growing content with +her own pain, so much less than his as he stood before the altar with +Wilford Cameron between him and the bride which should have been his. +How pretty she was in her wedding garb, and how like a bird her voice +rang out as she responded to the solemn question: + +"Will you have this man to be thy wedded husband?" etc. + +Upon Uncle Ephraim devolved the duty of giving her away, a thing which +Aunt Betsy denounced as a "'Piscopal quirk," classing it in the same +category with dancing. Still if Ephraim had got it to do she wanted him +to do it well, and she had taken some pains to study that part of the +ceremony, so as to know when to nudge her brother in case he failed of +coming up to time. + +"Now, Ephraim, now; they've reached the quirk," she whispered, audibly, +almost before Katy's "I will" was heard, clear and distinct; but Ephraim +did not need her prompting, and his hand rested lovingly upon Katy's +shoulder as he signified his consent, and then fell back to his place +next to Hannah. But when Wilford's voice said: "I, Wilford, take thee +Katy to be my wedded wife," there was a slight confusion near the door, +and those sitting by said to those in front that some one had fainted. + +Looking around, the audience saw the sexton leading Marian Hazelton out +into the open air, where, at her request, he left her, and went hack to +see the closing of the ceremony which made Katy Lennox a wife. Morris' +carriage was at the door, and the newly married pair moved slowly out, +Katy smiling upon all, kissing her hand to some and whispering a good-by +to others, her diamond flashing in the light and her rich silk rustling +as she walked, while at her side was Wilford, proudly erect, and holding +his head so high as not to see one of the crowd around him, until +arrived at the vestibule he stopped a moment and was seized by a young +man with curling hair, saucy eyes, and that air of ease and assurance +which betokens high breeding and wealth. + +"Mark Ray!" was Wilford's astonished exclamation, while Mark Ray +replied: + +"You did not expect to see me here, neither did I expect to come until +last night, when I found myself in the little village where you know +Scranton lives. Then it occurred to me that as Silverton was only a few +miles distant I would drive over and surprise you, but I am too late for +the ceremony, I see," and Mark's eyes rested admiringly upon Katy, whose +graceful beauty was fully equal to what he had imagined. + +Very modestly she received his congratulatory greeting, blushing +prettily when he called her by the new name she had not heard before, +and then at a motion from Wilford, entered the carriage waiting for her. +Close behind her came Morris and Helen, the former quite as much +astonished at meeting Mark as Wilford had been. There was no time for +conversation, and hurriedly introducing Helen as Miss Lennox, Morris +followed her into the carriage with the bridal pair, and was driven to +the depot, where they were joined by Mark, whose pleasant, good-humored +sallies did much toward making the parting more cheerful than it would +otherwise have been. It was sad enough at the most, and Katy's eyes were +very red, while Wilford was beginning to look chagrined and impatient, +when at last the train swept around the corner and the very last good-by +was said. Many of the village people were there to see Katy off, and in +the crowd Mark had no means of distinguishing the Barlows from the +others except it were by the fond caresses given to the bride. Aunt +Betsy he had observed from all the rest, both from the hanging of her +pongee and the general quaintness of her attire, and thinking it just +possible that it might be the lady of herrin' bone memory, he touched +Wilford's arm as she passed them by, and said: + +"Tell me, Will, quick, who is that woman in the poke bonnet and short, +slim dress?" + +Wilford was just then too much occupied in his efforts to rescue Katy +from the crowd of plebeians who had seized upon her to hear his friend's +query, but Helen heard it, and with a cheek which crimsoned with anger, +she replied: + +"That, sir, is my aunt, Miss Betsy Barlow." + +"I beg your pardon, I really do, I was not aware--" Mark began, +lifting his hat involuntarily, and mentally cursing himself for his +stupidity in not observing who was near to him before asking personal +questions. + +With a toss of her head Helen turned away, forgetting her resentment +in the more absorbing thought that Katy was really leaving her. + +The bell had rung, the heavy machinery groaned and creaked, and the long +train was under way, while from an open window a little white hand was +thrust, waving its handkerchief until the husband quietly drew it in, +experiencing a feeling of relief that all was over, and that unless he +chose, his wife need never go back again to that vulgar crowd standing +upon the platform and looking with tearful eyes and aching hearts after +the fast receding train. + +For a moment Mark talked with Morris Grant, explaining how he came +there, and adding that on the morrow he, too, intended going on to +Boston, to remain for a few days before Wilford sailed; then, feeling +that he must in some way atone for his awkward speech regarding Aunt +Betsy, he sought out Helen, still standing like a statue and watching +the feathery line of smoke rising above the distant trees. Her bonnet +had partially fallen from her head, revealing her bands of rich brown +hair and the smooth, broad forehead, while her hands were locked +together, and a tear trembled on her dark eyelashes. Taken as a whole +she made a striking picture standing apart from the rest and totally +oblivious to them all, and Mark gazed at her a moment curiously; then as +her attitude changed and she drew her hat back to its place he advanced +toward her, and making some pleasant remark about the morning and the +appearance of the country generally. He knew he could not openly +apologize, but he made what amends he could by talking to her so +familiarly that Helen almost forgot how she hated him and all others who +like him lived in New York and resembled Wilford Cameron. It was Mark +who led her to the carriage which Morris said was waiting, Mark who +handed her in, smoothing down carefully the folds of her dress, and then +stood leaning against the door, chatting with Morris, who thought once +of asking him to enter and go back to Linwood. But when he remembered +how unequal he was to entertaining any one that day, he hesitated, +saying merely: + +"On your way from Boston call and see me. I shall be glad of your +company then." + +"Which means that you do not wish it now," Mark laughingly rejoined, as, +offering his hand to both Morris and Helen, he again touched his hat +politely and walked away. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +AFTER THE MARRIAGE. + + +"Why did you invite him to Linwood?" Helen began. "I am sure we have +had city guests enough. Oh, if Wilford Cameron had only never come, we +should have had Katy now," and the sister-love overcame every other +feeling, making Helen cry bitterly as they drove back to the farmhouse. + +Morris could not comfort her then, for he needed it the most, and so in +silence he left her and went on his way to Linwood, which seemed as if a +funeral train had left it, bearing away all Morris' life and love, and +leaving only a cheerless blank. It was well for him that there were many +sick ones on his list, for in attending to them he forgot himself in +part so that the day with him passed faster than at the farmhouse, where +life and its interests seemed suddenly to have stopped. Nothing had +power to rouse Helen, who never realized how much she loved her young +sister until now, when, with swelling heart she listlessly put to rights +the room which had been theirs so long, but which was now hers alone. It +was a sad task picking up that disordered chamber bearing so many traces +of Katy, and Helen's heart ached terribly as she hung away the little +pink calico dressing gown in which Katy had looked so pretty, and picked +up from the floor the pile of skirts lying just where they had been left +the previous night; but when it came to the little half-worn slippers +which had been thrown one here and another there as Katy danced out of +them, she could control herself no longer, and stopping in her work +sobbed bitterly: "Oh, Katy, Katy, how can I live without you?" But tears +could not bring Katy back, and knowing this, Helen dried her eyes ere +long and joined the family below, who like herself were spiritless and +sad. + +It was some little solace to them all that day to follow Katy in her +journey, saying, she is at Worcester, or Framingham, or Newtown, and +when at noon they sat down to their dinner in the tidy kitchen, they +said: "She is in Boston," and the saying so made the time which had +elapsed since the morning seem interminable. Slowly the hours dragged, +and at last, before the sunsetting, Helen, who could bear the loneliness +of home no longer, stole across the fields to Linwood, hoping in Morris' +companionship to forget her own grief in part. But Morris was a sorry +comforter then. If the day had been sad to Helen, it had been doubly so +to him. He had ministered as usual to his patients, listening to their +complaints and answering patiently their inquiries; but amid it all he +walked as in a maze, hearing nothing except the words: "I, Katy, take +thee, Wilford, to be my wedded husband," and seeing nothing but the airy +little figure which stood up on tiptoe for him to kiss its lips at +parting. His work for the day was over now, and he sat alone in his +library when Helen came hurriedly in, staring at sight of his face, and +asking if he was ill. + +"I have had a hard day's work," he said. "I am always tired at night," +and he tried to smile and appear natural. "Are you very lonely at the +farmhouse?" he asked, and then Helen broke out afresh, mourning +sometimes for Katy, and again denouncing Wilford as proud and heartless. + +"Positively, Cousin Morris," and Helen's eye flashed as she said it, "he +acted all the while he was in the church as if he were doing something +of which he was ashamed; and then did you notice how impatient he seemed +when the neighbors were shaking hands with Katy at the depot and bidding +her good-by? He looked as if he thought they had no right to touch her, +she was so much their superior, just because she had married him, and he +even hurried her away before Aunt Betsy had time to kiss her. And yet +the people think it such a splendid match for Katy, because he is so +rich and generous. Gave the clergyman fifty dollars and the sexton five, +so I heard; but that does not help him with me. I know it's wicked, +Morris, as well as you, but somehow I find myself taking real comfort +in hating Wilford Cameron." + +"That is wrong, Helen, all wrong," and Morris tried to reason with her; +but his arguments this time were not very strong, and he finally said to +her, inadvertently: "If I can forgive Wilford Cameron for marrying our +Katy, you surely ought to do so, for he has hurt me the most." + +"You, Morris! you, you!" Helen kept repeating, standing back still +further and further front him, while strange, overwhelming thoughts +passed like lightning through her mind as she marked the pallid face, +where was written since the morning more than one line of suffering, +and saw in the brown eyes a look such as they were not wont to wear. +"Morris, tell me--tell me truly--did you love my Sister Katy?" and with +an impetuous rush Helen knelt beside him, as, laying his head upon the +table he answered: + +"Yes, Helen. God forgive me if it were wrong. I did love your Sister +Katy, and love her yet, and that is the hardest to bear." + +All the tender, pitying woman was roused in Helen, and like a sister she +smoothed the locks of damp, dark hair, keeping a perfect silence as the +strong man, no longer able to bear up, wept like a very child. For a +time Helen felt as if bereft of reason, while earth and sky seemed +blended in one wild chaos as she thought: "Oh, why couldn't it have +been? Why didn't you tell her in time?" and at last she said to him; +"If Katy had known it! Oh, Morris, why didn't you tell her? She never +guessed it, never! If she had--if she had," Helen's breath came +chokingly: "I am very sure--yes, I know it might have been!" + +"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, +The saddest are these--it might have been." + +Morris involuntarily thought of these lines, but they only mocked his +sorrow as he answered Helen: "I doubt if you are right; I hope you are +not; hope that it might not have been, as it is not now. Katy loved me +as her brother, nothing more, I am confident. Had she waited till she +was older, God only knows what might have been, but now she is gone and +our Father will help me to bear, will help us both, if we ask him, as we +must." + +And then as only he could do, Morris talked with Helen until she felt +her hardness toward Wilford giving way, while she wondered how Morris +could speak thus kindly of one who was his rival. + +"Not of myself could I do it," Morris said; "but I trust in One who +says: 'As thy day shall thy strength be,' and He, you know, never +fails." + +There was a fresh bond of sympathy now between Morris and Helen, and the +latter needed no caution against repeating what she had discovered. The +secret was safe with her, and by dwelling on what "might have been" she +forgot to think so much of what was, and so the first days after Katy's +departure were more tolerable than she had thought it possible for them +to be. At the close of the fourth there came a short note from Katy, who +was still in Boston at the Revere, and perfectly happy, she said, going +into ecstasies over her husband, the best in the world, and certainty +the most generous and indulgent. "Such beautiful things as I am having +made," she wrote, "when I already had more than I needed, and so I told +him, but he only smiled a queer kind of smile as he said: 'Very true; +you do not need them.' I wonder then why he gets me more. Oh, I forgot +to tell you how much I liked his cousin, Mrs. Harvey, who boards at the +Revere, and whom Wilford consults about my dress. I am somewhat afraid +of her, too, she is so grand, but she pets me a great deal and laughs at +my speeches. Mr. Ray is here too, and I think him splendid. + +"By the way, Helen, I heard him tell Wilford that you had one of the +best shaped heads he ever saw, and that he thought you decidedly good +looking. I must tell you now of the only thing which troubles me in the +least, and I shall get used to that, I suppose. It is so strange Wilford +never told me a word until she came, my waiting maid. Think of that! +little Katy Lennox with a waiting maid, who jabbers French half the +time, for she speaks that language as well as her own, having been +abroad with the family once before. That is why they sent her to me; +they knew her services would be invaluable in Paris. Her name is Esther, +and she came the day after we did and brought me such a beautiful +mantilla from Wilford's mother, and the loveliest dress. Just the +pattern was fifty dollars, she said. + +"The steamer sails in three days, and I will write again before that +time, sending it by Mr. Ray, who is to stop over one train at Linwood. +Wilford has just come in and says I have written enough for now, but +I will tell you how he has bought me a diamond pin and earrings, which +Esther, who knows the value of everything, says never cost less than +five hundred dollars. + +"Yours, loving, KATY CAMERON." + +"Five hundred dollars!" and Aunt Betsy held up her hands in horror, +while Helen sat a long time with the letter in her hand, cogitating upon +its contents, and especially upon the part referring to herself, and +what Mark Ray said of her. + +Every human heart is susceptible of flattery, and Helen was not an +entire exception. Still with her ideas of city men she could not at once +think favorably of Mark Ray, just for a few complimentary words which +might or might not have been in earnest, and she found herself looking +forward with nervous dread to the time when he would stop at Linwood, +and of course call on her, as he would bring a letter from Katy. + +Very sadly to the inmates of the farmhouse rose the morning of the day +when Katy was to sail, and as if they could really see the tall masts of +the vessel which was to bear her away, the eyes of the whole family were +turned often to the eastward with a wistful, anxious gaze, while on +their lips and in their hearts were earnest prayers for the safety of +that ship and the precious freight it bore. But hours, however sad, will +wear themselves away, and so the day went on, succeeded by the night, +until that too had passed and another day had come, the second of Katy's +ocean life. At the farmhouse the work was all done up, and Helen in her +neat gingham dress, with her bands of brown hair bound about her head, +sat listlessly at her sewing, when she was startled by the sound of +wheels, and looking up saw the boy employed to carry packages from the +express office, driving to their door with a trunk, which he said had +come that morning from Boston. + +In some surprise Helen hastened to unlock it with the key which she +found appended to it. The trunk was full, and over the whole a linen +towel was folded, while on the top of that lay a letter in Katy's +handwriting, directed to Helen, who, sitting down upon the floor, broke +the seal and read aloud as follows: + +"BOSTON, June--, Revere House, + +"Nearly midnight. + +"MY DEAR SISTER HELEN: I have just come in from a little party given by +one of Mrs. Harvey's friends, and I am so tired, for you know I am not +accustomed to such late hours. Wilford says I will get accustomed to +them, that in New York they are seldom in bed before eleven or twelve, +but I never shall. It will kill me, I am sure, and yet I rather enjoy +the sitting up if I did not feel so wretchedly next day. The party was +very pleasant indeed, and everybody was so kind to me, especially Mr. +Ray, who stood by me all the time, and who somehow seemed to help me, so +that I knew just what to do, and was not awkward at all. I hope not, at +least for Wilford's sake. + +"You do not know how grand and dignified he is here in Boston among his +own set; he is so different from what he was in Silverton that I should +be afraid of him if I did not know how much he loves me. He shows that +in every action, and I am perfectly happy, except when I think that +to-morrow night at this time I shall be on the sea, going away from you +all. Here it does not seem far to Silverton, and I often look toward +home, wondering what you are doing, and if you miss me any. I wish I +could see you once before I go, just to tell you all how much I love +you--more than I ever did before, I am sure. + +"And now I come to the trunk. I know you will be surprised at its +contents, but you cannot be more so than I was when Wilford said I must +pack them up and send them back--all the dresses you and Marion made." + +"No, oh no," and Helen felt her strength leave her wrists in one sudden +throb as the letter dropped from her hand, while she tore off the linen +covering and saw for herself that Katy had written truly. + +She could not weep then, but her face was white as marble as she again +took up the letter and commenced at the point where she had broken off. + + * * * * * + +"It seems that people traveling in Europe do not need many things, but +what they have must be just right, and so Mrs. Cameron wrote for Mrs. +Harvey to see to my wardrobe, and if I had not exactly what was proper +she was to procure it. It is very funny that she did not find a single +proper garment among them all, when we thought them so nice. They were +not just the style, she said, and that was very desirable in Mrs. +Wilford Cameron. Somehow she tries to impress me with the idea that Mrs. +Wilford Cameron is a very different person from little Katy Lennox, but +I can see no difference except that I am a great deal happier and have +Wilford all the time. + +"Well, as I was telling you, I was measured and fitted, and my figure +praised, until my head was nearly turned, only I did not like the horrid +stays they put on me, squeezing me up and making me feel so stiff. Mrs. +Harvey says no lady does without them, expressing much surprise that I +had never worn them, and so I submit to the powers that be; but every +chance I get here in my room I take them off and throw them on the +floor, where Wilford has stumbled over them two or three times. + +"This afternoon the dresses came home, and they do look beautifully, +while every one has belt, and gloves, and ribbons, and sashes, and laces +or muslins to match--fashionable people are so particular about these +things. I have tried them on, and except that I think them too tight, +they fit admirably, and do give me a different air from what Miss +Hazelton's did. But I really believe I like the old ones best, because +you helped to make them; and when Wilford said I must send them home, I +went where he could not see me and cried, because--well, I hardly know +why I cried, unless I feared you might feel badly. Dearest Helen, don't, +will you? I love you just as much, and shall remember you the same as if +I wore the dresses. Dearest sister, I can fancy the look that will come +on your face, and I wish I could be present to kiss it away. Imagine me +there, will you? with my arms around your neck, and tell mother not to +mind. Tell her I never loved her so well as now, and that when I come +home from Europe I shall bring her ever so many things. There is a new +black silk for her in the trunk, and one for each of the aunties, while +for you there is a lovely brown, which Wilford said was just your style, +telling me to select as nice a silk as I pleased, and this he did I +think because he guessed I had been crying. He asked what made my eyes +so red, and when I would not tell him he took me with him to the silk +store and bade me get what I liked. Oh, he is the dearest, kindest +husband, and I love him all the more because I am the least bit afraid +of him. + +"And now I must stop, for Wilford says so. Dear Helen, dear all of you, +I can't help crying as I say good-by. Remember little Katy, and if she +ever did anything bad, don't lay it up against her. Kiss Morris and +Uncle Ephraim, and say how much I love them. Darling sister, darling +mother, good-by." + + * * * * * + +This was Katy's letter, and it brought a gush of tears from the four +women remembered so lovingly in it, the mother and the aunts stealing +away to weep in secret, without ever stopping to look at the new dresses +sent to them by Wilford Cameron. They were very soft, very handsome, +especially Helen's rich golden brown, and as she looked at it she felt a +thrill of satisfaction in knowing it was hers, but this quickly passed +as she took out one by one the garments she had folded with so much +care, wondering when Katy would wear each one and where she would be. + +"She will never wear them, never--they are not fine enough for her now!" +she exclaimed, and as she just then came upon the little plaid, she laid +her head upon the trunk lid, while her tears dropped like rain in among +the discarded articles condemned by Wilford Cameron. + +It seemed to her like Katy's grave, and she was still sobbing bitterly, +when a step sounded outside the window, and a voice called her name. It +was Morris, and lifting up her head Helen said, passionately: + +"Oh, Morris, look! he has sent back all Katy's clothes, which you bought +and I worked so hard to make. They were not good enough for his wife to +wear, and so he insulted us. Oh, Katy, I never fully realized till now +how wholly she is lost to us!" + +"Helen, Helen," Morris kept saying, trying to stop her, for close behind +him was Mark Ray, who heard her distinctly, and glancing in, saw her +kneeling before the trunk, her pale face stained with tears, and her +dark eyes shining with excitement. + +Mark Ray understood it at a glance, feeling indignant at Wilford for +thus unnecessarily wounding the sensitive girl, whose expression, as she +sat there upon the floor, with her face upturned to Morris, haunted him +for months. Mark was sorry for her--so sorry that his first impulse was +to go quietly away, and so spare her the mortification of knowing that +he had witnessed that little scene; but it was now too late. As she +finished speaking her eye fell on him, and coloring scarlet she +struggled to her feet, and covering her face with her hands wept still +more violently. Mark was in a dilemma, and whispered softly to Morris: +"I think I had better leave. You can tell her all I had to say;" but +Helen heard him, and mastering her agitation she said to him: + +"Please, Mr. Ray, don't go--not yet at least, not till I have asked you +of Katy. Did you see her off? Has she gone?" + +Thus importuned, Mark Ray came in, and sitting down where his boot +almost touched the new brown silk, he very politely began to answer her +rapid questions, putting her entirely at her ease by his pleasant, +affable manner, and making her forget the littered appearance of the +room as she listened to his praises of her sister, who, he said, seemed +so very happy, attracting universal admiration wherever she went. No +allusion whatever was made to the trunk during the time of Mark's stay, +which was not long. If he took the next train to New York, he had but an +hour more to spend, and feeling that Helen would rather he should spend +it at Linwood he soon arose to go. Offering his hand to Helen, there +passed from his eyes into hers a look which had over her a strangely +quieting influence, and prepared her for a remark which otherwise might +have seemed out of place. + +"I have known Wilford Cameron for years; he is my best friend, and I +respect him as a brother. In some things he may be peculiar, but he +will make your sister a kind husband. He loves her devotedly, I know, +choosing her from the throng of ladies who would gladly have taken her +place. I hope you will like him for my sake as well as Katy's." + +His warm hand unclasped from Helen's, and with another good-by he was +gone, without seeing either Mrs. Lennox, Aunt Hannah or Aunt Betsy. This +was not the time for extending his acquaintance, he knew, and he went +away with Morris, feeling that the farmhouse, so far as he could judge, +was not exactly what Wilford had pictured it. "But then he came for a +wife, and I did not," he thought, while Helen's face came before him +as it looked up to Morris, and he wondered, were he obliged to choose +between the sisters, which he should prefer. During the few days passed +in Boston he had become more than half in love with Katy himself, almost +envying his friend the pretty little creature he had won. She was very +beautiful and very fascinating in her simplicity, but there was +something in Helen's face more attractive than mere beauty, and Mark +said to Morris as they walked along: + +"Miss Lennox is not much like her sister." + +"Not much, no; but Helen is a splendid girl--more strength of character, +perhaps, than Katy, who is younger than her years even. She has always +been petted from babyhood; it will take time or some great sorrow to +show what she really is." + +This was Morris' reply, and the two then proceeded on in silence until +they reached the boundary line between Morris' farm and Uncle Ephraim's, +where they found the deacon mending a bit of broken fence, his coat +lying on a pile of stones, and his wide, blue cotton trousers hanging +loosely around him. When told who Mark was and that he brought news of +Katy, he greeted him cordially, and sitting down upon his fence listened +to all Mark had to say. Between the old and young man there seemed at +once a mutual liking, the former saying to himself as Mark went on, and +he resumed his work: + +"I most wish it was this chap with Katy on the sea. I like his looks the +best," while Mark's thoughts were: + +"Will need not be ashamed of that man, though I don't suppose I should +really want him coming suddenly in among a drawing-room full of guests." + +Morris did not feel much like entertaining Mark, but Mark was fully +competent to entertain himself, and thought the hour spent at Linwood a +very pleasant one, half wishing for some excuse to tarry longer; but +there was none, and so at the appointed time he bade Morris good-by and +went on his way to New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +FIRST MONTH OF MARRIED LIFE. + + +If Katy's letters, written, one on board the steamer and another from +London, were to be trusted, she was as nearly perfectly happy as a young +bride well can be, and the people at the farmhouse felt themselves more +and more kindly disposed toward Wilford Cameron with each letter +received. They were going soon into the northern part of England, and +from thence into Scotland, Katy wrote from London, and two weeks after +found them comfortably settled at the inn at Alnwick, near to Alnwick +Castle. Wilford had seemed very anxious to get there, leaving London +before Katy was quite ready to leave, and hurrying across the country +until Alnwick was reached. He had been there before, years ago, he said, +but no one seemed to recognize him, though all paid due respect to the +distinguished-looking American and his beautiful young wife. An entrance +into Alnwick Castle was easily obtained, and Katy felt that all her +girlish dreams of grandeur and magnificence were more than realized +here in this home of the Percys, where ancient and modern styles of +architecture and furnishing were so blended together. She would never +tire of that place, she thought, but Wilford's taste led him elsewhere, +and he took more delight, it would appear, in wandering around St. +Mary's Church, which stood upon a hill commanding a view of the castle +and of the surrounding country for miles away. Here Katy also came, +rambling with him through the village graveyard where slept the dust of +centuries, the gray, mossy tombstones bearing date backward for more +than a hundred years, their quaint inscriptions both puzzling and +amusing Katy, who studied them by the hour. + +One quiet summer morning, however, when the heat was unusually great, +she felt too listless to wander about, and so sat upon the grass, +listening to the birds as they sang above her head, while Wilford, at +some distance from her, stood leaning against a tree and thinking sad, +regretful thoughts, as his eye rested upon the rough headstone at his +feet. + +"Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," was the lettering upon it, and as he +read it a feeling of reproach was in his heart, while he said: "I hope I +am not glad to know that she is dead." + +He had come to Alnwick for the sole purpose of finding that humble +grave, of assuring himself that after life's fitful fever, Genevra +Lambert slept quietly, forgetful of the wrong once done to her by him. +It is true he had not doubted her death before, but as seeing was +believing, so now he felt sure of it, and plucking from the turf above +her a little flower growing there, he went back to Katy and sitting down +beside her with his arm around her waist, tried to devise some way of +telling her what he had promised himself he would tell her there in that +very yard, where Genevra was buried. But the task was harder now than +before. Katy was so happy with him, trusting his love so fully that he +dared not lift the veil and read to her that page hinted at once before +in Silverton, when they sat beneath the butternut tree, with the fresh +young grass springing around them. Then, she was not his wife, and the +fear that she would not be if he told her all had kept him silent, but +now she was his alone; nothing could undo that, and there, in the shadow +of the gray old church through whose aisles Genevra had been borne out +to where the rude headstone was gleaming in the English sunlight, it +seemed meet that he should tell her sad story. And Katy would have +forgiven him then, for not a shadow of regret had darkened her life +since it was linked with his, and in her perfect love she could have +pardoned much. But Wilford did not tell. It was not needful; he made +himself believe--not necessary for her ever to know that once he met a +maiden called Genevra, almost as beautiful as she, but never so beloved. +No, never. Wilford said that truly, when that night he bent over his +sleeping Katy, comparing her face with Genevra's, and his love for her +with his love for Genevra. + +"That was a boyish fancy, this love of mature years," and Wilford +pressed a kiss upon Katy's pure forehead, showing so white in the +moonlight. + +Wilford was very fond of his girlish wife and very proud of her, too, +when strangers paused, as they often did, to look back after her. Thus +far nothing had arisen to mar the happiness of his first weeks of +married life; nothing except the letters from Silverton, over which Katy +always cried, until he sometimes wished that the family could not write. +But they could and they did; even Aunt Betsy inclosed in Helen's letter +a note, wonderful both in orthography and composition, and concluding +with the remark that she would be glad when Catherine returned and was +settled in a home of her own, as she would then have a new place to +visit. + +There was a dark frown on Wilford's face, and for a moment he felt +tempted to withhold the note from Katy, but this he could not do then, +so he gave it into her hands, watching her as with burning cheeks, she +read it through, and asking her at its close why she looked so red. + +"Oh, Wilford," and she crept closely to him, "Aunt Betsy spells so +queerly, that I was wishing you would not always open my letters first. +Do all husbands do so?" + +It was the only time Katy had ventured to question a single act of his, +submitting without a word to whatever was his will. Wilford knew that +his father would never have presumed to break a seal belonging to his +mother, but he had broken Katy's and he should continue breaking them, +so he answered, laughingly; + +"Why, yes, I guess they do. My little wife has surely no secrets to hide +from me?" + +"No secrets," Katy answered, "only I did not want you to see Aunt +Betsy's letter, that's all." + +"I did not marry Aunt Betsy--I married you," was Wilford's reply; which +meant far more than Katy guessed. + +With three thousand miles between him and his wife's relatives, Wilford +could endure to think of them; but whenever letters came to Katy bearing +the Silverton postmark, he was conscious of a far different sensation +from what he experienced when the postmark was New York and the +handwriting that of his own family. But not in any way did this feeling +manifest itself to Katy, who, as she always wrote to Helen, was very, +very happy, and never more so, perhaps, than while they were at Alnwick, +where, as if he had something for which to atone, he was unusually kind +and indulgent, caressing her with unwonted tenderness, and making her +ask him once if he loved her a great deal more now than when they were +first married. + +"Yes, darling, a great deal more," was Wilford's answer, as he kissed +her upturned face, and then went for the last time to Genevra's grave; +for on the morrow they were to leave the neighborhood of Alnwick for the +heather blooms of Scotland. + +There was a trip to Edinburgh, a stormy passage across the Straits of +Dover, a two months' sojourn in Paris, and then they went to Rome, where +Wilford intended to pass the winter, journeying in the spring through +different parts of Europe. He was in no haste to return to America; he +would rather stay where he could have Katy all to himself, away from her +family and his own. But it was not so to be, and not very long after his +arrival at Rome there came a letter from his mother apprising him of his +father's dangerous illness, and asking him to come home at once. The +elder Cameron had not been well since Wilford left the country, and the +physician was fearful that the disease had assumed a consumptive form, +Mrs. Cameron wrote, adding that her husband's only anxiety was to see +his son again. To this there was no demur, and about the first of +December, six months from the time he had sailed, Wilford arrived in +Boston, having taken a steamer for that city. His first act was to +telegraph for news of his father, receiving a reply that he was better; +the alarming symptoms had disappeared, and there was now great hope of +his recovery. + +"We might have stayed longer in Europe," Katy said, feeling a little +chill of disappointment--not that her father-in-law was better, but at +being called home for nothing, when her life abroad was so happy and +free from care. + +Somehow the atmosphere of America seemed different from what it used +to be. It was colder, bluer, the little lady said, tapping her foot +uneasily and looking from her windows at the Revere out upon the snowy +streets, through which the wintry wind was blowing in heavy gales. + +"Yes, it is a heap colder," she sighed, as she returned to the large +chair which Esther had drawn for her before the cheerful fire, charging +her disquiet to the weather once, never dreaming of imputing it to her +husband, who was far more its cause than was the December cold. + +He, too, though glad of his father's improvement, was sorry to have been +recalled for nothing to a country which brought his old life back again, +with all its forms and ceremonies, reviving his dread lest Katy should +not acquit herself as was becoming Mrs. Wilford Cameron. In his +selfishness he had kept her almost wholly to himself, so that the polish +she was to acquire from her travels abroad was not as perceptible as, +now that he looked at her with his family's eyes, he could desire. Katy +was Katy still, in spite of London, Paris, or Rome. To be sure there +was about her a little more maturity and self-assurance, but in all +essential points she was the same; and Wilford winced as he thought how +the free, impulsive manner which, among the Scottish hills, where there +was no one to criticise, had been so charming to him, would shock his +lady mother and Sister Juno. And this it was which made him moody and +silent, replying hastily to Katy when she said to him: "Please, Wilford, +telegraph to Helen to be with mother at the West depot when we pass +there to-morrow. The train stops five minutes, you know, and I want to +see them so much. Will you, Wilford?" + +She had come up to him now, and was standing behind him, with her hands +upon his shoulder; so she did not see the expression of his face as he +answered quickly; + +"Yes, yes." + +A moment after he quitted the room, and it was then that Katy, standing +before the window, charged the day with what was strictly Wilford's +fault. Returning at last to her chair she went off into a reverie as to +the new home to which she was going and the new friends she was to meet, +wondering much what they would think of her, and wondering most if they +would like her. Once she had said to Wilford: + +"Which of your sisters shall I like best?" + +And Wilford had answered her by asking: + +"Which do you like best, books or going to parties in full dress?" + +"Oh, parties and dress," Katy had said, and Wilford had then rejoined: + +"You will like Juno best, for she is all fashion and gayety, while +Bluebell prefers her books and the quiet of her own room." + +Katy felt afraid of Bell, and in fact, now that they were so near, she +felt afraid of them all, notwithstanding Esther's assurances that they +could not help loving her. During the six months they had been together +Esther had learned to feel for her young lady that strong affection +which sometimes exists between mistress and servant. Everything which +she could do for her she did, smoothing as much as possible the meeting +which she also dreaded, for though the Camerons were too proud to +express before her their opinion of Wilford's choice, she had guessed it +readily, and pitied the young wife brought up with ideas so different +from those of her husband's family. More accustomed to Wilford's moods +than Katy, she saw that something was the matter, and it prompted her to +unusual attentions, stirring the fire into a still more cheerful blaze +and bringing a stool for Katy, who in blissful ignorance of her +husband's real feelings, sat waiting his return from the telegraph +office, whither she supposed he had gone, and building pleasant pictures +of to-morrow's meeting with her mother and Helen, and possibly Dr. +Morris, if not Uncle Ephraim himself. + +The voyage home had been long and wearisome, and Katy, who had suffered +from seasickness, was feeling jaded and tired, wishing, as she told +Esther, that instead of going to New York direct she could go straight +to the farmhouse and "rest on mother's bed," that receptacle for all her +childish ills. + +"I mean to ask Wilford if I may," she said to herself, and her cheeks +grew brighter as she thought of really going home to mother and Helen +and the kind old people who would pet and love her so much. + +So absorbed was she in her reverie as not to hear Wilford's step as he +came in, but when he stood behind her and took her head playfully +between his hands, she started up, feeling that the weather had changed; +it was not as cold and dreary in Boston as she imagined, neither did +mother's bed seem as desirable a place to rest upon as the shoulder +where she laid her head, playing with Wilford's buttons, and saying to +him at last: + +"You went out to telegraph, didn't you?" + +He had gone out with the intention of telegraphing as she desired, but +in the hall below he had met with an old acquaintance who talked with +him so long that he entirely forgot his errand until Katy recalled it to +his mind, making him feel very uncomfortable as he frankly told her of +his forgetfulness. + +"It is too late now," he added; "besides you could only see them for a +moment, just long enough to make you cry--a thing I do not greatly +desire, inasmuch as I wish my wife to look her best when I present her +to my family, and with red eyes she couldn't, you know." + +Katy knew it was settled, and choking back her tears she tried to +listen, while Wilford, having fairly broken the ice with regard to his +family, told her how anxious he was that she should make a good first +impression upon his mother. Did Katy remember that Mrs. Morey whom they +met at Paris, and could she not throw a little of her air into her +manner--that is, could she not drop her girlishness when in the presence +of others and be a little more dignified? When alone with him he liked +to have her just what she was, a loving, affectionate little wife, but +the world looked on such things differently. Would Katy try? + +Wilford, when he commenced, had no definite idea as to what he should +say, and without meaning it he made Katy moan piteously: + +"I don't know what you mean. I would do anything if I knew how. Tell me, +how shall I be dignified?" + +She was crying so hard that Wilford, while mentally calling himself a +fool and a brute, could only try to comfort her, telling her she need +not be anything but what she was--that his mother and sisters would love +her just as he did--and that daily association with them would teach her +all that was necessary. + +Katy's tears were stopped at last; but the frightened, anxious look did +not leave her face, even though Wilford tried his best to divert her +mind. A nervous terror of her new relations had gained possession of her +heart, and nearly the entire night she lay awake, pondering in her mind +what Wilford had said, and thinking how terrible it would be if he +should be disappointed in her after all. The consequence of this was +that a very white, tired face sat opposite Wilford next morning at the +breakfast served in their private parlor; nor did it look much fresher +even after they were in the cars and rolling out of Boston. But when +Worcester was reached, and the old home waymarks began to grow familiar, +the color came stealing back, until the cheeks burned with an unnatural +red, and the blue eyes fairly danced as they rested on the hills of +Silverton. + +"Only three miles from mother and Helen! Oh, if I could go there!" Katy +thought, working her fingers nervously; but the express train did not +pause there, and it went so swiftly by the depot that Katy could hardly +discover who was standing there, whether friend or stranger. + +But when at last they came to West Silverton, and the long train slowly +stopped, the first object she saw was Dr. Morris, driving down from the +village. He had no intention of going to the depot, and only checked his +horse a moment, lest it should prove restive if too near the engine; but +when a clear young voice called from the window: "Morris! oh, Cousin +Morris! I've come!" his heart gave a great heavy throb, for he knew +whose voice that was and whose the little hand beckoning to him. He had +supposed her far away beneath Italian skies, for at the farmhouse no +intelligence had been received of her intended return, and in much +surprise he reined up to the rear door, and throwing his lines to a boy, +went forward to where Katy stood, her face glowing with delight as she +flew into his arms, wholly forgetful of the last night's lecture on +dignity, also forgetful of Wilford, standing close beside her. He had +not tried to hold her back when, at the sight of Morris, she sprang away +from him; but he followed after, biting his lip, and wishing she had a +little more discretion. Surely it was not necessary to half strangle Dr. +Grant as she was doing, kissing his hand even after she had kissed his +face a full half dozen times, and all the people looking on. But Katy +did not care for people. She only knew that Morris was there--the Morris +whom, in her great happiness abroad, she had perhaps slighted by not +writing directly to him but once. In Wilford's sheltering care she had +not felt the need of this good cousin, as she used to do; but she was so +glad to see him, wondering why he looked so thin and sad. Was he sick? +she asked, gazing up into his face with a pitying look, which made him +shiver as he answered: + +"No, not sick, though tired, perhaps, as I have at present an unusual +amount of work to do." + +And this was true--he was usually busy. But that was not the cause of +the thin face, which others than Katy remarked. Helen's words: "It might +have been," spoken to him on the night of Katy's bridal, had never left +his mind, much as he had tried to dislodge them. Some men can love a +dozen times; but it was not so with Morris. He could overcome his love +so that it should not be a sin, but no other could ever fill the place +where Katy had been; and as he looked along the road through life he +felt that he must travel it alone. Truly, if Katy were not yet passing +through the fire, he was, and it had left its mark upon him, purifying +as it burned, and bringing his every act into closer submission to his +God. Only Helen and Marian Hazelton interpreted aright that look upon +his face, and knew it came from the hunger of his heart, but they kept +silence; while others said that he was working far too hard, urging him +to abate his unwearied labors, for they would not lose their young +physician yet. But Morris smiled his patient, kindly smile on all their +fears and went his way, doing his work as one who knew he must render +strict account for the popularity he was daily gaining, both in his own +town and those around. He could think of Katy now without a sin, but he +was not thinking of her when she came so unexpectedly upon him, and for +an instant she almost bore his breath away in her vehement joy. + +Quick to note a change in those he knew, he saw that her form was not +quite so full, nor her cheeks so round; but she was weary with the +voyage, she said, and knowing how seasickness will wear upon one's +strength, Morris imputed it wholly to that, and believed she was, as +she professed to be, perfectly happy. + +"Come, Katy, we must go now," Wilford said, as the bell rang its first +alarm, and the passengers, some with sandwiches and some with fried +cakes in their hands, ran back to find their seats. + +"Yes, I know, but I have not asked half I meant to. Oh, how I want to go +home with you, Morris," Katy exclaimed, again throwing her arms around +the doctor's neck as she bade him good-by, and sent fresh messages of +love to the friends at home, who, had they known she was to be there at +that time, would have walked the entire distance for the sake of looking +once more into her dear face. + +"I intended to have brought them heaps of things," she said, "but we +came home so suddenly I had no time. Here, take Helen this. Tell her +it is real," and the impulsive creature drew from her finger a small +diamond set in black enamel, which Wilford had bought in Paris. "She did +not need it; she had two more, and she was sure Wilford would not mind," +she said, turning to him for his approbation. + +But Wilford did mind, and his face indicated as much, although he tried +to be natural as he replied: "Certainly, send it if you like." + +In her excitement Katy did not observe it, but Morris did, and he at +first declined taking it, saying Helen had no use for it and would be +better pleased with something not half as valuable. Katy, however, +insisted, appealing to Wilford, who, ashamed of his first emotion, now +seemed quite as anxious as Katy herself, until Morris placed the ring +in his purse, and then bade Katy hasten or she would certainly be left. +One more wave of the hand, one more kiss thrown from the window, and the +train moved on, Katy feeling like a different creature for having seen +some one from home. + +"I am so glad I saw him--so glad I sent the ring, for now they will know +I am the same Katy Lennox, and I think Helen sometimes feared I might +get proud with you," she said, while Wilford pulled her rich fur around +her, smiling to see how bright and pretty she was looking since that +meeting with Dr. Grant. "It was better than medicine," Katy said, when +beyond Springfield he referred to it a second time, and leaning her head +upon his shoulder she fell into a refreshing sleep, from which she did +not waken until New York was reached, and Wilford, lifting her gently +up, whispered to her: "Come, darling, we are home at last." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +KATY'S FIRST EVENING IN NEW YORK. + + +The elder Cameron was really better, and more than once he had regretted +recalling his son, who he knew had contemplated a longer stay abroad. +But that could not now be helped; Wilford had arrived in Boston, as +his telegram of yesterday announced--he would be at home to-day; and +No ---- Fifth Avenue was all the morning and a portion of the afternoon +the scene of unusual excitement, for both Mrs. Cameron and her daughters +wished to give the six months' wife a good impression of her new home. +At first they thought of inviting company to dinner, but to this the +father objected. "Katy should not be troubled the first day," he said; +"it was bad enough for her to meet them all; they could ask Mark if they +chose, but no one else." + +And so only Mark Ray was invited to the dinner, gotten up as elaborately +as if a princess had been expected instead of little Katy, trembling in +every joint, when, about four P.M., Wilford awoke her at the depot and +whispered: "Come, darling, we are home at last." + +"Why do you shiver so?" he asked, wrapping her cloak around her, and +almost lifting her from the car. + +"I don't--know. I guess--I'm cold," and Katy drew a long breath as she +thought of Silverton and the farmhouse, wishing so much that she was +going into its low-walled kitchen, where the cook-stove was, and where +the chairs were all splint-bottomed, instead of into the handsome +carriage, where the cushions were so soft and yielding, and the whole +effect so grand. + +She knew it was the Cameron carriage, for Wilford had said it would meet +them; but she had not expected it to be just what it was, and she bowed +humbly to the polite coachman greeting Wilford and herself so +respectfully. "What would our folks say?" she kept repeating to herself +as she drove along the streets, where they were beginning to light the +street lamps, for the December day was dark and cloudy. It seemed so +like a dream that she, who once had picked huckleberries on the +Silverton hills, and bound coarse, heavy shoes to buy herself a pink +gingham dress, should now be riding in her carriage toward the home +which she knew was magnificent; and Katy's tears fell like rain as, +nestling close to Wilford, who asked what was the matter, she whispered: +"I can hardly believe that it is I--it is so unreal." + +"Please don't cry," Wilford rejoined, brushing her tears away. "You know +I don't like your eyes to be red." + +With a great effort, Katy kept her tears back, and was very calm when +they reached the brownstone front, far enough uptown to save it from +the slightest approach to plebeianism from contact with its downtown +neighbors. In the hall the chandelier was burning, and as the carriage +stopped a flame of light seemed suddenly to burst from every window as +the gas heads were turned up, so that Katy caught glimpses of rich +silken curtains and costly lace as she went up the steps, clinging to +Wilford and looking ruefully around for Esther, who had disappeared +through the basement door. Another moment and they stood within the +marbled hall, Katy conscious of nothing definite--nothing but a vague +consciousness of refined elegance, and that a handsome, richly-dressed +lady came out to meet them, kissing Wilford quietly, and calling him her +son--that the same lady later turned to her, saying, kindly: "And this +is my new daughter?" + +Then Katy came to life, and did that at the very thought of which she +shuddered when a few months' experience had taught her the temerity of +the act--she wound her arms impulsively around Mrs. Cameron's neck, +rumpling her point lace collar, and sadly displacing the coiffeur of the +astonished lady, who had seldom received so genuine a greeting as that +which Katy gave her, kissing her lips and whispering softly: "I love you +now, because you are Wilford's mother, but by and by because you are +mine. And you will love me some because I am his wife." + +Wilford was horrified, particularly when he saw how startled his mother +looked as she tried to release herself and adjust her tumbled headgear. +It was not what he had hoped, nor what his mother had expected, for she +was unaccustomed to such demonstrations; but under the circumstances +Katy could not have done better. There was a tender spot in Mrs. +Cameron's heart, and Katy touched it, making her feel a throb of +affection for the childish creature suing for her love. + +"Yes, darling, I love you now," she said, removing Katy's clinging arms +and taking care that they should not enfold her a second time. "You are +tired and cold," she continued; "you had better go at once to your +rooms. You will find them in order, and I will send Esther up. There is +plenty of time to dress for dinner," and with a wave of her hand she +dismissed Katy up the stairs, noticing as she went the exquisite +softness of her fur cloak; but thinking it too heavy a garment for her +slight figure, and noticing, too, the graceful ankle and foot which the +little high-heeled gaiter showed to good advantage. "I did not see her +face distinctly, but she has a well-turned instep and walks easily," was +the report she carried to her daughters, who in their own room, over +Katy's, were dressing for dinner. + +"She will undoubtedly make a good dancer, then, unless like Dr. Grant, +she is too blue for that," Juno said, while Bell shrugged her shoulders, +congratulating herself that she had a mind above such frivolous matters +as dancing and well-turned insteps, and wondering if Katy cared in the +least for books. + +"Couldn't you see her face at all, mother?" Juno asked. + +"Scarcely; but the glimpse I did get was satisfactory. I think she is +pretty." + +And this was all the sisters could ascertain until their toilets were +finished, and they went down into the library, where their brother +waited for them. He had seen his father and Jamie, and now he arose to +meet his sisters, kissing them both affectionately, and complimenting +them on their good looks. + +"I wish we could say the same of you," saucy Juno answered, playfully +pulling his mustache; "but, upon my word, Will, you are fast settling +down into an oldish married man, even turning gray," and she ran her +fingers through his dark hair, where there was now and then a thread of +silver. "Disappointed in your domestic relations, eh?" she continued, +looking him archly in the face. + +Wilford was rather proud of his good looks, and during his sojourn +abroad, Katy had not helped him any in overcoming this weakness, but, on +the contrary, had fed his vanity by constant flattery. And still he was +himself conscious of not looking quite as well as usual just now, for +the sea voyage had tired him as well as Katy, but he did not care to be +told of it, and Juno's ill-timed remarks aroused him at once, +particularly as they reflected somewhat on Katy. + +"I assure you I am not disappointed," he answered, "and the six months +of my married life have been the happiest I ever knew. Katy is more than +I expected her to be." + +Juno elevated her eyebrows slightly, but made no direct reply, while +Bell began to ask about Paris and the places he had visited. + +Meanwhile Katy had been ushered into her room, which was directly over +the library and separated from Mrs. Cameron's only by a range of closets +and presses, a portion of which were to be appropriated to her own use. +Great pains had been taken to make her rooms attractive, and as the +large bay window in the library below extended to the third story, it +was really the pleasantest chamber in the house. To Katy it was perfect, +and her first exclamation was one of delight. + +"Oh, how pleasant, how beautiful," she cried, skipping across the soft +carpet to the warm fire blazing in the grate. "A bay window, too, when I +like them so much, and such handsome curtains and furniture. I shall be +happy here." + +But happy as she was, Katy could not help feeling tired, and she sank +into one of the luxurious easy-chairs, wishing she could stay there all +the evening, instead of going down to that formidable dinner with her +new relations. How she dreaded it, especially when she remembered that +Mrs. Cameron had said there would be plenty of time to dress, a thing +which Katy hated, the process was so tiresome, particularly to-night. +Surely, her handsome traveling dress, made in Paris, was good enough, +and she was about settling in her own mind to venture upon wearing it, +when Esther demolished her castle at once. + +"Wear your traveling habit!" she exclaimed, "when the young ladies, +especially Miss Juno, are so particular about their dinner costume? +There would be no end to the scolding I should get for suffering it. So +there's no help, you see," and she began good-naturedly to remove her +mistress' collar and pin, while Katy, standing up, sighed as she said; +"I wish I was in Silverton to-night. I could wear anything there. What +must I put on? How I dread it!" and she began to shiver again. + +Fortunately for Katy, Esther had been in the family long enough to know +just what they regarded as proper, as by this means the dress selected, +a delicate pearl-colored silk was sure to please. It was very becoming +to Katy, and having been made in Paris, was not open to criticism. +Esther's taste was perfect, so that Katy was never over-dressed, and she +was very simple and pretty this night, with the rich, soft lace around +her neck and around her white, plump arms, where the golden bands were +shining. + +"Very pretty, indeed," was Mrs. Cameron's verdict when at half-past five +she knocked at the door and then came in to see her daughter, kissing +her cheek and stroking her head, wholly unadorned, except by the short, +silken curls which could not be coaxed to grow faster than they chose, +and which had sometimes annoyed Wilford. They made his wife seem so +young beside him. Mrs. Cameron was annoyed, too, for she had no idea +of a head, except as it was connected with a hairdresser, and her +annoyance showed itself as she asked: + +"Did you have your hair cut on purpose?" + +But when Katy explained, she answered, pleasantly: + +"Never mind; it is a fault which will mend every day, only it makes you +look like a child." + +"I am eighteen and a half," Katy said, feeling a lump rising in her +throat, for she guessed that her mother-in-law was not quite pleased +with her hair. + +For herself, she liked it; it was so easy to brush and fix. She should +go wild if she had to submit to all Esther had told her of hairdressing +and what it involved. + +Mrs. Cameron had asked if she would not like to see Mr. Cameron, the +elder, before going down to dinner, and Katy had answered that she +would; so as soon as Esther had smoothed a refractory fold and brought +her handkerchief, she followed to the room where Wilford's father was +sitting. He might not have felt complimented could he have known that +something in his appearance reminded Katy of Uncle Ephraim. He was not +nearly as old or as tall, nor was his hair as white, but the +resemblance, if there were any, lay in the smile with which he greeted +Katy, calling her his youngest child, and drawing her closely to him. + +It was remarked of Mr. Cameron that since their babyhood he had never +kissed one of his own children; but when Katy, who looked upon such a +salutation as a matter of course, put up her rosy lips, making the first +advance, he could not resist them, and he kissed her twice. Hearty, +honest kisses they were, for the man was strongly drawn toward the young +girl, who said to him, timidly: + +"I am glad to have a father--mine died before I could remember him. May +I call you so?" + +"Yes, yes; God bless you, my child," and Mr. Cameron's voice shook as he +said it, for neither Bell nor Juno were wont to address him just as Katy +did--Katy, standing close to him, with her hand upon his shoulder and +her kiss yet fresh upon his lips. + +She had already crept a long way into his heart, and he took her hand +from his shoulder and holding it between his own, said to her: + +"I did not think you were so small or young. You are my little +daughter, my baby, instead of my son's wife. How do you ever expect +to fulfill the duties of Mrs. Wilford Cameron?" + +"It's my short hair, sir. I am not so young," Katy answered, her eyes +filling with tears as she began to wish back the heavy braids which +Helen cut away when the fever was at its height. + +"Never mind, child," Mr. Cameron rejoined, playfully. "Youth is no +reproach; there's many a one would give their right hand to be young +like you. Juno, for instance, who is--" + +"Hus-band!" came reprovingly from Mrs. Cameron, spoken as only she could +speak it, with a prolonged buzzing sound on the first syllable, and +warning the husband that he was venturing too far. + +"It is time to go down if Mrs. Cameron sees the young ladies before +dinner," she said, a little stiffly; whereupon her better half startled +Katy with the exclamation: + +"Mrs. Cameron! Thunder and lightning, wife, call her Katy, and don't go +into any nonsense of that kind." + +The lady reddened, but said nothing until she reached the hall, when she +whispered to Katy, apologetically: + +"Don't mind it. He is rather irritable since his illness, and sometimes +makes use of coarse language." + +Katy had been a little frightened at the outburst, but she liked Mr. +Cameron, notwithstanding, and her heart was lighter as she went down to +the library, where Wilford met her at the door, and taking her on his +arm led her in to his sisters, holding her back as he presented her, +lest she should assault them as she had his mother. But Katy felt no +desire to hug the tall, queenly girl whom Wilford introduced as Juno, +and whose large, black eyes seemed to read her through as she offered +her hand and very daintily kissed her forehead, murmuring something +about a welcome to New York. Bell came next, broad-faced, +plainer-looking Bell, who yet had many pretentions to beauty, but whose +manner, if possible, was frostier, cooler, than her sister's. Of the +two, Katy liked Juno best, for there was about her a flash and sparkle +very fascinating to one who had never seen anything of the kind and did +not know that much of this vivacity was the result of patient study and +practice. Katy would have known they were high-bred, as the world +defines high breeding, and something in their manner reminded her of the +ladies she had seen abroad, ladies in whose veins lordly blood was +flowing. She could not help feeling uncomfortable in their presence, +especially as she felt that Juno's black eyes were on her constantly. +Not that she could ever meet them looking at her, for they darted away +the instant hers were raised, but she knew just when they returned to +her again, and how closely they were scanning her. + +"Your wife looks tired, Will. Let her sit down," Bell said, herself +wheeling the easy-chair nearer to the fire, while Wilford placed Katy in +it; then, thinking she would get on better if he were not there, he left +the room, and Katy was alone with her new sisters. + +Juno had examined her dress and found no fault with it, simply because +it was Parisian make; while Bell had examined her head, deciding that +there might be something in it, though she doubted it, but that, at all +events, short hair was very becoming to it, showing all its fine +proportions, and half deciding to have her own locks cut away. Juno had +a similar thought, wondering if it were the Paris fashion, and if she +would look as young in proportion as Katy did were her hair worn on her +neck. + +With their brother's departure, the tongues of both the girls were +loosened, and standing near to Katy, they began to question her of what +she had seen, Juno asking if she did not hate to leave Italy, and did +not wish herself back again. Wholly truthful, Katy answered: "Oh, yes, +I was very sorry, I would rather be there than here." + +"Complimentary to us, very," Bell murmured audibly in French, blushing +as Katy's eyes were lifted quickly to hers, and she knew she was +understood. + +If there was anything which Katy liked more than another in the way of +study, it was French. She had excelled in it at Canandaigua, and while +abroad had taken great pains to acquire a pure pronunciation, so that +she spoke it with a good deal of fluency, and readily comprehended Bell. + +"I did not mean to be rude," she said, earnestly. "I liked Italy so +much, and we expected to stay longer; but that does not hinder my liking +to be here. I hope I did not offend you." + +"Certainly not; you are an honest little puss," Bell replied, placing +her hand caressingly upon the curly head laying back so wearily on the +chair. "Here in New York we have a bad way of not telling the whole +truth, but you will soon be used to it." + +"Used to not telling the truth! Oh, I hope not!" and this time the blue +eyes lifted so wonderingly to Bell's face had in them a startled look. + +"Simpleton," was Juno's comment, while Bell's was: "I rather like the +child," as she continued to smooth the golden curls and wound them +around her finger, wondering if Katy had a taste for metaphysics, that +being the last branch of science which she had taken up. + +"I suppose you will find Will a pattern husband," Juno said, after a +moment's pause, and Katy replied: "There never could be a better, I am +sure, and I have been very happy." + +"Has he never said one cross word to you in all these six months?" was +Juno's next question, to which Katy answered, truthfully: "Never." + +"And lets you do as you please?" + +"Yes, just as I please," Katy replied, while Juno continued: "He must +have changed greatly, then, from what he used to be; but marriage has +probably improved him. He tells you all his secrets, too, I presume?" + +Anxious that Wilford should appear well in every light, Katy replied at +random: "Yes, if he has any." + +"Well, then," and in Juno's black eyes there was a wicked look, "perhaps +you will tell me who was or is the original of that picture he guards so +carefully?" + +"What picture?" and Katy looked up inquiringly, while Juno, with a +little sarcastic laugh, continued: "Oh, he has not told you, then. I +thought he would not, he seemed so angry and annoyed when he saw me with +it once three or four years ago. I found it in his room, where he had +accidentally left it, and was looking at it when he came in. It was the +picture of a young girl, who must have been very beautiful, and I did +not blame Will for loving her, if he ever did, but he need not have been +so indignant at me for wishing to know who it was. I never saw him so +angry or so much disturbed. I hope you will ferret the secret out and +tell me, for I have a great deal of curiosity, fancying that picture +had something to do with his remaining so long a bachelor. I do not mean +that he does not love you," she added, as she saw how white Katy grew. +"It is not to be expected that a man can live to be thirty without +loving more than one. There was Sybil Grey, a famous belle, whom I +thought at one time he would marry; but when Judge Grandon offered she +accepted, and Will was left in the lurch. I do not really believe he +cared, though, for Sybil was too much of a flirt to suit his jealous +lordship, and I will do him the justice to say that, however many +fancies he may have had, he likes you best of all," and this Juno felt +constrained to say because of the look in Katy's face, a look which +warned her that in her thoughtlessness she had gone too far and pierced +the young wife's heart with a pang as cruel as it was unnecessary. + +Bell had tried to stop her, but she had rattled on until now it was too +late, and she could not recall her words, however much she might wish to +do so. "Don't tell Will," she was about to say, when Will himself +appeared, to take Katy out to dinner. Very beautiful and sad were the +blue eyes which looked up at him so wistfully, and nothing but the +remembrance of Juno's words, "He likes you best of all," kept Katy from +crying outright, when he took her hand, passing it between his own and +asking if she was tired. + +"Let us try what dinner will do for you," he said, and in silence Katy +went with him to the pleasant dining-room, where the glare and the +ceremony bewildered her, bringing a homesick feeling as she thought of +Silverton, contrasting the elegance around her with the plain tea table, +graced with the mulberry set instead of the costly china before her. + +Never had Katy felt so embarrassed in her life as she did this night, +when seated for the first time at dinner in her husband's home, with all +those criticising eyes upon her, as she knew they were. She had been +very hungry, but her appetite was gone, and she almost loathed the rich +food offered her, feeling so glad when the dinner was ended, and Wilford +asked if she would go then to Jamie's room. He was sitting in his +wheel-chair when they went in, and his eyes turned eagerly toward them, +lighting up with pleasure when Wilford said: "This is your Aunt Katy. +You will love each other, I am sure." + +That they would love each other was very apparent from the kisses Katy +pressed upon his lips, and the way in which his arms clung around her +neck as he said: "I am glad you have come, Aunt Katy, and you will tell +me of the good doctor. He is your cousin, Uncle Wilford says." + +With Jamie Katy was perfectly at her ease. There was some affinity +between him and herself, and she was glad when Wilford left them alone, +as he wisely did, going back to where his mother and sisters were freely +discussing his bride, his mother calling her a mere child, who would +improve, and Juno saying she had neither manner nor style, while Bell +offered no opinion, except that she was pretty. A part of these +criticisms Wilford heard, and they made his blood tingle, for he had +great faith in their opinions, even though he sometimes savagely +combated them, and into his heart there crept a slight feeling of +dissatisfaction toward Katy, now kneeling on the floor by Jamie's side, +and with her head almost in his lap, talking to him of Morris Grant, +whose very name had a strange power to soothe her. + +"You don't seem like an aunt," Jamie said at last, smoothing her short +hair; "you look so like a girl. I wonder, must I call you so? I guess +I must, though, for Uncle Will told me to, and we all mind him, grandma +and all! Do you?" and the child looked curiously at her. + +Had Jamie's question been put to her two weeks ago, she would have +hesitated in her answer, and even now she had not waked to the fact that +in all essential points her husband's wish was the law she could not +help obey, but she replied, laughingly: "Yes, I mind him," while Jamie +continued: "I love him so much, and he loves us and you. I heard him +tell grandma so, and by his voice I knew he was in earnest. He never +loved any one half so well before, he said, not even--somebody--I forget +who--a funny name it was." + +Katy felt almost as if she were doing wrong, but remembering what Juno +had said of Sybil Grey, she faintly asked: + +"Was Sybil the name?" + +Jamie hardly thought it was. It seemed more like some town; still, it +might have been, he said, and Katy's heart grew lighter, for Juno's idle +words had troubled her, and Sybil Grey most of all; but if her husband +now loved her best, she did not care so much; and when Wilford came for +her to join them in the parlor, he found her like herself both in looks +and spirits. Mark Ray had been obliged to decline Mr. Cameron's +invitation to dinner, but he was now in the library, Wilford said, and +Katy was glad, for she remembered how he had helped her during that week +of gayety in Boston, when society was so new to her. As he had been +then, so he was now, and his friendly, respectful manner put Katy as +much at her ease as it was possible for her to be in the presence of +Wilford's mother and sisters, who watched her so narrowly. + +"I suppose you have not seen your Sister Helen? You know I called there, +of course?" Mark said to Katy; but before she could reply, a pair of +black eyes shot a keen glance at the luckless Mark, and Juno's sharp +voice said, quickly: "Called on her! When, pray? I did not know you had +the honor of Miss Lennox's acquaintance." + +Mark was in a dilemma. He had kept his call at Silverton to himself, as +he did not care to be questioned about Katy's family; and now, when it +accidentally came out, he tried to make some evasive reply, pretending +that he had spoken of it, and Juno had forgotten. But Juno knew better, +and from that night dated a strong feeling of dislike, almost hatred, +for Helen Lennox, whom she affected to despise, even though she could be +jealous of her. Wisely changing the conversation, Mark asked Katy next +to play, and as she seldom refused, she went at once to the piano, +astonishing both Mrs. Cameron and her daughters with the brilliancy of +her performance. Even Juno complimented her, saying she must have taken +lessons very young. + +"When I was ten," Katy answered. "Cousin Morris gave me my first +exercises himself. He plays sometimes." + +"Yes, I knew that," Juno replied. "Does your sister play as well as +you?" + +Katy knew that Helen did not, and she answered frankly: "Morris thinks +she does not. She is not as fond of it as I am." Then feeling that she +must in some way make amends for Helen, she added: "But she knows a +great deal more than I do about books. Helen is very smart." + +There was a smile on every lip at this ingenuous remark, but only Mark +and Bell liked Katy the better for it. Wilford did not care to have her +talking of her friends, and he kept her at the piano until she said her +fingers were tired, and begged leave to stop. + +It was late ere Mark bade them good-night; so late that Katy began to +wonder if he would never go, yawning once so perceptibly that Wilford +gave her a reproving glance, which sent the hot blood to her face and +drove from her every feeling of drowsiness. Even after he had gone the +family were in no haste to retire, but sat chatting with Wilford until +the city clock struck twelve and Katy was actually nodding in her chair. + +"Poor child, she is very tired," Wilford said, apologetically, gently +waking Katy, who, really mortified, begged them to excuse her, and +followed her husband to her room, where she was free to ask him what she +must ask before she could ever be quite as happy as she had been before. + +Notwithstanding what Jamie had said, Juno's words kept recurring to her +mind, and going up to the chair where Wilford was sitting before the +fire, and standing partly behind him, she said, timidly: "Will you +answer me one thing truly?" + +Alone with Katy, Wilford felt all his old tenderness returning, and +drawing her into his lap, he asked her what it was she wished to know. + +"Did you love anybody three or four years ago, or ever--that is, love +them well enough to wish to make them your wife?" + +Katy could feel how Wilford started, as he said: "What put that idea +into your head? Who has been talking to you?" + +"Juno," Katy answered. "She told me she believed that it was some other +love which kept you a bachelor so long. Was it, Wilford?" and Katy's +lips quivered in a grieved kind of way as she put the question. + +"Juno be--" + +Wilford did not say what, for he seldom swore, and never in a lady's +presence, even if the lady were his wife. So he said, instead: + +"It was very unkind in Juno to distress you thus with matters about +which she knew nothing." + +"But did you?" Katy asked again. "Was there not a Sybil Grey, or some +one of that name?" + +At mention of Sybil Grey, Wilford looked relieved, and answered her at +once: + +"Yes, there was a Sybil Grey, Mrs. Judge Grandon now, and a dashing +widow. Don't sigh so wearily," he continued, as Katy drew a gasping +breath. "Knowing she was a widow, I chose you, thus showing which I +preferred. Few men live to be thirty without more or less fancies, which +under some circumstances might ripen into something stronger, and I am +not an exception. I never loved Sybil Grey, nor wished to make her my +wife. I admired her very much. I admire her yet, and among all my +acquaintances there is not one upon whom I would care to have you make +so good an impression as upon her, nor one whose manner you could better +imitate." + +"Oh, will she call? Shall I see her?" Katy asked, beginning to feel +alarmed at the very thought of Sybil Grey, with all her polish and +manner. + +"She is spending the winter in New Orleans with her late husband's +relatives. She will not return till spring," Wilford replied. "But do +not look so distressed, for I tell you solemnly that I never loved +another as I love you, my wife. Do you believe me?" + +"Yes," and Katy's head drooped upon his shoulder. + +She was satisfied with regard to Sybil Grandon, only hoping she would +not have to meet her when she came home. But the picture. Whose was +that? Not Sybil's certainly, else Juno would have known. The picture +troubled her, but she dared not speak of it, Wilford had seemed so angry +at Juno. Still, she would probe him a little further, and so she +continued: + +"I do believe you, and if I ever see this Sybil I will try to imitate +her; but tell me, if, after her, there was among your friends one better +than the rest, one almost as dear as I am, one whom you sometimes +remember even now--is she living, or is she dead?" + +Wilford thought of that humble grave far off in St. Mary's churchyard, +the grave whose headstone bore the inscription: "Genevra Lambert, aged +22," and he answered quickly: + +"If there ever was such a one, she certainly is not living. Are you +satisfied?" + +Katy answered that she was, but perfect confidence in her husband's +affection had been terribly shaken by Juno's avowal and his partial +admission of an earlier love, and Katy's heart was too full to sleep, +even after she had retired. Visions of Sybil Grey, blended with visions +of another whom she called the "dead fancy," flitted before her mind, as +she lay awake, while hour after hour went by, until tired nature could +endure no longer, and just as the great city was waking up and the +rattle of wheels was beginning to be heard upon the distant pavements, +she fell away to sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +EXTRACTS FROM BELL CAMERON'S DIARY. + + +NEW YORK, December--. + +After German philosophy and Hamilton's metaphysics, it is a great relief +to have introduced into the family an entirely new element--a character +the dissection of which is at once a novelty and a recreation. It is +absolutely refreshing, and I find myself returning to my books with +increased vigor after an encounter with that simple-hearted, +unsophisticated, innocent-minded creature, our sister-in-law, Mrs. +Wilford Cameron. Such pictures as Juno and I used to draw of the stately +personage who was one day coming to us as Wilford's wife, and of whom +even mother was to stand in awe. Alas! how hath our idol fallen! Tell it +not in Gath, nor yet in Gotham! And still I rather like the little +creature, who, the very first night, nearly choked mother to death, +giving her lace streamers a most uncomfortable twitch, and actually +kissing father--a thing I have not done since I can remember. But, then, +with the exception of Will and Jamie, the Camerons are all a set of +icicles, encased in a refrigerator at that. If we were not, we should +thaw out, when Katy leans on us so affectionately and looks up at us so +wistfully, as if pleading for our love. Wilford does wonders; he used to +be so grave, so dignified and silent, that I never supposed he would +bear having a wife meet him at the door with cooing and kisses, and +climbing into his lap right before us all. Juno says it makes her sick, +while mother is dreadfully shocked; and even Will sometimes seems +annoyed, gently shoving her aside and telling her he is tired. + +After all, it is a query in my mind whether it is not better to be like +Katy than like Sybil Grandon, about whom Juno was mean enough to tell +her the first day of her arrival. On the whole, I would rather be Katy, +but better yet, would prefer remaining myself, Bell Cameron, the happy +medium between the two extremes, of art perfected and nature in its +primeval state, just as it existed among the Silverton hills. From my +own standpoint, I can look on and criticise, giving my journal the +benefit of my criticisms and conclusions. + +Very pretty, but shockingly insipid, is Juno's verdict upon Mrs. +Wilford, while mother says less, but looks a great deal more, especially +when she talks about "my folks," as she did to Mrs. General Reynolds the +very first time she called. Mother and Juno were so annoyed, while Will +looked like a thundercloud, particularly when she spoke of Uncle +Ephraim, saying so and so. He was better satisfied with Katy in Europe, +where he was not known, than he is here, where he sees her with other +people's eyes. One of his weaknesses is a too great reverence for the +world's opinion, as held and expounded by our very fashionable mother, +and as in a quiet kind of way she has arrayed herself against poor Katy, +while Juno is more open in her acts and sayings. I predict that it will +not be many months before he comes to the conclusion that he has made a +mesalliance, a thing of which no Cameron was ever guilty. + +I wonder if there is any truth in the rumor that Mrs. General Reynolds +once taught a district school, and if she did, how much would that +detract from the merits of her son, Lieutenant Bob. But what nonsense to +be writing about him. Let me go back to Katy, who has no more idea of +etiquette than Jamie in his wheel-chair. Still, there is something very +attractive about her, and Mrs. General Reynolds took to her at once, +petting her as she would a kitten, and laughing merrily at her naive +speeches, as she called them--speeches which made Will turn black in the +face, they betrayed so much of rustic life and breeding. I fancy that he +has given Katy a few hints, and that she is beginning to be somewhat +afraid of him, for she watches him constantly when she is talking, and +she does not now slip her hand into his as she used to when guests are +leaving and she stands at his side; neither is she quite so +demonstrative when he comes up from the office at night, and there is a +look upon her face which was not there when she came. They are taming +her down, mother and Juno, and to-morrow they are actually going to +commence a systematic course of training, preparatory to her _début_ +into society, said _début_ to occur on the night of the ----, when Mrs. +General Reynolds gives the party talked about so long. I was present +when they met in solemn conclave to talk it over, mother asking Will if +he had any objections to Juno's instructing his wife with regard to +certain things of which she was ignorant. Will's forehead knit itself +together at first, and I half hoped he would veto the whole proceedings, +but after a moment he replied: + +"No, providing Katy is willing. Her feelings must not be hurt." + +"Certainly not," mother said. "Katy is a dear little creature, and we +all love her very much, but that does not blind us to her deficiencies, +and as we are anxious that she should fill that place in society which +Mrs. Wilford Cameron ought to fill, it seems necessary to tone her down +a little before her first appearance at a party." + +To this Will assented, and then Juno went on to enumerate her +deficiencies, which, as nearly as I can remember, are these: She laughs +too much and too loud; is too enthusiastic over novelties, conducting as +if she never saw anything before; has too much to say about Silverton +and "my folks," quotes Uncle Ephraim and Sister Helen too often, and is +even guilty at times of mentioning a certain Aunt Betsy, who must have +floated with the Ark and snuffled the breezes of Ararat. She does not +know how to enter, or cross, or leave a room properly, or receive an +introduction; or, in short, do anything according to New York ideas as +understood by the Camerons, etc.; she is to be taught--toned down, +mother called it--dwelling upon her high spirits as something vulgar, if +not absolutely wicked. How father would have sworn, for he calls her his +little sunbeam, and says he never should have gained so fast if she had +not come with her sunny face and lively, merry laugh to cheer his +sickroom. Katy has a fast friend in him and Jamie. But mother and +Juno--well, I shall be glad if they do not annihilate her altogether, +and I am surprised that Will allows it. I wonder if Katy is really happy +with us? She says she is, and is evidently delighted with New York life, +clapping her hands when the invitation to Mrs. Reynolds' party was +received, and running with it to Wilford as soon as he came home. It is +her first big party, she says, she having never attended any except that +little sociable in Boston, and those insipid schoolgirl affairs at the +seminary. I may be conceited--Juno thinks I am--but really and truly, +Bell Cameron's private opinion of herself is that at heart she is better +than the rest of her family, and so I pity this little sister of ours, +while at the same time I am exceedingly anxious to be present whenever +Juno takes her in hand, for I like to see the fun. Were she at all +bookish, I should avow myself her champion, and openly defend her; but +she is not, and so I give her into the hands of the Philistines, hoping +they will at least spare her hair and not worry her life out on that +head. It is very becoming to her, and several young ladies have +whispered their intention of trying its effect upon themselves, so that +Katy may yet be a leader of the fashion. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +TONING DOWN. + + +_Bell's Diary Continued_. + +Such fun as it was to see mother and Juno training Katy, showing her how +to enter the parlor, how to arrange her dress, how to carry her hands +and feet, and how to sit in a chair--Juno going through with the +performance first, and then requesting Katy to imitate her, which I must +say she did to perfection, even excelling her teacher, inasmuch as she +is naturally very easy and graceful. Had I been Katy I should have +rebelled, but she is far too sweet-tempered and anxious to please, while +I half suspect that fear of my lord Wilford had something to do with it, +for when the drill was over, she asked so earnestly if we thought he +would be ashamed of her, and there were tears in her great blue eyes as +she said it. Hang Wilford! Hang the whole of them! I am not sure but I +shall espouse her cause myself, or else tell father, who will do it so +much better. + +Dec.--th.--Another drill, with Juno commanding officer, while the +poor little private seemed completely worried out. This time there were +open doors, but so absorbed were mother and Juno as not to hear the +bell, and just as Juno was saying, "Now, imagine me Mrs. General +Reynolds, to whom you are being presented," while Katy was bowing almost +to the floor, who should appear but Mark Ray, stumbling square upon that +ludicrous rehearsal, and of course bringing it to an end. No explanation +was made, nor was any needed, for Mark's face showed that he understood +it, and it was as much as he could do to keep from roaring with +merriment; I am sure he pitied Katy, for his manner toward her was very +affectionate and kind, and when once she left the room he complimented +her highly, repeating many things he had heard in her praise from those +who had seen her both in the street and here at home. Juno's face was +like a thundercloud, for she was as much in love with Mark Ray as she +was once with Dr. Grant, and is even jealous of his praise of Katy. Glad +am I that I never yet saw the man who could make me jealous, or for whom +I cared a pin. There's Bob Reynolds up at West Point. I suppose I do +think his epaulettes very becoming to him, but his hair is too light and +he cannot raise whiskers big enough to cast a shadow on the wall, while +I know he looks with contempt upon females who write, even though their +writings never see the light of day; thinks them strong-minded, +self-willed, and all that. He is expected to be present at the party, +but I shall not be. I had rather stay at home and finish that article +entitled "Women of the Present Century," and suggested to my mind by my +Sister Katy, who stands for the picture I am drawing of a pretty woman, +with more heart than brains, contrasting her with such a one as Juno, +her opposite extreme. + +January 10.--The last time I wrote in my journal was just before the +party, which is over now, the long-talked-of affair at which Katy was +the reigning belle. I don't know how it happened, but happen it did, and +Juno's glory faded before that of her rival, whose merry, ringing laugh +frequently penetrated to every room, and made more than one look up in +some surprise. But when Mrs. Humphreys said: "It's that charming little +Mrs. Cameron, the prettiest creature I ever saw, her laugh is so +refreshing and genuine," the point was settled, and Katy was free to +laugh as loudly as she pleased. + +She did look beautiful, in lace and pearls, with her short hair curling +on her neck. She would not allow us to put so much as a bud in her hair, +showing in this respect a willfulness we never expected; but as she was +perfectly irresistible, we suffered her to have her way, and when she +was dressed, sent her in to father, who had asked to see her. And now +comes the strangest thing in the world. + +"You are very beautiful, little daughter," father said. "I almost wish +I was going with you to see the sensation you are sure to create." + +Then straight into his lap climbed Katy--father's lap--where none of us +ever sat, I am sure, and began to coax him to go, telling him she should +appear better if he were there, and that she should need him when +Wilford left her, as of course he must a part of the time. And father +actually dressed himself and went. But Katy did not need him after the +people began to understand that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was the rage. Even +Sybil Grey, in her palmiest days, never received such homage as was paid +to the little Silverton girl, whose great charm was her perfect +enjoyment of everything, and her perfect faith in what people said to +her. Juno was nothing, and I worse than nothing, for I did go, wearing +a plain black silk, with high neck and long sleeves, looking, as Juno +said, like a Sister of Charity. But Bell Cameron can afford to dress +plainly if she chooses, and I am glad, as it saves a deal of trouble, +and somehow people seem to like me quite as well in my Quakerish dress +as they do the fashionable Juno in diamonds and flowers, with uncovered +neck and shoulders. + +Lieutenant Bob was there; his light hair lighter than ever, and his +chin as smooth as my hand. He likes to dance, and I do not, but somehow +he persisted in staying where I was, notwithstanding that I said my +sharpest things in hopes to get rid of him. He left me at last to +dance with Katy, who makes up in grace and airiness what she lacks in +knowledge. Once upon the floor, she did not lack for partners, but, I +verily believe, danced every set, growing prettier and fairer as she +danced, for hers is a complexion which does not get red and blowsy with +exercise. + +Mark Ray was there, too, and I saw him smile comically when Katy met the +people with that bow she was making at the time he came so suddenly upon +us. Mark is a good fellow, and I really think we have him to thank in a +measure for Katy's successful _début_. He was the first to take her from +Wilford, walking with her up and down the hall by way of reassuring her, +and once as they passed me I heard her say: + +"I feel so timid here--so much afraid of doing something +wrong--something countrified." + +"Never mind," he answered. "Act yourself just as you would were you +at home in Silverton, where you are known. That is far better than +affecting a manner not natural to you." + +After that Katy brightened wonderfully. The stiffness which at first +was perceptible passed off, and she was Katy Lennox, queening it over +all the city belles, who, because she was married, would not be +jealous--drawing after her a host of gentlemen, and between the sets +holding a miniature court at one end of the room, where the more +desirable of the guests crowded around; flattering her until her little +head ought to have been turned if it was not. To do her justice, she +bore her honors well, and when we were in the carriage, and father +complimented her upon her success, she only said: + +"If I pleased you all I am glad." + +So many calls as we had the next day, and so many invitations as there +are now on our table for Mrs. Wilford Cameron, while our opera box +between the scenes is packed with beaus, until one would suppose Wilford +might be jealous; but Katy takes it all so quietly and modestly, seeming +only gratified for his sake, that I really believe he enjoys it more +than she does. At all events, he persists in her going, even when she +would rather stay at home, so if she is spoiled, the fault will rest +with him. + +February--th.--Poor Katy. Dissipation is beginning to wear upon her, +for she is not accustomed to our late hours, and sometimes falls asleep +while Esther is dressing her. But go she must, for Wilford wills it so, +and she is but an automaton to do his bidding. + +Why can't mother let her alone, when everybody seems so satisfied with +her? Somehow, she does not believe that people are as delighted as they +pretend, and so she keeps training and tormenting her until I do not +wonder that Katy sometimes hates to go out, lest she shall unconsciously +be guilty of an impropriety. I pitied her last night, when, after she +was ready for the opera, she came into my room, where I was indulging in +the luxury of a loose dressing gown, with my feet on the sofa. Latterly +she has taken to me, and now sitting down before the fire into which her +blue eyes looked with a steady stare, she said: + +"I wish I might stay here with you to-night. I have heard this opera +before, and it will be so tiresome. I get so sleepy while they are +singing, for I never care to watch the acting. I did at first, when it +was new, but now it seems insipid to see them make-believe, while the +theatre is worse yet," and she gave a weary yawn. + +In less than three months she has exhausted fashionable life, and I +looked at her in astonishment, asking what would please her if the opera +did not. What would she like? + +Turning her eyes full upon me, she exclaimed: + +"I do like it some, I suppose, only I get so tired. I like to ride, I +like to skate, I like to shop, and all that; but, oh, you don't know how +I want to go home to mother and Helen. I have not seen them for so long, +but I am going in the spring--going in May. How many days are there in +March and April? Sixty-one," she continued; "then I may safely say that +in eighty days I shall see mother, and all the dear old places. It is +not a grand home like this. You, Bell, might laugh at it. Juno would, I +am sure, but you do not know how dear it is to me, or how I long for a +sight of the huckleberry hills and the rocks where Helen and I used to +play, Helen is a darling sister, and I know you will like her." + +Just then Will called to say the carriage was waiting, and Katy was +driven away, while I sat thinking of her and the devoted love with which +she clings to her home and friends, wondering if it were the kindest +thing which could have been done, transplanting her to our atmosphere, +so different from her own. + +March 1st.--As it was in the winter, so it is now; Mrs. Wilford Cameron +is the rage--the bright star of society--which quotes and pets and +flatters, and even laughs at her by turns; and Wilford, though still +watchful, lest she should do something _outré_, is very proud of her, +insisting upon her accepting invitations, sometimes two for one evening, +until the child is absolutely worn out, and said to me once, when I told +her how well she was looking and how pretty her dress was: "Yes, pretty +enough, but I am so tired. If I could lie down on mother's bed, in a +shilling calico, just as I used to do!" + +Mother's bed seems at present to be the height of her ambition--the +thing she most desires; and as Juno fancied it must be the feathers she +is sighing for, she wickedly suggests that Wilford either buy a feather +bed for his wife, or else send to that Aunt Betsy for the one which was +to be Katy's setting out! They go to housekeeping in May, and on Madison +Square, too, I think Wilford would quite as soon remain with us, for he +does not fancy change; but Katy wants a home of her own, and I never saw +anything more absolutely beautiful than her face when father said to +Wilford that No. ---- Madison Square was for sale, advising him to +secure it. But when mother intimated that there was no necessity for the +two families to separate at present--that Katy was too young to have +charge of a house--there came into her eyes a look of such distress that +it went straight to father's heart, and calling her to him, he said: + +"Tell me, sunbeam, what is your choice--to stay with us, or have a home +of your own?" + +Katy was very white, and her voice trembled as she replied: + +"You have been kind to me here, and it is very pleasant; but I guess--I +think--I'm sure--I should like the housekeeping best. I am not so young, +either. Nineteen in July, and when I go home next month I can learn so +much of Aunt Betsy and Aunt Hannah." + +Mother looked at Wilford then; but he was looking into the fire, with an +expression anything but favorable to that visit home, fixed now for +April instead of May. But Katy has no discernment, and believes she is +actually going home to learn how to make apple dumplings and pumpkin +pies. In spite of mother, the house is bought, and now she is gone all +day, deciding how it shall be furnished, always leaving Katy out of the +question, as if she were a cipher, and only consulting Wilford's choice. +They will be happier alone, I know. Mrs. General Reynolds says that it +is the way for young people to live; that her son's wife shall never +come home to her, for of course their habits could not be alike; and +then she looked queerly at me, as if she knew I was thinking of +Lieutenant Bob and who his wife might be. + +Sybil Grandon is coming home in April or May, and Mrs. Reynolds wonders +will she flirt as she used to do. Just as if Bob would care for a widow. +There is more danger from Will, who thinks Mrs. Grandon a perfect +paragon, and who is very anxious that Katy may appear well before her, +saying nothing and doing nothing which shall in any way approximate to +Silverton and the shoes which Katy told Esther she used to bind when a +girl. Will need not be disturbed, for Sybil Grandon was never half as +pretty as Katy, or half as much admired. Neither need Mrs. General +Reynolds fret about Bob, as if he would care for her. Sybil Grandon, +indeed! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +KATY. + + +For nearly four months Katy had been in New York, drinking deep draughts +from the cup of folly and fashion held so constantly to her lips; but +she cloyed of it at last, and what at first had been so eagerly grasped, +began, from daily repetition, to grow insipid and dull. To be the belle +of every place, to know that her dress, her style, and even the fashion +of her hair, was copied and admired, was gratifying to her, because she +knew how much it pleased her husband, who was never happier or prouder +than when, with Katy on his arm, he entered some crowded parlor and +heard the buzz of admiration as it circled around, while Katy, +simple-hearted and guileless still, smiled and blushed like a little +child, wondering at the attentions lavished upon her, and attributing +them mostly to her husband, whose position she thoroughly understood, +marveling more and more that he should have chosen her to be his wife. +That he had so honored her made her love him with a strange kind of +grateful, clinging love, which as yet would acknowledge no fault in him, +no wrong, no error; and if ever a shadow did cloud her heart, she was +the one to blame, not Wilford; he was right--he the idol she +worshiped--he the one for whose sake she tried so hard to drop her +country ways and conform to the rules his mother and sister taught, +submitting with the utmost good-nature to what Bell in her journal had +called the drill, but it must be confessed not succeeding very well in +imitating Juno. Katy could hardly be other than her own easy, graceful +self, and though the drills had their effect, and taught her many +things, they could not divest her of that natural, playful, airy manner +which so charmed the city people and made her the reigning belle. As +Marian Hazleton had predicted, others than her husband had spoken words +of praise in Katy's ear; but such was her nature that the shafts of +flattery glanced aside, leaving her unharmed, so that her husband, +though sometimes startled and disquieted, had no cause for jealousy, +enjoying Katy's success far more than she did herself, urging her out +when she would rather have stayed at home, and evincing so much +annoyance if she ventured to remonstrate that she gave it up at last +and floated on with the tide. + +Mrs. Cameron had at first been greatly shocked at Katy's want of +propriety, looking on aghast when she wound her arms around Wilford's +neck, or sat upon his knee; but to the elder Cameron the sight was a +pleasant one, bringing back sunny memories of a summer time years ago, +when he was young, and a fair bride had for a few brief weeks made this +earth a paradise to him. But fashion had entered his Eden--that summer +time was gone, and only the dim leaves of autumn lay where the buds +which promised so much had been. The girlish bride was a stately matron +now, doing nothing amiss, but making all her acts conform to a +prescribed rule of etiquette, and frowning majestically upon the +frolicsome, impulsive Katy, who had crept so far into the heart of +the eccentric man that he always found the hours of her absence long, +listening intently for the sound of her bounding footsteps, and feeling +that her coming to his household had infused into his veins a better, +healthier life than he had known for years. Katy was very dear to him, +and he felt a thrill of pain, while a shadow lowered on his brow when +first the toning down process commenced. He had heard them talk about +it, and in his wrath he had hurled a cut-glass goblet upon the marble +hearth, breaking it in atoms, while he called them a pair of precious +fools, and Wilford a bigger one because he suffered it. So long as his +convalescence lasted, he was some restraint upon his wife, but when he +was well enough to resume his duties in his Wall Street office, there +was nothing in the way, and Katy's education progressed accordingly. For +Wilford's sake, Katy would do anything, and as from some things he had +dropped she guessed that her manner was not quite what suited him, she +submitted to much which would otherwise have been excessively annoying. +But she was growing tired now, and it told upon her face, which was +whiter than when she came to New York, while her figure was, if +possible, slighter and more airy; but this only enhanced her loveliness, +Wilford thought, and so he paid no heed to her complaints of weariness, +but kept her in the circle which welcomed her so warmly, and would have +missed her so much. + +Little by little it had come to Katy that she was not quite as +comfortable in her husband's family as she would be in a house of her +own. The constant watch kept over her by Mrs. Cameron and Juno irritated +and fretted her, making her wonder what was the matter, and why she +should so often feel lonely and desolate when surrounded by every luxury +which wealth could purchase. "It is his folks," she always said to +herself when cogitating upon the subject. "Alone with Wilford I shall +feel as light and happy as I used to do in Silverton." + +And so Katy caught eagerly at the prospect of a release from the +restraint of No. ----, seeming so anxious that Wilford, almost before he +was aware of it himself, became the owner of one of the most desirable +situations on Madison Square; and Katy was the envy of the belles, who +had copied and imitated her, even to the cutting off their hair, which +fashion may be fairly said to have originated from Katy herself, whose +short curls had ceased to be obnoxious to the fastidious Mrs. Cameron, +for Juno had tried the effect, looking, as Bell said, "like a fool," +while Juno would have given much to have again the long black tresses, +the cutting of which did not make her look like Katy. Of all the +household, after Katy, Juno was perhaps the only one glad of the new +house. It would be a change for herself, for she meant to spend much +of her time on Madison Square, where everything was to be on the most +magnificent scale. Fortunately for Katy, she knew nothing of Juno's +intentions and built many a castle of her new home, where mother could +come with Helen and Dr. Grant. Somehow she never saw Uncle Ephraim, nor +his wife, nor yet Aunt Betsy there. She knew how out of place they would +appear, and how they would annoy Wilford: but surely to her mother and +Helen there could be no objection, and when she first went over the +house, she designated mentally this room as mother's, and another one as +Helen's, thinking how each should be fitted up with direct reference to +their tastes, Helen's containing a great many books, while her mother's +should have easy-chairs and lounges, with a host of drawers for holding +things. And Wilford heard it all, making no reply, but considering how +he could manage best so as to have no scene, for he had not the +slightest intention of inviting either Mrs. Lennox or Helen to visit +him, much less to become a part of his household. That he did not marry +Katy's relatives was a fact as fixed as the laws of the Medes and +Persians, and Katy's anticipations were answering no other purpose than +to divert her mind for the time being, keeping her bright and cheerful. + +Very pleasant indeed were the pictures Katy drew of the new house where +Helen was to come, but pleasanter far were her pictures of that visit to +Silverton, to occur in April, and about which she thought so much, +dreaming of it many a night, and waking in the morning with the belief +that she had actually been where the young buds were swelling and the +fresh grass was springing by the door. Poor Katy, how much she thought +about that visit when she should see them all and go again with Uncle +Ephraim down into the meadows, making believe she was Katy Lennox +still--when she could climb the ladder in the barn after new-laid eggs, +or steal across the fields to Linwood, talking with Morris as she used +to talk in the days which seemed so long ago. Morris she feared was not +liking her as well as of old, thinking her very frivolous and silly, for +he had only written her one short note in reply to the letter she had +sent, telling him of the opera, the parties she attended, and the gay, +happy life she led, for to him she would not then confess that in her +cup of joy there was a single bitter dreg. All was bright and fair, she +said, and Morris had replied that he was glad. "But do not forget that +death can find you even there amid your splendor, or that after death +the judgment comes, and then what shall it profit you if you gain the +whole world and lose your own soul." + +These words had rung in Katy's ears for many a day, following her to +the dance and to the opera, where even the music was drowned by the +echo of the words, "lose your own soul." But the sting grew less and +less, till Katy no longer felt it, and now was only anxious to talk with +Morris and convince him that she was not as thoughtless as he might +suppose, that she still remembered his teachings, remembered the Sunday +school and the little church in the valley, preferring it to the +handsome, aristocratic house where she went with the Camerons once on +every Sunday, and would willingly go twice if Wilford would go with her. +But the Camerons were merely fashionable churchgoers, and so their +afternoons were spent at home, Katy enjoying them vastly because she +usually had Wilford all to herself in her own room, a thing which did +not often occur during the weekdays. + +There was a kind of peace to be made with Helen, too, Katy feared; for +Helen had sent back the diamond ring, saying it was not suitable for +her, but never hinting that she had drawn from Morris the inference that +Wilford was not well pleased at having his wife thus dispose of his +costly presents. Katy had cried when she received the ring, feeling that +something was wrong and longing so much for the time when she could make +it right. + +"One more week and then it is April," she said to Wilford one evening +after they had retired to their room, and she was talking of Silverton. +"I guess I had better go about the tenth. Shall you stay as long as I +do?" + +Wilford bit his lip, and after a moment replied: + +"I have been talking with mother, and we think April is not a good time +for you to be in the country; it is so wet and cold. You had better not +till summer, and then I want you here to help order our furniture." + +"Oh, Wilford," and Katy's voice trembled, for from past experience +she knew that for Wilford to object to her plans was equivalent to +a refusal, and her heart throbbed with disappointment as she tried +to listen while Wilford urged many reasons why she should not go, +convincing her at last that of all times for visiting Silverton spring +was the worst, that summer or autumn were better, and that it was her +duty to remain where she was until such time as he saw fit for her to +do otherwise. + +This was the meaning of what he said, and though his manner was guarded +and his words kind, they were very conclusive, and with one gasping sob +Katy gave up Silverton, charging it more to Mrs. Cameron than to +Wilford, and writing next day to Helen that she could not come just +then, but after she was settled they might surely expect her. + +With a bitter pang Helen read this letter to the three women who had so +much anticipated Katy's visit, and each of whom cried quietly over her +disappointment, while even Uncle Ephraim went back to his work that +afternoon with a sad, heavy heart, for now his labor was not lightened +by thoughts of Katy's being there so soon. + +"Please God she may come to us some time," he said, pausing beneath the +butternut in the meadow, and remembering just how Katy looked on that +first day of her return from Canandaigua, when she sat on the flat stone +while he piled up the hay and talked with her of different paths through +life, one of which she must surely tread. + +She had said, "I will choose the straight and pleasant," and some would +think she had; but Uncle Ephraim was not so sure, and leaning against a +tree, he asked silently that, whether he ever saw his darling again or +not, God would care for her and keep her unspotted from the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE NEW HOUSE. + + +It was a cruel thing for Wilford Cameron to try thus to separate Katy +from the hearts which loved her so much: and, as if he felt reproached, +there was an increased tenderness in his manner toward her, particularly +as he saw how sad she was for a few days after his decision. But Katy +could not be sorry long, and in the excitement of settling the new house +her spirits rallied, and her merry laugh thrilled like a bird through +the rooms where the workmen were so busy, and where Mrs. Cameron was the +real superintendent, though there was always a show of consulting Katy, +who nevertheless was a mere cipher in the matter. In everything the +mother had her way, until it came to the room designed for Helen, and +which Mrs. Cameron was for converting into a kind of smoking or lounging +room for Wilford and his associates. Katy must not expect him to be +always as devoted to her as he had been during the winter, she said. He +had a great many bachelor friends, and now that he had a house of his +own, it was natural that he should have some place where they could +spend an hour or so with him without the restraint of ladies' society, +and this was just the room--large, airy, quiet, and so far from the +parlors that the odor of the smoke could not reach them. + +"Oak and green will do nicely here," turning to Wilford, "but you must +have some very handsome cigar sets, and one or two boxes of chess. Shall +I see to that?" + +Katy had submitted to much without knowing that she was submitting; but +something Bell had dropped that morning had awakened a suspicion that +possibly she was being ignored, and the wicked part of Helen would have +enjoyed the look in her eye as she said, decidedly, not to Mrs. Cameron, +but to Wilford: "I have from the very first decided this chamber for +Helen, and I cannot give it up for a smoking room. You never had one +at home. Why did you not, if it is so necessary?" + +Wilford could not tell her that his mother would as soon have brought +into her house one of Barnum's shows as to have had a room set apart for +smoking, which she specially disliked; neither could he at once reply at +all, so astonished was he at this sudden flash of spirit. Mrs. Cameron +was the first to rally, and in her usual quiet tone she said: "Indeed, I +did not know that your sister was to form a part of your household. When +do you expect her?" and her cold gray eyes rested steadily upon Katy, +who never before so fully realized the distance there was between her +husband's friends and her own. But as the worm will turn when trampled +on, so Katy, though hitherto powerless to defend herself, aroused in +Helen's behalf, and in a tone as quiet and decided as that of her +mother-in-law, replied: "She will come whenever I write for her. It was +arranged from the first. Wasn't it, Wilford?" and she turned to her +husband, who, unwilling to decide between a wife he loved and a mother +whose judgment he considered infallible, affected not to hear her, and +stole from the room, followed soon by Mrs. Cameron, so that Katy was +left mistress of the field. + +After that no one interfered in her arrangement of Helen's room, which, +with far less expense than Mrs. Cameron would have done, she fitted up +so cosily that Wilford pronounced it the pleasantest room in the house, +while Bell went into ecstasies over it, and even Juno might have unbent +enough to praise it, were it not that Mark Ray, who from being tacitly +claimed by Juno was frequently admitted to their counsels, had asked +the privilege of contributing to Helen's room a handsome volume of +German poetry, such as he fancied she might enjoy. So long as Mark's +attentions were not bestowed in any other quarter Juno was comparatively +satisfied, but the moment he swerved a hair's breadth from the line she +had marked out, her anger was aroused; and now, remembering his +commendations of Helen Lennox, she hated her as cordially as one jealous +girl can hate another whom she has not seen, making Katy so +uncomfortable, without knowing what was the matter, that she hailed the +morning of her exit from No. ---- as the brightest since her marriage. + +It was a very happy day for Katy, and when she first sat down to dinner +in her own handsome home her face shone with a joy which even the +presence of her mother-in-law could not materially lessen. She would +rather have been alone with Wilford, it is true, but as her choice was +not consulted she submitted cheerfully, proudly taking her rightful +place at the table, and doing the honors so well that Mrs. Cameron, in +speaking of it to her daughters, acknowledged that Wilford had little to +fear if Katy always appeared as much at ease as she did that day. A +thought similar to this passed through the mind of Wilford, who was very +observant of such matters, and that night, after his mother was gone, he +warmly commended Katy, but spoiled the pleasure his commendation would +have given by telling her next, as if one thought suggested the other, +that Sybil Grandon had returned, that he saw her on Broadway, accepting +her invitation to a seat in her carriage which brought him to his door. +She had made many inquiries concerning Katy, he said, expressing a great +curiosity to see her, and saying that as she drove past the house that +morning, she was strongly tempted to waive all ceremony and run in, +knowing she should be pardoned for the sake of Auld Lang Syne, when she +was privileged to take liberties with the Camerons. All this Wilford +repeated to Katy, but he did not tell her how at the words Auld Lang +Syne, Sybil had turned her fine eyes upon him with an expression which +made him color, for he knew she was referring to the time when her name +and his were always coupled together. + +Wilford would not have exchanged Katy for a dozen Sybils, but there was +about the latter a flash and sparkle very fascinating to most men, and +Wilford felt himself so much exhilarated in her society that he half +regretted leaving it, wishing as he did so that in some things Katy was +more like the brilliant woman of the world, who, flashing upon him her +most bewitching smile, leaned back in her handsome carriage with a +careless, easy abandon, while he ran up the steps of his own dwelling, +where Katy waited for him. In this state of mind her achievement at the +dinner table was exceedingly gratifying. Sybil herself could not have +done better. But alas, there were many points where Katy fell far below +this standard; so after speaking of Sybil's inquiries for his wife, he +went on to talk of Sybil herself, telling how much she was admired and +how superior she was to the majority of ladies whom Katy had met, adding +that he felt more anxious that Katy should make a favorable impression +upon her than any one of his acquaintance, as she would be sure to note +the slightest departure from her code of etiquette. How Katy hated the +words etiquette, and style and manner, wishing they might be stricken +from the language, and how she dreaded this Sybil Grandon, who seemed to +her like some ogress, instead of the charming creature she was described +to be. Thoughts of the secret picture and the dread fancy did not +trouble her now, for she was sure of Wilford's love; but she had +sometimes dreaded the return of Sybil Grandon, and now that she had +come, she felt for a moment a chill at her heart and a terror at meeting +her which she tried to shake off, succeeding at last, for perfect faith +in Wilford was to her a strong shield of defense, and her only trouble +was a fear lest she should fall in the scale of comparison which might +be instituted between herself and Mrs. Grandon. + +Nestling close to Wilford, she said, half earnestly, half playfully: + +"I will try not to disgrace you when I meet this Mrs. Grandon." + +Then, anxious to change the conversation to something more agreeable to +herself, she began to talk of their house, thus diverting her own mind +from Sybil Grandon, who after a few days ceased to be a bugbear, Wilford +never mentioning her again, and Katy only hearing of her through Juno +and Bell, the first of whom went into raptures over her, while the +latter styled her a silly, coquettish widow, who would appear much +better to have worn her weeds a little longer, and not throw herself +quite so soon into the market. That she should of course meet her some +time, Katy knew, but she would not distress herself till the time +arrived, and so she dismissed her fears, or rather lost them in the +excitement of her new dignity as mistress of a house. + +In her girlhood Katy had evinced a taste for housekeeping, which now +developed so rapidly that she won the respect of all the servants, from +the man who answered the bell to the accomplished cook, hired by Mrs. +Cameron, and who, like most accomplished cooks, was sharp and cross and +opinionated, but who did not find it easy to scold the blithe little +woman who every morning came flitting into her dominions, not asking +what they would have for dinner, as she had been led to suppose she +would, but ordering it with a matter of course air, which amused the +usually overbearing Mrs. Phillips. But when the little lady, rolling her +sleeves above her dimpled elbows and donning the clean white apron which +Phillips was reserving for afternoon, announced her intention of +surprising Wilford, who was very particular about dessert, with a +pudding such as Aunt Betsy used to make, there were signs of rebellion, +Phillips telling her bluntly that she couldn't be bothered--that it was +not a lady's place in the kitchen under foot--that the other Mrs. +Cameron never did it, and would not like it in Mrs. Wilford. + +For a moment Katy paused and looked straight at Mrs. Phillips; then +without a word of reply to that worthy's remarks, said, quietly: "I have +only six eggs here--the receipt is ten. Bring me four more, please." + +There was something in the blue eyes which compelled obedience, and the +dessert progressed without another word of remonstrance. But when the +door bell rang, and word came down that there were ladies in the +parlor--Juno with some one else--Phillips would not tell her of the +flour on her hair; and as Katy, after casting aside her apron and +putting down her sleeves, only glanced hastily at herself in the hall +mirror as she passed it, she appeared in the parlor with this mark upon +her curls, and greatly to her astonishment was presented to "Mrs. Sybil +Grandon," Juno explaining, that as Sybil was very anxious to see her, +and they were passing the house, she had presumed upon her privilege as +a sister and brought her in. + +For a moment the room turned dark, and Katy felt that she was falling; +it was so sudden, so unexpected, and she so unprepared; but Sybil's +familiar manner soon quieted her, and she was able at last to look fully +at her visitor, finding her not as handsome as she expected, nor as +young but in all other points she had not perhaps been exaggerated. +Cultivated and self-possessed, she was still very pleasing in her +manner, making Katy feel wholly at ease by a few well-timed compliments, +which had the merit of seeming genuine, so perfect was she in the art of +deception, practicing it with so much skill that few saw through the +mask, and knew it was put on. + +To Katy she was very gracious, admiring her house, admiring herself, +admiring everything, until Katy wondered how she could ever have dreaded +to meet her, laughing and chatting as familiarly as if the fashionable +woman were not criticising every movement and every act and every +feature of her face, wondering most at the flour upon her hair! + +Juno wondered, too, but knowing Katy's domestic propensities, suspected +the truth, and feigning some errand with Phillips, she excused herself +for a moment and descended to the kitchen, where she was not long in +hearing about Katy's queer ways, coming where she was not needed, and +making country puddings after some heathenish aunt's rule. + +"Was it Aunt Betsy?" Juno asked, her face betokening its disgust when +told that she was right, and her manner on her return to the parlor very +frigid toward Katy, who had discovered the flour on her hair, and was +laughing merrily over it, telling Sybil how it happened--how cross +Phillips was--and lastly, how "our folks" often made the pudding, and +that was why she wished to surprise Wilford with it. + +There was a sarcastic smile upon Sybil's lip as she wished Mrs. Cameron +success and then departed, leaving Katy to finish the dessert, which, +when ready for the table, was certainly very inviting, and would have +tempted the appetite of any man who had not been listener to matters +not wholly conducive to his peace of mind. + +On his way home Wilford had stopped at his father's, finding Juno, who +had just come in, relating the particulars of her call upon his wife, +and as she did not think it necessary to stop for him, he heard of +Katy's misdoings, and her general appearance in the presence of Sybil +Grandon, whom she entertained with a description of "our folks'" +favorite dishes, together with Aunt Betsy's receipts. This was the straw +too many, and since his marriage Wilford had not been as angry as he was +while listening to Juno, who reported Sybil's verdict on his wife, "A +domestic little body and very pretty." + +Wilford did not care to have his wife domestic; he did not marry her +for that, and in a mood anything but favorable to the light, delicate +dessert Katy had prepared with so much care, he went to his luxurious +home, where Katy ran as usual to meet him, her face brimming with the +surprise she had in store for him, and herself so much excited that she +did not at first observe the cloud upon his brow, as he moodily answered +her rapid questions. But when the important moment arrived, and the +dessert was brought on, he promptly declined it, even after her +explanation that she made it herself, just to gratify and astonish him, +urging him to try it for the sake of pleasing her, if nothing more. But +Wilford was not hungry then, and even had he been, he would have chosen +anything before a pudding formed from a receipt of Betsy Barlow, so the +dessert was untasted even by Katy herself, who, knowing now that +something had gone wrong, sat fighting back her tears until the servant +left the room, when she timidly asked: "What is it, Wilford? What makes +you seem so--". She would not say cross, and substituted "queer," +while Wilford plunged at once into the matter by saying, "Juno tells me +she called here this afternoon with Mrs. Grandon." + +"Yes, I forgot to mention it," Katy answered, feeling puzzled to know +why that should annoy her husband; but his next remarks disclosed the +whole, and Katy's tears flowed fast as Wilford asked what he supposed +Mrs. Grandon thought, to see his wife looking as if fresh from the flour +barrel, and to hear her talk about Aunt Betsy's receipts and our folks. +"That is a bad habit of yours, Katy," he continued, "one of which I wish +you to break yourself, if possible. I have never spoken to you directly +on the subject before, but it annoys me exceedingly, inasmuch as it is +an indication of low breeding." + +There was no answer from Katy, whose heart was too full to speak, and +so Wilford went on: "Our servants were selected by mother with a direct +reference to your youth and inexperience, and it is not necessary for +you to frequent the kitchen, or, indeed, to go there oftener than once a +week. Let them come to you for orders, not you go to them. Neither need +you speak quite so familiarly to them, treating them almost as if they +were your equals. Try to remember your true position, that whatever you +may have been you are now Mrs. Wilford Cameron, equal to any lady in New +York." + +They were in the library now, and the soft May breeze came stealing +through the open window, stirring the fleecy curtain and blowing across +the tasteful bouquet which Katy had arranged; but Katy was too wretched +to care for her surroundings. It was the first time Wilford had ever +spoken to her just in this way, and his manner hurt her more than his +words, making her feel as if she were an ignorant, ill-bred creature, +whom he had raised to a position she did not know how to fill. It was +cruel thus to repay her attempts to please, and so, perhaps, Wilford +thought, as with folded arms he sat looking at her weeping so bitterly +upon the sofa; but he was too indignant to make any concession then, and +he suffered her to weep in silence until he remembered that his mother +had requested him to bring her around that evening, as they were +expecting a few of Juno's friends, and among them Sybil Grandon. If Katy +went he wished her to look her best, and he unbent so far as to try to +check her tears. But Katy could not stop, and she wept so passionately +that Wilford's anger subsided, leaving only tenderness and pity for the +wife he tried so hard to soothe, telling her he was sorry, and suing for +forgiveness, until the sobbing ceased, and Katy lay passively in his +arms, her face so white and the dark rings about her eyes showing so +distinctly that Wilford did not press her when she declined his mother's +invitation. He could go, she said, urging so many reasons why he +should, that, for the first time since their marriage, he left her +alone, and went to where Sybil Grandon smiled her sunniest smile, and +put forth her most persuasive powers to keep him at her side, expressing +so much regret that he did not bring his charming little wife, who +completely won her heart, she was so childlike and simple-hearted, +laughing so merrily when she discovered the flour on her hair, but not +seeming to mind it in the least. Really, she did not see how it happened +that he was fortunate enough to win such a domestic treasure. Where did +he find her? + +If Sybil Grandon meant this to be complimentary it was not received as +such, Wilford almost grating his teeth with vexation as he listened to +it, and feeling doubly mortified with Katy, whom he found waiting for +him, when at a late hour he left the society of Sybil Grandon and +repaired to his home. + +To Katy the time of his absence had seemed an age, for her thoughts had +been busy with the past, gathering up every incident connected with her +married life since she came to New York, and deducing from them the +conclusion that "Wilford's folks" were ashamed of her, and that Wilford +himself might perhaps become so, if he were not already. That would be +worse than death itself, and the darkest hours she had ever known were +those she spent alone that night, sobbing so violently as to bring on a +racking headache, which showed itself upon her face and touched Wilford +at once. + +Sybil Grandon was forgotten in those moments of contrition, when he +ministered so tenderly to his suffering wife, whom he felt that he had +wronged. But somehow he could not tell her so then. It was not natural +for him to confess his errors. There had already been a struggle between +his duty and his pride when he had done so, and now the latter +conquered, especially as Katy, grown more calm, began to take the +censure to herself, lamenting her shortcomings, and promising to do +better, even to the imitating of Sybil Grandon, if that would make him +forget the past and love her as before. + +Wilford could accord forgiveness far more graciously than he could ask +it, and so peace was restored again, and Katy's face next day looked +bright and happy when seen in her new carriage, which took her down +Broadway to Stewart's, where she encountered Sybil Grandon, and with her +Juno Cameron. + +From the latter Katy instinctively shrank, but she could not resist the +former, who greeted her so familiarly that Katy readily forgave her the +pain of which she had been the cause, and could even speak of her to +Wilford without a pang when he next came home to dinner. Still she could +not overcome her dread of meeting her, and she grew more and more averse +to mingling in society, where she might do many things to mortify her +husband or his family, and thus provoke a scene she hoped never again to +pass through. + +"Oh, if Helen were only here," she thought, as she began to experience a +sensation of loneliness she had never felt before. + +But Helen was not there, nor yet coming there at present. One word from +Wilford had settled that, convincing Katy that it was better to wait +until the autumn, inasmuch as they were going so soon to Saratoga and +Newport, which Katy had so much wished to visit, but from which she now +shrank, especially after she knew that Mrs. Cameron and Juno were to be +of the party, and probably Sybil Grandon. Katy did not dislike the +latter, but she was never quite easy in her presence, and was conscious +of appearing to disadvantage whenever they were together, while she +could not deny to herself that since Sybil's return Wilford had not been +quite the same as before. In company he was more attentive than ever, +but at home he was sometimes moody and silent, while Katy strove in vain +to ascertain the cause. + +They were not as happy in the new home as she had expected to be, but +the fault did not lie with Katy. She performed well her part, and more, +taking upon her young shoulders the whole of the burden which her +husband should have helped her bear. Housekeeping far more than boarding +brings out a husband's nature, for whereas in the latter case one +rightfully demands the services for which he pays, in the former he is +sometimes expected to do and think, and even wait upon himself. But this +was not Wilford's nature. The easy, indolent life he had led so long as +a petted son of a partial mother unfitted him for care, and he was as +much a boarder in his own home as he had ever been in the hotels in +Paris, thoughtlessly requiring of Katy more than he should have +required, so that Bell was not far from right when in her journal she +described her sister-in-law as "a little servant whose feet were never +supposed to be tired, and whose wishes were never consulted." It is true +Bell had put it rather strongly, but the spirit of what she said was +right, Wilford seldom considering Katy, or allowing her wishes to +interfere with his own plans, while accustomed to every possible +attention from his mother, he exacted the same from his wife, whose life +was not one of unmixed happiness, notwithstanding that every letter home +bore assurance to the contrary. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +MARIAN HAZELTON. + + +The last days of June had come, and Wilford was beginning to make +arrangements for removing Katy from the city before the warmer weather. +To this he had been urged by Mark Ray's remarking that Katy was not +looking as well as when he first saw her, one year ago, "She had grown +thin and pale," he said. "Had Wilford remarked it?" + +Wilford had not. She complained much of headache; but that was only +natural. Still he wrote to the Mountain House that afternoon to secure +rooms for himself and wife, and then at an earlier hour than usual went +home to tell her of the arrangement. Katy was out shopping, Esther said, +and had not yet returned, adding: "There is a note for her upstairs, +left by a woman who insisted on seeing the house, until I took her over +it, showing her every room." + +"A strange woman went over my house in Mrs. Cameron's absence! Who was +it?" Wilford asked, hastily, visions of Helen, or possibly Aunt Betsy, +rising before his mind. + +"She said she was a friend of Mrs. Cameron, and that she knew she would +allow the liberty," Esther replied, thus confirming Wilford in his +suspicions that some country acquaintance had thrust herself upon them, +and hastening up to Katy's room, where the note was lying, he took it up +and examined the superscription, examined it closely, holding it up to +the light full a minute, and forgetting to open it in his perplexity and +the train of thought it awakened. + +"They are singularly alike," he said, and still holding the note in his +hand he went downstairs to the library, and opening a drawer of his +writing desk, which was always kept locked, he took from it a picture +and a bit of soiled paper, on which was written: "I am not guilty, +Wilford, and God will never forgive the wrong you have done to me." + +There was no name or date, but Wilford needed neither, for he knew well +whose hand had penned those lines, and he sat looking at them, comparing +them at last with the "Mrs. Wilford Cameron" which the strange woman had +written. Then opening the note, he read that, having returned to New +York, and wishing employment either as seamstress or dressmaker, Marian +Hazelton had ventured to call upon Mrs. Cameron, remembering her promise +to give her work if she should desire it. The note concluded by saying: + +"I am sure you will pardon me for the liberty I took of going over the +house. It was a temptation I could not resist. You have a delightful +home. God grant you may be happy in it. You see I have also made bold +to write this in your library, for which I beg pardon, + +"Yours truly, MARIAN HAZELTON, + +"No. ---- Fourth St., 4th floor, N.Y." + +"Who is Marian Hazelton?" Wilford asked himself as he threw down the +missive. "Some of Katy's country friends, I dare say. Seems to me I have +heard that name. She certainly writes as Genevra did, except that this +Hazelton's is more decided and firm. Poor Genevra!" + +There was a pallor about Wilford's lips as he said this, and taking up +the picture he gazed for a long time upon the handsome, girlish face, +whose dark eyes seemed to look reproachfully upon him, just as they must +have looked when the words were penned: "God will never forgive the +wrong you have done to me." + +"Genevra was mistaken," he said. "At least, if God has not forgiven, he +has prospered me, which amounts to the same thing;" and without a single +throb of gratitude to Him who had thus prospered him, Wilford laid +Genevra's picture and Genevra's note back with the withered grass and +flowers plucked from Genevra's grave, and then went again upstairs, just +as Katy's ring was heard and Katy herself came in. + +As thoughts of Genevra always made Wilford kinder toward his wife, so +now he kissed her white cheek, noticing that, as Mark had said, it was +whiter than last year in June. But mountain air would bring back the +roses, he thought, as he handed her the note. + +"Oh, yes, from Marian Hazelton," Katy said, glancing first at the name +and then hastily reading it through. + +"Who is Marian Hazelton? Some intimate friend, I judge, from the liberty +she took." + +"Not very intimate, though I liked her so much, and thought her above +her position," Katy replied, repeating all she knew of Marian, and how +she chanced to know her at all. "Don't you remember Helen wrote that she +fainted at our wedding, and I was so sorry, fearing I might have +overworked her." + +Wilford did remember something about it, and satisfied that Marian +Hazelton had no idea of intruding herself upon them, except as she might +ask for work, he dismissed her from his mind and told Katy of his plan +for taking her to the Mountain House a few weeks before going to +Saratoga. + +"Would you not like it?" he asked, as she continued silent, with her +eyes fixed upon the window opposite. + +"Yes," and Katy drew a long and weary breath. "I shall like any place +where there are birds, and rocks, and trees, and real grass, such as +grows of itself in the country; but Wilford," and Katy crept close to +him now, "if I might go to Silverton, I should get strong so fast. You +don't know how I long to see home once more. I dream about it nights and +think about it days, knowing just how pleasant it is there, with the +roses in bloom and the meadows so fresh and green. May I go, Wilford? +May I go home to mother?" + +Had Katy asked for half his fortune, just as she asked to go home, +Wilford would have given it to her, but Silverton had a power to lock +all the softer avenues of his heart, and so he answered that the +Mountain House was preferable, that the rooms were engaged, and that as +he should enjoy it so much better he thought they would make no change. + +Katy did not cry, nor utter a word of remonstrance; she was fast +learning that quiet submission was better than useless opposition, and +so Silverton was again given up. But there was one consolation. Seeing +Marian Hazelton would be almost as good as going home, for had she not +recently come from that neighborhood, bringing with her the odor from +the hills and freshness from the woods. Perhaps, too, she had lately +seen Helen or Morris at church, and had heard the music of the organ +which Helen played, and the singing of the children just as it sometimes +came to Katy in her dreams, making her start in her sleep and murmur +snatches of the sacred songs which Dr. Morris taught. Yes, Marian could +tell her of all this, and very impatiently Katy waited for the morning +when she would drive around to Fourth Street with the piles of sewing +she was going to take to Marian. + +"Dear Marian, I wonder is she very poor?" Katy thought, as she next day +made her preparations for the call, and had Wilford been parsimoniously +inclined, he might have winced could he have seen the numerous stores +gathered up for Marian and packed away in the carriage with the bundle +of cambric and linen and lace, all destined for that fourth-story +chamber where Marian Hazelton sat that summer morning, looking drearily +out upon the dingy court and contrasting its sickly patch of grass, +embellished with rain water barrels, coal hods and ash pails, with the +country she had so lately left, the wooded hills and blooming gardens of +Silverton, which had been her home for nearly two years. + +It was a fault of Marian's not to remain long contented in any place, +and so tiring of the country she had returned to the great city, urged +on by a strange desire it may be to see Mrs. Wilford Cameron, to know +just how she lived, to judge if she were happy, and perhaps--some time +see Wilford Cameron, herself unknown, for not for the world would she +have met face to face the man who had so often stood by Genevra +Lambert's grave in the churchyard beyond the sea. Thinking she might +succeed better alone, she had hired a room far up the narrow stairway of +a high, somber-looking building, and then from her old acquaintances, of +whom she had several in the city, she had solicited work. More than once +she had passed the handsome house on Madison Square where Katy lived, +walking slowly and gazing with dim eyes which could not weep at Wilford +Cameron's luxurious home, and contrasting it with hers, that one room, +which yet was not wholly uninviting, for where Marian went there was +always an air of humble comfort; and Katy, as she crossed the threshold, +uttered an exclamation of delight at the cheerful, airy aspect of the +apartment, with its bright ingrain carpet, its simple shades of white, +its chintz-covered lounge, its one rocking-chair, its small parlor +stove, and its pots of flowers upon the broad window sill. + +"Oh, Marian," she exclaimed, tripping across the floor, and impulsively +throwing her arms around Miss Hazelton's neck, "I am so glad to meet +some one from home. It seems almost like Helen I am kissing," and her +lips again met those of Marian Hazelton, who amid her own joy at finding +Katy unchanged, wondered what the Camerons would say to see their Mrs. +Wilford kissing a poor seamstress whom they would have spurned. + +But Katy did not care for Camerons then, or even think of them, as in +her rich basquine and pretty hat, with emeralds and diamonds sparkling +on her fingers, she sat down by Marian, whose hands, though delicate and +small, showed marks of labor such as Katy had never known. + +"You must forgive me for going over your house," Marian said, after they +had talked together a moment, and Katy had told how sorry she was to +miss the call. "I could not resist the temptation, and it did me so much +good, although I must confess to a good cry when I came back and thought +of the difference between us." + +There was a quiver of her lip and a tone in her voice which touched +Katy's heart, and she tried to comfort her, forgetting entirely whether +what she said was proper or not, and impetuously letting out that even +in houses like hers there was trouble. Not that she was unhappy in the +least, for she was not; but, oh! the fuss it was to be fashionable and +keep from doing anything to shock his folks, who were so particular +about every little thing, even to the way she tied her bonnet and sat +in a chair. + +This was what Katy said, and Marian, looking straight into Katy's face, +felt that she would not exchange places with the young girl-wife whom so +many envied. + +"Tell me of Silverton," was Katy's next remark. "You don't know how +I want to go there; but Wilford does not think it best--that is, at +present. Next fall I am surely going. I picture to myself just how it +will look; Morris' garden, full of the autumnal flowers--the ripe +peaches in our orchard, the grapes ripening on the wall, and the long +shadows on the grass, just as I used to watch them, wondering what made +them move so fast, and where they could be going. Will it be unchanged, +Marian? Do places seem the same when once we have left them?" and Katy's +eager eyes looked wistfully at Marian, who replied: "Not always--not +often, in fact; but in your case they may. You have not been long away." + +"Only a year," Katy said. "I was as long as that in Canandaigua; but +this past year is different. I have seen so much, and lived so much, +that I feel ten years older than I did last spring, when you and Helen +made my wedding dress. Darling Helen! When did you see her last?" + +"I was there five weeks ago," Marian replied. "I saw them all, and told +them I was coming to New York." + +"Do they miss me any? Do they talk of me? Do they wish me back again?" +Katy asked, and Marian replied: "They talked of little else--that is, +your own family. Dr. Morris, I think, did not mention your name. He +has grown very silent and reserved," and Marian's eyes were fixed +inquiringly upon Katy, as if to ascertain how much she knew of the +cause for Morris' reserve. + +But Katy had no suspicion, and only replied: "Perhaps he is vexed that +I do not write to him oftener, but I can't. I think of him a great deal, +and sometimes have so wished I could sit in his public library, and +forget that there are such things as dinner parties, where you are in +constant terror lest you should do something wrong--evening parties, +where your dress and style are criticised--receptions or calls, and all +the things which make me so confused. Morris could always quiet me. It +rested me just to hear him talk, and I respect him more than any living +man, except, of course, Wilford; but when I try to write, something +comes in between me and what I wish to say, for I want to convince him +that I am not as frivolous as I fear he thinks I am. I have not +forgotten the Sunday school, nor the church service, which I so loved to +hear, especially when Morris read it, as he did in Mr. Browning's +absence; but in the city it is so hard to be good, particularly when one +is not, you know--that is, good like you and Helen and Morris--and the +service and music seem all for show, and I feel so hateful when I see +Juno and Wilford's mother making believe, and putting their heads down +on velvet cushions, knowing as I do that they both are thinking either +of their own bonnets or those just in front." + +"Are you not a little uncharitable?" Marian asked, laughing in spite of +herself at the picture Katy drew of fashion trying to imitate religion +in its humility. + +"Perhaps so," Katy answered. "I grow bad from looking behind the scenes, +and the worst is that I do not care. But tell me, do you think Morris +likes me less than formerly?" + +Marian did not, and assured on that point, Katy went back to the +farmhouse, asking numberless questions about its inmates, and at last +coming to the business which had brought her to Marian's room. + +There were perceptible spots on Marian's neck, and her lips were very +white, while her hands grasped the bundles tossed into her lap--the +yards and yards of lace and embroidery, linen, and cambric, which she +was expected to make for the wife of Wilford Cameron; and her voice was +husky as she asked directions or made suggestions of her own. + +"It's because she has no such joy in expectation. I should feel so, too, +if I were thirty and unmarried," Katy thought, as she noticed Marian's +agitation, and tried to divert her mind by telling her as delicately as +possible that she had brought with her sundry stores of which she had +such an abundance. + +"I knew you were not an object of charity," she said, as she saw the +flush on Marian's brow, "but when I have so much I like to share it with +others, and you seem like our folks." + +"Did Wilf--did Mr. Cameron know?" Marian asked, and Katy answered "No; +but it does not matter. He lets me do as I like in these matters, and +the greatest pleasure I have is giving. You are not offended?" she +continued, as she saw a tear drop from Marian's eyelids. + +"No--oh, no," and Marian quietly laid aside the packages which would +find their way to many an humble garret or cellar, where biting poverty +had its abode. + +It would choke her to eat whatever came from Wilford Cameron, but she +could not tell Katy so, though she did say: "I will keep these because +you brought them, but do not do so again. There are many far more needy. +I saved something in Silverton. I shall not suffer so long as my health +is spared." + +Then after a few more inquiries concerning the work, about which she +could now talk calmly, she asked where Katy went when she was abroad, +her blue eyes growing almost black as Katy talked of Rome, of Venice, of +Paris, and then of Alnwick, where they had stopped so long. + +"By the way, you were born in England? Were you ever at Alnwick?" Katy +asked, and Marian replied: "Once, yes. I've seen the castle and the +church. Did you go there--to St. Mary's, I mean?" + +"Oh, yes, and I was never tired of that old churchyard, Wilford liked +it, too, and we wandered by the hour among the sunken graves and quaint +headstones." + +"Do you remember any of the names upon the stones? Perhaps I may know +them?" Marian asked; but Katy did not remember any, or if she did, it +was not "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two." And so Marian asked her no +more questions concerning St. Mary's, at Alnwick, but talked instead of +London and other places, until three hours went by, and down in the +street the coachman chafed and fretted at the long delay, wandering what +kept his mistress in that neighborhood so long. Had she friends, or had +she come on some errand of mercy? The latter most likely, he concluded, +and so his face was not quite so cross when Katy at last appeared, +looking at her watch and exclaiming at the lateness of the hour. But +when, as they turned into the avenue, Katy called to him to stop, +bidding him drive back, as she had forgotten something, he showed +unmistakable signs of irritation, but nevertheless obeyed, and Katy was +soon mounting a second time to the fourth story of No. ----, where Marian +Hazelton knelt upon the floor, her head resting upon the costly fabrics +and her frame quivering with the anguish of the sobs which reached +Katy's ear even before she opened the unbolted door. + +"What is it, Marian?" she asked, in great distress, while Marian, +struggling to her feet, remained for a moment speechless. + +She had not expected Katy to return, else she had never given way as she +did, calling on her God to help her bear what she now knew she was not +prepared to bear. She had thought the heart struggle conquered, and that +she could calmly look upon Wilford Cameron's wife; but the sight of +Katy, together with the errand on which she came, had unnerved her, and +she wept bitterly in her desolation, until Katy's reappearance startled +her from her position on the floor, making her stammer out some excuse +about "homesickness and the seeing Katy bringing back the past." + +Very lovingly Katy tried to comfort her, putting into her manner just +enough of pretty patronage to amuse without annoying Marian, who soon +grew calm, and then listened while Katy told why she returned. She +feared she had talked too much of her own affairs--too much of his +folks, who, after all, were nice, kind people, and she came to take +it back, asking Marian never to speak of it, as it might get to them +indirectly, and Wilford would be angry. + +With a smile, as she thought how improbable it was that anything said to +her up in that humble room should reach to No. ---- Fifth Avenue, Marian +promised silence; and with a good-by kiss, given to convince Marian that +she was not proud, Katy again departed, and was soon driving toward +Madison Square. She was very happy that morning, for seeing Marian had +brought Silverton near to her, and airy as a bird she ran up the steps +of her own dwelling, where the door opened as by magic, and Wilford +himself confronted her, asking, with the tone which always made her +heart beat, where she had been, and he waiting for her two whole hours. +Surely it was not necessary to stop so long with a seamstress, he +continued when she tried to explain. Ten minutes would suffice for +directions, and he could not imagine what attractions there were in Miss +Hazelton to keep her there three hours, and then the real cause of his +vexation came out. He had come expressly for the carriage to take her +and Sybil Grandon to a picnic up the river, whither his mother, Juno and +Bell had already gone. Mrs. Grandon must wonder why he stayed so long, +and perhaps give up going. Could Katy be ready soon; and Wilford walked +rapidly up and down the parlor as he talked, with a restless motion of +his hands which always betokened impatience. Poor Katy, how the +brightness of the morning faded, and how averse she felt to joining that +picnic, which she knew had been in prospect for some time, and had +fancied she should enjoy. But not to-day, not with that cold, proud look +on Wilford's face, and the feeling that he was vexed. Still she could +think of no reasonable excuse, and so an hour later found her driving +into the country with Sybil Grandon, who received her apologies with as +much good-natured grace as if she had not worked herself into a passion +at the delay, for Sybil had been very cross and impatient; but all this +vanished when she met Wilford and saw that he, too, was disturbed and +irritated. Soft and sweet and smooth was she both in word and manner, so +that by the time the pleasant grove was reached Wilford's ruffled +spirits had been soothed, and he was himself again, ready to enjoy the +pleasures of the day as keenly as if no harsh word had been said to +Katy, who, silent and unhappy, listened to the graceful badinage between +Sybil and her husband, thinking how differently his voice had sounded +when addressing her only a little while before. + +"Pray put some animation into your face, or Mrs. Grandon will certainly +think we have been quarreling," Wilford whispered, as he lifted his wife +from the carriage, and with a great effort Katy tried to be gay and +natural. + +But all the while was she fighting back her tears and wishing she were +away. Even Marian's room, looking into the dingy court, was preferable +to that place, and she was glad when the long day came to an end, and +she with a fearful headache was riding back to the city. + +The next morning was dark and rainy; but in spite of the weather Katy +found her way to Marian's room, this time taking the ---- avenue cars, +which left her independent as regarded the length of her stay. About +Marian there was something more congenial than about her city friends, +and day after day found her there, watching while Marian fashioned into +shape the beautiful little garments, the sight of which had over Katy a +strangely quieting influence, sobering her down and maturing her more +than all the years of her life had done. Those were happy hours spent +with Marian Hazelton, the happiest of the entire day, and Katy felt it +keenly when Wilford at last interfered, telling her she was growing +quite too familiar with that sewing woman, and her calls had best be +discontinued, except, indeed, such as were necessary to the work in +progress. + +There was a grieved look on Katy's face, but she uttered no word of +remonstrance; while her husband went on to say, that of course he did +not wish to be unreasonable, nor interfere between her and her +acquaintances as a general thing, but when the acquaintance chosen was a +sewing woman, whose antecedents no one knew, and whose society could not +be improving, the case was different. + +After this there were no more mornings spent in Marian's room, no more +talks of Silverton and Morris Grant; talks which did Katy a world of +good, and kept her heart open to better influences, which might +otherwise have been wholly choked and destroyed by the life she saw +around her. With one great gush of tears, when there was no one to see +her, Katy gave Marian up, writing her a note, in which were sundry +directions for the work, which would go on even after she had left for +the Mountain House, as she intended doing the last of June. And Marian, +reading this note, guessed at more than Katy meant she should, and with +a bitter sigh laid it in her basket, and then resumed the work, which +seemed doubly monotonous now that there was no more listening for the +little feet tripping up the stairs, or for the bird-like voice which had +brought so much of music and sunshine to her lonely room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +SARATOGA AND NEWPORT. + + +For three weeks Katy had been at the Mountain House, growing stronger +every day, until now she was much like the Katy of one year ago, and +Wilford was very proud of her, as he saw how greatly she was admired by +those whose admiration he deemed worth having. But their stay among the +Catskills was ended, and on the morrow they were going to Saratoga, +where Mrs. Cameron and her daughter were, and where, too, was Sybil +Grandon, the reigning belle of the United States. So Bell had written to +her brother, bidding him hasten on with Katy, as she wished to see "that +chit of a widow in her proper place." And Katy had been weak enough for +a moment to feel a throb of satisfaction in knowing how effectually +Sybil's claims to belleship would be put aside when she was once in the +field; even glancing at herself in the mirror as she leaned on Wilford's +shoulder, and feeling glad that mountain air and mountain exercise had +brought the roses back to her white cheeks and the brightness to her +eyes. But Katy wept passionate tears of repentance for that weakness, +when an hour later she read the letter which Dr. Grant had sent in +answer to one she had written from the Mountain House, and in which she +had told him much of her life in New York, confessing her shortcomings, +and lamenting that the evils and excesses which shocked her once did not +startle her now. To this letter Morris had replied as a brother might +write to an only sister, first expressing his joy at her happiness, and +then coming to the subject which lay nearest his heart, warning her +against temptation, reminding her of that other life to which this is +only a preparation, and beseeching her so to use the good things of this +world, given her in such profusion, as not to lose the life eternal. + +This was the substance of Morris' letter, which Katy read with +streaming eyes, forgetting Saratoga as Morris' solemn words of warning +and admonition rang in her ears, and shuddering as she thought of losing +the life eternal of going where Morris would never come, nor any of +those she loved the best, unless it were Wilford, who might reproach her +with having dragged him there when she could have saved him. + +"Keep yourself unspotted from the world," Morris had said, and she +repeated it to herself, asking: "How shall I do that? How can one be +good and fashionable, too?" + +Then laying her hand upon the rock where she was sitting, Katy tried to +pray as she had not prayed in months, asking that God would teach her +what she ought to know, and keep her unspotted from the world. But at +the Mountain House it is easier to pray that one be kept from temptation +than it is at Saratoga, which this summer was crowded to overflowing, +its streets presenting a fitting picture of Vanity Fair, so full were +they of show and gala dress. At the United States, where Mrs. Cameron +stopped, two rooms, for which an enormous price was paid, had been +reserved for Mr. and Mrs. Wilford Cameron, and this of itself would have +given them a certain _éclat_, even if there had not been present many +who remembered the proud, fastidious bachelor, and were proportionately +anxious to see his wife. She came, she saw, she conquered; and within +three days after her arrival Katy Cameron was the acknowledged belle of +Saratoga, from the United States to the Clarendon. And Katy, alas! was +not quite the same who on the mountain ridge had sat with Morris' letter +in her hand, praying that its teachings might not be all forgotten. Nor +were they, but she did not heed them here where all was so bright and +gay, and where the people thought her so perfect. Saratoga seemed +different to her from New York, and she plunged into its gayeties, never +pausing, never tiring, and seldom giving herself time to think, much +less to pray, as Morris had bidden her do. And Wilford, though hardly +able to recognize the usually timid Katy in the brilliant woman who led +rather than followed, was sure of her faith to him, and so was only +proud and gratified to see her bear off the palm from every competitor, +while even Juno, though she quarreled with the shadow into which she +was so completely thrown, enjoyed the _éclat_ cast upon their party by +the presence of Mrs. Wilford, who had passed beyond her criticism. Sybil +Grandon, too, stood back in wonder that a simple country girl should win +and wear the laurels she had so long claimed as her own; but as there +was no help for it she contented herself as best she could with the +admiration she did receive, and whenever opportunity occurred, said +bitter things of Mrs. Wilford, whose parentage and low estate were +through her pretty generally known. But it did not matter there what +Katy had been; the people took her for what she was now, and Sybil's +glory faded like the early dawn in the coming of the full day. + +As it had been at Saratoga, so it was at Newport. Urged on by Mrs. +Cameron and Bell, who greatly enjoyed her notoriety, Katy plunged into +the mad excitement of dancing and driving and coquetting, until Wilford +himself became uneasy, locking her once in her room, where she was +sleeping after dinner, and conveniently forgetting to release her until +after the departure at evening of some young men from Cambridge, whose +attentions to the Ocean House belle had been more strongly marked than +was altogether agreeable to him. Of course it was a mistake--the locking +of the door--and a great oversight in him not to have remembered it +sooner, he said to Katy, by way of apology; and Katy, with no suspicion +of the truth, laughed merrily at the joke, repeating it downstairs to +the old dowagers, who shrugged their shoulders meaningly and whispered +to each other that it might be well if more young, handsome wives were +locked into their rooms and thus kept out of mischief. + +Though flattered, caressed and admired, Katy was not doing herself much +credit at Newport, but after Wilford there was no one to raise a warning +voice, until Mark Ray came down for a few days' respite from the heated +city, where he spent the entire summer, taking charge of the business +which belonged as much to Wilford as to himself. But Wilford had a wife; +it was more necessary that he should leave, Mark had argued; his time +would come by and by. And so he had remained at home until the last of +August, when he appeared suddenly at the Ocean House one night when +Katy, in her airy robes and childlike simplicity, was breaking hearts by +the score. Like others, Mark was charmed, and not a little proud, for +Katy's sake, to see her thus appreciated; but when one day's experience +had shown him more and given him a look behind the scenes, he trembled +for her, knowing how hard it would be for her to come out of that sea of +dissipation as pure and spotless as she went in. + +"If I were her brother I would warn her that her present career, though +very delightful now, is not one upon which she will look back with +pleasure when the excitement is over," he said to himself; "but if +Wilford is satisfied it is not for me to interfere. It is surely nothing +to me what Katy Cameron does," he kept repeating to himself; but as +often as he said it there came up before him a pale, anxious face, +shaded with Helen Lennox's bands of hair, and Helen Lennox's voice +whispered to him: "Save Katy, for my sake;" and so next day, when Mark +found himself alone with Katy, while most of the guests were at the +beach, he questioned her of her life at Saratoga and Newport, and +gradually, as he talked, there crept into Katy's heart a suspicion that +he was not altogether pleased with her account, or with what he had seen +of her since his arrival. + +For a moment Katy was indignant, but when he said to her kindly: "Would +Helen he pleased?" her tears started at once, and she attempted an +excuse for her weak folly, accusing Sybil Grandon as the first cause of +the ambition for which she hated herself. + +"She had been held up as my pattern," she said, half bitterly, and +forgetting to whom she was talking--"she the one whom I was to imitate; +and when I found that if I would I could go beyond her, I yielded to the +temptation, and exulted to see how far she was left behind. Besides +that," she continued, "is it no gratification, think you, to let +Wilford's proud mother and sister see the poor country girl, whom +ordinarily they would despise, stand where they cannot come, and even +dictate to them if she chooses so to do? I know it is wrong--I know it +is wicked--but I rather like the excitement, and so long as I am with +these people I shall never be any better. Mark Ray, you don't know what +it is to be surrounded by a set who care for nothing but fashion and +display, and how they may outdo each other. I hate New York society. +There is nothing there but husks." + +Katy's tears had ceased, and on her white face there was a new look of +womanhood, as if in that outburst she had changed, and would never again +be just what she was before. + +"Say," she continued, "do you like New York society?" + +"Not always--not wholly," Mark answered; "and still you misjudge it +greatly, for all are not like the people you describe. Your husband's +family represent one extreme, while there are others equally high in the +social scale who do not make fashion the rule of their lives--sensible, +cultivated, intellectual people, of whose acquaintance one might be +glad--people whom I fancy your Sister Helen would enjoy. I have only met +her twice, it is true, but my impression is that she would not find New +York utterly distasteful." + +Mark did not know why he had dragged Helen into that conversation, +unless it were that she seemed very near to him as he talked with Katy, +who replied: + +"Yes, Helen finds some good in all. She sees differently from what I do, +and I wish so much that she was here." + +"Why not send for her?" Mark asked, casting about in his mind whether in +case Helen came, he, too, could tarry for a week and leave that business +in Southbridge, which he must attend to ere returning to the city. + +It would be a study to watch Helen Lennox there at Newport, and in +imagination Mark was already her sworn knight, shielding her from +criticism, and commanding her respect from those who respected him, when +Katy tore his castle down by answering impulsively: + +"I doubt if Wilford would let me send for her here, nor does it matter, +as I shall not remain much longer. I do not need her now, since you have +showed me how foolish I have been. I was angry at first, but now I thank +you for it, and so would Helen. I shall tell her when I am in Silverton. +I am going there from here, and oh, I so wish it was to-day." + +The guests were beginning to return from the beach by this time, and as +Mark had said all he had intended saying, and even more, he left Katy +with Wilford, who had just come in and joined a merry party of +Bostonians only that day arrived. That night at the Ocean House the +guests missed something from their festivities; the dance was not so +exhilarating or the small-talk between them so lively, while more than +one white-kidded dandy swore mentally at the innocent Wilford, whose +wife declined to join in the gayeties, and in a plain white muslin, with +only a pond lily in her hair, kept by her husband's side, +notwithstanding that he more than once bade her leave him and accept +some of her numerous invitations to join the giddy dance. This sober +phase of Katy did not on the whole please Wilford as much as her gayer +ones had done. Perfectly sure of her devotion to himself, he liked to +watch her as she glided amid the throng which paid her so much homage. +All he had ever dreamed of the sensation his bride would create was more +than verified. Katy had fulfilled his highest expectations, reaching a +point from which, as she had said to Mark, she could even dictate to his +mother, if she chose, and he did not care to see her relinquish it. + +But Katy remained true to herself. Dropping her girlish playfulness she +assumed a quiet, gentle dignity, which became her even better than her +gayer mood had done, making her ten times more popular and more sought +after, until she begged to go away, persuading Wilford at last to name +the day for their departure, and then, never doubting for a moment that +her destination was Silverton, she wrote to Helen that she was coming on +such a day, and as they would come by way of Providence and Worcester, +they would probably reach West Silverton at ten o'clock, A.M. + +"Wilford," she added, in a postscript, "has gone down to bathe, and as +the mail is just closing, I shall send this letter without his seeing +it. Of course it can make no difference, for I have talked all summer of +coming, and he understands it." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +MARK RAY AT SILVERTON. + + +The last day of summer was dying out in a fierce storm of rain which +swept in sheets across the Silverton hills, hiding the pond from +view, and beating the windows of the farmhouse, whose inmates were +nevertheless unmindful of the storm save as they hoped the morrow would +prove bright and fair, such as the day should be which brought them back +their Katy. Nearly worn out with constant reference was her letter, the +mother catching it up from time to time to read the part referring to +herself, the place where Katy had told how blessed it would be "to rest +again on mother's bed," just as she had often wished to do, "and hear +mother's voice;" the deacon spelling out by his spluttering tallow +candle, with its long, smoky wick, what she had said of "darling old +Uncle Eph," and the rides into the fields which she should have with +him; Aunt Betsy, too, reading mostly from memory the words: "Good old +Aunt Betsy, with her skirts so limp and short, tell her she will look +handsomer to me than the fairest belle at Newport;" and as often as Aunt +Betsy read it she would ejaculate: "The land! what kind of company must +the child have kept?" wondering next if Helen had never written of the +hoop, for which she had paid a dollar, and which was carefully hung in +her closet, waiting for the event of to-morrow, while the hem of her +pongee had been let down and one breadth added to accommodate the hoop. +On the whole, Aunt Betsy expected to make a stylish appearance before +the little lady of whom she stood slightly in awe, always speaking of +her to the neighbors as "My niece, Miss Cameron, from New York," and +taking good care to report what she had heard of "Miss Cameron's" costly +dress and the grandeur of her house, where the furniture of the best +chamber cost over fifteen hundred dollars. + +"What could it be--gold?" Aunt Betsy had asked in her simplicity, +feeling an increased respect for Katy, and consenting the more readily +to the change in her pongee, as suggested to her by Helen. + +But that was for to-morrow when Katy came; to-night she only wore a +dotted brown, whose hem just reached the top of her "bootees," as she +stood by the window, wondering, first, if the rain would ever stop, and +wondering, secondly, where all them fish worms, squirming on the grass +by the back door, did come from. Needn't tell her they crawled out of +the ground; she knew better--they rained from the clouds, though she +should s'pose that somebody would sometime have catched one on their +bunnet or umberill. Dammed if she didn't mean to stand out o' doors some +day till she was wet to the skin, and see what would come, and having +thus settled a way by which to decide the only question, except that of +the "'Piscopal Church and its quirks," on which she was still obstinate, +Aunt Betsy went to strain the milk just brought by Uncle Ephraim, while +Helen took her position near the window, looking drearily out upon the +leaden clouds, and hoping it would brighten before the morrow. Like the +others, Helen had read Katy's letter many times, dwelling longest upon +the part which said: "I have been so bad, so frivolous and wicked here +at Newport, that it will be a relief to make you my confessor, +depending, as I do, upon your love to grant me absolution." + +From a family at Silverton, who had spent a few days at a private house +in Newport, Helen had heard something of her sister's life; the lady had +seen her once driving a tandem team, or as Aunt Betsy had it, "driving +tanterum," down the avenue, with Wilford at her side giving her +instructions. Since then there had been some anxiety felt for her at the +farmhouse, and more than Dr. Grant had prayed that she might be kept +unspotted from the world; but when her letter came, so full of love and +self-reproaches, the burden was lifted, and there was nothing to mar +the anticipations of the events for which they had made so many +preparations, Uncle Ephraim going to the expense of buying at auction a +half-worn, covered buggy, which he fancied would suit Katy better than +the corn-colored wagon in which Katy used to ride. To pay for this the +deacon had parted with the money set aside for the "greatcoat" he so +much needed for the coming winter, his old gray one having done him +service for fifteen years. But his comfort was nothing compared with +Katy's happiness, and so, with his wrinkled face beaming with delight, +he had brought home his buggy, which he designated a carriage, putting +it carefully in the barn, and saying no one should ride in it till +Katy came, the corn-color was good enough for them, but Katy was +different--Katy was Mrs. Cameron, and used to something better. With +untiring patience the old man mended up his harness, for what he had +heard of Katy's driving had impressed him strongly with her powers of +horsemanship, and, truth to tell, raised her somewhat in his respect. +Could he have afforded it Uncle Ephraim in his younger days would have +been a horse jockey, and even now he liked nothing better than to make +Old Whitey run when alone in the strip of woods between the house and +the head of the pond. + +"Katy inherits her love of horses from me," he said, complacently, and +with a view of improving Whitey's style and metal, he took to feeding +him on corn and oats, talking to him at times, and telling him who was +coming. + +Dear, simple-hearted Uncle Ephraim, the days which he must wait seemed +long to him as they did to the female portion of his family, to Mrs. +Lennox, Aunt Hannah and Aunt Betsy, who each did what she could to make +the house attractive. They were ready for Katy at last, or could be +early on the morrow, and with the shutting in of night the candles were +lighted in the sitting-room, and Helen sat down to her work, wishing it +was to-night that Katy was coming. As if in answer to her wish there was +the sound of wheels, which stopped before the house, and dropping her +work, Helen ran quickly to the door, just as from under the dripping +umbrella held by a driver boy, a tall young man, sprang upon the step, +nearly upsetting her, but passing an arm around her shoulders in time to +keep her from falling. + +"I beg pardon for this assault upon you," the stranger said; and then, +turning to the boy, he continued: "It's all right, you need not wait." + +With a chirrup and a blow the horse started forward, and the +mud-bespattered vehicle was rapidly moving down the road ere Helen had +recovered her surprise at recognizing Mark Ray, who shook the raindrops +from his hair, and offering her his hand said in reply to her +involuntary exclamation: "I thought it was Katy." "Shall I infer, +then, that I am the less welcome?" and his bright, saucy eyes looked +laughingly into hers. "Business had brought him to Southbridge," he +said, "and it was his intention to take the cars that afternoon for New +York, but having been detained longer than he expected, and not liking +the looks of the hotel arrangements, he had decided to presume upon his +acquaintance with Dr. Grant and spend the night at Linwood. But," and +again his eyes looked straight at Helen, "it rained so hard and the +light from your window was so inviting that I ventured to stop, so here +I am, claiming your hospitality until morning, if convenient; if not, I +will find my way to Linwood." + +There was something in this pleasant familiarity which won Uncle Ephraim +at once, and he bade the young man stay, as did Aunt Hannah and Mrs. +Lennox, who now for the first time were presented to Mark Ray. Always +capable of adapting himself to the circumstances around him, Mark did so +now with so much ease and courteousness as to astonish Helen, and partly +thaw the reserve she had assumed when she found the visitor was from the +hated city. + +"Are you expecting Mrs. Cameron?" he asked, adding as Helen explained +that she was coming to-morrow: "That is strange. Wilford wrote decidedly +that he should be in New York to-morrow. Possibly, though, he does not +intend himself to stop." + +"I presume not," Helen replied, a weight suddenly lifting from her heart +at the prospect of not having to entertain the formidable brother-in-law +who, if he stayed long, would spoil all her pleasure. + +Thus at her ease on this point, she grew more talkative, half wishing +that her dress was not a shilling calico, or her hair combed back quite +so straight, giving her that severe look which Morris had said was +unbecoming. It was very smooth and glossy, and even Sybil Grandon would +have given her best diamond to have had in her own natural right the +long heavy coil of hair bound so many times around the back of Helen's +head, ornamented with neither ribbon, comb, nor bow--only a single +geranium leaf, with a white and scarlet blossom, was fastened just +below the ear, and on the side where Mark could see it best, admiring +its effect and forgetting the arrangement of the hair in his admiration +of the well-shaped head, bending so industriously over the work which +Helen had resumed--not crocheting, nor yet embroidery, but the very +homely work of darning Uncle Ephraim's socks, a task which Helen always +did, and on that particular night. Helen knew it was not delicate +employment and there was a moment's hesitancy as she wondered what Mark +would think--then with a grim delight in letting him see that she did +not care, she resumed her darning needle, and as a kind of penance of +the flash of pride in which she had indulged, selected from the basket +the very coarsest, ugliest sock she could find, stretching out the huge +fracture at the heel to its utmost extent, and attacking it with a right +good will, while Mark, with a comical look on his face, sat watching +her. She knew he was looking at her, and her cheeks were growing very +red, while her hatred of him was increasing, when he said, abruptly: +"You follow my mother's custom, I see. She used to mend my socks on +Tuesday nights." + +"Your mother mend socks!" and Helen started so suddenly as to run the +point of her darning needle a long way into her thumb, the wound +bringing a stream of blood which she tried to wipe away with her +handkerchief. + +"Bind it tightly around. Let me show you, please," Mark said, and ere +she was aware of what she was doing Helen was quietly permitting the +young man to wind her handkerchief around her thumb which he held in his +hand, pressing it until the blood ceased flowing, and the sharp pain had +abated. + +Perhaps Mark Ray liked holding that small, warm hand, even though it +were not as white and soft as Juno's; at all events he did hold it until +Helen drew it from him with a quick, sudden motion, telling him it would +now do very well, and she would not trouble him. Mark did not look as if +he had been troubled, but went back to his seat and took up the +conversation just where the needle had stopped it. + +"My mother did not always mend herself, but she caused it to be done, +and sometimes helped. I remember she used to say a woman should know +how to do everything pertaining to a household, and she carried out her +theory in the education of my sister." + +"Have you a sister?" Helen asked, now really interested, and listening +intently while Mark told her of his only sister, Julia, now Mrs. Ernst, +whose home was in New Orleans, though she at present was in Paris, and +his mother was there with her. "After Julia's marriage, nine years ago, +mother went to live with her," he said, "but latterly, as the little +Ernsts increase so fast, she wishes for a more quiet home, and this +winter she is coming to New York to keep house for me." + +Helen thought she might like Mark's mother, who, he told her, had been +twice married, and was now Mrs. Banker, and a widow. She must be +different from Mrs. Cameron; and Helen let herself down to another +degree of toleration for the man whose mother taught her daughter to +mend the family socks. Still there was about her a chilling reserve, +which Mark wondered at, for it was not thus that ladies were accustomed +to receive his advances. He did not guess that Wilford Cameron stood +between him and Helen's good opinion; but when, after the family came +in, the conversation turned upon Katy and her life in New York, the +secret came out in the sharp, caustic mariner with which she spoke of +New York and its people. + +"It's Will and the Camerons," Mark thought, blaming Helen less than he +would have done, if he, too, had not known something of the Cameron +pride. + +It was a novel position in which Mark found himself that night; an +inmate of a humble farmhouse, where he could almost touch the ceiling +with his hand, and where his surroundings were so different from what he +had been accustomed to; but, unlike Wilford Cameron, he did not wish +himself away, nor feel indignant at Aunt Betsy's odd, old-fashioned +ways, or Uncle Ephraim's grammar. He noticed Aunt Betsy's oddities, it +is true, and noticed Uncle Ephraim's grammar, too; but the sight of +Helen sitting there, with so much dignity and self-respect, made him +look beyond all else, straight into her open face and clear brown eyes, +where there was nothing obnoxious or distasteful. Her grammar was +correct, her manner, saving a little stiffness, ladylike and refined; +and Mark rather enjoyed his situation as self-invited guest, making +himself so agreeable that Uncle Ephraim forgot his hour of retiring, nor +discovered his mistake until, with a loud yawn, Aunt Betsy told him that +it was half-past nine, and she was "desput sleepy." + +Owing to Helen's influence there had been a change of the olden customs, +and instead of the long chapter, through which Uncle Ephraim used to +plod so wearily, there was now read the Evening Psalms, Aunt Betsy +herself joining in the reading, which she mentally classed with the +"quirks," but confessed to herself that it "was most as good as the +Bible." + +As there were only Prayer Books enough for the family, Helen, in +distributing them, purposely passed Mark by, thinking he might not care +to join them. But he did, and when the verse came around to Helen he +quickly drew his chair near to hers, and taking one side of her book, +performed his part, while Helen's face grew red as the blossoms in her +hair, and her hand so near to Mark's trembled visibly. + +"A right nice chap, and not an atom stuck up," was Aunt Betsy's mental +comment, and then, as he often will do, Satan followed the saintly woman +even to her knees, making her wonder if "Mr. Ray hadn't some notion +after Helen." She hoped not, for she meant that Morris should have +Helen, "though if 'twas to be it was, and she should not go agin' it;" +and while Aunt Betsy thus settled the case, Uncle Ephraim's prayer +ended, and the conscience-smitten woman arose from her knees with the +conviction that "the evil one had got the better of her once," mentally +asking pardon for her wandering thoughts, and promising to do better. + +Mark was in no haste to retire, and when Uncle Ephraim offered to +conduct him to his room, he frankly answered that he was not sleepy, +adding, as he turned to Helen: "Please let me stay until Miss Lennox +finishes her socks. There are several pairs yet undarned. I will not +detain you, though," he continued, bowing to Uncle Ephraim, who, a +little uncertain what to do, finally departed, as did Aunt Hannah and +his sister, leaving Helen and her mother to entertain Mark Ray. It had +been Mrs. Lennox's first intention to retire also, but a look from +Helen detained her, and she sat down by that basket of socks, while Mark +wished her away. Still it was proper for her to remain, he knew, and he +respected Helen for keeping her, as he knew she did. A while they talked +of Katy and New York, Mark laboring to convince Helen that its people +were not all heartless and fickle, and at last citing his mother as an +instance. + +"You would like mother, Miss Lennox. I hope you will know her some +time," he said, and then they talked of books, Helen forgetting that +Mark was city bred in the interest with which she listened to him, while +Mark forgot that the girl who appreciated and understood his views +almost before they were expressed was country born, and sitting there +before him clad in homely garb, with no ornaments save those of her fine +mind and the sparkling face turned so fully toward him. + +"Mark Ray is not like Wilford Cameron," Helen said to herself, when as +the clock was striking eleven she bade him good-night and went up to her +room. "But of course in his heart he feels above us all," and opening +her window she leaned her hot cheek against the wet casement, and looked +out upon the night, now so beautiful and clear, for the rain was over, +and up in the heavens the bright stars were shining, each one bearing +some resemblance to Mark's eyes as they kindled and grew bright with his +excitement, resting always kindly on her--on Helen, who, leaning thus +from the window, felt stealing over her that feeling which, once born, +can never be quite forgotten. + +Helen did not recognize the feeling, for it was a strange one to her. +She was only conscious of a sensation half pleasurable, half sad, of +which Mark Ray had been the cause, and which she tried in vain to put +aside, wondering what he thought of them all, and if he did not secretly +despise them even while making himself so familiar. And then there swept +over her a feeling of desolation such as she had never experienced +before, a shrinking from living all her life in Silverton, as she fully +expected to do, and laying her head upon the little stand, she cried +passionately. + +"This is weak, this is folly," she suddenly exclaimed, as she became +conscious of acting as Helen Lennox was not wont to act, and with a +strong effort of the will she dried her tears and crept quietly to bed +just as Mark was falling into his first sleep, and dreaming of +smothering. + +Helen would not have acknowledged it, and yet it was a truth not to be +denied, that she stayed next morning a much longer time than usual +before her glass, arranging her hair, which was worn more becomingly +than on the previous night, softening the somewhat too intellectual +expression of her face, and making her seem more womanly and modest. +Once she thought to wear the light buff gown in which she looked so +well, but the thought was repudiated as soon as formed, and donning the +same dark calico she would have worn if Mark had not been there, she +finished her simple toilet and went downstairs, just as Mark came in at +the side door, his hands full of water lilies and his boots bearing +marks of what he had been through to get them. + +"Early country air is healthful," he said, "and as I do not often have a +chance to try it I thought I would improve the present opportunity! So I +have been down by the pond, and spying these lilies I persevered until I +reached them, in spite of mud and mire. There is no blossom I like so +well. Were I a young girl I would always wear one in my hair, just as +your sister did one night at Newport, and I never saw her look better. +Just let me try the effect on you;" and selecting a half-opened bud, +Mark placed it among Helen's braids as if hairdressing were one of his +accomplishments. "The effect is good," he continued, turning her +blushing face to the glass and asking if it were not. + +"Yes," Helen stammered, seeing more the saucy eyes looking over her head +than the lily in her hair. "Yes, good enough, but hardly in keeping with +this old dress," and vanity whispered the wish that the buff had really +been worn. + +"Your dress is suitable for morning, I am sure," Mark replied, turning +a little more to the right the lily and noticing as he did so how very +white and pretty was the neck and throat seen above the collar. + +Mark liked a pretty neck, and he was glad to know that Helen had one, +though why he should care was a puzzle. He could hardly have analyzed +his feelings then, or told what he did think of Helen. He only knew +that by her efforts to repel him she attracted him the more, she was so +different from any young ladies he had known; so different from Juno, +into whose hair he had never twined a water lily. It would not become +her as it did Helen, he thought, as he sat opposite her at the table, +admiring his handiwork, which even Aunt Betsy observed, remarking that +"Helen was mightily spruced up for morning," a compliment which Helen +acknowledged with a painful blush, while Mark began a disquisition upon +the nature of lilies generally, which lasted until breakfast was ended. + +It was arranged that Mark should ride to the cars with Uncle Ephraim +when he went for Katy, and as this gave him a good two hours of leisure, +he spoke of Dr. Grant, asking Helen if she did not suppose he would call +around. Helen thought it possible, and then remembering how many things +were to be done that morning, she excused herself from the parlor, and +repairing to the platform out by the back door, where it was shady and +cool, she tied on a broad check apron, and rolling her sleeves above her +elbows, was just bringing the churn-dasher to bear vigorously upon the +thick cream she was turning into butter, when, having finished his +cigar, Mark went out into the yard, and following the winding path came +suddenly upon her. Helen's first impulse was to stop, but with a strong +nerving of herself she kept on while Mark, coming as near as he dared, +said to her: "Why do you do that? Is there no one else?" + +"No," Helen answered; "that is, we keep no servant, and my young arms +are stronger than the others." + +"And mine are stronger still," Mark laughingly rejoined, as he put Helen +aside and plied the dasher himself, in spite of her protestations that +he would certainly ruin his clothes. + +"Tie that apron around me, then," he said, with the utmost nonchalance, +and Helen obeyed, tying her check apron around the young man's neck, who +felt her hands as they touched his hair and knew that they were brushing +queer fancies into his brain, fancies which made him wonder what his +mother would think of Helen, or what she would say if she knew just how +he was occupied that morning, absolutely churning cream until it turned +to butter, for Mark persisted until the task was done, standing by while +Helen gathered up the golden lumps, and admiring her plump, round arms +quite as much as he had done her neck. + +She would be a belle like her sister, though of a different stamp, he +thought, as he again bent down his head while she removed the apron and +disclosed more than one big spot upon his broadcloth. Mark assured her +that it did not matter; his coat was nearly worn out; and anyway he +never should regret that he had churned once in his life, or forget +it either; and then he asked if Helen would be in New York the coming +winter, talking of the pleasure it would be to meet her there until +Helen herself began to feel what she never before had felt, a desire to +visit Katy in her own home. + +"Remember if you come that I am your debtor for numerous hospitalities," +he said, when he at last bade her good-by, and sprang into the covered +buggy, which Uncle Ephraim had brought out in honor of Katy's arrival. + + * * * * * + +Old Whitey was hitched at a safe distance from all possible harm. Uncle +Ephraim had returned from the store nearby, laden with the six pounds +of crush sugar and the two pounds of real old Java, he had been +commissioned to purchase with a view to Katy's taste, and now upon the +platform at West Silverton, he stood with Mark Ray, waiting for the +arrival of the train just appearing in view across the level plain. + +"It's fifteen months since she went away," he said, and Mark saw that +the old man's form trembled with the excitement of meeting her again, +while his eyes scanned eagerly every window and door of the cars now +slowly stopping before him. "There, there," and he laid his hand +nervously on Mark's shoulder as a white, jaunty feather appeared in +view; but no, that was not Katy, and the dim eyes ran again along the +whole line of the cars, from which so many were alighting, for that was +an eating house. + +But Katy did not come, and with a long breath of wonder and +disappointment the deacon said: "Can it be she is asleep. Young +man, you are spryer than I. Go through the cars and find her." + +Mark knew there was plenty of time, and so he made the tour of the cars, +but found, alas! no Katy. + +"She's not there," was the report carried to the poor old man, who +tremblingly repeated his words: "Not there, not come," while over his +aged face there broke a look of touching sadness, which Mark never +forgot, remembering it always just as he remembered the big tear drops +which from his seat by the window he saw the old man wipe away with his +coat sleeve, whispering softly to Whitey of his disappointment as he +unhitched the horse and drove away alone. + +"Maybe she's writ. I'll go and see," he said, and driving to their +regular office he found a letter directed by Wilford Cameron, but +written by Katy. + +This last he knew, for he tore the envelope open; but he could not read +it then, and thrusting it into his pocket he went slowly back to the +home where the tempting dinner was prepared, and the family waiting +so eagerly for him. Even before he reached there they knew of the +disappointment, for from the garret window Helen had watched the road by +which he would come, and when the buggy appeared in sight she saw he was +alone. + +There was a mistake; Katy had missed the train, she said to her mother +and aunts, who hoped she might be right. But Katy had not missed the +train, as was indicated by the letter which Uncle Ephraim without a word +put into Helen's hand, leaning on old Whitey's neck while she read aloud +the attempt at an explanation which Katy had hurried written, a stain on +the paper where a tear had fallen attesting her distress at the bitter +disappointment. + +"Wilford did not know of the other letter," she said, "and had made +arrangements for her to go back with him to New York, inasmuch as the +house was already opened, and the servants there wanting ahead; besides +that, Wilford had been absent so long that he could not possibly stop at +Silverton himself, and as he would not think of living without her, even +for a few days, there was no alternative but for her to go with him on +the boat directly to New York. I am sorry, oh, so sorry, but indeed I +am not to blame," she added, in conclusion, and this was the nearest +approach there was to an admission that anybody was to blame for this +disappointment which cut so cruelly, making even Uncle Ephraim cry as +out in the barn he hung away the mended harness and covered the new +buggy, which had been bought for naught. + +"I might have had the overcoat, for Katy will never come home again, +never. God grant that it's the Cameron pride, not hers, that kept her +from us," the old man said, as on the hay he knelt down and prayed that +Katy had not learned to despise the home where she was so beloved. + +"Katy will never come to us again," seemed the prevailing opinion at +Silverton, where more than Uncle Ephraim felt a chilling doubt at times +as to whether she really wished to come or not. If she did, it seemed +easy of accomplishment to those who knew not how perfect and complete +were the fetters thrown around her, and how unbending the will which +governed hers. Could they have seen the look in Katy's face when she +first understood that she was not going to Silverton, their hearts would +have bled for the thwarted creature who fled up the stairs to her own +room, where Esther found her twenty minutes later, cold and fainting +upon the bed, her face as white as ashes, and her hands clinched so +tightly that the nails left marks upon the palms. + +"It was not strange that the poor child should faint--indeed, it was +only natural that nature should give way after so many weeks of gayety, +and she very far from being strong," Mrs. Cameron said to Wilford, who +was beginning to repent of his decision, and who but for that remark +perhaps might have revoked it. + +Indeed, he made an attempt to do so when, as consciousness came back, +Katy lay so pale and still before him; but Katy did not understand him +or guess that he wished her to meet him more than half the way, and so +the verdict was unchanged, and in a kind of bewilderment, Katy wrote the +hurried letter, feeling less actual pain than did its readers, for the +disappointment had stunned her for a time, and all she could remember of +the passage home on that same night when Mark Ray sat with Helen in the +sitting-room at Silverton, was that there was a fearful storm of rain +mingled with lightning flashes and thunder peals, which terrified the +other ladies, but brought to her no other sensation save that it would +not be so very hard to perish in the dark waters dashing so madly about +the vessel's side. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A NEW LIFE. + + +"NEW YORK, December 16th. +"To Miss HELEN LENNOX, Silverton, Mass.: + +"Your sister is very ill. Come as soon as possible. + +"W. CAMERON." + +This was the purport of a telegram received at the farmhouse toward the +close of a chill December day, and Helen's heart almost stopped its +beating as she read it aloud, and then looked in the white, scared faces +of those around her. Katy was very ill--dying, perhaps--or Wilford had +never telegraphed. What could it be? What was the matter? Had it been +somewhat later, they would have known; but now all was conjecture worse +than useless, and in a half-distracted state Helen made her hasty +preparations for the journey on the morrow, and then sent for Morris, +hoping he might offer some advice or suggestion for her to carry to that +sickroom in New York. + +"Perhaps you will go with me," Helen said. "You know Katy's +constitution. You might save her life." + +But Morris shook his head. If he was needed they might send and he would +come, but not without; and so next day he carried Helen to the cars, +saying to her, as they were waiting for the train: "I hope for the best, +but it may be Katy will die. If you think so, tell her. Oh, tell her! of +the better world, and ask if she is prepared. I cannot lose her in +heaven." + +And this was all the message Morris sent, though his heart and prayers +went after the rapid train which bore Helen safely onward, until +Hartford was reached, where there was a long detention, so that the +dark wintry night had closed over the city ere Helen had reached it, +timid, anxious, and wondering what she should do if Wilford was not +there to meet her. "He will be, of course," she kept repeating to +herself, looking around in dismay, as passenger after passenger left, +seeking in stages and street cars a swifter passage to their homes. + +"I shall soon be all alone," she said, feeling some relief as the car in +which she was seated began at last to move, and she knew she was being +taken whither the others had gone, wherever that might be. + +"Is Miss Helen Lennox here?" sounded cheerily in her ears as she stopped +before the depot, and Helen uttered a cry of joy, for she recognized the +voice of Mark Ray, who was soon grasping her hand, and trying to +reassure her, as he saw how she shrank from the noise and clamor of New +York, heard now for the first time. "Our carriage is here," he said, and +in a moment she found herself in a close-covered vehicle, with Mark +sitting opposite, tucking the warm blanket around her, asking if she +were cold, and paying those numberless little attentions so gratifying +to one always accustomed to act and think for herself. + +Helen could not see Mark's face distinctly; but full of fear for Katy, +she fancied there was a sad tone in his voice, as if he were keeping +something back, something he dreaded to tell her; and then, as it +suddenly occurred to her that Wilford should have met her, not Mark, her +great fear found utterance in words, and leaning forward so that her +face almost touched Mark's, she said: "Tell me, Mr. Ray, is Katy dead?" + +"Not dead, oh, no, nor yet very dangerous, my mother hopes; but she kept +asking for you, and so my--that is, Mr. Cameron, sent the telegram." + +There was an ejaculatory prayer of thankfulness, and then Helen +continued: "Is it long since she was taken sick?" + +"Her little daughter will be a week old to-morrow," Mark replied; while +Helen, with an exclamation of surprise she could not repress, sank back +into the corner, faint and giddy with the excitement of this fact, which +invested little Katy with a new dignity, but drew her, oh, so much +nearer to the sister who could scarcely wait for the carriage to stop, +so anxious was she to be where Katy was, to kiss her dear face once +more, and whisper the words of love she knew she must have longed to +hear. + +Awe-struck, bewildered and half terrified, Helen looked up at the huge +brown structure, which Mark designated as "the place." It was so lofty, +so high, so like the Camerons, and so unlike the farmhouse far away, +that Helen trembled as she followed Mark into the rooms flooded with +light, and seeming to her like fairyland. They were so different from +anything she had imagined, so much handsomer than even Katy's vivid +descriptions had implied, that for the moment the sight took her breath +away, and she sank passively into the chair Mark brought for her, +himself taking her muff and tippet, and noting, as he did so, that they +were not mink, nor yet Russian sable, but well-worn, well-kept fitch, +such as Juno would laugh at and criticise. But Helen's dress was a +matter of small moment to Mark, as he thought more of the look in her +dark eyes as she said to him: "You are very kind, Mr. Ray. I cannot +thank you enough," than of all the furs in Broadway. This remark had +been wrung from Helen by the feeling of homesickness and desolation +which swept over her, as she thought how really alone she should be +there, in her sister's house, on this first night of her arrival, if +it were not for Mark, thus virtually taking the place of the +brother-in-law, who should have been there to greet her. + +"He was with Mrs. Cameron," the servant said, and taking out a card Mark +wrote down a few words, and handing it to the servant who had been +looking curiously at Helen, he continued standing until a step was heard +on the stairs and Wilford came quietly in. + +It was not a very loving meeting, but Helen was civil and Wilford was +polite, offering her his hand and asking some questions about her +journey. + +"I was intending to meet you myself," he said, "but Mrs. Cameron does +not like me to leave her, and Mark kindly offered to take the trouble +off my hands." + +This was the most gracious thing he had said; this the nearest approach +to friendliness, and Helen felt herself hating him less than she had +supposed she should. He was looking very pale and anxious, while there +was on his face the light of a new joy, as if the little life begun so +short a time ago had brought an added good to him, softening his haughty +manner and making him even endurable to the prejudiced sister watching +him so closely! + +"Does Phillips know you are here?" he asked, answering his own query by +ringing the bell and bidding Esther, who appeared, tell Phillips that +Miss Lennox had arrived and wished for supper, explaining to Helen that +since Katy's illness they had dined at three, as that accommodated them +the best. + +This done and Helen's baggage ordered to her room, he seemed to think he +had discharged his duty as host, and as Mark had left he began to grow +fidgety, for a _tête-à-tête_ with Helen was not what he desired. He had +said to her all he could think to say, for it never once occurred to him +to inquire after the deacon's family. He had asked for Dr. Grant, but +his solicitude went no further, and the inmates of the farmhouse might +have been dead and buried for aught he knew to the contrary. The +omission was not made purposely, but because he really did not feel +enough of interest in people so widely different from himself even to +ask for them, much less to suspect how Helen's blood boiled as she +detected the omission and imputed it to intended slight, feeling so glad +when he at last excused himself, saying he must go back to Katy, but +would send his mother down to see her. His mother. Then she was there, +the one whom Helen dreaded most of all, whom she had invested with every +possible terror, hoping now that she would not be in haste to come down. +She might have spared herself anxiety on this point, as the lady in +question was not anxious to meet a person who, could she have had her +way, would not have been there at all. + +From the first moment of consciousness after the long hours of +suffering, Katy had asked for Helen, rather than her mother, feeling +that the former would be more welcome, and could more easily conform +to their customs. + +"Send for Helen; I am so tired, and she could always rest me," was her +reply, when asked by Wilford what he could do for her. "Send for Helen; +I want her so much," she had said to Mrs. Cameron, when she came, +repeating the wish until a consultation was held between the mother and +son, touching the propriety of sending for Helen. "She would be of no +use whatever, and might excite our Katy. Quiet is highly important just +now," Mrs. Cameron had said, thus veiling under pretended concern for +Katy her aversion to the girl whose independence in declining her +dressmaker had never been forgiven, and whom she had set down in her +mind as rude and ignorant. + +She was well suited with Katy now, petting and caressing and talking +constantly of her; but it did not follow that she must like the sister, +too, and so she checked the impulse which would have prompted Wilford to +send for her as Katy so much desired. + +"If her coming would do Katy harm she ought not to come," and so +Wilford's conscience was partially quieted, white Katy in her darkened +room moaned on. + +"Send for Sister Helen, please send for Sister Helen." + +At last on the fourth day came Mrs. Banker, Mark Ray's mother, to the +house, and in consideration of the strong liking she had evinced for +Katy ever since her arrival in New York, and the great respect felt for +her by Mrs. Cameron, she was admitted to the chamber and heard the +plaintive pleadings: "Send for Sister Helen," until her motherly heart +was touched, and as she sat with her son at dinner she spoke of the +young girl-mother moaning so for Helen. + +Whether it was Mark's great pity for Katy, or whether he was prompted +by some more selfish motive, we do not profess to say, but that he was +greatly excited was very evident from his manner, as he exclaimed: + +"Why not send for Helen, then? She is a splendid girl, and they idolize +each other. Talk of her injuring Katy, that's all a humbug. She is just +fitted for a nurse. Almost the sight of her would cure one of +nervousness, she is so calm and quiet." + +This was what Mark said, and again the next morning Mrs. Banker's +carriage stood at the door of No. ---- Madison Square, while Mrs. Banker +herself was talking to Wilford in the library, and urging that Helen be +sent for at once. + +"It may save her life. She is more feverish to-day than yesterday, and +this constant asking for her sister will wear her out so fast," she +added, and that last argument prevailed. + +Helen was sent for and now sat waiting in the parlor for the coming of +Mrs. Cameron. Wilford did not mean Katy to hear him as he whispered to +his mother that Helen was below; but she did, and her blue eyes flashed +brightly as she started from her pillow, exclaiming: + +"I am so glad, so glad. Kiss me, Wilford, because I am so glad. Does she +know? Have you told her? Wasn't she surprised, and will she come up +quick?" + +They could not quiet her at once, and only the assurance that unless she +were more composed Helen should not see her that night had any effect +upon her; but when they told her that, she lay back upon her pillow +submissively, and Wilford saw the great tears dropping from her hot +cheeks, while the pallid lips kept softly whispering "Helen." Then the +sister love took another channel, and she said: + +"She has not been to supper, and Phillips is always cross at extras. +Will somebody see to it? Send Esther to me, please. Esther knows and is +good-natured." + +"Mother will do all that is necessary. She is going down," Wilford said; +but Katy had quite as much fear of leaving Helen to "mother" as to +Phillips, and insisted upon Esther until the latter came, receiving +numerous injunctions as to the jam, the sweetmeats, the peaches and the +cold ham Helen must have, each one being remembered as her favorite. + +Wholly unselfish, Katy thought nothing of herself or the effort it cost +her thus to care for Helen, but when it was over and Esther had gone, +she seemed so utterly exhausted that Mrs. Cameron did not leave her, but +stayed at her bedside, ministering to her until the extreme paleness was +gone, and her eyes were more natural. Meanwhile the supper, which as +Katy feared had made Phillips cross, had been arranged by Esther, who +conducted Helen to the dining-room, herself standing by and waiting upon +her because the one whose duty it was had gone out for the evening, and +Phillips had declined the "honor," as she styled it. + +There was a homesick feeling tugging at Helen's heart, while she tried +to eat, and only the certainty that Katy was not far away kept her tears +back. To her the very grandeur of the house made it desolate, and she +was so glad it was Katy who lived there and not herself as she went up +the soft carpeted stairway, which gave back no sound, and through the +marble hall to the parlor, where by the table on which her cloak and +furs were still lying, a lady stood, as dignified and unconscious as +if she had not been inspecting the self-same fur which Mark Ray had +observed, but not like him thinking it did not matter, for it did matter +very materially with her, and a smile of contempt had curled her lip as +she turned over the tippet which even Phillips would not have worn. + +"I wonder how long she means to stay, and if Wilford will have to take +her out," she was thinking, just as Helen appeared in the door and +advanced into the room. + +By herself, it was easy to slight Helen Lennox, but in her presence Mrs. +Cameron found it very hard to appear as cold and distant as she had +meant to do, for there was something about Helen which commanded her +respect, and she went forward to meet her, offering her hand, and +saying, cordially: + +"Miss Lennox, I presume--my daughter Katy's sister?" + +Helen had not expected this, and the warm flush which came to her cheeks +made her very handsome, as she returned Mrs. Cameron's greeting, and +then asked more particularly for Katy than she had yet done. For a while +they talked together, Mrs. Cameron noting carefully every item of +Helen's attire, as well as the purity of her language and her perfect +repose of manner after the first stiffness had passed away. + +"Naturally a lady as well as Katy; there must be good blood somewhere, +probably on the Lennox side," was Mrs. Cameron's private opinion, while +Helen, after a few moments, began to feel far more at ease with Mrs. +Cameron than she had done in the dining-room with Esther, waiting on +her, and the cross Phillips stalking once through the room for no +ostensible purpose except to get a sight of her. + +Helen wondered at herself as much as Mrs. Cameron wondered at her, +trying to decide whether it were ignorance, conceit, obtuseness, or +what, which made her so self-possessed when she was expected to appear +so different. + +"Strong-minded," was her final decision, as she said at last: "We +promised Katy she should see you to-night. Will you go now?" + +Then the color left Helen's face and lips, and her limbs shook +perceptibly, for the knowing she was soon to meet her sister unnerved +her; but by the time the door of Katy's room was reached she was herself +again, and there was no need for Mrs. Cameron to whisper: "Pray do not +excite her." + +Katy heard her coming, and it required all Wilford's and the nurse's +efforts to keep her quiet, so great was her joy. + +"Helen, Helen, darling, darling sister," she cried, as she wound her +arms around Helen's neck, and laid her golden head on Helen's bosom, +sobbing in a low, mournful way which told Helen more how much she was +beloved and had been longed for than did the weak, childish voice which +whispered: "I've wanted you so much, oh, Helen; you don't know how much +I've missed you all the years I've been away. You will not leave me +now," and Katy clung closer to the dear sister who gently unclasped the +clinging arms and put back upon the pillow the quivering face, which she +kissed so tenderly, whispering in her own old half-soothing, +half-commanding way: "Be quiet now, Katy. It's best that you should. +No, I will not leave you." + +Next to Dr. Grant, Helen had more influence over Katy than any living +being, and it was very apparent now, for as if her presence had a power +to soothe, Katy grew very quiet, and utterly wearied out, slept for a +few moments with Helen's hand fast locked in hers. When she awoke the +tired look was gone, and turning to her sister, she said: "Have you seen +my baby?" while the young mother love which broke so beautifully over +her pale face, made it the face of an angel. + +"It seems so funny that it is Katy's baby," Helen said, taking the puny +little thing, which with its wrinkled face and red, clinched fists was +not very attractive to her, save as she looked at it with Katy's eyes. + +She did not even kiss it, but her tears dropped upon its head as she +thought how short the time since up in the old garret at home she had +dressed rag dolls for the Katy who was now a mother. And still in a +measure she was the same, hugging Helen fondly when she said good-night, +and welcoming her so joyfully in the morning when she came again, +telling her how just the sight of her sitting there by baby's crib +did her so much good. + +"I shall get well so fast," she said; and she was right, for Helen was +worth far more to her than all the physician's powders, and Wilford, +when he saw how she improved, was glad that Helen came, even if she did +sometimes shock him with her independent ways, upsetting all his plans +and theories with regard to Katy, and meeting him on other grounds with +an opposition as puzzling as it was new to him. + +To Mrs. Cameron, Helen was also a study, she seemed to care so little +for what others might think of her, evincing no hesitation, no timidity, +when told one day, the second day after her arrival, that Mrs. Banker +was in the parlor and had asked to see Miss Lennox. Mrs. Cameron did not +suspect how under that calm, unmoved exterior, Helen was hiding a heart +which beat most painfully as she went down to meet the mother of Mark +Ray, going first to her own room to make some little change in her +toilet, and wishing that her dress was more like the dress of those +around her--like Mrs. Cameron's, or even Esther's and the fashionable +nurse's. One glance she gave to the brown silk, Wilford's gift, but her +good sense told her that the plain merino she wore was far more suitable +to the sickroom, where she spent her time, and so with a fresh collar +and cuffs, and another brush of her rich hair, she went to Mrs. Banker, +forgetting herself in her pleasure at finding in the stranger a lady so +wholly congenial and familiar, whose mild, dark eyes, so like Mark +Ray's, rested so kindly on her, and whose pleasant voice had something +motherly in its tone, putting her wholly at her ease, and making her +appear at her very best. + +Mrs. Banker was pleased with Helen, while she felt a kind of pity for +the young girl thrown so suddenly among strangers, without even her +sister to aid and assist her. + +"Have you been out at all?" she asked, and upon Helen's replying that +she had not, she answered: "That is not right. Accustomed to the fresh +country air, you will suffer from too close confinement. Suppose you +ride with me. My carriage is at the door, and I have a few hours' +leisure. Tell your sister I insist," she continued, as Helen hesitated +between inclination and what she fancied was her duty. + +To see New York with Mrs. Banker was a treat indeed, and Helen's heart +bounded high as she ran up to Katy's room with the request. + +"Yes, by all means," Katy said. "It is so kind in Mrs. Banker, and so +like her, too. I meant that Wilford should have driven with you to-day, +and spoke to him about it, but Mrs. Banker will do better. Tell her I +thank her so much for her thoughtfulness," and with a kiss Katy sent +Helen away, while Mrs. Cameron, after twisting her rings nervously for +a moment, said to Katy: + +"Perhaps your sister would do well to wear your furs. Hers are small and +common fitch." + +"Yes, certainly. Take them to her," Katy answered, knowing intuitively +the feeling which had prompted this suggestion from her mother-in-law, +who hastened to Helen's room with the rich sable she was to wear in +place of the old fitch. + +Helen appreciated the difference at once between her furs and Katy's, +and felt a pang of mortification as she saw how old and poor and dowdy +hers were beside the others. But they were her own; the best she could +afford. She would not begin by borrowing, and so she declined the offer, +and greatly to Mrs. Cameron's horror went down to Mrs. Banker clad in +the despised furs, which Mrs. Cameron would on no account have had +beside her on Broadway in an open carriage. Mrs. Banker noticed them, +too, but the eager, happy face, which grew each moment brighter as they +drove down the street, more than made amends; and in watching that and +pointing out the places which they passed, Mrs. Banker forgot the furs +and the coarse straw hat whose strings of black had undeniably been +dyed. Never in her life had Helen enjoyed a ride as she did that +pleasant winter day, when her kind friend took her wherever she wished +to go, showing her Broadway in its glory from Union Square to Wall +Street, where they encountered Mark in a bustling crowd. He saw them, +too, and beckoned to them, while Helen's face grew red as, lifting his +hat to her, he came up to the carriage, and at his mother's suggestion +took a seat just opposite, asking where they had been and jocosely +laughing at his mother's taste in selecting such localities as the +Bowery, the Tombs and Barnum's Museum, when there were so many finer +places to be seen. + +Helen felt the hot blood pricking the roots of her hair, for the Bowery, +the Tombs and Barnum's Museum had been her choice as the points of which +she had heard the most. So when Mark continued: + +"You shall ride with me, Miss Lennox, and I will show you something +worth your seeing," she frankly answered: + +"Your mother is not in fault, Mr. Ray. She asked me where I wished to +go, and I mentioned these places; so please attribute it wholly to my +country breeding, and not to your mother's lack of taste." + +There was something in the frank speech which won Mrs. Banker's heart, +while she felt an increased respect for the young girl, who, she saw, +was keenly sensitive, even with all her strength of character. + +"You were quite right to commence as you have," she said, "for now you +have a still greater treat in store, and Mark shall drive you to the +park some day. I know you will like that." + +Helen felt that she should like anything with that friendly voice to +reassure her, and leaning back she was thinking how pleasant it was to +be in New York, how different from what she had expected, when a bow +from Mark made her look up in time to see that they were meeting a +carriage, in which sat Wilford, and with two gayly-dressed ladies, both +of whom gave her a supercilious stare as they passed by, while the +younger of the two half turned her head, as if for a more prolonged +gaze. + +"Mrs. Grandon and Juno Cameron," Mrs. Banker said, making some further +remark to her son; while Helen felt that the brightness of the day +changed, for she could not be unconscious of the look with which she had +been regarded by these two fashionable ladies, and again her furs came +up before her, bringing a feeling of which she was ashamed, especially +as she had fancied herself above all weakness of the kind. + +But Helen was a woman, with a woman's nature, and so that ride was not +without its annoyance, though her face was very bright as she bade Mrs. +Banker and Mark good-by, and then ran up the steps to Katy's home. That +night at the dinner, from which Mrs. Cameron was absent, Wilford was +unusually gracious, asking "had she enjoyed her ride, and if she did +not find Mrs. Banker a very pleasant acquaintance." + +The fact was, Wilford felt a little uncomfortable himself for having +suffered a stranger to do for Katy's sister what devolved upon himself. +Katy had asked him to drive with Helen; but he had found it very +convenient to forget it, and take a seat instead with Juno and Mrs. +Grandon, the latter of whom complimented "Miss Lennox's fine +intellectual face," after they had passed, and complimented it the more +as she saw how it vexed Juno, who could see nothing "in those bold eyes +and that masculine forehead," just because their _vis-à-vis_ chanced to +be Mark Ray's. Juno was not pleased with Helen's first appearance in the +street, but nevertheless she called upon her next day, with Sybil +Grandon and her sister, Bell. To this she was urged by Sybil, who, +having a somewhat larger experience of human nature, foresaw that Helen +would be popular just because Mrs. Banker had thus early taken her up, +and who, besides, had conceived a capricious fancy to patronize Miss +Lennox. But in this she was foiled, for Helen was not to be patronized, +and she received her visitors with that calm, assured manner so much a +part of herself. + +"Diamond cut diamond," Bell thought, as she saw how frigidly polite +both Juno and Helen were, each recognizing in the other something +antagonistic, which could never harmonize. + +Had Juno never cared for Dr. Grant, or suspected Helen of standing +between herself and him, and had Mark Ray never stopped at Silverton, or +been seen on Broadway with her, she might have judged her differently, +for there was something attractive in Helen's face and appearance as +she sat talking to her guests, not awkwardly nor timidly, but with as +much quiet dignity as if she had never mended Uncle Ephraim's socks, or +made a pound of butter among the huckleberry hills. Bell was delighted, +detecting at once traces of the rare mind which Helen Lennox possessed, +and wondering to find it so. + +"I hope we shall see each other often," she said, at parting. "I do not +go out a great deal myself--that is, not as much as Juno--but I shall be +always glad to welcome you to my den. You may find something there to +interest you." + +This was Bell's leave-taking, while Sybil's was, if possible, even more +friendly, for aside from really fancying Helen, she took a perverse kind +of pleasure in annoying Juno, who wondered "what she or Bell could see +to like in that awkward country girl, whom she knew had on one of Katy's +cast-off collars, and her wardrobe was the most ordinary she ever saw; +fitch furs, think of that!" and Juno gave a little pull at the +fastenings of her rich ermine collar, showing so well over her velvet +basquine. + +"Fitch furs or not, they rode with Mark Ray on Broadway," Bell retorted, +with a wicked look in her eyes, which aroused Juno to a still higher +pitch of anger, so that by the time the carriage stopped at No. ----, +the young lady was in a most unamiable frame of mind as regarded both +Helen Lennox and the offending Mark. + +That evening there was at Mrs. Reynolds' a little company of thirty +or more, and as Mark was present, Juno seized the opportunity for +ascertaining, if possible, his real opinion of Helen Lennox, joking him +first about his having taken her to ride so soon, and insinuating that +he must have a penchant for every new and pretty face. + +"Then you think her pretty? You have called on her?" Mark replied, his +manner evincing so much pleasure that Juno bit her lip to keep down her +wrath, and flashing upon him her scornful eyes, replied: "Yes, Sybil and +Bell insisted that I should. Of myself I would never have done it, for I +have now more acquaintances than I can attend to, and do not care to +increase the list. Besides that, I do not imagine that Miss Lennox can +in any way add to my happiness, brought up as she has been among the +woods and hills, you know." + +"Yes, I have been there--to her home, I mean," Mark rejoined, and Juno +continued: + +"Only for a moment, though. You should have stayed, like Will, to +appreciate it fully. I wish you could hear him describe the feather beds +in which he slept--that is, describe them before he decided to take +Katy; for after that he was chary of his remarks, and the feathers by +some marvelous process were changed into hair, for what he knew or +cared." + +Mark hesitated a moment, and then said, quietly: + +"I have stayed there all night, and have tested that feather bed, but +found nothing disparaging to Helen, who was as much a lady in the +farmhouse as here in the city." + +There was a look of withering scorn on Juno's face as she replied: + +"As much a lady as here! That may very well be; but, pray, how long +since you took to visiting Silverton so frequently--becoming so familiar +as to spend the night?" + +There was no mistaking the jealousy which betrayed itself into every +tone of Juno's voice as she stood before Mark a fit picture of the +enraged goddess whose name she bore. Soon recollecting herself, however, +she changed her mode of attack, and said, laughingly: + +"Seriously, though, this Miss Lennox seems a very nice girl, and is +admirably fitted, I think, for the position she is to fill--that of a +country physician's wife," and in the black eyes there was a wicked +sparkle as Juno saw that her meaning was readily understood, Mark +looking quickly at her and asking if she referred to Dr. Grant. + +"Certainly; I imagine that was settled as long ago as we met him in +Paris. Once I thought it might have been our Katy, but was mistaken. I +think the doctor and Miss Lennox well adapted to each other--it is an +excellent match." + +There was for a moment a dull, heavy pain at Mark's heart, caused by +that little item of information which made him so uncomfortable. On the +whole he did not doubt it, for everything he could recall of Morris had +a tendency to strengthen the belief. Nothing could he more probable, +thrown together as they had been, without other congenial society, and +nothing could be more suitable. + +"They are well matched," Mark thought, as he walked listlessly through +Mrs. Reynolds' parlors, seeing only one face, and that the face of Helen +Lennox, with the lily in her hair, just as it looked when she had tied +the apron about his neck and laughed at his appearance. + +Helen was not the ideal which in his boyhood Mark had cherished of the +one who was to be his wife, for that was of a more brilliant, beautiful +woman, a woman more like Juno, with whom he had always been on the best +of terms, giving her some reason, it is true, for believing herself the +favored one; but ideals change as years go on, and Helen Lennox had more +attractions for him now than the most dashing belle of his acquaintance. + +"I do not believe I am in love with her," he said to himself that night, +when, after his return from Mrs. Reynolds' he sat for a long time before +the fire in his dressing-room, cogitating upon what he had heard, and +wondering why it should affect him so much. "Of course I am not," he +continued, feeling the necessity of reiterating the assertion by way of +making himself believe it. "She is not at all what I used to imagine the +future Mrs. Mark Ray to be. Half my friends would say she had no style, +no beauty, and perhaps she has not. Certainly she does not look just +like the ladies at Mrs. Reynolds' to-night, but give her the same +advantages and she would surpass them all." + +And then Mark Ray went off into a reverie, in which he saw Helen Lennox +his wife, and with the aids by which he would surround her rapidly +developing into as splendid a woman as little Katy Cameron, who did not +need to be developed, but took all hearts at once by that natural, +witching grace so much a part of herself. It was a very pleasant picture +which Mark painted upon the mental canvas; but there came a great blur +blotting out its brightness as he remembered Dr. Grant, and felt that +Linwood was one day to be Helen's home. + +"But it shall not interfere with my being just as kind to her as before. +She will need some attendant here, and Wilford, I know, will be glad to +shove her off his hands. He is so infernal proud," Mark said, and taking +a fresh cigar he finished his reverie with the magnanimous resolve that +were Helen a hundred times engaged she should be his especial care +during her sojourn in New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +HELEN IN SOCIETY. + + +It was three days before Christmas, and Katy was talking confidentially +to Mrs. Banker, whom she had asked to see the next time she should call. + +"I want so much to surprise her," she said, speaking in a whisper, "and +you have been so kind to us both that I thought it might not trouble you +very much if I asked you to make the selection for me, and see to the +engraving. Wilford gave me fifty dollars, all I needed, as I had fifty +more of my own, and now that I have a baby, I am sure I shall never +again care to go out. My darling baby, how small the whole world seems +to me now when compared with her," and the little mother glanced +lovingly at the crib where slept the baby, worth more than all the +world. + +"Yes," Mrs. Banker said, thoughtfully, as she rolled up the bills, +"you wish me to get as heavy bracelets as I can find--for the hundred +dollars." + +"Yes," Katy replied, "I think that will please her, don't you?" + +Mrs. Banker knew Katy's fondness for jewelry, and knowing, too, that her +girlhood was spent in comparative poverty, she could readily understand +how she would gratify her taste when circumstances were favorable; but +Helen was different, and she felt certain that the hundred dollars could +be spent to better advantage and in a manner more satisfactory to her. +Still she hardly liked to interfere until Katy, observing her hesitancy, +asked again if she did not think Helen would be pleased. + +"Yes, pleased with anything you choose to give her, but--excuse me, dear +Mrs. Cameron, if I speak as openly as if I were the mother of you both. +Bracelets are suitable for you who can have everything else, but is +there not something your sister needs more, something which will do more +good? Now, allowing me to suggest, I should say, buy her some furs, and +let the bracelets go. In Silverton her furs were well enough, but here, +as the sister of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, she is deserving of better." + +It was the first time that Katy had thought that in New York her sister +might need more than at home. Seeing her only in the dim sickroom, the +contrast between Helen and her and her husband's sisters had not struck +her, or if it had, she gave the preference to Helen in her dark merino +and linen collar, rather than to Juno in her silks and velvet; but she +understood Mrs. Banker at once, her cheeks reddening as there flashed +upon her the reason why Wilford had never yet been in the street with +Helen, notwithstanding that she had more than once requested it. + +"You are right," she said. "It was thoughtless in me not to think of +this myself. Helen shall have the furs, and whatever else is necessary. +I am so glad you reminded me of it. You are kind as my own mother," and +Katy kissed her friend fondly as she bade her good-by, charging her a +dozen times not to let Helen know the surprise in store for her. + +There was little need of this caution, for Mrs. Banker understood human +nature too well to divulge a matter which might wound one as sensitive +as Helen. Between the latter and herself there was a strong bond of +friendship, and to the kind patronage of this lady Helen owed most of +the attentions she had as yet received from her sister's friends; while +Mark Ray did much toward lifting her to the place she held in spite of +the common country dress, which Juno unsparingly criticised, and which, +in fact, kept Wilford from taking her out, as his wife so often asked +him to do. And Helen, too, keenly felt the difference between herself +and those with whom she came in contact, crying over it more than once, +but never dreaming of the surprise in store for her, when on Christmas +morning she went as usual to Katy's room, finding her alone, her face +all aglow with excitement, and her bed a perfect showcase of dry goods, +which she bade Helen examine and say how she liked them. + +Wilford was no niggard with his money, and when Katy had asked for more, +it had been given unsparingly, even though he knew the purpose to which +it was to be applied. + +"Oh, Katy, Katy, why did you do it?" Helen cried, her tears falling +like rain through the fingers she clasped over her eyes. + +"You are not angry?" Katy said, in some dismay, as Helen continued to +sob without looking at the handsome furs, the stylish hat, the pretty +cloak, and rich patterns of blue and black silk, which Mrs. Banker had +selected. + +"No, oh, no!" Helen replied. "I know it was all meant well; but there is +something in me which rebels against taking this from Wilford. He had +better have sent to Silverton for that trunk. Its contents have never +been disturbed, and surely there might be something found good enough +for me." + +It was the first time Helen had alluded to that trunk; but Katy did not +think that anything ill-natured was meant by the remark. She only felt +that Helen shrank from receiving so much from Wilford, as it was natural +she should, and she hastened to reassure her, using all her powers to +comfort her until she at last grew calm enough to examine and admire the +Christmas gifts upon which no expense had been spared. Much as we may +ignore dress, and sinful as is an inordinate love for it, there is yet +about it an influence for good, when the heart of the wearer is right, +holding it subservient to all higher, holier affections. At least Helen +Lennox found it so, when, clad in her new garments, which added so much +to her good looks, she drove with Mrs. Banker, or returned Sybil +Grandon's call, feeling that there was about her nothing for which Katy +need to blush, or even Wilford, who blandly invited her one pleasant day +to drive with him to the Park, seeming so disappointed when told that he +had been forestalled by Mr. Ray, whose fine turnout attracted less +attention that afternoon than did the handsome lady at his side, Helen +Lennox, who bade fair to rival even her Sister Katy tarrying at home, +and listening with delight to the flattering things which Wilford +reported as having been said of Helen by those for whose opinion he +cared the most. He was not afraid to be seen with her now, and Helen, +while knowing the reason of the change, did not feel like quarreling +with him for it, but accepted with a good-natured grace of what made her +life in New York very happy. With Bell Cameron she was on the best of +terms; while Sybil Grandon, always going with the tide, professed for +her an admiration, which, whether fancied or real, did much toward +making her popular; and when, as the mistress of her brother's house, +she issued cards of invitation for a large party, she took especial +pains to insist upon Helen's attending, even if Katy were not able. But +from this Helen shrank. She could not meet so many strangers alone, she +said, and so the matter was dropped, until Mrs. Banker offered to +chaperone her, when Helen began to waver, changing her mind at last +and promising to go. + +Never since the days of her first party had Katy been so wild with +excitement as she was in deciding upon Helen's dress, which well became +the wearer, who scarcely knew herself when, before the mirror, with the +blaze of the chandelier falling upon her, she saw the picture of a young +girl arrayed in rich pink silk, with an overskirt of lace, and the light +pretty cloak, just thrown upon her uncovered neck, where Katy's pearls +were shining. Even Wilford was pleased, and stood by admiring her almost +as much as Katy. + +"What would they say at home if they could only see you?" Katy +exclaimed, throwing back the handsome cloak so as to show more of the +well-shaped neck, gleaming so white beneath it. + +"Aunt Betsy would say I had forgotten half my dress," Helen replied, +blushing as she glanced at the uncovered arms, which never since her +childhood had been thus exposed to view, except at such times as her +household duties had required it. + +Even this exception would not apply to the low neck, at which Helen long +demurred, yielding finally to Katy's entreaties, but often wondering +what Mark Ray would think, and if he would not be shocked. Mark Ray had +been strangely blended with all Helen's thoughts as she submitted +herself to Esther's practiced hands, and when the hairdresser, summoned +to her aid, asked what flowers she would wear, it was a thought of him +which led her to select a single water lily, which looked as natural as +if its bed had really been the bosom of Fairy Pond. + +"Nothing else? Surely mademoiselle will have these few green leaves?" +Celine had said, but Helen would have nothing save the lily, which was +twined tastefully amid the heavy braids of the brown hair, whose length +and luxuriance had thrown the hairdresser into ecstasies of delight, +and made Esther lament that in these days of false tresses no one would +give Miss Lennox credit for what was wholly her own. + +"You will be the belle of the evening," Katy said, as she kissed her +sister good-night and then ran back to her baby, while Wilford, yielding +to her importunities that he should not remain with her, followed Mrs. +Banker's carriage in his own private conveyance, and was soon set down +at Sybil Grandon's door. + +Meanwhile, at the elder Cameron's there had been a discussion touching +the propriety of their taking Helen under their protection, instead of +leaving her to Mrs. Banker to chaperone, Bell insisting that it ought to +be done, while the father swore roundly at the imperious Juno, who would +not "be bothered with that country girl." + +"You would rather leave her wholly to Mark Ray and his mother, I +suppose," Bell said, adding, as she saw the flush on Juno's face. "You +know you are dying of jealousy, and nothing annoys you so much as to +hear people talk of Mark's attentions to Miss Lennox." + +"Do they talk?" Mrs. Cameron asked quickly, while in her gray eyes there +gleamed a light far more dangerous and threatening to Helen than Juno's +open scorn. + +Mrs. Cameron had long intended Mark Ray for her daughter, and accustomed +to see everything bend to her wishes, she had come to consider the +matter as almost certain, even though he had never proposed in words. He +had done everything else, she thought, attending Juno constantly and +frequenting their house so much that it was a standing joke for his +friends to seek him there when he was not at home or at his office. +Latterly, however, there had been a change, and the ambitious mother +could not deny that since Helen's arrival in New York Mark had visited +them less frequently and stayed a shorter time, while she had more than +once heard of him at her son's in company with Helen. Very rapidly a +train of thought passed through her mind; but it did not manifest itself +upon her face, which was composed and quiet as she decided with Juno +that Helen should not trouble them. With the utmost care Juno arrayed +herself for the party, thinking with a great deal of complacency how +impossible it was for Helen Lennox to compete with her in point of +dress. + +"She is such a prude, I daresay she will go in that blue silk with the +long sleeves and high neck, looking like a Dutch doll," she said to +Bell, as she shook back the folds of her rich crimson, and turned her +head to see the effect of her wide braids of hair. + +"I am not certain that a high dress is worse than bones," Bell retorted, +playfully touching Juno's neck, which, though white and gracefully +formed, was shockingly guiltless of flesh. + +There was an angry reply, and then wrapping her cloak about her Juno +followed to their carriage, and was ere long one of the gay crowd +thronging Sybil Grandon's parlors. Helen had not yet arrived, and Juno +was hoping she would not come, when there was a stir at the door and +Mrs. Banker, in her velvet and diamonds, appeared, and with her Helen +Lennox, but so transformed that Juno hardly knew her, looking twice ere +she was sure that the beautiful young lady, so wholly self-possessed, +was indeed the country girl she affected to despise. + +"Who is she?" was asked by many, who at once acknowledged her claims to +their attention, and as soon as practicable sought her acquaintance, so +that Helen suddenly found herself the center of a little court of which +she was the queen and Mark her sworn knight. + +Presuming upon his mother's chaperonage, he claimed the right of +attending her, and Juno's glory waned quite as effectually as it had +done when Katy was the leading star to which New York paid homage. + +Juno had been annoyed then, but now fierce jealousy took possession +of her heart as she watched the girl whom all seemed to admire, even +Wilford feeling a thrill of pride that the possession of so attractive +a sister-in-law reflected credit upon himself. + +He was not ashamed of her now, nor did he retain a single thought of the +farmhouse or Uncle Ephraim as he made his way to her side, standing +protectingly at her left, just as Mark was standing at her right, and +at last asking her to dance. + +With a heightened color Helen declined, saying frankly: + +"I have never learned." + +"You miss a great deal," Wilford rejoined, appealing to Mark for a +confirmation of his words. + +But Mark did not heartily respond. He, too, had solicited Helen as a +partner when the dancing first commenced, and her quiet refusal had +disappointed him a little, for Mark was fond of dancing, and though +as a general thing he disapproved of waltzes and polkas when he was the +looker-on, he felt that there would be something vastly agreeable and +exhilarating in clasping Helen in his arm and whirling her about the +room just as Juno was being whirled by a young cadet, a friend of +Lieutenant Bob's. But when he reflected that not his arm alone would +encircle her waist, or his breath touch her snowy neck, he was glad she +did not dance, and professing a weariness he did not feel, he declined +to join the dancers on the floor, but kept with Helen, enjoying what she +enjoyed, and putting her so perfectly at her ease that no one would ever +have dreamed of the curdy cheeses she had made, or the pounds of butter +she had churned. But Mark thought of it as he secretly admired the neck +and arms seen once before on that memorable day when he assisted Helen +in the labors of the dairy. If nothing else had done so, the lily in +her hair would have brought that morning to his mind, and once as they +walked up and down the hall he spoke of the ornament she had chosen, and +how well it became her. + +"Pond lilies are my pets," she said, "and I have kept one of those I +gathered last fall when at Silverton. Do you remember them?" and his +eyes rested upon Helen with a look that made her blush as she faintly +answered "yes"; but she did not tell him of a little box at home, a box +made of cones and acorns, and where was hidden a withered water lily, +which she could not throw away, even after its beauty and fragrance had +departed. + +Had she told him this it might have put to flight the doubts troubling +Mark so much, and making him wonder if Dr. Grant had really a claim upon +the girl stealing his heart so fast. + +"I mean to sound her," he thought, and as just then Lieutenant Bob +passed by, making some jocose remark about his offending all the fair +ones by the course he was taking, Mark said to Helen, who suggested +returning to the parlor: + +"As you like, though it cannot matter; a person known to be engaged is +above Bob Reynolds' jokes." + +Quick as thought the hot blood stained Helen's face and neck, for Mark +had made a most egregious blunder, giving her only the impression that +he was the engaged one referred to, not herself, and for a moment she +forgot the gay scene around her in the sharpness of the pang with which +she recognized all that Mark Ray was to her. + +"It was kind in him to warn me. I wish it had been sooner," she thought, +and then with a bitter feeling of shame she wondered how much he had +guessed of her real feelings, and who the betrothed one was. "Not Juno +Cameron," she hoped, as after a few moments Mrs. Cameron came up, and +adroitly detaching Mark from her side, took his place while he sauntered +to a group of ladies and was ere long dancing merrily with Juno, whose +crimson robe once brushed against Helen's pink, and whose black eyes +looked exultingly into Helen's face. + +"They are a well-matched pair," Mrs. Cameron said, assuming a very +confidential manner toward Helen, who assented to the remark, while the +lady continued: "There is but one thing wrong about Mark Ray. He is a +most unscrupulous flirt, pleased with every new face, and this of course +annoys Juno." + +"Are they engaged?" came faintly and involuntarily from Helen's lips, +while Mrs. Cameron's foot beat the carpet with a very becoming +hesitancy, as she replied: "Oh, that was settled in our family a long +time ago. Wilford and Mark have always been like brothers." + +If Helen had been on the watch for equivocations she would not have +placed as much stress as she did on Mrs. Cameron's words, for that lady +did not say positively "They are engaged." She could not quite bring +herself to a deliberate falsehood, which, if detected, would reflect +upon her character as a lady, but she could mislead Helen, and she did +so effectually, as was evinced by the red spot which burned on her +cheeks, and by her uncertain way of replying to a gentleman who stood by +her for a moment, addressing to her some casual remark and departing +with the impression that Miss Lennox was very timid and shy. After he +was gone, Mrs. Cameron continued, "It is not like us to bruit our +affairs abroad, and were my daughter ten times engaged, the world would +be none the wiser. I doubt if even Katy suspects what I have admitted; +but knowing how fascinating Mark can be, and that just at present he +seems to be pleased with you, I have acted as I should wish a friend to +act toward my own child. Were it not that you are one of our family, I +might not have interfered, and I trust you not to repeat even to Katy +what I have said." + +Helen nodded assent, while in her heart was a wild tumult of +feelings--flattered pride, disappointment, indignation and mortification +all struggling for the mastery---mortification to feel that she who had +quietly ignored such a passion as love when connected with herself, had, +nevertheless, been pleased with the attentions of one who was only +amusing himself with her, as a child amuses itself with some new toy +soon to be thrown aside--indignation at him for vexing Juno at her +expense--disappointment that he should care for such as Juno, and +flattered pride that Mrs. Cameron should include her in "our family." +Helen had as few weak points as most young ladies, but she was not free +from them all, and the fact that Mrs. Cameron had taken her into a +confidence which even Katy did not share, was soothing to her ruffled +spirits, particularly as after that confidence Mrs. Cameron was +excessively gracious to her, introducing her to many whom she did not +know before, and paying her numberless little attentions, which made +Juno stare, while the clearer-seeing Bell arched her eyebrows, and +wondered for what Helen was to be made a catspaw by her clever mother. +Whatever it was, it did not appear, save as it showed itself in Helen's +slightly changed demeanor when Mark again sought her society, and tried +to bring back to her face the look he had left there. But something +evidently had come between them, and the young man racked his brain to +find the cause of this sudden indifference in one who had been pleased +with him only a short half hour before. + +"It's that confounded waltzing which disgusted her," he said, "and no +wonder, for if ever a man looks like an idiot, it is when he is kicking +up his heels to the sound of a viol, and wheeling around some woman +whose skirts sweep everything within the circle of a rod, and whose face +wears that die-away expression I have so often noticed. I've half a mind +to swear I'll never dance again." + +But Mark was too fond of dancing to quit it at once, and finding Helen +still indifferent, he yielded to circumstances, and the last she saw of +him, as at a comparatively early hour she left the gay scene, he was +dancing again with Juno, whose face beamed with a triumphant look, as if +she in some way guessed the aching heart her rival carried home. It was +a heavy blow to Helen, for she had become greatly interested in Mark +Ray, whose attentions had made her stay in New York so pleasant. But +these were over now--at least the excitement they brought was over, and +Helen, as she sat in her dressing-room at home, and thought of the +future as well as the past, felt stealing over her a sense of desolation +and loneliness such as she had experienced but once before, and that on +the night when leaning from her window at the farmhouse where Mark Ray +was stopping she had shuddered and shrank from living all her days among +the rugged hills of Silverton. New York had opened an entirely new world +to her, showing her much that was vain and frivolous, with much too, +that was desirable and good; and if there had crept into her heart the +vague thought that a life with such people as Mrs. Banker and those who +frequented her house would be preferable to a life in Silverton, where +only Morris understood her, it was but the natural result of daily +intercourse with one who had studied to please and interest as Mark Ray +had done. But Helen had too much good sense and strength of will long to +indulge in what she would have called "love-sick regrets" in others, and +she began to devise the best course for her to adopt hereafter, +concluding finally to treat him much as she had done, lest he should +suspect how deeply she had been wounded. Now that she knew of his +engagement, it would be an easy matter, she thought, so to demean +herself as neither to annoy Juno nor really to vex him. Thoroughly now +she understood why Juno Cameron had seemed to dislike her so much. + +"It is natural," she said, "and yet I honestly believe I like her better +for knowing what I do. There must be some good beneath that proud +exterior, or Mark would never seek her." + +Still, look at it from any point she chose, it seemed a strange, +unsuitable match, and Helen's heart ached sadly as she finally retired +to rest, thinking what might have been had Juno Cameron found some other +lover more like her than Mark could ever be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +GENEVRA. + + +Far more elated with her sister's success than Helen herself, Katy could +talk of little else next morning, telling Helen how many complimentary +things Wilford had said of her, and how much he had heard others say, +while Mark Ray had seemed perfectly fascinated. + +"I never thought till last night how nice it would be for you to marry +Mark and settle in New York," Katy said, never dreaming how she was +wounding Helen, who, but for Mrs. Cameron's charge, would have +proclaimed Mark's engagement with Juno. + +As it was, she felt the words struggling against her lips; but she +forced them back, and tried to laugh at Katy's castles in the air, as +she called them. + +"You looked beautiful, Wilford said," Katy continued, "and I am so glad, +only," and Katy's voice fell, while her eyes rested upon the crib where +the baby was sleeping, "only I think Wilford is more anxious than ever +for me to go again into society. He will not hear of my staying home for +the entire season, as I wish to do, for baby is better to me than all +the parties in the world. I am so tired of it all, and have been ever +since I was at Newport. I was so vain and silly there, and I have been +so sorry since. But that summer cured me entirely, and you don't know +how I loathe the very thought of entering society again. For your sake I +should be willing to go sometimes, if there were no one else. But Mrs. +Banker has kindly offered to take you under her charge, and so there is +no necessity for me to matronize you." + +Helen laughed merrily at the idea of being matronized by the little +girlish creature not yet twenty years of age, kissing fondly the white, +thin cheek so much whiter and thinner than it used to be. + +"You are confining yourself too much," she said. "You are losing all +your color. Fresh air will do you good, even if parties will not. +Suppose we drive this afternoon to Marian Hazelton's and show her the +baby." + +Nothing could please Katy better. Several times since baby's birth she +sent a message to Fourth Street, begging of Marian to come and see her +treasure, and once, urged by her entreaties, Wilford himself had written +a brief note asking that Miss Hazleton would call if perfectly +convenient. But there had always been some excuse, some plea of work, +some putting off the coming, until Katy feared that something might he +wrong, and entered heartily into Helen's propositions. It was a pleasant +winter's day, and toward the middle of the afternoon the Cameron +carriage stopped before the humble dwelling where Marian Hazleton was +living. + +"You needn't go up," Katy said to the nurse, feeling that she would +rather meet Marian without the presence of a stranger. "Miss Lennox will +carry baby and you can wait here. It is not cold," she added, as the +nurse showed signs of remonstrance, "and if it is, John can drive you +around a square or two." + +After this there was no further demur, and Katy soon stood with Helen at +the door of Marian's room. She was at home, uttering an exclamation of +astonishment when she saw who her visitors were, and turning white as +ashes, when Katy, taking her baby from Helen's arms, placed it in her +lap, saying, + +"You would not come to see it and so I brought it to you. Isn't she a +beauty?" + +There was a blur before Marian's eyes, a pressure about her heart which +seemed congealing into stone, but she tried to stammer out something, +bending over the tiny thing. Wilford Cameron's child, which she could +not see for the thick blackness around her. Tears and bitter pangs of +grief had the news of that child's birth wrung from Marian, bringing +back all the dreadful past, and making her hear again as if it were but +yesterday, the cold, decisive words: + +"If there were a child it would of course be different." + +There was a child now, and it lay in Marian's lap, clad in the garments +she had made, the cambric and the lace, the flannel and the merino, +which nevertheless could not take from it that look of sickly infancy, +or make it beautiful to others beside the mother. But it was Wilford's +child, and so when for a moment both Helen and Katy turned to examine a +rosebush just in bloom, Marian Hazleton hugged the little creature to +her bosom, whispering over it a blessing which, coming from one so +wronged, was doubly valuable. There was a tear, one of Marian's, on its +face, when Katy came back to it, and there were more in Marian's eyes, +falling like rain, as Katy asked, "What makes you cry?" + +"I was thinking of what might have been," came struggling from Marian's +pale lips, and Helen felt a throb of pain as she remembered Dr. Grant, +and then thought of herself in connection with this sad "Might have +been." + +Marian, too, knew the full meaning of those words, as was attested by +the gush of tears which dropped so fast on baby's face that Katy, +alarmed for the safety of the crimson cloak wrapped around it for +effect, took the child in her own arms, commencing that cooing +conversation which shows how much young mothers love their first born. +Marian's tears ceased at last, and after questioning Helen of Silverton +and its people, she turned abruptly to Katy, still rocking and talking +to her child, and asked: + +"What do you intend to call her?" + +"Genevra," Katy said, and simultaneously with that word Marian Hazleton +dropped without sound or motion to the floor. + +Had Helen and Katy been put upon their oath, both would have testified +that even before the answer came, Marian had fainted, just as she did +when Helen first went to secure her services for Katy's bridal wardrobe. +This time, however, there was no Dr. Grant at hand, and so the +frightened ladies did what they could, bathing her face and chafing +her cold hands until the life came slowly back, and with a frightened +expression Marian looked around her, asking what had happened? + +"Yes, I know now," she said, as baby's cry fell on her ear, but +restoring her wholly to herself. "Fainting is one of my weaknesses," +she continued, turning to Helen. "You have seen me so before. It is my +heart," and with this explanation she satisfied her visitors, though +Katy expressed much solicitude and proposed to send her medical aid. + +But Marian declined, and when it was time for Katy to go, she took the +child in her own arms again, and as if there was now a new link which +bound her to it, she kissed it many times, while in the eyes fastened so +lovingly, so wistfully upon its face, there was a strange, yearning look +which neither Helen nor Katy could fathom. Certain it is they had no +suspicion of the truth, and on their way home they spoke with much +concern of these fainting attacks, wondering if nothing could be done +to ward them off. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE NAME. + + +Wilford had wished for a son, and in the first moment of disappointment +he had almost been conscious of a half-resentful feeling toward Katy, +who had given him only a daughter. A boy, a Cameron heir, was something +of which to be proud, especially as Jamie would always remain a helpless +cripple; but a little girl, scarcely larger than the last doll with +which Katy had played, was a different thing, and it required all +Wilford's philosophy and common sense to keep him from showing his +chagrin to the girlish creature, whose love had fastened with an +idolatrous grasp upon her child, clinging to it with a devotion which +made Helen tremble as she thought what if God should take it from her. + +"He won't, oh, He won't," Katy had said, when once she suggested the +possibility, and in the eyes usually so soft and gentle there was a +fierce gleam, as Katy hugged her baby closer to her, and said: + +"God does not willfully torment us. He will not take my baby, when my +whole life would die with it. I had almost forgotten to pray, there was +so much else to do, till baby came, but now I never go to sleep at night +or waken in the morning, that there does not come a prayer of thanks +for baby given to me. I could hardly love God if He took her away." + +There was a chill feeling at Helen's heart as she listened to her sister +and then glanced at the baby so passionately loved. In time it would be +pretty, for it had Katy's perfect features, and the hair just beginning +to grow was a soft, golden brown; but it was too small now, too puny to +be handsome, while in its eyes there was a scared, hunted kind of look, +which chafed Wilford more than aught else could have done, for that was +the look which had crept into Katy's eyes at Newport when she found she +was not going home. Still it was a Cameron, of royal lineage, loved at +least by four, its mother, its grandfather, Helen and Jamie, while the +others looked forward to a time when they should be proud of it, even if +they were not so now. + +Many discussions had been held at the elder Cameron's concerning its +name, Mrs. Cameron deciding finally that it should bear her own, +Margaret Augusta, while Juno advocated that of Rose Marie, inasmuch as +their new clergyman would Frenchify the pronunciation so perfectly, +rolling the "_r_," and placing so much accent on the last syllable. At +this the Father Cameron swore as cussed nonsense--"better call it +Jemima, a grand sight, than saddle it with such a silly name as Rose +Mah-ree, with a roll to the 'r,'" and with another oath the disgusted +old man departed, while Bell suggested that Katy might wish to have a +voice in naming her own child. + +This was a possibility that had formed no part of Mrs. Cameron's +thoughts, or Juno's. Of course Katy would acquiesce in whatever Wilford +said was best, and he always thought as they did. Consequently there +would be no trouble whatever. It was time the child had a name--time it +wore the elegant christening robe, Mrs. Cameron's gift, which cost more +money than would have fed a hungry family for weeks. The matter must be +decided, and so with a view of deciding it a family dinner party was +held at No. ---- Fifth Avenue, the day succeeding the call on Marian +Hazleton. + +Very pure and beautiful Katy looked as she once more took her old place +in the chair they called hers at Father Cameron's, because it was the +one she had always preferred to any other--a large, motherly +easy-chair, which took in nearly the whole of her petite figure, and +against whose soft cushioned back she leaned her curly head with a +pretty air of importance, as after dinner was over, she came back to the +parlor with the other ladies, waiting for the gentlemen to join them, +when they were to talk up baby's name. + +Katy knew exactly what it would be called, but as Wilford had never +asked her, she was keeping it a secret, not doubting that the others +would be quite as much delighted as herself with the novel name, +"Genevra." Not long before her illness she had read an English story, +which had in it a Genevra, and she had at once seized upon it as the +most delightful cognomen a person could well possess. "Genevra Cameron!" +She had repeated it to herself many a time as she sat with her baby on +her lap. She had written it on sundry slips of paper, which had +afterward found their way into the grate; and once she had scratched +with her diamond ring upon the window pane in her dressing-room, where +it now stood in legible characters, "Genevra Cameron!" There should be +no middle name to take from the sweetness of the first--only +Genevra--that was sufficient; and the little lady tapped her foot +impatiently upon the carpet, wishing Wilford and father would hurry and +come in. + +Never for an instant had it entered her mind that she, as the mother, +would not be permitted to call her baby what she chose; so when she +heard Mrs. Cameron speaking to Helen of Margaret Augusta, she smiled +complacently, tossing her curls of golden brown, and thinking to +herself, "Maggie Cameron--pretty enough, but not like Genevra. Indeed +I shall not have any Margarets now; next time perhaps I may." + +Since the party at Mrs. Grandon's, Mrs. Cameron had been very kind and +gracious to Helen, while Juno, who understood that Helen believed her +engaged to Mark, treated her with far more attention than before, and +now both kept near to her, chatting familiarly, Mrs. Cameron about the +opera, and Juno the matinée, to which they were to take her, without +waiting for Katy. Helen's success at the party, together with Mrs. +Banker's and Sybil's evident determination to bring her forward, had +taught them that she could not well be longer ignored, and as Juno did +not greatly dread her as a rival now, she could afford to be gracious; +and she was, making herself so agreeable that Helen observed the change, +imputing it to the fact that Mark had probably returned to his +allegiance, and blaming herself for having unwittingly wounded Juno by +receiving his attentions. The belief that she was adding to another's +happiness made it easier to bear the pang, which would make itself felt +whenever she recalled the kindly manner, the handsome face, and more +than all the expressive eyes, which had looked whole volumes into hers; +and Helen quite enjoyed her first dinner party at the Camerons, though +she began to wish, with Katy, that the gentlemen would join them. + +They came at last, and Father Cameron drew his chair close to Katy's +side, laying his hand on her little soft, warm one, giving it a squeeze +as the bright face glanced lovingly into his. Father Cameron was a +milder, gentler man than he was before Katy came, going much oftener +into society, and not so frequently shocking his wife with expressions +and opinions which she held as heterodox. Katy had a softening influence +over him, and he loved her as well perhaps as he had ever loved his own +children. + +"Better," Juno said, and now she touched Bell's arm, to have her see +"how father was petting Katy." + +But Bell did not care, while Wilford was pleased, and drew himself +nearer the chair, standing just behind it, so that Katy could not see +him as he smoothed her curly head, and said, half indifferently, "Now +for the all-important name. What shall we call our daughter?" + +"Let your mother speak first," Katy said, and thus appealed to Mrs. +Cameron came up to Wilford and expressed her preference for Margaret, as +being a good name--an aristocratic name, and her own. + +"Yes, but not half so pretty and striking as Rose Marie," Juno chimed +in. + +"Rose Mary! Thunder!" Father Cameron exclaimed. "Call her a marygold, or +a sunflower, just as much. Don't go to being fools by giving a child a +heathenish name. Give us your opinion, Katy." + +"I have known from the first," Katy replied, "and I am sure you will +agree with me. Tis such a beautiful name of a sweet young girl, and +there was a great secret about her, too--Genevra, baby will be called," +and Katy looked straight into the fire, wholly unconscious of the effect +that name had produced upon two of her auditors, Wilford and his mother. + +They did not faint, like Marian, but Wilford's face was white as marble, +and his eyes turned quickly to his mother, who, in her first shock, +started so violently as to throw down from the stand a costly vase, +which was broken in many pieces. This occasioned a little diversion, and +by the time the flowers and fragments were gathered up, Wilford's lips +were not quite as livid, but he dared not trust his voice yet, and +listened while his sisters gave their opinion of the name. Bell deciding +for it at once, and Juno hesitating until she had heard from a higher +power than Katy. One there was in that family council who seized upon it +eagerly. Jamie had been brought into the parlor in his wheel-chair, and +sat leaning his cheek upon his hand when the name was spoken. Then, with +a sudden lighting up of his face, he exclaimed, "Genevra! I've heard it +before. Where was it, grandma? Didn't you talk of it once with--" + +"Hush-h, Jamie. Don't interrupt us now," Wilford said, in a voice so +much sterner than he was wont to use when addressing the little boy, +that Jamie shrank back abashed and frightened; while Mrs. Cameron, still +with her back to Katy, asked, what had put that fanciful name into her +mind? Where had she heard it? + +Katy explained, and, with the removal of the fear which for a few +moments had chilled his blood, Wilford grew calm again; while into his +heart there crept the thought that by giving that name to his child some +slight atonement might be made to the occupant of that grave in St. +Mary's churchyard--to her above whose head the English daisies had +blossomed and faded many a year. But not so with his mother--the child +should not be called Genevra if she could prevent it; and she opposed it +with all her powers, offering at last, as a great concession on her +part, to let it bear the name of any of Katy's family--Hannah and Betsy +mentally excepted, of course--Lucy Lennox, Helen Lennox, Katy Lennox, +anything but Genevra. As usual, Wilford when he had learned her mind, +joined with her, notwithstanding the secret preference, and the +discussion became quite warm, especially as Katy evinced a willfulness +for which Helen had never given her credit. Hitherto she had been as +yielding as wax, but on this point she was firm, gathering strength from +the fact that Wilford did not oppose her as he usually did. She could +not, perhaps, have resisted him, but his manner was not very decided, +and so she quietly persisted. "Genevra, or nothing," until the others +gave up the contest, hoping she would feel differently after a few days' +reflection. But Katy knew she shouldn't; and Helen could not overcome +the exultation with which she saw her little sister put the Camerons to +rout and remain master of the field. + +"After all it does not matter," Mrs. Cameron said to her daughters, +when, after Mrs. Wilford had gone, she sat talking of Katy's queer fancy +and her obstinacy in adhering to it. "It does not matter; and on the +whole I had as soon the christening would be postponed until the child +is more presentable than now. It will be prettier by and by, and the +dress will become it better. We can afford to wait." + +This heartless view of the case was readily adopted by Juno, while Bell +professed to be terribly shocked at hearing them talk thus of a baptism, +as if it were a mere show and nothing more, wondering if the Savior +thought either of dress or personal appearance when the Hebrew mothers +brought their children to Him. But little did Mrs. Cameron or Juno care +for the baptism except as a display, and as both would be much prouder +of a fine looking child, they were well content to wait until such time +as Katy should incline more favorably to their Margaret or Rose Marie. +To Helen it seemed highly probable that after a private interview with +Wilford Katy would change her mind, and she felt a wickedly agreeable +degree of disappointment when, on the day following the dinner party, +she found her sister even more resolved than ever upon having her own +way. Like the Camerons, she did not feel the necessity of haste--time +enough by and by, when she would not have so much opposition to +encounter, she said; and as Wilford did not care, it was finally +arranged that they would wait a while, ere they gave a cognomen to +the little nameless child, only known as Baby Cameron. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +TROUBLE IN THE HOUSEHOLD. + + +As soon as it was understood that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was able to go +out, there were scores of pressing invitations from the gay world which +had missed her so much, but Katy declined them all on the plea that baby +needed her care. She was happier at home, and as a mother it was her +place to stay there. At first Wilford listened quietly, but when he +found it was her fixed determination to abjure society entirely, he +interfered in his cool, decisive way, which always carried its point. + +"It was foolish to take that stand," he said. "Other mothers went and +why should not she? She had already stayed in too much. She was injuring +herself, and"--what was infinitely worse to Wilford--"she was losing her +good looks." + +As proof of this he led her to the glass, showing her the pale, thin +face and unnaturally large eyes, so distasteful to him. Wilford Cameron +was very proud of his handsome house, proud to know that everything +there was in keeping with his position and wealth, but when Katy was +immured in the nursery, the bright picture was obscured, for it needed +her presence to make it perfect, and he began to grow dissatisfied with +his surroundings, while abroad he missed her quite as much, finding the +opera, the party or the reception insipid where she was not, and feeling +fully conscious that Wilford Cameron, without a wife, and that wife +Katy, was not a man of half the consequence he had thought himself to +be. Even Sybil Grandon did not think it worth her while to court his +attention, especially if Katy were not present, for unless some one saw +and felt her triumph it ceased directly to be one. On the whole Wilford +was not well pleased with society, as he found it this winter, and +knowing where the trouble lay he resolved that Katy should no longer +remain at home, growing pale and faded and losing her good looks. +Wilford would not have confessed it, and perhaps was not himself aware +of the fact, that Katy's beauty was quite as dear to him as Katy +herself. If she lost it her value was decreased accordingly, and so as +a prudent husband it behooved him to see that what was so very precious +was not unnecessarily thrown away. It did not take long for Katy to +understand that her days of quiet were at an end, that neither crib nor +cradle could avail her longer. Mrs. Kirby, selected from a host of +applicants, was wholly competent for Baby Cameron, and Katy must throw +aside the mother which sat so prettily upon her and become again the +belle. It was a sad trial, but Katy knew that submission was the only +alternative, and so when Mrs. Banker's invitation came, she accepted it +at once, but there was a sad look upon her face as she kissed her baby +for the twentieth time ere going to her dressing-maid. + +Never until this night had Helen realized how beautiful Katy was when in +full evening dress, and her exclamations of delight brought a soft flush +to Katy's cheek, while she felt a thrill of the olden vanity as she saw +herself once more arrayed in all her costly apparel. Helen did not +wonder now at Wilford's desire to have Katy with him, and very proudly +she watched her young sister as Esther twined the flowers in her hair +and then brought out the ermine cloak she was to wear as a protection +against the cold. + +"If they could only see you at home," she said, while instantly there +arose a thought of Dr. Grant, and Helen felt a throb of keen regret as +she contrasted the gay, airy figure with the grave, quiet Morris, who +found his chief delights in works of charity, and whose feet lingered +amid the haunts of poverty and suffering, rather than such scenes as +that to which she was going. + +But Katy's path lay far from Dr. Grant's, and only Wilford Cameron had +A right to say whither she should go or when return. He was standing by +her now, making a few suggestions and expressing his approbation in a +way which reminded Helen of that night before the marriage, when Katy's +dress had been condemned, and of that sadder, bitterer time when she +had poured her tears like rain into that trunk returned. All she had +thought of Wilford then was now more than confirmed, but he was kind to +her and very proud of Katy, so she forced back her feelings of disquiet, +which, however, were roused again when she saw the dark look on his +face, as Katy, at the very last, ran to the nursery to kiss baby again, +succeeding this time in waking it, as was proven by the cry that made +Wilford scowl angrily and brought to his lips a word of rebuke for +Katy's childishness. + +"You are like a girl with her first doll," he said, as he opened the +door for her to pass, and Helen, though she felt the truth of the +remark, knew there was no necessity for him to throw so much of lordly +displeasure into his manner, and make poor Katy look so distressed and +worried as they drove rapidly along the streets to Mrs. Banker's. + +The party was not so large as that at Sybil Grandon's, but it was more +select, and Helen enjoyed it better, meeting people like Morris, who +readily appreciated the peculiarities of her mind, and who would have +made her forget all else around her if she had not been a guest at Mark +Ray's house. It was the first time she had met him away from home since +the night of Mrs. Grandon's, and as if forgetful of her reserve, he paid +her numberless attentions, which, coming from the master of the house, +were the more to be valued. + +With a quiet dignity Helen received them all, the thought once creeping +into her heart that she was preferred, notwithstanding that engagement. +But she soon repudiated this idea as unworthy of her. She could not be +wholly happy with one who, to win her hand, had trampled upon the +affections of another, even if that other were Juno Cameron. + +And so she kept out of his way as much as possible, watching her sister +admiringly as she moved about with an easy, assured grace, or floated +like a snow flake through the dance in which Wilford persuaded her to +join, looking after her with a proud, all-absorbing feeling, which left +no room for Sybil Grandon's coquettish advances. + +As if the reappearance of Katy had awakened all that was weak and silly +in Sybil's nature, she now put forth her full powers of attraction, but +met only with defeat. Katy, and even Helen, was preferred before +her--both belles of a different type; but both winning golden laurels +from those who hardly knew which to admire most--Katy, with her pure, +delicate beauty and charming simplicity, or Helen, with her attractive +face and sober, quiet manner. But Katy grew tired early. She could not +endure what she once did; and when she came to Wilford with a weary look +upon her face and asked him to go home, he did not refuse, though Mark, +who was near, protested against their leaving so soon. + +"Surely Miss Lennox might remain; the carriage could be sent back for +her; and he had hardly seen her at all." + +But Miss Lennox chose to go; and after her white cloak and hood passed +down the stairs and through the door into the street, there was nothing +attractive for Mark in his crowded parlors, and he was glad when the +last guest had departed and he was left alone with his mother. + +Operas, parties, receptions, dinners, matineés, morning calls, drives, +visits and shopping; how fast one crowded upon the other, leaving +scarcely an hour of leisure to the devotee of fashion who attended to +them all. How astonished Helen was to find what high life in New York +implied, ceasing to wonder that so many of the young girls grew haggard +and old before their time, or that the dowagers grew selfish and hard +and scheming. She would die outright, she thought, and she pitied poor +little Katy, who, having once returned to the world, seemed destined to +remain there, in spite of her entreaties and the excuses she made for +declining the invitations which poured in so fast. + +"Baby was not well--baby needed her," was the plea with which she met +Wilford's arguments, until the mention of his child was sure to bring a +scowl upon his face, and it became a question in Helen's mind whether he +would not be happier if baby had never come between him and his +ambition. + +To hear Katy's charms extolled, and know that she was admired, and he +was envied the possession of so rare a gem, feeling all the while sure +of her faith, was Wilford's great delight, and it is not strange that, +without any very strong fatherly feeling or principle of right in that +respect, he should be irritated by the little life so constantly +interfering with his pleasure and so surely undermining Katy's health. +For Katy did not improve, as Wilford hoped she might; and with his two +hands he could almost span her slender waist, while the beautiful neck +and shoulders, once his chiefest pride, were no longer worn uncovered, +for Katy would not display her bones, whatever the fashion might be. In +this dilemma Wilford sought his mother, and the result of that +consultation brought a more satisfied look to his face than it had worn +for many a day. + +"Strange he had never thought of it, when it was what so many people +did," he said to himself as he hurried home. "It was the very best thing +both for Katy and the child, and would obviate every difficulty." + +Next morning, as she sometimes did when more than usually fatigued, Katy +breakfasted in bed; while Wilford's face, as he sat opposite Helen at +the table, had on it a look of quiet determination, such as she had +rarely seen there before. In a measure accustomed to his moods, she felt +that something was wrong, and never dreaming that he intended honoring +her with his confidence, she was wishing he would finish the coffee and +leave, when, motioning the servant from the room, he said abruptly, and +in a tone which roused Helen's antagonistic powers at once, it was so +cool, so decided: "I believe you have more influence over your sister +than I have; at least, she has latterly shown a willfulness in +disregarding me and a willingness to listen to you, which confirms +me in this conclusion--" + +"Well," and Helen twisted her napkin ring nervously, waiting for him to +say more; but her manner, so different from Katy's, disconcerted him, +making him a little uncertain what might be hidden behind that rigid +face, confronting him so steadily, a little doubtful as to the +expression it would put on when he had said all he meant to say. + +He did not expect it to wear a look as frightened and hopeless as Katy's +did when he last saw it upon the pillow, for he knew how different the +two sisters were, and much as he had affected to despise Helen Lennox, +he was afraid of her now. It had never occurred to him before that he +was somewhat uncomfortable in her presence, that her searching brown +eyes held him often in check; but it came to him now that his wife's +sister was in his way, for what could he do with a will almost as firm +as his own, and she was sure to take Katy's part. He saw it in her face, +even though she had no idea of what he meant to say. + +"Well;" that was the last sound heard in the quiet room; but since its +utterance the relative positions of the two individuals sitting opposite +each other had changed. Wilford regarding Helen as an obstacle in his +path, and Helen regarding him as a tyrant contemplating some direful +harm against her sister. + +He must explain some time, and so at last he continued: "You must have +seen how opposed Katy is to complying with my wishes, setting them at +naught, when she knows how much pleasure she would give me by yielding +as she used to do." + +"I don't know what you mean," Helen replied, "unless it is her aversion +to going out, as that I think is the only point where her obedience has +not been absolute." + +Wilford did not like the words "obedience" and "absolute;" that is, he +did not like the sound. Their definition suited him, but Helen's +enunciation was at fault, and he answered quickly: "I do not require +absolute obedience from Katy. I never did; but in the matter to which +you refer, I think she might consult my wishes as well as her own. There +is no reason for her secluding herself in the nursery as she does. Do +you think there is?" + +He put the question direct, and Helen answered it. + +"I do not believe Katy means to displease you, but she has conceived a +strong aversion for festive scenes, and besides baby is not healthy, you +know, and like all young mothers she may be over-anxious, while I fancy +she has not the fullest confidence in the nurse, and this may account +for her unwillingness to leave the child with her." + +Kirby was all that was desirable, Wilford replied. His mother had taken +her from a genteel, respectable house in Bond Street, and he paid her an +enormous price, consequently she must be right; and then there came out +the story how his mother had decided that neither Katy nor baby would +improve so long as they remained together--that for both a separation +was desirable--that she had recommended sending the child into the +country, where it would be better cared for than it could be at home +with Katy constantly undoing all Mrs. Kirby had done, disregarding her +orders, waking it from sleep whenever the fancy took her, and in short +treating it much as she probably did her doll when she was a little +girl. With the child away there would be nothing to prevent Katy's going +out as she used to do, and getting back her good looks, which were +somewhat impaired. + +"Why, she looks older than you do," Wilford said, thinking thus to +conciliate Helen, who quietly replied: + +"There is not two years difference between us, and I have always been +well, keeping regular hours until I came here." + +Wilford's compliment had failed, and more annoyed than before, he asked, +not what Helen thought of the arrangement, but if she would influence +Katy to act and think rationally upon it; "at least you will not make it +worse," he said, and this time there was something quite deferential and +pleading in his manner. + +Helen knew the matter was fixed, that neither Katy's tears nor +entreaties would avail to revoke the decision, and so, though her whole +soul rose in indignation against a man who would deliberately send his +nursing baby from his roof because it was in his way, and was robbing +his bride's cheek of its girlish bloom, she answered composedly: + +"I will do what I can, but I must confess it seems to me an unnatural +thing. I had supposed parents less selfish than that." + +Wilford did not care what Helen had supposed, and her opposition only +made him more resolved. Still he did not say so, and he even tried to +smile as he quitted the table and remarked to her: + +"I hope to find Katy reconciled when I come home. I think I had better +not go up to her again, so tell her I send a good-by kiss by you. I +leave her case in your hands." + +It was a far more difficult case than either he or Helen imagined, and +the latter started back in alarm from the white face which greeted her +view as she entered Katy's room, and then with a moan hid itself in the +pillow. + +"Wilford thought he had better not come up, but he sent a kiss by me," +Helen said, softly touching the bright, disordered hair, all she could +see of her sister. + +"It does not matter," Katy gasped. "Kisses cannot help me if they take +my baby away. Did he tell you?" and she turned now partly toward Helen, +who nodded affirmatively while Katy continued: "Had he taken a knife and +cut a cruel gash it would not have hurt me half so badly. I could bear +that, but my baby--oh, Helen, do you think they will take her away?" + +She was looking straight at Helen, who shivered as she met an expression +so unlike Katy, and so like to that a hunted deer might wear if its +offspring were in danger. + +"Say, do you think they will?" she continued, shedding back with her +thin hand the mass of tangled curls which had fallen about her eyes. + +"Whom do you mean by 'they'?" Helen asked, coming near to her, and +sitting down upon the bed. + +There was a resentful gleam in the blue eyes usually so gentle, as Katy +answered: + +"Whom do I mean? His folks of course! They have been the instigators of +every sorrow I have known since I left Silverton. Oh, Helen, never, +never marry anybody who has folks, if you wish to be happy." + +Helen could not repress a smile, though she pitied her sister, who +continued: + +"I don't mean Father Cameron, nor Bell, nor Jamie, for I love them all, +and I believe that they love me. Father does, I know, and Jamie, while +Bell has helped me so often; but Mrs. Cameron and Juno--oh, Helen, you +will never know what they have been to me." + +"I notice you always say 'father' and 'Mrs. Cameron.' Why is that?" +Helen asked, hoping thus to divert Katy's mind from her present trouble, +and feeling a little anxious to hear Katy's real sentiments with regard +to her husband's family. + +Since Helen came to New York there has been so much to talk about +that, though Katy had told her of her fashionable life, she had said +comparatively little of the Camerons. Now, however, there was no holding +back on Katy's part, and beginning with the first night of her arrival +in New York she told what is already known to the reader, and more, +exonerating Wilford in word, but dealing out full justice to his mother +and Juno, the former of whom controlled him so completely. + +"I tried so hard to love her," Katy said, "and if she had given me ever +so little in return I would have been satisfied, but she never did--that +is, when I hungered for it most, missing you at home, and the loving +care which sheltered me in childhood. After the world took me into favor +she too began to caress me, but I was wicked enough to think it all came +of selfishness. I know I am hard and bad, for when I was sick Mrs. +Cameron was really very kind, and I began to like her; but if she takes +baby away, I shall surely die." + +Katy had come back to the starting point, and in her eye there was the +same fierce look which Helen had at first observed. + +"Where is baby to be sent?" Helen asked, and Katy answered: + +"Up the river, to a house which Father Cameron owns, and which is kept +by a farmer's family. I can't trust Kirby. I do not like her. She keeps +baby asleep too long, and acts so cross if I try to wake her, or hint +that she looks unnatural. I cannot give baby to her care, with no one to +look after her, though Wilford says I must." + +"Why then do you try to resist, when you know how useless it is?" Helen +asked, and something in her manner brought a sudden flush of shame to +Katy's cheek, as she said: + +"What do you mean? Of what are you thinking?" + +Helen did not stop to consider the propriety of her remarks, but +replied: + +"I was thinking that you reminded me of a bird beatings wings against +the bars of its cage, vainly hoping to escape into the freedom which it +feels is outside its prison house, but falling back bruised and bleeding +with its efforts, and no nearer escape." + +For a moment Katy regarded her sister intently, while she seemed trying +to digest the meaning of her words; then, as it vaguely flashed upon +her, tears gathered on her eyelashes and rolled down her cheeks, while +with a quivering lip she asked: + +"If you were that bird, what would you do?" + +"I? What would I do? I should beat my wings until I died; but your +nature is different. You are more yielding, more loving, more +submissive. You can bear it better." + +This was not the first time since she came to New York and saw how firm, +how unbending was the will which held Katy in its grasp, that Helen had +thought how surely she, with her high, imperious spirit, should die, +from the very resistance she should offer to that will. But as she had +truly expressed it, Katy's gentle, submissive nature saved her, for +never had she offered so violent opposition to any plan as she did now +to that of sending her child away. + +"I can't, I can't," she repeated constantly, and Mrs. Cameron's call, +made that afternoon with a view to reconcile the matter, only made it +worse, so that Wilford, on his return at night, felt a pang of +self-reproach as he saw the drooping figure holding his child upon its +lap and singing it a lullaby in a plaintive voice, which told how sore +was its heart. + +Wilford did not mean to be either a savage or a brute. On the contrary +he had made himself believe that he was acting only for the good of both +mother and child; but the sight of Katy touched him, and he might have +given up the contest had not Helen unfortunately taken up the cudgels in +Katy's defense, neglecting to conceal the weapons, and so defeating her +purpose. It was at the dinner from which Katy was absent that she +ventured to speak, not asking that the plan be given up, but speaking of +it as an unnatural one which seemed to her not only useless but cruel. + +Wilford did not tell her that her opinion was not desired, but his +manner implied as much, and Helen felt the angry blood prickling through +her veins as she listened to his reply, that it was neither unnatural +nor cruel, that many people did it, and his would not be an isolated +case. + +"Then if it must be," Helen said, "pray let it go to Silverton, and I +will be its nurse. Katy will not object to that." + +In a very ironical tone Wilford thanked her for her offer, which he +begged leave to decline, intimating a preference for settling his own +matters according to his own ideas. Helen knew that further argument was +useless, and but for Katy, wished herself at home, where there were no +wills like this with which she had unwittingly come in contact, and +which, ignoring Katy's tears and Katy's pleading face, would not retract +one iota, or even stoop to reason with the suffering mother, except to +reiterate, "It is only for your good, and every one with common sense +will say so." + +Next morning Helen was surprised at Katy's proposition to drive around +to Fourth Street, and call on Marian, whom they had not seen for several +days. + +"I am always better after talking with her," Katy said, "And I have a +strong presentiment that she can do me good." + +"Shall you tell her?" Helen asked in some surprise; and Katy replied, +"perhaps I may. I'll see." + +An hour later, and Katy, up in Marian's room, sat with her hands clasped +together upon the table, listening intently while Marian spoke of a +letter received a few days since from an old friend who had worked with +her at Madam ----'s, and to whom she had been strongly attached, keeping +up a correspondence with her after her marriage and removal to New +London, in Connecticut; and whose little child, born two months before +Katy's, was dead, and the mother, finding her home so desolate, had +written, beseeching Marian to come to her for the remainder of the +winter, adding in conclusion: "If you know of any little homeless baby, +bring it to me in place of mine, which God has taken. I shall thus be +doing good, and in part forget my sorrow." + +Instantly Helen and Katy glanced at each other, the same thought +flashing upon both, and finding form in Katy's vehement outburst, "If +Mrs. Hubbell would take baby, and Marian would go, too, I should be so +happy." + +In a few moments Marian had heard Katy's trouble--struggling hard to +fight back the giddy faintness she felt stealing over her, as she +thought of nursing Wilford Cameron's child. + +"Write to her, Marian--write to-day--now, before I go," Katy continued, +clasping Marian's hand, with an expression which, more than aught else +won Marian Hazelton's consent to a plan which seemed so strange. + +"Yes, I will write," she answered; "I will tell Amelia what you desire." + +"But, Marian, you, too, must go. I'll trust baby with you. Say, Marian, +will you take care of my darling?" + +It was hard to refuse, with those great, wistful, pleading eyes looking +so earnestly into hers; but Marian must have time to consider. She had +thought of going to New London to open a shop, and if she did she should +board with Mrs. Hubbell, and so be with the child. She would decide when +the answer came to the letter. + +This was all the encouragement she would give; but it was enough to +change the whole nature of Katy's feelings, and her face looked bright +and cheerful as she tripped down the stairway, talking to Helen of what +seemed to both like a direct interposition of Providence, and what she +was sure would please Wilford quite as well as the farmhouse up the +river. + +"Surely he will yield to me in this," she said. Nor was she wrong; for +glad of an opportunity to make some concessions, and still in the main +have his own way, Wilford raised no objection to the plan as +communicated to him by Katy, when, at an earlier hour than usual, he +came home to dinner, drawn thither by a remembrance of the face which +had haunted him the entire day, and bringing as a peace offering to both +wife and sister--a new book for the one, and for the other a set of +handsome coral, which he had heard her admire only the week before. + +These he presented with that graceful, winning manner he knew so well +how to assume, and with the harmony of his household once more restored, +felt himself a model husband as he listened to Katy's plan of sending +baby to New London. On the whole, it might be better even than the +farmhouse up the river, he thought, for it was farther away, and Katy +could not be tiring herself with driving out every few days, and keeping +herself constantly uneasy and excited. The distance between New York +and New London was the best feature of the whole; and he wondered Katy +had not thought of it as an objection. But she had not, and but for the +pain when she remembered the coming separation, she would have been very +happy that evening, listening with Wilford and Helen to the opera of +"Norma," and sympathizing so keenly with the poor distracted mother. + +Very differently from this was Marian's evening passed, and on her face +there was a look such as Katy's had never worn, as on her knees she +asked for guidance to choose the right, to lay all self aside, and if it +were her duty and care for the child which had stirred the pulsations of +her heart and made the old wound bleed and throb with bitter anguish as +she remembered what she once hoped would be, and what but for a cruel +wrong might still have been. And as she prayed there crept into her face +another look which told that self was sacrificed at last, and Katy +Cameron was safe with her. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Hubbell was willing--aye, more than that--was glad to take the +child, and the generous remuneration offered would make them so +comfortable in their little cottage, she wrote to Marian, who hastened +to confer by note with Katy, adding in a postscript, "Is it still your +wish that I should go? if so, I am at your disposal." + +It was Katy's wish, and she hastened to reply, going next to the nursery +to confer with Mrs. Kirby. Dark were the frowns and dire the displeasure +of that lady when told that her services would soon be no longer needed +on Madison Square--that instead of going up the river as she had hoped, +she was free to return to the "genteel and highly respectable home on +Bond Street," where Mrs. Cameron had found her. + +"Wait till the madam comes and then we'll see," she thought, referring +to Mrs. Cameron, and feeling delighted when that very day she heard that +lady's voice in the parlor. + +But Mrs. Cameron, though a little anxious with regard to both Mrs. +Hubbell's and Marian's antecedents, and a little doubtful as to the +effect a common dressmaker's nursing might have upon the child, saw at +once that Wilford was in favor of New London and so voted accordingly, +only asking that she might see and talk with Marian Hazelton herself. + +"One can judge so much better from hearing one converse. If her manner +should be very bad and her grammar execrable, I should consider it my +duty to withdraw my consent," she said, with as much deliberation as if +the matter were wholly at her disposal. "Would Katy drive around with +her to Marian Hazelton's to-morrow?" + +Katy would be delighted; and so next day Mrs. Cameron, the elder, was +holding high her aristocratic skirts and glancing ruefully around as she +followed Mrs. Cameron, the younger, up the three flights of stairs to +Marian's door, which did not open to the assured knock, nor yet yield to +the gentle pressure. Marian was out, and there was no alternative but +for Katy to scribble a few lines upon the card she left upon the knob, +telling Marian who had been there, and requesting her to call that +evening at No. ---- Fifth Avenue, as the elder Mrs. Cameron was +particularly anxious to see her before committing her grandchild to her +care. "Please go, Marian, for my sake," Katy added, but in reading to +Wilford's mother what she had written, she omitted that, and so escaped +a lecture from that lady upon undue familiarity with inferiors. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +HOW IT ENDED. + + +"Will Marian go to No. ---- Fifth Avenue?" Marian asked herself that +question many times, as with Katy's card in her hand she stood pondering +the subject and feeling glad of the good fortune which had sent her from +home when Wilford's mother called. + +Yes, Marian would; and at the hour between the daylight and the dark, +just as the lamps are lighted in the street, and before they are usually +lighted in the parlors there was a ring at the door, whose massive plate +bore the name of Cameron, and the colored man who answered that ring +stared at the figure he ushered in, seating it in the dim hall and +asking for the name. + +"Miss Hazelton wishes to see Mrs. Cameron," was the reply, and at the +sound of that musical, well-bred voice, the servant half opened the +parlor door, but closed it again as he went for his mistress, who +expressed her surprise that Marian Hazelton should presume to enter +where she did. + +"Maybe she is a lady, mother; Katy raves about her continually," Bell +said; but with an air of incredulity at the lady part, Mrs. Cameron +swept haughtily down the broad staircase, the rustle of her heavy silk +sending a chill of fear through Marian's frame, but not affecting her so +much as did the voice; the cold, proud, metallic voice, which said to +her as she half arose to her feet, "Miss Hazelton, I believe?" + +At that sound there crept over her the same sensation she had felt years +ago, whenever the tones of that voice fell on her ear, for this was not +the first meeting of Mrs. Cameron and Marian Hazelton. But for all the +former guessed or knew, it was the first, and she looked curiously at +the graceful figure, but dimly seen in the shadowy twilight, noticing +the thick green veil which so nearly concealed the face, and wondering +why it was worn, or being worn, why it was kept so nearly down. + +"Miss Hazelton, I believe?" was all that had passed between them as yet, +for at these words a great fear had come upon Marian lest her own voice +should seem as natural as did the one which had just spoken to her. + +But she could not stand there long without answering, and so she +ventured at last to say: + +"Yes, I found Mrs. Wilford Cameron's note, and came around as she +requested." + +There was nothing objectionable in that remark, while the voice was +very, very sweet and musical, so musical, indeed, so like a voice heard +before, that Mrs. Cameron involuntarily went a step nearer to the +stranger, and even thought of calling up a servant to light the gas. But +that would perhaps be too great a civility, or at least betoken too +great a curiosity, and so she forebore, while she began to question +Marian of her own and Mrs. Hubbell's antecedents. Both were English, +both had worked upon the Isle of Wight, and later in New York, at +Madam ----'s; one had married, living now in New London, and the other +Stood there as Marian Hazelton, puzzling and bewildering Mrs. Cameron, +who tried to recall the person of whom she was reminded by that voice and +that manner, so wholly ladylike and refined. + +Marian Hazelton pleased her, as was apparent from her expressing a wish +that "as far as practicable Miss Hazelton should take charge of the +child. We cannot tell how early life-long impression may be made, and it +is desirable that they be of the right nature, and wholly in accordance +with refinement and good-breeding." + +There was a curl on Marian's lip as she remembered another meeting with +the proud lady whose words were not as complimentary as now, but she +merely bent her head in supposed acquiescence to the belief that Baby +Cameron was, or soon would be, capable of discriminating between a nurse +refined and one the opposite. There was a moment's silence and then +Marian asked if baby had been christened? + +"Not yet, we cannot decide upon a name," was the reply, while Marian +continued: + +"I understood your daughter that it was to be Genevra." + +Marian Hazelton was growing too familiar, and so the lady deigned no +answer, but stepped a little to one side, as if she would thus indicate +that the conference was ended. + +Dropping her veil entirely over her face, for the servant was now +lighting the parlor lamps, Marian turned toward the door which Mrs. +Cameron opened, and she passed out just as up the steps came Wilford, +Marian's skirts brushing him as she passed, and her heart beating +painfully as she thought of her escape and began to realize the danger +she incurred when she accepted the office of partial nurse to his child. + +"Dark, mother? How is that? Why is the hall not lighted?" she heard him +say, and the old, familiar tones, so little changed, vibrated sadly in +her ear, as she dashed away a tear, and then hurried on through the +darkened streets toward her humble home, so different from the Cameron's. + +"Who was that, mother?" Wilford said, expressing regret that he had not +happened in a little earlier, so as to have seen her himself, and +asking what his mother thought of her. + +"I liked her. She seemed a well-bred person, and her voice is much like +Genevra's." + +Wilford turned his eyes quickly upon his mother, who continued: + +"I did not think of her, it is true, until Miss Hazelton inquired about +baby's name, and said she understood from Katy that it was to be +Genevra. Then it came to me whose her voice was like. Genevra's, you +know, was very musical." + +"Yes," Wilford answered, and in his eyes there was a look of pain, such +as thoughts of Genevra always brought. + +She was in his mind when he ran up his father's steps, not Genevra +living, but Genevra dead--she who slept in that lone corner of the +churchyard across the sea. "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," and not +Genevra, aged nearly thirty-two, if she had been still living. Kindly, +regretfully, he always spoke of her now, separating her entirely from +the little fairy who was mistress of his house and love--Katy, who was +preferred before Genevra, and to whom no wrong was done, he thought, by +his sad memories of the beautiful English girl, whose grave was at St. +Mary's, and whose picture was so securely hidden from every eye save his +own. He never liked to talk of her now, and he changed the subject at +once, asking when it would be best to send his child away. + +"Miss Hazelton is ready any time, and so I decided upon the day after +to-morrow--that will be Saturday--thus giving Katy the benefit of Sunday +in which to get over it and recover her usual spirits." + +"You are sure it is right?" Wilford asked, for now that the time drew +near when the little crib at home would be empty, the nursery desolate, +with no fretful, plaintive wail to annoy and worry him, he began to feel +that after all that cry was not so very vexing as he had imagined it to +be; that he might miss it when it was gone, and wish back the little +creature which had been so greatly in his way. + +Besides this, there was a sense of injustice to Katy. Perhaps he had not +been considerate enough of her feelings; at all events, his mother's +arranging the time of baby's departure looked like ignoring Katy +altogether, and he ventured a remonstrance. But his mother soon +convinced him of her infallible judgment; not only in that matter, but +in all others pertaining to his household; and so with his good opinion +of himself restored, he went home to where Katy waited for him, with her +baby in her lap, both tastefully attired, and making a most lovely +picture. Wilford kissed them both, and took his daughter in his arms, an +act he had not often been guilty of, for baby tending was not altogether +to his taste. + +In the dark hours of agony which came to him afterward, he remembered +that night, feeling again the touch of the velvet cheek and the warmth +of the faint breath which floated across his face as he held his little +girl for a moment to it, laughing at Katy's distress because "his +whiskers scratched it." + +It was strange how much confidence Katy had in Marian Hazelton, and how +the fact that she was going to New London reconciled her to the plan, +making her even cheerful during the last day of baby's stay at home. But +as the daylight waned and the night came on, a shadow began to steal +across her sunny face, and her step was slower as it went up the stairs +to the nursery, while only herself that night could disrobe the little +creature and hush it into sleep. + +"'Tis the last time, you know," she said to Kirby, who readily yielded +her post and went out, leaving the young mother and child alone. + +Mournfully sad and sweet was the lullaby Katy sang, and Helen, in the +hall, listening to the low, sad moaning, half prayer, half benediction, +likened it to a farewell between the living and the dead. Half an hour +later, when she glanced into the room, lighted only by the moonbeams, +baby was sleeping in her crib, which Katy knelt beside, her face buried +in her hands, and her form quivering with the sobs she tried to smother +as she softly prayed that her darling might come back again; that God +would keep the little child and forgive the erring mother who had sinned +so deeply since the time she used to pray in the home among the hills of +Massachusetts. She was very white next morning, and to Helen she seemed +to be expanding into something more womanly, more mature, as she +disciplined herself to bear the pain welling up so constantly from her +heart, and at last overflowing in a flood of tears when Marian was +announced as in the parlor below waiting for her charge. Fortunately +there was but little time for parting kisses and fond good-byes, for +Marian had purposely waited as long as possible ere coming, and +expedition was necessary if she reached the train. + +It was Katy who made her baby ready, trusting her to no one else, and +repelling with a kind of fierce decision all offers of assistance made +either by Helen, Mrs. Cameron, Bell, or the nurse, who were present. +While Katy's hands drew on the little bright, soft socks of wool, tied +the hood of satin and lace, and fastened the scarlet cloak, her tears +falling like rain as she met the loving, knowing look the baby was just +learning to give her, half smiling, half cooing, as she bent her face +down to it. + +"Please all of you go out," she said, when baby was ready--"Wilford and +all. I had rather be alone." + +They granted her request, but Wilford stood beside the open door, +listening while the mother bade farewell to her baby. + +"Darling," she murmured, "what will poor Katy do when you are gone, +or what will comfort her as you have done? Precious baby, my heart is +breaking to give you up; but will the Father in Heaven who knows how +much you are to me, keep you from harm and bring you back again? Some +time I'd give the world to keep you, but I cannot do it, for Wilford +says that you must go, and Wilford is your father." + +At that moment Wilford Cameron would have given half his fortune to have +kept his child for Katy's sake, but it was now too late; the carriage +was at the door, and Marian, whom no one had seen but Helen, was waiting +in the hall, her thick green veil dropped before her face, and a muffler +about her mouth as if suffering from the toothache. Helen had asked if +it were so, but Marian's answer was prevented by the little procession +filing down the stairs--Mrs. Cameron and Bell, Wilford and Katy, who +carried the baby herself, her face bent over it and her tears still +dropping like rain. But it was Wilford who put his child into Marian's +extended arms, forgetting in his excitement to notice aught in the new +nurse except the long, green veil which was not raised at all, even when +Katy said, pleadingly, "You will care for her, Marian, as if she were +your own." + +"Yes, I will, I will," was the response, spoken huskily and having in +it no tone like Genevra's. "I will as if it were my own," were the last +words Marian said as she went down the steps, followed by Wilford, to +whom the thought had just occurred that he ought to see her off. + +Marian had not expected this, and the tension of her nerves was hardly +equal to the task of sitting there with Wilford Cameron opposite, his +baby in her lap, his voice in her ear, and his eyes turned upon her as +if curious to know what manner of woman she was. But the thick veil did +its duty well, while the muffler answered the purpose intended; it +changed the voice which was only natural once, and that when it +addressed the baby, which began to grow restless as they drew near the +depot. Then Wilford was reminded of Genevra, and the thought carried him +across the sea, so that he forgot all else until the station was reached +and he was busy, procuring checks and ticket. He saw her into the car, +procuring for her a double seat, and speaking a word for her to the +conductor, whom he knew. And this he did partly for Katy's sake, and +partly because in spite of the plain attire he recognized the lady and +felt that Marian Hazelton was no ordinary person. He offered her his +hand, wondering why hers trembled so in his grasp, wondering why it was +so cold, and wondering, too, why, if she had never been a wife, she wore +that plain gold circlet which glittered upon her third finger. + +"They certainly call her Miss Hazelton," he thought, as he bade her +good-by and then left her alone, going back to the house which even to +him seemed lonely, with all the paraphernalia of babyhood removed. +Still, now that the worst was over, he rather enjoyed it, for Katy was +free from care; there was nothing to hinder her gratifying his every +wish, and with his spirits greatly enlivened as he reflected how +satisfactory everything had been managed at the last, he proposed taking +both Helen and Katy to the theatre that night. But Katy answered: "No, +Wilford, not to-night; it seems too much like baby's funeral. I'll go +next week, but not to-night." + +So Katy had her way, but among the worshipers who next day knelt in +Grace Church with words of prayer upon their lips, there was not one +more in earnest than she whose only theme was, "My child, my darling +child." + +She did not get over it by Monday, as Mrs. Cameron had predicted. She +did not get over it at all, though she went without a word where Wilford +willed that she should go, and even Helen, with her sounder health and +stronger constitution, grew tired of that endless round, which gave her +scarcely a quiet hour at home. And Katy was a belle again, her name on +every lip, her praise in every heart, for none could feel jealous, she +bore her honors so meekly, wondering why people liked her so much and +loving them because they did. And none admired her more than Helen, who, +scarcely less a belle herself, yielded everything to her young sister +whom she pitied while she admired, for nothing had power to draw one +look from her blue eyes, the look which many observed, and which Helen +knew sprang from the mother love, hungering for its child. Only once +before had Helen seen a look like this, and that came to Morris' face on +the sad night when she said to him, "It might have been." It had been +there ever since, and Helen, though revering him before, felt that by +the pangs with which that look was born he was a better man, just as +Katy was growing better for that hunger in her heart. God was taking his +own way to purify them both, but the process was going on and Helen +watched it intently, wondering what the end would be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +AUNT BETSY GOES ON A JOURNEY. + + +Just through the woods, where Uncle Ephraim was wont to exercise old +Whitey, was a narrow strip of land, extending from the highway to the +pond, and fertile in nothing except the huckleberry bushes, where the +large, dark fruit grew so abundantly, and the rocky ledges over which a +few sheep roamed, seeking for the short grass and stunted herbs, which +gave them a meager sustenance. As a whole it was comparatively +valueless, but to Aunt Betsy Barlow it was of great importance, as it +was her own--her property--her share--set off from the old estate--the +land on which she paid taxes willingly--the real estate the deed of +which was lying undisturbed in her hair trunk, where it had lain for +years. Several dispositions the good old lady had mentally made of this +property, sometimes dividing it equally between Helen and Katy, +sometimes willing it all to the former, and again, when she thought of +Mark Ray, leaving the interest of it to some missionary society in which +she was greatly interested. + +How then was the poor woman amazed and confounded when suddenly there +appeared a claimant to her property; not the whole, but a part, and that +part taking in the big sweet apple tree and the very best of the berry +bushes, leaving her nothing but rocks and bogs, a pucker cherry tree, a +patch of tansy, and one small tree, whose gnarly apples were not fit, +she said, to feed the pigs. + +Of course she was indignant, and all the more so because the claimant +was prepared to prove that the line fence was not where it should be, +but ran into his own dominions for the width of two or three rods, a +fact he had just discovered by looking over a bundle of deeds, in which +the boundaries of his own farm were clearly defined. + +In her distress Aunt Betsy's first thoughts were turned to Wilford as +the man who could redress her wrongs if any one, and a long letter was +written to him in which her grievances were told in detail and his +advice solicited. Commencing with "My dear Wilford," closing with +"Your respected ant," sealed with a wafer, stamped with her thimble, +and directed bottom side up, it nevertheless found its way to +No. ---- Broadway, and into Wilford's hands. But with a frown and pish of +contempt he tossed it into the grate, and vain were all Aunt Betsy's +inquiries as to whether there was any letter for her when Uncle Ephraim +came home from the office. Letters there were from Helen, and sometimes +one from Katy, but none from Wilford, none for her, and her days were +passed in great perplexity and distress, until another idea took +possession of her mind. She would go to New York herself! She had never +traveled over half a dozen miles in the cars, it was true, but it was +time she had, and now that she had a new bonnet and shawl, as good as +anybody's, she could go to York as well as not! + +Wholly useless were the expostulations of the family, for she would not +listen to them, nor believe that she would not be welcome at that house +on Madison Square, to which even Mrs. Lennox had never been invited +since Katy was fairly settled in it. Much at first had been said of her +coming, and of the room she was to occupy; but all that had ceased, and +in the mother's heart there had been a painful doubt as to the reason of +the silence, until Helen's letters enlightened her, telling her it was +not Katy, for she was still unchanged--was still the loving, impulsive +creature who, if she could, would take all Silverton to her arms. It was +Wilford who had built so high a wall between Katy and her friends; +Wilford who at first had endured Helen because he must, but who now kept +her with him from choice, even though she was sometimes greatly in his +way, especially when her will clashed with his and her stronger +arguments for the right swept his own aside. Far better than she used, +did Mrs. Lennox understand her son-in-law, and she shrank in horror from +suffering her aunt to go where she would be so serious an annoyance, +frankly telling her the reason for her objections, and asking if she +wished to mortify the girls. + +At this Aunt Betsy took umbrage at once. + +"She'd like to know what there was about her to mortify anybody? Wasn't +her black silk dress made long and full, and the old pongee fixed into a +Balmoral, and hadn't she a bran-new cap with purple ribbon, and couldn't +she travel in her delaine, and didn't she wear hoops always now, except +at cleanin' house times? Didn't she nuss both the girls, especially +Catherine, carrying her in her arms one whole night when she had the +canker-rash, and everybody thought she'd die; and when she swallered +that tin whistle didn't she spat her on the back and swing her in the +air till she came to and blew the whistle clear across the room? Tell +her that Catherine would be ashamed? she knew better!" + +Then as a doubt began to cross her own mind as to Wilford's readiness to +entertain her at his house, she continued: + +"At any rate, the Tubbses, who moved from Silverton last fall, and who +were living in such style on the Bowery, wouldn't be ashamed, and I can +stop with them at first, till I see how the land lies. They have invited +me to come, both Miss Tubbs and 'Tilda, and they are nice folks, who +belong to the Orthodox Church. Tom is in town now, and if I see him I +shall talk with him about it, even if I never go." + +Most devoutly did Mrs. Lennox and Aunt Hannah hope that Tom would +return to New York without honoring the farmhouse with a call; but +unfortunately for them he came that very afternoon, and instead of +throwing obstacles in Aunt Betsy's way, urged her warmly to make the +proposed visit. + +"Mother would be so glad to see an old neighbor," the honest youth said, +"for she did not know many folks in the city. 'Till had made some flashy +acquaintances, of whom he did not think much, and they kept a few +boarders, but nobody had called, and mother was real lonesome. He wished +Miss Barlow would come; she would have no difficulty in finding them," +and on a bit of paper he marked out the route of the Fourth Avenue cars, +which passed their door, and which Aunt Betsy would take after arriving +at the New Haven depot. "If he knew when she was coming he would meet +her," he said, but Aunt Betsy could not tell; she was not quite certain +whether she should go at all, she was so violently opposed. + +Still she did not give it up entirely, and when, a few days after Tom's +return to New York, there came a pressing invitation from the daughter +Matilda, or Mattie, as she signed herself, the fever again ran high, and +this time with but little hope of its abating. + +"We shall be delighted, both mother and me," Mattie wrote. "I will show +you all the lions of the city, and when you get tired of us you can go +up to Mrs. Cameron's. I know exactly where they live, and have seen her +at the opera in full dress, looking like a queen." + +Over the last part of this letter Aunt Betsy pondered for some time. +That as good an orthodox as Miss Tubbs should let her girl go to the +opera, passed her. She had wondered at Helen's going, but then she was a +'Piscopal, and them 'Piscopals had queer notions about usin' the world +and not abusin' it. Still, as Helen did not attend the theatre and did +attend the opera, there must be a difference in the two places, and into +the old lady's heart there slowly crept the thought that possibly she +might try the opera too, if 'Tilda Tubbs would go, and promise never to +tell the folks at Silverton! She should like to see what it was, and +also what full dress meant, though she s'posed it was pilin' on all the +clothes you had so as to make a show; but if she wore her black silk +gown with her best bunnet and shawl, she guessed that would be dress +enough for her. + +This settled, Aunt Betsy began to devise the best means of getting off +with the least opposition. Both Morris and her brother would be absent +from town during the next week, and she finally resolved to take that +opportunity for starting on her visit to New York, wisely concluding to +keep her own counsel until she was quite ready. Accordingly, on the very +day Morris and the deacon left Silverton, she announced her intention so +quietly and decidedly that further opposition was useless, and Mrs. +Lennox did what she could to make her aunt presentable. And Aunt Betsy +did look very respectable in her dark delaine, with her hat and shawl, +both Morris' gift, and both in very good taste. As for the black silk +and the new cap, they were carefully folded away, one in a box and the +other in a satchel she carried on her arm, and in one compartment of +which were sundry papers of fennel, caraway, and catnip, intended for +Katy's baby, and which could be sent to it from New York. There was also +a package of dried plums and peaches for Katy herself, and a few cakes +of yeast of her own make, better than any they had in the city! Thus +equipped she one morning took her seat in the Boston and New York train, +which carried her swiftly on toward Springfield. + +"If anybody can find their way in New York, it is Betsy," Aunt Hannah +said to Mrs. Lennox, as the day wore on and their thoughts went after +the lone woman, who with satchel, umbrella and capbox, was felicitating +in the luxury of a whole seat, and the near neighborhood of a very nice +young man, who listened with well-bred interest while she told of her +troubles concerning the sheep pasture, and how she was going to New York +to consult a first-rate lawyer. + +Once she thought to tell who the lawyer was, and perhaps enhance her own +merits in the eyes of her auditors by announcing herself as aunt to Mrs. +Wilford Cameron, of whom she had no doubt he had heard--nay, more, whom +he possibly knew, inasmuch as his home was in New York, though he spent +much of his time at West Point, where he had been educated. But certain +disagreeable remembrances of Aunt Hannah's parting injunction, "not to +tell everybody in the cars that she was Katy's aunt," kept her silent on +that point, and so Lieutenant Bob Reynolds failed to be enlightened with +regard to the relationship existing between the fastidious Wilford +Cameron of Madison Square, and the quaint old lady whose very first act +on entering the car amused him vastly. At a glance he saw that she was +unused to traveling, and as the car was crowded, he had kindly offered +his seat near the door, taking the side one under the window, and so +close to her that she gave him her capbox to hold while she adjusted her +other bundles. This done and herself comfortably settled, she was just +remarking that she liked being close to the door in case of a fire, when +the conductor appeared, extending his hand officially toward her as the +first one convenient. For an instant Aunt Betsy scanned him closely, +thinking she surely had never seen him before, but as he seemed to claim +acquaintance she could not find it in her kind heart to ignore him +altogether, and so she grasped the offered hand, which she tried to +shake, saying apologetically: + +"Pretty well, thank you, but you've got the better of me, as I don't +justly recall your name." + +Instantly the eyes of the young man under the window met those of the +conductor with a look which changed the frown gathering in the face of +the latter into a comical smile as he withdrew his hand and shouted: + +"Ticket, madam, your ticket!" + +"For the land's sake, have I got to give that up so quick, when it's at +the bottom of my satchel," Aunt Betsy replied, somewhat crestfallen at +her mistake, and fumbling in her pocket for the key, which was finally +produced, and one by one the paper parcels of fennel, caraway, and +catnip, dried plums, peaches and yeast cakes, were taken out, until at +the very bottom, as she had said, the ticket was found, the conductor +waiting patiently, and advising her, by way of avoiding future trouble, +to pin the card to her shawl, where it could be seen. + +"A right nice man," was Aunt Betsy's mental comment, but for a long time +there was a red spot on her cheeks as she felt that she had made herself +ridiculous, and hoped the girls would never hear of it. + +The young man, however, helped to reassure her, and in telling him her +troubles she forgot her chagrin, feeling very sorry that he was going on +to Albany, and so down the river to West Point. West Point was +associated in Aunt Betsy's mind with that handful of noble men who +within the walls of Sumter were then the center of so much interest, and +at parting with her companion she said to him: + +"Young man, you are a soldier, I take it, from your havin' been to +school at West Point. Maybe you'll never have to use your learning, but +if you do, stick to the old flag. Don't you go against that, and if an +old woman's prayers for your safety can do any good, be sure you'll have +mine." + +She raised her hand reverently, and Lieutenant Bob felt a kind of awe +steal over him as if he might one day need that benediction, the first +perhaps given in the cause now so terribly agitating all hearts both +North and South. + +"I'll remember what you say," he answered, and then as a new idea was +presented he took out a card, and writing a few lines upon it, bade her +hand it to the conductor just as she was getting into the city. + +Without her glasses Aunt Betsy could not read, and thinking it did not +matter now, she thrust the card into her pocket, and bidding her +companion good-by, took her seat in the other train. Lonely and a very +little homesick she began to feel; for her new neighbors were not +one-half as willing to talk as Bob had been, and she finally relapsed +into silence, which resulted in a quiet sleep, from which she awoke +just as they were entering the long, dark tunnel, which she would have +likened to Purgatory had she believed in such a place. + +"I didn't know we ran into cellars," she said, faintly; but nobody +heeded her, or cared for the anxious and now timid-looking woman, who +grew more and more anxious, until suddenly remembering the card, she +drew it from her pocket, and the next time the conductor appeared handed +it to him, watching him while he read that "Lieutenant Robert Reynolds +would consider it as a personal favor if he would see the bearer into +the Fourth Avenue cars." + +Surely there is a Providence which watches over all; and Lieutenant +Reynolds' thoughtfulness was not a mere chance, but the answer to the +simple trust Aunt Betsy had that God would take her safely to New York, +never doubting until she reached it that she had been heard. And even +then she did not doubt it long, for the conductor knew Lieutenant Bob, +and attended as faithfully to his wishes as if it had been a born +princess instead of Aunt Betsy Barlow whom he led to a street car, +ascertaining the number on the Bowery where she wished to stop, and +reporting to that conductor, who bowed in acquiescence, after glancing +at the woman, and knowing intuitively that she was from the country. +Could she have divested herself wholly of the fear that the conductor +would forget to put her off at the right place, Aunt Betsy would have +enjoyed that ride very much; and as it was, she looked around with +interest, thinking New York a mightily cluttered-up place, and wondering +if all the folks were in the streets. "They must be a gadding set," she +thought; and then, as a lady in flaunting robes took a seat beside her, +crowding her into a narrow space, the good old dame thought to show that +she did not resent it, by an attempt at sociability, asking if she knew +"Mrs. Peter Tubbs, whose husband kept a store on the Bowery?" + +"I have not that honor," was the haughty reply, the lady drawing up +her costly shawl and moving a little away from her interlocutor, who +continued: "I thought like enough you might have seen 'Tilda, or Mattie +she calls herself now. She is a right nice girl, and Tom is a very +forrard boy." + +To this there was no reply; and as the lady soon left the car, Aunt +Betsy did not make another attempt at conversation, except to ask once +how far they were from the Bowery, adding, as she received a civil +answer, "You don't know Mr. Peter Tubbs?" + +The worthy man was evidently a stranger to the occupants of that car, +and so Aunt Betsy employed her time in wondering if they kept up a sight +of style. She presumed they did from what 'Tilda had written to one of +Captain Perry's girls about their front parlor, and back parlor, and +library; but she did so hope their boarders were not the stuck up kind. +In Mrs. Peter Tubbs herself she had the utmost confidence, knowing her +to be a kind, friendly woman; and so her heart did not beat quite as +fast as it would otherwise have done when the car stopped at last upon +a crossing, and the conductor pointed back a few doors to the right, +telling her that was her number. + +"I should s'pose he might have driv right up, instead of leaving me +here," she said, looking wistfully at the retreating car, which now +seemed almost like home. "Coats, and trousers, and jackets! I wonder if +there is nothing else to be seen here," she continued, as her eye caught +the long line of clothing so conspicuously displayed in that part of the +Bowery. "'Tain't no great shakes," was the feeling struggling into Aunt +Betsy's mind, as with Tom's outline map in hand she peered at the +numbers of the doors, finding the right one at last, and ringing the +bell with a force which brought Mattie at once to the rescue. + +If Mattie was not glad to see her guest, she seemed to be, which +answered every purpose for the tired woman, who followed her into the +dark, narrow hall, filled with the sickly odor of the kitchen, and up +the narrow stairs, through a still darker hall, and into the front +parlor, which looked out upon the Bowery. This was comparatively +comfortable, for there was a fire in the stove, and the carpet the same +which Aunt Betsy remembered to have seen in Mrs. Tubbs' best room at +Silverton. But the diminutive dimensions of the apartment struck her at +once, and she mentally decided that it must be the "libry." But, alas! +the so-called "library" was a large-sized closet, or single room, at the +other end of the hall, and now used as an _omnium gatherum_ for the +various articles Mrs. Tubbs found necessary for her "back parlor," or +dining-room, where the table was set cornerwise, its soiled linen and +dingy napkins presenting a striking contrast to the snowy cloth which +always covered the table at the farmhouse, while the dry, baker's bread, +and the frowsy butter were almost more than Aunt Betsy could swallow, +hungry as she was. + +But all this was half an hour after the time when Mrs. Tubbs came in to +meet her, expressing genuine pleasure at seeing her there, and feeling +what she said; for Mrs. Tubbs did not take kindly to city life, and the +sight of a familiar face, which brought the country with it, was very +welcome to her. Mattie, on the contrary, liked New York, and there was +scarcely a street where she had not been, with Tom for a protector; +while she was perfectly conversant with all the respectable places of +amusement--with their different prices and different grades of patrons. +She knew where Wilford Cameron's office was, and also his house, for she +had walked by the latter many times, admiring the elegant curtains and +feasting her eyes upon the glimpses of inside grandeur, which she +occasionally obtained as some one came out or went in. Once she had seen +Helen and Katy enter their carriage, which the colored coachman drove +away, but she had never ventured to accost them. Katy would not have +known her if she had, for the family had come to Silverton while she was +at Canandaigua, and as, after her return to Silverton, until her +marriage, Mattie had been in one of the Lawrence factories, they had +never met. With Helen, however, she had a speaking acquaintance; but she +had never presumed upon it in New York, though to some of her young +friends she had told how she once sat in the same pew with Mrs. Wilford +Cameron's sister when she went to the "Episcopal meeting," and the +consideration which this fact procured for her from those who had heard +of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, of Madison Square, awoke in her the ambition to +know more of that lady, and, if possible, gain an entrance to her +dwelling. To this end she favored Aunt Betsy's visit, hoping thus to +accomplish her object, for, of course, when Miss Barlow went to Mrs. +Cameron's, she was the proper person to go with her and point the way. +This was the secret of Mattie's letter to Aunt Betsy, and the warmth +with which she welcomed her to that tenement on the Bowery, over a +clothing store, and so small that it is not strange Aunt Betsy wondered +where they all slept, never dreaming of the many devices known to city +housekeepers, who can change a handsome parlor into a kitchen or +sleeping-room, and _vice versa_, with little or no trouble. But she +found it out at last, lifting her hands in speechless amazement, when, +as the hour for retiring came, what she imagined the parlor bookcase was +converted into a comfortable bed, on which her first night in New York +was passed in comfort if not in perfect quiet. + +The next day had been set apart by Mattie for showing their guest the +city and possibly calling on Mrs. Wilford; but the poor old lady, unused +to travel and excitement, was too tired to venture out, seeing from the +window more than she had seen in all her life before, and coming to the +conclusion that New York must contain "a sight of folks," judging from +the crowds who passed that way and the glimpses she caught of other +crowds in the streets beyond. Still in some things she was disappointed. +New York was not so grand as she had imagined it to be--not as grand as +Helen's letters would imply; and she "didn't suppose everybody lived +upstairs and kept men's clothes to sell." The boarders, too, troubled +her. They were well enough, it is true, but they were neither fine +ladies nor gentlemen, such as Wilford and Katy; and Aunt Betsy, while +receiving every attention which Mrs. Tubbs could give her, was guilty of +wishing herself back in the clean, bright kitchen at home, where the +windows looked out upon woods and fields instead of that never-ceasing +rush which made her dizzy and faint. On the whole she was as nearly +homesick as she well could be, and so when Mattie asked if she would +like to go out that evening, she caught eagerly at the idea, as it +involved a change, and again the opera came before her mind, in spite +of her attempts to thrust it away. + +"Did 'Tilda know if Katy went to the opera now? Did she s'pose she +would be there to-night? Was it far to the show house? What was the +price--and was it a very wicked place?" + +To all these queries Mattie answered readily. She presumed Katy would be +there, as it was a new opera. It was not so very far. Distance in the +city was nothing, and it was not a wicked place, but over the price +Mattie faltered. Tickets for Aunt Betsy, herself and Tom, who of course +must go with them, would cost more than her father had to give. The +theatre was preferable, as that came within their means, and she +suggested Laura Keene's; but from that Aunt Betsy recoiled as from +Pandemonium itself. + +Catch her at a theatre--her, a deacon's sister, looked up to for a +sample, and who run once for vice-president of the Sewing Society in +Silverton! It was too terrible to think of. But the opera seemed +different. Helen went there; it could not be very wrong, particularly as +the tickets were so high that bad folks could not go, and taking out her +purse Aunt Betsy counted its contents carefully, holding the bills +thoughtfully for a moment, while she seemed to be balancing between what +she knew was safe and what she feared might be wrong, at least in the +eyes of Silverton. + +"But Silverton will never know it," the tempter whispered, "and it is +worth something to see the girls in full dress." + +This decided it, and Aunt Betsy generously offered "to pay the fiddler," +as she termed it, "provided 'Tilda would never let it get to Silverton +that Betsy Barlow was seen inside a playhouse!" To Mrs. Tubbs it seemed +impossible that Aunt Betsy could be in earnest, but when she was, she +put no impediments in her way; and so, conspicuous among the crowd of +transient visitors who that night entered the Academy of Music was Aunt +Betsy Barlow, chaperoned by Miss Mattie Tubbs and protected by Tom, a +shrewd, well-grown youth of seventeen, who passed for some years older, +and consequently was a sufficient escort for the ladies under his +charge. It was not his first visit there and he managed to procure a +seat which commanded a good view of several private boxes, and among +them that of Wilford Cameron. This Mattie, who remembered where she had +seen both Helen and Katy, pointed out to the excited woman gazing about +her in a maze of bewilderment, and half doubting her own identity with +the Betsy Barlow who, six weeks before, if charged with such a sin as +she was now committing, would have exclaimed, "Is thy servant a dog to +do this thing?" Yet here she was, a deacon's sister, a candidate for the +vice-presidency of the Silverton Sewing Society, a woman who, for +sixty-three years and a-half, had led a blameless life, frowning upon +all worldly amusements and setting herself for a burning light to +others--here she was in her black silk dress, her best shawl pinned +across her chest, and her bonnet tied in a square bow which reached +nearly to her ears, which Mattie Tubbs, who tied it, had said was all +the style. Here she was, in that huge building, where the lights were so +blinding and the crowd so great that she shut her eyes involuntarily, +while she tried to realize what she could be doing. + +"I'm in for it now anyhow, and if it is wrong may the good Father +forgive me," she said softly to herself, just as the orchestra struck +up, thrilling her with its ravishing strains, and making her forget all +else in her rapturous delight. + +She was very fond of music and listened eagerly, beating time with both +her feet, and making her bonnet go up and down until the play commenced +and she saw stage dress and stage effect for the first time in her life. +This part she did not like: "they mumbled their words so nobody could +understand more than if they spoke a heathenish tongue," she thought, +and she was beginning to yawn when a nudge from Mattie and a whisper, +"There they come," roused her from her stupor, and looking up she saw +both Helen and Katy entering their box, and with them Mark Ray and +Wilford Cameron. + +Very rapidly Katy's eyes swept the house, running over the sea of heads +below but failing to see the figure which, half arising from its seat, +stood with clasped hands, gazing upon her, the tears running like rain +over the upturned face, and the lips murmuring: "Darling Katy! blessed +child! She's thinner than when I see her last, but oh! so beautiful and +grand! Precious lambkin! It isn't wicked now for me to be coming here, +where I can see her face again." + +It was all in vain that Mattie pulled her dress, bidding her sit down +as people were staring at her. Aunt Betsy did not hear, and if she had +she would scarcely have cared for those who did look at her, and who, +following her eyes, saw the beautiful young ladies, behind whom Wilford +and Mark were standing, but never dreamed of associating them with the +"crazy thing" who sank back at last into her seat, keeping her eyes +still upon the box where Helen and Katy sat, their heads uncovered and +their rich cloaks falling off just enough to show the astonished woman +that both their necks were uncovered, too, while Helen's arms, raised to +adjust her glass, were discovered to be in the same condition. + +"Ain't they splendid in full dress?" Mattie whispered, while Aunt Betsy +replied: + +"Call that full dress? I'd sooner say it was no dress at all! They'll +catch their death of cold. What would their mother say?" + +Then as the enormity of the act grew upon her, she continued more to +herself than to Mattie: + +"I mistrusted Catherine, but that Helen should come to this passes me." + +Still as she became more accustomed to it, and glanced at other +full-dressed ladies, the first shock passed away, and she could calmly +contemplate Katy's dress, wondering what it cost, and then letting her +eyes pass on to Helen, to whom Mark Ray seemed so loverlike that Aunt +Betsy remembered her impressions when he stopped at Silverton, her heart +swelling with pride as she thought of both the girls making out so well. + +"Who is that young man talking to Helen?" Mattie asked, between the +acts, and when told that it was "Mr. Ray, Wilford's partner," she drew +her breath eagerly, and turned again to watch him, envying the young +girl who did not seem as much gratified with the attentions as Mattie +fancied she should do were she in Helen's place. + +How could she, with Juno Cameron just opposite, watching her jealously, +while Madam Cameron fanned herself in dignity, refusing to look upon +what she so greatly disapproved. + +But Mark did not care who was watching him, and continued his attentions +until Helen wished herself away, and though a good deal surprised, was +not sorry when Wilford abruptly declared the opera a bore, and suggested +going home. + +They would order an ice, he said, and have a much pleasanter time in +their own private parlor. + +"Please don't go; I rather like the play to-night," Katy said; but on +Wilford's face there was that look which never consulted Katy's wishes, +and so the two ladies tied on their cloaks, and just as the curtain rose +in the last act, left their box, Juno wondering at the movement, and +hoping Mark would now come around to her, while Aunt Betsy looked +wistfully after them, but did not suspect she was the cause of their +exit, and of Wilford's evident perturbation. + +Running his eye over the house below, it had fallen upon the trio, Aunt +Betsy, Mattie and Tom, the first of whom was at that moment partly +standing, while she adjusted her heavy shawl, which the heat of the +building had compelled her to unfasten. + +There was a start, a rush of blood to the head and face, and then he +reflected how impossible it was that she should be there, in New York, +and at the opera, too. + +The shawl arranged, Aunt Betsy took her seat and turned her face fully +toward him, while Wilford seized Katy's glass and leveled it at her. He +was not mistaken. It was Aunt Betsy Barlow, and Wilford felt the +perspiration oozing out beneath his hair and about his lips, as he +remembered the letter he had burned, wishing now that he had answered +it, and so, perhaps, have kept her from his door. For she was coming +there, nay, possibly had come, since his departure from home, and +learning his whereabouts, had followed on to the Academy of Music, +leaving her baggage where he should stumble over it on entering the +hall. + +Such was the fearful picture conjured up by Wilford's imagination, as +he stood watching poor Aunt Betsy, a dark cloud on his brow and fierce +anger at his heart, that she should thus presume to worry and annoy him. + +"If she spies us she will be finding her way up here; there's no piece +of effrontery of which that class is not capable," he thought, wondering +next who the vulgar-looking girl and _gauche_ youth were who were with +her. + +"Country cousins, of whom I have never heard, no doubt," and he ground +his teeth together as with his next breath he suggested going home, +carrying out his suggestion and hurrying both Helen and Katy to the +carriage as if some horrible dragon had been on their track. + +There was no baggage in the hall, there had been no woman there, and +Wilford's fears for a time subsided, but growing strong again about the +time he knew the opera was out, while the sound of wheels coming toward +his door was sufficient to make his heart stop beating and every hair +prickle at its roots. + +But Aunt Betsy did not come except in Wilford's dreams, which she +haunted the entire night, so that the morning found him tired, moody, +and cross. That day they entertained a select dinner party, and as this +was something in which Katy rather excelled, while Helen's presence, +instead of detracting from, would add greatly to the _éclat_ of the +affair, Wilford had anticipated it with no small degree of complacency. +But now, alas! there was a phantom at his side--a skeleton of horror, +wearing Aunt Betsy's guise; and if it had been possible he would have +given the dinner up. But it was too late for that; the guests were +bidden, the arrangements made, and there was nothing now for him but +to abide the consequences. + +"She shall at least stay in her room, if I have to lock her in," he +thought, as he went down to his office without even kissing Katy or +bidding her good-by. + +But business that day had no interest for him, and in a listless, absent +way he sat watching the passers-by and glancing at his door as if he +expected the first assault to be made there. Then as the day wore on, +and he felt sure that what he so much dreaded had really come to pass, +that the baggage expected last night had certainly arrived by this time +and spread itself over his house, he could endure the suspense no +longer, and startled Mark with the announcement that he was going home, +and should not return again that day. + +"Going home, when Leavitt is to call at three!" Mark said, in much +surprise, and feeling that it would be a relief to unburden himself to +some one, the story came out how Wilford had seen Aunt Betsy at the +opera, and expected to find her at Madison Square. + +"I wish I had answered her letter about that confounded sheep pasture," +he said, "for I would rather give a thousand dollars--yes, ten +thousand--than have her with us to-day. I did not marry my wife's +relations," he continued, excitedly, adding, as Mark looked quickly up, +"Of course I don't mean Helen. She is right; and though she rasps me a +little, I'd rather have her than not. Neither do I mean that doctor, for +he is a gentleman. But this Barlow woman--oh! Mark, I am all of dripping +sweat just to think of it." + +He did not say what he intended doing, but with Mark Ray's ringing laugh +in his ears, passed into the street, and hailing a stage was driven +toward home, just as a downtown stage deposited on the walk in front of +his office "that Barlow woman" and Mattie Tubbs! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +AUNT BETSY CONSULTS A LAWYER. + + +Aunt Betsy did not rest well after her return from the opera. Novelty +and excitement always kept her awake, while her mind was not wholly at +ease with regard to what she had done. Not that she really felt she had +committed a sin, except so far as the example might be bad, but she +feared the result, should it ever reach the orthodox church at Silverton. + +"There's no telling what Deacon Bannister would do--send a subpoena +after me, for what I know," she thought, as she laid her tired head upon +her pillow and went off into that weary state halfway between sleep and +wakefulness, a state in which operas, play actors, Katy in full dress, +Helen and Mark Ray, choruses, music by the orchestra, to which she had +been guilty of beating her foot, Deacon Bannister and the whole offended +brotherhood, with constable and subpoenas, were pretty equally blended +together--the music which she liked, and the subpoena which she feared +taking the precedence of the others. + +But with the daylight her fears subsided, and at the breakfast table +she was hardly less enthusiastic over the opera than Mattie herself, +averring, however; that "once would do her and she had no wish to go +again." + +The sight of Katy looking so frail and delicate, but so beautiful +withal, had awakened all the olden intense love she had felt for her +darling, and she could not wait much longer without seeing her "in her +own home and hearing her blessed voice." + +"Hannah, and Lucy amongst 'em, advised me not to come," she said to Mrs. +Tubbs, "hinting that I might not be wanted up there; but now I'm here I +shall go if I don't stay more than an hour." + +"Of course I should," Mattie answered, herself anxious to stand beneath +Wilford Cameron's roof and see Mrs. Wilford at home. "She don't look as +proud as Helen, and you are her aunt, her blood kin, so why shouldn't +you go there if you like?" + +"I shall--I am going," Aunt Betsy replied, feeling that to take Mattie +with her was not quite the thing, and not exactly knowing how to manage, +for the girl must of course pilot the way. "I'll risk it and trust to +Providence," was her final decision, and so after an early lunch she +started out with Mattie as her escort, suggesting that they visit +Wilford's office first and get that affair out of her mind. + +At this point Aunt Betsy began to look upon herself as a most hardened +wretch, wondering at the depths of iniquity to which she had fallen. The +opera was the least of her offenses, for she was not harboring pride and +contriving how to be rid of 'Tilda Tubbs, as clever a girl as ever +lived, hoping that if she found Wilford he would see her home, and so +save 'Tilda the trouble? Playhouses, pride, vanity, subterfuge and +deceit--it was a long catalogue she would have to confess to Deacon +Bannister, if confess she did, and with a groan the conscience-smitten +woman followed her conductor along the street, and at last into the +stage which took them to Wilford's office. + +Broadway was literally jammed that day, and the aid of two policemen was +required to extricate the bewildered countrywoman from the mass of +vehicles and horses' heads, which took all her sense away. Trembling +like a leaf when Mattie explained that the "two nice men" who had +dragged her to the walk were police officers, and thinking again of the +subpoena, the frightened woman who had escaped such peril, followed up +the two flights of stairs and into Wilford's office, where she sank +breathless into a chair, while Mark, not in the least surprised, greeted +her cordially, and very soon succeeded in getting her quiet, bowing so +graciously to Mattie when introduced that the poor girl dreamed of him +for many a night, and by day built castles of what might have been had +she been rich, instead of only 'Tilda Tubbs, whose home was on the +Bowery. Why need Aunt Betsy in her introduction have mentioned that +fact? Mattie thought, her cheeks burning scarlet; or why need she +afterward speak of her as 'Tilda, who was kind enough to come with her +to the office where she hoped to find Wilford? Poor Mattie, she knew +some things very well, but she had never yet conceived of the +immeasurable distance between herself and Mark Ray, who cared but little +whether her home were on the Bowery or on Murray Hill, after the first +sight which told him what she was. He was very polite to her, however, +for it was not in his nature to be otherwise, while the fact that she +came with Helen's aunt gave her some claim upon him. + +"Mr. Cameron had just left the office and would not return that day," +he said to Aunt Betsy, asking if he could assist her in any way, and +assuring her of his willingness to do so. + +Aunt Betsy could talk with him better than with Wilford, and was about +to give him the story of the sheep pasture in detail, when, motioning to +a side door, he said, "Walk in here, please. You will not be liable to +so many interruptions." + +"Come, 'Tilda, it's no privacy," Aunt Betsy said; but Tilda felt +intuitively that she was not wanted, and rather haughtily declined, +amusing herself by the window, while Aunt Betsy in the private office +told her troubles to Mark Ray; and received in return the advice to let +the claimant go to law if he chose, he probably would make nothing by +it, and even if he did, she would not sustain a heavy loss, according to +her own statement of the value of the land. + +"If I could keep the sweet apple-tree, I wouldn't care," Aunt Betsy +said, "for, the rest ain't worth a lawsuit; though it's my property, and +I have thought of willing it to Helen, if she ever marries." + +Here was a temptation which Mark Ray could not resist. Ever since Mrs. +General Reynolds' party Helen's manner had puzzled him; but her shyness +only made him more in love than ever, while the rumor of her engagement +with Dr. Morris tormented him continually. Sometimes he believed it, and +sometimes he did not, wishing always that he knew for certain. Here then +was a chance for confirming his fears or for putting them at rest, and +blessing 'Tilda Tubbs for declining to enter his back office, he said in +reply to Aunt Betsy's "If she ever marries," "And of course she will. +She is engaged, I believe?" + +"Engaged? Who to? When? Strange she never writ, nor Katy neither," Aunt +Betsy exclaimed, while Mark, raised to an ecstatic state, replied, "I +refer to Dr. Grant. Haven't they been engaged for a long time past?" + +"Why--no--indeed," was the response, and Mark could have hugged the good +old lady, who continued in a confidential tone: "I used to think they'd +make a good match; but I've gin that up, and now I sometimes mistrust +'twas Katy, Morris wanted. Anyhow, he's mighty changed since she was +married, and he never speaks her name. I never heard anybody say so, and +maybe it's all a fancy, so you won't mention it." + +"Certainly not," Mark replied, drawing nearer to her, and continuing in +a low tone, "Isn't it possible that after all Helen is engaged to her +cousin, and you do not know it?" + +"No," and Aunt Betsy grew very positive. "I am sure she ain't, for only +t'other day I said to Morris that I wouldn't wonder if Helen and another +chap had a hankerin' for one another; and he said he wished it might be +so, for you--no, that other chap, I mean--would make a splendid +husband," and Aunt Betsy turned very red at the blunder, which made Mark +Ray feel as if he walked on air, with no obstacle whatever in his path. + +Still he could not be satisfied without probing her a little deeper, and +so he said: "And that other chap? Does he live in Silverton?" + +Aunt Betsy's look was a sufficient answer; for the old lady knew he was +quizzing her, just as she felt that in some way she had removed a +stumbling block from his path. She had--a very large stumbling block, +and in the first flush of his joy and gratitude he could do most +anything. So when she spoke of going up to Katy's, he set himself +industriously at work to prevent it for that day at least. "They were to +have a large dinner party," he said, "and both Mrs. Cameron and Miss +Lennox would be wholly occupied. Would it not be better to wait until +to-morrow? Did she contemplate a long stay in New York?" + +"No, she might go back to-morrow--certainly the day after," Aunt Betsy +replied, her voice trembling at this fresh impediment thrown in the way +of her seeing Katy. + +The quaver in her voice touched Mark's sympathy. "She was old and +simple-hearted. She was Helen's aunt," and this, more than aught else, +helped him to a decision. "She must be homesick in the Bowery; he should +die if compelled to stay there long; he would take her to his mother's +and keep her until the morrow, and perhaps until she left for home; +telling Helen that night, of course, and then suffering her to act +accordingly." + +This he proposed to his client; assuring her of his mother's entire +willingness to receive her, and urging so many reasons why she should go +there, instead of "up to Katy's," where they were in such confusion that +Aunt Betsy was at last persuaded, and was soon riding uptown in a +Twenty-third Street stage, with Mark Ray her _vis-à-vis_ and Mattie at +her right. Why Mattie was there Mark could not conjecture; and perhaps +she did not know herself, unless it were that, disappointed in her call +on Mrs. Cameron, she vaguely hoped for some redress by calling on Mrs. +Banker. How then was she chagrined, when, as the stage left them at a +handsome brownstone front, near Fifth Avenue Hotel, Mark said to her, as +if she were not of course expected to go in, "Please tell your mother +that Miss Barlow is stopping with Mrs. Banker to-day. Has she baggage at +your house?--If so, we will send around for it at once. Your number, +please?" + +His manner was so offhand and yet so polite that Mattie could neither +resist him, nor yet be angry, though there was a sad feeling of +disappointment at her heart as she gave the required number, and then +shook Aunt Betsy's hand, whispering in a choked voice: + +"You'll come to us again before you go home?" + +"Of course I shall," Aunt Betsy answered, feeling that something was +wrong, and wondering if she herself were in fault. + +With a good-by to Mark, whose bow atoned for a great deal, Mattie walked +slowly away, leaving Mark greatly relieved. Aunt Betsy was as much as he +cared to have on his hands at once, and as he led her up the steps, he +began to wonder more and more what his mother would say to his bringing +that stranger into her house, unbidden and unsought. + +"I'll tell her just the truth," was his rapid decision, and assuming +a manner which warned the servant who answered his ring neither to be +curious nor impertinent, he conducted his charge into the parlor, and +bringing her a chair before the grate, went in quest of his mother, who +he found was out. + +"Kindle a fire then in the front guest chamber," he said, "and see that +it is made comfortable as soon as possible." + +The servant bowed in acquiescence, wondering who had come, and feeling +not a little surprised at the description given by John of the woman he +had let into the house, and who now in the parlor was looking around her +in astonishment and delight, thinking she had found New York at last, +and condemning herself for the feeling of homesickness with which she +remembered the Bowery, contrasting her "cluttered quarters" there with +the elegance around her. "Was Katy's house as fine as this?" she asked +herself, feeling intuitively that such as she might be out of place in +it, just as she began to fear she was out of her place here, bemoaning +the fact that she had forgotten her capbox, with its contents, and so +could not remove her bonnet, as she had nothing with which to cover her +gray head. + +"What shall I do?" she was asking herself, when Mark appeared, explaining +that his mother was absent, but would be at home in a short time. + +"Your room will soon be ready," he continued, "and meantime you might +lay aside your wrappings here if you find them too warm." + +There was something about Mark Ray which inspired confidence, and in her +extremity Aunt Betsy gasped, "I can't take off my bunnet till I get my +caps down to Mrs. Tubbs'. Oh, what a trouble I be." + +Not exactly comprehending the nature of the difficulty, Mark suggested +that she go without a cap until he could send for them; but Aunt Betsy's +assertion that "she was grayer than a rat," enlightened him with regard +to her dilemma, and full permission was given for her "to sit in her +bonnet" until such time as a messenger could go to the Bowery and back. +In this condition she had better be in her own room, and as it was in +readiness, Mark himself conducted her to it, the stern gravity of his +face putting down the laugh which sprang to the waiting maid's eyes at +the old lady's ejaculations of surprise and amazement that anything +could be so fine as the house where she so unexpectedly found herself a +guest. + +"She is unaccustomed to the city, but a particular friend of mine; so +see that you treat her with respect," was all the explanation he +vouchsafed to the curious girl. + +But that was enough. A friend of Mr. Ray's must be somebody, even if she +sat with two bonnets on instead of one, and appeared ten times more +rustic than Aunt Betsy, who breathed freer when she found herself alone +upstairs, and knew her baggage would soon be there. + +In some little trepidation Mark paced up and down the parlor waiting +for his mother, who came ere long, expressing her surprise to find him +there, and asking if anything had happened that he seemed so agitated. + +"Yes, I'm in a deuced scrape," he answered, coming up to her with the +saucy, winning smile she could never resist, and continuing, "To be in +at the foundation, you know how much I am in love with Helen Lennox?" + +"No, I don't," was the reply, as Mrs. Banker removed her fur with the +most provoking coolness. "How should I know when you have never told me?" + +"Haven't you eyes? Can't you see? Don't you like her yourself?" + +"Yes, very much." + +"And are you willing she should be your daughter?" + +Mark had his arm around his mother's neck, and bending his face to hers, +kissed her playfully as he asked her the last question. + +"Say, mother, are you willing I should marry Helen Lennox?" + +There was a struggle in Mrs. Banker's heart, and for a moment she felt +jealous of the girl whom she had guessed was dearer to her son than ever +his mother could be again, but she was a sensible woman. She knew that +it was natural for another and a stronger love to come between her and +her boy. She liked Helen Lennox. She was willing to take her as a +daughter, and she said so at last, and listened half amazed and half +amused to the story which had in it so much of Aunt Betsy Barlow, who +had cleared away his doubts, and who at that very moment was an occupant +of their best guest chamber, sitting with her bonnet on, and waiting for +her cap from the Bowery. + +"Perhaps it was wrong to bring her home," he added, "but I did it to +spare Helen. I knew just what a savage Wilford would be if he found her +there, where she would be in the way. Say, mother, was I wrong?" + +He was not often wrong in his mother's estimation, and certainly he was +not now, when he kissed her so often, begging her to say he had done +right. + +Certainly he had. Mrs. Banker was very glad to find him so thoughtful; +few young men would do as much, she said, and from feeling a little +doubtful, Mark came to look upon himself as a very nice young man, who +had done a most unselfish act, for of course he had not been influenced +by any desire to keep Aunt Betsy from the people who would be present at +the dinner, neither had Helen been at all mixed up in the affair. + +It was all himself, and he began to whistle "Annie Laurie" very +complacently, thinking the while what a clever fellow he was, and +meditating other dangerous acts toward the old lady overhead, standing +by the window, and wondering what the huge building could be gleaming +so white in the fading light. + +"Looks as if it was made of stone cheena," she thought, just as Mrs. +Banker appeared, her kind, friendly manner making Aunt Betsy feel wholly +at ease, as she answered the lady's questions or volunteered remarks of +her own. + +Mrs. Banker had lived in the country, and had seen just such women as +Aunt Betsy Barlow, understanding her intrinsic worth, and knowing how +Helen Lennox, though her niece, could still be refined and cultivated. +She could also understand how one educated as Wilford Cameron had been +would shrink from coming in contact with her, and possibly be rude if +she thrust herself upon him. Mark did well to bring her here, she +thought, as she left the room to order the tea which the tired woman so +much needed. The satchel, umbrella and capbox, with a note from Mattie, +had by this time arrived, and in her Sunday cap, with the purple bows, +Aunt Betsy felt much better, and enjoyed the tempting little supper, +served on silver and Sèvres china, the attendant waiting in the hall +instead of in her room, where her presence might embarrass one +unaccustomed to such usages. They were thoughtful, very kind, and had +Mark been her own son she could not have been more deferential than he +appeared when just before starting for the dinner he went up to see her, +asking what message he should take to Helen. Mrs. Banker, too, came in, +her dress eliciting many compliments from her guest, who ventured to ask +the price of the diamond pin which fastened the point lace collar. Five +hundred dollars seemed an enormous sum, but Aunt Betsy was learning fast +not to say all she thought, and merely remarked that Katy had some +diamonds, too, which she presumed cost full as much as that. + +"She should do very well alone," she said, "she could read her Bible, +and if she got too tired, go to bed, though she guessed she should stay +up till they came home, so as to hear about the doin's," and with a +good-by she sent them away, after saying to Mrs. Banker, "Maybe you +ain't the kissin' kind, but if you be, I wish you would kiss Katy once +for me." + +There was a merry twinkle in Mark's eyes as he asked: + +"And Helen, too?" + +"I meant your marm, not you," Aunt Betsy answered; while Mrs. Banker +raised her hand to her mischievous son, who ran lightly down the stairs, +carrying a happier heart than he had known since Helen Lennox had first +come to New York, and he had met her at the depot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE DINNER PARTY. + + +It was a very select party which Wilford Cameron entertained that +evening; and as the carriages rolled to his door and deposited the +guests, the cloud which had been lifting ever since he came home and +found "no Barlow woman" there, disappeared entirely, leaving him the +blandest, most urbane of hosts, pleased with everybody--himself, his +guests, his sister-in-law, and his wife, who had never looked better +than she did to-night, in pearls and light blue silk, which harmonized +so perfectly with her waxlike complexion. Like some little fairy she +flitted through the rooms, receiving, with a sweet childlike grace the +kiss which Mrs. Banker gave her, but never dreaming from whom it came. +Aunt Betsy's proximity was wholly unsuspected, both by her and Helen, +who was very handsome to-night, in crimson and black, with lilies in her +hair. Nothing could please Mark better than his seat at table, where he +could look into her eyes, which dropped so shyly whenever they met his +ardent gaze. Helen was beginning to doubt the story of his engagement +with Juno, or at least to think that it might possibly have been broken +off. Certainly she could not mistake the nature of the attentions he +paid to her, especially to-night, when he hovered continually near her, +totally ignoring Juno's presence, and conscious apparently of only one +form, one face, and that the face and form of Helen Lennox. + +There was another, too, who felt the influence of Helen's beauty, and +that was Lieutenant Bob, who, after dinner, attached himself to her +side, while around them gathered quite a group, all listening with peals +of laughter as Bob, who was something of a mimic, related his adventure +of two days before, with "the most rustic and charming old lady it was +ever his fortune to meet." Told by Bob the story lost nothing of its +freshness; for every particular, except indeed the kindness he had shown +her, was related, even to the sheep pasture, about which she was going +to New York to consult a lawyer. + +"I thought once of referring her to you, Mr. Cameron," Bob said; "but +couldn't find it in my heart to quiz her, she was so wholly unsuspicious. +You have not seen her, have you?" + +"No," came faintly from the lips which tried to smile; for Wilford knew +who was the heroine of that story; wondering more and more where she +was, and feeling a sensation of uneasiness as he thought, "Can any +accident have befallen her?" + +It was hardly probable; but Wilford felt very uncomfortable after +hearing the story, which had brought a pang of doubt and fear to another +mind than his. From the very first Helen feared that Aunt Betsy was the +"odd woman" who had gotten upon the train at some station which Bob +could not remember; while, as the story progressed, she was sure of it, +for she had heard of the sheep-pasture trouble, and of Aunt Betsy's +projected visit to New York, privately writing to her mother not to +suffer it, as Wilford would be so greatly vexed. "Yes, it must be Aunt +Betsy," she thought, and she turned so white that Mark, who was watching +both her and Wilford, came as soon as possible to her side, and adroitly +separating from the group around, said softly: "You look tired, Miss +Lennox. Come with me a moment. I have something to tell you." + +Alone with her in the hall, he continued, "I have the sequel of Bob +Reynolds' story. That woman--" + +"Was Aunt Betsy," Helen gasped. "But where is she now? That was two days +ago. Tell me if you know. Mr. Ray, you do know," and in her agony of +fear lest something dreadful had happened, she laid her hand on Mark's, +beseeching him to tell her if he knew where Aunt Betsy was. + +It was worth torturing her for a moment to see the pleading look in her +eyes, and feel the soft touch of the hand which he took between both his +own, holding it there while he answered her: "Aunt Betsy is at my house; +kidnapped by me for safe keeping, until I could consult with you. Was +that right?" he asked as a flush came to Helen's cheek, and an +expression to her eye which told that his meaning was understood. + +"Is she there willingly? How did it happen?" was Helen's reply, her +hand still in those of Mark, who thus circumstanced grew very warm and +eloquent with the sequel to Bob's story, making it as long as possible, +telling what he knew, and also what he had done. + +He had not implicated Wilford in any way; but Helen read it all, saying +more to herself than him: "And she was at the opera. Wilford must have +seen her, and that is why he left so suddenly, and why he has appeared +so absent and nervous to-day, as if expecting something. Excuse me," she +suddenly added, drawing her hand away and stepping back a little, "I +forgot that I was talking as if you knew." + +"I do know more than you suppose--that is, I know human nature--and I +know Will better than I did that morning when I first met you," Mark +said, glancing at the freed hand he wished so much to take again. + +But Helen kept her hands to herself, and answered him. + +"You did right under the circumstances. It would have been unpleasant +for us all had she happened here to-night. I thank you, Mr. Ray--you and +your mother, too--more than I can express. I will see her early to-morrow +morning. Tell her so, please, and again I thank you." + +There were tears in Helen's soft brown eyes, and they glittered like +diamonds as she looked even more than spoke her thanks to the young man, +who, for another look like that, would have driven Aunt Betsy amid the +gayest crowd that ever frequented the Park, and sworn she was his blood +relation! A few words from Mrs. Banker confirmed what Mark had said, and +it was not strange if that night Miss Lennox, usually so entertaining, +was a little absent, for her thoughts were up in that chamber on +Twenty-third Street, where Aunt Betsy sat alone, but not lonely, for +her mind was very busy with all she had been through since leaving +Silverton, while something kept suggesting to her that it would have +been wiser and better to have stayed at home than to have ventured where +she was so sadly out of place. This last came gradually to Aunt Betsy +as she thought the matter over, and remembered Wilford as he had +appeared each time he came to Silverton. + +"I ain't like him; I ain't like this Miss Banker; I ain't like anybody," +she whispered. "I'm nothin' but a homely, old-fashioned woman, without +larnin', without nothin'. I might know I wasn't wanted," and a rain of +tears fell over the wrinkled face as she uttered this tirade against +herself, standing before the long mirror and inspecting the image it +gave back of a plain, unpolished countrywoman, not much resembling Mrs. +Banker, it must be confessed, nor much resembling the gay young ladies +she had seen at the opera the previous night. "I won't go near Katy," +she continued; "it will only mortify her, and I don't want to make her +trouble. The poor thing's face looked as if she had it now, and I won't +add to it. I'll start for home to-morrow. There's Miss Smith, in +Springfield, will keep me overnight, and Katy shan't be bothered." + +When this decision was reached Aunt Betsy felt a great deal better, and +taking the Bible from the table, she sat down again before the fire, +opening, as by a special Providence, to the chapter where hewers of wood +and drawers of water are mentioned as being necessary to mankind, each +filling his appointed place. + +"That's me--that's Betsy Barlow," she whispered, taking off her glasses +to wipe away the moisture gathering so fast upon them. Then resuming +them, she continued: "I'm a hewer of wood--a drawer of water. God made +me so, and shall the clay find fault with the potter for making it into +a homely jug? No, indeed; and I was a very foolish old jug to think of +sticking myself in with the chinaware. But I've larnt a lesson," and the +philosophic woman read on, feeling comforted to know that though a +vessel of the rudest make, a paltry jug, as she called herself, the +promises were still for her as much as for the finer wares--ay, that +there was more hope of her entering at last where "the walls are all of +precious stones and the streets are paved with gold," than of those +whose good things are given so abundantly during their lifetime. + +Assured, comforted, and encouraged, she fell asleep at last, and when +Mrs. Banker returned she found her slumbering quietly in her chair, the +Bible open on her lap, and her finger upon the passage referring to the +hewers of wood and drawers of water, as if that was the last thing read. + +Next morning, at a comparatively early hour, Helen stood ringing the +bell of Mrs. Banker's house. She had passed a restless, but not +altogether wretched night, for the remembrance of Mark's kindness in +keeping Aunt Betsy away, and his manner while telling her of it would +not permit of her being more than anxious as she lay awake, wondering +why Mark was so kind, and if it could be possible that he was free from +Juno and cared for her. It made her happy to think so, and her face, as +she stood upon the steps, looked bright and fresh, instead of pale and +tired, as it usually did after a night of wakefulness. She had said to +Katy that she was going out and could not tell just when she might +return, and as Katy never questioned her acts, while Wilford was too +intent upon his own miserable thoughts as to "where Aunt Betsy could be +or what had befallen her," to heed any one else, no inquiries were made +and no obstacles put in the way of her going to Mrs. Banker's, where +Mark met her himself, holding her cold hand until he led her to the fire +and placed her in a chair. He knew she would rather meet her aunt alone, +and so when he heard her step in the hall he left the room, holding the +door for Aunt Betsy, who wept like a little child at the sight of Helen, +accusing herself of being a fool, an old fool, who ought to be shut up +in the insane asylum, but persisting in saying she was going home that +very day without seeing Katy at all. "If she was here I'd like it, but I +shan't go there, for I know Wilford don't want me. Say, Helen, don't you +think he'll be ashamed of me and wish I was in Guinea?" she asked as her +desire to see Katy grew stronger, but was met and combated with her +dread of Wilford! + +Helen could not tell her he would be ashamed, but Aunt Betsy knew she +meant it, and with a fresh gush of tears she gave the project up +entirely, telling Helen all she did not already know of her trip to New +York, her visit to the opera, her staying with the Tubbses and her +meeting with Mark, the best young chap she ever saw, not even excepting +Morris. "If he was my own son, he couldn't be kinder," she added, "and I +mistrust he hopes to be my nephew. You can't do better, and if he +offers, take him." + +Helen's cheeks were crimson as she waived this part of the conversation +and wished aloud that she had come around in the carriage, as she could +thus have taken Aunt Betsy over the city before the train would leave. + +"Mark spoke of that when he heard I was going to-day," Aunt Betsy said; +"I'll warrant you he'll tend to it." + +Aunt Betsy was right, for when Mark and his mother joined their guests +and learned that Aunt Betsy's intention was unchanged, he suggested the +ride and offered the use of their carriage. Helen did not decline the +offer, and ere half an hour had passed, Aunt Betsy, with her satchel, +umbrella and capbox, was comfortably adjusted in Mrs. Banker's carriage +with Helen beside her, while Mark bade his coachman drive wherever Miss +Lennox wished to go, taking care to reach the train in time. + +They were tearful thanks which Aunt Betsy gave to her kind friends as +she was driven away, going first to the Bowery to say good-by and leave +the packages of fruits and herbs, lest the Tubbses should "think her +suddenly stuck up." + +"Would you mind taking 'Tilda in? It would please her mightily," Aunt +Betsy whispered, as they were alighting in front of Mr. Peter Tubbs'; +and as the result of this suggestion the carriage, when again it emerged +into Broadway, held Mattie Tubbs, happier, prouder than she had been in +all her life before, while the gratified mother at home felt amply +repaid for all the trouble her visitor had made her. + +And Helen enjoyed it, too, finding Mattie a little insipid and tiresome, +it is true, but feeling happy in the consciousness that she was making +others happy. It was a long drive they took, and Aunt Betsy saw so much +that her brain grew giddy and she was glad when they started for the +depot, taking Madison Square on the way and passing Katy's house. + +"I dare say it is all grand and smart," Aunt Betsy said, leaning out to +look at it, "but I feel best at hum where they are used to me." + +And her face did bear a brighter look, when finally seated in the cars, +than it had before since she left Silverton. + +"You'll be home in April, and maybe Katy'll come, too," she whispered as +she kissed Helen good-by and shook hands with Mattie Tubbs, thanking her +for her kindness in seein' to an old woman, and charging her again never +to let the folks in Silverton know that "Betsy Barlow had once been seen +at a playhouse." + +Slowly the cars moved away and Helen was driven home, leaving Mattie +alone in her glory as she rolled down the Bowery, enjoying greatly the +_éclat_ of her position, but feeling a little chagrined at not meeting a +single acquaintance by whom to be envied and admired. Only Tom saw her +alight, giving vent to a whistle, and asking if she didn't feel big, as +he tried to hold out his pantaloons in imitation of her dress and walk +as she disappeared through the door where the dry goods were swinging. + +Katy did not ask where Helen had been, for she was wholly absorbed in +Marian Hazelton's letter, telling how fast the baby improved, how pretty +it was growing, and how fond both she and Mrs. Hubbell were of it, +loving it almost as well as if it were their own. + +"I know now it was best for it to go, but it was hard at first," Katy +said, putting the letter away, and sighing wearily as she missed the +clasp of the little arms and touch of the baby lips. + +Several times Helen was tempted to tell her of Aunt Betsy's visit, but +decided finally not to do so as it might distress her to know that +strangers rendered the hospitalities it was her duty to give, and so +Katy never guessed the truth, nor knew what it was which for many days +made Wilford so nervous and uneasy, starting quickly at every sudden +ring, going often to the window, and looking out into the street as if +expecting some one who never came, while he grew strangely anxious for +news from Silverton, asking when Katy had heard from home, and why she +did not write. One there was, however, who knew and who enjoyed it +vastly, watching Wilford closely, and guessing just how his anxiety +grew as day after day went by; and she neither came nor was heard from +in any way, for Helen did not show the letter apprising her of Aunt +Betsy's safe arrival home, and so all in Wilford's mind was left a vague +conjecture. + +He had seen her, she had been in New York, as was proven by Bob +Reynolds, but where was she now, and who were those people with her? Had +they entrapped her into some snare, and possibly murdered her? It might +be. Such things were not of rare occurrence, and Wilford actually grew +poor with the uncertainty which hung over the fate of one whom in his +present state of mind he would have warmly welcomed to his fireside, had +there been a dozen dinner parties in progress. At last, as he sat one +day in his office, with the same worried look on his face, Mark, who had +also been watching him, said: + +"By the way, Will, how did that sheep pasture come out, or didn't the +client appear?" + +"Mark," and Wilford's voice was husky with emotion; "you've stumbled +upon the very thing which is tormenting my life out of me. Aunt Betsy +has never turned up or been heard from since that night. For aught I +know she was murdered, or spirited away, and I am half distracted. I'd +give a thousand dollars to know what has become of her." + +"Put down half that pile and I'll tell you," was Mark's nonchalant +reply, while Wilford, seizing his shoulder and compelling him to look +up, exclaimed: + +"You know, then? Tell me--you do know? Where is she?" + +"Safe in Silverton, I presume," was the reply, and then Mark told his +story, to which Wilford listened, half incredulous, half indignant, and +a good deal relieved. + +"You are a splendid fellow, Mark, though I must say you meddled, but I +know you did not do it unselfishly. Yes, on the whole, I thank you and +Helen, too, for saving me that mortification. I feel like a new man, +knowing the old lady is safe at home, where I trust she will remain. And +that Tom, who called here yesterday, asking to be our clerk, is the +youth I saw at the opera. I thought his face was familiar. Let him come +of course. In my gratitude I feel like patronizing the entire Tubbs +family." + +And so it was this flash of gratitude for a peril escaped which procured +for young Tom Tubbs the situation of clerk in the office of Cameron and +Ray, the application for such situation having been urged by the +ambitious Mattie, who felt her dignity considerably increased when she +could speak of Brother Tom in company with Messrs. Cameron & Ray. And it +was also a part of the same gratitude which suggested the huge package +of merino and gingham, calico and linen, together with the handsome silk +shawl and black lace veil, which a few days later was left by the +express boy at the door of the farmhouse for Miss Betsy Barlow, who in +a long letter overwhelmed Katy with her thanks, and nearly let out her +visit to New York, as yet a secret to Mrs. Wilford. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE SEVENTH REGIMENT. + + +Does the reader remember the pleasant spring days of four years ago, +when the thunder of Fort Sumter's bombardment came echoing up to the +Northern hills and across the Western prairies, stopping for a moment +the pulses of the nation, but quickening them again with a mighty power +as from Maine to California man after man arose to smite the maddened +foe trailing our honored flag in the dust? Nowhere, perhaps, was the +excitement so great or the feeling so strong as in New York, when the +Seventh Regiment was ordered on to Washington, its members, who so often +had trodden the streets with a proud step, never faltering or holding +back, but with a nerving of the will and a putting aside of self, +prepared to do their duty. Conspicuous among them was Mark Ray, who, +laughing at his mother's fears, kissed her livid cheek, and then with +a pang remembered Helen--dearer even than his mother--wondering how she +would feel, and thinking the path to danger would be so much easier if +he knew her love was his, that her prayers, her wishes would go with +him, shielding him from harm and bringing him back again to the +sunshine of her presence. + +And before he went Mark must know this for certain, chiding himself for +having put it off so long. True she had been sick and confined to her +room for a long while after Aunt Betsy's memorable visit; and when she +was able to go out, Lent had put a stop to her mingling in festive +scenes, so that he had seen but little of her, and had never met her +alone. But he would write that very day. She knew, of course, that he +was going, bidding him Godspeed he was sure, for her whole heart was +with the gallant men who had stood so nobly against the enemy, +surrendering only because they must. She would say that he did well to +go; and she would answer "yes" to the question he would ask her. Mark +felt sure of that; but still the letter he wrote was eloquent with his +pleadings for her love, while he confessed his own, and asked that she +would be his wife--would give him the right to carry her in his +heart--to think of her as his affianced bride--to know she waited for +his return, and would crown it at last with the full fruition of her +priceless love. + +"I meet a few of my particular friends at Mrs. Grandon's to-night," he +added, in conclusion. "Can I hope to see you there, taking your presence +as a token that I may speak and tell you in words what I have so poorly +written?" + +"She surely will be there, as it is the last, perhaps, she'll ever see +of some of us poor wretches," Mark said, his hand trembling a little as +he sealed the note, which he would not trust to the post. + +He would deliver it himself, avoiding the possibility of a mistake, he +said, and half an hour later he rang the bell at No. ----, asking "If +Miss Lennox was at home." + +She was; and handing the girl the note, Mark ran down the steps, while +the servant carried the missive to the library, where upon the table lay +other letters received that morning by the penny post, and as yet +unopened; for Katy was very busy, and Helen was dressing to go out with +Juno Cameron, who had graciously asked her to drive with her that +morning and look at a picture she had set her heart on having. + +Juno had not yet appeared; but Mark was scarcely out of sight when she +came in with the familiarity of a sister and entered the library to +wait. Carelessly turning over the books upon the table, she stumbled +over Mark's letter, which, through some defect in the envelope, had +become unsealed, and lay with its edge lifted so that to peer at its +contents was a very easy matter had she been so disposed. But Juno, +though indignant and jealous--for she knew the handwriting--could not at +first bring herself even to touch what was intended for her rival. But +as she gazed the longing grew, until at last she took it in her hand, +turning it to the light, and tracing distinctly the words "My dear +Helen," while a storm of pain and passion swept over her, mingled with +a feeling of shame that she had let herself down so far. + +"It does not matter now," the tempter whispered. "You may as well read +it and know the worst. Nobody will suspect it," and so, led on step by +step, she was about to take the folded letter from the envelope, +intending fully to replace it after it was read, when a rapid step +warned her some one was coming, and hastily thrusting the letter in her +pocket, she dropped her veil to cover her confusion, and then confronted +Helen Lennox, ready for the drive, and all unconscious of the wrong +which could not then be righted. + +Juno was unusually kind and familiar that morning, delicately +complimenting Helen's taste with regard to pictures, and trying in +various ways to forget the letter which lay upon her conscience like +a leaden weight, driving all other thoughts from her mind, and leaving +only the torturing one, "How can I return it without detection?" Juno +did not mean to keep the letter, and all that morning she was devising +measures for making restitution, even thinking once to confess the +whole, but shrinking from that as more than she could do. As they were +driving home they met Mark Ray; but Helen, who chanced to be looking in +an opposite direction, did not see the earnest look of scrutiny he gave +her, scarcely heeding Juno, whose face was all ablaze with guilt as she +returned his bow, and whose voice trembled as she spoke of him to Helen +and his intended departure. Helen observed the tremor in her voice, and +pitied the girl whose agitation she fancied arose from the fact that her +lover was so soon to go where danger and possibly death were waiting. +In Helen's heart, too, there was a cutting pang whenever she remembered +Mark, and what had so recently passed between them, raising hopes which +now were wholly blasted. For he was Juno's, she believed, and the grief +at his projected departure was the cause of that young lady's softened +and even humbled demeanor, as she insisted on Helen's stopping at her +house for lunch before going home. + +To this Helen consented--Juno still revolving in her mind how to return +the letter, which grew more and more a horror to her. It was in her +pocket yet, she knew, for she had felt it there when, after lunch, she +went to her room for a fresh handkerchief. She would accompany Helen +home, would manage to slip into the library alone, and put it partly +under a book, so that it would appear to be hidden, and thus account for +it not having been seen before; or better yet, she would catch it up +playfully and banter Helen on her carelessness in leaving her love +letters so exposed. This last seemed a very clever plan, and with her +spirits quite elated, Juno drove around with Helen, finding no one in +the parlor below, and felicitating herself upon the fact that Helen left +her alone while she ran up to Katy. + +"Now is my time," she thought, stealing noiselessly into the library and +feeling for the letter. + +But it was not there. It was missing, gone, and no amount of search, no +shaking of handkerchief, or turning of pocket inside out could avail to +find it. The letter was lost, and in the utmost consternation Juno +returned to the parlor, still hunting for the letter, and appearing so +abstracted as scarcely to be civil when Katy came down to see her; +asking if she was going that night to Sybil Grandon's, and talking of +the dreadful war, which she hoped would not be a war after all. Juno was +too wretched to talk, and after a few moments she started for home, +hunting in her own room and through the halls, but failing in her +search, and finally giving it up, with the consoling reflection that +were it found in the street, as seemed quite probable, no suspicion +could fasten on her; and as fear of detection, rather than contrition +for the sin, had been the cause of her distress, she grew comparatively +calm, save when her conscience made itself heard and admonished +confession as the only reparation which was now in her power. But Juno +could not confess, and all that day she was absent-minded and silent, +while her mother watched her closely, wondering what connection, if any, +there was between her burning cheeks and the letter she had found upon +the floor in her daughter's room just after she had left it; the letter, +at whose contents she had glanced, shutting her lips firmly together as +she saw that her plans had failed, and finally putting the document away +where there was less hope of its ever finding its rightful owner than if +it had remained with Juno. Had Mrs. Cameron supposed that Helen had +already seen it, she would have returned it at once; but of this she had +her doubts, after learning that "Miss Lennox did not go upstairs at +all." Juno, then, must have been the delinquent; and though the mother +shrank from the act as unladylike, if nothing more, she resolved to keep +the letter till some inquiry was made for it at least. And so Helen, +sitting by her window, and looking dreamily out into the street, with a +feeling of sad foreboding as she thought of the dark cloud which had +burst so suddenly upon the nation's horizon, enveloping Mark Ray in its +dark fold, and bearing him away, possibly never to return again, had no +suspicion of the truth, and did not guess how anxiously the young man +was anticipating the interview at Sybil Grandon's, scarcely doubting +that she would be there, and fancying just the expression of her eyes +when they first met his. Alas for Mark, also for Helen, that both should +be so cruelly deceived. Had the latter known of the loving words sent +from the true heart which longed for some word of hers to lighten the +long march and beguile the tedious days of absence, she would not have +said to Katy, when asked if going to Mrs. Grandon's, "Oh, no; please +don't urge me. I would so much rather stay at home." + +Katy would not insist and so went alone with Wilford to the +entertainment given to a few young men who seemed as heroes then, when +the full meaning of that word had not been exemplified, as it has been +since in the life so cheerfully laid down and the heart's blood poured +so freely, by the tens of thousands who have won a martyr's and a hero's +name. Curiously, eagerly Mark Ray scanned each new arrival, feeling his +lips grow white and his pulses faint when he at last caught sight of +Wilford's tall figure, and looked for what might be beside it. But only +Katy was there. Helen had not come, and with a feeling of chill despair +Mark listened while Katy explained to Mrs. Grandon that her sister had +fully intended coming in the morning, but had suddenly changed her mind +and begged to be excused. + +"I am sorry," Sybil said, "and so I am sure is Mr. Ray," turning lightly +to Mark, whose white face froze the gay laugh on her lips and made her +try to shield him from observation until he had time to recover himself +and appear as usual. + +How Mark blessed Sybil Grandon for that kindness, and how wildly the +blood throbbed through his veins as he thought "She would not come. She +does not care. I have deceived myself in hoping that she did, and now +welcome war, welcome anything which shall help me to forget." + +Mark was very wretched, and his wretchedness showed itself upon his +face, making more than one rally him for what they termed fear, while +they tried to reassure him that to the Seventh there could be no danger +after Baltimore was safely passed. This was more than Mark could bear, +and at an early hour he left the house, bidding Katy good-by in the +hall, and telling her he probably should not see her again, as he would +not have time to call. + +"Not call to say good-by to Helen," Katy exclaimed. + +"Helen will not care," was Mark's reply as he hurried away into the +darkness of the night, more welcome in his present state of mind than +the gay scene he had left. + +And this was all Katy had to carry to Helen, who beat the window pane +nervously, fighting back the tears wrung out by her disappointment, for +she had expected to see Mark once more, to bless him as a sister might +bless a brother, speaking to him words of cheer and bidding him go on to +where duty led. But he was not coming and she only saw him from the +carriage window, as with proud step and head erect he passed with his +regiment through the densely crowded streets, where the wailing cries +and the loud hurrahs of the multitude, which no man could number, rent +the air and told how terribly in earnest the great city was, and how +its heart was with that gallant band, their pet, their pride, sent forth +on a mission such as it had never had before. But Mark did not see +Helen, and only his mother's white face as it looked when it said "God +bless my boy" was clear before his eyes as he moved on through Broadway +and down Cortlandt Street, until the ferryboat received him, and the +crowd began to disperse. + +There was more than one pillow wet with tears that night as mothers, +wives and sisters wept for the loved ones gone, but nowhere were sadder, +bitterer tears shed than in the silent chamber where Helen Lennox prayed +that God would guard that regiment and bring it back again as full of +life and vigor as it had gone away. For them all she prayed, in a +general kind of way, but there was one whose image was in her heart, +whose name was ever on her lip, breaking the silence of the room, which +echoed the name of Mark, who, could he have heard that prayer, would +have cast aside the heavy pain, so hard to bear during those first days +when his cruel disappointment was fresh and the soldier duty new. + +Now that Mark was gone, Mrs. Banker turned intuitively to Helen, finding +greater comfort in her quiet sympathy than in the more wordy condolence +offered by Juno, who as she heard nothing from the letter, began to lose +her fears of detection and even suffer her friends to rally her upon the +absence of Mark Ray and the anxiety she must feel on his account. +Moments there were, however, when thoughts of the stolen letter brought +a pang, while Helen's face was a continual reproach, and she was glad +when toward the first of May her rival left New York for Silverton, +where, as the spring and summer work came on, her services were needed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +KATY GOES TO SILVERTON. + + +A summer day in Silverton--a soft, bright August day, when the early +rareripes by the well were turning their red cheeks to the sun, and the +flowers in the garden were lifting their heads proudly and nodding to +each other as if they knew the secret which made that day so bright +above all others. Old Whitey, by the hitching post, was munching at his +oats and glancing occasionally at the covered buggy standing on the +greensward, fresh and clean as water from the pond could make it; the +harness, new, not mended, lying upon a rock, where Katy used to feed the +sheep with salt, and the whip standing upright in its socket, all +waiting for the deacon, donning his best suit of clothes, even to a +stiff shirt collar which almost cut his ears, his face shining with +anticipations which he knew would be realized. Katy was really coming +home, and in proof thereof there were behind the house and barn piles of +rubbish, lath and plaster, moldy paper and broken bricks, the tokens and +remains of the repairing process, which for so long a time had made the +farmhouse a scene of dire confusion, driving its inmates nearly +distracted, except when they remembered for whose sake they endured so +much, inhaling clouds of lime, stepping over heaps of mortar, tearing +their dress skirts on sundry nails projecting from every conceivable +quarter, and wondering the while if the masons ever would finish or the +carpenters be gone. + +As a condition on which Katy might be permitted to come home, Wilford +had stipulated an improvement in the interior arrangement of the house, +offering to bear the expense even to the furnishing of the rooms. To +this the family demurred at first, not liking Wilford's dictatorial +manner, nor his insinuation that their home was not good enough for +his wife, Mrs. Katy Cameron. But Helen turned the tide, appreciating +Wilford's feelings better than the others could do, and urging a +compliance with his request. + +"Anything to get Katy home," she said, and so the chimney was torn away, +a window was put here and an addition made there, until the house was +really improved with its pleasant, modern parlor and the large airy +bedroom, with bathing-room attached, the whole the idea of Wilford, who +graciously deigned to come out once or twice from New London, where he +was spending a few weeks, to superintend the work and suggest how it +should be done. + +The furniture, too, which he sent on from New York, was perfect in its +kind, not elegant like Katy's, but well adapted to the rooms it was to +adorn, and suitable in every respect. Helen enjoyed the settling very +much, and when it was finished it was hard telling which was the more +pleased, she or good Aunt Betsy, who, having confessed in a general kind +of way at a sewing society that she did go to a playhouse, and was not +so very sorry either, except as the example might do harm, had nothing +on her conscience now, nothing to fear from New York, and was +proportionately happy. At least she would have been if Morris had not +seemed so off, as she expressed it, and evincing no pleasure at Katy's +expected visit. He had been polite to Wilford, had kept him at Linwood, +taking him to and from the depot, but even Wilford had thought him +changed, telling Katy how very sober and grave he had become, rarely +smiling, and not seeming to care to talk unless it were about his +profession or on some religious topic. And Morris was greatly changed. +The wound which in most hearts would have healed by this time had grown +deeper with each succeeding year, while from all he heard he felt sure +that Katy's marriage was a sad mistake, wishing sometimes that he had +spoken, and so perhaps have saved her from the life in which she could +not be wholly free. "She would be happier with me," he had said, with a +sad smile to Helen, when once she told him of some things which she had +not mentioned elsewhere, and there were great tears in Morris' eyes, +tears of which he was not ashamed when Helen spoke of Katy's distress, +and the look which crept into her face when baby was taken away. When +Morris first heard of the baby he had hoped he might love Katy less; +that she would seem to him as more a wife and less a girl, but she did +not, and there were times when the silent doctor, living alone at +Linwood, felt that his grief was too great to bear. But the deep, dark +waters were always forded safely, and Morris' faith in God prevailed, so +that only a dull, heavy pain remained, with the consciousness that it +was no sin to remember Katy as she was remembered now. Oh, how he had +longed to see her, and yet how he had dreaded it, lest poor weak human +flesh should prove inadequate to the sight. But she was coming home; +Providence had ordered that and he accepted it, looking eagerly for the +time when he should see her again, but repressing his eagerness, so that +not even Helen suspected how impatient he was for the day of her return. +Four weeks she had been at the Pequot House in New London, occupying a +little cottage and luxuriating in the joy of having her child with her +almost every day. Country air and country nursing had wrought wonders in +the baby, which had grown so beautiful and bright that it was no longer +in Wilford's way save as it took too much of Katy's time, and made her +careless for the gay crowd at the hotel. + +Marian was working at her trade, and never came to the hotel except one +day when Wilford was in New York, but that day sufficed for Katy to know +that after herself it was Marian whom baby loved the best--Marian, who +cared for it even more than Mrs. Hubbell. And Katy was glad to have it +so, especially after Wilford and his mother decided that she must leave +the child in New London while she made the visit to Silverton. + +Wilford did not like her taking so much care of it as she was inclined +to do. It had grown too heavy for her to lift; it was better with Mrs. +Hubbell, he said, and so to the inmates of the farmhouse Katy wrote that +baby was not coming. + +They were bitterly disappointed, for Katy's baby had been anticipated +quite as much as Katy herself, Aunt Betsy bringing from the woodshed +chamber a cradle which nearly forty years before had rocked the deacon's +only child, the little boy, who died just as he had learned to lisp his +mother's name. As a momento of those days the cradle had been kept, Katy +using it sometimes for her kittens and her dolls, until she grew too old +for that, when it was put away beneath the eaves whence Aunt Betsy +dragged it, scouring it with soap and sand, until it was white as snow. +But it would not be needed, and with a sigh the old lady carried it +back, thinking "things had come to a pretty pass when a woman who could +dance and carouse till twelve o'clock at night was too weakly to take +care of her child," and feeling a very little awe of Katy who must have +grown so fine a lady. + +But all this passed away as the time drew near when Katy was to come, +and no one seemed happier than Aunt Betsy on the morning when Whitey was +eating his oats, and the carriage stood on the greensward. The sky above +and the earth beneath were much as they were that other day when they +were expecting Katy, but Helen's face was not as bright, or her steps as +buoyant. She could not forget who was there one year ago, and all the +morning painful memories had been tugging at her heart as she remembered +the past, and wondered at the gloomy silence which Mark Ray had +maintained toward her ever since the day when the Seventh Regiment left +New York, followed by so many prayers and tears. He had returned, she +knew, but neither from his mother nor himself had there ever come a word +or message for her, while Bell Cameron, who wrote to her occasionally, +had spoken of his attentions to Juno as becoming more pointed than ever. + +"I have strong hopes that in time Juno will be quite a woman," Bell +added. "She is not so proud and sarcastic as she used to be, and all the +while Mark was gone she seemed very much depressed, so that I began to +believe she really liked him. You would hardly recognize her in her new +phase, she acts so humble like, as if she were constantly asking +forgiveness; and this, you know, is something novel for her." + +After this letter Helen sat herself resolutely at work to forget all +that had ever passed between herself and Mark, succeeding so well that +Silverton and its duties ceased to be very irksome, until the +anniversary of the morning when he had twined the lily in her hair, and +looked such fancies in her heart. It was well for her that too many +things were claiming her attention to allow of solitary regrets. + +Katy's room was to be arranged, Katy's "box bed," as Aunt Betsy called +it, to be fixed, flowers to be gathered for the parlor and vegetables +for the dinner, so that her hands were full, up to the moment when Uncle +Ephraim drove away from the door, setting old Whitey into a canter, +which, by the time the "race" was reached, had become a rapid trot, the +old man holding up his reins and looking proudly at the oat-fed animal, +speeding along so fast. + +He did not have long to wait this time, for the train came rolling +across the meadow, and while his head was turned toward the car where he +fancied she might be, a pair of arms were thrown impetuously around his +neck, and a little figure, standing on tiptoe, almost pulled him down in +its attempts to kiss him. + +"Uncle Eph! oh, Uncle Eph, I've come! I'm here," a young voice cried; +but the words the deacon would have spoken were smothered by the kisses +which pressed upon his lips, kisses which only came to an end when a +voice said, rather reprovingly: "There, Katy, that will do. You have +almost strangled him." + +Wilford had not been expected, and the expression of the deacon's face +was not a very cordial greeting to the young man who hastened to explain +that he should only stop till the next train, and then go on to Boston. +In his presence the deacon was not quite natural, but he lifted in his +arms his "little Katy-did," looking straight into her face, where there +were as yet no real lines of care, only shadows, which told that in some +respects she was not the same Katy he had parted with two years before. +There was a good deal of the city about her dress and style, and the +deacon felt a little overawed at first; but this wore off as on their +way to the farmhouse, she, sitting partly in his lap and partly in her +husband's, kept one hand upon his neck, her snowy fingers occasionally +playing with his silvery hair, while she looked at him with her loving +old smile, and asked questions about the people he supposed she had +forgotten, nodding to everybody she met, whether she knew them or not, +and at last, as the old house came in sight, hiding her face in a gush +of happy tears upon his neck, not Wilford's. That gentleman was watching +her in silence, wishing she were less impulsive, and wondering at the +strong home-love he could not understand. To him there was nothing +pleasant in that low, humble farmhouse, or in the rocks and hills which +overshadowed it; while, with the exception of Helen, the women gathered +at the door as they came up were very distasteful to him. But with Katy +it was different. They were her rocks, her hills, her woods, and more +than all, they were her folks into whose arms she threw herself with an +impetuous rush, scarcely waiting for old Whitey to stop, but with one +leap clearing the wheel and springing first to the embrace of her +mother. It was a joyful meeting, and when the first excitement was over +Katy inspected the improvements, approving all, and thanking Wilford for +having done so much for her comfort. + +"I shall sleep so nicely here," she said, tossing her hat into Helen's +lap, and lying down at once upon the bed it had taken so long to make. +"Yes, I shall rest so nicely, knowing I can wear my wrapper all day +long. Don't look so horrified, Wilford," she added, as she caught his +eye. "I shall dress me sometimes; but you don't know what a luxury it +is to feel that I need not unless I like." + +"Didn't you rest at New London?" Helen asked, when Wilford had left the +room. + +"Yes, some," Katy replied; "but there were dances every night, or sails +upon the bay, and I had to go, for many of our friends were there, and +Wilford was not willing for me to be quiet." + +This, then, was the reason why Katy came home so weary and pale, and +craving so much the rest she had not had in more than two years. But she +would get it now, and before the first dinner was eaten some of her old +color came stealing back to her cheeks, and her eyes began to dance just +as they used to do, while her merry voice rang out in silvery peals at +Aunt Betsy's quaint remarks, which struck her so forcibly from not +having heard them for so long a tune. A hit of a lecture Wilford deemed +it his duty to give her when after dinner they sat together alone for +half an hour. "She must restrain herself. Surely she was old enough +to be more womanly, and she would tire herself out with her nervous +restlessness, besides giving the people a bad opinion of Mrs. Wilford +Cameron." + +To this Katy listened quietly, breathing freer when it was over, and +breathing freer still when Wilford was gone, even though her tears did +fall as she watched him out of sight, and knew it would be at least four +weeks before she saw him again. To the entire family his departure +brought relief; but they were not prepared for the change it produced in +Katy; who, freed from all restraint, came back so soon to what she was +when a young, careless girl she sat upon the doorsteps and curled the +dandelion stalks. She did not do this now, for there were none to curl; +but she strung upon a thread the delicate petals of the phlox growing by +the door, and then bound it as a crown about the head of her mother, who +could not yet quite recognize her Katy in the elegant Mrs. Wilford +Cameron, with rustling silk, and diamonds flashing on her hands every +time they moved. But when she saw her racing with the old brown goat and +its little kid out in the apple orchard, her head uncovered, and her +bright curls blowing about her face, the feeling disappeared, and she +felt that Katy had indeed come back again. + +And where all the while was Morris? Were his patients so numerous that +he could not find time to call upon his cousin? Katy had inquired for +him immediately after her arrival, but in her excitement she had +forgotten him again, until Wilford was gone and tea was over, when, just +as she had done on the day of her return from Canandaigua, she took her +hat and started on the well-worn path toward Linwood. She was not going +there, she said, she only wanted to try the road and see if it had +changed since she used to go that way to gather butternuts in the autumn +or berries in the summer. Airily she tripped along, her light plaid silk +gleaming through the deep green of the trees and revealing her coming to +the tired man sitting upon a little rustic seat, beneath a chestnut +tree, where he once had sat with Katy, and extracted a cruel sliver from +her hand, kissing the place to make it well as she told him to. She was +a child then, a little girl of twelve, and he was twenty, but the sight +of her pure face lifted confidingly to his had stirred his heart as no +other face had stirred it since, making him look forward to a time when +the hand he kissed would be his own, and his the fairy form he watched +so carefully as it expanded day by day into the perfect woman. He was +thinking of that time now, and how different it had all turned out, when +he heard the bounding step and saw her coming toward him, swinging her +hat in childish abandon, and warbling a song she had learned from him. + +"Morris, oh, Morris!" she cried, as she ran eagerly forward; "I am so +glad to see you. It seems so nice to be with you once more here in the +dear old woods. Don't get up--please don't get up," she continued, as he +started to rise. + +She was standing before him, a hand on either side of his face, into +which she was looking quite as wistfully as he was regarding her. +Something she missed in his manner, something which troubled her; and +thinking she knew what it was, she said to him: "Why don't you kiss me, +Morris? You used to. Ain't you glad to see me?" + +"Yes, very glad," he answered, and drawing her down to the bench beside +him, he kissed her twice, but so gravely, so quietly, that Katy was not +satisfied at all, and tears gathered in her eyes as she tried to think +what it was ailed Morris. + +He was very thin, and there were a few white hairs about his temples, so +that, though four years younger than her husband, he seemed to her much +older, quite grandfatherly in fact, and this accounted for the liberties +she took, asking what was the matter, and trying to make him like her +again, by assuring him that she was not as vain and foolish as he must +suppose from what Helen had probably told him of her life since leaving +Silverton. + +"I do not like it at all," she said. "I am in it, and must conform; but, +oh Morris! you don't know how much happier I should be if Wilford were +just like you, and lived at Linwood instead of New York. I should be so +happy here with baby all the time." + +It was well she spoke that name, for Morris, listening to her as she +charged him with indifference, could not have borne much more; but the +mention of her child had a strange power over him, of quieting him at +once, so that he could calmly tell her that she was the same to him that +she had always been, while with his next breath he asked: "Where is your +baby, Katy?" adding with a smile: "I can remember when you were a baby, +and I held you in my arms." + +"Can you really?" Katy said; and as if that remembrance made him older +than the hills, she nestled her curly head against his shoulder, while +she told him of her bright-eyed darling, and as she talked the +mother-love which spread itself over her girlish face made it more +beautiful than anything Morris had ever seen. + +"Surely an angel's countenance cannot be fairer, purer than hers," he +thought, listening while she talked of the only thing which had a power +to separate her from him, making her seem as a friend, or at most as a +beloved sister. + +A long time they talked together, and the sun was setting ere Morris +rose, suggesting that she go home, as the night dew would soon be +falling. + +"And you are not as strong as you once were," he added, pulling her +shawl around her shoulders with careful solicitude, and thinking how +slender she had become. + +From the back parlor Helen saw them coming up the path, detecting the +changed expression of Morris' face, and feeling a pang of fear when as +he left them after nine o'clock she heard her mother say that he had not +appeared so natural since Katy went away as he had done that night. +Knowing what she did, Helen trembled for Morris, with this terrible +temptation before him, and Morris trembled for himself as he went back +the lonely path, and stopped again beneath the chestnut tree where he +had so lately sat with Katy. There was a great fear at his heart, and it +found utterance in words as kneeling by the rustic bench with only the +lonely night around him and the green boughs overhead, he asked that he +might be kept from sin, both in thought and deed, and be to Katy Cameron +just what she took him for, her friend and elder brother. And God, who +knew the sincerity of the heart thus pleading before him, heard and +answered the prayer, so that after that first night of trial Morris +could look on Katy without a wish that she were otherwise than Wilford +Cameron's wife and the mother of his child. He was happier because of +her being at the farmhouse, though he did not go there one-half as often +as she came to him. She seemed to prefer Linwood to the farmhouse, +staying there hours, both when he was at home and when he was away, +strolling through his garden, or sitting quietly in the pleasant +summer-house which looked out upon the pond. + +Those September days were happy ones to Katy, who, freed from all +restraint, became a child again--a petted, spoiled child, whom every one +caressed and suffered to have her way. To Uncle Ephraim it was as if +some bright angel had suddenly dropped into his path, flooding it with +sunshine, and making him so glad to have back his "Katy-did," who went +with him to the fields, waiting patiently till his work was done, and +telling him of all the wondrous things she saw abroad, but speaking +little of her city life. That was something she did not care to talk +about, and but for Wilford's letters, and the frequent mention of baby, +the deacon could easily have imagined that Katy had never left him. But +these were barriers between the old life and the present, these were the +insignia of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, who was watched and envied by the +curious Silvertonians, and pronounced charming by them all. Still there +was one drawback to Katy's happiness. She missed her child, mourning for +it so much that her family, quite as anxious as herself to see it, +suggested her sending for it. It would surely take no harm with them, +and Marian would come with it. To this plan Katy listened more willingly +from the fact that Wilford had gone West, and the greater the distance +between them the more she dared to do. And so Marian Hazelton was one +day startled at the sudden appearance at the cottage of Katy, who had +come to take her and baby to Silverton. + +There was no resisting the vehemence of Katy's arguments, and before the +next day's sunsetting, the farmhouse, usually so quiet and orderly, had +been turned into one general nursery, where Baby Cameron reigned +supreme, screaming with delight at the tinware which Aunt Betsy brought +out from the cake cutter to the dipper, the little creature beating a +noisy tattoo upon the latter with an iron spoon, and then for diversion +burying its fat dimpled hands in Uncle Ephraim's long white hair, for +the old man went down upon all fours to do his great-grand niece homage. + +That night Morris came up, stopping suddenly as a loud baby laugh +reached him, even across the orchard, and leaning for a moment against +the wall, while he tried to prepare himself for the shock it would be to +see Katy's child, and hold it in his arms, as he knew he must, or the +mother be aggrieved. + +He had supposed it was pretty, but he was not prepared for the beautiful +little cherub which in its short white dress, with its soft curls of +golden brown clustering about its head, stood holding to a chair, +pushing it occasionally, and venturing now and then to take a step, +while its infantile laugh mingled with the screams of its delighted +auditors, watching it with so much interest. + +There was one great, bitter, burning pang, a blur before his eyes, and +then, folding his arms composedly upon the window sill, Dr. Grant stood +looking in upon the occupants of the room, whistling at last to baby, as +he was accustomed to whistle to the children of his patients. + +"Oh, Morris," Katy cried, "baby can almost walk, Marian has taken so +much pains, and she can say 'papa.' Isn't she a beauty?" + +Baby had turned her head by this time, her ear caught by the whistle and +her eye arrested by something in Morris which fascinated her gaze. +Perhaps she thought of Wilford, of whom she had been very fond, for she +pushed her chair toward him and then held up her fat, creasy arms for +him to take her. Morris was fond of children and took the infant at +once, strained it to his bosom with a passionate caress, which seemed to +have in it something of the love he bore the mother, who went off into +ecstasies of joy when baby, attacking Morris' hair and patting softly +his cheek, tried to kiss him as it had been taught by Marian. Never was +mother prouder, happier than Katy during the first few days succeeding +baby's arrival, while the family seemed to tread on air, so swiftly the +time went by with that active little life in their midst, stirring them +up so constantly, putting to rout all their rules of order and keeping +their house in a state of delightful confusion. + +It was wonderful how rapidly the child improved with so many teachers, +learning to lisp its mother's name and taught by her attempting to say +"Doctor." From the very first the child took to Morris, crying after him +whenever he went away, and hailing his arrival with a crow of joy and an +eager attempt to reach him. + +"It was altogether too forward for this world," Aunt Betsy often said, +shaking her head ominously, but not really meaning what she predicted, +even when for a few days it did not seem as bright as usual, but lay +quietly in Katy's lap, a blue look about the mouth and a flush upon its +cheeks, which neither Morris nor Marian liked. + +More accustomed to children than the other members of the family, they +both watched it closely, Morris coming over twice one day, and the last +time he came regarding Katy with a look as if he would fain ward off +from her some evil-which he feared. + +"What is it, Morris?" she asked. "Is baby going to be very sick?" and a +great crushing fear came upon her as she waited for his answer. + +"I hope not," he said; "I cannot tell as yet; the symptoms are like +cholera infantum, of which I have several cases, but if taken in time +I apprehend no danger." + +There was a low shriek and baby opened its heavy lids and moaned, while +Helen came at once to Katy, holding her hand upon her heart as if the +pain had entered there. To Marian it was no news, for ever since the +early morning she had suspected the nature of the disease stealing over +the little child, so suddenly stricken down, and looking by the +lamplight so pale and sick. All night the light burned in the farmhouse, +where there were anxious, troubled faces, Katy bending constantly over +her darling, and even amid her terrible anxiety dreading Wilford's +displeasure when he should hear what she had done and its possible +result. She did not believe as yet that her child would die; but she +suffered acutely, watching for the early dawn when Morris had said he +would be there, and when at last he came, begging of him to stay, to +leave his other patients and care only for baby. + +"Would that be right?" Morris asked, and Katy blushed for her +selfishness when she heard how many were sick and dying around them. "I +will spend every leisure moment here," he said, leaving his directions +with Marian and then hurrying away without a word of hope for the child, +growing worse so fast that when the night shut down again it lay upon a +pillow, its blue eyes closed and its head thrown back, while its sad +moanings could only be hushed by carrying it in one's arms about the +room, a task which Katy could not do. + +She had tried it once, refusing all their offers with the reply: "Baby +is mine and shall I not carry her?" + +But the feeble strength gave out, the limbs began to totter, and +staggering backward she cried: "Somebody must take her." + +It was Marian who went forward, Marian, whose face was a puzzle as she +took the infant in her stronger arms, her stony eyes, which had not wept +as yet, fastening themselves upon the face of Wilford Cameron's child +with a look which seemed to say: "Retribution, retribution." + +But only when she remembered the father, now so proud of his daughter, +was that word in her heart. She could not harbor it when she glanced at +the mother, and her lips moved in earnest prayer that, if possible, God +would not leave her so desolate. An hour later and Morris came, +relieving Marian of her burden which he carried in his own arms, while +he strove to comfort Katy, who, crouching by the empty crib, was sitting +motionless in a kind of dumb despair, all hope crushed out by his answer +to her entreaties that he would tell her the truth, keeping nothing +back. + +"I think your baby will die," he had said to her very gently, pausing a +moment in awe of the white face, whose expression terrified and shocked +him, it was so full of agony. + +Bowing her head upon her hands, poor Katy whispered sadly: "God must not +take my baby. Oh, Morris, please pray that he will not. He will hear and +answer you, while I have been so bad I cannot pray. But I'm not going to +be bad again. If he will let me keep my darling I will begin a new life. +I will try to serve him. Dear Lord, hear and answer, and not let baby +die." + +She was praying herself now, and Morris' broad chest heaved as he +glanced at her kneeling figure, and then at the death-like face upon +the pillow, with the pinched look about the nose and lips, which to his +practiced eye was a harbinger of death. + +"Its father should be here," he thought, and when Katy lifted up her +head again he asked if she was sure her husband had not yet returned +from Minnesota. + +"Yes, sure--that is, I think he has not," was Katy's answer, a chill +creeping over her at the thought of meeting Wilford, and giving him his +daughter dead. + +"I shall telegraph in the morning at all events," Morris continued, +"and if he is not in New York, it will be forwarded." + +"Yes, that will be best," was the reply, spoken so mournfully that +Morris stopped in front of Katy, trying to reason with her. + +But Katy would not listen, only answering to him that he did not know, +he could not feel, he never had been tried. + +"Perhaps not," Morris said; "but Heaven is my witness, Katy, that if I +could save you this pain by giving up my life for baby's, I would do it +willingly; but God does not give us our choice. He knoweth what is best, +and baby is better with Him than us." + +For a moment Katy was silent, then, as a new idea took possession of her +mind, she sprang to Morris' side and seizing his arm, demanded: "Can an +unbaptized child be saved?" + +"We nowhere read that baptism is a saving ordinance," was Morris' +answer; while Katy continued: "But do you believe they will be saved?" + +"Yes, I do," was the decided response, which, however, did not ease +Katy's mind, and she moaned on: "A child of heathen parents may, but I +knew better, I knew it was my duty to give the child to God, and for a +foolish fancy withheld the gift until it is too late, and God will take +it without the mark upon its forehead, the water on its brow. Oh, baby, +baby, if she should be lost--no name, no mark, no baptismal sign." + +"Not water, but the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin," Morris said, +"and as sure as he died so sure this little one is safe. Besides that, +there may be time for the baptism yet--that is, to-morrow. Baby will not +die to-night, and if you like, it still shall have a name." + +Eagerly Katy seized upon that idea, thinking more of the sign, the +water, than the name, which scarcely occupied her thoughts at all. It +did not matter what the child was called, so that it became one of the +little ones in glory, and with a calmer, quieter demeanor than she had +shown that day she saw Morris depart at a late hour; and then turning to +the child which Uncle Ephraim now was holding, kissed it lovingly, +whispering as she did so: "Baby shall be baptized--baby shall have the +sign." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +LITTLE GENEVRA. + + +Morris had telegraphed to New York, receiving in reply that Wilford was +hourly expected home, and would at once hasten on to Silverton. The +clergyman, Mr. Kelly, had also been seen, but owing to a funeral which +would take him out of town, he could not be at the farmhouse until five +in the afternoon, when, if the child still lived, he would be glad to +officiate as requested. All this Morris had communicated to Katy, who +listened in a kind of stupor, gasping for breath, when she heard that +Wilford would so soon be there, and moaning "that will be too late," +when told that the baptism could not take place till night. Then, +kneeling by the crib where the child was lying, she fastened her great, +sad blue eyes upon the pallid face with an earnestness as if thus she +would hold till nightfall the life flickering so faintly and seeming so +nearly finished. The wailings had ceased, and they no longer carried it +within their arms, but had placed it in its crib, where it lay perfectly +still, save as its eyes occasionally unclosed and turned wistfully +toward the cups, where it knew was something which quenched its raging +thirst. Once, indeed, as the hours crept on to noon and Katy bent over +it so that her curls swept its face, it seemed to know her, and the +little wasted hand was for a moment uplifted and rested on her cheek +with the same caressing motion it had been wont to use in health. Then +hope whispered that it might live, and with a great cry of joy Katy +sobbed: "She knows me, Morris--mother, see; she knows me. Maybe she will +live." + +But the dull stupor which succeeded to that act swept all hope away, and +again Katy resumed her post, watching first her dying child, and then +the long hands of the clock which crept on so slowly, pointing to only +two when she thought it must be five. Would that hour never come, or +coming, would it find baby there? None could answer that last +question--they could only wait and pray, and as they waited thus the +warm September sun neared the western sky till its yellow beams came +stealing through the window and across the floor to where Katy sat +watching its onward progress and looking sometimes out upon the hills +where the purplish autumnal haze was lying just as she once loved to see +it; but she did not heed it now, or care how bright the day with the +flitting shadows dancing on the grass, the tall flowers growing by the +door and old Whitey standing by the gate, his head stretched toward the +house in a kind of dreamy, listening attitude, as if he, too, knew of +the great sorrow hastening on so fast. The others saw all this, and it +made their hearts ache more as they thought of the beautiful little +child, so much fairer than sky or day or flowers could be, going from +their midst when they wished so much to keep her. But Katy had only one +idea, and that was of the child growing very restless now and throwing +up its arms as if in pain. It is striking five, and with each stroke the +dying baby moans, while Katy strains her ear to catch another sound, the +sound of horses' hoofs hurrying up the road. The clergyman has come and +anon the inmates of the house gather around in silence, while he makes +ready to receive the child into Christ's flock, where it so soon will +really be. + +Mrs. Lennox had questioned Helen about the name and Helen had answered: +"Katy knows, I presume. It does not matter," but no one had spoken +directly to Katy, who had scarcely given it a thought, caring more for +the rite she had deferred so long. + +"He must hasten," she said to Morris, her eyes fixed upon the panting +child she had lifted to her own lap, and thus abjured the clergyman +failed to make the usual inquiry concerning the name he was to give. + +Calm and white as a marble statue, Marian Hazelton glided to the back of +Katy's chair, pressing both her hands upon it, and leaning over Katy so +that her eyes too were fixed upon the little face, from which they never +turned but once, and that when the clergyman's voice was heard asking +for a name. There was an instant's silence, and Katy's lips began to +move, when one of Marian's hands was laid upon her head, while the other +took in its own the limp, while baby fingers, and Marian's voice was +very steady in its tone as it said: "Genevra." + +"Yes, Genevra," Katy whispered, and then the solemn words were heard: +"Genevra, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Ghost." + +Softly the baptismal waters fell upon the pale forehead, and at their +touch the little Genevra's eyes unclosed, the waxen fingers withdrew +themselves from Marian's grasp, and again sought the mother's cheek, +resting there for an instant; while a smile broke around the baby lips, +which tried to say "Mam-ma." Then the hand fell back, down upon +Marian's, the soft eyes closed, the limbs grew rigid, the shadow of +death grew deeper, and while the prayer was said, and Marian's tears +fell with Katy's upon the brow where the baptismal waters were not +dried, the angel came, and when the prayer was ended, Morris, who knew +what the rest did not, took the lifeless form from Katy's lap, and +whispered to her gently: "Katy, your baby is dead!" + +An hour later, and the sweet little creature, which had been a sunbeam +in that house for a few happy days, lay upon the bed where Katy said it +must be laid; its form shrouded in the christening robe which Grandma +Cameron had bought, flowers upon its pillow, flowers upon its bosom, +flowers in its hands, which Marian had put there; for Marian's was the +mind which thought of everything concerning the dead child; and Helen, +as she watched her, wondered at the mighty love which showed itself in +every lineament of her face, the blue veins swelling in her forehead, +her eyes bloodshot, and her lips shut firmly together, as if it were by +mere strength of will that she kept back the scalding tears as she +dressed the little Genevra. They spoke of that name in the kitchen when +the first great shock was over, and Helen explained why it had been +Katy's choice. Poor stricken Katy, it was Morris' task to comfort +her--Morris, who sat by her holding the hot, feverish hand she had +placed in his, and telling her of the blessed Savior who loved the +little children while here on earth, and to whom her darling had surely +gone. + +"Safe in His arms it would not come back if it could," he said, "and +neither would you have it." + +But Katy was the mother, and human love could not so soon submit, but +went out after the lost one with a piteous agonizing wail, which hurt +Morris cruelly. + +"Oh, I want my baby back. I know she is safe, but I want her back. She +was my life--all I had to love," Katy moaned, rocking to and fro in this +first hour of her bereavement. + +"You forget your husband," Morris said. "You have him left, and +husbands, I supposed, were dearer than one's children." + +"Yes," Katy answered, "I have Wilford, and am glad of that; but he will +blame me so much for bringing baby here to die. He will say it was my +fault; and that I can't bear. I know it was, know I killed my baby; but +I did not mean to. I would give my life for hers, if like her I was +ready," and into Katy's face there came a look of fear which Morris +failed to understand, not knowing Wilford as well as Katy knew him. + +Surely no man could reproach the half-crazed creature, who all that +night sat by the bedside of her dead child, sleeping a little in her +chair, but obtaining no real rest, so that by the morning her face was +like some white rose on which a fierce storm has beaten, breaking off +its petals and crushing out its life. At nine o'clock there came to her +a telegram. Wilford had reached New York and would be in Silverton that +afternoon, accompanied by Bell. At this last Marian Hazelton caught +eagerly as an excuse for what she intended doing. She could not remain +there after Wilford came, nor was it necessary. Her task was done, or +would be when she had finished the wreath and cross of flowers she was +making for the coffin. Laying them on baby's pillow, Marian went in +quest of Helen, to whom she explained that as Bell Cameron was coming, +and the house would be full, she had decided upon going to West +Silverton, especially as she wished to see the lady with whom she once +boarded, and who had been so kind to her. + +"I might stay," she added, as Helen began to protest, "but you do not +need me. I have done all I can, and would rather go where I can be quiet +for a little." + +To this last argument there could be no demur, and so the same carriage +which at ten o'clock went for Wilford Cameron carried Marian Hazelton +to the village where she preferred being left. + + * * * * * + +In much anxiety and distress Wilford Cameron read the telegram +announcing baby's illness. + +"At Silverton!" he said. "How can that be when the child was at New +London?" and he glanced at the words: + +"Your child is dying at Silverton. Come at once. + +"M. GRANT." + +There could be no mistake, and Wilford's face grew dark, for he guessed +the truth, censuring Katy much, but censuring her family more. They, of +course, had encouraged her in the plan of taking her child from New +London, where it was doing so well, and this was the result. Wilford was +proud of his daughter now, and during the few weeks he had been with it +the little thing had found a strong place in his love. Many times he had +thought of it during his journey West, indulging in bright anticipations +of the coming winter, when he would have it home again. It would not be +in his way now. On the contrary, it would add much to his luxurious +home, and the young father's heart bounded as Wilford Cameron had never +believed his heart could bound, with thoughts of the beautiful baby as +he had last seen it in Katy's arms, crowing its good-by to him and +trying to lisp his name, its sweet voice haunting him for weeks, and +making him a softer, better man, who did not frown impatiently as he +used to do upon the children in the cars, but who took notice of them +all, even laying his hand once on a little curly head which reminded him +of baby's. + +Alas for him, he little dreamed of the great shock in store for him. The +child was undoubtedly very sick, he said, but that it could die was not +possible; and so, though he made ready to hasten to it, he did withhold +his opinion of the rashness, as he termed it, which had brought it to +such peril. + +"Had Katy obeyed me it would not have happened," he said, pacing up and +down the parlor and preparing to say more, when Bell came to Katy's aid, +and lighting furiously upon him, asked what he meant by blaming his +wife so much. + +"For my part," she said, "I think there has been too much fault-finding +and dictation from the very day of the child's birth till now, and if +God takes it, as he may, I shall think it a judgment upon you. First you +were half vexed with Katy because it was not a boy, as if she were to +blame; then you did not like it because it was not more promising and +fair; next it was in your way, and so you sent it off, never considering +Katy any more than if she were a mere automaton, to turn which way you +said. Then you must needs forbid her taking it home to her own family, +as if they had no right, no interest in it. I tell you, Will, it is not +all Cameron--there is some Barlow blood in its veins--Aunt Betsy +Barlow's, too, and you cannot wash it out. Katy had a right to take her +own child where she pleased, and you are not a man if you censure her +for it, as I see in your eyes you mean to do. Suppose it had stayed in +New London and been struck with lightning--you would have been to blame, +of course, according to your own view of things." + +There was too much truth in Bell's remarks for Wilford to retort, even +had he been disposed, and he contented himself with a haughty toss of +his head as she left the room to get herself in readiness for the +journey she insisted upon taking. Wilford was glad she was going, as her +presence at Silverton would relieve him of the awkward embarrassment he +always felt when there; and magnanimously forgiving her for the +plainness of her speech, he was the most attentive of brothers until +Silverton was reached and he found Dr. Grant waiting for him. Something +in his face, as he came forward to meet them, startled both Wilford and +Bell, the latter of whom asked quickly: + +"Is the baby better?" + +"Baby is dead," was the brief reply, and Wilford staggered back against +the doorpost, where he leaned a moment for support in that first great +shock for which he was not prepared. + +"Dead," he repeated, "our baby dead," and Morris was glad that he said +our, as it indicated a thought of Katy as a mutual sharer in the loss. + +Upon the doorstep Bell sat down, crying quietly, for she had loved the +little child, and she listened anxiously while Morris repeated the +particulars of its illness and then spoke of Katy's reproaching herself +so bitterly for having brought it from New London. "She seems entirely +crushed," he continued, when they were driving toward the farmhouse. +"For a few hours I trembled for her reason, while the fear that you +might reproach her added much to the poignancy of her grief." + +Morris said this very calmly, as if it were not what he had all the +while intended saying, and his eye turned toward Wilford, whose lips +were compressed with the emotion he was evidently trying to control. It +was Bell who spoke first. Bell who said impulsively; "Poor Katy, I knew +she would feel so, but it is unnecessary, for none but a savage would +reproach her now, even if she were in fault." + +Morris blessed Bell Cameron in his heart, knowing how much influence her +words would have upon her brother, who brushed away the first tear he +had shed, and tried to say that "of course she was not to blame." + +They were in sight of the farmhouse now, and Bell, with her city ideas, +was looking curiously at it, mentally pronouncing it a nicer, pleasanter +place than she had supposed, inasmuch as it reminded her of the +description she had read of the Virginia farmhouse, where a young +officer was encamped for a few days, an officer who wore a lieutenant's +uniform and who signed himself as Bob. It was very quiet about the +house, and old Whitey's neigh as Morris' span of bays came up was the +only sound which greeted them. In the woodshed door Uncle Ephraim sat +smoking his clay pipe and likening the feathery waves which curled above +his head to the little soul so recently gone upward, while by his side, +upon a log of wood, holding a pan of the luscious peaches she was +slicing up for tea, sat a woman whom Bell knew at once for Aunt Betsy +Barlow, thinking more of the peaches than of the old lady who, pan in +hand, came forward to met her, curtseying very low when introduced by +Morris, and asking to be excused from shaking hands, inasmuch as hers +were not fit to be touched. Bell's quick eye took her in at a glance, +from her clean spotted gown to her plain muslin cap tied with a black +ribbon, put on that day with a view to mourning, and then darted off to +Uncle Ephraim, who won her heart at once when she heard how his voice +trembled as he took Wilford's hand and said so pityingly, so +father-like: "Young man, this is a sad day for you and you have my +sympathy, for I remember well how my heart ached when, on just such a +day as this, my only child lay dead as yours is lying." + +Every muscle of Wilford's face quivered then, but he was too proud to +show all that he felt, and he was glad when Helen appeared in the door, +as that diverted his mind somewhat, and he greeted her most cordially, +even stooping down and kissing her smooth forehead, a thing he had never +done before. But sorrow is a great softener and Wilford was very sorry, +feeling his loss more here where everything was so quiet, so suggestive +of death. + +"Where is Katy?" he asked. + +"She is sleeping for the first time since the baby died. She is in here +with the child. She will stay nowhere else," Helen said, opening softly +the door of the bedroom and motioning Wilford in. + +With hushed breath and a beating heart, Wilford stepped across the +threshold and Helen closed the door, leaving him alone with the living +and the dead. Pure and beautiful as some fair blossom, the dead child +lay upon the bed, the curls of golden hair clustering about its head, +and on its lips the smile which had settled there when it tried to say +"mamma"--its dimpled hands folded upon its breast, where lay the cross +of flowers which Marian Hazelton had made--flowers upon its pillow, +flowers around its head, flowers upon its shroud, flowers everywhere, +and itself the fairest flower of all, Wilford thought as he stood gazing +at it and then let his eye move on to where poor, tired, worn-out Katy +had crept up so close beside it that her breath touched the marble cheek +and her own disordered hair rested upon the pillow of her child. Even in +her sleep her tears kept dropping from the long eyelashes, and the pale +lips quivered in a grieved, touching way. Hard indeed would Wilford have +been had he cherished one bitter thought against the wife so wounded. He +could not when he saw her, but no one ever knew just what passed through +his mind during the half hour he sat there beside her, scarcely +stirring and not daring to kiss his child lest he should awaken her. He +could hear the ticking of his watch and the beating of his heart as he +waited for the first sound which should herald Katy's waking. + +Suddenly there was a low, gasping moan, and Katy's eyes unclosed and +rested on her husband. He was bending over her in an instant, and her +arms were around his neck, while she said to him so sadly: + +"Our baby is dead--you've nobody left but me; and oh! Wilford, you will +not blame me bringing baby here? I did not think she would die. I'd give +my life for hers if that would bring her back. Say, Wilford, would you +rather it was me lying as baby lies, and she here in your arms?" + +"No, Katy," Wilford answered, and by his voice Katy knew that she was +wholly forgiven, crying on his neck in a plaintive, piteous way, while +Wilford soothed and pitied and caressed, feeling subdued and humbled, +and we must confess it, feeling too how very good and generous he was to +be thus forbearing, when but for Katy's act of disobedience they might +not now be childless! + + * * * * * + +With a great gust of tears Bell Cameron bent over the little form, and +then enfolded Katy in a more loving embrace than he had ever given her +before; but whatever she might have said was prevented by the arrival of +the coffin and the confusion which followed. + +Much Wilford regretted that New York was so far away, for a city coffin +was more suitable, he thought, for a child of his, than the one which +Dr. Grant had ordered. But that was really of less consequence than the +question where should the child be buried? A costly monument at +Greenwood was in accordance with his ideas, but all things indicated +a contemplated burial there in the country churchyard, and sorely +perplexed he called on Bell as the only Cameron at hand, to know what +he should do. + +"Do just as Katy prefers," was Bell's reply, as she led him to the +coffin and pointed to the name: "Little Genevra Cameron, aged nine +months and twenty days." + +"What is it, Wilford--what is the matter?" she asked, as her brother +turned whiter than his child, and struck his hand upon his head as if +a blow had fallen there. + +Had "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," met his eye, he could not have +been more startled than he was; but soon rallying, he said to Morris, +who came near: + +"The child was baptized then?" + +"Yes, baptized Genevra. That was Katy's choice, I understand," Morris +replied, and Wilford bowed his head, wishing the Genevra across the sea +might know that his child bore her name. + +"Perhaps she does," he thought, and his heart grew warm with the fancy +that possibly in that other world, whose existence he never really +doubted, the Genevra he had wronged would care for his child, if +children there need care. "She will know it is mine at least," he said, +and with a thoughtful face he went in quest of Katy, whom he found +sobbing by the side of the mourning garments just sent in for her +inspection. + +Wilford was averse to black. It would not become Katy, he feared, and it +would be an unanswerable reason for her remaining closely home for the +entire winter. + +"What's this?" he asked, lifting the crape veil and dropping it again +with an impatient gesture as Helen replied: "It is Katy's mourning +veil." + +Contrary to his expectations, black was becoming to Katy, who looked +like a pure white lily, as, leaning on Wilford's arm next day, she stood +by the grave where they were burying her child. + +Wilford had spoken to her of Greenwood, but she had begged so hard that +he had given up that idea, suggesting next, as more in accordance with +city custom, that she remain at home while he only followed to the +grave; but from this Katy recoiled in such distress that he gave up too, +and bore, magnanimously, as he thought, the sight of all the Barlows +standing around that grave, alike mourners with himself, and all a right +to be there. Wilford felt his loss deeply, and his heart ached to its +very core as he heard the gravel rattling down upon the coffin lid which +covered the beautiful child he had loved so much. But amid it all he +never for a moment forgot that he was Wilford Cameron, and infinitely +superior to the crowd around him--except, indeed, his wife, his sister, +Dr. Grant, and Helen. He could bear to see them sorry, and feel that by +their sorrow they honored the memory of his child. But for the rest--the +village herd, with the Barlows in their train--he had no affinity, and +his manner was as haughty and distant as ever as he passed through their +midst back to the carriage, which took him again to the farmhouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +AFTER THE FUNERAL. + + +Had there been a train back to New York that afternoon Wilford would +most certainly have suggested going, but as there was none he passed the +time as well as he could, finding Bell a great help to him, but +wondering that she could assimilate so readily with such people, +declaring herself in love with the farmhouse, and saying she should like +to remain there for weeks, if the days were all as sunny as this, the +dahlias as gorgeously bright, and the peaches by the well as delicious +and ripe. To these the city girl took readily, visiting them the last +thing before retiring, while Wilford found her there when he arose next +morning, her dress and slippers nearly spoiled with the heavy dew, and +her hands full of the fresh fruit which Aunt Betsy knocked from the tree +with a quilting rod; her dress pinned around her waist, and disclosing a +petticoat scrupulously clean, but patched and mended with so many +different patterns and colors that the original ground was lost, and +none could tell whether it had been red or black, buff or blue. Between +Aunt Betsy and Bell the most amicable feeling had existed ever since the +older lady had told the younger how all the summer long she had been +drying fruit, "thimble-berries, blue-berries and huckleberries" for the +soldiers, and how she was now drying peaches for Willard Buxton--once +their hired man. These she should tie up in a salt bag, and put in the +next box sent by the society of which she seemed to be head and front, +"kind of fust directress," she said, and Bell was interested at once, +for among the soldiers down by the Potomac was one who carried with him +the whole of Bell Cameron's heart; and who for a few days had tarried at +just such a dwelling as the farmhouse, writing back to her such pleasant +descriptions of it, with its fresh grass and shadowy trees, that she had +longed to be there too. So it was through this page of romance and love +that Bell looked at the farmhouse and its occupants, preferring good +Aunt Betsy because she seemed the most interested in the soldiers, +working as soon as breakfast was over upon the peaches, and kindly +furnishing her best check apron, together with pan and knife for Bell, +who offered her assistance, notwithstanding Wilford's warning that the +fruit would stain her hands, and his advice that she had better be +putting up her things for going home. + +"She was not going that day," she said, point-blank, and as Katy too +had asked to stay a little longer, Wilford was compelled to yield, and +taking his hat sauntered off toward Linwood; while Katy went listlessly +into the kitchen, where Bell Cameron sat, her tongue moving much faster +than her hands, which pared so slowly and cut away so much of the juicy +pulp, besides making so frequent journeys to her mouth, that Aunt Betsy +looked in alarm at the rapidly disappearing fruit, wishing to herself +that "Miss Cameron had not listed." + +But Miss Cameron had enlisted, and so had Bob, or rather he had gone to +do his duty, and as she worked, she repeated to Helen the particulars of +his going, telling how, when the war first broke out, and Sumter was +bombarded, Rob, who, from long association with Southern men at West +Point, had imbibed many of their ideas, was very sympathetic with the +rebelling States, gaining the cognomen of a secessionist, and once +actually thinking of casting in his lot with that side rather than the +other. But the remembrance of a little incident saved him, she said. The +remembrance of a queer old lady whom he met in the cars, and who, at +parting, held her wrinkled hand above his head in benediction, charging +him not to go against the flag, and promising her prayers for his safety +if found on the side of the Union. + +"I wish you could hear Bob tell the story, the funny part, I mean," +she continued, narrating, as well as she could, the particulars of +Lieutenant Bob's meeting with Aunt Betsy, who, as the story progressed +and she recognized herself in the queer old Yankee woman, who shook +hands with the conductor and was going to law about a sheep pasture, +dropped her head lower and lower over her pan of peaches, while a +scarlet flush spread itself all over her thin face, but changed into a +grayish white as Bell concluded with "Bob says the memory of that hand +lifted above his head haunted him day and night, during the period of +his uncertainty, and was at last the means of saving him from treachery +to his country." + +"Thank God!" came involuntarily from Aunt Betsy's quivering lips, and, +looking up, Bell saw the great tears running down her cheeks, tears +which she wiped away with her arm, while she said faintly: "That old +woman, who made a fool of herself in the cars, was me!" + +"You, Miss Barlow, you!" Bell exclaimed, forgetting in her astonishment +to carry to her mouth the luscious half peach she had intended for that +purpose, and dropping it untasted into the pan, while Katy, who had been +listening with some considerable interest, came quickly forward, saying: +"You, Aunt Betsy! When were you in New York, and why did I never know +it?" + +It could not be kept back, and, unmindful of Bell, Helen explained to +Katy as well as she could the circumstances of Aunt Betsy's visit to New +York the previous winter. + +"And she never let me know it, or come to see me, because--because--" +Katy hesitated, and looked at Bell, who said, pertly: "Because Will is +so abominably proud, and would have made such a fuss. Don't spoil a +story for relations' sake, I beg," and the young lady laughed good +humoredly, restoring peace to all save Katy, whose face wore a troubled +look, and who soon stole away to her mother, whom she questioned further +with regard to a circumstance which seemed so mysterious to her. + +"Miss Barlow," Bell said, when Katy was gone, "you will forgive one for +repeating that story as I did. Of course I had no idea it was you of +whom I was talking." + +Bell was very earnest, and her eyes looked pleadingly upon Aunt Betsy, +who answered her back: "There's nothing to forgive. You only told the +truth. I did make an old fool of myself, but if I helped that boy to a +right decision, my journey did some good, and I ain't sorry now if I +did go to the playhouse. I confessed that to the sewing circle, and Mrs. +Deacon Bannister ain't seemed the same toward me since, but I don't +care. I beat her on the election to first directress of the Soldiers' +Aid. She didn't run half as well as me. That chap you call Bob, is he +anything to you? Is he your beau?" + +It was Bell's turn now to blush and then grow white, while Helen +lightly touching the superb diamond on her first finger, said: "That +indicates as much. When did it happen, Bell?" + +Mrs. Cameron had said they were not a family to bruit their affairs +abroad, and if so, Bell was not like her family, for she answered +frankly: "Just before he went away. It's a splendid diamond, isn't it?" +and she held it up for Helen to inspect. + +The basket was empty by this time, and as Aunt Betsy went to fill it +from the trees, Bell and Helen were left alone, the former continuing in +a low, sad tone: "I've been so sorry sometimes that I did not tell Bob I +loved him, when he wished me to so much." + +"Not tell him you loved him! How then could you tell him yes, as it +appears you did?" Helen asked, and Bell answered: "I could not well help +that; it came so sudden and he begged so hard, saying my promise would +make him a better man, a better soldier and all that. It was the very +night before he went, and so I said that out of pity and patriotism I +would give the promise, and I did, but it seemed too much for a woman to +tell a man all at once that she loved him, and I wouldn't do it, but +I've been sorry since; oh, so sorry, during the two days when we heard +nothing from him after that dreadful battle at Bull Run. We knew he was +in it, and I thought I should die until his telegram came saying he was +safe. I did sit down then and commence a letter, confessing all I felt, +but I tore it up, and he don't know now just how I feel." + +"And do you really love him?" Helen asked, puzzled by this strange girl, +who laughingly held up her soft, white hand, stained and blackened with +the juice of the fruit she had been paring, and said: "Do you suppose I +would spoil my hands like that and incur _ma chère-mamma's_ displeasure, +if Bob were not in the army and I did not care for him? And now that I +have confessed so much, allow me to catechise you. Did Mark Ray ever +propose and you refuse him?" + +"Never!" and Helen's face grew crimson, while Bell continued: "That is +funny. Half our circle think so, though how the impression was first +given I do not know. Mother told me, but would not tell where she +received her information. I heard of it again in a few days, and have +reason to believe that Mrs. Banker knows it too and feels a little +uncomfortable that her son should be refused when she considers him +worthy of the empress herself." + +Helen was very white, and her limbs shook as she asked: "And how with +Mark and Juno?" + +"Oh, off and on," Bell replied; "that is, Juno is always on, while Mark +is more uncertain, and Juno really has improved in some respects. As I +wrote you once, she is very docile when with Mark, and acts as if trying +to atone for something--her old badness, I guess. You are certain you +never cared for Mark Ray?" + +This was so abrupt and Bell's eyes were so searching that Helen grew +giddy for a moment and grasped the back of the chair, as she replied: "I +did not say I never cared for him. I said he never proposed; and that is +true; he never did." + +"And if he had?" Bell continued, never taking her eyes from Helen, who, +had she been less agitated, would have denied Bell's right to question +her so closely. Now, however, she answered blindly: "I do not know. I +cannot tell. I thought him engaged to Juno." + +"Well, if that is not the rarest case of cross-purposes that I ever +knew," Bell said, wiping her hands upon Aunt Betsy's apron, and +preparing to attack the piled up basket just brought in. + +Further conversation was impossible, and, with her mind in a perfect +tempest of thought, Helen went away, trying to decide what it was best +for her to do. Some one had spread the report that she had refused Mark +Ray, telling of the refusal, of course, or how else could it have been +known? and this accounted for Mrs. Banker's long-continued silence. +Since Helen's return to Silverton Mrs. Banker had written two or thee +kind, friendly letters, which did her so much good; but these had +suddenly ceased, and Helen's last remained as yet unanswered. She saw +the reason now, every nerve quivering with pain as she imagined what +Mrs. Banker must think of one who could make a refusal public, or what +was tenfold worse, pretend to an offer she never received. "She must +despise me, and Mark Ray, too, if he has heard of it," she said, +resolving one moment to ask Bell to explain to Mrs. Banker, and then +changing her mind and concluding to let matters take their course, +inasmuch as interference from her might be construed by the mother into +undue interest in the son. "Perhaps Bell will do it without my asking," +she thought, and this hope did much toward keeping her spirits up on +that last day of Katy's stay at home, for she was going back in the +morning. Wilford would not leave her, though she begged to stay. He did +not like the sad expression of her face, and he must take her where she +would have more excitement, hoping thus to win her from her grief, and +perhaps induce her to lay aside her black, which would be so serious a +hindrance to his enjoyment. But Katy clung to that as to a strict, +religious duty, saying to Helen, as in the twilight they sat together +up in their old room, talking of the ensuing winter, which would be so +different from the last: + +"If anything besides the feeling that she is so much happier, could +reconcile me to baby's loss, it is the knowing that my mourning will +keep me from the society in which I could not mingle so soon," and her +tears dropped upon the somber robes, which had transformed her so +suddenly from the gay, airy creature of fashion into the sober, quiet +woman who seemed older, soberer than even Helen herself. + +They did not see Marian Hazelton again, and Katy wondered at it, +deciding that in some things Marian was very peculiar, while Wilford and +Bell were slightly disappointed, as both had a desire to meet and +converse with one who had been so like a second mother to the little +dead Genevra. Wilford spoke of his child now as Genevra, but to Katy it +was baby still; and, with choking sobs and passionate tears, she bade +good-by to the little mound underneath which it was lying, and then went +back to her city home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE FIRST WIFE. + + +Softly and swiftly the hazy September days glided into dun October, who +shook down leafy showers of crimson and of gold upon the withered grass, +and then gave place to the dark November rains, which made the city seem +doubly desolate to Katy, who, like the ghost of her former self, moved +listlessly about her handsome home, starting quickly as a fancied baby +cry fell on her ear, and then weeping bitterly as she remembered the sad +past and thought of the still sadder present. Katy was very unhappy, and +the world, as she looked upon it, seemed utterly cheerless. For much of +this unhappiness Wilford was himself to blame. After the first few days, +during which he was all kindness and devotion, he did not try to comfort +her, but seemed irritated that she should mourn so deeply for the child +which, but for her indiscretion, might have been living still. Her +seclusion from gay society troubled him. He did not like staying at +home, and their evenings, when they were alone, passed in gloomy +silence. At last Mrs. Cameron, annoyed at what annoyed her son, brought +her influence to bear upon her daughter-in-law, trying to rouse her to +something like her olden interest in the world; but all to no effect, +and matters grew constantly worse, as Wilford thought Katy unreasonable +and selfish, while Katy tried hard not to think him harsh in his +judgment of her, and exacting in his requirements. "Perhaps she was +the one most in fault; it could not be pleasant for him to see her so +entirely changed from what she used to be," she thought, one morning +late in November, when her husband had just left her with an angry frown +upon his face and reproachful words upon his lips. + +Father Cameron and his daughters were out of town, and Mrs. Cameron, +feeling lonely in their absence, had asked Wilford and Katy to dine with +her. But Katy did not wish to go, and so Wilford had left her in anger, +saying "she could suit herself, but he should go at all events." + +Left alone, Katy began to feel that she had done wrong in declining the +invitation. Surely she could go there, and the echo of the bang with +which Wilford had closed the street door was still vibrating in her ear, +when her resolution began to give way, and while Wilford was riding +moodily downtown, thinking harsh things against her, she was meditating +what she thought might be an agreeable surprise. She would go around and +meet him at dinner, trying to appear as much like her old self as she +could, and so atone for anything which had hitherto been wrong in her +demeanor. + +It was strange how much better Katy felt when this decision was reached, +and Esther, below stairs, raised her finger warningly for the cook to +listen as her mistress trilled a few notes of a song. It was the first +time since her return from Silverton that a sound like that had been +heard within the house, and it seemed the precursor of better days. At +lunch, too, Katy's face was very bright, and Esther was surprised when, +later in the day, she was sent for to arrange her mistress' hair, as she +had not arranged it since baby died. Greatly annoyed, Wilford had been +by the smooth bands combed so plainly back, and at the blackness of the +dress; but now there was a change, and graceful curls fell about the +face, giving it the girlish expression which Wilford liked. The +somberness of the dark dress was relieved by simple folds of white crape +at the throat and wrists, while the handsome jet ornaments, the gift of +Wilford's father, added to the style and beauty of the childish figure, +which had seldom looked lovelier than when ready and waiting for the +carriage. At the door there was a ring, and Esther brought a note to +Katy, who, recognizing her husband's handwriting, tore it quickly open +and read as follows: + +"DEAR KATY: I have been suddenly called to leave the city on business, +which will probably detain me for three days or more, and as I must go on +the night train, I wish Esther to have my portmanteau ready with whatever +I may need for the journey. As I proposed this morning, I shall dine with +mother, but come home immediately after dinner. W. CAMERON." + +Katy was glad now that she had decided to meet him at his mother's, as +the knowing she had pleased him would make the time of his absence more +endurable, and after seeing that everything was ready for him she +stepped with a comparatively light heart into her carriage, and was +driven to No. ---- Fifth Avenue. + +Mrs. Cameron was out, the servant said, but was expected every minute +with Mr. Wilford. + +"Never mind," Katy answered; "I want to surprise them, so please don't +tell them I am here when you let them in," and going into the library +she sat down before the grate, waiting rather impatiently until the door +bell rang and she heard both Wilford's and Mrs. Cameron's voice in the +hall. + +Contrary to her expectations, they did not come into the library, but +went instead into the parlor, the door of which was partially ajar, so +that every word they said could be distinctly heard where Katy sat. It +would seem that they were continuing a conversation which had been +interrupted by their arriving home, for Mrs. Cameron said, with the tone +she always assumed when sympathizing with her son: "I am truly sorry for +you. Is she never more cheerful than when I have seen her?" + +"Never," and Katy could feel just how Wilford's lips shut over his +teeth as he said it; "never more cheerful, but worse if anything. Why, +positively the house seems so like a funeral that I hate to leave the +office and go back to it at night, knowing how mopish and gloomy Katy +will be." + +"My poor boy, it is worse than I feared," Mrs. Cameron said, with a +little sigh, while Katy, with a great gasping sob, tried to rise and go +to them, to tell them she was there--the mopish Katy, who made her home +so like a funeral to her husband. + +But her limbs refused to move, and she sank back powerless in her chair, +compelled to listen to things which no true husband should ever say to a +mother of his wife, especially when that wife's error consisted +principally in mourning too much for the child "which but for her +imprudence might have been living then." These were Wilford's very +words, and though Katy had once expected him to say them, they came upon +her now with a dreadful shock, making her view herself as the murderer +of her child, and thus blunting the pain she might otherwise have felt +as he went on to speak of Silverton and its inhabitants, just as he +would not have spoken had he known she was so near. Then, encouraged by +his mother, he talked again of her, not against her, but in a way which +made her poor aching heart throb as she whispered, sadly: "He is +disappointed in me. I do not come up to all that he expected. I do very +well, considering my low origin, but I am not what his wife should be." + +Wilford had not said all this, but Katy inferred it, and every nerve +quivered with anguish as the wild wish came over her that she had died +on that day when she sat in the summer grass at home watching the +shadows come and go and waiting for Wilford Cameron. Poor Katy! she +thought her cup of sorrow full, when, alas! only a drop had as yet been +poured into it. But it was filling fast, and Mrs. Cameron's words: "It +might have been better with Genevra," was the first outpouring of the +overwhelming torrent which for a moment bore her life and sense away. +She thought they meant her baby--the little Genevra sleeping under the +snow in Silverton--and her white lips answered: "Yes, it would be +better," before Wilford's voice was heard, saying, as he always said: +"No, I have never wished Genevra in Katy's place, though I have +sometimes wondered what the result would have been had I learned +in season how much I wronged her." + +Was heaven and earth coming together, or what made Katy's brain so dizzy +and the room so dark, as, with head bent forward and lips apart, she +strained her ear to catch every word of the conversation which followed, +and in which she saw glimpses of that leaf offered her once to read, and +from which she had promised not to shrink should it ever be thrust upon +her? But she did shrink, oh! so shudderingly, holding up her hands and +striking them through the empty air as if she would thrust aside the +terrible scepter risen so suddenly before her. She had heard all that +she cared to hear then. Another word and she should surely die where she +was, within hearing of the voices still talking of Genevra. Stopping her +ears to shut out the dreadful sound, she tried to think what she should +do. To gain the door and reach the street was her desire, and throwing +on her wrappings she went noiselessly into the hall, and carefully +turning the lock closed the door behind her, finding herself alone in +the street in the dusk of a November night. But Katy was not afraid, and +drawing her hood closely over her face she sped on until her own house +was reached, alarming Esther with her frightened face, but explaining +that she had been taken suddenly ill and returned before dinner. + +"Mr. Cameron will be here soon," she said. "I do not need anything +to-night, so you can leave me alone and go where you like--to the +theatre, if you choose. I heard you say you wished to go. Here is the +money for you and Phillips," and handing a bill to the slightly puzzled +Esther, she dismissed her from the room. + +Meanwhile, at the elder Cameron's, no one had a suspicion of Katy's +recent presence, for the girl who had admitted her had gone to visit a +sick sister, with whom she was to spend the night. Thus Katy's secret +was safe, and Wilford, when at last he bade his mother good-by and +started for home, was not prepared for the livid face, the bloodshot +eyes, and the strange, unnatural look which met him at the threshold. + +Katy was waiting for him, and answered his ring herself, her hands +grasping his almost fiercely and dragging him up the stairs to her own +room, where, more like a maniac than Katy Cameron, she confronted him +with the startling question: + +"Who is Genevra Lambert? It is time I knew before committing greater +sin. Tell me, Wilford, who is she?" + +She was standing before him, her slight figure seeming to expand into a +greater height, the features glowing with strong excitement, and her hot +breath coming hurriedly through her dilated nostrils, but never opening +the pale lips set so firmly together. There was something terrible in +her look and attitude, and it startled Wilford, who recoiled a moment +from her, scarcely able to recognize the Katy hitherto so gentle and +quiet. She had learned his secret, but the facts must have been +distorted, he knew, or she had never been so agitated. From beneath his +hair the great sweat drops came pouring, as he tried to approach her and +take the uplifted hands, motioning him aside with the words: "Not touch +me; no, not touch me till you have told me who is Genevra Lambert." + +She repeated the question twice, and rallying all his strength Wilford +answered her at last: "Genevra Lambert was my wife!" + +"I thought so," and the next moment Katy lay in Wilford's arms, dead, as +he feared, for there was no motion about the eyelids, no motion that he +could perceive about the pulse or heart, as he laid the rigid form upon +the bed and then bent every energy to restore her, even though he feared +that it was hopeless. + +"I must do what I can," he said, thinking once to send for a physician +and laying his hand upon the bell rope for the purpose of ringing up a +servant; but a faint, gasping sound met his ear, assuring him there yet +was life and that Katy was not dead. + +If possible he would prefer that no one should intrude upon them now, +and he chafed her icy hands and bathed her face until the eyes unclosed +again, but with a shudder turned away as they met his. Then as she grew +stronger and remembered the past she started up, exclaiming: "If Genevra +Lambert is your wife, what then am I? Oh, Wilford, how could you make me +not a wife, when I trusted and loved you so much?" + +He knew now that she was laboring under a mistake, and he did not wonder +at the violence of her emotions if she believed he had wronged her so +cruelly, and coming nearer to her he said: "You mistake me; Genevra +Lambert was my wife once, but is not now, for she is dead. Do you hear +me, Katy? Genevra died years ago, when you were a little girl playing in +the fields at home." + +By mentioning Silverton he hoped to bring back something of her olden +look, in place of the expression which troubled and frightened him. The +experiment was successful and great tears gathered in Katy's eyes, +washing out the wild, unnatural gleam, while the lips whispered: "And it +was her picture Juno saw. She told me the night I came and I tried to +question you. You remember?" + +Wilford did remember it and he replied: "Yes, but I did not suppose you +knew I had a picture. You have been a good wife, Katy, never to mention +it since then;" and he tried to kiss her forehead, but she covered it +with her hands, saying, sadly: "Not yet, Wilford, I cannot bear it now. +I must know the whole about Genevra. Why didn't you tell me before? Why +have you deceived me so?" + +"Katy," and Wilford grew very earnest in his attempts to defend himself, +"do you remember that day we sat under the buttonwood tree and you +promised to be mine? Try and recall the incidents of that hour and see +if I did not hint at some things past which I wished had been +otherwise--did not offer to show you the blackest page of my whole life +and you would not see it. Was that so, Katy?" + +"Yes," she answered, and he continued: "You said you were satisfied +to take me as I was. You would not hear evil against me and so I +acquiesced, bidding you not shrink back if ever the time should come +when you must read that page. I was to blame, I know, but there were +many extenuating circumstances, much to excuse me for withholding what +you would not hear." + +Wilford did not like to be censured, neither did he like to censure +himself, and now that Katy was out of danger and comparatively calm, he +began to build about himself a fortress of excuses for having kept from +her the secret of his life. + +"Would not most any man have done just as I did?" he continued. "Can you +mention one who would not?" + +"Yes, Cousin Morris," Katy answered; "he would never have deceived me +thus." + +A little vexed at the mention of Dr. Grant, Wilford replied: "I do not +pretend to be a saint, and I believe your cousin does; but I doubt +whether even he, with all his goodness, would do very differently from +what I have done; but tell me how, where did you hear of Genevra?" + +Amid sobs and tears Katy told him how she had repented of her decision +not to join him at his mother's, coming to the conclusion that she was +doing wrong to seclude herself so much and trying her best to look well +again in his eyes. + +"I meant to surprise you," she said, "and when I heard your mother was +out I went into the library to wait, thinking you would come there, but +you did not, and I started to go to you when my feet were stopped, for +you were talking of me, Wilford, not bad, perhaps, but as you would not +have talked had you known that I was there where I heard the words which +burned like coals of fire, so that I could have screamed in my +distress." + +Katy was not weeping now and her face was like that of some accusing +angel as she continued: "I thought my heart was broken when I heard you +talk so of me and Silverton, but that was nothing compared with what +came next, when your mother spoke of Genevra. I thought it was my baby +she meant at first, and the tightness around my heart was giving way, +for if you did complain of me to your mother, I could forgive that +because you were baby's father; but Genevra Lambert! oh, Wilford, I died +a thousand deaths in one when I first heard of her and understood why +you objected to the name our baby finally bore. You did not wish to be +so constantly reminded of the other wife. I could not sit there longer, +the room around me grew so black, so I struggled to my feet and reached +the door, going into the street and thinking once I would end my +wretched life in the distant river; but something turned my steps toward +home and I came, thinking it all over and suffering such agony. Oh, +Wilford, why did you keep it from me? What was there about it wrong and +where is she buried?" + +"In Alnwick, at St. Mary's," Wilford answered, determining now to hold +nothing back, and by his abruptness wounding Katy afresh. + +"In Alnwick, at St. Mary's" Katy cried. "Then I have seen her grave, and +that is why you were so anxious to get there, so unwilling to go away. +Oh, if I were lying there instead of Genevra, it would be so much +better, so much better." + +There was sobbing now, in a moaning, plaintive way which touched Wilford +tenderly, and smoothing her tangled hair, he said: "I would not exchange +my Katy for all the Genevras in the world. She was never as dear to me +as you. I was but a boy, and did not know my mind when I met her. Shall +I tell you about her now? Can you bear to hear the story of Genevra?" + +There was a nod of assent, and Katy turned her face to the wall, +clasping her hands tightly together, while Wilford drew his chair to her +side and began to read the page he should have read to her long before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +WHAT THE PAGE DISCLOSED. + + +"I was little more than nineteen years of age when I left Harvard +College and went abroad with my only brother, the John or Jack of whom +you have so often heard. Both himself and wife were in delicate health, +and it was hoped a voyage across the sea would do them good. For nearly +a year we were in various parts of England, stopping for two months at +Brighton, where, among the visitors, was a widow from the vicinity of +Alnwick, and with her an orphan niece whom I often met, and whose +dazzling beauty attracted my youthful fancy. She was not happy with her +aunt, upon whom she was wholly dependent, and my sympathies were all +enlisted, when, with the tears shining in her lustrous eyes, she one day +accidentally stumbled upon her trouble and told me how wretched she was, +asking if in America there was not something for her to do. + +"It was at this time that Jamie was born and Mary, the girl who went out +with us, was married to an Englishman, making it necessary for Hatty to +find some one to take her place. Hearing of this, Genevra came one day, +and to my secret delight offered herself as half companion, half +waiting-maid to Hatty. Anything was preferable to the life she led, she +said, pleading so hard that Hatty, after an interview with the old +aunt--a purse-proud, vulgar woman, who seemed glad to be rid of her +charge--consented to receive her, and Genevra became one of our family, +an equal rather than a menial, whom Hatty treated with as much +consideration as if she had been a sister. I wish I could tell you how +beautiful Genevra Lambert was at that period of her life. I have her +picture, which I will show you by and by, but it will not convey an +adequate idea of her as she was then, with her brilliant English +complexion, her eyes so full of poetry and passion, her perfect +features, and, more than all, the wondrous smile, which would have made +a plain face handsome. She was full of life and spirits, with enough of +coquetry about her to fascinate and turn older heads than mine. + +"Of course I came to love her, and loved her all the more for the +opposition I knew my family would throw in the way of my marrying the +daughter of an English apothecary, and one who was voluntarily filling a +servant's place. But with my mother across the sea, I could do anything; +and when Genevra told me of a base fellow, as she termed him, who, since +she was a child, had sought her for his wife, and still pursued her with +his letters, my passions all were roused, and I offered myself at once. +I do not think she anticipated this when she told me of the letters, as +it might seem to you. She was neither designing nor artful, but, on the +contrary, wholly open-hearted and truthful, telling me the contents of +the letter because I found her weeping over it and insisted upon knowing +the cause. Her answer to my offer was a decided refusal. She knew her +position, she said, and she knew mine, just as she knew the nature of +the feeling which prompted me to act thus toward her. Although just my +age, she was older in judgment and experience, and she seemed to +understand the difference between our relative positions. I was not +indifferent to her, she said, and were she my equal her answer might be +otherwise than the decided no. + +"Of course this only made me more eager, particularly as during the next +two weeks she avoided me as much as possible, never stopping alone with +me for a moment or giving me a chance to say a word in private. Madly in +love, and fancying I could not live without her, I besieged her with +letters, some of which she returned unopened, while on the others she +wrote a few hurried lines, calling me a boy, who did not know my own +mind, and asking what my friends would say. + +"I cared little for friends, urging my suit the more vehemently, as we +were about going into Scotland, where our marriage could be celebrated +in private at any time. I say in private, for I did not contemplate +making the affair public at once. That would take from the interest and +romance, while, unknown to myself, there was at heart a fear of my +family. + +"But not to dwell too long upon those days, which seem to me now so like +a dream, we went to Scotland and were married privately, for I won her +to this at last. And now comes the part where Jamie is concerned. On the +night of our marriage, Genevra, who had obtained permission to be absent +on a plea of visiting a friend, had procured some one to take charge of +Jamie, a red-faced girl from Edinburgh, who, unused to children, perched +the child upon her shoulder, and while in this condition let him fall, +injuring his spine and making him a cripple for life. Genevra never +forgave herself for that sad accident, which would not have happened had +she remained at her post, while to me Jamie has ever since been a sacred +thing, his helplessness which he bears so meekly a constant reproach, +reminding me of what I would had never been." + +"Then you are sorry you married Genevra?" Katy exclaimed, turning partly +toward him, and giving the first token she as yet had given that she was +listening to the story. + +Sometimes Wilford was sorry and sometimes he was not, for there was a +world of pleasurable excitement connected with those months of secrecy, +those private interviews, those stolen kisses, and little acts of +endearment, which so intoxicated and bewildered him that the talking of +them now brought something of the olden thrill he had experienced, when +for a moment he held Genevra's hand in his or wound his arm around her +waist, knowing he had a perfect right to do so. But it was better not to +confess this to Katy, and so he evaded the question, and continued: + +"My brother's failing health, as well as Hatty's, prevented them from +suspecting what was going on, and when at last we went to Italy they had +no idea that Genevra was my wife. At Rome her beautiful face attracted +much attention from tourists and residents, among whom were a few young +men, who, looking upon her as Jamie's nurse, or at most a companion for +his mother, made no attempt to disguise their admiration. For this I had +no redress except in an open avowal of the relation in which I stood to +her, and this I could not then do, for the longer it was deferred the +harder I found it to acknowledge her my wife. I loved her devotedly, and +that perhaps was one great cause of the jealousy which began to spring +up and embitter my life. + +"I do not believe that Genevra was at heart a coquette. She was very +fond of admiration, but when she saw how much I was disturbed she +made an effort to avoid those who flattered her, but her manner was +unfortunate, while her voice--the sweetest I ever heard--was calculated +to invite rather than repel attention. As the empress of the world, she +would have won and kept the homage of mankind, from the humblest beggar +in the street to the king upon the throne, and had I been older I should +have been proud of what then was my greatest annoyance. But I was +young--a mere boy--and so I watched her jealously, until a new element +of disquiet was presented to me in the shape of a ruffianly looking +fellow, who was frequently seen about the premises, and with whom I once +found Genevra in close converse, starting and blushing guiltily when I +came upon her, while her companion went swiftly from my sight. + +"'It was an old English acquaintance, who was poor and asking charity,' +she said, when questioned, but her manner led me to think there was +something wrong, particularly as I saw her with him again, and thought +she held his hand. + +"It was evident that my brother would never see America again, and at +his request my mother came to us, in company with a family from Boston, +reaching us two weeks before he died. From the first, she disliked +Genevra, suspecting the liking between us, but never dreaming of the +truth until a week after Jack's death, when in a fit of anger at Genevra +for listening to an English artist, who had asked to paint her picture, +the story of the marriage came out, and like a child dependent on its +mother for advice, I asked, 'What shall I do?' + +"You know mother, Katy--that is, you know her pride--and can in part +understand how she would scorn a girl who, though born to better things, +was still found in the capacity of a waiting maid. I never saw her so +moved as she was for a time, after learning that her only living son, +from whom she expected so much, had thrown himself away, as she +expressed it. Sister Hatty, who loved Genevra, did all she could to heal +the growing difference between us, but I trusted mother most. I believed +that what she said was right, and so matters grew worse, until one +night, the last we spent in Rome, I missed Genevra from our rooms, and +starting in quest of her, found her in a little flower garden back of +our dwelling. There, under the deep shadow of a tree, and partly +concealed from view, she stood with her arm around the neck of the same +rough-looking man who had been there before. She did not see me as I +stood and watched her while she parted with him, suffering him to kiss +her hand and forehead as he said, 'Good-by, my darling.' + +"In a tremor of anger and excitement I quitted the spot, my mind wholly +made up with regard to my future. That there was something wrong about +Genevra I did not doubt, and I would not give her a chance to explain by +telling her what I had seen, but sent her back to England, giving her +ample means for defraying the expenses of her journey and for living in +comfort after her arrival there. From Rome we went to Naples, and then +to Switzerland, where Hatty died, leaving us alone with little Jamie. It +was here at Berne that I received an anonymous letter from England, the +writer stating that Genevra was with her aunt, that the whole had ended +as he thought it would, that he could readily guess at the nature of the +trouble, and hinting that if a divorce was desirable on my return to +England, all necessary proof could be obtained by applying to such a +number in London, the writer announcing himself a brother of the man who +had once sought Genevra, and saying he had always opposed the match, +knowing Genevra's family. + +"This was the first time the idea of a divorce had entered my mind. +Instead of that the hope that Genevra might in some way be restored to +me unspotted, had unconsciously been the daystar of my existence, and I +shrank from a final separation. But mother felt differently. It was not +a new thought to her, knowing as she did that the validity of a Scotch +marriage, such as ours, was frequently contested in the English courts. +Once free from Genevra the world this side the water would never know of +that mistake, and she set herself steadily to accomplish her purpose. To +tell you all that followed our return to England and the steps by which +I was brought to sue for a divorce would make my story too long, and so +I will only state that, chiefly by the testimony of the anonymous letter +writer, whose acquaintance we made, a divorce was at last obtained, +Genevra putting in no defense, but as I heard afterward, settling down +to an apathy from which nothing had power to rouse her until the news of +her freedom from me was carried to her, when, amid a paroxysm of tears +and sobs she wrote me a few lines, assuring me of her innocence, +refusing to send back her wedding ring, and saying God would not forgive +me for the great wrong I had done her. I saw her once after that by +appointment and her face haunted me for years. Indeed, I sometimes see +it in my dreams as it confronted me then, with a look which I now know +was a look of deeply injured innocence, for, Katy, Genevra was innocent, +as I found after the time was past when reparation could be made." + +Wilford's voice trembled now, and for a moment there was silence in the +room while he composed himself to go on with the story: + +"She would not live with me again if she could, she said, denouncing +bitterly the Cameron pride and saying she was happier to be free. I +remember I tried to excuse myself, remember saying that if there had +been children or a child I should have paused before taking the decisive +step, and there we parted, but not until she had told me that her +traducer was the old discarded suitor who had sworn to have revenge, and +who, since the divorce, had dared seek her again. A vague suspicion of +this had crossed my mind once before, but the die was cast, and even if +the man were false, what I saw myself in Rome still stood against her +and so my conscience was quieted, while mother was more than glad to be +rid of a daughter-in-law of whose family I knew nothing. Rumors I did +hear of a cousin whose character was not the best, and of the father +who for some crime had fled the country, dying in a foreign land, but as +that was nothing to me now, I passed it by, feeling it was best to be +relieved from one of so doubtful antecedents. + +"In the spring of 185- we came back to New York, where no one had ever +heard of the affair, so quietly and well had it been managed. I was a +young man still, no one except my mother sharing in the secret. With her +I often talked of Genevra, wishing sometimes that I could hear from her, +a wish which was finally gratified. One day I received a note requesting +an interview at a downtown hotel, the writer signing himself as Thomas +Lambert, and adding that I need have no fears as he came to perform an +act of justice, not of retribution. Three hours later I was locked in a +room with Genevra's father, the same man whom I had seen in Rome. +Detected in forgery years before, he had fled from England and had +hidden himself in Rome, where he accidentally met his daughter, and so +that stain was removed. He had heard of the divorce by a letter which +Genevra managed to send him, and braving all difficulties and dangers he +had come back to England and found his child, hearing from her the story +of her wrongs, and as well as he was able setting himself to discover +the author of the calumny. He was not long in tracing it to Le Roy, whom +he found in a dying condition, and who with his last breath confessed +the falsehood which was imposed upon me, he said, partly from motives of +revenge and partly with a hope that free from me Genevra would at the +last turn to him. As proof that Mr. Lambert told me the truth, he +brought the dying man's confession, written in a cramped, trembling +hand, which I recognized at once. The confession ended with the solemn +assertion: 'For aught I know or believe, Genevra Lambert is as pure and +true as any woman living.' + +"I cannot describe the effect this had upon me. I did not love Genevra +then. I had outlived that affection, but I felt remorse and pity for +having wronged her so, and asked how I could make amends. + +"'You cannot,' the old man said, 'except in one way, and that she does +not desire. I did not come here with any wish for you to take her for +your wife again. It was an unequal match which never should have been; +but if you believe her innocent, she will be satisfied. She wanted you +to know it, I wanted you to know it, and so I crossed the sea to find +you.' + +"I sent a letter by him assuring her she stood acquitted in my mind of +all I had suspected her, and asked her pardon for the great wrong I had +done her. The next I heard of her was in the columns of an English +newspaper, which told me she was dead, while in another place a pencil +mark was lightly turned around a paragraph, which said that 'a forger, +Thomas Lambert, who escaped years ago and was supposed to be dead, had +recently reappeared in England, where he was recognized, but not +arrested, for the illness proved fatal.' He was attended, the paper said, +by his daughter, 'a beautiful young girl whose modest mien and gentle +manner had done much toward keeping the officers of justice from her +dying father, no one being able to withstand her pleadings that her +father might die in peace.' + +"I was grateful for this tribute, to Genevra, and I felt that it was +deserved; turning again to the notice of her death, which must have +occurred within a short time of her father's, and was probably induced +by past troubles and recent anxiety for him. + +"'Genevra Lambert died at Alnwick, aged twenty-two.' There could be no +mistake, and with a tear to the memory of the dead whom I had loved and +injured, I burned the paper, feeling that now there was no clew to the +secret I was as anxious to preserve as was my mother. + +"And so the years wore on till I met and married you, withholding from +you that yours was not the first love which had stirred my heart, nor +yours the first head which had slept upon my arm. I meant to tell you, +Katy, but I could not for the great fear of losing you if you knew all. +And then an error concealed so long is hard to be confessed. I took you +across the sea to Brighton, where I first met Genevra, and then to +Alnwick, seeking out the grave which made assurance doubly sure. It was +that one in the far corner of St. Mary's where I went so often and where +once you came, sitting upon the very mound whose headstone bore +Genevra's name. I drew my breath quickly as if the dead were thus +dishonored, but I knew you meant no harm, and as soon as possible I +hurried you away. It was natural that I should make some inquiries +concerning her last days, but lest it should all come out kept me back, +so that I only questioned the old sexton who once was at work nearby. +Calling his attention to the name, I said it was an uncommon one and +asked if he knew the girl. + +"'Not by sight, no,' he said. 'She was only here a few days before she +died. I've heard she was very winsome and that there was a scandal of +some kind mixed up with her.' + +"I would not ask him any more; and without any wrong to you, my wife, I +confess that my tears dropped upon the turf under which I knew Genevra +lay." + +"I am glad they did; I should hate you if you had not cried," Katie +exclaimed, her voice more natural than it had been since the great shock +came, and her own tears falling fast to the memory of Genevra, whose +grave she had sat upon with Wilford standing near. + +A buried wife was not so dreadful to contemplate as a wife divorced but +living still, and Katy's heart did not beat with quite so heavy throbs +of fear and shame as it had at first. But it was very sore with the +feeling that to her almost as great a wrong had been done as to Genevra, +for had he not deceived her from the very first, he and his mother, who +had been the terror of Genevra's life as she was the bane of Katy's. + +"Do you forgive me, Katy? Do you love me as well as ever?" Wilford +asked, stooping down to kiss her, but Katy drew her face away and did +not answer then. + +She did not know herself just how she felt toward him. He did not seem +just like the husband she had trusted in so blindly. It would take a +long time to forget that another head than hers had lain upon his bosom, +and it would take longer yet to blot out the memory of the complaining +words uttered to his mother. She had never thought he could do that, +never dreamed of such a thing, knowing that she would sooner have parted +with her right hand than have complained of him. Her idol had fallen in +more respects than one, and the heart it had bruised in the fall refused +at once to gather the shattered pieces up and call them good as new. She +was not obstinate, she was not sulky, as Wilford began to fancy. She +was only stunned and could not rally at his bidding. He had confessed +the whole, keeping nothing back, and he felt that Katy was unjust not to +acknowledge his magnanimity and restore him to her favor. Again he asked +forgiveness, again bent down to kiss her, but Katy answered: "Not yet, +Wilford, not till I feel all right toward you. A wife's kiss should be +sincere." + +"As you like," trembled on Wilford's lips, but he beat back the words +and walked up and down the room, knowing now that his journey must be +deferred till morning, and wondering if Katy would hold out till then. + +It was long past midnight, but to retire was impossible, and so for one +whole hour he paced through the room, while Katy lay with her eyes +closed and her lips moving occasionally in the words of prayer she tried +to say, asking God to help her, and praying that she might in future lay +her treasures up where they could not so suddenly be swept away. Wearily +the hours passed, and the gray dawn was stealing into the room when +Wilford again approached his wife and said, "You know I was to have left +home last night on business. As I did not go then, it is necessary that +I leave this morning. Are you able to stay alone for three days or more? +Are you willing?" + +"Yes--oh, yes," Katy replied, feeling that to have him gone while she +battled with the pain lying so heavy at her heart would be a great +relief. + +Perhaps he suspected this feeling in part, for he bit his lip +impatiently, and without another word called up the servant whose duty +it was to prepare his early breakfast. Cold and cheerless seemed the +dining-room, to which an hour later he repaired, and tasteless was the +breakfast without Katy there to share it. She had been absent many times +before, but never just as now, with this wide gulf between them, and as +he broke his egg and tried to drink his coffee, Wilford felt like one +from whom every support had been swept away, leaving him tottering and +giddy. He did not like the look of Katy's face or the sound of her +voice, and as he thought upon them, self began to whisper again that she +had no right to stand out so long when he had confessed everything, and +by the time his breakfast was finished Wilford Cameron was, in his own +estimation, an abused an injured man, so that it was with an air of +defiance rather than humility that he went again to Katy. She, too, had +been thinking, and as the result of her thoughts she lifted up her head +as he came in and said, "I can kiss you now, Wilford." + +It was human nature, we suppose--at least it was Wilford's nature--which +for an instant tempted him to decline the kiss proffered so lovingly; +but Katy's face was more than he could withstand, and when again he left +that room the kiss of pardon was upon his lips and comparative quiet was +in his heart. + +"The picture, Wilford--you have forgotten that," Katy called after him, +as he was running down the stairs. + +Wilford would rather have been with her when she first looked upon +Genevra, but there was not time for that, and hastily unlocking his +private drawer he carried the case to Katy's room, laying it upon the +bureau and saying to her: "I would not mind it now, until it is fully +light. Try and sleep a while. You need the rest so much." + +Katy knew she had the whole day before her in which to investigate the +face of one who once had filled her place, and so she nestled down among +her pillows, and soon fell into a quiet sleep, from which Esther, who +looked in upon her several times, at last awakened her, asking if she +should bring her breakfast to her room. + +"Yes, do," Katy replied, adjusting her dress and trying to arrange the +matted curls, which were finally confined in a net until Esther's more +practiced hands were ready to attack them. + +And all this while the picture lay upon the bureau--the square, +old-fashioned daguerreotype, which Katy shrank from opening. + +"I'll wait till after breakfast," she said; then as the thought came +over her that if the face proved as beautiful as Wilford had described, +she in her present forlorn condition would feel the contrast deeply, she +said, "I'll wait till Esther has fixed my hair; then I will look at +Genevra." + +Breakfasting did not occupy her long, and Esther soon was busy with her +toilet, combing out and looping-back her curls, and bringing a plain +dress of rich bombazine, with fresh bands of white crape, as had been +worn the previous day. Katy's toilet was complete at last, and as Esther +closed the door behind her, Katy, with a trembling hand, took from the +drawer, where she had hid it from Esther's eyes, the picture of Genevra +Lambert. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE EFFECT. + + +With a shiver Katy held it a moment in her lap, noticing how old and +worn it looked--noticing, too, the foreign mark upon it, and that one +hinge was broken, wondering if all this wear had come from frequent use. +Had Wilford looked often at that picture?--and if so, what were his +feelings as he looked? Was he sorry that Genevra died? Did he sometimes +wish her there, instead of Katy Lennox, of Barlow origin? Did he +contrast their faces one with the other, giving the preference to +Genevra, or was Katy's liked the best? All these questions Katy asked +herself, while her fingers fluttered about the clasp, which she half +dreaded to unfasten. + +Cautiously, very cautiously, at last the lid was opened, and a lock of +soft brown hair fell out, clinging to Katy's hand as if it had been a +living thing, and making her shudder with fear as she shook off the +silken tress and remembered that the head it once adorned was lying in +St. Mary's churchyard, where the English daisies grew. + +"She had pretty hair," she thought; "darker, richer than mine," and into +Katy's heart there crept a feeling akin to jealousy, lest Genevra had +been fairer than herself, as well as better loved. "I won't be foolish +any longer," she said, and turning resolutely to the light she opened +the lid again and saw Genevra Lambert, starting quickly, then looking +again more closely--then, with a gasp, panting for breath, while like +lightning flashes the past came rushing over her, as, with her eyes +fixed upon that picture, she tried to whisper, "It is--it is!" + +She could not then say whom, for if she were right in her belief, +Genevra was not dead. There were no daisies growing on her grave, for +she still walked the earth a living woman, whom Katy knew so +well--Marian Hazelton. That was the name Katy could not speak, as, with +the blood curdling in her veins and freezing about her heart, she sat +comparing the face she remembered so well with the one before her. In +some points they were unlike, for thirteen years had slightly marred the +youthful contour of the face she knew--had sharpened the features and +thinned the abundant hair; but still there could be no mistake. The +eyes, the brow, the smile, the nose, all were the same, and with a pang +bitterer than she yet had felt, poor Katy fell upon her face and asked +that she might die. In her utter ignorance of law, she fancied that if +Genevra were alive, she had no right to Wilford's name--no right to be +his wife--especially as the sin for which Genevra was divorced had by +her never been committed, and burning tears of bitter shame ran down her +cheeks as she whispered, "'What God hath joined together let no man put +asunder.' Those are God's words, and how dare the world act otherwise? +She is his wife, and I--oh! I don't know what I am!" and on the carpet +where she was kneeling Katy writhed in agony as she tried to think what +she must do. Not stay there--she could not do that now--not, at least, +until she knew for sure that she was Wilford's wife, in spite of +Genevra's living. Maybe she was; there was a Mrs. Grainier in the city +divorced from her first husband and living with her second; but then the +man was a profligate, a most abandoned wretch, who had not been proved +innocent, as Genevra had, and that must make a difference. "Oh, if there +was only some one to advise me--some one who knew and would tell me what +was right," Katy moaned, feeling herself inadequate to meet the dark +hour alone. + +But to whom should she go? To Father Cameron? No, nor to his mother. +They might counsel wrong for the sake of secrecy. Would Mark Ray or Mrs. +Banker know? Perhaps; but they were strangers--her trouble must not be +told to them, and then with a great bound her heart turned at last to +Morris. He knew everything. He would not sanction a wrong. He would tell +her just what was right, and she could trust him fully in everything. +There was no other person whom she could believe just as she could him. +Uncle Ephraim was equally as good and conscientious, but he did not know +as much as Morris--he did not understand everything. Morris was her +refuge, and to him she would go that very day, leaving a note for +Wilford in case she never came back, as possibly she might not. And +then, like an imprisoned bird, which sees its cage door opened at last, +but dreads the freedom offered, Katy drew her bleeding wings close to +her side and shrank from the cold world which lay outside that home of +luxury. But when she remembered that possibly she had no right to stay +there, she grew strong again, and, seizing her pen, dashed off a wild, +impassioned letter, which, if her husband did not find her there on his +return, would tell him where she was and why she had gone. This she left +in a drawer appropriated to Wilford's use, and where he could not fail +to find it; but the picture she put in her own pocket, not caring to +part with that. Had Marian been in the city she would have gone to her +at once, but Marian was where long rows of cots are ranged against the +hospital walls, each holding a maimed and suffering soldier, to whom she +ministered so tenderly, the brightness of her smile and the beauty of +her face deluding the delirious ones into the belief that the journey of +life for them was ended and heaven reached at last, where an angel in +woman's garb attended upon them. Marian was impossible, and Dr. Grant +was the only alternative left. + +Summoning Esther, Katy told her, in as calm a voice as she could +command, that, feeling very lonely, she was going out to spend the day, +and probably the night. At all events the servants were not to expect +her until she came. + +"Yes, ma'am--going to Mr. Cameron's, I suppose?" Esther said, and as +Katy made no answer the impression in Esther's mind was that she would +spend the day and night at the elder Cameron's, as she had done once +before when Wilford was away. + +And this was the intelligence carried to the servants, who wondered that +their mistress did not order the carriage, but started off on foot, her +face looking ghastly white beneath the folds of her crape veil as she +closed the door behind and looked back at the home she might be leaving +forever. The carriage, she knew, would lead to detection, and as it was +not far to the New Haven depot, she kept on her way until the train was +reached, and she in a seat by herself was looking with eyes which could +not weep over the city she was so fast leaving behind. Had she for one +moment suspected Morris's love, all her womanly instincts would have +kept her from seeking him then, but she had no such suspicion. Morris +was her elder brother, and like a stricken sister she was going to him +with her grief, sure of sympathy and sure of counsel for the right. + +The afternoon was cold and stormy, so that it was late in the evening +when the long train reached West Silverton, where Katy was to stop. +Owing to the storm but few were at the depot, and among them none who +recognized Katy Cameron beneath the heavy veil she kept so closely over +her face, even while asking for a conveyance out to Linwood. It was a +comparative boy who volunteered his services, and as he had recently +come to Silverton he knew nothing of Katy or of Dr. Grant, so that she +was saved from all embarrassment upon that point; her driver never +addressing her except to ask the way, which was not wholly familiar to +him. + +"Turn here. Yes, that is right," she said, when they reached the road +which led to Linwood, and a feeling like guilt crept over her as through +the leafless trees and across the meadow land she spied the farmhouse +light shining through the drifting snow as if beckoning her to come. +"Not yet--not now. I must see Morris first," she answered mentally to +that silent invitation, and drawing the buffalo skin around her with a +shiver. She did not look again toward the farmhouse, but onward to where +the lights of Linwood shone through the wintry darkness. "This is the +place," she said, and in a moment she stood upon the broad stone steps, +shaking the snow from her cloak, while the boy waited a moment, hoping +to be invited to share the warmth he felt there was within that handsome +building. + +Katy would rather he should not stop, but when she saw how cold he was +she began to relent, and telling him where to shelter his horse, pointed +to the basement bidding him go in there. Then, with a hesitating step +on she began to wonder what Morris would say, she crossed the wide +piazza and softly turning the door knob, stood in the hall at Linwood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THE INTERVIEW. + + +Dr. Morris was very tired, for his labors that day had been unusually +severe, and it was with a feeling of comfort and relief that he had +turned his steps homeward just as the night was closing in, finding a +bright fire waiting for him in the library, where his supper was soon +brought by the housekeeper, Mrs. Hull, the other servants having gone to +an adjoining town to attend the wedding party of a former associate. It +was very pleasant in that cozy library of oak and green, with the bright +fire on the hearth, the heavy curtains shutting out all traces of the +storm, and the smoking supper set so temptingly before him. And Morris +felt the comfort of his home, thanking the God who had given him all +this, and chiding his wayward heart that it had ever dared to repine. He +was not repining to-night; he had not repined for many a day, though he +never sat down at home after his day's labor in slippers and +dressing-gown, with a new book beside him on the table, that there was +not a sense of something wanting, a glancing at the empty chair across +the hearth, a thought perhaps of Katy, who could squeeze the whole of +her slight form into that chair. But he was not thinking of her now, as +with his hands crossed upon his head he sat looking into the fire and +watching the bits of glowing anthracite dropping into the pan. He was +thinking of the sickbed which he had visited last, and how a faith in +Jesus can make the humblest room like the gate of heaven; thinking how +the woman's eyes had sparkled when she told him of the other world, +where she would never know pain, or hunger, or cold again, and how +quickly their luster was dimmed when she spoke of her absent husband, +the soldier to whom the news of her death with the child he had never +seen would be a crushing blow. + +"They who have neither wife nor child are the happier perhaps," he said, +and then the thought of Katy and her great sorrow when baby died, +wondering if to spare herself that pain she would rather baby had never +been. "No--oh, no," he answered to his own inquiry. "She would not lose +the memory which comes from that little grave for all the world +contains. It is better once to love and lose than not to love at all. In +heaven we shall see and know why these things were permitted, and marvel +at the poor human nature which rebelled against them." + +Just at this point of his soliloquy the door opened, so softly that he +did not hear it turn upon its hinges, nor hear the light footstep on the +carpet as Katy came in. But when she coughed he started up in wonder at +the apparition standing so still before him. + +"Morris, oh, Morris," Katy cried, throwing back her veil and revealing a +face which Morris could not believe was hers for the lines of suffering +and distress stamped so legibly upon it. + +But it was Katy, as the voice implied, and, seizing her cold hands, +Morris asked: "Katy, why are you here to-night, and why are you alone? +Has anything happened? Tell me! your looks frighten me!" + +"I am so wretched--so full of pain. I have heard of something dreadful," +she replied--"something which took my life away. I could not stay there +after that, and so I come to you. I am not Wilford's wife, for he had +another, before me--a wife in Italy--who is not dead! And I--oh! Morris, +what am I? Untie my bonnet, do! It is choking me to death! I am--yes--I +am--going--to faint!" + +It was the first time Katy had put the great horror in words addressed +to another, and the act of doing so made it more appalling, while the +excitement and fatigue she had endured, together with the action of the +heat upon her chilled system, took her strength away, and into the chair +where Morris had so often seen her in fancy, she sank a crumpled heap of +cloaks and furs and bonnet, which Morris tried to remove so as to reach +the limp, fainting creature which had said: "I am not Wilford's wife, +for he had another before me--a wife in Italy--who is not dead." + +Dr. Morris was thoroughly a man, and though much of his sinful nature +had been subdued, there was enough left to make his heart rise and fall +with great throbs of joy as he thought of Katy free, even though that +freedom were bought at the expense of dire disgrace to others and of +misery to her. But only for a moment did he feel thus, only till the +bonnet was removed and the gaslight fell upon the pallid face with the +dark rings beneath the eyes, and the faint, quivering motion around the +lips, which told that she was not wholly unconscious. + +"My poor little wounded bird," he said, as pityingly as if he had been +her father, while, much as a father might kiss his suffering child, he +kissed the forehead and the eyelids where the tears began to gather. + +Katy was not insensible, and the name by which he called her, with the +kisses that he gave, thawed the ice around her heart and brought a flood +of tears which Morris wiped away, removing her heavy fur and lifting her +gently up, while he took away the cloak and left her unencumbered. With +a sigh she sank back into the chair, and, leaning her head upon its +cushioned arm, moaned like a weary child. + +"It is so pleasant to be here, and it rests me so. I wish I might never +go away. May I stay here, Morris, as your housekeeper, instead of Mrs. +Hull?--that is, if I am not his wife. The world might despise me, but +you would know I was not to blame. I should go nowhere but to the +farmhouse, to church, and baby's grave. Poor baby! I am glad God gave +her to me, even if I am not Wilford's wife; and I am glad now that she +died." + +She was talking to herself rather than to Morris, who, smoothing back +her hair and chafing her cold hands, said: + +"My poor child, you have passed through some agitating scene. Are you +able now to tell me all about it, and what you mean by another wife?" + +He saw she was greatly exhausted, and he brought her a glass of wine, +hoping she would rally. She had no supper, she said, except a cracker +bought in Springfield, but the moment he turned to the bellrope she +begged him not to ring. She was not hungry--she could not eat. She +should never eat again. + +Wishing himself to know something definite ere going to Mrs. Hull, +Morris yielded to her entreaties, and sitting down in front of her, said +again: "Now tell me what brought you here without your husband's +knowledge." + +There was a shiver, and the white lips grew still whiter as Katy began +her story, going back to St. Mary's churchyard, and then coming to her +first night in New York, when Juno had told her of a picture and asked +her whose it was. Then she told of Wilford's admission of an earlier +love, who, he said, was dead; of the trouble about the baby's name, and +his aversion to Genevra; of his frequent abstracted moods, which she +remembered now, never suspecting at the time their cause, and not +knowing now for certain that Genevra was the subject of his thoughts. +But it was safe to believe almost anything of one who had deceived her +so cruelly, and Katy's blue eyes flashed resentfully as she uttered the +first bitter words she had ever breathed against her husband. But when +she approached the dinner at the elder Cameron's, her lip quivered in a +grieved kind of way as she remembered what Wilford had said of her to +his mother, but she would not tell this to Morris, it was not necessary +to her story, and so she said: "They were talking of what I ought never +to have heard, and it seemed as if the walls were closing me in so that +I could not move to let them know I was there. I said to myself, 'I +shall go mad after this,' and I thought of you all coming to see me in +the madhouse, your kind face, Morris, coming up distinctly before me, +just as it would look at me if I were really crazed. But all this was +swept away like a hurricane when I heard the rest, the part about +Genevra, Wilford's other wife." + +Katy was panting for breath and Morris brought the wine again, after +which she went on with the story, which made Morris clinch his hands as +he comprehended the deceit which had been practiced so long. Of course +he did not look at it as Katy did, for he knew that according to all +civil law she was as really Wilford's wife as if no other had existed, +and he told her so, but Katy shook her head: "He can't have two wives +living, and I tell you I knew the picture--Genevra is not dead. I have +seen her; I have talked with her--Genevra is not dead." + +"Granted that she is not," Morris answered, "the divorce remains the +same." + +"I do not believe in divorces. 'Whom God hath joined together let no man +put asunder,'" Katy said with an air which implied that from this +argument there could be no appeal. + +"That is the Scripture I know," Morris replied, "but you must remember +that for one sin our Savior permitted a man to put away his wife, thus +making it perfectly right." + +"But in Genevra's case the sin did not exist. She was as innocent as I +am, and that must make a difference." + +She was very earnest in her attempts to prove that Genevra was still a +lawful wife, so earnest that a dark suspicion entered Morris's mind, +finding vent in the question, "Katy, don't you love your husband, that +you try so hard to prove he is not yours?" + +There were red spots all over Katy's face and neck as she saw the +meaning put upon her actions, and covering her face with her hands she +sobbed violently as she replied: "I do, oh, yes, I do. I never loved any +one else. I would have died for him once. Maybe I would die for him now; +but, Morris, I fear he is disappointed in me. Our tastes are not alike, +and we made a great mistake, or Wilford did when he took me for his +wife. I was better suited to most anybody else, and I have been so +wicked since, forgetting all the good I ever knew, forgetting prayer +save as I went through the form from old habit's sake, forgetting God, +who has overtaken me at last and punished me so sorely that every nerve +smarts with the stinging blows." + +Oh, how lovingly, how earnestly Morris talked to Katy then, telling her +of Him who smites but to heal, who chastens not in anger, but who would +lead the lost one back into the quiet fold where there was perfect +peace. + +And Katy, listening eagerly, with her great blue eyes fixed upon his +face, felt that to be like him, to experience that of which he talked, +was worth more than all the world beside. Gradually; too, there stole +over her the rest she always felt with him--the indescribable feeling +which prompted her to care for nothing except to do just what he bade +her do, knowing it was right. So when he said at last, "You must go back +to New York; this is no place for you," she offered no remonstrance; but +when he continued, "And you must go to-night; that is, you must take the +early morning train, so as to reach the city before any one has had a +chance to read the letter," she demurred at once. "She must see mother; +she must see Helen; she must tell Helen who Genevra was. She wanted her +to know it, but no one else. She must visit baby's grave; she could not +go back without it." + +"Not if it is right?" Morris asked, and Katy began to waver when he told +her how much better it would be for her family not to know of this visit +to him, as it would trouble them. She could tell Wilford, if she liked, +but he must not be permitted to find the letter, as he would if he +returned while she was gone. "I will go with you. It is not safe for you +to go alone," he continued, feeling her rapid pulse and noticing the +alternate flushing and paling of her cheek. + +A fever was coming on, he feared, and it must not be there with him, for +more reasons than one. She must return to New York, or, failing to do +that, he must take her across the fields to the farmhouse before the +coming dawn. + +"Are you sick, Katy?" he asked, as she appeared to be growing stupid. + +"Not sick, no; only so tired, so sleepy," and the heavy lids closed over +the dull eyes, while Katy's head still lay upon the cushioned arm of the +large chair. + +Her position was not an easy one, and wheeling the lounge to the fire +Morris brought a pillow from his sleeping room adjoining, and taking +Katy in his arms laid her where she would at least be more comfortable +than in the chair. Wrapping his shawl about her and turning down the gas +so as to shield her eyes, he left her alone, while he went to Mrs. Hull, +puzzling her brain to know who the lady was, brought there that stormy +night, and talking so long and earnestly with the doctor. The driver boy +was gone, and thinking it possible that their visitor might be wanting +supper, the thoughtful woman had put the kettle on the stove, where it +was sending forth volumes of steam just as Morris appeared. If he went +to New York with Katy he must trust Mrs. Hull with his reasons for +going, and as from past experience he believed she could be trusted, he +frankly told her that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was in the library; that +circumstances rendered it desirable for her to return to New York as +soon as possible; that as she could not go alone he must of course go +with her, and he expected Mrs. Hull not only to help him off, but also +to keep the fact of Katy's having been there a secret from every one. + +"Some trouble with that high-headed husband of hers; I always mistrusted +him," was Mrs. Hull's mental conclusion, as she nodded assent to what +Morris had said, asking if he proposed taking the early morning train +which passed at four o'clock, and who did he expect would drive his +cutter back, as the boys would not be home before broad daylight. + +Here was a dilemma of which Morris had not thought, but Mrs. Hull's +woman's wits came to his aid, suggesting that he "leave his horse at the +tavern in West Silverton and she would send John after it as soon as he +returned." + +This arranged, Mrs. Hull next asked if Katy would not have some supper +before her long ride. + +"A cup of tea and a slice of toast was all she would require," Morris +said, and he felt many doubts about her touching that. + +She was sleeping when he returned to her, but when the tea was ready, +she roused up enough to say she did not want it. + +"Make her drink it if you ever expect to get her to New York," Mrs. Hull +suggested, alarmed at the redness of Katy's face, and the brightness of +her eyes. + +"You must drink it," Morris said. "It will make you stronger for the +ride. We are going very soon, you know--going to New York," and he shook +her shoulder gently as he tried to make her comprehend. + +When he said she must, Katy lifted up her head, doing whatever he bade +her do, and seeming more natural for the exertion and the food she took. + +"Let me rest now for a little while," she said, and lying back upon her +pillow she slept for an hour, while Morris knelt beside her, counting +her rapid pulse, marking the progress of the fever and praying +earnestly that she might be able to reach New York, and that no serious +consequences would result from his taking her there that night. + +To others it might seem a crazy project, but Morris felt that it was +right, and he nerved himself to his part of the toil, harnessing his own +horse and leading him around to the door, where he left him while he +went to get Katy ready. She was not sleeping now, for the powerful +stimulant given just before leaving her had taken effect, and she seemed +a great deal better, fastening her cloak herself and tying her own +bonnet, while Morris put an extra shawl around her, and Mrs. Hull +brought the hot soapstone prepared for her feet. Then, when all was +ready, Morris carried her to the covered sleigh, wrapping robes and furs +around her so that it seemed impossible she should take cold. + +The storm had now abated, and the moon shone brightly upon the cold, +frosty snow, as they sped along, Morris' bells tinkling in the clear +cutting air, and occasionally waking some light sleeper, who knew those +musical bells, and said: "That is the doctor," wondering who was sick, +and as they nestled down again in their warm bed, feeling glad that they +were not obliged to be abroad in a wintry night like this. There was no +one at the West Silverton depot except the man who always stayed there, +and he was too nearly asleep to notice whether it was one or twenty +ladies whom Morris accompanied into the sitting-room, going next to +provide for his horse at the hotel nearby. + +This done he came back to Katy, staying by her until the early train +came swiftly in, pausing only for a moment, and when next it moved +forward, bearing him and Katy on the strange journey to New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +GETTING HOME. + + +Springfield was left behind just as the gray daylight came stealing +through the frost-bound windows, rousing the sleepy passengers, and +making Morris pull his wide collar a little closer about his face as if +to avoid observation. He was not afraid of daylight except as it might +disclose some old acquaintance who would perhaps wonder to see him at +that hour between Springfield and Hartford, and wonder more whose was +the head resting so confidentially upon his shoulder, for after the +change at Springfield, Katy, who could no longer keep awake, had leaned +against his arm as readily as if he had been her brother. + +A secret of any kind makes its possessor suspicious, and Morris felt +anxious whenever any one glanced that way, but he would not waken Katy, +who slept upon his arm until New York was reached, when with a +frightened, startled feeling, she sat up, and pushing her veil from her +face, looked about her, nodding half unconsciously to Thomas Tubbs, whom +she knew from having seen him in her husband's office, and who since +leaving Hartford had been a passenger on board that train, sitting just +behind Dr. Morris, and wondering when he saw who his companion was, "if +Mrs. Wilford had been to Silverton." Mattie wondered, too, when he told +her, as she poured his half-cold coffee, and then it passed from his +mind, until the following morning when he heard Mark Ray saying to a +client who had asked when Mr. Cameron would probably return: + +"If he does not come to-day, we shall telegraph for him, as his wife is +very sick." + +Then Tom remembered how white and haggard Katy's face had looked, and +many times that day his mind recurred to Katy Cameron, whom in his +boyish way he had admired as something supernaturally beautiful, and +who, in her own room at home, lay burning with fever, and talking of +Silverton, of Linwood, of baby, of Genevra, and of Wilford. + +Morris had seen her safely to her own door, and then thinking she would +do best alone for a time, he left her on the steps, after having rung +the bell and seen that the ring was answered. + +It was Esther who met her, expressing much concern at her appearance, +and asking why she did not stay at Father Cameron's instead of coming +home this cold raw day. + +Hardly knowing what she did, Katy motioned Esther to her after reaching +her room, and whispered: + +"I have not been to Father Cameron's. I had business somewhere else, but +you must not tell. I am in trouble, Esther, or rather, I have been. I +guess it's over now. You are a good girl, and I can trust you. There's +a letter in that drawer, please bring it to me." + +Either complied, and Katy held in her hand the letter left for Wilford. +It had not been opened. It must never be opened now, and holding it +until a fire was kindled in the grate, she tossed it into the flames, +watching it as it crispened and blackened upon the glowing coals. + +The quick-witted Esther saw that something was wrong, and traced it +readily to Wilford, whose exacting nature she thoroughly understood. She +had not been blind during the two years and a half she had been Katy's +maid, and no impatient word of Wilford's, or frown upon his face, had +escaped her when occurring in her presence, while Katy's uniform +sweetness and entire submission to his will had been noted as well, so +that in Esther's opinion Wilford was a domestic tyrant, and Katy was an +angel. There was no danger then of Esther's repeating anything +forbidden. She had, of course, her own private speculation on the +subject, and when she learned that the tall, handsome man who came +within an hour after Katy's arrival was Dr. Grant, about whom she had +heard both her young mistress and Mrs. Cameron talk so much, her woman's +wits came to her aid again, and to herself she said: + +"It's to Silverton Mrs. Cameron went, though how she could get there and +back so soon is a mystery to me, or why she went at all." + +Then as she remembered all the circumstances which followed the dinner +for which Katy had dressed with so much care, and the burning of the +letter, a wild conjecture passed through her mind as to the nature of +the trouble which had taken Katy to Silverton in her husband's absence, +leaving a letter for him, and then burning it up when she came back, +accompanied by Dr. Grant. For that he did come with her Esther was sure, +as she saw him on the steps when she answered Katy's ring, and knew the +man who now sat in the parlor waiting for her to take his name to Katy +was the same. + +"There is something in the wind," she thought, as she carried Morris' +name to Katy, who did not seem to hear, or if she did, she paid no heed, +but talked of the blinding snow, and the grave in St. Mary's churchyard, +which was no grave at all. + +Her manner, more than her looks, frightened the girl, who retreated down +the stairs, meeting Morris in the hall, and saying as she grasped his +arm: + +"You are a doctor, Dr. Grant. Come, then, to Mrs. Cameron. She is taken +out of her head, and talks so queer and raving." + +Morris had expected this, but he was not prepared to find the fever so +high, or the symptoms so alarming. + +"Shall I send for Mrs. Cameron and another doctor, please?" Esther +asked. + +Morris had faith in himself, and he would rather no other hand should +minister to Katy; but he knew he could not stay there long, for there +were those at home who needed his services. Added to this, her family +physician might know her constitution now better than he knew it, and so +he answered that it would be well to send for both the doctor and Mrs. +Cameron. + +It was growing dark now in the city, and the shadows were stealing into +the room where Morris sat down to wait for other counsel and the arrival +of Mrs. Cameron. To the servants in the kitchen Esther stated, with a +very matter-of-course air, that her mistress had come home, feeling +sick, and that as she seemed getting worse, she was to send to Madam +Cameron, adding that it was a piece of great good luck that Dr. Grant, +from Silverton, who was her cousin, happened to be in the city, and had +called just when he was needed the most. + +"He was the doctor whom Jamie talked so much about," she said; "the +doctor whom the family met in Paris," dwelling so long on Dr. Grant and +discussing him so volubly that Phillips and the other servants lost +sight entirely of what had struck them a little oddly, to wit: that Mrs. +Wilford should leave Father Cameron's if she was so very sick. + +It was Esther who met Mrs. Cameron in the hall, conducting her into the +parlor and adopting a different style of argument with her from that +used in the basement. "Mrs. Wilford was not well when her husband went +away; but of course he thought nothing of it, neither did +she--Esther--until to-day, when she came in from the street, looking +very badly, and going directly to her bed, where she had been growing +worse ever since." + +"Yes," and Mrs. Cameron beat her foot thoughtfully. "I wish I had called +yesterday. I did speak of it, fearing she would be lonely." + +"I dare say she was," Esther replied, never changing color in the least, +although somewhat afraid she was being driven to the wall. "She seemed +downcast all the morning, but went about noon. I thought maybe she would +call on you." + +"I wish she had," Mrs. Cameron replied, and then Esther told her how +providential it was that a Dr. Grant from Silverton happened to come to +New York that very day. Of course he called upon his cousin, first +sending up his card, and then going himself when told that Mrs. Cameron +was out of her head and did not understand who was waiting to see her. + +Completely befogged with regard to a part of the play enacting before +her eyes, Mrs. Cameron exclaimed: "Dr. Grant, of Silverton! I have the +utmost confidence in his skill. Still, it may be well for Dr. Craig to +see her. I think that is his ring." + +The city and country physicians agreed exactly with regard to Katy's +illness, or rather the city physician bowed in acquiescence when Morris +said to him that the fever raging so high had perhaps been induced by +natural causes, but was greatly aggravated by some sudden shock to the +nervous system. This was before Mrs. Cameron came up, but it was +repeated in her presence by Dr. Craig, who thus left the impression that +the idea had originated with himself rather than with Dr. Grant, as +perhaps he thought it had. He was at first inclined to patronize the +country doctor, but soon found that he had reckoned without his host. +Morris knew more of Katy and quite as much of medicine as he did +himself, and when Mrs. Cameron begged him to stay longer he answered +that her son's wife was as safe in his brother physician's hands as she +could be in his. + +"Indeed, she's safer," he added, "for Dr. Grant can watch her every +moment, and I leave her in his care, calling again of course in the +morning." + +Mrs. Cameron was very glad that Dr. Grant was there, she said. It was +surely Providence who sent him to New York on that particular day, and +Morris shivered as he wondered if it were wrong not to explain the whole +to her. + +"Perhaps it is best she should not know of Katy's journey to Silverton," +he thought, and merely bowing to her remarks, he turned to Katy, who was +growing very restless and moaning as if in pain. + +"It hurts," she said, turning her head from side to side; "I am lying on +Genevra." + +With a sudden start Mrs. Cameron drew nearer, but when she remembered +the little grave at Silverton, she said: "It's the baby she's talking +about." + +Morris knew better, and as Katy still continued to move her head as if +something were really hurting her, he passed his hand under her pillow +and drew out the picture which she had held as long as her consciousness +remained. He knew it was Genevra's picture, and was about to lay it away +when the cover dropped from his hand and his eye fell upon a face which +was not new to him, while an involuntary exclamation of surprise broke +from his lips as Katy's assertion that Genevra was living was thus fully +confirmed. Marian had not changed past recognition since her early +girlhood, and Morris knew the likeness at once, pitying Katy more than +he had pitied her yet, as he remembered how closely Marian Hazelton had +been interwoven with her married life and the life of the little child +which had borne her name. + +"What is that?" Mrs. Cameron asked, and Morris passed the case to her, +saying: "A picture was under Katy's pillow." + +Morris did not look at Mrs. Cameron, but tried to busy himself with the +medicines upon the stand, while she, too, recognized Genevra Lambert, +wondering how it came in Katy's possession, and how much she knew of +Wilford's secret. + +"She most have been rummaging," she thought, and then, as she +remembered what Esther had said about her mistress appearing sick and +unhappy when her husband left, she repaired to the parlor and summoning +Esther to her presence, asked her again: "When she first observed traces +of indisposition in Mrs. Cameron." + +Considerably flurried and anxious to prove true to Katy, Esther replied, +at random: "When she came home from that dinner at your house. She was +just as pale as death, and her teeth fairly chattered as I took off her +things." + +"Dinner? What dinner?" Mrs. Cameron asked, and Esther replied: "Why, the +night Mr. Wilford went away or was to go. She changed her mind about +meeting him at your house and said she meant to surprise him. But she +came home before Mr. Cameron, looking like a ghost and saying she was +sick. It's my opinion something she ate at dinner hurt her." + +"Very likely; yes. You can go now," Mrs. Cameron said, and Esther +departed, never dreaming how much light she had inadvertently thrown +upon the mystery. + +"She must have been in the library and heard all we said," Mrs. Cameron +thought, as she nervously twisted the fringe of her breakfast shawl. "I +remember we talked of Genevra, and I remember, too, that we both heard a +strange sound from some quarter, but thought it came from the kitchen. +That was Katy. She was there all the time and let herself quietly out of +the house. I wonder does Wilford know," and then there came over her an +intense desire for Wilford to come home, a desire which was not lessened +when she returned to Katy's room and heard her talking of Genevra and +the grave at St. Mary's "where nobody was buried." + +In a tremor of distress, lest she should betray something which Morris +must not know, Mrs. Cameron tried to hush her, talking as if it was the +baby she meant, the Genevra who died at Silverton; but Katy answered +promptly: "I'm not to be hoodwinked any longer. It's Genevra Lambert I +mean, Wilford's other wife; the one across the sea, whom you and he +browbeat. She was innocent, too--as innocent as I, whom you both +deceived." + +Here was a phase of affairs for which Mrs. Cameron was not prepared, +and excessively mortified that Morris should hear Katy's ravings, she +tried again to quiet her, consoling herself with the reflection that as +Morris was Katy's cousin, he would not repeat what he heard, and feeling +gratified now that Dr. Craig was absent, as she could not be so sure of +him. If Katy's delirium continued, no one must be admitted to the room +except those who could be trusted, and as there had been already several +rings, she said to Esther that as the fever was probably malignant and +contagious, no one must be admitted to the house with the expectation of +seeing the patient, while the servants were advised to stay in their own +quarters, except as their services might be needed elsewhere. And so it +was that by the morrow the news had spread of some infectious disease at +No. ---- on Madison Square, which was shunned as carefully as if the +smallpox itself had been raging there instead of the brain fever, which +increased so fast that Morris suggested to Mrs. Cameron that she +telegraph for Wilford. + +"They might find him, and they might not," Mark Ray said, when the +message came down to the office. "They could try, at all events," and in +a few moments the telegraphic wires were carrying the news of Katy's +illness, both to the West, where Wilford had gone, and to the East, +where Helen read with a blanched cheek that Katy perhaps was dying, and +she was needed again. + +This was Mrs. Cameron's suggestion, wrung out by the knowing that some +woman besides herself was needed in the sickroom, and by the feeling +that Helen could be trusted with the story of the first marriage, which +Katy talked of constantly, telling it so accurately that only a fool +would fail of being convinced that there was much of truth in those +delirious ravings. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE FEVER AND ITS RESULTS. + + +On every business paper Wilford wrote or signed, and in every object he +met in his journey, one face had been prominent, and that the face of +Katy as it looked in the gray dawn when it lifted itself up to kiss him, +while the white lips tried to speak his pardon. Sometimes Wilford was +very sorry and full of remorse, knowing how Katy was suffering for his +sin; and then, when he remembered her long refusal to pardon him, +notwithstanding that he sued for it so earnestly, his self-importance +was touched, and he felt she had no right to be so obstinate. He did not +deserve it. He was a very kind, indulgent husband, who had raised her +from the humblest position to the very highest, and she ought not to +feel so indignant because he had kept from her an act which, after all, +did not affect her materially. If Genevra was living, and on this side +of the water, he could understand how it might be unpleasant for Katy +and for him, too, knowing, as they both did, that she was innocent of +the charges alleged against her. + +"I should not myself like to run the risk of meeting a divorced wife at +any time," he thought; "but Genevra is dead, and Katy ought to be more +reasonable. I did not suppose there was so much spirit in her." + +But reason as he might, Wilford could not forget Katy's face, so full of +reproach. It followed him continually, and was the magnet which turned +his steps homeward before his business was quite done, and before the +telegram found him. Thus it was with no knowledge of existing +circumstances that he reached New York just at the close of the day +after Katy's return, and ordering a carriage, was driven rapidly toward +home. All the shutters in the front part of the house were closed and +not a ray of light was to be seen in the parlors as he entered the hall, +where the gas was burning dimly. + +"Katy is at home," he said, as he went into the library, where a shawl +was thrown across a chair, as if some one had lately been there. + +It was his mother's shawl, and Wilford was wondering if she was there, +when down the stairs came a man's rapid step, and the next moment Dr. +Grant stepped into the room, starting when he saw Wilford, who felt +intuitively that something was wrong. + +"Is Katy sick?" was his first question, which Morris answered in the +affirmative, holding him back as he was starting for her room, and +saying to him: "Let me send your mother to you first." What passed +between Wilford and his mother was never known exactly, but at the close +of the interview Mrs. Cameron was very pale, while Wilford's face looked +dark and anxious, as he said: "You think he understands it, then?" + +"Yes, in part. Of course he cannot make a very connected story out of +her ravings; but that he believes you had a wife before Katy, I am sure, +just as I am that the world will be none the wiser for his knowledge. I +knew Dr. Grant before you did, and there are few men living whom I +respect as much, and no one whom I would trust as soon." + +Mrs. Cameron had paid a high compliment to Morris Grant, and Wilford +bowed in assent, asking next how she managed Dr. Craig. + +"That was easy, inasmuch as he believed it an insane freak of Katy's to +have no other physician than her cousin. It was quite natural, he said, +adding that she was as safe with Dr. Grant as any one. So that is +settled, and I was glad, for I could not have a stranger know of that +affair. If I thought it would save her life to retain him, I should feel +differently, of course." + +"Yes, certainly," Wilford rejoined, while at his heart there was the +germ of a feeling which, if in the slightest degree encouraged, would +almost have given Katy's life to save his darling self-love and honor in +the eyes of the world. + +Few men are as thoroughly selfish as Wilford Cameron, and though he was +very much concerned for Katy, he thought more of preserving a secret +which, if known at this late day, would subject him to much censure and +reproach, than he did of her. So when his mother told him next that +Helen had been sent for, his morbid fears took alarm. + +"Why was it necessary to bring another here?" he asked, so indignantly +that tears sprang to his mother's eyes as she pleaded her own weariness +and inability to remain always in the sickroom, and charged him with +ingratitude for all she had done in his behalf. + +Wilford could not afford to quarrel with his mother, and he quieted her +as soon as possible, admitting that if she must have an assistant he +would rather it were Helen than Bell or Juno, or even Esther, who, in +spite of the alarm about malignant fever, would willingly have +administered to her young mistress, had she been allowed to do so. + +"You will go up now," Mrs. Cameron said to her son, when peace was fully +restored, and a moment after Wilford stood in the dimly-lighted room, +where Katy was talking of going to the hospitals, and of Marian +Hazelton, and was only kept upon her pillow by the strong arm of Morris, +who stood over her when Wilford entered, telling her to "wait until +to-morrow--it would be better then, and she had not seen her husband +yet." + +"I have no husband," she replied, her lip curling with scorn, and her +eyes just then falling upon Wilford, who stood appalled at the fearful +change which had passed over her since he left her three days before. + +She knew him, and writhing herself away from Morris' arms, she raised up +in bed and said to him: + +"I've been at the bottom of things, and Genevra is not in that grave at +St. Mary's. Nobody is there; consequently, she is living, and you are +not my husband. So if you please you can leave the house at once. Morris +will do very well. He will settle the estate, and no bill shall be sent +in for your board and lodging." + +In some moods Wilford would have smiled at being thus summarily +dismissed from his own house and assured that no bill should be sent +after him for board and lodging; but he was too sore now, too sensitive +to smile, and his voice was rather severe as he laid his hand on Katy's, +and said: + +"Don't be foolish, Katy. Don't you know me? I am Wilford, your husband." + +"That was, you mean," Katy rejoined, drawing her hand quickly away. "Go +find your first love, where bullets fall like hail, and where there is +pain, and blood, and carnage. Genevra is there." + +She would not let Wilford come near her, and grew so excited by his +presence that he was forced either to leave the room or sit where she +could not see him. He chose the latter, and from his seat by the door +watched with a half-jealous, half-angry heart, Morris Grant doing for +his wife what he should have done. + +With Morris Katy was gentle as a little child, talking still of +Genevra, but talking quietly, and in a way which did not wear her out +as fast as her excitement did. + +"What God hath joined together let not man put asunder," was the text +from which she preached several short sermons as the night wore on, but +just as the morning dawned she fell into the first quiet sleep she had +had during the last twenty-four hours. And while she slept Wilford +ventured near enough to see the sunken cheeks and hollow eyes which +wrung a groan from him as he turned to Morris, asking what he supposed +was the immediate cause of her sudden illness? + +"A terrible shock, the nature of which I understand, but you have +nothing to fear from me," Morris replied. "I accuse you to no man, but +leave you to settle it with your conscience whether you did right to +deceive her so long." + +Morris spoke as one having authority, and Wilford simply bowed his head, +feeling then no resentment toward one who had ventured to reprove him. +Afterward he might remember it differently, but now he was too anxious +to keep Morris there to quarrel with him, and so he made no reply, but +sat watching Katy as she slept, wondering if she would die, and feeling +how terrible life would be without her. Suddenly Genevra's warning words +rang in his ear: + +"God will not forgive you for the wrong you have done me." + +Was Genevra right? Had God remembered all this time, and overtaken him +at last? It might be, and with a groan Wilford hid his face in his +hands, believing that he repented of his sin, and not knowing that his +fancied repentance arose merely from the fact that he had been detected. +Could the last few days be blotted out, and Katy stand just where she +did, with no suspicion of him, he would have cast his remorse to the +winds, and as it is not such repentance God accepts, Wilford had only +begun to sip the cup of retribution presented to his lips. + +Worn out with watching and waiting, Mrs. Cameron, who would suffer +neither Juno nor Bell to come near the house, waited uneasily for the +arrival of the New Haven train, which she hoped would bring Helen to her +aid. Under ordinary circumstances she would rather not have met her, +for her presence would keep the letter so constantly in her mind, but +now anybody who could be trusted was welcome, and when at last there +came a cautious ring she went herself to the hall, starting back with +undisguised vexation when she saw the timid-looking woman following +close behind Helen, and whom the latter presented as "My mother, Mrs. +Lennox." + +Convinced that Morris' sudden journey to New York had something to do +with Katy's illness, and almost distracted with fears for her daughter's +life, Mrs. Lennox could not remain at home and wait for the tardy mail +or careless telegraph. She must go to her child, and casting off her +dread of Wilford's displeasure, she had come with Helen, and was bowing +meekly to Mrs. Cameron, who neither offered her hand nor gave any token +of greeting except a distant bow and a simple "Good-morning, madam." + +But Mrs. Lennox was too timid, too bewildered, and too anxious to notice +the lady's haughty manner as she led them to the library and then went +for her son. Wilford was not glad to see his mother-in-law, but he tried +to be polite, answering her questions civilly, and when she asked if it +was true that he had sent for Morris, assuring her that it was not--"Dr. +Grant happened here very providentially, and I hope to keep him until +the crisis is past, although he has just told me he must go back +to-morrow," Wilford said, mentally hoping Mrs. Lennox might think it +best to go with him, or if she did not, wondering how long she did +intend to stay. It hurt his pride that she, whom he considered greatly +his inferior, should learn his secret; but it could not now be helped, +and within an hour after her arrival she was looking curiously at him +for an explanation of the strange things she heard from Katy's lips. + +"Was you a widower when you married my daughter?" she said to him, when +at last Helen left the room, and she was alone with him. + +"Yes, madam," he replied, "some would call me so, though I was divorced +from my wife. As this was a matter which did not in any way concern your +daughter, I deemed it best not to tell her. Latterly she has found it +out, and it is having a very extraordinary effect upon her." + +Mrs. Lennox was too much afraid of the man addressing her so haughtily +to make him any reply, and so she only wept softly as she bent to kiss +her child, still talking of Genevra and the empty grave at St. Mary's, +where she once sat down. + +And this was all Mrs. Lennox knew until alone with Helen, who had heard +from Morris all he knew of the sad story except the part relating to +Marian Hazelton. His sudden journey to New York was thus accounted for, +and Helen explained it to her mother as well as she could, advising her +to say nothing of it either to Wilford or Mrs. Cameron, as it was quite +as well for them not to know it yet. Many messages Helen brought to her +cousin from his patients, and Morris felt it was his duty to go to them +for a day or so at least. + +"You have other physicians here," he said to Wilford, who objected to +his leaving. "Dr. Craig will do as well as I." + +Wilford admitted that he might; but it was with a sinking heart that he +saw Morris depart, and then went to Katy, who began to grow very +restless and uneasy, bidding him go away and send Dr. Morris back. It +was in vain that they administered the medicine just as Morris had +directed. Katy grew constantly worse, until Mrs. Lennox asked that +another doctor be called. But to this Wilford did not listen. Fear of +exposure and censure were stronger than his fear for Katy's life, which +seemed balancing upon a thread as that long night and the next day went +by. Three times Wilford telegraphed for Morris, and it was with +unfeigned joy that he welcomed him back at last, and heard that he had +so arranged his business now as to stay with Katy while the danger +lasted. + +With a monotonous sameness the days now came and went, people still +shunning the house as if the plague was there. Once Bell Cameron came +around to call on Helen, holding her breath as she passed through the +hall, and never asking to go near Katy's room. Two or three times, too, +Mrs. Banker's carriage stood at the door, and Mrs. Banker herself came +in, seeming surprised when she met Helen and appearing so cool and +distant that the latter could scarcely keep back her tears as she +guessed the cause. Mark never came, but from the window Helen saw him +riding by with Juno, who kept her face turned toward him, as if in close +and confidential chat. + +"They were engaged," Esther said, adding that "he was about joining the +army as first lieutenant in a company composed of the finest young men +in the city." + +Helen doubted if this were true, until one day, when driving with her +mother, she met him arrayed in his new uniform, looking so handsome and +proud. He, too, was driving with a brother officer, and as he passed he +lifted his cap in token of recognition; but the olden look which Helen +remembered so well, and which had been wont to make her pulses thrill +with a most exquisite delight, was gone, and Helen felt more than ever +the wide gulf some hand had built between them. The next she heard was +from Mrs. Banker, whose face looked pale and worn as she incidentally +remarked: "I shall be very lonely now that Mark is gone. He left me +to-day for Washington." + +There were tears on the mother's face, and her lip quivered as she tried +to keep them back, looking from the window into the street instead of at +her companion, who, overcome with the rush of feeling which swept over +her, laid her face on the sofa arm and sobbed aloud. + +"Why, Helen! Miss Lennox, I am surprised! I had supposed--I was not +aware--I did not think you would care," Mrs. Banker exclaimed, coming +closer to Helen, who stammered out: "I beg you will excuse me, I cannot +help it. I care for all our soldiers. It seems so terrible." + +At the words "I care for all the soldiers," a shadow of disappointment +flitted over Mrs. Banker's face. She knew her son had offered himself +and been refused, as she supposed, and she believed, too, that Helen had +given publicity to the affair, feeling justly indignant at this breach +of confidence and lack of delicacy in one whom she had liked so much and +whom she still liked in spite of the wounded pride which had prompted +her to seem so cold and distant. + +"Perhaps it is all a mistake," she thought, as she continued standing by +Helen, whose tears did not cease, "or it may be she has relented," and +for a moment she felt tempted to ask why her boy had been refused. + +But Mark would not be pleased with her interference, she knew, and so +the golden moment fled, and when she left the house the misunderstanding +between herself and Helen was just as wide as ever. Wearily after that +the days passed with Helen until all thoughts of herself were forgotten +in the terrible fear that death was really brooding over the pillow +where Katy lay, insensible to all that was passing around her. The lips +were silent now, and Wilford had nothing to fear from the tongue +hitherto so busy. Juno, Bell and Father Cameron all came to see her, +dropping tears upon the face looking so old and worn with suffering, but +yet so sweet and pure, and treading softly as they left the room and +went out into the sunshine where Katy might never go again. In the +kitchen there was mourning, too; Phillips weeping for her mistress, +while Esther, with her apron over her head, sobbed passionately, wishing +she, too, might die if Katy did. Mrs. Cameron also was very sorry, very +sad, but managed to find some consolation in mentally arranging a grand +funeral, which would do honor to her son, and wondering if "those +Barlows in Silverton would think they must attend." And while she thus +arranged, the mother who had given birth to Katy wrestled in earnest +prayer that God would spare her child, or at least grant some space in +which she might be told of the world to which she was hastening. What +Wilford suffered none could guess. His face was very white and his +expression almost stern as he sat watching the young wife who had been +his for little more than two brief years, and who but for his sin might +not have been lying there unconscious of the love and grief around her. +Like some marble statue Morris seemed as with lip compressed and brows +firmly knit together he, too, sat watching Katy, feeling for the pulse +and bending his ear to catch the faintest breath which came from her +parted lips, while in his heart there was an earnest prayer for the +safety of the soul hovering so evenly between this world and the next. +He did not ask that she might live, for if all were well hereafter he +knew it was far better for her to die in her young womanhood than to +live till the heart now so sad and bleeding had grown calloused with +sorrow. And yet it was terrible to think of Katy dead; to know that +never again would her little feet dance on the grass, or her bird-like +voice break the silence of his home; terrible to think of that face and +form laid away beneath the turf of Greenwood, where those who loved her +best could seldom go to weep. + +And as they sat thus the night shadows stole into the room and the hours +crept on till from a city tower a clock struck ten, and Morris, +motioning Helen to his side, bade her go with her mother to rest. "We do +not need you here," he said, "your presence can do no good. Should a +change occur you shall be told at once." + +Thus importuned Helen and her mother withdrew and only Morris and +Wilford remained to watch that heavy slumber so nearly resembling death. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +MORRIS' CONFESSION. + + +Gradually the noise in the streets died away; the tread of feet, the +rumbling wheels and the tinkle of the car bells ceased, and not a sound +was heard, save as the distant fire bells pealed forth their warning +voices, or some watchman went hurrying by. The great city was asleep, +and to Morris the silence brooding over the countless throng was deeper, +more solemn than the silence of the country where nature gives out her +own mysterious notes and lullabies for her sleeping children. Slowly the +minutes went by, and Morris became at last aware that Wilford's eyes, +instead of resting on the pallid face which seemed to grow each moment +more pallid and ghastly, were fixed on him with an expression which made +him drop the pale hand he held between his own, pooring it occasionally +as a mother might poor and pity the hand of her dying baby. + +Before his marriage a jealous thought of Morris Grant had found a +lodgment in Wilford's breast; but remembering the past he had tried to +drive it out, and fancied that he had succeeded, experiencing a sudden +shock when he felt it lifting its green head, and poisoning his mind +against the man doing for Katy only what a brother might do, or rather, +against the motives which prompted this man's devotion. He forgot that +it was his own entreaties which had kept Morris there, refusing to let +him go even for a day to the other patients missing him so much, and +complaining of his absence. Jealous men never reason clearly, and in +this case Wilford did not reason at all, but jumped readily at his +conclusion, calling to his aid as proof all that he had ever seen pass +between Katy and her cousin. That Morris Grant loved Katy was, after a +few moment's reflection, as fixed a fact in his mind as that she lay +there between them, her eyelids quivering, and her lips moaning feebly +as if about to speak. Years before, when Genevra was the wife, jealousy +had made Wilford almost a madman, and it now held him again in its +powerful grasp, whispering suggestions he would have spurned in a calm +frame of mind. There was a clinching of his fist, a knitting of his +brows, and a gathering blackness in his eyes as he listened while Katy, +rousing partially from her lethargy, talked of the days when she was a +little girl, and Morris had built the playhouse for her by the brook, +where the thorn apples grew and the waters fell over the smooth, white +rocks. + +"Take me back there," she said, "and let me lie on the grass again. It +is so long since I was there, and I've suffered so much since then. +Wilford meant to be kind, but he did not try to understand or know how I +loved the country with its birds and flowers and springing grass by the +well, where the shadows come and go. I used to wonder where they were +going, and one day when I watched them I was waiting for Wilford, and +wishing he would come. Would it have been better if he had never come?" + +Wilford's body shook with strong emotion as he bent forward to hear +Katy's answer to her question. + +"Were there no Genevra," she said, "no verse 'what God hath joined +together let no man put asunder,' I should not think so; but there is +such a verse, and now I don't know what I think, only I must go. Come, +Morris, we will go together, you and I." + +She turned partly toward Morris, who made her no reply. He could not, +with those fiery eyes fixed upon him, and he sat erect in his chair, +while Katy talked of Silverton, and the days gone by until her voice +grew very faint, ceasing at last as she fell into a second sleep, +heavier, more death-like, than the first. Something in her face alarmed +Morris, and in spite of the eyes watching him he bent every energy to +retain the feeble pulse, and the breath which grew shorter with each +respiration. + +"Do you think her dying?" Wilford asked, and Morris replied: "Not yet; +but the look about the mouth and nose is like the look which so often +precedes death." + +And that was all they said until another hour went by, when Morris' hand +was laid upon the forehead and moved up under the golden hair where +there were drops of perspiration. + +"She is saved, thank God, Mr. Cameron, Katy is saved," was his joyful +exclamation, and burying his head in his hands, he wept for a moment +like a child, for Katy was restored again. + +On Wilford's face there was no trace of tears. On the contrary, he +seemed hardening into stone, and in his heart fierce passions were +contending for the mastery, and urging him on to an act from which, in +his right mind, he would have shrunk. Rising slowly at last, he came +around to Morris' side, and grasping his shoulder, said: + +"Morris Grant, you love Katy Cameron." + +Like the peal of a bell on the frosty air the words rang through the +room, starting Morris from his bowed attitude, and for an instant +curdling his blood in his veins, for he understood now the meaning of +the look which had so puzzled him. In Morris' heart there was a moment's +hesitancy to know just what to answer, an ejaculatory prayer for +guidance, and then lifting up his head, his calm blue eyes met the eyes +of black unflinchingly, as he replied: + +"I have loved her always." + +A blaze like sheet lightning shot from beneath Wilford's eyelashes, and +a taunting sneer curled his lip, as he said: + +"You, a saint, confess to this?" + +It was quite natural, and in keeping with human nature for Wilford to +thrust Morris' religion in his face, forgetting that never on this side +the eternal world can man cease wholly to sin, that so long as flesh and +blood remain, there will be temptation, error and wrong, even among +God's children. Morris felt the sneer keenly; but the consciousness of +peace with his Maker sustained him in the shock and, with the same tone +he had at first assumed, he said: + +"Should my being what you call a saint prevent my confessing what I +did?" + +"No, not the confession, but the fact," Wilford answered, savagely. "How +do you reconcile your acknowledged love for Katy with the injunctions of +the Bible whose doctrines you indorse?" + +"A man cannot always control his feelings, but he can strive to overcome +them and put the temptation aside. One does not sin in being tempted, +but in listening to the temptation." + +"Then according to your own reasoning you have sinned, for you not only +have teen tempted, but have yielded to the temptation," Wilford +retorted, with a sinister look of exultation in his black eyes. + +For a moment Morris was silent, while a struggle of some kind seemed +going on in his mind, and then he said: + +"I never thought to lay open to you a secret which, after myself, is, I +believe, known to only one living being." + +"And that one--is--you will not tell me that is Katy?" Wilford +exclaimed, his voice hoarse with passion, and his eyes flashing with +fire. + +"No, not Katy. She has no suspicion of the pain which, since I saw her +made another's, has eaten into my heart, making me grow old so fast, and +blighting my early manhood." + +Something in Morris' tone and manner inspired Wilford with awe, making +him relax his grasp upon the arm, and sending him back to his chair +while Morris continued: + +"Most men would shrink from talking to a husband of the love they bore +his wife, and an hour ago I should have shrunk from it, too, but you +have forced me to it, and now you must listen while I tell you of my +love for Katy. It began longer ago than she can remember--began when she +was my baby sister, and I hushed her in my arms to sleep, kneeling by +her cradle and watching her with a feeling I have never been able to +define. She was in all my thoughts, her face upon the printed page of +every book I studied, and her voice in every strain of music I ever +heard. Then, when she grew older, I used to watch the frolicsome child +by the hour, building castles even then of the future, when she would be +a woman and I a man, with a man's right to win her. I know that she +shielded me from many a snare into which young men are apt to fall, for +when the temptation was greatest, and I was at its verge, a thought of +her was sufficient to lead me back to virtue. I carried her in my heart +across the sea, and said when I go back I will ask her to be mine. I +went back, but at my first meeting with Katy after her return from +Canandaigua she told me of you, and I knew then that hope for me was +gone, praying for strength to bear my loss and hide my love from her. +God grant that you nor she may never experience what I experienced on +that day which made her your wife, and I saw her go away. It seemed +almost as if God had forgotten me as the night after the bridal I sat +alone at home, and met that dark hour of sorrow. In the midst of it +Helen came, discovering my secret, and sympathizing with me until the +pain at my heart grew less, and I could pray that God would grant me a +feeling for Katy which should not be sinful. And He did at last, so I +could think of her without a wish that she was mine. Times there were +when the old love would burst forth with fearful power, and then I +wished that I might die. These were my moments of temptation which I +struggled to overcome. Sometimes a song, a strain of music, or a ray of +moonlight on the floor would bring the past to me so vividly that I +would stagger beneath the burden, feeling that it was greater than I +could bear. But God was very merciful and sent me work which took up all +my time, leaving little leisure for regrets, and driving me away from my +own pain to soothe the pain of others. When Katy came to us last summer +there was an hour of trial, when faith in God grew weak, and I was +tempted to question the justice of His dealing with me. But that, too, +passed, and in my love for your child I forgot the mother in part, +looking upon her as a sister rather than the Katy I had loved so well. I +would have given my life to have saved that child for her, even though +it was a bar between us, a something which separated her from me more +than the words she spoke at the altar. Though dead, that baby is still +a bar, and Katy is not the same to me she was before that little life +came into being. It is not wrong to love her as I do now. I feel no pang +of conscience save when something unexpected carries me back to the old +ground where I have fought so many battles." + +Morris paused a moment, thinking of the time when Katy came to him with +her story of Genevra, and wondering if it were best to repeat the +incidents of that night. It was not, he finally concluded. It would be +better for Katy to tell it herself, and so he added at last: "What I +have borne has told upon me terribly. My people say I work too hard, but +they look only on the surface--they have never seen that inner chamber +of my heart, where only you have been fully admitted. Even Helen knows +not half what's there, but I felt that it was due to you, and so have +told you all, asking that no shadow of censure shall fall on Katy, who +would be greatly shocked to know what you know now." + +Morris' manner was that of a man who spoke with perfect sincerity, and +it carried conviction to Wilford's heart, disarming him for a time of +the fierce anger and resentment he had felt while listening to Morris' +story. Acting upon the good impulse of the moment, he arose, and +offering his hand to Morris, he said: + +"You have done nobly, Dr. Grant, I believe in your religion now. Forgive +me that I ever doubted it. I exonerate you from blame." + +And thus they pledged their faith, Wilford meaning then all he said, and +feeling only respect for the man who had confessed his love for Katy. +After what had passed, Morris felt that it would be pleasanter for +Wilford if he were gone, and after a time he suggested returning to +Silverton at once, inasmuch as the crisis was past and Katy out of +danger. There was a struggle in Wilford's mind as to the answer he +should make to this suggestion. It would not be pleasant to see Morris +there now, for though he had said he forgave him, there was a feeling of +disquiet at his heart, and he at last signified his willingness for him +to leave when he thought best. + +It was broad day when Katy awoke, so weak as to be unable to turn her +head upon the pillow, but in her eyes the light of reason was shining, +and she glanced wonderingly, first at Helen, at her mother, and then at +Wilford, as if trying to comprehend what had happened. + +"Have I been sick?" she asked in a whisper, and Wilford, bending over +her, replied: "Yes, darling, very sick for nearly two whole weeks--ever +since I left home that morning, you know." + +"Yes," and Katy shivered a little. "Yes, I know. But where is Morris? He +was here the last I can remember." + +Wilford's face grew dark at once, and stepping back as Morris came in, +he said: "She asks for you." Then with a rising feeling of resentment he +watched them, while Morris spoke to Katy, telling her she was better, +but must keep very quiet, and not allow herself in any way to be +excited. + +"Have I been crazy? Have I talked much?" she asked, and when Morris +replied in the affirmative there came a startled look into her eye, as +she said: "Of what or whom have I talked most?" + +"Of Genevra," was the answer, and Katy continued: "Did I mention no one +else?" + +Morris guessed of whom she was thinking, and answered, indifferently: +"You spoke of Miss Hazelton in connection with baby, but that was all." + +Katy was satisfied, and closing her eyes fell away to sleep again, while +Morris made his preparations for leaving. It hardly seemed right for him +to go just then, but the only one who could have kept him maintained a +frigid silence with regard to a longer stay, and so the first train +which left New York for Springfield carried Dr. Grant, and Katy was +without a physician. + +Wilford had hoped that Mrs. Lennox, too, would see the propriety of +accompanying Morris; but she would not leave Katy, and Wilford was fain +to submit to what he could not help. No explanation whatever had he +given to Mrs. Lennox or Helen with regard to Genevra. He was too proud +for that, but his mother had deemed it wise to smooth the matter over as +much as possible, enjoining upon them both the necessity of secrecy. + +"When I tell you that neither my husband or daughters know it, you will +understand that I am greatly in earnest in wishing it kept," she said. +"It was a most unfortunate affair, and though the divorce is, of +course, to be lamented, it is better that she died. We never could have +received her as our equal." + +"Was anything the matter, except that she was poor?" Mrs. Lennox asked, +with as much dignity as was in her nature to assume. + +"Well, no. She had a good education, I believe, and was very pretty; but +it makes trouble always where there is a great inequality between a +husband's family and that of his wife." + +Poor Mrs. Lennox understood this perfectly, but she was too much afraid +of the great lady to venture a reply, and a tear rolled down her burning +cheek as she wet the napkin for Katy's head, wishing that she had back +again the daughter, whose family she knew the Camerons despised. The +atmosphere of Madison Square did not suit Mrs. Lennox, especially when, +as the days went by and Katy began to mend, troops of gay ladies called, +mistaking her for the nurse, and all staring a little curiously when +told that she was Mrs. Cameron's mother. Of course, Wilford chafed and +fretted at what he could not help, seldom addressing his mother-in-law +on any subject, and making himself so generally disagreeable that Helen +at last suggested returning home, inasmuch as Katy was so much better. +There was then a faint remonstrance on his part, but Helen did not waver +in her decision, though she pitied Katy, who, when the day of her +departure came and they were for a few moments alone, took her hand +between her own and kissing it fondly, said: "You don't know how I dread +your going or how wretched I shall be without you. Everything which once +made me happy has been removed or changed. Baby is dead, and +Wilford--oh, Helen, I sometimes wish I had not heard of Genevra, for I +am afraid it can never be with us as it was once; that is, I have not +quite the same trust in him, and he seems so changed. Have you noticed +how silent and moody he has grown?" + +Helen had noticed it, but she would not say so, and she tried to comfort +her sister, telling her she would be very happy yet; "but, Katy +darling," she continued, "you have a duty to perform as well as Wilford. +Your heart is very sore now because of the deception, but you must not +let that soreness appear in your manner. You must be to Wilford just +what you always were, unless you wish to wean him from you. He, too, has +had a terrible shock; his pride and self-love have been wounded, and men +like him do not like being humbled as he has been. You must soothe him, +Katy, and smooth his ruffled feathers, proving to him that you can and +do forgive the past. And, Katy, remember you have a Friend always near +to whom you can carry your burdens, sure that He will listen and heal +the smarting pain. Go to Him often and make Him yours indeed. He has +come very near to you within the last year, and such visitations have a +meaning in them. Listen, then, lest He should come again and visit you +with greater sufferings." + +"Purified by Suffering." The words came floating back to Katy, just as +Uncle Ephraim had spoken them in the pleasant meadowland, and just as +they had sometimes haunted her since, but never having so deep a meaning +as now, when Helen's words suggested them again. She was suffering, oh, +so terribly, but was she purifying, too? She feared not, and after the +sad parting with her mother and sister was over she turned her face to +her pillow, trying so hard to pray that God would make her His own, and +by the suffering He sent purify her for heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +DOMESTIC TROUBLES. + + +From the bathroom, which adjoined Katy's sickroom, Wilford had heard all +that passed between the sisters, and his face grew dark as he thought of +having his "ruffled feathers smoothed" even by the little thin white +hand, which, the first time it had a chance laid itself upon his face +with a caressing motion, from which he involuntarily drew back, thinking +the affection thus timidly expressed was all put on with a view to being +good, as he termed it. + +Wilford was in a most unhappy frame of mind. He was not pleased that +Katy had heard of Genevra, and imparted his secret to others. He did not +like being humbled as he had been, even Mrs. Lennox taking it upon +herself to lecture him for his misdemeanors, sobbing as she lectured, +and asking "how he could treat Katy so?" He did not like, either, to +lose Helen's good opinion, as he was sure he had, while, worse than all +the rest, was the galling fact that Morris Grant loved his wife, and was +undoubtedly more worthy of her than himself. He had said that he forgave +Morris, and at the time he said it he fancied he did, but as the days +went by, and thought was all the busier from the moody silence he +maintained, there gradually came to life a feeling of dislike, if not of +hatred, for the man, whose name he could not hear without a frown, +telling Katy very sharply once that he wished she would not talk so much +of Cousin Morris, as if there were no other physician in the world! Dr. +Craig would have done quite as well, and for his part he wished they had +employed him. + +Wilford knew he did not mean what he said, but he was in a very +unamiable frame of mind, and watched Katy close, to detect, if possible, +some sign by which he should know that Morris' love was reciprocated. +But Katy was innocence itself, and as the weeks of convalescence went by +she tried so hard to do her duty as a wife, going often to the Friend of +whom Helen had told her, and finding there the grace which helped her +bear what otherwise she could not have borne and lived. The entire +history of her life during that wretched winter was never told save as +it was written on her face, which was a volume in itself of meek and +patient suffering. + +Wilford had never mentioned Genevra to her since the day of his return, +and Katy sometimes felt that it would be well to talk that matter over. +It might lead to a more perfect understanding than existed between them +now, and dissipate the cloud which hung so darkly on their domestic +horizon. But Wilford repulsed all her advances upon that subject, and +Genevra was a dead name in their household, save as it was on Katy's +lips when she prayed, asking that she might feel only perfect kindness +toward the Genevra who had so darkened her life. + +Wilford's home was not pleasant to him now, but the fault was with +himself. Katy did well her part, meeting him always with a smile, and +trying to win him from the dark mood she could not fathom. Times there +were when for an entire day he would appear like his former self, +caressing her with unwonted tenderness, calling her his "poor crushed +dove," but never asking her forgiveness for all he had made her endure. +He was too proud to do that now, and his tenderness always passed away +when he remembered Morris Grant and Katy's remark to Helen: "I am afraid +it can never be with us as it was once. I have not the same trust in +him." + +"She had no right to complain of me to Helen," he thought, forgetting +the time when he had been guilty of a similar offense in a more +aggravated form. + +He could not reason upon anything naturally, and matters grew daily +worse, while Katy's face grew whiter and her voice sadder in its tone. + +Sometimes Wilford would spend the entire evening away from home, +tarrying till the clock struck twelve before he came, and Katy would +afterward hear that he had been at the house of some friend, or with +Sybil Grandon, whose influence over him increased in proportion as her +own was lessened. + +When the Lenten days came on, oh, how Katy longed to be in Silverton, to +kneel again in its quiet church, and offer up her penitential prayers +with the loved ones at home. At last she ventured to ask Wilford if she +might go, her spirits rising when he did not refuse her request at once, +but asked: + +"Whom do you wish to see the most?" + +His black eyes seemed reading her through, and something in their +expression brought to her face the blush which he construed according to +his jealousy, and when she answered: + +"I wish to see them all," he retorted: + +"Say, rather, you wish to see that doctor, who has loved you so long, +and who but for me would have asked you to be his wife!" + +"What doctor, Wilford? Whom do you mean?" and Wilford replied: + +"Dr. Grant, of course. Did you never suspect it?" + +"Never," and Katy's face grew very white, as she asked how Wilford knew +what he had asserted. + +"I had it from his own lips; he sitting on one side of you and I upon +the other. I so far forgot myself as to charge him with loving you, and +he did not deny it, but confessed as pretty a piece of romance as I ever +read, except that, according to his story, it was a one-sided affair, +confined wholly to himself. You never dreamed of it, he said." + +"Never, no, never," Katy said, panting for her breath, and remembering +suddenly many things which confirmed what she had heard. + +"Poor Morris, how my thoughtlessness must have wounded him," she +murmured, and then all the pent up passion in Wilford's heart burst out +in an impetuous storm. + +He did not charge his wife directly with returning Morris' love, but he +said he was sorry she had not known it earlier; asking her pointedly if +it were not so, and pressing her for an answer until the bewildered +creature cried out: + +"Oh, I don't know. I never thought of it before." + +"But you can think of it now," Wilford continued, his cold, icy tone +making Katy shiver, as more to herself than him she said: + +"A life at Linwood would be perfect rest, compared to this." + +Wilford had wrung from her all he cared to know, and believing himself +the most injured man in existence, he left the house, and Katy heard his +step as it went furiously down the walk. For a time she seemed stunned +with what she had heard, and then there came stealing into her heart a +glad feeling that Morris deemed her worthy of his love when she had so +often feared the contrary. It was not a wicked emotion, nor one +faithless to Wilford. She could pray with just as pure a heart as +before, and she did pray, thanking God for the love of this good man, +and asking that long ere this he might have learned to be content +without her. Never once did the thought "It might have been," intrude +itself upon her, nor did she picture to herself the life which she had +missed. She seemed to rise above all that, and Wilford, had he read her +heart, would have found no evil there. + +"Poor Morris," she kept repeating, while little throbs of pleasure went +dancing through her veins, and the world was not one-half so dreary for +knowing he had loved her. Toward Wilford, too, her heart went out in a +fresh gush of tenderness, for she knew how one of his jealous nature +must have suffered. + +"I'll drive down to the office for him this afternoon," she said. "That +will surely please him; and to prove still further that I never dreamed +of Morris' love, I'll tell him coming home how in the great sorrow about +Genevra I went to him for counsel, and how he sent, or rather, brought +me back." + +But this confession would necessitate her telling that Genevra was not +dead, and it was better for them both, she thought, that he should not +know this until the relations between herself and him were more as they +used to be; so she decided finally to withhold the fact for a time at +least. But she would go for him, as she had at first intended, and she +counted the hours impatiently, thinking once her watch had stopped, and +seeming brighter and happier than she had been since her illness, when +at last she stepped into her carriage, and was driven down Broadway. + +Business had gone wrong with Wilford that day, and Tom Tubbs had +mentally pronounced his master "crosser than a bear," and sighing +secretly for the always cheerful Mark, he had taken up his book, and was +quietly reading by the office window when Katy came in, her white face +seeming whiter from contrast with her black dress, and her eyes looking +unnaturally large and bright as she darted across the room to Wilford, +who, surprised to see her there, and a good deal displeased withal, +inasmuch as he had often said that the office was no place for his wife, +never smiled or spoke, but with pent up brows waited for her to open the +conversation. Katy saw she was not welcome, and with a tremulous voice +she began: + +"The day is so fine I thought I would come in the carriage for you. It +is early yet, and if you like, we can have a little drive. It might do +you good. You look tired," she continued, and unmindful of Tom, trying +to smooth his hair. + +With an impatient gesture, Wilford drew his hand away from the pale +fingers which sought their fellows in a nervous clasp as Katy tried not +to think Wilford cross, even after he replied: + +"You need not have come for me, as I always prefer a stage; besides +that, I can't go home just yet, I am not ready." + +Katy stood a moment in silence, a flush on her cheek and a pallor about +her lips, which Tom Tubbs saw, secretly shaking his fist and thinking +how he would like to knock down the man who could speak so to a wife as +beautiful and sweet as Katy seemed. + +"I have not been here before since my illness, and I wanted to come once +more," she said at last, apologetically, while Wilford, still looking +over papers, replied: "A sweet place to come to. I sometimes hate it +myself. By the way, I have something to tell you," and his face began to +brighten. "Mrs. Mills, from Yonkers, was in town to-day, and as she had +not time to see you, she found me and insisted upon your keeping the +promise you made last summer of spending some days with her. The +Beverleys are there and the Lincolns--quite a nice party--so I ventured +to say that you should go out to-morrow and I would come out Saturday +afternoon to spend Sunday." + +"Oh, Wilford, I can't," and Katy's lip began to quiver at the very +thought of meeting people like the Beverleys and Lincolns in her present +state of mind. + +"You can't! Why not?" Wilford asked, and Katy replied: "I've never been +in so much company as I shall meet there since baby died, and then--did +you forget that it was Lent?" + +"You are getting very good to think a few days' visit in the country +will harm you," Wilford replied; "besides that, neither Mrs. Mills, nor +the Beverleys, nor Lincolns, are church people, and cannot, of course, +sympathize in this superstitious fancy." + +Katy looked up in astonishment, for never before had she heard Wilford +speak thus of the Fast which his whole family honored. But Wilford was +growing hard, and with a sigh Katy turned away, knowing how useless it +was to reason with him then. Driving home alone, she gave vent to a +passionate flood of tears as she wondered how it all would end. For some +reason Wilford had set his heart upon the visit to Mrs. Mills, a +pleasant, fascinating woman, who liked Katy very much and had +anticipated the promised visit with a great deal of pleasure, making all +her plans with a direct reference to Mrs. Cameron, whose absence would +have been a great disappointment. Wilford knew this and resolved that +Katy should go, and as opposition to his will was always useless, the +close of the next day found Katy at Mrs. Mills' handsome dwelling +overlooking the broad river and the blue mountains beyond. Wilford was +with her; he had come out to spend the night, returning to the city in +the morning. Now that he had accomplished his purpose he was in the best +of spirits, treating Katy with unwonted kindness and wondering why he +hated so to leave her, while she, too, clung to him, wishing he could +stay. Their parting was only for two days, for this was Thursday, and he +was to return on Saturday, but in the hearts of both there was that dark +foreboding which is so often a sure precursor of evil. Twice Wilford +turned back to kiss his wife, feeling tempted once to tell her he was +sorry for his jealousy and distrust, but such confession was hard for +him and so he left it unsaid, looking back to the window against which +Katy's face was pressed as she watched him going from her, but little +guessing what would be ere she looked on him again. + + * * * * * + +Tom Tubbs sat reading Chitty as usual when Mr. Cameron came in from his +trip up the river. Since Katy's last call at the office Tom had been +haunted with her face as it looked when Wilford's cold greeting fell on +her ear, and after a private conference with Mattie, who listened +eagerly to every item of information with regard to Katy, he had come to +the conclusion that his employer was a brute, and that his wife was not +as happy as it was his duty to make her. + +"It's mean in him to speak so hateful to her," he was thinking just as +Wilford came in, appearing so very amiable and good-humored that the boy +ventured to inquire for Mrs. Cameron. "She looked so pale and sick, the +other day," he said, "almost as bad in fact as she did that night in the +cars with Dr. Grant, just before she was so dangerously ill." + +"What's that? What did you say?" Wilford asked quickly, and Tom, +thinking he had not been understood, repeated his words, while in a +voice which Tom scarcely knew, it was so low and husky, Wilford asked: +"What night was Mrs. Cameron in the cars with Dr. Grant? When was it, +and where?" + +As suspicion is an intense magnifier, so the absence of it will blind +one completely, and Tom was thus blindfolded as he stated in detail how +two months or more ago, while Mr. Cameron was absent, he had been sent +by Mr. Ray to Hartford, returning in the early train, that just before +him, in the car, a gentleman sat with a lady who seemed to be sick, at +all events her head lay on his shoulder and he occasionally bent over +her to see if she wanted anything. + +"I did not mind much about them," Tom said, "till it got to broad +daylight, when I saw the man was Dr. Grant, and when we reached New York +the lady threw back her veil and I saw it was Mrs. Cameron." + +"Are you sure?" and Wilford grasped Tom's arm with an energy which made +the boy wince, while there came over him a suspicion that he had talked +too much. + +But it could not now be helped, and to Wilford's question he answered: + +"Yes, for she bowed to me and smiled." + +"Where did they go?" was the next question, put in thunder tones, for +Wilford was remembering things Katy said in her delirium, and which were +now explained, if Tom's statement was true. + +"They went off in a carriage toward your house, and that night I heard +she was sick," Tom said, going back to his book, while Wilford seized +his hat and started up Broadway. It was not his intention when he left +the office to question the servants with regard to his wife, for every +feeling and principle of his nature shrank from such an act, but by the +time his home could be reached it could scarcely be said that he was in +his right mind, and meeting Phillips in the hall, he demanded of her "if +she remembered the day when Mrs. Cameron was first taken ill." + +Yes. Phillips remembered how sick Esther said she looked when she came +home from his father's, where she spent the night. + +"Oh, yes; she stayed at my father's then. It was very proper she +should," Wilford replied, recollecting himself, and trying to appear +natural, so that Phillips would not suspect him of any special purpose +in questioning her. + +If Katy spent the night at his father's then Tom's statement was not +true, and dismissing Phillips he hastened to his mother, to whom he put +the question: + +"Did Katy stay here a night while I was gone, the night but one after +that dinner when she heard of Genevra, I mean?" + +"Why, no," Mrs. Cameron replied, in some surprise. "Katy has not stayed +here since last October, just after she came from Silverton, and you +were in Detroit. Why do you ask? What is the matter? What do you fear?" + +Wilford would not tell his mother what he feared, but waived her +question by bidding her repeat what she could remember of the day when +she was first summoned to Katy, and to tell him also who was there. + +"Dr. Grant was there, and Dr. Craig," she said. "The former, as I +understood from Esther, had just come to the city and called on Katy, +finding her so ill that he sent for me immediately." + +"And you do not know that Katy was away from home at all?" was Wilford's +next inquiry, to which his mother replied: + +"Esther spoke of her looking very sick when she came in, from which I +inferred she had been driving or shopping, but she was not here, sure." + +Esther, it would seem, was the only one who could throw light upon the +mystery, and as by this time the jealous man did not care whom he +questioned, he left his mother without a word of explanation, and +hurried home, where he found Esther, and in a voice which made her +tremble, bade her answer his questions truthfully, without the slightest +attempt at evasion. + +"Yes, sir," Esther replied, and Wilford continued: + +"Where was your mistress the night before Dr. Grant came here, and she +was so very sick?" + +"I don't know, sir. I had the impression that she at your mother's. +Wasn't she there?" and Esther looked very innocent, while Wilford +replied: + +"It is your business to answer questions, not to ask them. Tell me then +the particulars of her going away, and what she said." + +As nearly as she could remember Esther repeated what had passed between +herself and Katy that morning, but her manner was such as to convince +Wilford she was keeping back something, and in a paroxysm of excitement +he seized her arm, exclaiming: + +"You know more than you admit. Tell me then the truth. Who came home +with Mrs. Cameron, and when?" + +Esther was afraid of Wilford, and at last between tears and sobs +confessed that Mrs. Wilford said she had been out of town, but asked her +not to tell, that she guessed it was Silverton where she had been, and +also that when she opened the door to her, Dr. Morris was going down the +steps; "not in a hurry--not like making off as if there was something +wrong," she added, in her eagerness to exonerate her mistress. + +"Who hinted there was anything wrong?" Wilford exclaimed, in tones which +made poor Esther tremble, for now that he had heard all he cared to +hear, he began to be ashamed of having gained his information in the way +he had. + +"Nobody hinted," Esther sobbed, with her face hidden in her apron; "and +if they did it's false. There never was a truer, sweeter lady." + +"See that you stick to that whatever may occur, and, mind you, let there +be no repeating this conversation in the kitchen or elsewhere," Wilford +hurled at her savagely, going next to a telegraph office, and sending +over the wires the following: + +"NEW YORK, March --, 1862. + +"To MR. EPHRAIM BARLOW, Silverton, Mass. + +"Has Mrs. Wilford Cameron been in Silverton since last September? +W. CAMERON." + +To this he was prompted by Esther's having suggested Silverton, as the +place where her mistress had possibly been, and taking warning by his +past experience with Genevra, he resolved to give Katy the benefit of +every doubt, to investigate closely, before taking the decisive step, +which even while Tom Tubbs was talking to him had flashed into his mind. +Perhaps Katy had been to Silverton in her excited state, and if so the +case was not so bad, though he blamed her much for concealing it from +him. At first he thought of telegraphing to Morris, but pride kept him +from that, and Uncle Ephraim was made the recipient of the telegram, +which startled him greatly, being the first of the kind sent directly to +him. + +As it chanced the deacon was in town that day, and at the store just +across the street from the telegraph office. This the agent knew by old +Whitey, who was standing meekly at the hitching-post, covered with his +blanket, a faded woolen bedspread, which years before Aunt Betsy had +spun and woven herself. + +"A letter for me!" Uncle Ephraim said, when the message was put into his +hands. "Who writ it?" and he turned it to the light trying to recognize +the handwriting. + +"I think it wants an answer," the boy said, as Uncle Ephraim thrust it +into his pocket, and taking up his molasses jug and codfish started for +the door. + +"May be it does. I'll look again," and depositing his fish and jug +safely under the wagon box, the old man adjusted his spectacles, and +with the aid of the boy deciphered the dispatch. + +"What does it mean?" he asked, but the boy volunteered no ideas, and the +simple-hearted deacon asked next: "What shall I tell him?" + +"Why, tell him whether she has been here or not since last September. +Write on the envelope what you want sent, so I can take it back; and +come, hurry up your cakes, I can't wait all day," and young America, +having thus asserted its superiority over old, began to kick the melting +snow, while Uncle Ephraim, greatly bewildered and perplexed, bent +himself to the tremendous task of writing the four words: + +"Not to my knowledge." To this he appended: "Yours, with regret, Ephraim +Barlow," and handing it to the waiting boy, unhitched old Whitey, and +stepping into his wagon, drove home as rapidly as the half-frozen March +mud would allow. + +"I wonder what he sent me that word for?" he kept repeating to himself. +"We had a letter from Katy yesterday, and there can't be nothing wrong. +I won't tell the folks yet a while anyway till I see what comes of it, +Lucy is so fidgety." + +It was this resolution, whether wise or unwise, which kept from Morris +and the deacon's family a knowledge of the telegram, the answer to which +was read by Wilford within half an hour after the deacon's arrival home. + +"She has not been to Silverton," Wilford said. "The case then is very +clear." + +Indeed, it had been growing clear to the suspicious man ever since Tom +Tubbs' unfortunate remark. There are no glasses as perfect as those +which jealousy wears, no magnifying lens as powerful, and Wilford was +"fully convinced." Had he been asked of what he was convinced he could +hardly have told unless it were that in some way he had been deceived, +that Morris had spoken falsely when he said his love for Katy was not +returned or even suspected, that Katy had acted the hypocrite, and that +both had been guilty of a great indiscretion, at least, by being seen as +they were in the New Haven train, and then keeping the occurrences of +that night a secret from him. Wilford did not believe Katy had fallen, +but she had surely stepped upon forbidden ground, and it was not in his +nature to forgive the error--at least, not then, when he was so sore +with past remembrances which had come so fast upon him. First, the +baby's death, just when he was learning to love it so much, then the +Genevra affair about which Katy had acted so foolishly, then the talk +with Dr. Grant, and then his last offense, so much worse than all the +rest. + +It was a sad catalogue of grievances, and Wilford made it sadder by +brooding over and magnifying it until he reached a point from which he +would not swerve. + +"I shall do it," he said, and his lips were pressed firmly together, as +before his lonely fire he sat that chill March night, revolving the past +and then turning to the future opening so darkly before him, and making +him shudder as he thought of what it might bring. "I will spare Katy as +much as possible," he said, "for hers is a different nature from +Genevra's. She cannot bear as well," and a bitter groan broke the +silence of the room as Katy came up before him just as she had looked +that very morning standing by the window, with tears in her eyes, and a +wistful, sorry look on her white face. + +Could she be false to him and wear that look? The question staggered +Wilford for a moment, but when he remembered the proof, he steeled his +heart against her and prepared to act. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +DISAPPEARED. + + +All the next day Wilford was very busy arranging his affairs, and a +casual looker-on would have seen nothing unusual in the face always so +grave and cold. But to Tom Tubbs, casting furtive glances over his book +and wondering at his employer's sudden activity, it was terrible in its +dark, hard, unrelenting expression, while even his mother, upon whom he +called that evening, looked at him anxiously, asking what was the +matter, but not mentioning the conversation held with her the previous +day respecting Katy. + +She was still at Yonkers, Wilford said, and his voice was very natural +as he added: "I am expected to go out there to-morrow night with +Beverley and Lincoln, whose wives are also at Mrs. Mills'; quite a gay +party we shall make," and he tried to smile, but it was a sickly effort +and made his face look still more ghastly and strange. + +"What ails you, Wilford?" his mother asked, but he answered pettishly: +"Nothing, so pray don't look at me so curiously as if I was hiding some +terrible secret." + +He was hiding a secret, and it almost betrayed itself, when at last he +said good-by to his mother, who followed him to the door and stood +looking after him in the darkness until the sound of his footsteps died +away upon the pavement. There was a fire in his room and Wilford sat +down to write the brief note he would leave, for when the night shut +down again he would not be there. He could not feel that the parting +from Katy would be final, because he did not believe she had sinned as +he counted sin, but she certainly preferred another to himself; she had +deceived him and played the successful hypocrite. This was Wilford's +accusation against his wife; this for what she must be punished, until +such time as his royal clemency saw fit to forgive and take her back as +he meant to. He had no fear of her going to Morris, or to the farmhouse +either, for much as she was attached to her family, he believed she +would shrink from a return to poverty, choosing rather the luxuries of +her city home. And he would put no impediment in the way of her staying +there as long as she liked; he would arrange that for her, feeling +himself very magnanimous as he thought of giving her permission to +invite her mother to New York as a kind of protection against scandalous +remarks. Mrs. Lennox and Helen too should come. That certainly was +generous, and lest his goodness should abate he seized his pen and +wrote: + +"DEAR KATY: Your own conscience will tell you whether you are worthy of +being addressed as 'Dear,' but I have called you thus so often that I +cannot bring myself to any other form. Do my words startle you, and will +you be sorry when you read this and find that I am gone, that you are +free from the husband you do not love, the husband whom perhaps you +never loved, though I thought you did? I trusted you once, and now I do +not blame you as much as I ought, for you are young. You are easily +influenced. You are very susceptible to flattery, as was proven by your +career at Saratoga and Newport. I had no suspicion of you then, but now +that I know you better, I see that it was not all childish simplicity +which made you smile so graciously upon those who sought your favor. You +are a coquette, Katy, and the greater one because of that semblance of +artlessness which is the perfection of art. This, however, I might +forgive, were it not for one flagrant act, which, if it is not a proof +of faithlessness, certainly borders upon it. You know to what I refer, +or if you do not, ask your smooth-tongued saint, your companion in the +New Haven train; he will enlighten you; he will not wonder at my going, +and perhaps he will offer you comfort, both religious and otherwise; but +if you ever wish me to return, avoid him as you would shun a deadly +poison. Until I countermand the order I wish you to remain here in this +house, which I bought for you. Helen and your mother both may live with +you, while father will have a general oversight of your affairs; I shall +send him a line to that effect. And now, good-by. I am very calm as I +write this, because I know you have deceived me. Not as I did you with +regard to Genevra, but in a deeper sense, which touches a tenderer point +and makes me willing to brave the talk my sudden departure will create. +No one knows I am going, no one will know until you have waited and +looked in vain for me with the gay young men who to-morrow night-will +join their wives as I hoped yesterday morning to join mine. But that is +over now. I cannot come to you. I am going away, where--it matters not +to you. So farewell. + +"Your deceived and disappointed husband." + +Had Wilford read this letter over, he might not have left it, but he did +not read it, and in recalling its contents he gave himself great credit +for his forbearance when speaking of Morris, whom he hated so cordially. +Sealing the letter, and laying it in Katy's drawer just above where she +had left his, he tried to sleep; but the morning found him haggard and +tired, and Esther, as she poured his coffee, asked if he was sick. + +"No," he answered, and then as he pushed back his chair, he said: "I +shall not be home again to-day, as Mrs. Cameron expects me to spend +Sunday at Yonkers." + +And so all that day and the next, the doors were locked, the shutters +closed, the curtains dropped, while an ominous silence reigned +throughout the house; but when Monday came, and was halfway gone there +were inquiries made for Mr. Cameron by young Beverley and Lincoln, whose +faces looked anxious and disturbed at Esther's answer: + +"He went to Yonkers, Saturday. I have not seen him since." + + * * * * * + +Out at Yonkers on Saturday night, three young wives had waited for their +husbands, and none more eagerly than Katy, who, fair as a lily, in her +dark dress, with her soft hair curling about her face, sat by the window +watching for the carriage from the station, hers the first ear to catch +the sound of wheels, and here the first form upon the piazza. + +"Where's Wilford?" she asked, as only two alighted, and neither of them +her husband. + +But no one could answer that question. The gentlemen had looked for him +at Chambers Street, expecting him every moment to join them. Perhaps he +was detained, he might come yet at twelve, they said, trying to comfort +Katy, who, with a sad foreboding, went back into the parlor, and tried +to join in the laugh and jest which seemed almost like mockery. +Something had happened to Wilford she was sure when the night train did +not bring him; and all the next day, while the Sunday bells pealed their +music in her ears, and the sounds of thoughtless mirth came up from the +room below, where the elaborate dinner was in progress, she lay upon her +pillow, her head almost bursting with pain, and her heart aching so +sadly as she tried to pray that no harm had befallen her husband. She +never dreamed of his desertion, even when about noon of the next day a +telegram came from Father Cameron, bidding her hasten to the city. +Wilford was sick or dead, probably the latter, was the feeling uppermost +in her mind, as she was borne rapidly to New York, where Mr. Cameron met +her, his face confirming her fears, but not preparing her for the great +shock awaiting her. + +"Wilford is not dead," he said, when at last she was in the carriage. +"It is worse than that, I fear. We have traced him to the Philadelphia +train, which he took on Saturday. His manner all that day and the +previous one was very strange, while from some words he dropped my wife +is led to suppose there was trouble between you two. Was there?" and +Father Cameron's gray eyes rested earnestly on the white, frightened +face which looked up so quickly as Katy gasped: + +"No, oh, no; he never was kinder to me than when we parted last Friday +morning at Mrs. Mills'. There is some mistake. He would not leave me, +though he has not been quite the same since--" + +Katy was interrupted by the carriage stopping before her home; but when +they had been admitted to the parlor where a fire was lighted, Father +Cameron said: + +"Go on now. Wilford has not been the same since when?" + +Thus importuned Katy continued: + +"Since baby died. I think he blamed me as the cause of its death." + +"Don't babies die every day?" Father Cameron growled, kicking at the +hearth rug, while Katy, without considering that he had never heard of +Genevra, continued: + +"And then it was worse after I found out about Genevra, his first wife." + +"Genevra! Genevra, Wilford's first wife! Thunder and lightning! what are +you talking about?" and Father Cameron bent down to look in Katy's face, +thinking she was going mad. + +But Katy was not mad, and knowing it was now too late to retract, she +told the story of Genevra Lambert to the old man, who, utterly +confounded, stalked up and down the room, kicking away chairs and +footstools, and whatever came in his way, and swearing promiscuously at +his wife and Wilford, whom he pronounced a precious pair of fools, with +a dreadful adjective appended to the fools, and an emphasis in his voice +which showed he meant what he said. + +"It's all accounted for now," he said, "the piles of money that boy had +abroad, his privacy with his mother, and all the other tomfoolery I +could not understand. Katy," and pausing in his walk, Mr. Cameron came +close to his daughter-in-law, who was lying with her face upon the sofa. +"Katy, be glad your baby died. Had it lived it might have proved a curse +just as mine have done--not all, for Bell, though fiery as a pepper-pod, +has some heart, some sense--and there was Jack, my oldest boy, a little +fast, it's true; but when he died over the sea, I forgave all that, +forgetting the chair he broke over a tutor's head, and the scrapes for +which I paid as high as a thousand at one time. He sowed his wild oats, +and died before he could reap them, died a good man, I believe, and went +to heaven. Juno you know, and you can judge whether she is such as would +delight a parent's heart; while Wilford, my only boy, to deceive me so; +though I knew he was a fool in some things, I did trust Wilford." + +The old man's voice shook now, and Katy felt his tears dropping on her +hair as he stooped down over her. Checking them, however, he said: + +"And he was cross because you found him out. Was there no other reason?" + +Katy thought of Dr. Morris, but she could not tell of that, and so she +answered: + +"There was--but please don't ask me now. I can't tell, only I was not to +blame. Believe me, father, I was not to blame." + +"I'll swear to that," was the reply, as Father Cameron commenced his +walking again. "He may have left some word, some line," he said. +"Suppose you look. It would probably be upstairs." + +Katy had not thought of this, but it seemed reasonable that it should be +so, and going to her room, followed by Father Cameron, she went, as by +some instinct, to the very drawer where the letter lay. + +There was perfect silence while she read it through, Mr. Cameron never +taking his eyes from the face which turned first white, then red, then +spotted, and finally took a leaden hue as Katy ran over the lines, +comprehending the truth as she read, and when the letter was finished, +lifting her dry, tearless eyes to Father Cameron, and whispering to +herself: + +"Deserted!" + +She let him read the letter, and when he had finished explained the +parts he did not understand, telling him now what Morris had confessed, +telling him too that in her first sorrow, when life and sense seemed +reeling, she had gone to Dr. Grant, who had brought her back, as a +brother might have done, and this was the result. + +"Why did you say you went to him--that is, what was the special reason?" +Mr. Cameron asked, and after a moment's hesitancy, Katy told him her +belief that Genevra was living--that it was she who made the bridal +trousseau for Wilford's second wife, who nursed his child until it died, +giving to it her own name, arraying it for the grave, and then leaving, +as she always did, before the father came. + +"I never told Wilford," Katy said. "I felt as if I would rather he +should not know it yet. Perhaps I was wrong, but if so, I have been +terribly punished." + +Mr. Cameron could not look upon the woman who stood before him, so +helpless and stricken in her desolation, and believe her wrong in +anything. The guilt lay in another direction, and when as the terrible +reality that she was indeed a deserted wife came rushing over Katy, she +tottered toward him for help, he stretched his arms out for her, and +taking the sinking figure in them, laid it upon the sofa as gently, as +kindly as Wilford had ever touched it in his most loving days. + +Katy did not faint nor weep. She was past all that, but her face was +like a piece of marble, and her eyes were like those of the hunted fawn +when the chase is at its height and escape impossible. + +"Wilford would come back if he knew just how it was," the father said, +"but the trouble is where to find him. He speaks of writing to me, as I +presume he will in a day or so, and perhaps it will be as well to wait +till then. What the plague--who is ringing that bell enough to break the +wire?" he added, as a sharp, rapid ring echoed through the house and was +answered by Esther. "It's my wife," he continued, as he caught the sound +of her voice asking if Mrs. Cameron had returned. "You stay here while I +meet her first alone. I'll give it to her for cheating me so long and +raising thunder generally!" + +Katy tried to protest, but he was halfway down the stairs, and in a +moment more was with his wife, who had come around armed and equipped to +censure Katy as the cause of Wilford's disappearance, and to demand of +her where she was the night she pretended to spend at No. ---- Fifth +Avenue. But the lady who came in so haughty and indignant was a very +different personage from the lady who, after listening for fifteen +minutes to a fearful storm of oaths and reproaches, mingled with +startling truths and bitter denunciations against herself and her boy, +sank into a chair, pale and trembling, and overwhelmed with the harvest +she was reaping. + +But her husband was not through with her yet. He had reserved the +bitterest drop for the last, and coming close to her he said: + +"And who think you the woman is--this Genevra, Wilford's and your +divorced wife? You were too proud to acknowledge an apothecary's +daughter! See if you like better a dressmaker, a nurse to Katy's baby, +Marian Hazelton!" + +He whispered the last name, and with a shriek the lady fainted. Mr. +Cameron would not summon a servant, and as there was no water in the +room, he walked to the window, and lifting the sash scraped from the +sill a handful of the light spring snow which had been falling since +noon. With this he brought his wife back to consciousness, and then +marked out her future course. + +"I know what is in your mind," he said. "You would like to have all the +blame rest on Katy; but, madam, hear me--just so sure as through your +means one breath of suspicion falls on her. I'll _bla at_ out the whole +story of Genevra. Then see who is censured. On the other hand, if you +hold your tongue, and make Juno hold hers, and stick to Katy through +thick and thin, acting as if you would like to swallow her whole, I'll +say nothing of this Genevra. Is it a bargain?" + +"Yes," came faintly from the sofa cushions, where Mrs. Cameron had +buried her face, sobbing in a confused, frightened way, and after a +moment finding voice to say: "What will you do with Phillips and Esther? +He must have questioned them." + +"The deuce he did! I'll see to that I'll throttle them if they venture +to speak!" and summoning both the females to his presence, Mr. Cameron +demanded if either had reported what Wilford had said to them. + +Except to each other they had not, though Phillips confessed to a great +desire to do so when a cousin was in the previous night. + +"Hang the cousin, and you, too, if you do!" Mr. Cameron replied, and +giving them some very strong advice, couched in very strong language, he +dismissed the servants to the kitchen, satisfied that so far Katy was +safe. "But who is the villain who first informed? If I had him by the +neck!" the enraged man continued, just as there came a second ring--a +timid, hesitating ring, as if the new arrival were half afraid to +present himself and his errand. + +"Speak of angels and you hear the rustle of their wings," is a proverb +as true and much pleasanter of thought than its opposite, and whether +Tom Tubbs were an angel or not, it was he who stood twirling his cap in +the hall, asking for Mrs. Cameron. + +"She can't see you, but I'll take the message. Is it about my son?" +Father Cameron said, striding up to the boy, who began to wish himself +away. + +Ever since inquiries had been made at the office for Wilford's +whereabouts, Tom had been uneasy, for he could not forget the savage +look in Wilford's face when he first told him of Katy and Dr. Grant; and +when he heard that instead of going to Yonkers Wilford had taken the +cars for Philadelphia, he was certain something was wrong, and longed to +confess to Katy what he knew of the matter. He had no idea of meddling, +but came with the kindest intentions, thinking he should feel better +when the load was off his mind. He was then poorly prepared for his +fierce reception from Mr. Cameron, who asked so energetically what he +had to say. + +"It wasn't much," Tom began. "I only wanted to tell her maybe I was to +blame for repeating what I saw." + +"What did you see?" and Mr. Cameron laid his hand on Tom's coat collar +as if to shake the information out of him. + +But there was no need of this, for the frightened youth told quickly +what he had come to tell, seeming so sorry and appearing so hurt withal +that the elder Cameron grew very gracious, and dismissed him with the +conviction that Katy had nothing to fear from Tom Tubbs. Mrs. Cameron +was with her now, giving her kisses and words of sympathy, telling her +Wilford would come back, and adding that in any event no one could or +should blame her. + +"I have heard the whole from husband; it was a misunderstanding, that is +all. Wilford was wrong to deceive you about Genevra. I was wrong to let +him; but we will have no more concealments. You think she is living +still--that she is Marian Hazelton?" and Mrs. Cameron smoothed Katy's +hair as she talked, trying to be motherly and kind, while her heart beat +more painfully at thoughts of a Genevra living than it ever had on +thoughts of a Genevra dead. + +She did not doubt the story, although it seemed so strange, and it made +her faint as she wondered if the world would ever know and what it would +say if it did. That her husband would tell if she failed in a single +point she was sure, but she should not fail; she would swear Katy was +innocent of everything, if necessary, while Juno and Bell should swear +too. Of course they must know and she should tell them that very night, +she said to herself, and hence it was that in the gossip which followed +Wilford's disappearance not a word was breathed against Katy, whose +cause the family espoused so warmly. Bell and the father because they +really loved and pitied her, and Mrs. Cameron and Juno because it saved +them from the disgrace which would have fallen on Wilford had the +fashionable world known then of Genevra. + +The sudden disappearance of a man like Wilford Cameron could not fail +even in New York to cause some excitement, especially in his own +immediate circle of acquaintances, and for several days the matter was +discussed in all its phases, and every possible opinion and conjecture +offered as to the cause of his strange conduct. Insanity! how many sins +it is made to cover, and how often is it pleaded for an excuse when no +other can be found. This is especially true in the higher walks of life, +and so in Wilford's case it was put forward, cautiously at first by Mrs. +Cameron herself, who wondered at the avidity with which the suggestion +was seized and handed from one to another, some remembering little +things which tended to confirm the belief, others slyly shrugging their +shoulders as they responded: "Very probable," but all tacitly allowing +the understanding to prevail that insanity had made Wilford Cameron a +voluntary wanderer from home. They could not believe in domestic +troubles when they saw how his family clung to and defended Katy from +the least approach of censure, Juno taking up her abode with her +"afflicted sister" until such time as Wilford could be heard from or +more definite arrangements be made; Mrs. Cameron driving around each day +to see her; Bell always speaking of her with genuine affection, while +the father clung to her like a hero, the quartet forming a barrier +across which the shafts of scandal could not reach. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +WHAT FOLLOWED. + + +And where the while was Wilford? Fortunate, indeed, is it for the +disappointed, desperate men of the present day that when their horizon +is blackest and life seems not worth preserving, they can leave the past +behind and find a refuge in the army. To Wilford it presented itself at +once as the place of all others. Anything which could divert his mind +was welcome, and ere the close of that first day of Katy's return from +Yonkers, his name was enrolled in the service of his country. He had +gone directly to Washington, stumbling accidentally upon an old college +acquaintance who was getting up a company, and whose first lieutenant +had disappointed him. Learning Wilford's wishes he offered him the post, +which was readily accepted, and ere four days were gone Lieutenant +Wilford Cameron, with no regret as yet for the past, marched away to +swell the ranks of men who, led by General McClellan, were pressing on, +as they believed, to Richmond and victory. A week of terrible suspense +went by and then there came a note to Mr. Cameron from his son, +requesting him to care for Katy, but asking no forgiveness for himself. + +"I have disgraced you all," he wrote, "and I know just how you feel, but +I am not sorry for the step I've taken. When I am I shall probably come +back, provided that day finds me alive." + +And that was all the proud man wrote. Not one word was there for Katy, +whose eyes, which had not wept since she knew she was deserted, moved +slowly over the short letter, weighing every word, and then were lifted +sadly to her father's face as she said: "I will write and tell him all +the truth, and on his answer will depend my future course." + +This she said referring to the question she had raised as to whether in +case Wilford did not come back she should remain in New York or go to +Silverton, where as yet they were ignorant of her affliction, for Uncle +Ephraim had not told of the telegram, and Katy would not alarm them +until she knew something definite. + +And so the days went by, while Katy's letter was sent to Wilford, +together with another from his father, who confirmed all Katy had +protested of her innocence and ended by calling his son a "confounded +fool" and telling him to throw up his shoulder straps, which "only honest +men had a right to wear, and come home where he belonged." + +To this there came an angry, indignant answer, bidding the father attend +to his own business, and allow the son to attend to his. To Katy, +however, Wilford wrote in a different strain, showing here and there +marks of tenderness and relenting, but saying what he had done could not +now be helped--he was in for a soldier's life of two years, and should +abide his choice. At the idea of Genevra's being alive he scoffed; he +knew better than that, and even if she were why need Katy have gone with +it to Morris. Surely she should have had the discretion to keep +something to herself. + +This was the purport of Wilford's letter to Katy, who when she had +finished reading said, sorrowfully: + +"Wilford never loved me. It was a mere fancy, a great mistake, and I +cannot stay in his home, knowing that I am not trusted and respected as +a wife should be. I will go to Silverton. There is room for me there. I +shall write to Helen to-day." + +Meanwhile at Silverton, Uncle Ephraim, still keeping the telegram a +secret, grew more and more anxious as there came no news of Katy. What +did the silence mean? Uncle Ephraim pondered the matter all day long, +holding conversations with himself upon the subject, and finally making +up his mind to the herculean task of going to New York to see what was +the matter. To the family, who asked the reason of his sudden journey, +he said: He had a notion that something ailed Katy, and he was going +to see. + +No one ever thought of opposing Uncle Ephraim, and the following day +found him ready for the journey Aunt Betsy had taken before him. + +Presuming upon her experience as a traveler, that good dame had +proffered sundry pieces of advice with reference to what it was best for +him to do on the road, telling him which side of the car to sit, where +to get out, and above all things not to shake hands with the conductor +when asked for his ticket. + +Uncle Ephraim heard her good-humoredly, and stuffing into his pocket the +paper of ginger-snaps, fried cakes and cheese, which Aunt Hannah had +prepared for his lunch, he started for the cars, and was soon on his way +to New York. + +In his case there was no Bob Reynolds to offer aid and comfort, and the +old man was nearly torn in pieces by the burly hackman, who, the moment +he appeared to view, pounced upon him as lawful prey, each claiming the +honor of taking him wherever he wished to go, and raising such a din +about his ears that he finally turned away thoroughly disgusted, telling +them: + +"He had feet and legs, and common sense, and he guessed he could find +his way without 'em. 'Bleeged to you, gentlemen, but I don't need you," +and with a profound bow the honest-looking old deacon walked away, +asking the first man he met the way to Madison Square, and succeeded in +finding the number without difficulty. + +"This is it," he said, stopping in front of the tall building, and +examining it closely from the roof to the basement. + +Now that he was really there, a misgiving as to the propriety of the act +assailed him for the first time, and he began to wish he had not come. + +"I won't pull that nub," he said, glancing at the silver knob. "I'll go +down to the kitchen door, as like enough they've company." + +Accordingly Esther, who chanced to be in the basement, was startled by a +heavy knock, and was startled still more at the tall, white-haired man +who addressed her as "Sis," and asked if "Miss Cameron was to hum." + +"A man in the kitchen asking for me!" Katy exclaimed, when Esther +reported the message, and with her mind full of possible news from +Wilford, she ran hastily down the basement stairs, and with a loud +scream of joy threw herself into Uncle Ephraim's arms, an act which so +astonished Phillips that she dropped the dish of soup she was preparing +for the dinner table, the greasy liquid bespattering Katy's dress, and +bringing her to a sense of where she was, and that she should not be +there. + +"Come upstairs," she said, holding Uncle Ephraim's hand, and leading him +to the parlor, while the first tears she had shed since she knew she was +deserted rained in torrents over her face. + +"What is it, Katy-did? I mistrusted something was wrong. What has +happened?" Uncle Ephraim asked, and with his arm thrown protectingly +around her, Katy told him what had happened, and then asking what she +should do. + +"Do?" the old man repeated. "Go home with me to your own folks until he +comes from the wars. He is your husband, and I shall say nothing agin' +him, but if it was to do over I would forbid the banns. That chap has +misused you the wust way. You need not deny it, for it's writ all over +your face," he continued, as Katy tried to stop him, for sore as was her +heart with the great injustice done her, she would not have Wilford +blamed. + +He was her husband still, and she had loved him so fondly that, whether +worthy or not of her love, she could not turn from him so soon. + +"I wrote to Helen yesterday, so they will be prepared for me," she said, +anxious to change the conversation, and feeling glad when dinner was +announced. + +Leading him to the table, she presented him to Juno, whose cold nod +and haughty stare were lost on the old man presiding with so much +patriarchal dignity at the table, and bowing his white head so +reverently as he asked the first blessing which had ever been said at +that table, except as Helen or Morris had breathed a prayer of thanks +for the bounty provided. + +It had not been a house of prayer--no altar had been erected for the +morning and evening sacrifice. God had almost been forgotten, and now He +was pouring His wrath upon the handsome dwelling, making it so +distasteful that Katy was anxious to leave it, and expressed her +willingness to accompany Uncle Ephraim to Silverton as soon as the +necessary arrangements could be made. + +"I don't take it she comes for good," Uncle Ephraim said that evening, +when Mr. Cameron, to whom she referred the matter, opposed her going, +"for when the two years are gone, and her man wants her back, as he +will, she must come, of course. But she grows poor here in the city. It +don't agree with her like the scent of the clover and the breeze from +the hills. So, shet up the house for a spell, and let the child come +with me." + +Mr. Cameron knew that Katy would be happier at Silverton, and though he +disliked to part with her, he finally consented to her going, and placed +at her disposal a sum which seemed to the deacon a little fortune in +itself. + +In the kitchen there were sad faces when the servants heard of the +arrangement which was to deprive them not only of a pleasant home, but +of a mistress whom they both respected and loved. Esther pleaded hard to +go with Katy, and only the latter's promise that possibly she might come +by and by was of any avail to stay the tears which dropped so fast as +she put up her mistress' dresses, designed for Silverton, and laid away +the gayer, richer ones, which would be so sadly out of place upon her +now. + +To Mrs. Cameron and Juno it was a relief to have Katy taken from their +hands, and though they made a show of opposition, they were easily +quieted, and helped her off with alacrity, the mother promising to see +that the horse was promptly called for, and Juno offering to send the +latest fashion which might be suitable, as soon as it appeared. Bell was +heartily sorry to part with the young sister who seemed going from her +forever. + +"I know you will never come back. Something tells me so," she said as +she stood with her arms around Katy's waist, and her lips occasionally +touching Katy's forehead. "But I shall see you," she continued; "I am +coming to the farmhouse in the summer, to stay ever so long; and you may +say to Aunt Betsy that I like her ever so much, and"--here Bell glanced +behind her, to see that no one was listening, and then continued--"tell +her a certain officer was sick a few days in a hospital last winter, and +one of his men brought to him a dish of the most delicious dried +peaches he ever ate. That man was from Silverton, and the fruit was sent +to him, he said, in a salt bag, by a nice old lady, for whose brother he +used to work. Just to think, that the peaches I helped to pare, coloring +my hands so that the stain did not come off in a month, should have gone +so straight to Bob," and Bell's fine features shone with a light which +would have told Bob Reynolds he was beloved, even if the lips did not +refuse to confess it. + +"I'll tell her," Katy said, and then bidding them all good-by, and +putting her hand on Uncle Ephraim's arm she went with him from the home +where she had lived but two short years, and those the saddest, most +eventful ones of her short life. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +MARK AND HELEN. + + +There was much talk and wonder in Silverton when it was known that Katy +had come home to stay until her husband returned from the war, and at +first the people were inclined to gossip and hint at some mystery or +possible estrangement; but this was brought to an end when the +postmaster's wife told of a letter which had come to Mrs. Wilford +Cameron from the Army of the Potomac, and of the answer returned within +three days to Lieutenant Wilford Cameron, Co., --th Regt., N. Y. V., +etc. It must be all right, the gossips said, after that, but they +watched Katy curiously as she came among them again, so quiet, so +subdued, so unlike the Katy of old that they would hardly have +recognized her but for the beauty of her face and the sunny smile she +gave to all, but which rested oftenest on the poor and suffering, who +blessed her as the angel of their humble homes, praying that God would +remember her for all she was to them. The gold was purified at last, the +dross removed, and Katy, in her beautiful consistent life, seemed indeed +like some bright angel straying among the haunts of men, rather than the +weak and ofttimes sorely tempted mortal, which she knew herself to be. + +Wilford's letters, though not unkind, were never very satisfactory, and +always brought on a racking headache, from which she suffered intently. +He had censured her at first for going back to Silverton, when he +preferred she should stay in New York, hinting darkly at the reason of +her choice, and saying to her once, when she told him how the Sunday +before her twenty-first birthday she had knelt before the altar and +taken upon herself the vows of confirmation: "Your saintly cousin is, +of course, delighted, and that I suppose is sufficient, without my +congratulations." + +Perhaps he did not mean it, but he seemed to take delight in teasing +her, and Katy sometimes felt she should be happier without his letters +than with them. He had never said he was sorry he had left her so +suddenly--indeed he seldom referred to the past in any way; or if he did +it was in a manner which showed that he thought himself the injured +party, if either. Once, indeed, he did admit that, in calmly reviewing +the whole thing, he saw no reason now to believe that in the matter of +Dr. Grant she had been to blame, except in going to him with her trouble +and so bringing about the present unfortunate state of affairs. This was +the nearest to a concession on his part of anything he made; but it did +Katy a world of good, brightening up her face, and making her even dare +to meet Morris alone and speak to him naturally. Ever since her return +to Silverton she had studiously avoided him, and a stranger might have +said they were wholly indifferent to each other; but that stranger would +not have known of Morris' daily self-discipline or of the one little +spot in Katy's heart kept warm and sunny by the knowing that Morris +Grant had loved her, even if the love had died, as she hoped it had. It +would be better for them all, and so, lest by word or deed she should +keep the germ alive, she seldom addressed him directly, and never went +to Linwood unless some one was with her to prevent her being left with +him alone. A life like this could not be pleasant for Morris, and as +there seemed to be a lack of competent physicians in the army, he, after +prayerful deliberation, accepted a situation offered him as surgeon in a +Georgetown hospital, and early in June left Silverton for his new field +of labor. + +True to her promise, Bell came at the last of July to Silverton, +proving herself a dreadful romp as she climbed over the rocks in Aunt +Betsy's famous sheep pasture, or raked the hay in the meadow, and +proving herself, too, a genuine woman, as with blanced cheek and anxious +heart she waited for tidings from the battles before Richmond, where the +tide of success seemed to turn, and the North, hitherto so jubilant and +hopeful, wore weeds of mourning from Maine to Oregon. Lieutenant Bob was +there, and Wilford, too; and so was Captain Ray, digging in the marshy +swamps, where death floated up in poisonous exhalations--plodding on the +weary march, and fighting all through the seven days, where the sun +poured down its burning heat and the night brought little rest. No +wonder, then, that the three faces at the farmhouse grew white with +anxiety, or that three pairs of eyes grew dim with watching the daily +papers. But the names of neither Wilford, Mark, nor Bob were ever found +among the wounded, dead, or missing, and with the fall of the first +autumn leaf Bell returned to the city, more puzzled, more perplexed than +ever with regard to Helen Lennox's real feelings toward Captain Ray. + +Rapidly autumn went by, bringing at last the week before Christmas, when +Mark came home for a few days, looking ruddy and bronzed from exposure +and hardship, but wearing the disappointed, listless look which Bell was +quick to detect, connecting it in some way with Helen Lennox. Only once +did he call at Mr. Cameron's, and then as Juno was not present Bell had +him all to herself, talking a great deal of Silverton, of Helen and +Katy, in the latter of whom he seemed far more interested than in her +sister. Many questions he asked concerning Katy, expressing his regret +that Wilford had ever left her, and saying he believed Wilford was +sorry, too. He was in the hospital now, with a severe cold and a touch +of the rheumatism, he said; but as Bell knew this already she did not +dwell long upon that subject, choosing rather to talk of Helen--"as much +interested in the soldiers," she said, "as if she had a brother or a +lover in the army," and her bright eyes glanced meaningly at Mark, who +answered carelessly: + +"Dr. Grant is there, you know, and that may account for her interest." + +Mark knew he must say something to ward off Bell's attacks, and so he +continued talking of Dr. Grant and how much he was liked by the poor +wretches who needed some one as kind and gentle as he to keep them from +dying of homesickness if nothing else. Once, too, he spoke of a nurse, a +second Nightingale, whose shadow on the wall the soldiers had not kissed +perhaps, but who was worshiped by the pale, sick men to whom she +ministered so tenderly. + +"She is very beautiful," he added, "and every man of us would willingly +try a hospital cot for the sake of being nursed by her." + +Bell thought at once of Marian, but as Mark knew nothing of their +private affairs she would not question him, and after a few bantering +words concerning Lieutenant Bob and the picture he carried into every +battle, buttoned closely over his heart. Mark Ray took his leave, while +Bell, softened by thoughts of Cob, ran upstairs to cry, going to her +mother's room, as a seamstress was occupying her own. Mrs. Cameron was +out that afternoon, and that she had dressed in a hurry was indicated by +the unusual confusion of her room. Drawers were left open and various +articles scattered about, while on the floor just as it had fallen from +a glove box lay a letter which Bell picked up, intending to replace it. + +"Miss Helen Lennox," she read in astonishment. "How came Helen Lennox's +letter here in mother's room, and from Mark Ray, too," she continued, +still more amazed as she took the neatly folded note from the envelope +and glanced at the name. "Foul play somewhere. Can it be mother?" she +asked, as she read enough to know that she held in her hand Mark's offer +of marriage which had in some mysterious manner found its way to her +mother's room. "I don't understand it at all," she said, racking her +brain for a solution of the mystery. "But the letter at least is safe +with me. I'll send it to Helen this very day and to-morrow I'll tell +Mark Ray." + +Procrastination was not one of Bell Cameron's faults, and for full half +an hour before her mother and Juno came home, the stolen letter had been +lying in the mail box where Bell herself deposited it, together with a +few hurriedly written lines, telling how it came into her hands, but +offering no explanation of any kind. + +"Mark is home now on a leave of absence which expires day after +to-morrow," she wrote, "but I am going around to see him, and if you +do not hear from him in person I am greatly mistaken." + +Very closely Bell watched her mother when she came from her room, but +the letter had not been missed, and in blissful ignorance Mrs. Cameron +displayed her purchases and then talked of Wilford, wondering how he was +and if it were advisable for any of them to go to him. + +The next day a series of hindrances kept Bell from making her call as +early as she had intended doing, so that Mrs. Banker and Mark were just +rising from dinner when told she was in the parlor. + +"I meant to have come before," she said, seating herself by Mark, "but +I could not get away. I have brought you some good news. I think--that +is--yes, I know there has been some mistake, some wrong somewhere, +whether intended or not. Mark Ray," and the impetuous girl faced +directly toward him, "if you could have any wish you might name what +would it be? Come now, imagine yourself a Cinderella and I the fairy +godmother. What will you have?" + +Mark knew she was in earnest and her manner puzzled him greatly, but he +answered, laughingly: "As a true patriot I should wish for peace on +strictly honorable terms." + +"Pshaw!" + +The word dropped very prettily from Bell's lips as with a shrug she +continued: + +"You men are very patriotic, I know, especially if you wear shoulder +straps, but isn't there something dearer than peace? Suppose, for +instance, Union between the North and South on strictly honorable terms, +as you say, was laid upon one scale and union between yourself and Helen +Lennox was laid upon the other, which would you take?" + +Mark's lips were very white now, but he tried to laugh as he replied: "I +should say the Union, of course." + +"Yes, but which union?" Bell rejoined, and then as she saw that Mrs. +Banker was beginning to frown upon her she continued: "But to come +directly to the point. Yesterday afternoon I found--no matter where or +how--a letter intended for Helen Lennox, which I am positive she never +saw or heard of; at least her denial to me that a certain Mark Ray had +ever offered himself is a proof that she never saw what was an offer +made just before you went away. I read enough to know that, and then I +took the letter and--" + +She hesitated, while Mark's eyes turned dark with excitement, and even +Mrs. Banker, scarcely less interested, leaned eagerly forward, saying: + +"And what? Go on, Miss Cameron. What did you do with that letter?" + +"I sent it to its rightful owner, Helen Lennox. I posted it myself, so +it's sure this time. But why don't you thank me, Captain Ray?" she +asked, as Mark's face was overshadowed with anxiety. + +"I was wondering whether it were well to send it--wondering how it might +be received," he said, and Bell replied: + +"She will not answer no. As one woman knows another I know Helen Lennox. +I have sounded her on that point. I told her of the rumor there was +afloat, and she denied it, seeming greatly distressed, but showing +plainly that had such offer been received she would not have refused it. +You should have seen her last summer, Captain Ray, when we waited so +anxiously for news from the Potomac. Her face was a study as her eyes +ran over the list of casualties, searching not for her amiable +brother-in-law, nor yet for Willard Braxton, their hired man. It was +plain to me as daylight, and all you have to do is to follow up that +letter with another, or go yourself, if you have time." Bell said, as +she arose to go, leaving Mark in a state of bewilderment as to what he +had heard. + +Who withheld that letter? and why? were questions which troubled him +greatly, nor did his mother's assurance that it did not matter so long +as it all came right at last, tend wholly to reassure him. One thing, +however, was certain. He would see Helen before he returned to his +regiment--he would hear from her own lips what her answer would have +been had she received the letter. He would telegraph in the morning to +Washington, and then run the risk of being a day behind the time +appointed for his return to duty. Never since the day of Aunt Betsy's +revelations had Mark felt as light and happy as he did that night, +scarcely closing his eyes in sleep, but still not feeling tired when +next morning he met his mother at the breakfast table and disclosed in +part his plans. He would not tell her all there was in his mind lest it +should not be fulfilled, but when at parting with her he did say: + +"Suppose you have three children when I return instead of two, is there +room in your heart for the third?" + +"Yes, always room for Helen," was the reply, as with a kiss of +benediction Mrs. Banker sent her boy away. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +CHRISTMAS EVE AT SILVERTON. + + +There was to be a Christmas tree at St. John's, and all the week the +church had been the scene of much confusion. But all the work was over +now; the church was swept and dusted, the tree with its gay adornings +was in its place, the little ones, who, trying to help, had hindered and +vexed so much, were gone, as were their mothers, and only tarried with +the organ boy to play the Christmas carol, which Katy was to sing alone, +the children joining in the chorus as they had been trained to do. It +was very quiet there, and very pleasant too, with the fading sunlight +streaming through the chancel window, lighting up the cross above it, +and falling softly on the wall where the evergreens were hung with the +sacred words: "Peace on earth and good will toward men." And Helen felt +the peace stealing over her as by the register she sat down for a moment +ere going to the organ loft where the boy was waiting for her. Not even +the remembrance of the dark war cloud hanging over the land disturbed +her then, as her thoughts went backward eighteen hundred years to +Bethlehem's manger and the little child whose birth the angels sang. And +as she thought, that Child seemed to be with her, a living presence to +which she prayed, leaning her head upon the railing of the pew in front +and asking Him to keep her in the perfect peace she felt around her now. +She had given Mark Ray up, and giving up had made a cruel wound, but she +did not feel it now, although she thought of him in that quiet hour, +asking God to keep him in safety wherever he might be, whether in the +lonely watch or kneeling as she hoped he might in some house of God, +where the Christmas carols would be sung and the Christmas story told. + +A movement of her hand as she lifted up her head struck against the +pocket of her dress, where lay the letter brought to her an hour or so +ago--Bell's letter--which, after glancing at the superscription, she had +put aside until a more convenient season for reading it. + +Taking it out, she tore open the envelope, starting suddenly as another +letter, soiled and unsealed, met her eye. She read Bell's first, and +then, with a throbbing heart, which as yet would not believe, she took +up Mark's, and understanding now much that was before mysterious to her. +Juno's call, too, came to her mind, and though she was unwilling to +charge so foul a wrong upon that young lady, she could find no other +solution to the mystery. There was a glow of indignation--Helen had +scarcely been mortal without it; but that passed away in pity for the +misguided girl and in joy at the happiness opening so broadly before +her. That Mark would come to Silverton she had no hope, but he would +surely write--his letter, perhaps, was even then on the way; and kissing +the one she held she hid it in her bosom and went up to where the organ +boy had for several minutes been kicking at stools and books, and +whistling "Old John Brown" by way of attracting attention. The boy was +in a hurry, and asked in so forlorn a tone: "Is we going to play?" that +Helen answered good-humoredly: "Just a few minutes, Billy. I want to try +the carol and the opening, which I've hardly played at all." + +With an air of submission Bill took his post and Helen began to play, +but she could only see before her: "I have loved you ever since that +morning when I put the lilies in your hair," and she played so out of +time and tune that Billy asked: "What makes 'em go so bad?" + +"I can't play now; I'm not in the mood," she said at last. "I shall +feel better by and by. You can go home if you like." + +Billy needed no second bidding, but catching up his cap ran down the +stairs and out into the porch, just as up the step a young man came +hurriedly, the horse he had hitched to a tree smoking from exercise and +himself looking eager and excited. + +"Hello, boy," he cried, grasping the collar of Bill's roundabout and +holding him fast, "who's in the church?" + +"Darn yer, old Jim Sykes, you let me be, or I'll--" the boy began, but +when he saw his captor was not Jim Sykes, but a tall, fine-looking man, +wearing a soldier's uniform, he changed his tone, and standing still, +answered civilly: "I thought you was Jim Sykes, the biggest bully in +town, who is allus hectorin' us boys. Nobody is there but she--Miss +Lennox--up where the organ is," and having given the desired +information, Bill ran off, wondering first if it wasn't Miss Helen's +beau, and wondering next, in case she should some time get married in +church, if he wouldn't fee the organ boy as well as the sexton. "He +orto," Bill soliloquized, "for I've about blowed my gizzard out +sometimes, when she and Mrs. Cameron sings the 'Te Deum.'" + +Meanwhile Mark Ray, who had driven first to the farmhouse in quest of +Helen, entered the church, glancing in upon the festooned walls, and +then as he heard a sound in the loft, stealing noiselessly up the stairs +to where Helen sat in the dim light, reading again the precious letter +withheld from her so long. She had moved her stool near to the window, +and her back was toward the door, so that she neither saw nor heard, nor +suspected anything, until Mark, bending over her so as to see what she +had in her hand, as well as the tear she had dropped upon it, clasped +both his arms about her neck, and drawing her face over back, kissed her +fondly, calling her his darling, and saying to her as she tried to +struggle from him: + +"I know I have a right to call you darling by that tear on my letter and +the look upon your face. Dear Helen, we have found each other at last." + +It was so unexpected that Helen could not speak, but she let her head +rest on his bosom, where he had laid it, and her hot, trembling hand +crept into his, so that he was answered, and for a moment he only kissed +and caressed the fair girl he knew now was his own. They could not talk +together there very long, for Helen must go home; but he made good use +of the time he had, telling her many things, and then asking her a +question which made her start away from him as she replied: "No, no, oh! +no, not to-night--not so soon as that!" + +"And why not, Helen?" he asked, with the manner of one who is not to be +denied. "Why not to-night, so there need be no more misunderstanding? +I'd rather leave you as my wife than my betrothed. Mother will like it +better. I hinted it to her and she said there was room for you in her +love. It will make me a better man, a better soldier, if I can say 'my +wife,' as other soldiers do. You don't know what a charm there is in +that word, Helen--keeping a man from sin, and if I should die I would +rather you should bear my name and share in my fortune. Will you, Helen, +when the ceremonies are closed, will you go up to that altar and pledge +your vows to me? I cannot wait till to-morrow; my leave of absence +expired to-day. I must go back to-night, but you must first be mine." + +Helen was shaking as with a chill, but she made him no reply, and +wrapping her cloak and furs about her, Mark led her down to the sleigh, +and taking his seat beside her, drove back to the farmhouse, where the +supper waited for her. Katy, to whom Mark first communicated his desire, +warmly espoused his cause, and that went far toward reassuring Helen, +who, for some time past had been learning to look up to Katy as to an +older sister, so sober, so earnest, so womanly had Katy grown since +Wilford went away. + +"It is so sudden, and people will talk," Helen said, knowing while she +said it how little she cared for people and smiling at Katy's reply: + +"They may as well talk about you a while as me. It is not so bad when +once you are used to it." + +After Katy, Aunt Betsy was Mark's best advocate. It is true this was not +just what she had expected when Helen was married. The "infair" which +Wilford had declined was still in Aunt Betsy's mind; but that, she +reflected might be yet. If Mark went back on the next train there could +be no proper wedding party until his return, when the loaves of frosted +cake, and the baked fowls she had seen in imagination should be there in +real, tangible form, and as she expressed it they would have a "high." +Accordingly she threw herself into the scale beginning to balance in +favor of Mark, and when at last old Whitey stood at the door ready to +take the family to the church, Helen sat upon the lounge listening half +bewildered, while Katy assured her that she could play the voluntary, +even if she had not looked at it, that she could lead the children +without the organ, and in short do everything Helen was expected to do +except go to the altar with Mark. + +"That I leave for you," and she playfully kissed Helen's forehead, as +she tripped from the room, looking back when she reached the door, and +charging the lovers not to forget to come, in their absorption of each +other. + +St. John's was crowded that night, just as churches always are on such +occasions, the children occupying the front seats, with looks of +expectancy upon their faces, as they studied the heavily laden tree, the +boys wondering if that ball, or whistle, or wheelbarrow was for them, +and the girls appropriating the tastefully dressed dolls, showing so +conspicuously among the dark-green foliage. The Barlows were rather +late, for upon Uncle Ephraim devolved the duty of seeing to the license, +and as he had no seat in that house, his arrival was only known by Aunt +Betsy's elbowing her way to the front, and near to the Christmas tree +which she had helped to dress, just as she had helped to trim the +church. She did not believe in such "flummmeries" it is true, and she +classed them with the "quirks," but rather than "see the gals slave +themselves to death," she had this year lent a helping hand. Donning two +shawls, a camlet cloak, a knit scarf for her head, and a hood to keep +from catching cold, she had worked early and late, fashioning the most +wonderfully shaped wreaths, tying up festoons, and even trying her hand +at a triangle; but turning her back resolutely upon crosses, which were +more than her Puritanism could endure. The cross was a "quirk," with +which she'd have nothing to do, though once, when Katy seemed more than +usually bothered and wished somebody would hand her tacks. Aunt Betsy +relented so far as to bring the hoop she was winding close to Katy, +holding the little nails in her mouth, and giving them out as they were +wanted; but with each one given out, conscientiously turning her head +away, lest her eyes should fall upon what she conceived the symbol of +the Romish Church. But when the whole was done, none were louder in +their praises than the good Aunt Betsy, who was guilty of asking Mrs. +Deacon Bannister when she came in to inspect, "why the orthodox couldn't +get up some such doin's for their Sunday school. It pleased the children +mightily." + +But Mrs. Deacon Bannister answered with some severity: + +"We don't believe in shows and plays, you know," thus giving a double +thrust, and showing that the opera had never been quite forgotten. +"Here's a pair of skates, though, and a smellin' bottle. I'd like to +have put on for John and Sylvia," she added, handing her package to Aunt +Betsy, who, while seeing the skates and smelling bottle suspended from a +bough, was guilty of wondering if "the partaker wasn't most as bad as +the thief." + +This was in the afternoon and was all forgotten now, when with her +Sunday clothes she never would have worn in that jam but for the great +occasion, Aunt Betsy elbowed her way up the middle aisle, her face +wearing a very important and knowing look, especially when Uncle +Ephraim's tall figure bent for a moment under the hemlock boughs, and +then disappeared in the little vestry room where he held a private +consultation with the rector. That she knew something her neighbors +didn't was evident. But she kept it to herself, turning her head +occasionally to look up at the organ where Katy was presiding. Others, +too, there were who turned their heads as the soft liquid music began to +fill the church, and the heavy bass rolled up the aisles, making the +floor tremble beneath their feet and sending a thrill through every +vein. It was a skillful hand which swept the keys that night, for Katy's +forte was music, and she played with her whole soul, not the voluntary +there before her in printed form, nor any one thing she had ever heard, +but taking parts of many things, and mingling them with strains of her +own improvising, she filled the house as it had never been filled +before, playing a soft, sweet refrain when she thought of Helen, then +bursting into louder, fuller tones, when she remembered Bethlehem's +child and the song the angels sang, and then as she recalled her own +sacrifice since she knelt at the altar a happy bride, the organ notes +seemed much like human sobs, now rising to a stormy pitch of passion, +wild and uncontrolled, and then dying out as dies the summer wind after +a fearful storm. Awed and wonderstruck the organ boy looked at Katy as +she played, almost forgetting his part of the performance in his +amazement, and saying to himself when she had finished: + +"Guy, though, ain't she a brick," and whispering to her: "Didn't we go +that strong?" + +Katy knew she had made an impression, and her cheeks were very red as +she went down to the body of the church, joining the children with whom +she was to sing, but she soon forgot herself in the happiness of the +little ones, who could scarcely be controlled until the short service +was over and the gifts about to be distributed. Much the people had +wondered where Helen was, as, without the aid of music, Katy led the +children in their carols, and this wonder increased when as time passed +on it was whispered around that "Miss Lennox had come and was standing +with a man back by the register." + +After this Aunt Betsy grew very calm. She knew Helen was there and could +now enjoy the distributing of the gifts, going up herself two or three +times, and wondering why anybody should think of her, a good-for-nothing +old woman. The skates and the smelling bottles both went safely to +Sylvia and John, while Mrs. Deacon Bannister looked radiant when her +name was called and she was made the recipient of a jar of butternut +pickles, such as only Aunt Betsy Barlow could make. + +"Miss Helen Lennox. A soldier in uniform, from one of her Sunday school +scholars." + +The words rang out loud and clear, the rector holding up the sugar toy +before the amused audience, who turned to look at Helen, blushing so +painfully, and trying to hold back the real man in soldier's dress who +went quietly up the aisle, receiving the gift with a bow and smile +which turned the heads of half the ladies near him, and then went back +to Helen, over whom he bent, whispering something which made her cheeks +grow brighter than they were before, while she dropped her eyes +modestly. + +"Who is he?" a woman asked, touching Aunt Betsy's shoulder. + +"Captain Ray, from New York," was the answer, as Aunt Betsy gave to her +dress a little broader sweep and smoothed the bow she had tried to tie +beneath her chin just as Mattie Tubbs had tied it on the memorable opera +night. + +"Miss Helen Lennox. A sugar heart, from one of her scholars," the rector +called again, the titters of the audience almost breaking into cheers as +they began to suspect the relation sustained to Helen by the handsome +young officer, going up the aisle after Helen's heart and stopping to +speak to good Aunt Betsy, who pulled his coat skirt as he passed her. + +The tree by this time was nearly empty. Every child had been remembered, +save one, and that Billy, the organ boy, who, separated from his +companions, stood near Helen, watching the tree wistfully, while shadows +of hope and disappointment passed alternately over his face as one after +another the presents were distributed and nothing came to him. + +"There ain't a darned thing on it for me," he exclaimed at last, when +boy nature could endure no longer, and Mark turned toward him just in +time to see the gathering mist which but for the most heroic efforts +would have merged into tears. + +"Poor Billy," Helen said, as she too heard his comment, "I fear he has +been forgotten. His teacher is absent and he so faithful at the organ +too." + +Mark knew now who the boy was and after a hurried consultation with +Helen, who knowing Billy well, suggested that money would probably be +more acceptable than even skates or jackknives, neither of which were +possible now, folded something in a bit of paper, on which he wrote a +name and then sent it to the rector. + +"Billy Brown, our faithful organ boy," sounded through the church, and +with a brightened face Billy went up the aisle and received the little +package, ascertaining before he reached his standpoint near the door +that he was the owner of a five-dollar bill, and mentally deciding to +add both peanuts and molasses candy to the stock of apples he daily +carried into the cars. + +"You gin me this," he said, nodding to Mark, "and you," turning to +Helen, "poked him up to it." + +"Well then, if I did," Mark replied, laying his hand on the boy's coarse +hair, "if I did, you must take good care of Miss Lennox when I am gone. +I leave her in your charge. She is to be my wife." + +"Gorry, I thought so," and Bill's cap went toward the plastering just as +the last string of popcorn was given from the tree, and the exercises +were about to close. + +It was not in Aunt Betsy's nature to keep her secret till this time, and +simultaneously with Billy's going up for his gift she whispered it to +her neighbor, who whispered it to hers, until nearly all the audience +knew of it, and kept their seats after the benediction was pronounced. + +At a sign from the rector, Katy went with her mother to the altar, +followed by Uncle Ephraim, his wife, and Aunt Betsy, while Helen, +throwing off the cloud she had worn upon her head, and giving it, with +her cloak and fur, into Billy's charge, took Mark's offered arm, and +with beating heart and burning cheeks passed between the sea of eyes +fixed so curiously upon her, up to where Katy once had stood on the June +morning when she had been the bride. Not now, as then, were aching +hearts present at that bridal. No Marian Hazelton fainted by the door; +no Morris felt the world grow dark and desolate as the marriage vows +were spoken; and no sister doubted if it were all right and would end in +happiness. Only Katy seemed sad as she recalled the past, praying that +Helen's life might not be like hers. + +The ceremony lasted but a few moments, and then the astonished audience +pressed around the bride, offering their kindly congratulations, and +proving to Mark Ray that the bride he had won was dear to others as well +as to himself. Lovingly he drew her hand beneath his arm, fondly he +looked down upon her as he led her back to her chair by the register, +making her sit down while he tied on her cloak and adjusted the fur +about her neck. + +"Handy and gentle as a woman," was the verdict pronounced upon him by +the female portion of the congregation as they passed out into the +street, talking of the ceremony, and contrasting Helen's husband with +the haughty Wilford, who was not a favorite with them. + +It was Billy Brown who brought Mark's cutter around, holding the reins +while Mark helped Helen, and then tucking the buffalo robes about her +with the remark: "It's all-fired cold, Miss Ray. Shall you play in +church to-morrow?" + +Assured that she would, Billy walked away, and Mark was alone with his +bride, slowly following the deacon's sleigh, which reached the farmhouse +a long time before the little cutter, so that a fire was already kindled +in the parlor when Helen arrived, and also in the kitchen stove, where +the teakettle was placed, for Aunt Betsy said "the chap should have some +supper before he went back to York." + +Four hours he had to stay, and they were well spent in talking of +himself, of Wilford, and of Morris, and in planning Helen's future. Of +course she would spend a portion of her time at the farmhouse, he said, +but his mother had a claim upon her, and it was his wish that she should +be in New York as much as possible. + +"Now that you have Mrs. Cameron, you do not need my wife," he said to +Mrs. Lennox, with an emphasis upon the last word, which he seemed very +fond of using. + +Much he wished to stay with the wife so lately his, but as that could +not be, he asked at last that she go with him to Washington. It might be +some days before his regiment was ordered to the front, and in that time +they could enjoy so much. But Helen knew it would not be best, and so +she declined, promising, however, to come to him whenever he should need +her. + +Swiftly now the last moments went by, and a "Merry Christmas" was said +by one and another as they took their seats at the plentiful repast Aunt +Betsy had provided, Mark feasting more on Helen's face than on the +viands spread before him. It was hard for him to leave her, hard for her +to let him go, but the duty was imperative, and so when at last the +frosty air grew keener as the small hours of night crept on, he stood +with his arms about her, nor thought it unworthy of a soldier that his +own tears mingled with hers as he bade her good-by, kissing her again +and again, and calling her his precious wife, whose memory would make +his camp-life brighter and shorten the days of absence. There was no one +with them when at last Mark's horse dashed from the yard over the +creaking snow, leaving Helen alone upon the doorstep, with the +glittering stars shining above her head and her husband's farewell kiss +wet upon her lips. + +"When shall we meet again?" she sobbed, gazing up at the clear blue sky, +as if to find the answer there. + +But only the December wind sweeping down from the steep hillside, and +blowing across her forehead, made reply to that questioning, as she +waited till the last faint sound of Mark Ray's bells died away in the +distance, and then shivering with cold re-entered the farmhouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +AFTER CHRISTMAS EVE. + + +Merrily rang the bells next day, the sexton deeming it his duty to send +forth a merry peal in honor of the bride whose husband had remembered +his boy so liberally. But Helen's heart was very sad as she met the +smiling faces of her friends, and Mark had never been prayed for more +earnestly than on that Christmas morning, when Helen knelt at the altar +rail and received the sacred symbols of a Savior's dying love, asking +that God would keep the soldier husband, hastening on to New York, and +from thence to Washington. Much the Silvertonians discussed the wedding, +nor were these discussions likely to be shortened by the arrival of +Mattie Tubbs and Tom, who came by the express from New York, both +surprised at what they heard, and both loud in their praises of Captain +Ray, "the best and kindest man that ever lived," Tom said, while Mattie +told fabulous stories of his wealth. Had Helen been the queen she could +hardly have been stared at more curiously than she was that Christmas +day, when late in the afternoon she drove through the town with Katy, +the villagers looking admiringly after her, noting the tie of her +bonnet, the arrangement of her face trimmings, and discovering in both a +style and fitness they had never discovered before. As the wife of Mark +Ray Helen became suddenly a heroine, in whose presence poor Katy +subsided completely, nor was the interest at all diminished when two +days later Mrs. Banker came to Silverton and was met at the depot by +Helen, whom she hugged affectionately, calling her "my dear daughter," +and holding her hand all the way to the covered sleigh waiting there for +her. Further than that the curious ones could not follow, and so they +did not know how on the road to the farmhouse Mrs. Banker expressed her +approbation of what her boy had done, acknowledged her own unjust +suspicions, asking pardon for them, and receiving it in the warm kiss +Helen pressed upon her offered hand. Mrs. Banker was very fond of Helen, +and not even the sight of the farmhouse, with its unpolished inmates, +awakened a feeling of regret that her only son had not looked higher for +a wife. She was satisfied with her new daughter, and insisted upon +taking her back to New York. + +"I am very lonely now, lonelier than you can possibly be," she said +to Mrs. Lennox, "and you will not refuse her to me for a few weeks at +least. It will do us both good, and make the time of Mark's absence so +much shorter." + +"Yes, mother, let Helen go. I will try to fill her place," Katy said, +though while she said it her heart throbbed with pain and dread as she +thought how desolate she should be without her sister. + +But it was right, and Katy urged Helen's going, thinking how the tables +were turned since the day when she had been the happy bride to whom +good-bys were said, instead of the wounded, sore-hearted sister left +behind, bearing up bravely so long as Helen was in sight, but shedding +bitter tears when at last she was gone, tears which were only stayed by +kind old Uncle Ephraim offering to take her to the little grave, where, +from experience, he knew she always found rest and peace. The winter +snows were on it now, but Katy, looking at it from the sleigh in which +she sat, knew just where the daisies were, and the blue violets which +with the spring would bloom again, feeling comforted as she thought of +that eternal spring in the bright world above, where her child had +gone. And so that night, when they gathered again around the fire in the +pleasant little parlor, the mother and the old people did not miss Helen +half so much as they should, for Katy sang her sweetest songs and wore +her sunniest smile, while she told them of Helen's new home, and then +talked of whatever else she thought would interest and please them. + +"Little Sunbeam," Uncle Ephraim called her now, instead of "Katy-did," +and in his prayer that first night of Helen's absence he asked, in his +touching way, "that God would bless his little Sunbeam, and not let her +grow tired of living there alone with folks so odd and old." + + * * * * * + +"MARRIED--On Christmas Eve, at St. John's Church, Silverton, Mass., by +Rev. Mr. Kelly, Captain MARK RAY, of the --th Regiment, N.Y.S.V., to +Miss HELEN LENNOX, of Silverton." + +Such was the announcement which appeared in several of the New York +papers two days after Christmas, and such the announcement which Bell +Cameron read at the breakfast table on the morning of the day when Mrs. +Banker started for Silverton. + +"Here is something which will perhaps interest you," she said, passing +the paper to Juno who had come down late, and was looking cross and +jaded from the effects of last night's dissipation. + +Taking the paper from her sister's hand, Juno glanced carelessly at +the paragraph indicated by Bell; then, as she caught Mark's name, she +glanced again with a startled, incredulous look, her cheeks and lips +turning white as she read that Mark Ray was lost to her forever, and +that in spite of the stolen letter Helen Lennox was his wife. + +"What is it, Juno?" Mrs. Cameron asked, noticing her daughter's +agitation. + +Juno told her what it was, handing her the paper and letting her read it +for herself. + +"Impossible! there is some mistake! How was it brought about?" she +continued, darting a curious glance at Bell, whose face betrayed nothing +as she leisurely sipped her coffee, and remarked: "I always thought it +would come to this, for I knew he liked her. It is a splendid match." + +Whatever Juno thought she kept it to herself, just as she kept her room +the entire day, suffering from a racking headache, and ordering the +curtains to be dropped, as the light hurt her eyes, she said to Bell, +who, really pitying her now, never suggested that the darkened room was +more to hide her tears than to save her eyes, and who sent away all +callers with the message that Juno was sick--all but Sybil Grandon, who +insisted so hard upon seeing her dear friend that she was admitted to +Juno's room, talking at once of the wedding, and making every one of +Juno's nerves quiver with pain as she descanted upon the splendid match +it was for Helen, or indeed for any girl. + +"I had given you to him," she said, "but I see I was mistaken. It was +Helen he preferred, unless you jilted him, as perhaps you did." + +Here was a temptation Juno could not resist, and she replied, haughtily: + +"I am not one to boast of conquests, but ask Captain Ray himself if you +wish to know why I did not marry him." + +Sybil Grandon was not deceived, but she good-naturedly suffered that +young lady to hope she was, and answered, laughingly: "I can't say I +honor your judgment in refusing him, but you know best. However, I trust +that will not prevent your friendly advances toward his bride. Mrs. +Banker has gone after her, I understand, and I want you to call with me +as soon as convenient. Mrs. Mark Ray will be the belle of the season, +depend upon it," and gathering up her furs Mrs. Grandon kissed Juno +affectionately and then swept from the room. + +That Mrs. Cameron had hunted for and failed to find the stolen letter, +and that she associated its disappearance with Mark Ray's sudden +marriage, Bell was very sure, from the dark, anxious look upon her face +when she came from her room, whither she had repaired immediately after +breakfast, but whatever her suspicions were they did not find form in +words. Mark was lost. It was too late to help that now, and as a politic +woman of the world, Mrs. Cameron decided to let the matter rest, and by +patronizing the young bride prove that she had never thought of Mark +Ray for her son-in-law. Hence it was that the Cameron carriage and the +Grandon carriage stood together before Mrs. Banker's door, while the +ladies who had come in the carriages paid their respects to Mrs. Ray, +rallying her upon the march she had stolen upon them, telling her how +delighted they were to have her back again, and hoping they should see a +great deal of each other during the coming winter. + +"You know we are related," Juno said, holding Helen's hand a long time +at parting, ostensibly to show how very friendly she felt, but really to +examine and calculate the probable value of the superb diamond which +shone on Helen's finger, Mark's first gift, left for her with his +mother, who had presented it for him. + +"As diamonds are now, that never cost less than four or five hundred +dollars," Juno said, as she was discussing the matter with Bell, and +telling her that Helen had the ring they had admired so much at +Tiffany's the last time they were there, and then her spiteful, envious +nature found vent in the remark: "I wonder at Mark's taste when only +shoddy buy diamonds now." + +"Why, then, did you torment father into buying that little pin for you +the other day?" Bell asked, and Juno replied: + +"I have always been accustomed to diamonds and that is a very different +thing from Helen Lennox putting them on. Did you notice how red and fat +her fingers were, and rough, too? Positively her hand felt like a nutmeg +grater." + +"You know the fable of the fox and the grapes," Bell said, her gray eyes +flashing indignantly upon her sister, who, wisely forbore further +remarks upon Helen's hands and contented herself with wondering if +people generally would take up Mrs. Ray and honor her as they once did +Katy. + +"Of course they will," she said. "It's like heaps of them to do it," and +in this conclusion she was not wrong, for those who had liked Helen +Lennox did not find her less desirable now that she was Helen Ray, and +numberless were the attentions bestowed upon her and the invitations she +received. + +But with few exceptions Helen declined the latter, feeling that, +circumstanced as she was, with her husband in so much danger, it was +better not to mingle much in gay society. She was very happy with Mrs. +Banker, who petted and caressed and loved her almost as much as if she +had been an own daughter. Mark's letters, too, which came nearly every +day, were bright sun spots in her existence, so full were they of tender +love and kind thoughtfulness for her. He was very happy, he wrote, in +knowing that at home there was a dear little brown-haired wife, waiting +and praying for him, and but for the separation from her was well +content now with a soldier's life. Once when he was stationed for a +longer time than usual at some point Helen thought seriously of going to +him for a week or more, but the project was prevented by the sudden +arrival in New York of Katy, who came one night to Mrs. Banker's, her +face as white as ashes, and a strange, wild expression in her eyes as +she said to Helen: + +"I am going to Wilford. He is dying. He has sent for me. I ought to go +on to-night, but cannot, my head aches so," and pressing both her hands +upon her head Katy sank fainting into Helen's arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +GEORGETOWN HOSPITAL. + + +"GEORGETOWN, February --, 1862. + +"MRS. WILFORD CAMERON: + +"Your husband cannot live long. Come immediately. + +"M. HAZELTON." + +So read the telegram received by Katy one winter morning, when her eyes +were swollen with weeping over Morris' letter, which had come the +previous night, telling her how circumstances which seemed providential +had led him to the hospital where her husband was, and where, too, was +Marian Hazelton. + +"I did not think it advisable to visit your husband at first," he wrote, +"while Miss Hazelton, who had recently been transferred to this +hospital, also kept out of the way. Nor was it necessary that either of +us should minister to him there, for he was not thought very ill. 'Only +a slight touch of rheumatism, and a low, nervous fever,' said the +attending physician, of whom I inquired. Latterly, however, the fever +has increased to a fearful extent, seating itself upon the brain, so +that he knows neither myself nor Miss Hazelton, both of whom are with +him. She, because she would be here where she heard of danger, and I +because his case was given into my charge. So I am with him now, writing +by his side, while he lies sleeping quietly, and Miss Hazelton bends +over him, bathing his burning head. He does not know her, but he talks +of Katy, who he says is dead and buried across the sea. Will you come to +him, Katy? Your presence may save his life. Telegraph when you leave New +York, and I will meet you at the depot." + +It is not strange that this letter, followed so soon by the telegram +from Marian, should crush one as delicate as Katy, or that for a few +minutes she should have been stunned with the shock, so as neither to +feel nor think. But the reaction came soon enough, bringing with it only +the remembrance of Wilford's love. All the wrong, the harshness, was +forgotten, and only the desire remained to fly at once to Wilford, +talking of her in his delirium. Bravely she kept up until New York was +reached, but once where Helen was, the tension of her nerves gave way, +and she fainted, so we have seen. + +At Father Cameron's that night there were troubled, anxious faces, for +they, too, had heard of Wilford's danger. But the mother could not go to +him. A lung difficulty, to which she was subject, had confined her to +the house for many days, and so it was the father and Bell who made +their hasty preparations for the hurried journey to Georgetown. They +heard of Katy's arrival and Bell came at once to see her. + +"She will not be able to join us to-morrow," was the report Bell carried +home, for she saw more than mere exhaustion from fatigue and fainting in +the white face lying so motionless on Helen's pillow, with the dark +rings about the eyes, and the quiver of the muscles about the mouth. + +The morrow found that Bell was right, for Katy could not rise, but lay +like some crushed flower still on Helen's bed, moaning softly: + +"It is very hard, but God knows best." + +"Yes, darling, God knows best," Helen answered, smoothing the bright +hair, and thinking sadly of the young officer sitting by his camp-fire, +and waiting so eagerly for the bride who could not go to him now. "God +knows what is best, and does all for the best." + +Katy said it many times that long, long week, during which she stayed an +invalid in Helen's room, living from day to day upon the letters sent by +Bell, who had gone on to Georgetown with her father, and who gave but +little hope that Wilford would recover. Not a word did she say of +Marian, and only twice did she mention Morris, so that when at last Katy +was strong enough to venture on the journey, she had but little idea of +what had transpired in Wilford's sickroom. + + * * * * * + +Those were sad, weary days which Wilford first passed upon his hospital +cot, and as he was not sick but crippled, he had ample time for +reviewing the past, which came up before his mind as vividly as if he +had been living again the scenes of bygone days. Of Katy he thought +continually, blaming himself much, but so strong was his pride and +selfishness, blaming her more for the trouble which had come upon them. +Why need she have taken the Genevra matter so to heart, going with it to +Morris and so bringing him into his present disagreeable situation. He +did not mean to be unjust or unkind toward Katy, but he looked upon her +as the direct cause of his being where he was. Had she never been seen +in the cars with Morris, he should not have left home as he did, and +might anticipate going back without a flush of shame and a dread of +meeting old friends, who would think less of him than they used to do. A +thousand times Wilford had repented of his rashness, but never by a word +had he admitted such repentance to any living being, and when on the +dark, rainy afternoon which first saw him in the hospital, he turned his +face to the wall and wept, he replied to one who said to him soothingly: + +"Don't feel badly, my young friend. We will take as good care of you +here as if you were at home." + +"It's the pain which brings the tears. I'd as soon be here as at home." + +Gradually, however, there came a change, and Wilford grew softer in his +feelings, longing for home, or for the sight of a familiar face, and +half resolving more than once to send for Katy, who had offered to come, +and to whom he had replied: "It is not necessary." But as often as he +resolved his evil genius whispered: "She does not care to come here," +and so the message was never sent, while the longing for home faces +brought on a nervous fever, which made him so irritable that his +attendants sometimes turned from him in disgust, thinking him the most +unreasonable man they had ever met. Once he dreamed Genevra was +there--that she came to him just as she was in her beautiful +girlhood--that her fingers threaded his hair as they used to do in their +happy days at Brighton--that her hand was on his brow, her breath upon +his face, and with a start he awoke just as the rustle of female +garments died away in the hall. + +"The new nurse in the second ward has been in here," a comrade said. +"She seemed specially interested in you, and if she had not been a +stranger I should have said she was crying over you." + +With a quick, sudden movement Wilford put his hand to his cheek, where +there was a tear, either his own or that of the "new nurse," who had so +recently bent over him. Retaining the same proud reserve which had +characterized his whole life, he asked no questions, but listened +intently to what his sick companions were saying of the beauty and +tenderness of the young girl, they called her, who had glided for a few +moments into their presence, winning their hearts in that short space of +time, and making them wish she would come back again. Wilford wished so +too, conjuring up all sorts of conjectures about the unknown nurse, and +once going so far as to fancy it was Katy herself. But this idea was +soon dismissed. Katy would hardly venture there as a nurse, and if she +did she would not keep aloof from him. It was not Katy, and if not, who +was it that twice when he was sleeping came and looked at him, his +comrades said, rallying him upon the conquest he had made, and so +exciting his imagination that the fever which at first was hardly +observable began to increase, and the blood throbbed hotly through his +veins, while his brows were knit together with thoughts of the +mysterious stranger. Then with a great shock it occurred to him that +Katy had affirmed: + +"Genevra is alive, I have seen her. I recognized the picture at once." + +What if it were so, and this nurse was Genevra? The very thought fired +Wilford's brain, and when next his physician came he looked with some +alarm upon the great change for the worse exhibited by his patient. That +surgeon's forte was more in dressing ghastly wounds than in subduing +fever, and as he held Wilford's hand, he said: + +"You have a fever, my friend, and it is increasing fast. Perhaps you +would like to see our new physician, Dr. Grant. He is great on fevers." + +"Dr. Grant--Dr. Morris Grant?" Wilford exclaimed, starting up in bed +with a fierce energy which surprised the surgeon. + +"Yes, Dr. Morris Grant, from Massachusetts," the latter replied, his +surprise increasing when Wilford rejoined: + +"Send Satan himself sooner than he. I hate him." + +The words dropped hissingly from the firmly set teeth, and Wilford fell +back upon his pillow, exhausted with excitement and anger that Morris +Grant should be there in the same building and offered as his physician. + +"Never while my reason lasts," he whispered to himself, with hatred of +Morris growing more intense with every beat of his wiry pulse. + +Wilford was very sick, and when next the surgeon came around he knew by +the bright, restless eyes that reason was tottering. + +"Shall I send for your friends?" he asked, and Wilford answered, +savagely: + +"I have no friends--none, at least, but what will be glad to know I'm +dead." + +And that was the last, except the wild words of a maniac, which came +from Wilford's lips for many a day and night. When they said he was +dangerous, Marian Hazelton the "new nurse," sought and obtained +permission to attend him, and again the eyes of the other occupants of +the room were turned wonderingly toward her as she bent over the sick +man, parting his matted hair, smoothing his tumbled pillow, and holding +the cooling draught to the parched lips which muttered strange things in +her ear, talking of Brighton, of Alnwick and Rome--of the heather on the +Scottish moors, and the daisies on Genevra's grave, where Katy once sat +down. + +"She did not know Genevra was there," he said. "She never guessed there +was a Genevra; but I knew, and I felt almost as if the dead were wronged +by that act of Katy's. Do you know Katy?" and his black eyes fastened +upon Marian, who, with the strange power she possessed over her +patients, soothed him into quiet, while she told him she knew Katy, and +talked to him of her, telling of her graceful beauty, her loving heart, +and the sorrow she would feel when she heard how sick he was. + +"Shall I send for her?" she asked, but Wilford answered: + +"No, I am satisfied with you," and holding her hand he fell away to +sleep. + +This was the first day of her being with him, but there were other days +when he was not so quiet, when all her strength and that of Morris, who, +at her earnest solicitation, came to her aid, was required to keep him +on his bed. He was going home, he said, going back to Katy's; he had +punished her long enough, and like a giant he writhed under a force +superior to his own, and which held him down and controlled him, while +his loud outcries filled the buildings, and sent a shudder to the hearts +of those who heard them. As the two men, who at first had occupied the +room with him, were well enough to leave for home, Marian and Morris +both begged that unless absolutely necessary no other one should he sent +to that small apartment, where all the air was needed for the patient in +their charge. And thus the room was left alone for Wilford, who grew +worse so fast that Morris wrote to Katy, while Marian followed the +letter with a telegram, bidding her come at once. + + * * * * * + +Slowly the wintry night was passing, the fifth since Morris' letter was +sent to Katy, and Morris sat by Wilford's cot, wondering if the morning +would bring her to him, when suddenly he met Wilford's eyes fixed upon +him with a look of recognition he could not mistake. + +"Do you know me?" he asked, so kindly and with so much of genuine +sympathy in his voice that the heavy eyelids quivered for an instant, as +Wilford nodded his head, and whispered: + +"Dr. Grant." + +There had been a momentary flash of resentment when he saw who was the +watcher beside him, but Wilford was too weak, too helpless to cherish +that feeling long, and besides there were floating through his still +bewildered mind visions of some friendly hand, which had ministered to +him daily, of a voice and form, distinct from the one he thought an +angel's, and which was not there now with him. That voice, that form, he +felt sure belonged to Morris Grant, and remembering his past harshness +toward him, a chord of gratitude was touched, and when Morris took his +hand he did not at once withdraw it, but let his long, white fingers +cling around the warm, vigorous ones, which seemed to impart new life +and strength. + +"You have been very sick," Morris said, anticipating the question +Wilford would ask, "You are very sick still, and at the request of your +nurse I came to attend you." + +A pressure of the hand was Wilford's reply, and then there was silence +between them, while Wilford mastered all his pride, and with quivering +lips whispered: + +"Katy." + +"We have sent for her. We expect her every train," Morris replied, and +Wilford asked: + +"Who is we? Who has been with me--the nurse, I mean? Who is she?" + +Morris hesitated a moment, and then said: + +"Marian Hazelton--she who took care of baby." + +"I know--yes," Wilford said, having no suspicion as to who was the woman +standing now just outside his door, and listening, with a throbbing +heart, to his rational questions. + +In all their vigils held together no sign had ever passed from Dr. +Grant to Marian that he knew her, but he had waited anxiously for this +moment, knowing well that in his present state Wilford must not be +shocked, as a sight of Marian would shock him. He knew she was outside +the door, and as Wilford turned his head upon the pillow, he went to +her, and leading her to a safe distance, said softly: + +"His reason has returned." + +"And my services, then, are ended," Marian rejoined, looking him +steadily in the face, but not in the least prepared for his affirmative +question: + +"You are Genevra Lambert?" + +There was a low, gasping sound, and Marian staggered forward a step or +two, then steadying herself, she said: + +"And if I am, it surely is not best for him to see me. You would not +advise it?" + +She looked wistfully at Morris, the great desire to be recognized, to be +spoken to kindly by the man who once had been her husband overmastering +for a moment all her prudence. + +"It would not be best, both for his sake and Katy's," Morris said, +reading her thoughts aright, and with a moan like the dying out of her +last hope, Marian turned away, her eyes dim with tears and her heart +heavy with a sense of something lost, as in the gray dawn of the morning +she went back to her former patients, who hailed her coming with +childish joy, one fair young boy from the Granite hills kissing the hand +which bandaged his poor crushed arm so tenderly, and thanking her that +she had returned to him again. + +She had not asked Dr. Grant how much he knew of her story, or where he +had learned it. She was satisfied that he did know it, and she left her +case in his hands, wondering if at any time Wilford had been conscious +of her presence as a nurse, and if he would miss her any. He did miss +her, but he made no comment, and when, as the morning advanced, another +nurse appeared, he said to himself: + +"Surely this cannot be Miss Hazelton," but asked no questions of any +kind, and Marian's heart grew heavier when in answer to her inquiry, +Morris said: "He has not mentioned you." + + * * * * * + +"Mr. J. Cameron, Miss Bell Cameron," were the names on the cards sent to +Dr. Grant late that afternoon, and in a few moments he was with the +father and sister asking so anxiously for Wilford and explaining why +Katy was not with them. + +Wilford was sleeping when they entered his room, his face looking so +worn and thin, and his hands folded so helplessly upon his breast, that +with a gush of tears Bell knelt beside him and laying her warm cheek +against his bony one, woke him with her sobs. For a moment he seemed +bewildered, then recognising her, he raised his feeble arm and winding +it about her neck, kissed her more tenderly than he had ever done +before. He had not been demonstrative of his affection for his sisters. +But Bell was his favorite, and he held her close to him while his eyes +moved past his father, whom he did not see, on to the door as if in +quest of some one. It was Katy, and, guessing his thoughts, Bell said: + +"She is not here. She could not come now. She is sick in New York, but +will join us in a few days." + +There was a look of intense disappointment in Wilford's face, which even +his father's warm greeting could not dissipate, and Morris saw the great +tears as they dropped upon the pillow, the proud man trying hard to +repress them, and asking no questions concerning any one at home. He was +too weak to talk, but he held Bell's hand firmly in his as if afraid +that she would leave him, while his eyes rested alternately upon her +face and that of his father, who, wholly unmanned at the fearful change +in his son, laid his head upon the bed and cried aloud. + +Next morning Bell was very white and her voice trembled as she sought +her brother's side and asked how he had rested. She had come from a +conference with Dr. Morris, who had told her that her brother would die. + +"He may live a week and he may not," he said, adding solemnly: "As his +sister you will tell him of his danger while there is time to seek the +refuge without which death is terrible." + +"Oh, if I could only pray with and for him," Bell thought, as she went +next to her brother, mourning her misspent days, and feeling her courage +giving way when at last she stood in his presence and met his kindly +smile. + +"I dreamed it was all a dream," he said, "and that you were not here +after all. I am so glad to find it real. How long before I can go home, +do you suppose?" + +He had stumbled upon the very thing Bell was there to talk about, his +question indicating that he had no suspicion of the truth. Nor had he, +and it came like a thunderbolt, when Bell, forgetting all her prudence, +said impetuously: + +"Oh, Wilford, maybe you'll never go home. Maybe you'll--" + +"Not die!" Wilford exclaimed, clasping his hands with sudden emotion. +"Not die, you don't mean that. Who told you so? Who said I was near to +death?" + +"Dr. Grant," was Bell's reply, which brought a fierce frown to Wilford's +face, and awoke all the angry passions of his heart. + +"Dr. Grant," he repeated. "He says so because he wishes it. He would +like me removed from his path, but it shall not be. I will not die. Tell +him that. I will not die," and Wilford's voice was hoarse with passion +as he raised his clinched fists in the air. + +He was terribly excited, and in her fright Bell ran for Dr. Grant. But +Wilford motioned him back, hurling after him words which kept him from +the room the entire day, while the sick man rolled, and tossed, and +raved in the delirium, which had returned, and which wore him out so +fast. No one had the least influence over him except Marian Hazelton, +who, without a glance at Mr. Cameron or Bell, glided to his side, and +with her presence and gentle words soothed him into comparative quiet, +so that the bitter denunciations against the saint who wanted him to +die, ceased, and he fell into a troubled sleep. + +Smoothing his pillow, and arranging the bedclothes tidily about him, +Marian turned to meet the eyes of both Mr. Cameron and Bell fixed +curiously upon her. With a strange feeling of interest they had watched +her, both feeling an aversion to addressing her, and both wondering if +she were indeed Genevra, as Katy had affirmed. They would not ask her, +and both breathed more freely when, with a bow in acknowledgment of Mr. +Cameron's compliment to her skill in quieting his son, she left the +room. + +Neither said what they thought of her, nor was her name once mentioned, +but she was not for a moment absent from their minds as they from choice +sat that night with Wilford, who slept off his delirium, and lay with +his face turned from them, so that they could not guess by its +expression what was passing in his mind. + +All the next day he maintained the most frigid silence, answering only +in monosyllables, while Bell kept wiping away the great drops of sweat +constantly oozing out upon his forehead and about the pallid lips. + +Just at nightfall he startled Bell by asking that Dr. Grant be sent for. + +"Please leave me alone with him," he said, when Dr. Morris came; then +turning to Morris, as the door closed upon his father and his sister, he +said, abruptly: + +"Pray for me, if you can pray for one who yesterday hated you so for +saying he must die." + +Earnestly, fervently, Morris prayed, as for a dear brother, and when he +finished Wilford's faint "amen" sounded through the room. + +"I am not right yet," the pale lips whispered, as Morris sat down beside +him. "Not right with God, I mean. I've sometimes said there was no God, +but I did not believe it, and now I know there is. He has been moving +upon me all the day, driving out my bitterness toward you, and causing +me to send for you at last. Do you think there is hope for me? I have +much to be forgiven." + +"Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow," Morris +replied; and then, oh, how earnestly he tried to point that erring man +to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, convincing +him that there was hope even for him, and leaving him with the +conviction that God would surely finish the good work begun, nor suffer +this soul to be lost which had turned to Him even at the eleventh hour. + +Wilford knew his days were numbered, and he talked freely of it to his +father and sister the next morning when they came to him. He did not say +that he was ready or willing to die, only that he must, and he asked +them to forget, when he was gone, all that had ever been amiss in him as +a son and brother. + +"I was too proud, too selfish, to make others happy," he said. "I +thought it all over yesterday, and the past came back again so vividly, +especially the part connected with Katy. Oh, Katy, I did abuse her!" and +a bitter sob attested the genuineness of Wilford's grief for his +treatment of Katy. "I thought because I took her from a lower walk of +life than mine, that she was bound by every tie of gratitude to do just +what I said, and I set myself at work to crush her every feeling and +impulse which savored of her early home. I despised her family, I +treated them with contempt. I broke Katy's heart, and now I must die +without telling her I am sorry. But you'll tell her, father, and you, +too, Bell, how, dying, I tried to pray, but could not for thought of my +sin to her. She will not be glad that I am dead. I know her better than +to think that; and I believe she loves me. But, after I am gone, and the +duties of the world have closed up the gap I shall leave, I see a +brighter future for her than her past has been; and you may tell her I +am--" He could not then say "I am willing." + +Few husbands could have done so then, and he was not an exception. + +Wholly exhausted he lay quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again it +was of Genevra. Even here he did not try to screen himself. He was the +one to blame, he said. Genevra was true, was innocent, as he ascertained +too late. + +"Would you like to see her if she were living?" came to Bell's lips, but +the fear that it would be too great a shock prevented their utterance. + +He had no suspicion of her presence, and it was best he should not. Katy +was the one uppermost in his mind, and in the letter Bell sent to her +the next day, he tried to write: "Good-by, my darling," but the words +were scarcely legible, and his nerveless hand fell helpless at his side +as he said: + +"She will never know the effort it cost me, nor hear me say that I hope +I am forgiven. It came to me last night, the peace for which I've sought +so long, and Dr. Grant has prayed, and now the way is not so dark, but +Katy will not know." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +LAST HOURS. + + +Katy would know, for she was coming to him on the morrow, as a brief +telegram announced, and Wilford's face grew brighter with thoughts of +seeing her. He knew when the train was due, and with nervous +restlessness he asked repeatedly what time it was, reducing the hours to +minutes, and counting his own pulses to see if he would last so long. + +"Save me, doctor," he whispered to Morris. "Keep me alive till Katy +comes. I must see Katy again." + +And Morris, tenderer than a brother, did all he could to keep the feeble +breath from going out ere Katy came. + +"I must have clean linen on my bed and on my person, too," Wilford said, +"for Katy is coming, and I must not look repulsive." + +The clean white linen was brought, and when it was arranged a smile of +childish satisfaction crept around the lips, as Wilford said: + +"Katy can kiss me now. She is not accustomed to hospital fare, you +know." + +His mind seemed slightly to wander; but when the hour came for the +arrival of the train he knew it, asking, eagerly: + +"Do you suppose she's come?" and straining his ear to catch the sound of +the distant whistle. Dr, Morris had gone to meet her, and the time fled +on apace until at last his step was heard, and Wilford, lifting up his +head, listened for that other step, which, alas! was not there. + +"The train is behind time several hours," was Morris' report, and with +a moan Wilford turned away and wept, thinking by some strange chance of +that day when at the farmhouse others had waited for Katy as he was +doing, and waited, too, in vain. + +Truly, they of the farmhouse were avenged, for never had they felt so +bitter a pang as Wilford did when he knew Katy had not come. + +"It's right," he said, when he could trust himself to speak; "but I did +want to see her. Tell her I am willing." + +The last seemed wrung from him almost against his will, and drops of +sweat stood thickly upon his brow. Only Bell and her father guessed what +he meant by being willing. Morris had no idea, but he wiped the +death-sweat away, and said, soothingly: + +"Be quiet, and you may see her yet. She will surely come by and by." + +Thus reassured, Wilford grew calm and fell asleep, while the watchers by +his side waited anxiously for the first sound which should herald the +arrival of the train. + + * * * * * + +It was dark in the hospital, and from every window a light was shining, +when Morris carried rather than led a quivering figure up the stairs and +through the hall, where, in a corner, Marian Hazelton's white face +looked out upon him, her hands clasped over her heart, and working +nervously as she watched Katy going where she must not go--going to the +room where the Camerons were, the father standing at the foot of +Wilford's bed, and Bell bending over his pillow, administering the +stimulants which kept her brother alive. When Katy came in, she moved +away, as did her father, while Morris, too, stepped back into the hall, +and thus the husband and wife were left alone in this their first +meeting since the parting at Yonkers nearly one year ago. + +"Katy, precious Katy, you have forgiven me?" he whispered, and the rain +of tears and kisses on his face was Katy's answer as she hung over him. + +She had forgiven him like a true, faithful wife, and she told him so, +when she found voice to talk, wondering to find him so changed from the +proud, exacting, self-worshiping man, to the humble, repentant and +self-accusing person, who took all blame of the past to himself, and +exonerated her from every fault. But when he drew her close to him, and +whispered something in her ear, she knew whence came the change, and a +reverent "Thank the Good Father," dropped from her lips. + +"The way was dark and thorny," Wilford said, making her sit down where +he could see her as he talked, "and only for God's goodness I should +have lost the path. But he sent one Morris Grant to point the road, and +I trust I am in it now. I wanted to see you before I died, to tell you +with my own lips how sorry I am for what I have made you suffer; but +sorriest of all for sending Baby away. Oh, Katy, you do not know how +that rested upon my conscience, or how often in my sleep upon the tented +plain or hillside I have felt again the touch of Baby's arms and Baby's +cheek against my own as I felt it that day when I came home and took her +from you. Forgive me, Katy, that I robbed you of your child." + +He was growing very weak, and he looked so white and ghastly that Katy +called for Bell, who came at once, as did her father, and the three +stood together around the bedside of the dying, Katy with his cold hand +in hers, and occasionally bending down to hear his whispered words of +love and deep contrition. + +"You will remember me, Katy," he said, "but you cannot mourn for me +always, and some time in the future you will cease to be my widow, and, +Katy, I am willing. I wanted to tell you this so that no thought of me +should keep you from a life where you will be happier than I have made +you." + +Wholly bewildered, Katy made no reply, and Wilford was silent a few +moments, in which he seemed partially asleep. Then rousing up, he said: + +"You wrote me once that Genevra was not dead. Did you mean it, Katy?" + +Frightened and bewildered, Katy turned appealingly to her father-in-law, +who answered for her; "She meant it--Genevra is not dead," while a +blood-red flush stained Wilford's face, and his thin fingers beat the +bedspread thoughtfully. + +"I fancied once that she was here--that she was the nurse the boys +praise so much. But that was a delusion," he said, and without a thought +of the result, Katy asked, impetuously: "If she were here would you care +to see her?" + +There was a startled look on Wilford's face, and he grasped Katy's hand +nervously, his frame trembling with a dread of the great shock which he +felt impending over him. + +"Is she here? Was the nurse Genevra?" he asked, then as his mind went +back to the past, he answered his own question by asserting: "Marian +Hazelton is Genevra." + +They did not contradict him, nor did he ask to see her. With Katy there, +he felt he had better not, but after a moment he continued: "It is all +so strange; I do not comprehend how it can be. She has been kind to me. +Tell her I thank her for it. I was unjust to her. I have much to answer +for." + +Between each word he uttered now there was a gasp for breath, and Father +Cameron opened the window wide to admit the cool night air. But nothing +had power to revive him. He was going very fast, Morris said, as he took +his stand by the bedside and watched the approach of death. There were +no convulsive struggles, only heavy breathings, which grew farther and +farther apart, until at last Wilford drew Katy close to him, and winding +his arm around her neck, whispered: + +"I am almost home, my darling, and all is well. Be kind to Genevra for +my sake. I loved her once, but not as I love you." + +He never spoke again, and a few minutes later Morris led Katy from the +room, and then went out to give his orders for the embalming of the +body. + + * * * * * + +In the little room she called her own, Marian Hazelton sat, her +beautiful hair disordered, and her eyes dim with the tears she had shed. +She knew that Wilford was dead, for Morris had told her so, and as if +his dying had brought back all her olden love, she wept bitterly for the +man who had so darkened her life. She did not know that at the last he +knew she was so near. She had not expected to see him with Katy present; +but now that it was over, she might go to him. There could be no harm in +that. No one but Morris would know who she was, she thought, and she was +making up her mind to go, when there came a timid knock upon the door, +and Katy entered, her face very pale, her manner very calm, as she came +to Marian, and kneeling down beside her, laid her head in her lap with +the air of a weary child who has sought its mother for rest. + +"Poor little Katy!" Marian said, caressing her golden hair. "Your +husband, they tell me, is dead." + +"Yes," and Katy lifted up her head, and fixing her eves earnestly upon +Marian, continued: "Wilford is dead, but before he died he left a +message for Genevra Lambert. Will she hear it now?" + +With a sudden start, Marian sprang to her feet, and holding Katy from +her, demanded: "Who told you of Genevra Lambert, and when?" + +"Wilford told me months ago, showing me her picture, which I readily +recognized," was Katy's answer, and a flush of fear and shame came to +Marian's cheek as she continued: + +"Did he tell you all? And do you hate me as a vile, polluted creature?" + +"Hate you, Marian? No. I have pitied you so much, knowing you were +innocent. Wilford told me all, but he thought you were dead," Katy said, +flinching a little before Marian's burning gaze, which fascinated even, +while it startled her. + +It is not often two women meet bearing to each other the relations +these two bore, and it is not strange that both felt constrained and +embarrassed as they stood looking at each other. As Marian's was the +stronger nature, so she was the first to rally, and with the tears +swimming in her eyes she drew Katy closely to her, and said: + +"Now that he is gone I am glad you know it. Mine has been a sad, sad +life, but God has helped me bear it. You say he believed me dead. Some +time I will tell you how that came about; but now, his message--he left +one, you say?" + +Carefully Katy repeated every word Wilford had said, and with a gasping +cry Marian wound her arms around her neck, exclaiming: + +"And you will love me, not because he did once, but because I have +suffered so much? You will let me call you Katy when we are alone? It +brings you nearer to me." + +Marian was now the weaker of the two, and it was Katy's task to comfort +her, as, sinking back in her chair, she sobbed: + +"He did love me once. He acknowledged it at the last, before them all, +his wife, his father and his sister. Do they know?" she suddenly asked, +and when assured that they did, she relapsed into a silent mood, while +Katy stole quietly out and left her there alone. + +Half an hour later a female form passed hurriedly through the hall and +across the threshold into the chamber where the dead man lay. There was +no one with him now, and Marian was free to weep out the pent-up sorrow +of her life, which she did with choking sobs and passionate words poured +into the ear deaf now to every human sound. A step upon the floor +startled her, and turning around she stood face to face with Wilford's +father, who was regarding her with a look which she mistook for one of +reproof and displeasure that she should be there thus. + +"Forgive me," she said, wringing her hands together. "I know how you +despise me, but he was my husband once, and surely now that he is dead +you will not begrudge me a few last moments with him for the sake of the +days when he loved me." + +There were many tender chords in the heart of Father Cameron, and +offering Marian his hand, he said: + +"Far be it from me to refuse you this privilege. I pity you, Genevra, +for I believe he dealt unjustly by you--but I will not censure him now +that he is gone. He was my only boy. Oh, Wilford, Wilford. You have left +me very lonely." + +He released her hand, and Marian fled away, meeting next with Bell, who +felt that she must speak to her, but was puzzled what to say. Bell could +not define her feelings toward Marian, or why she shrank from +approaching her. It was not pride, but rather a feeling of prejudice, as +if Marian were in some way to blame for all the trouble which had come +to them, while her peculiar position as the divorced wife of her brother +made it the more embarrassing. But she could not resist the mute +pleading of the eyes lifted so tearfully to her, as if asking for +a nod of recognition, and stopping before her she said, softly: + +"Genevra." + +That was all, but it made Genevra's tears flow in torrents, and she +involuntarily held her hand out to Bell, who took it, and holding it +between her own, said: + +"You were very kind to my brother. I thank you for it, and will tell my +mother, who will feel so grateful to you." + +This was a good deal for Bell to say, and after it was said, she +hastened away, while Marian went on her daily round of duties, speaking +softer, if possible, to her patients that day, and causing them to +wonder what had come over that sweet face to make it so white and +tear-stained. That night in Marian's room Katy sat and listened to what +she did not before know of the strange story kept from her so long. +Candidly Marian confirmed all Wilford had told, breathing no word of +blame against him now that he was dead, only stating facts, and leaving +Katy to draw her own conclusions. Herself she censured much for +fostering that fondness for admiration so irritating to a jealous man +like Wilford. + +"I knew that I was handsome," she said, "and I liked to test my power; +but for that weakness I have been sorely punished. I had not at first +any intention of making him believe that I was dead, and when I sent the +paper containing the announcement of father's death I was not aware that +it also contained the death of my cousin, a beautiful girl just my age, +who bore our grandmother's name of Genevra, and about whom and a young +English lord, who had hunted one season in her father's neighborhood, +there were some scandalous reports. Afterward it occurred to me that +Wilford would see that notice and naturally think it referred to me, +inasmuch as he knew nothing of my Cousin Genevra, she having spent much +of her time in the northern part of Scotland, and he never inquired +particularly about my relatives. + +"It was just as well, I said, I was dead to him, and I took a strange +satisfaction in wondering if he would care. Incidentally I heard that +the postmaster at Alnwick had been written to by an American gentleman, +who asked if such a person as Genevra Lambert was buried at St. Mary's; +and then I knew he believed me dead, even though the name appended to +the letter was not Wilford Cameron, nor was the writing his, for, as the +cousin of the dead Genevra. I asked to see the letter, and my request +was granted. It was Mrs. Cameron who wrote it, I am sure, at the +instigation, probably, of her son, signing a feigned name and bidding +the postmaster answer to that address. He did so, assuring the inquirer +that Genevra Lambert was buried there, and wondering to me if the young +American who seemed interested in her could have been a lover of the +unfortunate girl. + +"I was now alone in the world, for the aunt with whom my childhood was +passed died soon after my father, and so I went at last to learn a trade +on the Isle of Wight, emigrating from thence to New York, with the +determination in my rebellious heart that some time, when it would cut +the deepest, I would show myself to the proud Camerons, whom I so +cordially hated. This was before God had found me, or rather before I +had listened to the still, small voice which took the hard, vindictive +feelings away, and made me feel kindly toward the mother and sisters +when I saw them, as I often used to do, driving gayly by. Wilford was +sometimes with them, and the sight of him always sent the hot blood +surging through my heart. But the greatest shock I ever had came to me +when I heard from your sister of his approaching marriage with you. +Those were terrible days that I passed at the farmhouse, working on your +bridal _trousseau_; and sometimes I thought it more than I could bear. +Had you been other than the little, loving, confiding, trustful girl you +were, I must at some time have disclosed the whole, and told that you +would not be the first who had stood at the altar with Wilford. But pity +for you, whom I knew loved him so much, kept me silent, and you became +his wife. + +"Of what has happened since you know--except, indeed, how hard it was +sometimes for poor, weak human nature to see you as happy as you were at +first, and then contrast my lot with yours. I loved your baby almost as +much as if it had been my own, and when it died there was nothing to +bind me to the North, and so I came here, where I hope I have done some +good; at least, I was here to care for Wilford, and that is a sufficient +reward for all the toil which falls to the lot of a hospital nurse. I +shall stay until the war is ended, and then go I know not where. It will +not be best for us to meet very often, for though we may and do respect +each other, neither can forget the past, or that one was the lawful, +the other the divorced, wife of the same man. I have loved you, Katy +Cameron, for your uniform kindness shown to the poor dressmaker. I shall +always love you, but our paths lie widely apart. Your future I can +predict, but mine God only knows." + +Marian had said all she meant to say, and all Katy came to hear. The +latter was to leave in the morning, and when they would meet again +neither could tell. Few were the parting words they spoke, for the great +common sorrow welling up from their hearts; but when at last they said +good-by, the bond of friendship between them was more strongly cemented +than ever, and Katy long remembered Marian's parting words: + +"God bless you, Katy Cameron! You have been a bright sun spot in my +existence since I first knew you, even though you have stirred some of +the worst impulses of my nature. I am a better woman for having known +you. God bless you, Katy Cameron!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +MOURNING. + + +The grand funeral which Mrs. Cameron once had planned for Katy was a +reality at last, but the breathless form lying so cold and still in the +darkened rooms at No. ---- Fifth Avenue was not Katy's, but that of a +soldier embalmed--an only son brought back to his father's house amid +sadness and tears. They had taken him there rather than to his own +house, because it was the wish of his mother, who, however hard and +selfish she might be to others, had loved and idolized her son, mourning +for him truly, and forgetting in her grief to care how grand the funeral +was, and feeling only a passing twinge when told that Mrs. Lennox had +come from Silverton to pay the last tribute of respect to her late +son-in-law. Some little comfort it was to have her boy lauded as a +faithful soldier and to hear the commendations lavished upon him during +the time he lay in state, with his uniform around him; but when the +whole was over, and in the gray of the wintry afternoon her husband +returned from burying his son, there came over her a feeling of such +desolation as she had never known--a feeling which drove her at last to +the little room upstairs, where sat a lonely man, his head bowed upon +his hands, and his tears dropping silently upon the hearthstone as he, +too, thought of the vacant parlor below and the new-made grave at +Greenwood. + +"Oh, husband, comfort me, for our only boy is dead," fell from her lips +as she tottered to her husband, who opened his arms to receive her, +forgetting all the years which had made her the cold, proud woman, who +needed no sympathy, and remembering only that bright, green summer when +she was first his bride, and came to him for comfort in every little +grievance, just as now she came in this great, crushing sorrow. + +He did not tell her she was reaping what she had sown, that but for her +pride and deception concerning Genevra, Wilford might never have gone to +the war, or they been without a son. He did not reproach her at all, but +soothed her tenderly, calling her even by her maiden name, and awkwardly +smoothing her hair, silvered now with gray, feeling for a moment that +Wilford had not died in vain, if by his dying he gave back to his father +the wife so lost during the many years since fashion and folly had been +the idols she worshiped. But the habits of years could not be lightly +broken, and Mrs. Cameron's mind soon became absorbed in the richness of +her mourning, and the strict etiquette of her mourning days. To Katy she +was very kind, caressing her with unwonted affection, and scarcely +suffering her to leave her sight, much less to stay even for a day at +Mrs. Banker's, where Katy secretly preferred to be. Of Genevra, too, she +talked with Katy, and at her instigation wrote a friendly letter, +thanking Miss Lambert for all her kindness to her son, expressing her +sorrow that she had ever been so unjust to her, and sending her a +handsome locket, containing on one side a lock of Wilford's hair, and on +the other his picture, taken from a large-sized photograph. Mrs. Cameron +felt herself a very good woman after she had done all this, together +with receiving Mrs. Lennox at her own house, and entertaining her for +one whole day; but at heart there was no real change, and as time passed +on she gradually fell back into her old ways of thinking, and went no +more for comfort to her husband as she had on that first night after the +burial. + +With Mr. Cameron the blow struck deeper, and his Wall Street friends +talked together of the old man he had grown since Wilford died, while +Katy often found him bending over his long-neglected Bible, as he sat +alone in his room at night. And when at last she ventured to speak to +him upon the all-important subject, like a little child, he put his hand +in hers, and bade her teach him the narrow way which she had found, and +wherein Wilford, too, had walked at the very last, they hoped. + +For many weeks Katy lingered in New York, and the June roses were +blooming when she went back to Silverton, a widow and the rightful owner +of all Wilford's ample fortune. They had found among his papers a will, +drawn up and executed not long before his illness, and in which Katy was +made his heiress, without condition or stipulation. All was hers to do +with as she pleased, and the bitterest tears she ever shed were those +which fell like rain when she heard how generous Wilford had been. Then, +as she thought of Marian, and the life of poverty before her, she crept +to Father Cameron's side, and said to him, pleadingly: + +"Let Genevra share it with me. She needs it quite as much." + +Father Cameron would not permit Katy to divide equally with Marian. It +was not just, he said; but he did not object to a few thousand going to +her, and before Katy left New York for Silverton, she wrote a long, kind +letter to Marian, presenting her with ten thousand dollars, which she +begged her to accept, not so much as a gift, but as her rightful due. +There was a moment's hesitancy on the part of Marian when she read the +letter, a feeling that she could not take so much from Katy; but when +she looked at the pale sufferers around her, and remembered how many +wretched hearts that money would help to cheer, she said: + +"I will keep it." + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +PRISONERS OF WAR. + + +The heat, the smoke, the thunder of the battle were over, and the fields +of Gettysburg, where the terrible three days' fight had been, were +drenched with human blood and covered with the dead and dying. The +contest had been fearful, and its results carried sorrow and anguish to +many a heart waiting for tidings from the war, and looking so anxiously +for the names of the loved ones who, on the anniversary of the day which +saw our nation's independence, lay upon the hills and plains of +Gettysburg, their white faces upturned to the summer sky, and wet with +the raindrops which like tears for the noble dead the pitying clouds had +shed upon them. And nowhere, perhaps, was there a whiter face or a more +anxious heart than at the farmhouse, where both Helen and her +mother-in-law were spending the hot July days. Since the Christmas Eve +when Helen had watched her husband going from her across the wintry +snow, he had not been back, though several times he had made +arrangements to do so. Something, however, had always happened to +prevent. Once it was sickness which kept him in bed for a week or more; +again his regiment was ordered to advance, and the third time it was +sent on with others to repel the invaders from Pennsylvania soil. +Bravely through each disappointment Helen bore herself, but her cheek +always grew paler and her eye darker in its hue when the evening papers +came, and she read what progress our soldiers had made, feeling that a +battle was inevitable, and praying so earnestly that Mark Ray might be +spared. Then when the battle was over, and up the Northern hills came +the dreadful story of thousands and thousands slain, there was a fearful +look in her eyes, and her features were rigid as marble, while the +quivering lips could scarcely pray for the great fear tugging at her +heart. Mark Ray was not with his men when they came from that terrific +onslaught. A dozen had seen him fall, struck down by a rebel ball, and +that was all she heard for more than a week, when there came another +relay of news. + +Captain Mark Ray was a prisoner of war, with several of his own company. +An inmate of Libby Prison and a sharer from choice of the apartment +where his men were confined. As an officer, he was entitled to better +quarters than the filthy pen where the poor privates were, but Mark Ray +had a large, warm heart, and he would not desert those who had been so +faithful to him, and so he took their fare, and by his genial humor and +unwavering cheerfulness kept many a heart from fainting and made the +prisoners' life more bearable than it could have been without him. To +young Tom Tubbs, who had enlisted six months before, he was a +ministering angel, and many times the poor, homesick boy crept to the +side of his captain, and laying his burning head in his lap, wept +himself to sleep and dreamed he was at home again. The horrors of that +prison life have never been told, but Mark bore up manfully, suffering +less in mind, perhaps, than did the friends at home, who lived, as it +were, a thousand years in that one brief summer while he languished in +that horrid den whose very name had a power to send a thrill of fear to +every heart. + +At last, as the frosty days of October came on, they began to hope he +might be exchanged, and Helen's face grew bright again, until one day +there came a soiled, half-worn letter, in Mark's own handwriting. It was +the first word received from him since his capture in July, and with a +cry of joy Helen snatched it from Uncle Ephraim, for she was still at +the farmhouse, and sitting down upon the doorstep just where she had +been standing, read the words which Mark had sent to her. He said +nothing of the treatment he received, for he wanted the letter to reach +her, and he knew well that if he complained the chances were small for +the missive ever to leave the capital of the "chivalry." He was very +well, he said, and had been all the time, but he pined for home, longing +for the dear girl-wife never so dear as now, when separated by so many +miles, with prison walls on every side, and an enemy's line between +them. + +"But be of good cheer, darling," he wrote. "I shall come back to you +some time, and life will he all the brighter for what you suffer now. I +am so glad my darling consented to be my wife, even though I could stay +with her but a moment. The knowing you are really mine makes me happy +even here, for I think of you by day, and in my dreams I always hold you +in my arms and press you to my heart." + +Far different from this cheerful letter was the one which Tom inclosed +in it for his family--a wild, homesick outburst, containing so much of +truth that it was strange it was ever permitted to leave the city. Of +this letter Helen heard by way of Mattie Tubbs, and hope died within +her, especially as Tom spoke of their being sent further South as a +probable event. + +"If Mark goes I shall never see him again," Helen said, despairingly; +and when at last the message came that Mark had been removed, and that, +too, just at the time when an exchange was constantly expected, she gave +him up as lost, feeling almost as much widowed as Katy in her weeds. + +Slowly the winter passed away, and the country was rife with stories of +the inhuman treatment of our men, daily dying by hundreds, while those +who survived the cruelties were reduced to maniacs and imbeciles. And +Helen, as she listened, grew nearly frantic with the sickening suspense. +She did not know now where her husband was. He had made several attempts +to escape, and with each failure had been removed to safer quarters, so +that the chances now of his being exchanged seemed very far away. Week +after week, month after month, passed on, until came the memorable +battle of the Wilderness, when Lieutenant Bob, as yet unharmed, stood +bravely in the thickest of the fight, his tall figure towering above the +rest, and his soldier's uniform buttoned over a dark tress of hair, and +a face like Bell Cameron's, Lieutenant Bob had taken two or three +furloughs, but the one which had left the sweetest, pleasantest memory +in his heart was that of the autumn before, when the crimson leaves of +the maple and the golden tints of the beech were burning themselves out +on the hills of Silverton, where his furlough was mostly passed, and +where, with Bell Cameron, he scoured the length and breadth of Uncle +Ephraim's farm, now stopping by the shore of Fairy Pond and again +sitting for hours on a ledge of rocks far up the hill, where, beneath +the softly-whispering pines nodding above their heads, Bell gathered the +light brown cones, and said to him the words he had so thirsted to hear: + +"I love you, Robert Reynolds." + +Much of Bell's time was passed with Katy at the farmhouse, and here +Lieutenant Reynolds found her, accepting readily of Uncle Ephraim's +hearty invitation to remain; and spending his entire vacation there, +with the exception of three days given to his family. Perfectly charmed +with quaint Aunt Betsy, whom he remembered so well, he flattered and +courted her almost as much as he did Bell, but did not take her with him +in his long rambles over the hills, or sit with her at night alone in +the parlor until the clock struck twelve--a habit which Aunt Betsy +greatly disapproved, but overlooked for this once, seeing, as she said, +that: + +"The young leftenant was none of her kin, and Isabel only a little." + +Those were halcyon days which Robert passed at Silverton, but one stood +out prominently before him, whether sitting by his camp-fire or plunging +into the battle, and that the one when, casting aside all pride and +foolish theories, Bell Cameron freely acknowledged her love for the man +to whom she had been so long engaged, and paid him back the kisses she +had before refused to give. + +"I shall be a better soldier for this," Robert had said, as he guided +her down the steep of rocks, and with her hand in his, walked slowly +back to the farmhouse, which, on the morrow, he left to take again his +place in the army. + +There were no more furloughs for him after that, and the winter passed +away, bringing the spring again, when came that battle in the +Wilderness, and like a hero he fought until, becoming separated from his +comrades, he fell into the enemy's hands, and two days after there sped +along the telegraphic wires to New York: + +"Lieutenant Robert Reynolds captured the first day of the battle." + +Afterward there came news that Andersonville was his destination, +together with many others made prisoners that day. + +"It is better than being shot, and a great deal better than being +burned, as some of the poor wretches were," Juno said, trying to comfort +Bell, who doubted a little her sister's word. + +True, there was now the shadow of a hope that he might survive the +horrors, the mere recital of which made the strongest heart shiver with +dread; but the probabilities were all against it, and Bell's face grew +almost as white as Helen's, while her eyes acquired that restless, +watchful, anxious look which has crept into the eyes of so many +sorrowing women, looking away to the southward, where the dear ones were +languishing in the filthy rebel holes, unworthy the name of prison. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +DR. GRANT. + + +Morris had served out his time as surgeon in the army, had added to it +an extra six months, and by his humanity, his skill and Christian +kindness, made for himself a name which would be long remembered by the +living to whom he had ministered so carefully, while many a dying +soldier had blessed him for pointing out the way which leadeth to the +life everlasting, and in many a mourning family his name was a household +word for the good he had done to a dying son and brother. But Morris' +hospital work was over. He had gone a little too far, incurring too much +risk, until his own strength had failed from long-continued toil, and +now in the month of June, when Linwood was bright with the early summer +blossoms, he was coming back, with health greatly impaired and a dark +cloud before his vision, so that he could not see how beautiful his home +was looking, or gaze into the faces of those who waited so anxiously to +welcome again their beloved physician. Blind, some said he was, but the +few lines sent to Helen announcing the day of his arrival contradicted +that report. His eyes were very much diseased, his amanuensis wrote, but +he trusted that the pure air of his native hills and the influence of +old scenes and associations would soon effect a cure. If not too much +trouble, he added, please see that the house is made comfortable, and +have John meet me on Friday at the station. + +Helen had just returned from New York, where she could not remain any +longer, for the scenes of gayety in which she was sometimes compelled to +mingle were utterly distasteful to her, and she longed for the seclusion +of the farmhouse and the quiet there is among the hills. She was glad +Morris was coming home, for he always did her good; he could comfort her +better than any other, unless it were Katy, whose loving, gentle words +of hope were very soothing to her. + +"Poor Morris!" she sighed, as she finished his letter, and then took it +to the family sitting upon the pleasant piazza, which, at Katy's expense +and her own, had been added to the house, overlooking Fairy Pond and the +pleasant hills beyond. + +"Morris is coming home," she said, as Aunt Betsy asked: "What news?" "He +will be here on Friday, and he wishes us to see that all things are in +order at Linwood for his reception. His eyes are badly diseased, but he +is not blind, and he hopes that coming back to us will cure him," she +added, glancing aside at Katy, who sat upon a step of the piazza, her +hands folded together upon her lap and her blue eyes looking far off +into the fading sunset, just as Evangeline sits looking down the +Mississippi River. + +When she heard Morris' name she turned her head a little, so that the +ripple of her golden hair was more distinctly visible beneath the silken +net she wore, and a deep tinge of red dyed her cheeks; but she made no +comment or showed by any sign that she heard what they were saying. Katy +was very lovely and consistent in her young widowhood, and not a whisper +of gossip had the Silvertonians coupled with her name since she came to +them, leaving her husband in Greenwood. There had been no parading of +her grief before the public or assumption of greater sorrow than many +others had known; but the soberness of her demeanor, and the calm, +subdued expression of her face, attested to what she had suffered. +Sixteen months had passed since Wilford died, and she still wore her +deep mourning weeds, except the widow's cap, which, at her mother's and +Aunt Betsy's earnest solicitations, she had laid aside, substituting in +its place a simple net, which confined her waving hair and kept it from +breaking out in flowing curls, as it was disposed to do. Against this +fashion Aunt Betsy also inveighed. + +"Couldn't a body curl their hair when nater intended it to curl, and +mourn a-plenty, too?" For her part, she believed it people's duty to +look as well as they could, mournin' or not mournin', and Katy couldn't +look much wus' than she did, with her hair shoved back under that net, +unless it was when she wore that heathenish cap, which made her look so +like a grandmother. + +This was Aunt Betsy's opinion, but to others there was something +singularly sweet and beautiful in the childish face, from which the +golden hair was brushed back so plainly, waving softly about the +forehead, and occasionally escaping from its confinement in a graceful +curl, which Katy suffered to remain for Aunt Betsy's sake. Katy had +never been prettier than she was now, in her mature womanhood, and to +the poor and sorrowful, whose homes she cheered so often, she was an +angel of goodness. + +Truly she had been purified by suffering; the dross had been burned out, +and only the gold remained, shedding its brightness on all with which it +came in contact. + +They would miss her at the farmhouse now far more than they did when she +first went away, for she made the sunshine of their home, filling +Helen's place when she was in New York, and when she came back proving +to her a stay and comforter. Indeed, but for Katy's presence, Helen +often felt that she could not endure the sickening suspense and doubt +which hung so darkly over her husband's fate. + +"He is alive; he will come back," Katy always said, and from her perfect +faith, Helen, too, caught a glimpse of hope. + +Could they have forgotten Mark they would have been happy at the +farmhouse now, for with the budding spring and blossoming summer, Katy's +spirits had returned, and her old, musical laugh rang often through the +house just as it used to do in the happy days of girlhood, while the +same silvery voice which led the chair in the brick church, and sang +with the little children their Sunday hymns, often broke forth into +snatches of songs, which made even the robins listen, as they built +their nests in the trees; while Uncle Ephraim, far from condemning this +lightness of spirits, thanked God, who had brought his darling safely +through the cloud to where the sun was shining. + +If Katy thought of Morris she never spoke of him when she could help it. +It was a morbid fancy to which she clung; that duty to Wilford's memory +required her to forget, or, at least, avoid the man who had so +innocently come between them; and when she heard he was coming home she +felt more pain than sorrow. She liked going up to Linwood, as she often +did. Its quiet seclusion, and the beauty of its grounds suited her +taste, and she often passed hours in the pleasant summer house, or on +the broad piazza, dreaming sometimes of the past, and sometimes, it must +be confessed, dreaming of a future, and wondering what it would bring +her when Mark came back, as come he would, and Helen was gone for good. +She would be very lonely with people so much older than herself, and who +did not understand the different tastes and ways of thinking which she +had acquired. She was very happy at the farmhouse, it is true, and loved +its inmates with a deep, unselfish love, but Helen's frequent absences +from home showed her that even the farmhouse could be dreary with no +congenial spirit to sympathize with her as Helen did. + +Matters were in this state when news came of Morris' intended return, +and Katy, sitting on the piazza step, and gazing dreamily into the +crimson clouds piled against the western sky, seemed not to hear what +her sister was saying. She did hear, however, and the blood leaped more +swiftly through her veins for a moment, as she thought of Morris at +Linwood just as he used to be. But when she remembered Wilford's words, +"He confessed to me that he loved you," she felt only a nervous dread of +Morris' coming, and forthwith set to work to fortify herself at every +point with a stricture of reserve which she was far from feeling. + +The day of his return was balmy and beautiful as the days of June are +apt to be, and at an early hour Helen went over to Linwood to see that +everything was in order for his arrival. + +"Mrs. Hull will have dinner waiting for him, and I shall stay," she +said to Katy, adding: "I wish you would come over, too. Morris will feel +grateful, I know." + +Katy did not reply, but struck softly the chords of the piano and +thought how foolish she was to feel as she did. Suppose Morris had loved +her once, he probably did not now, and even if he did, it could do no +good, for she was the same as dead to all that kind of thing. She had +tried matrimony, and found it--she did not say what. She never allowed +herself to think an unkind thing of Wilford if she could help it, but a +tear dropped upon the piano keys as she unconsciously hummed a part of +the song commencing "I would not, no, I would not, recall the past +again, for mingled with the pleasure was too much grief and pain." + +Katy's tears were falling fast by the time the song was ended, but she +dashed them away and sprang from the stool, exclaiming: + +"Crying because Morris is coming home, poor, worn-out, half-blind +Morris, who has done so much for the soldiers, I will go up and welcome +him. I will not be so silly as to imagine he still retains a fancy for +an old woman of twenty-three, even if he had one for the girl of +seventeen." + +Katy felt very old just then, and walking to the glass, was almost vexed +at the smooth, round face which met her view. + +"I ought to look older at twenty-three," she said. "Morris will think +I have not mourned a bit, nor cared for Wilford," and another tear +glistened on her eyelashes as she thought of being accused of +forgetfulness of the dead. + +Katy did look very young for twenty-three. Her health was perfect now, +and save as the change in her character showed itself upon her face, she +had scarcely changed at all since the day when she came home from +Canandaigua with her heart and head so full of him who now lay sleeping +in Greenwood. + +"I know what's the matter. It's the net," she said, frowning +disapprovingly upon the silken meshes which confined her hair. "Yes, +it's nothing but this net which makes me look so young. Every schoolgirl +wears one, and I have followed the fashion, letting it hang down my +back in a way very unbecoming to a widow of my age. I'll take it off, or +at all events I won't wear it to Linwood," and tossing aside the +offending net, Katy bound her luxuriant hair in bands which she coiled +around the back of her head and then put on the widow's cap, discarded +so many months, and from which she shrank a little as she surveyed +herself in the glass. + +It was not exactly unbecoming; nothing could be unbecoming to that fair, +open face, which, surrounded by the white border, looked much like a +sweet baby's face, except that it was older; but it was now so long +since Katy had seen anything of the kind, and as habit is everything, +she was not quite as well pleased with her headgear as in New York, +where such things were common. Nevertheless, she would wear it to +Linwood, and she went for her round straw hat, but, alas, the sun hat +which made her look so frightfully young was not made for the widow's +cap, and casting it aside, Katy threw a thick black veil over her head, +and then stepping to the door of the room where her mother and Aunt +Betsy were busy at work, she said: + +"I am going to Linwood, and shall stay there to dinner." + +"In the name of the people, what has the child rigged herself out in +that shape for?" Aunt Betsy exclaimed, letting fall the knife with which +she was chopping cheese curd, and staring in astonishment. "I'd enough +sight rather you'd frizzle your hair over rats, as Helen does, making +herself look like some horned critter, than wear that heathenish thing. +Why do you do it, Catherine?" + +Catherine could not tell her, and laughing merrily at her aunt's +animadversions against her own and Helen's style of hairdressing, she +hurried away across the fields to Linwood. Aunt Betsy's surprise was in +a measure shared by Helen, who, understanding Katy better, made no +comments on her appearance, but smiled quietly at the air of matronly +dignity which Katy had assumed, and which really sat so prettily upon +her as she went from room to room to see what had been done, lingering +longest in Morris' own apartment, opening from the library, where she +made some alterations in the arrangement of the furniture, putting one +chair a little more to the right, and pushing a stand or table to the +left, just as her artistic eye dictated. By some oversight, no flowers +had been put in there, but Katy gathered an exquisite bouquet and left +it on the mantel, just where she remembered to have seen flowers when +Morris was at home. + +"He will he tired," she said. "He will lie down after dinner," and she +laid a few sweet English violets upon the pillow, thinking their perfume +might be grateful to him after the pent-up air of the hospital and cars. +"He will think Helen put them there, or Mrs. Hull," she thought, as she +stole softly out and shut the door behind her, glancing next at the +clock, and feeling a little impatient that a whole hour must elapse +before they could expect him. + +Poor Morris! he did not dream how anxiously he was waited for at home, +nor yet of the crowd assembled at the depot to welcome back the loved +physician, whom they had missed so much, and whose name they had so +often heard coupled with praise as a true hero, even though his post was +not in the front of the battle. Thousands had been cared for by him, +their gaping wounds dressed skillfully, their aching heads soothed +tenderly, and their last moments made happier by the words he spoke to +them of the world to which they were going, where there is no more war +or shedding of man's blood. In the churchyard at Silverton there were +three soldiers' graves, whose pale occupants had each died with Dr. +Grant's hand held tightly in his, as if afraid that he would leave them +before the dark river was crossed, while in more than one Silverton home +there was a wasted form on which the soldier coat hung loosely, who +never tired of telling Dr. Morris' praise and dwelling on his goodness. +But Dr. Morris was not thinking of this as, faint and sick, with the +green shade before his eyes, he leaned against the pile of shawls his +companion had placed for his back and wondered if they were almost +there. + +"I smell the pond lilies; we must he near Silverton," he said, and a +sigh escaped his lips as he thought of coming home and not being able to +see it or the woods and fields around it. "Thy will be done," he had +said many times since the fear first crept into his heart that for him +the light had faded. + +But now, when home was almost reached, and he began to breathe the air +from the New England hills and the perfume of the New England lilies, +the flesh rebelled again, and he cried out within himself: "Oh, I cannot +be blind! God will not deal thus by me!" while keen as the cut of a +sharpened knife was the pang with which he thought of Katy, and wondered +would she care if he were blind. + +Just then the long train stopped at Silverton, and, led by his +attendant, he stepped feebly into the crowd, which sent up deafening +cheers for Dr. Grant come home again. At the sight of his helplessness, +however, a feeling of awe fell upon them, and whispering to each other, +"I did not suppose he was so bad," they pressed around him, offering +their hands and inquiring anxiously how he was. + +"I have been sick, but I shall get better now. The very sound of your +friendly voices does me good, even though I cannot see you distinctly," +he said, as he went slowly to his carriage, led now by Uncle Ephraim, +who could not keep back his tears as he saw how weak Morris was, panting +for breath as he leaned back among the cushions. + +It was very pleasant that afternoon, and Morris enjoyed the drive so +much, assuring Uncle Ephraim that he was growing better every moment. He +did seem stronger when at last the carriage stopped at Linwood, and his +step was more rapid as he went up the steps where Helen, Katy and Mrs. +Hull were waiting for him. He could not see them sufficiently to +distinguish one from the other, but even without the aid of her voice he +would have known when Katy's hand was put in his, it was so small, so +soft, and trembled so as he held it. Her cap had been worn for nothing, +nor did she think of it in her sorrow at finding him so helpless. Pity +was the strongest feeling of which she was conscious, and it manifested +itself in various ways. + +"Let me lead you, Cousin Morris," she said, as she saw him groping his +way to his room, and without waiting for his reply, she held his hand +again in hers and led him to his room, where the sweet English violets +were. + +"I used to lead you, Katy," Morris said, as he took his seat by the +window, "and I little thought then that you would one day return the +compliment. It is very hard to be blind." + +The tone of his voice was inexpressibly sad, but his smile was as +cheerful as ever as his face turned toward Katy, who could not answer +for her tears. It seemed so terrible to see a strong man so stricken, +and that strong man Morris--terrible to watch him in his helplessness, +trying to appear as of old, so as to cast on others no part of the +shadow resting so darkly on himself. When dinner was over and the sun +began to decline, many of his former friends came in, but he looked so +pale and weary that they did not tarry long, and when the last one was +gone, Morris was led back to his room, which he did not leave again +until the summer was over and the luscious fruits of September were +ripening upon the trees. + +Toward the middle of July, Helen, whose health was suffering from her +restless anxiety concerning Mark, was taken by Mrs. Banker to Nahant, +where Mark's sister, Mrs. Ernst, was spending the summer, and thus on +Katy alone fell the duty of paying to Morris those little acts of +sisterly attentions such as no other member of the family knew how to +pay. In the room where he lay so helpless Katy was not afraid of him, +nor did she deem herself faithless to Wilford's memory, because each day +found her at Linwood, sometimes bathing Morris' inflamed eyes, sometimes +bringing him the cooling drink, and again reading to him by the hour, +until, soothed by the music of her voice, he would fall away to sleep +and dream it was an angel there with him. + +"My eyes are getting better," he said to her one day toward the latter +part of August, when she came as usual to his room. "I knew last night +that Mrs. Hull's dress was blue, and I saw the sun shine through the +shutters. Soon, very soon, I hope to see you, Katy, and know if you have +changed." + +She was standing close by him, and as he talked he raised his hand as if +to rest it on her head, but, with a sudden movement, Katy eluded the +touch, and stepped a little farther from him. + +She did not go to Linwood the next day, nor the next; and when she went +again there was in her manner a shade more of dignity, which had both +amused and interested Morris. He did not know for certain that Wilford +had told Katy of the confession made that memorable night when her +recovery seemed so doubtful, but he more than half suspected it from the +shyness of her manner and from the various excuses she now made for not +coming to Linwood every day, as she had heretofore done. + +"You do not need me as much as you did," she said to him one morning in +September, when he complained of his loneliness, and told how he had +waited for her the previous day until night shut down, and he knew she +would not come. "You can see better than you did. You are able to sit up +all day, and walk about a little, so if I come I am not needed," and +seating herself at a respectful distance from him, Katy folded her white +hands demurely over her black dress, after having first adjusted the cap +worn constantly since the time when she learned that Morris' sight was +improving. + +"I sometimes think I need you more than I did then, and if you must stay +away now, I am ungrateful enough to wish you had not come at all," +Morris replied, and Katy's cheeks burned crimson as she felt that the +dim eyes, seen through the green shades, were trying to study her as +they had not studied her before. "What is that on your head?" Morris +asked, rather abruptly. "I have tried to make it out, wondering if it +were a handkerchief, and why it was worn." + +"It is my cap--the widow's cap--worn for Wilford's sake," was the reply, +which silenced Morris for that time, making him feel that between Katy +Lennox, the girl, and Katy Cameron, the widow, there was a vast +difference, and awakening in his heart a fear lest Wilford Cameron dead +should prove as strong a rival as Wilford living had been. + +In his great pity for Katy when she was first a widow, Morris had +scarcely remembered that she was free, or if it did flash upon his mind, +he thrust the thought aside as injustice to the dead; but as the months +and the year went by, and he heard constantly from Helen of Katy's +increasing cheerfulness, it was not in his nature never to think of what +might be, and more than once he had prayed that, if consistent with his +Father's will, that the woman he had loved so well should be his yet. If +not, he could go his way alone, just as he had always done, knowing +that it was right. + +Such was the state of Morris' mind when he returned from Washington, but +now it was somewhat different. The weary weeks of sickness, during which +Katy had ministered to him so kindly, had not been without their effect, +and if Morris had loved the frolicsome, childlike Katy Lennox much, he +loved far more the gentle, beautiful woman whose character had been so +wonderfully developed by suffering, and who was now far more worthy of +his love than in her early girlhood. + +"I cannot lose her now," was the thought constantly in Morris' mind, as +he experienced more and more how desolate were the days which did not +bring her to him. "It is twenty months, just, since Wilford died; and +George Washington asked Martha Custis for her hand within less time than +that after her husband's death," he said to himself one wet October +afternoon, when he sat listening dreamily to the patter of the rain +falling upon the windows, and looking occasionally across the fields to +the farmhouse, in the vain hope of spying in the distance the little +airy form, which, in its waterproof and cloud, had braved worse storms +than this at the time he was so ill. + +But no such figure appeared. He hardly expected it would, but he watched +the pathway just the same, and the smoke wreaths rising so high above +the farmhouse. The deacon burned out his chimney that day, and Morris, +whose sight had greatly improved of late, knew it by the dense, black +volume of smoke, mingled with rings of fire, which rose above the roof, +remembering so well another rainy day, twenty years ago, when the +deacon's chimney was cleaned, and a little, toddling girl, in scarlet +gown and white pinafore, had amused herself with throwing into the +blazing fire upon the hearth a straw at a time, almost upsetting herself +with standing so far back and making such efforts to reach the flames. A +great deal had passed since then. The little girl in the pinafore had +been both wife and mother. She was a widow now, and Morris glanced +across his hearth toward the empty chair he had never seen in +imagination filled by any but herself. + +Surely, she would some day be his own, and leaning his head upon the +cane he carried, he prayed earnestly for the good he coveted, keeping +his head down so long that, until it had left the strip of woods and +emerged into the open fields, he did not see the figure, wrapped in +waterproof and hood, with a huge umbrella over its head and a basket +upon its arm, which came picking its way daintily toward the house, +stopping occasionally, and lifting up the little, high-heeled Balmoral, +which the mud was ruining so completely. Katy was coming to Linwood. It +had been baking day at the farmhouse, and remembering how much Morris +used to love her custards, Aunt Betsy had prepared him some, which she +warranted to "melt in his mouth," and then asked Katy to take them over, +so he could have them for tea. + +"The rain won't hurt you an atom," she said, as Katy began to demur and +glance at the lowering sky. "You can wear your waterproof boots and my +shaker, if you like, and I do so want Morris to have them to-night." + +Thus importuned, Katy consented to go, but declined the loan of Aunt +Betsy's shaker, which being large of the kind, and capeless, too, was +not the most becoming headgear a woman could wear. With the basket of +custards, and cup of jelly she made herself, Katy finally started forth, +Aunt Betsy saying to her, as in the door she stopped to take up her +dress: "It must he dretful lonesome for Morris to-day. S'posin' you stay +to supper with him, and when it's growin' dark I'll come over for you. +You'll find the custards fust-rate." + +Katy did not think it very probable that she should stay to tea with +Morris, but she made no reply, and walked away, while Aunt Betsy went +back to the coat she was patching for her brother, saying to herself: + +"I'm bound to fetch that 'round. It's a shame for two young folks, just +fitted to each other, to live apart when they might be so happy, with +Hannah, and Lucy, and me, close by, to see to 'em, and allus make their +soap, and see to the butcherin', besides savin' peneryle and catnip for +the children, if there was any." + +Aunt Betsy had turned matchmaker in her old age, and day and night she +planned how to bring about the match between Morris and Katy. That they +were made for each other she had no doubt. From something which Helen +inadvertantly let fall she had guessed that Morris wanted Katy prior to +her marriage with Wilford. She had suspected as much before, she was +sure of it now, and straightway put her wits at work "to make it go," as +she expressed it. But Katy was too shy to suit her, and since Morris' +convalescence had stayed too much from Linwood. To-day, however, Aunt +Betsy "felt it in her bones" that, if properly managed, something would +happen, and the custards were but the means to the desired end. With no +suspicion whatever of the good dame's intentions, Katy picked her way to +Linwood, and leaving her damp garments in the hall, lest Morris should +take cold, went at once into the library, where he was sitting near to a +large chair kept sacred for her, his face looking unusually cheerful, +and the room unusually pleasant, with the bright wood fire on the +hearth. She knew he was glad she had come, that he thought more of her +being there than of the custards she brought him. + +"I have been so lonely, with no company but the rain," he said, pushing +the chair a little toward her, and bidding her sit near the fire, where +she could dry her feet. + +Katy obeyed, and sat down so near to him that had he chose he might have +touched her head, which this day was minus cap, or even net, the golden +hair combed back and fastened in heavy coils low down on her neck, +giving to her a very girlish appearance, as Morris thought, for he could +see her now, and while she dried her feet he looked at her eagerly, +wondering that the fierce storm she had encountered had left so few +traces upon her face. Just about the mouth there was a deep-cut line, +but this was all; the remainder of the face was fair and smooth as in +her early girlhood, and far more beautiful, just as her character was +lovelier, and more to be admired. + +Morris had done well to wait if he could win her now. Perhaps he thought +so, too, and this was why his spirits became so gay as he kept talking +to her, suggesting at last that she should stay to tea. The rain was +falling in torrents when he made the proposition. She could not go then, +even had she wished it, and though it was earlier than his usual tea +time, Morris at once rang for Mrs. Hull, and ordered that tea be served +in there as soon as possible. + +"I ought not to stay. It is not proper, and my cap at home, too," Katy +kept thinking as she fidgeted in her chair, and watched the girl +setting the table so cosily for two, and occasionally deferring some +debatable point to her as if she were mistress there. + +"Shall we have some thin slices of cold chicken to go with the jelly?" +she asked, looking at Katy, who answered in the affirmative, wishing she +was at home, and deploring again the absence of her cap. + +"You can go now, Reekie," Morris said, when the boiling water was poured +into the silver kettle, and tea was on the table. "If we need you we +will ring." + +With a vague wonder as to who would toast the doctor's bread and butter +it, Reekie departed, and the two were left together. It was Katy who +toasted the bread, kneeling upon the marble hearth, nearly blistering +her hands, burning her face and scorching the bread in her nervousness +at the novel position in which she so unexpectedly found herself. It was +Katy, too, who prepared Morris' tea, and tried to eat, but could not. +She was not hungry, she said, and the custard was the only thing she +tasted, besides the tea, which she sipped at frequent intervals, so as +to make Morris think she was eating more than she was. But Morris was +not deceived, nor yet disheartened. Possibly she suspected his +intention, and if so, the sooner he reached the point the better. So +when the tea equipage was put away, and she began again to speak of +going home, he said: + +"No, Katy, you can't go yet till I have said what's in my mind to say," +and laying his hand upon her shoulder he made her sit down beside him +and listen while he told her the love he had borne for her long before +she knew the meaning of that word as she knew it now--of the struggle to +keep that love in bounds after its indulgence was a sin, of his +temptations and victories, of his sincere regret for Wilford, and of his +deep respect for her grief, which made her for a time as a sister to +him. But that time had passed. She was not his sister now, nor ever +could be again. She was Katy, dearer, more precious, more desired even +than before another called her wife, and he asked her to be his, to come +up there to Linwood and live with him, making the rainy days brighter, +balmier, than the sunniest had ever been, and helping him in his work of +caring for the poor and sick around them. + +"Will Katy come? Will she be the wife of Cousin Morris?" + +There was a world of pathos and pleading in the voice which asked this +question, just as there was a world of tenderness in the manner in which +Morris smoothed and caressed and fondled the bowed head resting on the +chair arm. And Katy felt it all, understanding what it was to be offered +such a love as Morris offered, but only comprehending in part what it +would be to refuse that love. For, alas! her blinded judgment said she +must refuse it. Had there been no sad memories springing from that grave +in Greenwood, no bitter reminiscences connected with her married +life--had Wilford never heard of Morris' love and taunted her with it so +often, she might perhaps consent, for she craved the rest there would be +with Morris to lean upon. But the happiness was too great for her to +accept. It would seem too much like faithlessness to Wilford, too much +as if he had been right when he charged her with preferring Morris to +himself. + +"It cannot be--oh, Morris, it cannot be," she sobbed, when he pressed +her for answer. "Don't ask me why--don't ever mention it again, for I +tell you it cannot be. My answer is final; it cannot be. I am sorry for +you, so sorry. I wish you had never loved me, for it cannot be." + +She writhed herself from the arms which tried to detain her, and rising +to her feet left the room suddenly, and throwing on her wrappings, +quitted the house without another word, leaving basket and umbrella +behind, and never knowing she had left them, or how the rain was pouring +down upon her unsheltered person until, as she entered the narrow strip +of woodland, she was met by Aunt Betsy, who exclaimed at seeing her, and +asked: + +"What has become of your umberell? Your silk one, too. It's hopeful you +haven't lost it. What has happened you?" and coming closer to Katy, Aunt +Betsy looked searchingly in her face. It was not so dark that she could +not see the traces of recent tears, and instinctively suspecting their +nature, she continued: "Catherine, have you gin Morris the mitten?" + +"Aunt Betsy, is it possible that you and Morris contrived this plan?" +Katy asked, half indignantly, as she began in part to understand her +aunt's great anxiety for her to visit Linwood that afternoon. + +"Morris had nothing to do with it," Aunt Betsy replied. "It was my +doin's wholly, and this is the thanks I git. You quarrel with him and +git mad at me, who thought only of your good. Catherine, you know you +like Morris Grant, and if he asked you to have him why don't you?" + +"I can't, Aunt Betsy. I can't, after all that has passed. It would be +unjust to Wilford." + +"Unjust to Wilford--fiddlesticks!" was Aunt Betsy's expressive reply, as +she started on toward Linwood, saying she was going after the umberell +before it got lost, with nobody there to tend to things as they should +be tended to. "Have you any word to send?" she asked, hoping Katy had +relented. + +But Katy had not; and with a toss of her head, which shook the raindrops +from her capeless shaker, Aunt Betsy went on her way, and was soon +confronting Morris, sitting just where Katy had left him, and looking +very pale and sad. + +He was not glad to see Aunt Betsy. He would rather be alone until such +time as he could control himself and still his throbbing heart. But with +his usual affability, he bade Aunt Betsy sit down, shivering a little +when he saw her in the chair where Katy had sat, her thin, angular body +presenting a striking contrast to the graceful, girlish figure which had +sat there an hour since, and the huge India rubbers she held up to the +fire as unlike as possible to the boot of fairy dimensions he had +admired so much when it was drying on the hearth. + +"I met Catherine," Aunt Betsy began, "and mistrusted at once that +something was to pay, for a girl don't leave her umberell in such a rain +and go cryin' home for nothin'." + +Morris colored, resenting for an instant this interference by a third +party; but Aunt Betsy was so honest and simple-hearted that he could not +be angry long, and listened calmly while she continued: + +"I have not lived sixty-odd years for nothing, and I know the signs +pretty well. I've been through the mill myself." + +Here Aunt Betsy's voice grew lower in its tone, and Morris looked up +with real interest, while she went on: + +"There's Joel Upham--you know Joel--keeps a tin shop now, and seats the +folks in meetin'. He asked me once for my company, and to be smart I +told him 'no,' when all the time I meant 'yes,' thinkin' he would ask +ag'in, but he didn't, and the next I knew he was keepin' company with +Patty Adams, now his wife. I remember I sniveled a little at being taken +at my word, but it served me right for saying one thing when I meant +another. However, it don't matter now. Joel is as clever as the day is +long, but he is a shiftless critter, never splits his kindlin's till +jest bedtime, and Patty is pestered to death for wood, while his snorin' +nights, she says, is awful, and that I never could abide; so, on the +whole, I'm better off than Patty." + +Morris laughed a loud, hearty laugh, which did him good, and emboldened +his visitor to say more than she had intended saying: + +"You just ask her ag'in. Once ain't nothing at all, and she'll come to. +She likes you; 'tain't that which made her say no. It's some foolish +idea about faithfulness to Wilford, as if he deserved that she should be +faithful. They never orto have had one another--never; and now that he +is well in heaven, as I do suppose he is, it ain't I who hanker for him +to come back. Neither does Katy, and all she needs is a little urging to +tell you yes. So ask her again, will you?" + +"I think it very doubtful. Katy knew what she was doing, and meant what +she said," Morris replied; and with the consoling remark that if young +folks would be fools it was none of her business to bother with them, +Aunt Betsy pinned her shawl across her chest, and hunting up both basket +and umbrella, bade Morris good-night, and went back across the fields to +the farmhouse, hearing from Mrs. Lennox that Katy had gone to bed with a +racking headache. + +"Just the way I felt when I heard about Joel and Patty," Aunt Betsy said +to herself, and as she remembered what had helped her then, so, fifteen +minutes later, she appeared at Katy's bedside, with a cup of strong sage +tea which she bade Katy swallow, telling her it was good for her +complaint. + +To prevent being urged and annoyed, Katy drank the tea, and then without +a question concerning Aunt Betsy's call at Linwood, lay down upon her +pillow, asking to be left alone. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +KATY. + + +"Are you of the same mind still?" Helen asked, when, three weeks later, +she returned from New York, and at the hour for retiring sat in her +chamber watching Katy as she brushed her wavy hair, occasionally curling +a tress around her fingers and letting it fall upon her snowy +nightdress. + +They had been talking of Morris, whom Katy had only seen once since that +rainy night, and that at church, where he had come the previous Sunday. +Katy had written an account of the transaction to her sister, who had +chosen to reply by word of mouth rather than by letter, and so the first +moment they were alone she seized the opportunity to ask if Katy was of +the same mind still as when she refused the doctor. + +"Yes; why shouldn't I be?" Katy replied. "You better than any one else +knew what passed between Wilford and me concerning Morris, and you +can--" + +"Do you love Morris?" Helen asked, abruptly, without waiting for Katy to +finish her sentence. + +For an instant the hands stopped in their work, and Katy's eyes filled +with tears, which dropped into her lap as she replied: + +"More than I wish I did, seeing I must always tell him no. It's strange, +too, how the love for him keeps coming in spite of all I can do. I have +not been there since, nor spoken with him until last Sunday, but though +I did not know he was coming, I knew the moment he entered the church, +and when in the first chant I heard his voice, my fingers trembled so +that I could scarcely play, while all the time my heart goes out after +the rest I always find with him. But it cannot be." + +"Suppose Morris had asked you first, what then?" was Helen's next +straightforward question, and Katy, who had no secrets from her sister, +answered: + +"It might have been, perhaps, though I never thought of it then. Oh, +Helen, I wish Wilford had never known that Morris loved me." + +She was sobbing now, with her head in Helen's lap, and Helen, smoothing +her bright hair, said, gently: + +"You have taken a morbid fancy, Katy. You do not reason correctly. It is +right for you to answer Morris yes, and Wilford would say so, too. When +I received your letter apprising me of the refusal, I read it to Bell, +who said she was so sorry, and then told what Wilford said before he +died. You must have forgotten it, darling. He referred to a time when +you would cease to be his widow, and he said he was willing, said so to +her, and you. Do you remember it, Katy?" + +"Yes, I do now, but I had forgotten. I was so stunned then, so +bewildered, that it made no impression. I did not think he meant Morris. +Helen, do you believe he meant Morris?" and lifting up her face, Katy +looked at her sister with a wistfulness which told how anxiously she +waited for the answer. + +"I know that he meant Morris," Helen replied. "Bell thinks so, too. So +does her father, and both bade me tell you to revoke your decision, to +marry Dr. Grant, with whom you will be so happy." + +"I cannot. It is too late. I told him no, and, Helen, I told him a +falsehood, too, which I wish I might take back," she added. "I said I +was sorry he ever loved me, when I was not, for the knowing that he had +made me very happy. My conscience has smitten me cruelly since for that +falsehood told, not intentionally, for I did not consider what I said." + +Here was an idea at which Helen caught at once. She knew just how +conscientious Katy was, and by working upon this principle she hoped to +persuade her into going over to Linwood and telling Morris that when she +said she was sorry he loved her she did not mean it. But this Katy would +not do. Helen could tell him, if she liked, but she must not encourage +him to hope for a recantation of all she had said to him. She meant the +rest. She could not be his wife. + +Early the next morning Helen went to Linwood, and the same afternoon +Morris returned her call. He had been there two or three times since his +return from Washington, but not since Katy's refusal, and her cheeks +were scarlet as he met him in the parlor and tried to be natural. He did +not look unhappy. He was not taking his rejection very hard, after all, +she thought, and the little lady felt a very little piqued to find him +so cheerful, and even gay, when she had scarcely known a moment's quiet +since the day she carried him the custards, and forgot to bring away her +umbrella. As it had rained that day, so it did now, a decided, energetic +rain, which set in after Morris came, and precluded the possibility of +his going home that night. + +"He would catch his death of cold," Aunt Betsy said, while Helen, too, +joined her entreaties until Morris consented, and the carriage which +came around for him at dark returned to Linwood, with the message that +the doctor would pass the night at Deacon Barlow's. A misty, rainy +night, who does not enjoy it when sitting by a cheerful fire, they +listen dreamily to the falling rain sifting softly through the leafless +trees, and answering to the faint sighing of the autumn wind. Morris +enjoyed it very much, and but for the green glasses he still wore would +have looked and appeared like his former self as he sat in his armchair, +now holding the skein of yarn which Aunt Betsy wound, now talking with +the deacon of the probable exchange of all the prisoners, a theme which +quickened Helen's pulse and sent the blood to her pale cheeks, and again +standing by Katy as she played his favorite airs, his rich bass voice +mingling with hers and Helen's, the three making finer music, Aunt Betsy +said, than that for which she paid two dollars at the playhouse. + +He did not often address Katy directly, but he knew each time she moved, +and watched every varying expression of her face, feeling a kind of pity +for her, when without appearing to do so intentionally, the family, one +by one, stole from the room--Uncle Ephraim and Aunt Hannah without any +excuse; Aunt Betsy to raise the cakes for breakfast; Mrs. Lennox to +wind the clock, and Helen to find a book for which Morris had asked. + +Katy might not have thought strange of their departure were it not that +neither one came back again, and after the lapse of ten minutes or more +she felt convinced that she had purposely been left alone with Morris. + +The weather and the family had conspired against her, but after one +throb of fear she resolved to brave the difficulty and meet whatever +might happen as became a woman of twenty-three, and a widow, too. She +knew Morris was regarding her intently as she fashioned into shape the +coarse wool sock, intended for some soldier, and she could almost hear +her heart beat in the silence which fell between them ere Morris said to +her, in a tone which reassured her at once: + +"And so you told me a falsehood the other day, and your conscience has +troubled you ever since?" + +"Yes, Morris," and Katy dropped her stitch as she replied. "Yes; that +is, I told you I was sorry that you ever loved me, which was not exactly +true, for, after I knew you did, I was happier than before." + +Her words implied a knowledge of his love previous to that night at +Linwood when he had himself confessed it, and he said to her, +inquiringly: + +"You knew it then before I told you?" + +"From Wilford--yes," Katy faltered, a tear dropping on her cheek as she +recalled the circumstances of Wilford's telling her. + +"I understand now why you have been so shy of me," Morris said. "It was +only natural you should be until you knew what my intentions were; but, +Katy, must this shyness continue always? Think now, and say if you did +not tell more than one falsehood the other night, as you count +falsehoods." + +Katy looked wonderingly at him, and he continued; + +"You said you could not be my wife. Was that true? Can't you take it +back, and give me a different answer?" + +Katy's checks were scarlet, and her hands had ceased to flutter about +the knitting which lay upon her lap. + +"I meant what I said," she whispered; "for knowing, as I do, how Wilford +felt, it would not be right for me to be so happy." + +"Then it's nothing personal? If there were no harrowing memories of +Wilford, you could be happy with me. Is that it, Katy?" Morris asked, +coming close to her now, and imprisoning her hands, which she did not +try to take away, but let them lie in his as he continued: "Wilford was +willing at the last. Have you forgotten that?" + +"I had, until Helen reminded me." Katy replied. "But, Morris, the +talking of this thing brings Wilford's death back so vividly, making it +seem but yesterday since I held his dying head." + +She was beginning to relent, Morris knew, and bending nearer to her, he +said: + +"It was not yesterday. It will be two years in February; and this, you +know, is November. I need you, Katy. I want you so much. I have wanted +you all your life. Before it was wrong to do so I used each day to pray +that God would give you to me, and now I feel just as sure that he has +opened the way for you to come to me as I am sure that Wilford is in +heaven. He is happy there, and shall a morbid fancy keep you from being +happy here? Tell me then, Katy, will you be my wife?" + +He was kissing her cold hands, and as he did so he felt her tears +dropping on his hair. + +"If I say yes, Morris, you will not think that I never loved Wilford, +for I did, oh yes, I did. Not exactly as I supposed I might, even then, +have loved you, had you asked me first, but I loved him, and I was happy +with him, or if there were little clouds, his dying swept them all +away." + +Katy was proving herself a true woman, who remembered only the good +there was in Wilford, and Morris did not love her less for it. She was +all the dearer to him, all the more desirable. Once he told her so, +winding his arms about her, and resting her head upon his shoulder, +where it lay just as it had never lain before, for with the first kiss +Morris gave her, calling her "My own little Katy," she felt stealing +over her the same indescribable peace she had always felt with him, +intensified now, and sweeter from the knowing it would remain if she +should will it so. And she did will it so, kissing Morris back when he +asked her to, and thus sealing the compact of her second betrothal. It +was not exactly like the first. There was no tumultuous emotions, or +ecstatic joys, but Katy felt in her inmost heart that she was happier +now than then, that between herself and Morris there was more affinity +than there had been between herself and Wilford, and as she looked back +over the road she had come, and remembered all Morris had been to her, +she wondered at her blindness in not recognizing and responding to the +love in which she had now found shelter. + +It was very late that night when Katy crept up to bed, and Helen, who +was not asleep, knew by the face on which the lamplight fell, as Katy +sat for a moment in thoughtful mood, looking out into the darkness, that +Morris had not sued in vain. Aunt Betsy knew it, too, next morning, by +the same look on Katy's face, when she came downstairs, but this did not +prevent her saying, abruptly, as Katy stood by the sink: + +"Be you two engaged?" + +"We are," was Katy's frank reply, which brought back all Aunt Betsy's +visions of roasted fowls and frosted cake, and maybe a dance in the +kitchen, to say nothing of the feather bed which she had not dared to +offer Katy Cameron, but which she thought would come in play for "Miss +Dr. Grant." + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +THE PRISONERS. + + +Many of the captives were coming home. Prison after prison had given up +its starving, vermin-eaten inmates, while all along the Northern lines +loving hearts were waiting, and friendly hands outstretched to welcome +them back to "God's land," as the poor, suffering creatures termed the +soil over which waved the Stars and Stripes, for which they had fought +so bravely. Wistfully, thousands of eyes ran over the long columns of +names of those returned, each eye seeking for its own, and growing dim +with tears as it failed to find it, or lighting up with untold joy when +it was found. + +"Lieutenant Robert Reynolds" and "Thomas Tubbs," Helen read among the +list of those just arrived at Annapolis, but "Captain Mark Ray" was not +there, and with a sickening feeling of disappointment she passed the +paper to her mother-in-law, and hastened away, to weep and pray that +what she so greatly feared might not come upon her. + +It was after Katy's betrothal, and she was in New York, happy to hear +news from Mark, and perhaps to see him ere long, for, as nearly as she +could trace him from reports of others, he was last at Andersonville. +But there was no mention made of him, no sign by which she could tell +whether he still lived, or had long since been relieved from suffering. + +Early the next day she heard that Mattie Tubbs had received a telegram +from Tom, who would soon be at home, while later in the day Bell Cameron +came around to say that Bob was living, but had lost his right arm, and +was otherwise badly crippled. It never occurred to Helen to ask if this +would make a difference. She only kissed Bell fondly, rejoicing at her +good fortune, and then sent her back to the home where there were hot +discussions regarding the propriety of receiving into the family a +maimed and crippled member. + +"It was preposterous to suppose Bob would expect it," Juno said, while +the mother admitted that it was a most unfortunate affair, as indeed the +whole war had proved. For her part, she sometimes wished the North had +let the South go quietly when they wanted to, and so saved thousands of +lives, and prevented the country from being flooded with cripples, and +negroes, and calls for more men and money. On the whole, she rather +doubted the propriety of re-electing Lincoln, and prolonging the war; +and she certainly doubted the propriety of giving her daughter to a +cripple. There was Arthur Grey, who had lately been so attentive; he was +a wealthier man than Lieutenant Bob, and if Bell had any discretion she +would take him in preference to a disfigured soldier. + +Such was the purport of Mrs. Cameron's remarks, to which her husband +listened, his eyes blazing with passion, which, the moment she finished, +burst forth in a storm of oaths and invectives against what, with his +pet adjective, he called her "Copperhead principles," denouncing her as +a traitor, reproaching her for the cruelty which would separate her +daughter from Robert Reynolds because he had lost an arm in the service +of his country, and then turning fiercely to Bell with the words: + +"But it isn't for you to say whether he shall or shall not have Bell. +She is of age. Let her speak for herself." + +And she did speak, the noble, heroic girl, who had listened, with bitter +scorn, to what her mother and sister said, and who now, with elevated +nostrils and voice hoarse with emotion, answered slowly and +impressively: + +"I would marry Lieutenant Reynolds if he had only his ears left to hear +me tell him how much I love and honor him! Arthur Grey! Don't talk to me +of him! the craven coward, who will neither volunteer nor give a cent +for our poor, suffering soldiers, but turns people off with: 'Government +provides,' or 'the stores do not reach them,' and all those subterfuges +to which mean men resort to keep from giving, and to avoid the draft +swore he was forty-five, when we all know better. Don't insult Robert +with such a comparison, or think I will break my faith with him." + +After this no more was said to Bell, who waited anxiously for further +news from Bob, and who, the moment she heard he was at home, went to his +father's house, and asked to see him. + +He was sleeping when she entered his room, and pushing back the heavy +curtain, so that the light would fall more directly upon him, Mrs. +Reynolds went out and left her there alone. + +With a beating heart, she stood looking at his hollow eyes, his sunken +cheek, his short, dry hair, and thick, gray skin--all marks of the +brutal treatment he had received. She did not think of his arm until she +glanced at the wall where hung a large-sized photograph, taken in full +uniform the last time he was at home, and in which his full, +well-developed figure showed to good advantage. Could it be that the +wreck before her had ever been as full of life and vigor as the picture +would indicate, and was that arm which held the sword severed from the +body, and left a token of the murderous war? + +"Poor Bob! how much he must have suffered," she whispered, and kneeling +down beside him, she hid her face in her hands, weeping bitter tears +for her armless hero. + +The motion awakened Robert, who gazed for a moment in surprise at the +kneeling, sobbing maiden; then, when sure it was she, he raised himself +in bed, and ere Bell could look up, two arms, one quite as strong as the +other, were wound around her neck, and her head was pillowed upon the +breast, which heaved with strong emotions as the soldier said: + +"My darling Bell, my promised wife, you don't know how much good this +meeting does me!" + +He kissed her many times, and Bell did not prevent it, but gave him kiss +after kiss, then, still doubting the evidence of her eyes, she unclasped +his clinging arms, and holding both his poor hands in hers, gave vent to +a second gush of tears as she said: + +"I am so glad--oh, so glad!" + +Then, as it occurred to her that he might perhaps misjudge her, and put +a wrong construction upon her joy, she added: + +"I did not care for myself, Robert. Don't think I cared for myself, or +was ever sorry a bit on my own account." + +Bob looked a little bewildered as he replied: "Never were sorry and +never cared! I can scarcely credit that, for surely your tears and +present emotions belie your words." + +Bell knew he had not understood her, and she said: + +"Your arm, Robert, your arm. We heard it was cut off, and that you were +otherwise mutilated." + +"Oh, that's it, then!" and something like his old, mischievous smile +glimmered about Bob's mouth as he added: "They spared my arms, but, +Bell"--and he tried to look very solemn--"suppose I tell you that they +hacked off both my legs, and if you marry me, as you seem to think you +will, you must walk all your life by the side of wooden pins and +crutches?" + +Bell knew by the curl of his lip that he was teasing her, and she +answered, laughingly: + +"Wooden pins and crutches will be all the fashion when the war is over; +badges of honor of which any woman might be proud." + +"Well, Bell," he replied, "I am afraid there is no such honor in store +for my wife, for if I ever get back my strength and the flesh upon my +bones, she must take me with legs and arms included. Not even a scratch +or wound of any kind with which to awaken sympathy." + +He appeared very bright and cheerful, but when, after a moment, Bell +asked for Mark Ray, there came a shadow over his face, and with +quivering lips he told a tale which blanched Bell's cheek, and made her +shiver with pain and dread as she thought of Helen, the wife who had +never known the sweets of matrimony, and who would never taste them now, +for Mark was dead--shot down as he attempted to escape from the train +which took them from one place of torment to another. He was always +devising means of escape, succeeding several times, but was immediately +captured and brought back, or sent to some closer quarters, Robert said; +but his courage never deserted him, and in the muddy, filthy place where +they were herded like so many cattle, without shelter of any kind, he +was the life of them all, and by his presence kept many a poor fellow +from dying of homesickness and despair. But he was dead; there could be +no mistake, for Robert saw him when he jumped, heard the ball which went +whizzing after him, saw him as he fell on the open field, saw a man from +a rude dwelling nearby go hurriedly toward him, firing his own revolver, +as if to make the death deed doubly sure. Then, as the train slacked its +speed, with the view, perhaps, to take the body on board, he heard the +man who had reached Mark and was bending over him, call out: "Go on; +I'll tend to him. He is dead as a stone; bullet went right through +here," and he turned the dead man's face toward the train, so all could +see the blood pouring from the temple which the finger of the rebel +ruffian touched. + +"Oh, Helen! poor Helen! How can I tell her, when she loved him so much!" +Bell sobbed, while Bob repeated many things to prove how strong was the +love the unfortunate Mark Ray had borne for his young wife. + +"He used to make pictures of her," he said, "with a pencil which he had, +and once he whittled out her face with a lily in the hair. It was a good +likeness, too, and I saw Mark kiss it more than once when he thought he +was not seen. He had her photograph, it seems, but a brutal keeper took +it away, for no earthly purpose except to distress him. I never saw Mark +cast down till then, when for two whole days he scarcely spoke, but +would stand for hours with his face turned toward the North, and a +quivering motion around his lips, as if his heart were broken." + +Bell could hear no more, but motioned him to stop. + +"It's too terrible even to think about," she said. "Oh, how can I tell +Helen!" + +"You will do it better than any one else," Bob said. "You will be very +tender with her; and, Bell, tell her, as some consolation, that he did +not break with the treatment, as most of us wretches did; he kept up +wonderfully--said he was perfectly well--and, indeed, he looked so. Tom +Tubbs, who was his shadow, clinging to him with wonderful fidelity, will +corroborate what I have said. He was with us, he saw him, and only +animal force prevented him from leaping from the car and going to him +where he fell. I shall never forget his shriek of agony at the sight of +that blood-stained face turned an instant toward us." + +"Don't, don't!" Bell cried again; "I can't endure it!" and as Mrs. +Reynolds then came in, she left her lover, and with a foreboding heart, +started for Mrs. Banker's, meeting on the steps Tom Tubbs himself, who +had come on an errand similar to her own. + +"Sit here in the hall a moment," she said to him, as the servant +admitted them both. "I must see Mrs. Ray first." + +Helen was reading to her mother-in-law, but she laid down her book and +came to welcome Bell, detecting at once the agitation in her manner and +asking if she had had bad news from Robert. + +"No, Robert is at home; I have just come from there, and he told me--oh! +Helen, can you bear it?--Mark is dead--shot twice as he jumped from the +train taking him to another prison, Robert saw it, and knew that he was +dead." + +Bell could get no further, for Helen, who had never fainted in her life, +did so now, lying senseless so long that the physician began to think it +would be a mercy if she never came back to life, for her reason, he +fancied, had fled. But Helen did come back to life with reason +unimpaired, and insisted upon hearing every detail of the dreadful +story, both from Bell and Tom. The latter confirmed all Lieutenant +Reynolds had said, besides adding many items of his own. Mark was dead, +there could be no doubt of it; but with the tenacity of a strong, +hopeful nature, the mother clung to the illusion that possibly the ball +stunned, instead of killing--that he would yet come back; and many a +time, as the days went by, that mother started at a step upon the walk +or ring of the bell, which she fancied might be his, hearing him +sometimes calling in the night storm for her to let him in, and hurrying +down to the door only to be disappointed, and go back to her lonely room +to weep the dark night through. + +With Helen there were no such illusions. After talking calmly and +rationally with both Robert and Tom, she knew her husband was dead, and +never watched and waited for him as his mother did. She had heard from +Mark's companions in suffering all they had to tell, of his captivity, +and his love for her which manifested itself in so many different ways. +Passionately she had wept over the tress of faded hair which Tom Tubbs +brought to her, saying: "He cut it from his head just before we left the +prison, and told me if he never got home and I did, to give the lock to +you, and say that all was well between him and God--that your prayers +had saved him. He wanted you to know that, because, he said, it would +comfort you most of all." + +And it did comfort her, so that she could almost say with a full heart: +"Thy will be done," when she looked up at the clear, wintry heavens and +thought that her lost one was there. It was her first real trial, and it +crushed her with its magnitude so that she could not submit at once, and +many a cry of desolate agony broke the silence of her room, where the +whole night through she sat musing of the past, and raining kisses upon +the little lock of hair which from the Southern prison had come to her, +sole relic of the husband so dearly loved and truly mourned. How faded +it was from the rich brown she remembered so well, and Helen gazing at +it could realize in part the suffering and want which had worn so many +precious lives away. It was strange she never dreamed of him. She often +prayed that she might, so as to drive from her mind, if possible, the +picture of the prostrate form upon the low, damp field, and the +blood-stained face turned in its mortal agony toward the Southern sky +and the pitiless foe above it. So she always saw him, shuddering as she +wondered if the foe had buried him decently or left his bones to bleach +upon the open plain. + +Poor Helen, she was widowed indeed, and it needed not the badge of +mourning to tell how terribly she was bereaved. But the badge was there, +too, for in spite of the hope which said "he is not dead," Mrs. Banker +yielded to Helen's importunities, and clothed herself and +daughter-in-law in the habiliments of woe, still waiting, still +watching, still listening for the step she should recognize so quickly, +still looking down the street; but looking, alas! in vain. The winter +passed away. Captive after captive came home, heart after heart was +cheered by the returning loved one, but for the inmates of No. ---- the +heavy cloud grew blacker, for the empty chair by the hearth remained +unoccupied, and the aching hearts uncheered. Mark Ray did not come back. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +THE DAY OF THE WEDDING. + + +Those first warm days of March, 1865, when spring and summer seemed to +kiss each other and join hands for a brief space of time, how balmy, how +still, how pleasant they were, and how bright the farmhouse looked, +where preparations for Katy's second bridal were going rapidly forward. +Aunt Betsy, as chief directress, was in her element, for now had come +the reality of the vision she had seen so long, of house turned upside +down in one grand onslaught of suds and sand, then righted again by +magic power, and smelling very sweet and clean from its recent +ablutions--of turkeys dying in the barn, of chickens in the shed, of +ovens heating in the kitchen, of loaves of frosted cake, with cards and +cards of snowy biscuit piled upon the pantry shelf--of jellies, tarts +and chicken salad--of home-made wine and home-brewed beer, with tea and +coffee, portioned out and ready for the pots, the latter mixed with +fresh-laid eggs, and smelling strongly of old Java, and the former as +fragrant as two and one-half dollars per pound could buy. + +Aunt Betsy was very happy, for this, the brightest, balmiest day of all, +was Katy's wedding day, and in the dining-room the table was already set +with the new chinaware and silver, a joint Christmas gift from Helen and +Katy to their good Aunt Hannah, as real mistress of the house. + +"Not plated-ware, but the gen-oo-ine article," Aunt Betsy had explained +at least twenty times to those who came to see the silver, and she +handled it proudly now as she took it from the flannel bags where Mrs. +Deacon Bannister said it must be kept, and placed it on a side table. + +The coffee-urn was Katy's, so was the teakettle and the massive pitcher, +but the rest was "ours," Aunt Betsy complacently reflected as she +contemplated the glittering array, end then hurried off to see what was +burning on the stove, or "spell" Uncle Ephraim, working industriously at +the ice-cream, out on the back stoop, stumbling over Morris as she went, +and telling him he had come too soon--it was not fittin' for him to be +there under foot until he was wanted. + +Morris probably thought he was wanted, by one member of the family at +least, and without replying directly to Aunt Betsy, he knocked with a +vast amount of assurance at a side door, which opened directly, and +Katy's glowing face looked out, and Katy's voice was heard, not telling +him he was not wanted, but saying, joyfully: + +"Oh, Morris, it's you. I'm so glad you've come, for I wanted--" + +But what she wanted was drowned by a succession of certain mysterious +sounds, such as are only produced by a collision of lips, and which made +Aunt Betsy mutter to herself: + +"It's all right, I know, but so much kissin' as I've seen the last +fortni't is enough to turn a body's stomach. I guess old bachelders and +widders is commonly wus than fresh hands at it." + +And having thus expressed her thoughts, Aunt Betsy seized the handle of +the ice-cream freezer and turned it vigorously, thinking, perhaps, of +Joel Upham, and what might have been but for a freak of hers. Meanwhile +Morris and Katy sat alone in the little sewing-room, where latterly they +had passed so many quiet hours together, and where lay the bridal dress, +with its chaste and simple decorations. Katy had clung tenaciously to +her mourning robes, asking, half tearfully, if she might wear black, as +ladies sometimes did. But Morris had promptly answered no. His bride, if +she came to him willingly, must not come clad in widow's weeds, for when +she became his wife she would cease to be a widow. + +And so the black was laid aside, and Katy, in soft tinted colors, with +her bright hair curling in her neck, looked as girlish and beautiful as +if in Greenwood there were no pretentious monument, with Wilford's name +upon it, nor any little grave in Silverton where Baby Cameron slept. She +had been both wife and mother, but she was quite as dear to Morris as if +she had never borne other name than Katy Lennox, and as he held her for +a moment closely to his heart, he thanked God, who had at last given to +him the idol of his boyhood and the love of his later years. Across +their pathway no shadow was lying, except when they remembered Helen, on +whom the mantle of widowhood had so darkly fallen just as Katy was +throwing it off. + +Poor Helen, the tears always crept to Katy's eyes when, she thought of +her, and now as she saw her steal across the road and strike into the +winding path which led to the pasture where the pines and hemlock grew, +she nestled closer to Morris, and whispered: + +"Sometimes I think it wrong to be so happy when Helen is so sad. I pity +her so much to-day." + +And Helen was to be pitied, for her heart was aching to its very core. +She had tried to keep up through the preparations for Katy's bridal, +tried to seem interested, and even cheerful, while all the time a hidden +agony was tugging at her heart, and life seemed a heavier burden than +she could bear. + +All her portion of the work was finished now, and in the balmy +brightness of that warm April afternoon she went into the fields where +she could be alone beneath the soft, summer-like sky, and pour out her +pent-up anguish into the ear of Him who had so often soothed and +comforted her when other aids had failed. Last night, for the first time +since she heard the dreadful news, she had dreamed of Mark, and when she +awoke she still felt the pressure of his lips upon her brow, the touch +of his arm upon her waist, and the thrilling clasp of his warm hand as +it pressed and held her own. But that was a dream, a cruel delusion, and +its memory made the day more dark and dreary as she went more slowly up +the beaten path, pausing once beneath a chestnut tree and leaning her +throbbing head against the shaggy bark as she heard in the distance the +shrill whistle of the downward train from Albany, and thought, as she +always did when she heard that whistle, "Oh, if that heralded Mark's +return, how happy I should be." But many a sound like that had echoed +across the Silverton hills, bringing no hope to her, and now, as it +again died away in the Cedar Swamp, she pursued her way up the path till +she reached the long, white ledge of rocks where with Katy she used to +play, and where Bell Cameron had come with Lieutenant Bob, while Morris, +too, had more than once led Katy there since the weather was so fine. + +"The Lovers' Rock," some called it, for village boys and maidens knew +the place, repairing to it often, whispering their vows beneath the +overhanging pines, which whispered back again, and told the winds the +story which, though so old, is always new to her who listens to him who +tells. + +Just underneath the spreading pine there was a large, flat stone, and +there Helen sat down, gazing sadly upon the valley below, and the clear +waters of Fairy Pond gleaming in the April sunshine, which lay so warmly +on the grassy hills and flashed so brightly from the cupola at Linwood, +where the national flag was flying. For a time Helen watched the banner +as it shook its folds to the breeze, then, as she remembered with what a +fearful price that flag had been saved from foul dishonor, she hid her +face in her hands and sobbed bitterly: + +"God help me not to begrudge the price or think I paid too dearly for my +country's rights. Oh, Mark, my murdered husband, I may be wrong, but you +were dearer to me than many, many countries, and it is hard to give you +up--hard to know that the notes of peace which even now float up to us +from the South will not waken you in that grave which I can never see. +Oh, Mark, my darling, my darling, I loved you so much, I miss you so +much, I want you so much. God help me to bear. God help me to say, 'Thy +will be done.'" + +She was rocking to and fro in her grief, with her hands pressed over her +face, as she thus moaned out a prayer that God would help her to feel, +as well as to say, "Thy will be done," and for a long time she sat there +thus, while the sun crept on further toward the west, and the freshened +breeze shook the tasseled pine above her head and kissed the bands of +rich brown hair, from which her hat had fallen. She did not heed the +lapse of time in the earnest prayer she breathed for entire submission +to God's will, nor did she hear the footstep coming up the pathway to +the ledge where she was sitting, the footstep which paused at intervals, +as if the comer were weary, or else in quest of some one, but which at +last came on with rapid bounds as an opening among the trees showed +where Helen sat. It was a tall young man who came, a young man sunburned +and scarred, with uniform soiled and worn, but with the fire in his +brown eyes unquenched, the love in his true heart unchanged, save as it +was deeper, more intense for the years of separation, and the long, +cruel suspense which was all over now. The grave had given up its dead, +the captive was released, and through incredible suffering and danger +had reached his Northern home, had sought and found his girl-wife of a +few hours, for it was Mark Ray speeding up the path, and holding back +his breath as he came close to the bowed form on the rock, feeling a +strange throb of awe when he saw the mourning dress, and knew it was +worn for him. A moment more, and she lay in his arms, white and +insensible, for with the sudden winding of his arms around her neck, the +pressure of his lips upon her cheek, the calling of her name, and the +knowing it was really her husband, she had uttered a wild, impassioned +cry, half of terror, half of joy, and fainted entirely away, just as she +did when told that he was dead! There was no water near, but with loving +words and soft caresses, Mark brought her back to life, raining both +tears and kisses upon the dear face which had grown so white and thin +since the Christmas Eve when the wintry starlight had looked down upon +their parting. For several moments neither could speak for the great +choking joy which wholly precluded the utterance of a word. Helen was +the first to rally, and lying in Mark's lap, with her head pillowed on +Mark's arm, she whispered: + +"Let us thank God together. You, too, have learned to pray." + +Reverently Mark bent his face to hers, and the pine boughs overhead +heard, instead of mourning notes, a prayer of praise, as the reunited +wife and husband fervently thanked God, who had brought them together +again. + +Not until nearly half an hour was gone, and Helen had begun to realize +that the arm which held her so tightly was genuine flesh and blood, and +not a mere delusion, did she look up into the face, glowing with so much +of happiness and love. Upon the forehead, and just beneath the hair, +there was a savage scar, and the flesh about it was red and angry still, +showing how sore and painful it must have been, and making Helen shudder +as she touched it with her lips, and said: + +"Poor, darling Mark! that's where the cruel ball entered; but where is +the other scar--the one made by the man who went to you in the fields, +and who also fired, they said. I have tried so hard to hate him for +firing at a fallen foe." + +"Rather, pray for him, darling. Bless him as the savior of your +husband's life, the noble fellow but for whom I should not have been +here now, for he was a Unionist, as true to the old flag as Abraham +himself," Mark Ray replied; and then, as Helen looked wonderingly at +him, he laid her head in an easier position upon his shoulder, and told +her a story so strange in its details that but for the frequent +occurrence of similar incidents it would be pronounced wholly unreal and +false. + +Of what he suffered in the Southern prisons he did not speak, either +then or ever after, but began with the day when, with a courage born of +desperation, he jumped from the moving train, and was shot down by the +guard. Partially stunned, he still, retained sense enough to know when +a tall form bent over him, and to hear the rough but kindly voice which +said: + +"Play 'possum, Yank. Make b'lieve you're dead, and throw them hellhounds +off the scent." + +This was the last he knew for many weeks, and when again he awoke to +consciousness he found himself on the upper floor of a dilapidated hut, +which stood in the center of a little wood, his bed a pile of straw, +over which was spread a clean patchwork quilt, while seated at his side, +and watching him intently, was the same man who had bent over him in the +field, and shouted to the rebels that he was dead. + +"I shall never forget my sensations then," Mark said, "for, with the +exception of this present hour, when I hold you, my darling, in my arms, +and know the danger is over, I never experienced a moment of greater +happiness and rest than when, up in that squalid garret, where the +rafters, festooned with cobwebs and dust, could be touched by stretching +out my hand, and where the sunlight only found an entrance through an +aperture in the roof, which admitted the rain as well, I came back to +life again, the pain in my head all gone, and nothing left save a +delicious feeling of languor, which prompted me to lie quietly for +several minutes, examining my surroundings, and speculating upon the +chance which brought me there. That I was a prisoner I did not doubt, +until the man at my side said to me, cheerily: 'Well, old chap, you've +come through it like a major, though I was mighty dubious a spell about +that pesky ball. But old Aunt Bab and me fished it out, and since then +you've begun to mend.' + +"'Where am I? Who are you?' I asked, and he replied: 'Who be I? Why, I'm +Jack Jennin's, the rarinest, red-hottest secesh thar is in these yere +parts, so the rebs thinks; but 'twixt you and me, boy, I'm the tallest +kind of a Union--got a piece of the old flag sewed inside of my boots, +and every night before sleepin' I prays Lord gin Abe the victory,' and +raise Cain generally in t'other camp, and forgive Jack Jennin's for +tellin' so many lies, and makin' b'leeve he's one thing, when you know +and he knows he's t'other. If I've spared one Union chap, I'll bet I +have a hundred, me and old Bab, a black woman who lives here and tends +to the cases I fotch her, till we contrive to git 'em inter Tennessee, +whar they hev to shift for themselves.' + +"I could only press his bony hand in token of my gratitude, while he +went on to say: 'Them was beans I fired at you that day, but they sarved +every purpose, and them scalliwags on the train s'pose you were put +under ground weeks ago, if, indeed, you wasn't left to rot in the sun, +as heaps and heaps on 'em is. Nobody knows you are here but Bab and me, +and nobody must know if you want to git off with a whole hide. I could +git a hundred dollars by givin' you up, but you don't s'pose Jack +Jennin's is agwine to do that ar infernal trick? No, sir,' and he +brought his brawny fist down upon his knee with a force which made me +tremble, while I tried to express my thanks for his great kindness. He +was a noble man, Helen, while Aunt Bab, the colored woman, who nursed me +so tenderly, and whose black, bony hands I kissed at parting, was as +true a woman as any with a fairer skin and more beautiful exterior. + +"For three weeks longer I stayed up in that loft, and in that time three +more escaped prisoners were brought there, and one Union refugee from +North Carolina. We left in company one wild, rainy night, when the storm +and darkness must have been sent for our special protection, and Jack +Jennings cried like a little child when he bade me good-by, promising, +if he survived the war, to find his way to the North and visit me in New +York. I should be prouder, Helen, to welcome him to our home than to +entertain the Emperor of France, while Bab should have a seat at my own +table, and I be honored by it. There are many such noble spirits there, +and when I remember them, I wish to spare a land which I once hoped +might be burned with fire until no trace was left. We found them +everywhere, and especially among the mountains of Tennessee, where, but +for their timely aid, we had surely been recaptured. The negroes, too, +were powerful helps, and in no single case has a black man proved +treacherous to his suffering white brother, I was not an Abolitionist +when the war broke out, but I am one now, and to see the negro free I +would almost spill my last drop of blood. They are a patient, +all-enduring, faithful race, and without them the bones of many a poor +wretch who now sits by his own fireside and recounts the perils he has +escaped, would whiten in the Southern swamps or on the Southern +mountains. Three times were we chased by bloodhounds, and in every case +the negroes were the means of saving us from certain death. For weeks we +were hidden in a cave, hunted by the Confederates by day, and fed at +night by negroes, who told us when and where to go. With blistered feet +and bruised limbs, we reached the lines at last, when fever attacked me +for the second time and brought me near to death. Somebody wrote to you, +but you never received it, and when I grew better I would not let them +write again, as I wanted to surprise you. As soon as I was able I +started North, my thoughts full of the joyful meeting in store--a +meeting which I dreaded, too, for I knew you must think me dead, and I +felt so sorry for you, my darling, knowing, as I did, you would mourn +for your soldier husband. That my darling has mourned is written on her +face, and needs no words to tell it; but that is over now," Mark said, +folding his wife closer to him, and kissing the pale lips which +whispered: + +"Yes, I have been so sorry, Mark--so tired, so sad, and life was such a +burden, I would gladly have laid it down." + +"The burden is now removed," Mark said, and then he told her how, +arrived at Albany, he had telegraphed to his mother, asking where Helen +was. + +"In Silverton," was the reply, and so he came on in the morning train, +meeting his mother in Springfield, as he had half expected to do, +knowing that she could leave New York in time to join him there. + +"No words of mine," he said, "are adequate to describe the thrill of joy +with which I looked again upon the hills and rocks so identified with +you that I loved them for your sake, hailing them as old, familiar +friends, and actually growing sick and faint with excitement when, +through the leafless woods, I caught the gleam of Fairy Pond, where I +gathered the lilies for you. Does my darling remember it?" + +He knew she did by the clasp of her hand, and he continued: + +"Had a dead body risen from its grave, and walked into the farmhouse, +carrying its coffin with it, it could not have created greater +consternation, or made worse havoc with the people's wits than did my +sudden appearance in their midst. Good Aunt Betsy, I am sorry to say, +fell the entire length of the cellar stairs, spraining her ankle, +bruising her elbow shockingly, and, direst calamity of all, in her +estimation, breaking the dish of charlotte russe she was holding in her +hand. There is a wedding in progress, I learned from mother, and it +seems very meet that I should come at this time, making, in reality, a +double wedding, when I can truly claim my bride," and Mark kissed Helen +passionately, laughing to see how the blushes broke over her white face, +and burned upon her neck. + +Those were happy moments which they passed together upon that ledge of +rocks, happy enough to atone for all the dreadful past, and when at last +they arose and slowly retraced their steps to the farmhouse, it seemed +to Mark that Helen's cheeks were rounder, fuller, than when he found +her, while Helen knew that the arm on which she leaned was stronger than +when it first inclosed her an hour or two ago. + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +THE WEDDING. + + +Many times Aunt Betsy had hobbled to the door, and shading her eyes with +her hand, had looked wistfully up the hill in quest of Mark and Helen, +wondering why they stayed out so long, when they must know the sun was +nearly down, and wondering next if Morris would never go home about his +business and give Katy a chance to dress. + +Poor, worried, unfortunate Aunt Betsy! her foot was very lame, and her +arm was badly bruised; but she bandaged it up in camphor and sugar, +wincing at the terrible smart when the wash was at first applied, but +saying to Morris, who asked if it did not hurt cruelly: "Yes, it hurts +some, but nothin' to what the poor soldiers is hurt; and I wouldn't mind +it an atom if I hadn't broke the dish with the heathenish name." + +And, indeed, the loss of the charlotte russe did weigh heavily on Aunt +Betsy's mind, proving the straw too many, and only Bell Cameron, who, +with Lieutenant Bob, had come on the same train with Mark and Mrs. +Banker, had power to reassure her by telling her that charlotte russe +was not essential at all; that, for her part, she was glad to have it +out of sight, as it was her especial detestation. This comforted Aunt +Betsy, who had made many of her preparations for the wedding with a +direct reference to the "city folks" so confidently expected. The +substantials were for the neighbors--those who would have no supper at +home, but reserve their appetites for the wedding viands; while the +delicacies, the knickknacks, were designed exclusively for "them +stuck-up critters, the Camerons," not one of whom, it now seemed, would +be present except Bell. Father Cameron was not able to come; he would +gladly have done so if he could, and he sent his blessing to Katy, with +the wish that she might be very happy in her second married life. This +message Bell gave to Katy, and then tried to form some reasonable excuse +for her mother's and Juno's absence, for she could not tell how +haughtily both had declined the invitation, Juno finding fault because +Katy had not waited longer than two years, and Mrs. Cameron blaming her +for being so very vulgar as to be married at home, instead of in church, +where she ought to be. On this point Katy herself had been a little +disquieted, feeling how much more appropriate it was that she be married +in the church, but shrinking from standing again a bride at the same +altar where she had once before been made a wife. She could not do it, +she finally decided; there would be too many harrowing memories crowding +upon her mind, and as Morris did not particularly care where the +ceremony was performed, provided he got Katy at the last, it was settled +that it should be at the house, even though Mrs. Deacon Bannister did +say that she had supposed Dr. Grant too High Church to do anything as +Presbyterianny as that. + +Bell's arrival at the farmhouse was timely, for the unexpected +appearance in their midst of one whom they looked upon as surely dead +had stunned and bewildered the family to such an extent that it needed +the presence of just such a matter-of-fact, self-possessed woman as +Bell to bring things back to their original shape. It was wonderful how +the city girl fitted into the vacant niches, seeing to everything which +needed seeing to, and still finding time to steal away alone with +Lieutenant Bob, who kept her in a painful state of blushing by +constantly wishing it was his bridal night as well as Dr. Grant's, and +by inveighing against the weeks which must still intervene ere the day +appointed for the grand ceremony to take place in Grace Church, and +which was to make Bell his wife. + + * * * * * + +"Ain't Morris ever goin' home? He won't be dressed in time, as sure as +the world, if he stays here much longer," Aunt Betsy said a dozen times, +until at last her patience was exhausted, and going boldly in where he +was, she bade him start in at once, or he would not have time to put on +his best coat and jacket, let alone Katy's changin' her clothes. + +Thus importuned, Morris quitted the house, just as Mark and Helen came +slowly up, their faces happier, if possible, than his own, and telling +of the great joy which had succeeded their dark night of sorrow. + + * * * * * + +"Come in here, Helen, I have something to show you," Mrs. Banker said, +after she had again embraced and wept over her long-lost son, whose +return was not quite real yet, and leading her daughter-in-law to her +bedroom, she showed her the elegant white silk which had been made for +her just after her marriage, two years before, and which with careful +forethought she had brought with her, as more suitable now for the +wedding than Helen's mourning weeds. + +"I made the most of my time last night after receiving Mark's telegram, +and had it modernized somewhat," she said. "And I brought your pearls, +for you know you will be most as much a bride as Katy, and I have a +pride in seeing my son's wife appropriately dressed." + +Far different were Helen's feelings now, as she donned the elegant +dress, from what they had been the first and only time she wore it. Then +the bridegroom was where danger and death lay thickly around his +pathway, but now he was at her side, kissing her cheek where the roses +were burning so brightly, and calling still deeper blushes to her face +by his teasing observations and humorous ridicule of his own personal +appearance. Would she not feel ashamed of him, in his soiled, faded +uniform? And would she not cast longing glances at her handsome +brother-in-law and the stylish Lieutenant Bob? But Helen was proud of +her husband's uniform, as a badge of what he had suffered, and when the +folds of her rich dress swept against it, she did not draw them away, +but nestled closer to him, leaning upon his shoulder, and when no one +was near, winding her soft arms about his neck, whispering: "My darling +Mark, I cannot make it real yet." + +Softly the night shadows fell around the farmhouse, and in the rooms +below a rather mixed group was assembled--all the _élite_ of the town, +with many of Aunt Betsy's neighbors, and the doctor's patients, who had +come to see their loved physician married, rejoicing in his happiness, +and glad that the mistress of Linwood was not to be a stranger, but the +young girl who had grown up in their midst, and who, by suffering and +sorrow, had been molded into a noble woman, worthy of Dr. Grant. She was +ready now for her second bridal, and she looked like some pure waxen +figure in her dress of white, with no vestige of color in her face, and +her great blue eyes shining with a brilliancy which made them almost +black. Occasionally, as her thoughts leaped backward over a period of +almost six years, a tear trembled on her long eyelashes, but Morris, as +often as he saw it, kissed it away, asking if she were sorry. + +"Oh, no, not sorry that I am to be your wife," she answered; "but it is +not possible that I should forget entirely the roughness of the road +which has led me to you." + +"They are waiting for you," was said several times ere the parties +waited for were quite ready to go; but everything was done at last, and +slowly down the stairs passed Mark Ray and Helen, Lieutenant Bob and +Bell, with Dr. Grant and Katy, whose face, as she stood again before the +clergyman and spoke her marriage vows, shone with a strange, peaceful +light, which made it seem to those who gazed upon her like the face of +some pure angel. + +There was no thought then of that deathbed in Georgetown--no thought of +Greenwood, or the little grave in Silverton, where the crocuses and +hyacinths were blossoming--no thought of anything save the man at her +side, whose voice was so full and earnest, as it made the responses, and +who gently pressed the little hand as he fitted the wedding ring. It was +over at last, and Katy was Morris' wife, blushing now as they called her +Mrs. Grant, and putting up her rosebud lips to be kissed by all who +claimed that privilege. Helen, too, came in for her share of attention, +and the opinion of the guests as to the beauty of the respective brides, +as they were termed, was pretty equally divided; both were beautiful, +and both bore traces of the suffering and suspense which had purified +and made them better. + +In heavy, rustling silk, which actually trailed an inch, and cap of real +lace, Aunt Betsy hobbled among the crowd, her face aglow with the +satisfaction she felt at seeing her nieces so much admired and +appreciated, and her heart so full of good will and toleration that +after the supper was over, and she fancied a few of the younger ones +were beginning to feel tired, she suggested to Bell that she might start +a dance if she had a mind to, either in the kitchen or parlor, it did +not matter where, and "Ephraim would not care an atom," a remark which +brought from Mrs. Deacon Bannister a most withering look of reproach, +and slightly endangered Aunt Betsy's standing in the church. Perhaps +Bell Cameron suspected as much, for she replied that they were having a +splendid time as it was, and as Dr. Grant did not dance, they might as +well dispense with it altogether. And so it happened that there was no +dancing at Katy's wedding, and Uncle Ephraim escaped the reproof which +his brother deacon would have felt called upon to give him had he +permitted so grievous a sin, while Mrs. Deacon Bannister, who, at the +first trip of the toe, would have felt it her duty to depart, lest her +eyes should look upon the evil thing, was thus permitted to remain until +"it was out," and the guests retired _en masse_ to their respective +homes. + + * * * * * + +The carriage from Linwood stood at the farmhouse door, and Katy, +wrapped in shawls and hood, was ready to go with her husband to the home +where she knew so much of rest and quiet awaited her. There were no +tears shed at this parting, for their darling was not going far away; +her new home was just across the fields, and through the soft moonlight +they could see its chimney tops, and trace for some little distance the +road over which the carriage went, bearing her swiftly on, her hands +fast locked in Morris', her head upon his arm, and the hearts of both +too full of bliss for either to speak a word until Linwood was reached, +when, folding Katy to his bosom in a passionate embrace, Morris said to +her: + +"We are home at last--your home and mine, my precious, precious wife." + +The village clock was striking one, and the sound echoed across the +waters of Fairy Pond, awakening, in his marshy bed, a sleeping frog, who +sent forth upon the warm, still air a musical, plaintive note as Morris +bore his bride over the threshold and into the library, where on the +hearth a cheerful fire was blazing. He had ordered it kindled there, for +he had a fancy ere he slept to see fulfilled the dream he had dreamed so +often, of Katy sitting in the chair across the hearth, where he placed +her now, himself removing her shawl and hood, then kneeling down before +her, with his arm around her waist and his head upon her shoulder, he +prayed aloud to the God who had brought her there, asking His blessing +upon their future life, and dedicating himself and all he had to his +Master's service. It is such prayer which God delights to answer; and a +peace, deeper than they had yet known, fell upon that newly-married pair +at Linwood. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +CONCLUSION. + + +The scene shifts now to New York, where, one week after that wedding in +Silverton, Mark and Helen were, and where, too, were Morris and Katy. +But not on Madison Square. That house had been sold, and Katy had seen +it but once, her tears falling fast as driving slowly by with Morris +she gazed at the closed doors and windows of what was once her home, and +around which lingered no pleasant memories save that it was the +birthplace of Baby Cameron. Once Lieutenant Reynolds had thought to buy +it, but Bell said: "No, it would not be quite pleasant for Katy to visit +me there, and I mean to have her with me as much as possible," so the +house went to strangers, and a less pretentious, but quite as +comfortable, one was bought for Bell, so far uptown that Mrs. Cameron +pronounced it quite in the country, while Juno wondered how her sister +would manage to exist so far from everything, intimating that her visits +would be far between, a threat which Lieutenant Bob took quite +heroically; indeed, it rather enhanced the value of his pleasant home +than otherwise, for Juno was not a favorite, and his equanimity was not +likely to be disturbed if she never crossed his threshold. She was +throwing bait to Arthur Grey, the man who swore he was forty-five to +escape the draft, and who, now that the danger was over, would gladly +take back his oath and be forty, as he really was. With the most +freezing kiss imaginable, Juno had greeted Katy, calling her "Mrs. +Grant," and treating Morris as if he were an entire stranger, instead of +the man whom to get she would once have moved both earth and heaven. +Mrs. Cameron, too, though glad in her heart that Katy was married, and +fully approving of her choice, threw into her manner so much reserve +that Katy's intercourse with her was anything but agreeable, and she +turned with alacrity to Father Cameron, who had received her with open +arms, calling her his daughter, and welcoming Morris as his son, taken +in Wilford's stead. "My boy," he frequently called him, showing by his +manner how willingly he accepted him as the husband of one whom he +really loved as his child. Greatly he wished that they should stay with +him while they remained in New York, but Katy preferred going with Helen +to Mrs. Banker's, where she would be more quiet, and avoid the bustle +and confusion attending the preparations for Bell's wedding. It was to +be a grand church affair, and to take place during Easter week, after +which the bridal pair were going on to Washington, Fortress Monroe, and, +if possible, to Richmond, where Bob had been a prisoner. Everything +seemed conspiring to make the occasion a joyful one, for all through +the North, from Maine to California, the air was rife with the jubilee +songs of victory, and the notes of approaching peace. But, alas! He who +holds our country's destiny in His hand changed that song of gladness +into a wail of woe, which, echoing through the land, rose up to Heaven +in one mighty sob of anguish, as the whole nation bemoaned its loss. Our +President was dead!--foully, cruelly murdered!--and New York was in +mourning, so black, so profound, that with a shudder Bell Cameron tossed +aside the orange wreath and said to her lover: "We will be married at +home. I cannot now go to the church, when everything seems so like one +great funeral." + +And so in Mrs. Cameron's drawing-room there was a quiet wedding one +pleasant April morning, and Bell's plain traveling dress was far more +in keeping with the gloom which hung over the great city than her gala +robes would have been, with a long array of carriages and merry wedding +chimes. Westward they went, instead of South, and when our late lamented +President was borne back to the prairie of Illinois, they were there to +greet the noble dead, and mingle their tears with those who knew and +loved him long before the world appreciated his worth. + + * * * * * + +Softly the May rain falls on Linwood, where the fresh green grass is +springing and the early spring flowers blooming, and where Katy, fairest +flower of all, stands for a moment in the deep bay window of the +library, listening dreamily to the patter on the tin roof overhead, and +gazing wistfully down the road, as if watching for some one, then +turning, she enters the dining-room and inspects the supper table, +shining with silver, and laid for six, for her mother, Aunt Hannah and +Aunt Betsy are visiting her this rainy afternoon, while Morris, on his +return from North Silverton, where he has gone to see a patient, is to +call for Uncle Ephraim, who, in clean linen, checked gingham neck +handkerchief and the swallow-tailed coat which has served him for so +many years, sits waiting at home, with one kitten in his lap and +another on his shoulder. + +Linwood is a nice place to visit, and the old ladies enjoy it vastly, +especially Aunt Betsy, who never tires of telling what they have "over +to Katy's," and whose capeless shaker hangs often on the hall stand, +just as it hangs now, while she, good soul, sits in the pleasant parlor, +near the blazing fire, and darns the socks for Morris, taking as much +pains as if it were a network of fine lace she was weaving, instead of a +shocking rent in some luckless heel or toe. Upstairs there is a pleasant +room which Katy calls Aunt Betsy's, and in it is the feather bed on +which Wilford Cameron once slept, a part of Katy's "setting out," which +never found its way to Madison Square. Morris himself did not think much +of feathers, but he made no objection when Aunt Betsy insisted on +sending over the bed kept for so many years, and only smiled a droll +kind of smile when he one morning met it coming up the walk in the +wheelbarrow which Uncle Ephraim trundled. + +Morris and his young wife were very happy together, and Katy found the +hours of his absence very long, especially when she was left alone. Even +to-day, with her aunts and mother, the time drags heavily, and she looks +more than once from the bay window, until at last Brownie's head is seen +over the hill, and a few moments after Morris' arm is around her +shoulders, and her lips are upturned for the kiss he gives as he leads +her into the house out of the chill, damp air, chiding her gently for +exposing herself to the rain, and placing in her hand three letters, +which she does not open until the cozy tea is over and her family +friends have gone. Then, while her husband looks over his evening paper, +she breaks the seals, one by one, reading first the letter from "Mrs. +Bob Reynolds," who has returned from the West, and who is in the full +glory of her bridal calls. + +"I was never so happy in my life as I am now," she wrote. "Indeed, I did +not know that a married woman could be so happy; but then every woman +has not a Bob for her husband, which makes a vast difference. You ought +to see Juno. I know she envies me, though she affects the utmost +contempt for matrimony, and reminds me forcibly of the fox and the +grapes. You see, Arthur Grey is a failure, so far as Juno is concerned, +he having withdrawn from the field and laid himself, with his forty-five +years, at the feet of Sybil Grandon, who will be Mrs. Grey, and a bride +at Saratoga the coming summer. Juno, I believe, intends going, too, as +the bridesmaid of the party; but every year her chances lessen, and I +have very little hope that father will ever call other than Bob his son, +always excepting Morris, of course, whom he really has adopted in place +of Wilford. You don't know, Katy, how much father thinks of you, +blessing the day which brought you to us, and saying that if he is ever +saved, he shall in a great measure owe it to your sweet influence and +consistent life after the great trouble came upon you." + +There were tears in Katy's eyes as she read this letter from Bell, and +with a mental prayer of thanksgiving that she had been of any use in +guiding even one to the Shepherd's fold, she took next the letter whose +superscription made her tremble for a moment and turn faint, it brought +back so vividly to her mind the daisy-covered grave in Alnwick, whose +headstone bore Genevra Lambert's name. Marian, who was now at Annapolis, +caring for the returned prisoners, did not write often, and her letters +were prized the more by Katy, who read with a heating heart the kind +congratulations upon her recent marriage, sent by Marian Hazelton. + +"I knew how it would end, even when you were in Georgetown," she wrote, +"and I am glad that it is so, praying daily that you may be as happy +with Dr. Grant as to remember the sad past only as some dream from which +you have awakened. I thank you for your invitation to visit Linwood, and +when my work is over I may come for a few weeks and rest in your bird's +nest of a home. Thank God the war is ended; but my boys need me yet, and +until the last crutch has left the hospital, and the last worn figure +gone, I shall stay where duty lies. What my life will henceforth be I do +not know, but I have sometimes thought that with the ample funds you so +generously bestowed upon me, I shall open a school for orphan children, +taking charge myself, and so doing some good. Will you be the lady +patroness, and occasionally enliven us with the light of your +countenance? I have left the hospital but once since you were here, and +then I went to Wilford's grave. Forgive me, Katy, if I did wrong in +wishing to kneel once upon the sod which covered him. I prayed for you +while there, remembering only that you had been his wife. In a little +box where no eyes but mine ever look, there is a bunch of flowers +plucked from Wilford's grave. They are faded now and withered, but +something of their sweet perfume lingers still; and I prize them as my +greatest treasure, for, except the lock of raven hair severed from his +head, they are all that is remaining to me of the past, which now seems +so far away. It is time to make my nightly round of visits, so I must +bid you good-by. The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you, +and be with you forever. + +"MARIAN HAZELTON." + +For a long time Katy held this letter in her hand, wondering if the +sorrowful woman whose life was once so strangely blended with that of +Marian Hazelton and the pale occupant of that grave at Greenwood, whence +the flowers came, could be the Katy Grant who sat by the evening fire at +Linwood, with no shadow on her brow, and only the sunshine of perfect +happiness resting on her heart. "Truly, He doeth all things well to +those who wait upon Him," she thought, as she laid down Marian's letter +and took up the third and last, Helen's letter, dated at Fortress +Monroe, whither with Mark Ray she had gone just after Bell Cameron's +bridal. + +"You cannot imagine," she wrote, "the feelings of awe and even terror +which steal over me the nearer I get to the seat of war, and the more I +realize the bloody strife we have been engaged in, and which, thank God, +has now so nearly ceased. You have heard of John Jennings, the noble man +who saved my dear husband's life, and of Aunt Bab, who helped in the +good work? Both are here. It seems that suspicion was aroused against +them at last, and Bab was cruelly whipped to make her confess where a +Union prisoner was hidden; but, though the blows cut deep into her back, +bringing the blood at every stroke, she never uttered a word; and with +her wounds all smarting as they were, she helped the poor boy off, and +then with her master, John Jennings, started for the North. I never saw +Mark more pleased than when seized around the neck by two long, brawny +arms, while a cheery voice called out: 'Hello, old chap, has you done +forgot John Jennin's?' I verily believe Mark cried, and I know I did, +especially when old Bab came up and shook 'young misses' hand.' I kissed +her, Katy--all black, and rough, and uncouth as she was. I kissed her +more than once, and felt honored in doing so. Poor Bab! her back is +still a piteous sight, and I dress it every day, shuddering at the +sight, and thanking God that slavery, with all its horrors, is at an +end. I wish you could see how grateful the old creature is for every act +of kindness. She says 'the very feel of misses' soft, white hands makes +her old back better,' and she praises me continually to Mark, who is +just foolish enough to believe all she says. When we come home again, +both John and Bab will come with us, though what we shall do with John +is more than I can tell. Mark says he shall employ him about the office, +and this I know will delight Tom Tubbs, who has again made friends with +Chitty, and who will almost worship John as having saved Mark's life. +Aunt Bab shall have an honored seat by the kitchen fire, and a pleasant +room all to herself, working only when she likes, and doing as she +pleases. + +"Did I tell you that Mattie Tubbs was to be my seamstress? I am getting +together a curious household, you will say; but I like to have those +about me to whom I can do the greatest amount of good, and as I happen +to know how much Mattie admires 'the Lennox girls,' I did not hesitate +to take her, even though Mark did ask if I intended bringing her into +the parlor to help entertain my company. Mark is a saucy, teasing +fellow, and I see more and more how he kept up that dreadful +Andersonville while so many of his comrades died. Dear Mark! can I ever +be grateful enough to God for bringing him home? + +"We stopped at Annapolis on our way here, and I shall never forget the +pale, worn faces, or the great, sunken eyes which looked at me so +wistfully as I went from cot to cot, speaking words of cheer to the +sufferers, some of whom were Mark's companions in prison, their dim eyes +lighting up with joy as they recognized him and heard of his escape. +There are several nurses here, but no words of mine can tell what one of +them is to the poor fellows, or how eagerly they watch for her coming, +following her with so greedy glances as he moves about the room, and +holding her hand with a clasp, as if they would keep her with them +always. Indeed, more than one heart, as I am told, has confessed its +allegiance to her; but she answers all the same: 'I have no love to +give. It died out long ago, and cannot be recalled.' Yon can guess who +she is, Katy. The soldiers call her an angel, but we know her as +Marian." + +There were great tear-blots upon that letter as Katy put it aside, and +nestling close to Morris, laid her head upon his knee, where his hand +could smooth her golden curls, while she gazed long and earnestly into +the fire, musing upon Helen's closing words, and thinking how much they +expressed, and how just a tribute they were to the noble woman whose +life had been one constant sacrifice of self for another's good--"The +soldiers call her an angel, but we know her as Marian." + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Family Pride, by Mary J. Holmes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILY PRIDE *** + +***** This file should be named 15607-8.txt or 15607-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/0/15607/ + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Mary Meehan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/15607-8.zip b/15607-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..510159f --- /dev/null +++ b/15607-8.zip diff --git a/15607-h.zip b/15607-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ef18a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/15607-h.zip diff --git a/15607-h/15607-h.htm b/15607-h/15607-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8475d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/15607-h/15607-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,19190 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Family Pride, by Mary J. Holmes + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Family Pride, by Mary J. Holmes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Family Pride + Or, Purified by Suffering + +Author: Mary J. Holmes + +Release Date: April 12, 2005 [EBook #15607] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILY PRIDE *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Mary Meehan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + + + +<h1>FAMILY PRIDE</h1> + +<h3>OR</h3> + +<h2>Purified by Suffering</h2> + +<h3>BY MARY J. HOLMES</h3> + +<p>Author of "Dora Deane," "The English Orphans," "Homestead on the +Hillside," "Tempest and Sunshine," "Lena Rivers," "Meadowbrook," "Cousin +Maude," etc., etc.</p> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I. THE FARMHOUSE AT SILVERTON</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II. LINWOOD.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III. WILFORD CAMERON.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV. PREPARING FOR THE VISIT.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V. WILFORD'S VISIT.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI. IN THE SPRING.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII. WILFORD'S SECOND VISIT.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII. GETTING READY TO BE MARRIED.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX. BEFORE THE MARRIAGE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X. MARRIAGE AT ST. JOHN'S.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI. AFTER THE MARRIAGE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII. FIRST MONTH OF MARRIED LIFE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII. KATY'S FIRST EVENING IN NEW YORK.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV. EXTRACTS FROM BELL CAMERON'S DIARY.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV. TONING DOWN.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI. KATY.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII. THE NEW HOUSE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII. MARIAN HAZELTON.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX. SARATOGA AND NEWPORT.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX. MARK RAY AT SILVERTON.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI. A NEW LIFE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII. HELEN IN SOCIETY.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII. GENEVRA.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV. THE NAME.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV. TROUBLE IN THE HOUSEHOLD.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI. HOW IT ENDED.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII. AUNT BETSY GOES ON A JOURNEY.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII. AUNT BETSY CONSULTS A LAWYER.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX. THE DINNER PARTY.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX. THE SEVENTH REGIMENT.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><b>CHAPTER XXXI. KATY GOES TO SILVERTON.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"><b>CHAPTER XXXII. LITTLE GENEVRA.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXXIII. AFTER THE FUNERAL.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXXIV. THE FIRST WIFE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV"><b>CHAPTER XXXV. WHAT THE PAGE DISCLOSED.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXXVI. THE EFFECT.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXXVII. THE INTERVIEW.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXXVIII. GETTING HOME.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXXIX. THE FEVER AND ITS RESULTS.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XL"><b>CHAPTER XL. MORRIS' CONFESSION.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLI"><b>CHAPTER XLI. DOMESTIC TROUBLES.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLII"><b>CHAPTER XLII. DISAPPEARED.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII"><b>CHAPTER XLIII. WHAT FOLLOWED.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV"><b>CHAPTER XLIV. MARK AND HELEN.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLV"><b>CHAPTER XLV. CHRISTMAS EVE AT SILVERTON.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI"><b>CHAPTER XLVI. AFTER CHRISTMAS EVE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII"><b>CHAPTER XLVII. GEORGETOWN HOSPITAL.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII"><b>CHAPTER XLVIII. LAST HOURS.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX"><b>CHAPTER XLIX. MOURNING.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_L"><b>CHAPTER L. PRISONERS OF WAR.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_LI"><b>CHAPTER LI. DR. GRANT.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_LII"><b>CHAPTER LII. KATY.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_LIII"><b>CHAPTER LIII. THE PRISONERS.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_LIV"><b>CHAPTER LIV. THE DAY OF THE WEDDING.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_LV"><b>CHAPTER LV. THE WEDDING.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_LVI"><b>CHAPTER LVI. CONCLUSION.</b></a><br /> + </p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" ></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>THE FARMHOUSE AT SILVERTON.</h3> + + +<p>Uncle Ephraim Barlow, deacon of the orthodox church in Silverton, +Massachusetts, was an old-fashioned man, clinging to the old-time +customs of his fathers, and looking with but little toleration upon what +he termed the "new-fangled notions" of the present generation. Born and +reared amid the rocks and hills of the Bay State, his nature partook +largely of the nature of his surroundings, and he grew into manhood with +many a rough point adhering to his character, which, nevertheless, taken +as a whole, was, like the wild New England scenery, beautiful and grand. +None knew Uncle Ephraim Barlow but to respect him, and at the church +where he was a worshiper few would have been missed more than the tall, +muscular man, with the long, white hair, who Sunday after Sunday walked +slowly up the middle aisle to his accustomed seat before the altar, and +who regularly passed the contribution box, bowing involuntarily in token +of approbation when a neighbor's gift was larger than its wont, and +gravely dropping in his own ten cents—never more, never less—always +ten cents—his weekly offering, which he knew amounted in a year to just +five dollars and twenty cents. And still Uncle Ephraim was not stingy, +as the Silverton poor could testify, for many a load of wood and bag of +meal found entrance to the doors where cold and hunger would have +otherwise been, while to his minister he was literally a holder up of +the weary hands, and a comforter in the time of trouble.</p> + +<p>His helpmeet, Aunt Hannah, like that virtuous woman mentioned in the +Bible, was one "who seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with +her hands, who riseth while yet it is night, and giveth meat to her +household." Indeed, for this last stirring trait Aunt Hannah was rather +famous, especially on Monday mornings, when her washing was invariably +swinging on the line ready to greet the rising sun.</p> + +<p>Miss Betsy Barlow, too, the deacon's maiden sister, was a character in +her way, and was surely not one of those vain, frivolous females to whom +the Apostle Paul had reference when he condemned the plaiting of hair +and the wearing of gold and jewels. Quaint, queer and simple-hearted, +she had but little idea of any world this side of heaven, except the one +bounded by the "huckleberry" hills and the crystal waters of Fairy Pond, +which from the back door of the farmhouse were plainly seen, both in the +summer sunshine and when the intervening fields were covered with the +winter snow.</p> + +<p>The home of such a trio was, like themselves, ancient and unpretentious, +nearly one hundred years having elapsed since the solid foundation was +laid to a portion of the building. Unquestionably, it was the oldest +house in Silverton, for on the heavy, oaken door of what was called the +back room was still to be seen the mark of a bullet, left there by some +marauders who, during the Revolution, had encamped in that neighborhood. +George Washington, too, it was said, had once spent a night beneath its +roof, the deacon's mother pouring for him her Bohea tea and breaking her +home-made bread. Since that time several attempts had been made to +modernize the house. Lath and plaster had been put upon the rafters and +paper upon the walls, wooden latches had given place to iron, while in +the parlor, where Washington had slept, there was the extravagance of a +knob, a genuine porcelain knob, such, as Uncle Ephraim said, was only +fit for the gentry who could afford to be grand. For himself, he was +content to live as his father did; but young folks, he supposed, must in +some things have their way, and so when his pretty niece, who had lived +with him from childhood to the day of her marriage, came back to him a +widow, bringing her two fatherless children and a host of new ideas, he +good-humoredly suffered her to tear down some of his household idols +and replace them with her own. And thus it was that the farmhouse +gradually changed its appearance both outwardly and in, for young +womanhood which had but one glimpse of the outer world will not settle +down quietly amid fashions a century old. And Lucy Lennox, when she +returned to the farmhouse, was not quite the same as when she went away. +Indeed, Aunt Betsy in her guileless heart feared that she had actually +fallen from grace, imputing the fall wholly to Lucy's predilection for +a certain little book on whose back was written "Common Prayer," and at +which Aunt Betsy scarcely dared to look, lest she should be guilty of +the enormities practiced by the Romanists themselves. Clearer headed +than his sister, the deacon read the black-bound book, finding therein +much that was good, but wondering why, when folks promised to renounce +the pomps and vanities, they did not do so, instead of acting more stuck +up than ever. Inconsistency was the underlying strata of the whole +Episcopal Church, he said, and as Lucy, without taking any public step, +had still declared her preference for that church, he, too, in a +measure, charged her propensity for repairs to the same source with Aunt +Betsy; but, as he could really see no sin in what she did, he suffered +her in most things to have her way. But when she contemplated an attack +upon the huge chimney occupying the center of the building, he +interfered; for there was nothing he liked better than the bright fire +on the hearth when the evenings grew chilly and long, and the autumn +rain was falling upon the roof. The chimney should stand, he said; and +as no amount of coaxing could prevail on him to revoke his decision, the +chimney stood, and with it the three fireplaces, where, in the fall and +spring, were burned the twisted knots too bulky for the kitchen stove. +This was fourteen years ago, and in that lapse of time Lucy Lennox had +gradually fallen in with the family ways of living, and ceased to talk +of her cottage in Western New York, where her husband had died and where +were born her daughters, one of whom she was expecting home on the warm +July day when our story opens.</p> + +<p>Kate, or Katy Lennox, our heroine, had been for a year an inmate of +Canandaigua Seminary, whither she was sent at the expense of a distant +relative to whom her father had been guardian, and who, during her +infancy, had also had a home with Uncle Ephraim, her mother having +brought her with her when, after her husband's death, she returned to +Silverton. Dr. Morris Grant he was now, and he had just come home from a +three years' sojourn in Paris, and was living in his own handsome +dwelling across the fields toward Silverton village, and half a mile or +more from Uncle Ephraim's farmhouse. He had written from Paris, offering +to send his cousins, Helen and Kate, to any school their mother might +select, and as Canandaigua was her choice, they had both gone thither a +year ago, Helen, the eldest, falling sick within the first three months, +and returning home to Silverton, satisfied that the New England schools +were good enough for her. This was Helen; but Katy was different. Katy +was more susceptible of polish and refinement—so the mother thought; +and as she arranged and rearranged the little parlor, lingering longest +by the piano, Dr. Morris' gift, she drew bright pictures of her favorite +child, wondering how the plain farmhouse and its inmates would seem to +her after Canandaigua and all she must have seen during her weeks of +travel since the close of the summer term. And then she wondered next +why Cousin Morris was so much annoyed when told that Katy had accepted +an invitation to accompany Mrs. Woodhull and her party on a trip to +Montreal and Lake George, taking Boston on her homeward route. Surely +Katy's movements were nothing to him, unless—and the little, ambitious +mother struck at random a few notes of the soft-toned piano as she +thought how possible it was that the interest always manifested by the +staid, quiet Morris Grant for her light-hearted Kate was more than a +brotherly interest, such as he would naturally feel for the daughter of +one who had been to him a second father. But Katy was so much a child +when he went away to Paris that it could not be. She would sooner think +of the dark-haired Helen, who was older and more like him.</p> + +<p>"It's Helen, if anybody," she said aloud, just as a voice at the window +called out: "Please, Cousin Lucy, relieve me of these flowers. I brought +them over in honor of Katy's return."</p> + +<p>Blushing guiltily, Mrs. Lennox advanced to meet a tall, dark-looking +man, with a grave, pleasant face, which, when he smiled, was strangely +attractive, from the sudden lighting up of the hazel eyes and the +glitter of the white, even teeth disclosed so fully to view.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you, Morris! Kitty will like them, I am sure," Mrs. Lennox +said, taking from his hand a bouquet of the choice flowers which grew +only in the hothouse at Linwood. "Come in for a moment, please."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," the doctor replied. "There is a case of rheumatism just +over the hill, and I must not be idle if I would retain the practice +given to me. Not that I make anything but good will as yet, for only the +Silverton poor dare trust their lives in my inexperienced hands. But I +can afford to wait," and with another flash of the hazel eyes Morris +walked away a pace or two, but, as if struck with some sudden thought, +turned back, and fanning his heated face with his leghorn hat, said, +hesitatingly: "By the way, Uncle Ephraim's last payment on the old mill +falls due to-morrow. Tell him, if he says anything in your presence, not +to mind unless it is perfectly convenient. He must be somewhat +straitened just now, as Katy's trip cannot have cost him a small sum."</p> + +<p>The clear, penetrating eyes were looking full at Mrs. Lennox, who for +a moment felt slightly piqued that Morris Grant should take so much +oversight of her uncle's affairs. It was natural, too, that he should, +she knew, for, widely different as were their tastes and positions in +life, there was a strong liking between the old man and the young, who, +from having lived nine years in the family, took a kindly interest in +everything pertaining to them.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ephraim did not pay the bills," Mrs. Lennox faltered at last, +feeling intuitively how Morris' delicate sense of propriety would shrink +from her next communication. "Mrs. Woodhull wrote that the expense +should be nothing to me, and as she is fully able, and makes so much of +Katy, I did not think it wrong."</p> + +<p>"Lucy Lennox! I am astonished!" was all Morris could say, as the tinge +of wounded pride dyed his cheek.</p> + +<p>Kate was a connection—distant, it is true; but his blood was in her +veins, and his inborn pride shrank from receiving so much from +strangers, while he wondered at her mother, feeling more and more +convinced that what he had so long suspected was literally true. Mrs. +Lennox was weak, Mrs. Lennox was ambitious, and for the sake of +associating her daughter with people whom the world had placed above +her she would stoop to accept that upon which she had no claim.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Woodhull was so urgent and so fond of Katy; and then, I thought it +well to give her the advantage of being with such people as compose that +party, the very first in Canandaigua, besides some from New York," Mrs. +Lennox began in self-defense, but Morris did not stop to hear more, and +hurried off a second time, while Mrs. Lennox looked after him, wondering +at the feeling which she called pride, and which she could not +understand. "If Katy can go with the Woodhulls and their set, I +certainly shall not prevent it," she thought, as she continued her +arrangement of the parlor, wishing so much that it was more like what +she remembered Mrs. Woodhull's to have been, fifteen years ago.</p> + +<p>Of course that lady had kept up with the times, and if her old house was +finer than anything Mrs. Lennox had ever seen, what must her new one be, +with all the modern improvements? and, leaning her head upon the mantel, +Mrs. Lennox thought how proud she would be could she live to see her +daughter in similar circumstances to the envied Mrs. Woodhull, at that +moment in the crowded car between Boston and Silverton, tired, hot, and +dusty, worn out, and as nearly cross as a fashionable lady can be.</p> + +<p>A call from Uncle Ephraim aroused her, and going out into the square +entry she tied his gingham cravat, and then handing him the big +umbrella, an appendage he took with him in sunshine and in storm, she +watched him as he stepped into his one-horse wagon and drove briskly +away in the direction of the depot, where he was to meet his niece.</p> + +<p>"I wish Cousin Morris had offered his carriage," she thought, as the +corn-colored and white wagon disappeared from view. "The train stops +five minutes at West Silverton, and some of those grand people will be +likely to see the turnout," and with a sigh as she doubted whether it +were not a disgrace as well as an inconvenience to be poor, she repaired +to the kitchen, where sundry savory smells betokened a plentiful dinner.</p> + +<p>Bending over the sink, with her cap strings tucked back, her sleeves +rolled up, and her short, purple calico shielded from harm by her broad, +motherly check apron, Aunt Betsy stood cleaning the silvery onions, and +occasionally wiping her dim old eyes as the odor proved too strong for +her. At another table stood Aunt Hannah, deep in the mysteries of the +light, white crust which was to cover the tender chicken boiling in the +pot, while in the oven bubbled and baked the custard pie, remembered +as Katy's favorite, and prepared for her coming by Helen +herself—plain-spoken, blue-eyed Helen—now out in the strawberry beds, +picking the few luscious berries which almost by a miracle had been +coaxed to wait for Katy, who loved them so dearly. Like her mother, +Helen had wondered how the change would impress her bright little +sister, for she remembered well that even to her obtuse perceptions +there had come a pang when, after only three months abiding in a place +where the etiquette of life was rigidly enforced, she had returned to +their homely ways, and felt that it was worse than vain to try to effect +a change. But Helen's strong sense, with the help of two or three good +cries, had carried her safely through, and her humble home amid the +hills was very dear to her now. But she was Helen, as the mother had +said; she was different from Katy, who might be lonely and homesick, +sobbing herself to sleep in her patient sister's arms, as she did on +that first night in Canandaigua, which Helen remembered so well.</p> + +<p>"It's better, too, now, than when I came home," Helen thought, as with +her rich, scarlet fruit she went slowly to the house. "Morris is here, +and the new church, and if she likes she can teach in Sunday school, +though maybe she will prefer going with Uncle Ephraim. He will be +pleased if she does," and, pausing by the door, Helen looked across +Fairy Pond in the direction of Silverton village, where the top of a +slender spire was just visible—the spire of St. John's, built within +the year, and mostly, as it was whispered, at the expense of Dr. Morris +Grant, who, a zealous churchman himself, had labored successfully to +instill into Helen's mind some of his own peculiar views, as well as to +awaken in Mrs. Lennox's heart the professions which had lain dormant for +as long a time as the little black-bound book had lain on the cupboard +shelf, forgotten and unread.</p> + +<p>How the doctor's views were regarded by the deacon's family we shall +see, perhaps, by and by. At present our story has to do with Helen, +holding her bowl of berries by the rear door and looking across the +distant fields. With one last glance at the object of her thoughts she +re-entered the house, where her mother was arranging the square table +for dinner, bringing out the white stone china instead of the mulberry +set kept for everyday use.</p> + +<p>"We ought to have had some silver forks before Katy came home," she +said, despondingly, as she laid by each plate the three-lined forks of +steel, to pay for which Helen and Katy had picked huckleberries on the +hills and dried apples from the orchard.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, mother," Helen answered, cheerily; "if Katy is as she used +to be, she will care more for us than for silver forks, and I guess she +is, for I imagine it would take a great deal to make her anything but a +warmhearted, merry little creature."</p> + +<p>This was sensible Helen's tribute of affection to the little, gay, +chattering butterfly, at that moment an occupant of Uncle Ephraim's +corn-colored wagon, and riding with that worthy toward home, throwing +kisses to every barefoot boy and girl she met, and screaming with +delight as the old familiar waymarks met her view.</p> + +<p>"There are the oxen, the darling oxen, and that's Aunt Betsy, with her +dress pinned up as usual," she cried, when at last the wagon stopped +before the door; and the four women stepped hurriedly out to meet her, +almost smothering her with caresses, and then holding her off to see if +she had changed.</p> + +<p>She was very stylish in her pretty traveling dress of gray, made under +Mrs. Woodhull's supervision, and nothing could be more becoming than her +jaunty hat, tied with ribbons of blue, while the dainty kids, bought to +match the dress, fitted her fat hands charmingly, and the little +high-heeled boots of soft prunella were faultless in their style. She +was very attractive in her personal appearance, and the mental verdict +of the four females regarding her intently was something as follows: +Mrs. Lennox detected unmistakable marks of the grand society she had +been mingling in, and was pleased accordingly; Aunt Hannah pronounced +her "the prettiest creeter she had ever seen;" Aunt Betsy decided that +her hoops were too big and her clothes too fine for a Barlow; while +Helen, who looked beyond dress, or style, or manner, straight into her +sister's soft, blue eyes, brimming with love and tears, decided that +Katy was not changed for the worse. Nor was she. Truthful, loving, +simple-hearted and full of playful life she had gone from home, and she +came back the same—never once thinking of the difference between the +farmhouse and Mrs. Woodhull's palace, or if she did, giving the +preference to the former.</p> + +<p>"It was perfectly splendid to get home," she said, handing her gloves +to Helen, her sunshade to her mother, her satchel to Aunt Hannah, and +tossing her bonnet in the vicinity of the water pail—from which it was +saved by Aunt Betsy, who, remembering the ways of her favorite child, +put it carefully in the press, examining it closely first and wondering +how much it cost.</p> + +<p>Deciding that "it was a good thumpin' price," she returned to the +kitchen, where Katy, dancing and curveting in circles, scarcely stood +still long enough for them to see that in spite of boarding school fare, +of which she had complained so bitterly, her cheeks were rounded, her +eyes brighter, and her lithe little figure fuller than of old. She had +improved in looks, but she did not appear to know it, or to guess how +beautiful she was in the fresh bloom of seventeen, with her golden hair +waving around her childish forehead, and her deep, blue eyes laughing so +expressively with each change of her constantly varying face. Everything +animate and inanimate pertaining to the old house was noticed by her. +She kissed the kitten, squeezed the cat, hugged the dog, and hugged the +little goat, tied to his post in the clover yard and trying so hard to +get free. The horse, to whom she fed handfuls of grass, had been already +hugged. She did that the first thing after strangling Uncle Ephraim as +she alighted from the train, and some from the car window saw it, too, +smiling at what they termed the charming simplicity of an enthusiastic +schoolgirl. Blessed youth! blessed early girlhood, surrounded by a halo +of rare beauty! It was Katy's shield and buckler, warding off many a +cold criticism which might otherwise have been passed upon her.</p> + +<p>They were sitting down to dinner now, and the deacon's voice trembled +as, with the blessing invoked, he thanked God for bringing back to them +the little girl, whose head was for a moment bent reverently, but +quickly lifted itself up as its owner, in the same breath with that in +which the deacon uttered his amen, declared how hungry she was, and went +into rhapsodies over the nicely cooked viands which loaded the table. +The best bits were hers that day, and she refused nothing until it came +to Aunt Betsy's onions, once her special delight, but now declined, +greatly to the distress of the old lady, who, having been on the watch +for "quirks," as she styled any departure from long-established customs, +now knew she had found one, and with an injured expression withdrew the +offered bowl, saying sadly: "You used to eat 'em raw, Catherine; what's +got into you?"</p> + +<p>It was the first time Aunt Betsy had called a name so obnoxious to Kate, +especially when, as in the present case, great emphasis was laid upon +the "rine," and from past experience Katy knew that her good aunt was +displeased. Her first impulse was to accept the dish refused; but when +she remembered her reason for refusing, she said, laughingly: "Excuse +me, Aunt Betsy, I love them still, but—but—well, the fact is, I am +going by and by to run over and see Cousin Morris, inasmuch as he was +not polite enough to come here, and you know it might not be so +pleasant."</p> + +<p>"The land!" and Aunt Betsy brightened. "If that's all, eat 'em. 'Tain't +noways likely you'll get near enough to him to make any difference—only +turn your head when you shake hands."</p> + +<p>But Katy remained incorrigible, while Helen, who guessed that her +impulsive sister was contemplating a warmer greeting of the doctor than +a mere shaking of his hands, kindly turned the conversation by telling +how Morris was improved by his tour abroad, and how much the poor people +thought of him.</p> + +<p>"He is very fine looking, too," she said, whereupon Katy involuntarily +exclaimed: "I wonder if he is as handsome as Wilford Cameron? Oh, I +never wrote about him, did I?" and the little maiden began to blush as +she stirred her tea industriously.</p> + +<p>"Who is Wilford Cameron?" asked Mrs. Lennox.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's Wilford Cameron, that's all; lives on Fifth Avenue—is a +lawyer—is very rich—a friend of Mrs. Woodhull, and was with us in +our travels," Katy answered, rapidly, the red burning on her cheeks so +brightly that Aunt Betsy innocently passed her a big feather fan, saying +she looked mighty hot.</p> + +<p>And Katy was warm, but whether from talking of Wilford Cameron or not +none could tell. She said no more of him, but went on to speak of +Morris, asking if it were true, as she had heard, that he built the +new church in Silverton.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and runs it, too," Aunt Betsy answered, energetically, proceeding +to tell what goin's-on they had, with the minister shiftin' his clothes +every now and ag'in, and the folks all talkin' together. "Morris got me +in once," she said, "and I thought meetin' was left out half a dozen +times, so much histin' round as there was. I'd as soon go to a show, if +it was a good one, and I told Morris so. He laughed and said I'd feel +different when I knew 'em better; but needn't tell me that prayers made +up is as good as them as isn't, though Morris, I do believe, will get to +heaven a long ways ahead of me, if he is a 'Piscopal."</p> + +<p>To this there was no response, and being launched on her favorite topic, +Aunt Betsy continued:</p> + +<p>"If you'll believe it, Helen here is one of 'em, and has got a sight +of 'Piscopal quirks into her head. Why, she and Morris sing that +talkin'-like singin' Sundays when the folks git up and Helen plays the +accordeon."</p> + +<p>"Melodeon, aunty, melodeon," and Helen laughed merrily at her aunt's +mistake, turning the conversation again, and this time to Canandaigua, +where she had some acquaintances.</p> + +<p>But Katy was so much afraid of Canandaigua, and what talking of it might +lead to, that she kept to Cousin Morris, asking innumerable questions +about him, his house and grounds, and whether there were as many +flowers there now as there used to be in the days when she and Helen +went to say their lessons at Linwood, as they had done before Morris +sailed for Europe.</p> + +<p>"I think it right mean in him not to be here to see me," she said, +poutingly, "and I am going over as quick as I eat my dinner."</p> + +<p>But against this all exclaimed at once. She was too tired, the mother +said. She must lie down and rest, while Helen suggested that she had not +yet told them about her trip, and Uncle Ephraim remarked that she would +not find Morris home, as he was going that afternoon to Spencer. This +last settled it. Katy must stay at home; but instead of lying down or +talking much about her journey, she explored every nook and crevice of +the old house and barn, finding the nest Aunt Betsy had so long looked +for in vain, and proving to the anxious dame that she was right when she +insisted that the speckled hen had stolen her nest and was in the act of +setting. Later in the day, and a neighbor passing by spied the little +maiden riding in the cart off into the meadow, where she sported like a +child among the mounds of fragrant hay, playing her jokes upon the sober +deacon, who smiled fondly upon her, feeling how much lighter the labor +seemed because she was there with him, a hindrance instead of a help, in +spite of her efforts to handle the rake skillfully.</p> + +<p>"Are you glad to have me home again, Uncle Eph?" she asked, when once +she caught him regarding her with a peculiar look.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Katy-did, very glad," he answered. "I've missed you every day, +though you do nothing much but bother me."</p> + +<p>"Why did you look funny at me just now?" Katy continued, and the deacon +replied: "I was thinking how hard it would be for such a highty-tighty +thing as you to meet the crosses and disappointments which lie all along +the road which you must travel. I should hate to see your young life +crushed out of you, as young lives sometimes are."</p> + +<p>"Oh, never fear for me. I am going to be happy all my life long. Wilford +Cameron said I ought to be," and Katy tossed into the air a wisp of the +new-made hay.</p> + +<p>"I don't know who Wilford Cameron is, but there's no ought about it," +the deacon rejoined. "God marks out the path for us to walk in, and when +he says it's best, we know it is, though some are straight and pleasant +and others crooked and hard."</p> + +<p>"I'll choose the straight and pleasant, then—why shouldn't I?" Kate +asked, laughingly, as she seated herself upon a rock near which the hay +cart had stopped.</p> + +<p>"Can't tell what path you'll take," the deacon answered. "God knows +whether you'll go easy through the world, or whether he'll send you +suffering to purify and make you better."</p> + +<p>"Purified by suffering," Kate said aloud, while a shadow involuntarily +crept for an instant over her gay spirits.</p> + +<p>She could not believe she was to be purified by suffering. She had never +done anything very bad, and humming a part of a song learned from +Wilford Cameron, she followed after the loaded cart, returning slowly to +the house, thinking to herself that there must be something great and +good in the suffering which should purify at last, but hoping she was +not the one to whom this great good should come.</p> + +<p>It was supper time ere long, and after that was over Kate announced her +intention of going now to Linwood, Morris' home, whether he were there +or not.</p> + +<p>"I can see the housekeeper and the birds and flowers, and maybe he will +come pretty soon," she said, as she swung her straw hat by the string +and started from the door.</p> + +<p>"Ain't Helen going with you?" Aunt Hannah asked, while Helen herself +looked a little surprised.</p> + +<p>But Katy would rather go alone. She had a heap to tell Cousin Morris, +and Helen could go next time.</p> + +<p>"Just as you like;" Helen answered, good-naturedly; but there was a +half-dissatisfied, wistful look on her face as she watched her young +sister tripping across the fields to call on Morris Grant.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" ></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>LINWOOD.</h3> + + +<p>Morris had returned from Spencer, and in his dressing-gown and slippers +was sitting by the window of his cheerful library, looking out upon the +purple sunshine flooding the western sky, and thinking of the little +girl coming so rapidly up the grassy lane in the rear of the house. He +was going over to see her by and by, he said, and he pictured to himself +how she must look by this time, hoping that he should not find her +greatly changed, for Morris Grant's memories were very precious of the +playful child who, in that very room where he was sitting, used to tease +and worry him so much with her lessons poorly learned, and the +never-ending jokes played off upon her teacher. He had thought of her so +often when across the sea, and, knowing her love of the beautiful, he +had never looked upon a painting or scene of rare beauty that he did not +wish her by his side sharing in the pleasure. He had brought her from +that far-off land many little trophies which he thought she would prize, +and which he was going to take with him when he went to the farmhouse. +He never dreamed of her coming there to-night. She would, of course, +wait for him. Helen had, even when it was more her place to call upon +him first. How, then, was he amazed when, just as the sun was going down +and he was watching its last rays lingering on the brow of the hill +across the pond, the library door was opened wide and the room seemed +suddenly filled with life and joy, as a graceful figure, with reddish, +golden hair, bounded across the floor, and winding its arms around his +neck gave him the hearty kiss which Katy had in her mind when she +declined Aunt Betsy's favorite vegetable.</p> + +<p>Morris Grant was not averse to being kissed, and yet the fact that Katy +Lennox had kissed him in such a way awoke a chill of disappointment, for +it said that to her he was the teacher still, the elder brother, whom, +as a child, she had in her pretty way loaded with caresses.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cousin Morris!" she exclaimed, and, still holding his hand: "Why +didn't you come over at noon, you naughty, naughty boy? But what a +splendid-looking man you've got to be, though! and what do you think of +me?" she added, blushing for the first time, as he held her off from him +and looked into the sunny face.</p> + +<p>"I think you wholly unchanged," he answered, so gravely that Katy began +to pout as she said: "And you are sorry, I know. Pray, what did you +expect of me, and what would you have me be?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing but what you are—the same Kitty as of old," he answered, his +own bright smile breaking all over his sober face.</p> + +<p>He saw that his manner repelled her, and he tried to be natural, +succeeding so well that Katy forgot her first disappointment, and making +him sit by her on the sofa, where she could see him distinctly, she +poured forth a volley of talk, telling him, among other things, how much +afraid of him some of his letters made her—they were so serious and so +like a sermon.</p> + +<p>"You wrote me once that you thought of being a minister," she added. +"Why did you change your mind? It must be splendid, I think, to be a +young clergyman—invited to so many tea-drinkings, and having all the +girls in the parish after you, as they always are after unmarried +ministers."</p> + +<p>Into Morris Grant's eyes there stole a troubled light as he thought how +little Katy realized what it was to be a minister of God—to point the +people heavenward and teach them the right way. There was a moment's +pause, and then he tried to explain to her that he hoped he had not been +influenced either by thought of tea-drinking or having the parish girls +after him, but rather by an honest desire to choose the sphere in which +he could accomplish the most good.</p> + +<p>"I did not decide rashly," he said, "but after weeks of anxious thought +and prayer for guidance I came to the conclusion that in the practice of +medicine I could find perhaps as broad a field for good as in the +church, and so I decided to go on with my profession—to be a physician +of the poor and suffering, speaking to them of Him who came to save, and +in this way I shall not labor in vain. Many would seek another place +than Silverton and its vicinity, but something told me that my work was +here, and so I am content to stay, feeling thankful that my means admit +of my waiting for patients, if need be, and at the same time ministering +to the wants of those who are needy."</p> + +<p>Gradually, as he talked, there came into his face a light, born only +from the peace which passeth understanding, and the awe-struck Katy +crept closer to his side, and, grasping his hand in hers, said, softly: +"Dear cousin, what a good man you are, and how silly I must seem to you, +thinking you cared for tea-drinkings, or even girls, when, of course, +you do not."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I do," the doctor replied, slightly pressing the warm, fat hand +holding his so fast. "A minister's or a doctor's life would be dreary +indeed if there was no one to share it, and I have had my dreams of the +girls, or girl, who was some day to brighten up my home."</p> + +<p>He looked fully at Katy now, but she was thinking of something else, and +her next remark was to ask him, rather abruptly, how old he was.</p> + +<p>"Twenty-six last May," he answered, while Katy continued: "You are not +old enough to be married yet. Wilford Cameron is thirty."</p> + +<p>"Where did you meet Wilford Cameron?" Morris asked, in some surprise, +and then the story which Katy had not told, even to her sister, came out +in full, and Morris tried to listen patiently while Katy explained how, +on the very first day of the examination, Mrs. Woodhull had come in, and +with her the grandest, proudest-looking man, who the girls some of them +said was Mr. Wilford Cameron, from New York, a very fastidious bachelor, +whose family were noted for their wealth and exclusiveness, keeping six +servants, and living in the finest style; that Mrs. Woodhull, who all +through the year had been very kind to Katy, came to her after school +and invited her home to tea; that she had gone, and met Mr. Cameron; +that she was very much afraid of him at first, and was not sure that she +was quite over it now, although he was so polite to her all through the +journey, taking so much pains to have her see the finest sights, and +laughing at her enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"Wilford Cameron with you on your trip?" Morris asked, a new idea, +dawning on his mind.</p> + +<p>"Yes; let me tell you," and Katy spoke rapidly. "I saw him that night, +and then Mrs. Woodhull took me to ride with him in the carriage, and +then—well, I rode alone with him once down by the lake, and he talked +to me just as if he was not a grand man and I a little schoolgirl. And +when the term closed I stayed at Mrs. Woodhull's, and he was there. He +liked my playing and liked my singing, and I guess he liked me—that is, +you know—yes, he liked me some," and Katy twisted the fringe of her +shawl, while Morris, in spite of the pain tugging at his heart-strings, +laughed aloud as he rejoined: "I have no doubt he did; but go on—what +next?"</p> + +<p>"He said more about my joining that party than anybody, and I am very +sure he paid the bills."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Katy," and Morris started as if he had been stung. "I would rather +have given Linwood than have you thus indebted to Wilford Cameron or any +other man."</p> + +<p>"I could not well help it. I did not mean any harm," Katy said, timidly, +for at first she had shrunk from the proposition, but Mrs. Woodhull +seemed to think it right, urging it on until she had consented, and so +she said to Morris, explaining how kind Mr. Cameron was, and how careful +not to remind her of her indebtedness to him, attending to and +anticipating every want as if she had been his sister.</p> + +<p>"You would like Mr. Cameron, Cousin Morris. He made me think of you a +little, only he is prouder," and Katy's hand moved up Morris' coat +sleeve till it rested on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so," Morris answered, feeling a growing resentment toward one +who, it seemed to him, had done him some great wrong.</p> + +<p>But Wilford was not to blame, he reflected. He could not well help +liking the bright little Katy—some; and so, conquering all ungenerous +feelings, he turned to her at last and said:</p> + +<p>"Did my little Cousin Kitty like Wilford Cameron?"</p> + +<p>Something in Morris' voice startled Katy strangely; her hand came down +from his shoulder, and for an instant there swept over her an emotion +similar to what she had felt when with Wilford Cameron she rambled +along the shores of Lake George, or sat alone with him on the deck of +the steamer which carried them down Lake Champlain. But Morris had +always been her brother, and she did not guess how hard it was for him +to keep from telling her then that she was more to him than a sister. +Had he told her, this story, perhaps, had not been written; but he kept +silence, and so it is ours to record how Katy answered frankly at last: +"I guess I did like him a little. I could not help it, Morris. You could +not, either, or any one. I believe Mrs. Woodhull was more than half in +love with him, and she is an old woman compared with me. By the way, +what did she mean by introducing me to him as the daughter of Judge +Lennox? I meant to have asked her, but forgot it afterward. Was father +ever a judge?"</p> + +<p>"Not properly," Morris replied. "He was justice of the peace in +Bloomfield, where you were born, and for one year held the office of +side or associate judge, that's all. Few ever gave him that title, and +I wonder at Mrs. Woodhull. Possibly she fancied Mr. Cameron would think +better of you if he supposed you the daughter of a judge."</p> + +<p>"That may be, though I do not believe he would, do you?"</p> + +<p>Morris did not say what he thought, but quietly remarked, instead: "I +know those Camerons."</p> + +<p>"What! Wilford! You don't know Wilford?" Katy almost screamed, and +Morris replied: "Not Wilford, no; but the mother and the sisters were +last year in Paris, and I met them many times."</p> + +<p>"What were they doing in Paris?" Katy asked, and Morris replied that he +believed the immediate object of their being there was to obtain the +best medical advice for a little orphan grandchild, a bright, beautiful +boy, to whom some terrible accident had happened in infancy, preventing +his walking entirely, and making him nearly helpless. His name was +Jamie, Morris said, and as he saw that Katy was interested, he told her +how sweet-tempered the little fellow was, how patient under suffering, +and how eagerly he listened when Morris, who at one time attended him, +told him of the Savior and His love for little children.</p> + +<p>"Did he get well?" Katy asked, her eyes filling with tears at the +picture Morris drew of Jamie Cameron, sitting all day long in his wheel +chair, and trying to comfort his grandmother's distress when the +torturing instruments for straightening his poor back were applied.</p> + +<p>"No, he will always be a cripple, till God takes him to Himself," Morris +said, and then Katy asked about the mother and sisters—were they proud, +and did he like them much?</p> + +<p>"They were very proud," Morris said; "but they were always civil to me," +and Katy, had she been watching, might have seen a slight flush on his +cheek as he told her of the stately woman, Wilford's mother, of the +haughty Juno, a beauty and a belle, and lastly of Arabella, whom the +family nicknamed Bluebell, from her excessive fondness for books, a +fondness which made her affect a contempt for the fashionable life her +mother and sister led.</p> + +<p>It was very evident that neither of the young ladies were wholly to +Morris' taste, but of the two he preferred the Bluebell, for though very +imperious and self-willed, she really had some heart, some principle, +while Juno had none. This was Morris' opinion, and it disturbed the +little Katy, as was very perceptible from the nervous tapping of her +foot upon the carpet and the working of her hands.</p> + +<p>"How would I appear by the side of those ladies?" she suddenly asked, +her countenance changing as Morris replied that it was almost impossible +to think of her as associated with the Camerons, she was so wholly +unlike them in every respect.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I shocked Wilford so very much," Katy rejoined, +reproachfully, while again a heavy pain shot through Morris' heart, for +he saw more and more how Wilford Cameron was mingled with every thought +of the young girl, who continued: "And if he was satisfied, I guess his +mother and sisters will be. Anyway, I don't want you to make me feel how +different I am from them."</p> + +<p>There were tears now on Katy's face, and casting aside all selfishness, +Morris wound his arm around her, and smoothed her golden hair, just as +he used to do when she was a child and came to him to be soothed. He +said, very gently:</p> + +<p>"My poor Kitty, you do like Wilford Cameron; tell me honestly—is it +not so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess I do," and Katy's voice was a half sob. "I could not help +it, either, he was so kind, so—I don't know what, only I could not help +doing what he bade me. Why, if he had said: 'Jump overboard, Katy +Lennox,' I should have done it, I know—that is, if his eyes had been +upon me, they controlled me so absolutely. Can you imagine what I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I understand. There was the same look in Bell Cameron's eye, a +kind of mesmeric influence which commanded obedience. They idolize this +Wilford, and I dare say he is worthy of their idolatry. One thing, at +least, is in his favor—the crippled Jamie, for whose opinion I would +give more than all the rest, seemed to worship his Uncle Will, talking +of him continually, and telling how kind he was, sometimes staying up +all night to carry him in his arms when the pain in his back was more +than usually severe. So there must be a good, kind heart in Wilford +Cameron, and if my Cousin Kitty likes him, as she says she does, and he +likes her as I believe he must, why, I hope—"</p> + +<p>Morris Grant could not finish the sentence; for he did not hope that +Wilford Cameron would win the gem he had so long coveted as his own.</p> + +<p>He might give Kitty up because she loved another best. He was generous +enough to do that, but if he did it, she must never know how much it +cost him, and lest he should betray himself he could not to-night talk +with her longer of Wilford Cameron, whom he believed to be his rival. It +was time now for Katy to go home, but she did not seem to remember it +until Morris suggested to her that her mother might be uneasy if she +stayed away much longer, and so they went together across the fields, +the shadow all gone from Katy's heart, but lying so dark and heavy +around Morris Grant, who was glad when he could leave Katy at the +farmhouse door and go back alone to the quiet library, where only God +could witness the mighty struggle it was for him to say: "Thy will be +done." And while he prayed, not that Katy should be his, but that he +might have strength to bear it if she were destined for another, Katy, +up in her humble bedroom, with her head nestled close to Helen's neck, +was telling her of Wilford Cameron, who, when they went down the rapids +and she had cried with fear, had put his arm around her, trying to quiet +her, and who once again, on the mountain overlooking Lake George, had +held her hand a moment, while he pointed out a splendid view seen +through the opening trees. And Helen, listening, knew just as Morris +Grant had done that Katy's heart was lost, and that for Wilford Cameron +to deceive her now would be a cruel thing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" ></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>WILFORD CAMERON.</h3> + + +<p>The day succeeding Katy Lennox's return to Silverton was rainy and cold +for the season, the storm extending as far westward as the city of New +York, and making Wilford Cameron shiver as he stepped from the Hudson +River cars into the carriage waiting for him, first greeting pleasantly +the white-gloved driver, who, carefully closing the carriage door, +mounted to his seat and drove his handsome bays in the direction of +No. —— Fifth Avenue. And Wilford, leaning back among the yielding +cushions, thought how pleasant it was to be going home again, feeling +glad, as he frequently did, that the home to which he was going was in +every particular unexceptionable. The Camerons he knew were an old and +highly respectable family, while it was his mother's pride that, go back +as far as one might on either side, there could not be found a single +blemish or a member of whom to be ashamed. On the Cameron side there were +millionaires, merchant princes, bankers and stockholders, professors and +scholars, while on hers, the Rossiter side, there were LL.D.'s and +D.D.'s, lawyers and clergymen, authors and artists, beauties and belles, +the whole forming an illustrious line of ancestry, admirably represented +and sustained by the present family of Camerons, occupying the +brownstone front, corner of —— Street and Fifth Avenue, where the +handsome carriage stopped and a tall figure ran quickly up the marble +steps. There was a soft rustle of silk, an odor of delicate perfume, +and from the luxurious chair before the fire kindled in the grate an +elderly lady arose and advanced a step or two toward the parlor door. In +another moment she was kissing the young man bending over her and +saluting her as mother, kissing him quietly, properly, as the Camerons +always kissed. She was very glad to have Wilford home again, for he was +her favorite child, and brushing the raindrops from his coat she led him +to the fire, offering him her own easy-chair and starting herself in +quest of another. But Wilford held her back, and making her sit down, he +drew an ottoman beside her and then asked her first how she had been and +then how Jamie was, then where his sisters were, and if his father had +come home—for there was a father, the elder Cameron, a quiet, +unassuming man, who stayed all day in Wall Street, seldom coming home in +time to carve at his own dinner table, and when he was at home, asking +for nothing except to be left by his fashionable wife and daughters to +himself, free to smoke and doze over his evening paper in the seclusion +of his own reading-room.</p> + +<p>As Wilford's question concerning his sire had been the last one asked, +so it was the last one answered, his mother parting his dark hair with +her jeweled hand, and telling him first that with the exception of a +cold taken at the park on Saturday afternoon when she drove out to try +the new carriage, she was in usual health; second, that Jamie was very +well, but impatient for his uncle's return; third, that Juno was +spending a few days in Orange, and that Bell had gone to pass the night +with her particular friend, Mrs. Meredith, the bluest, most bookish +woman in New York.</p> + +<p>"Your father," the lady added, "has not yet returned, but as the dinner +is ready I think we will not wait."</p> + +<p>She touched a silver bell beside her, and ordering dinner to be sent up +at once, went on to ask her son concerning his journey, and the people +he had met. But Wilford, though intending to tell her all, for he kept +nothing from his mother, would wait till after dinner. So, offering her +his arm, he led her out to where the table was spread, widely different +from the table prepared for Katy Lennox away among the Silverton hills, +for where at the farmhouse there had been only the homely wares common +to the country, with Aunt Betsy's onions served in a bowl, there was +here the finest of damask, the choicest of china, the costliest of +cut-glass, and the heaviest of silver, with the well-trained waiter +gliding in and out, himself the very personification of strict table +etiquette, such as the Barlows had never dreamed about. There was no +fricasseed chicken here, or flaky crust, with pickled beans and apple +sauce; no custard pie with strawberries and rich, sweet cream, poured +from a blue earthen pitcher, but there were soups, and fish, and roasted +meats, and dishes with French names and taste, and desert elaborately +gotten up and served with the utmost precision, and wines, with fruit +and colored cloth, and handsome finger bowl; and Mrs. Cameron presiding +over all, with the ladylike decorum so much a part of herself, her soft, +glossy silk of brown, with her rich lace and diamond pin seeming in +keeping with herself and her surroundings. And opposite to her Wilford +sat, a tall, dark, handsome man of thirty or thereabouts—a man whose +polished manners betokened at once a perfect knowledge of the world, and +whose face to a close observer indicated how little satisfaction he had +as yet found in that world. He had tried its pleasures, drinking the cup +of freedom and happiness to its very dregs, and though he thought he +liked it, he often found himself dissatisfied and reaching after +something which should make life more real, more worth the living for. +He had traveled all over Europe twice, had visited every spot worth +visiting in his own country, had been a frequenter of every fashionable +resort in New York, from the skating pond to the theatres, had been +admitted as a lawyer, had opened an office on Broadway, acquiring some +reputation in his profession, had looked at more than twenty girls with +the view of making them his wife, and found them as he believed, alike +fickle, selfish, artificial and hollow-hearted. In short, while thinking +far more of family, and accomplishments, and style, than he ought, he +was yet heartily tired of the butterflies who flitted so constantly +around him, offering to be caught if he would but stretch out his hand +to catch them. This he would not do, and disgusted with the world as he +saw it in New York, he had gone to the Far West, roaming a while amid +the solitude of the broad prairies, and finding there much that was +soothing to him, but not discovering the fulfillment of the great want +he was craving, until, coming back to Canandaigua, he met with Katy +Lennox. He had smiled wearily when asked by Mrs. Woodhull to go with her +to the examination then in progress at the seminary. There was nothing +there to interest him, he thought, as Euclid and algebra, French and +rhetoric were bygone things, while young school misses in braided hair +and pantalets were shockingly insipid. Still, to be polite to Mrs. +Woodhull, a childless, fashionable woman, who patronized Canandaigua +generally, and Katy Lennox in particular, he consented to go, and soon +found himself in the crowded room, the cynosure of many eyes as the +whisper ran around that the fine-looking man with Mrs. Woodhull was the +Wilford Cameron from New York, and brother to the proud, dashing Juno +Cameron, who once spent a few weeks in town, Wilford knew they were +talking about him, but he did not care, and assuming as easy an attitude +as possible, he leaned hack in his chair, yawning indolently, and +wishing the time away, until the class in algebra was called and Katy +Lennox came tripping on to the stage, a pale blue ribbon in her golden +hair and her simple dress of white relieved by no ornament except the +cluster of wild flowers fastened in her belt and at her graceful throat. +But Katy needed no ornaments to make her more beautiful than she was at +the moment when, with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes, modestly cast +down for a moment as she took her place, and then as modestly uplifted +to her teacher's face, she first burst upon Wilford's vision, a creature +of rare, bewitching beauty, such as he had never dreamed about.</p> + +<p>Wilford had met his destiny, and he felt it in every throb of blood +which went rushing through his veins.</p> + +<p>"Who is she?" he asked of Mrs. Woodhull, and that lady knew at once whom +he meant, even though he had not designated her.</p> + +<p>An old acquaintance of Mrs. Lennox when she lived in East Bloomfield, +Mrs. Woodhull had petted Katy from the first day of her arrival in +Canandaigua with a letter of introduction to herself from the ambitious +mother, and being rather inclined to match-making, she had had Katy in +her mind when she urged Wilford to accompany her to the seminary. +Accordingly, she answered him at once: "That is Katy Lennox, daughter of +Judge Lennox, who died in East Bloomfield a few years ago."</p> + +<p>Lennox was a good name, while the title of judge increased its value. +Wilford would not have acknowledged that, perhaps, but it was +nevertheless the truth, and Mrs. Woodhull, who understood exactly the +claim which Mr. Lennox had to the title, knew it was true, and that was +why she spoke as she did. It was time Wilford Cameron was settled in +life, and with the exception of wealth and family position, he could not +find a better wife than Katy Lennox, and she would do what she could to +bring the marriage about.</p> + +<p>"Pretty, is she not?" was her question put to Wilford after answering +his inquiry, but Wilford did not hear, having neither eye nor ear for +anything save Kitty, acquitting herself with a good deal of credit as +she worked out a rather difficult problem, her dimpled white hand +showing to good advantage against the deep black of the board; and then +her voice, soft-toned and silvery as a lady's voice should be, thrilled +Wilford's ear, awaking a strange feeling of disquiet, as if the world +would never again be quite the same to him that it was before he met +that fair young girl now passing from the room.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Woodhull saw that he was interested, and mentally congratulating +herself upon the successful working of her plan, first gained the +preceptress' consent, and then asked Katy home with her to tea that +night. And this was how Wilford Cameron came to know little Katy Lennox, +the simple-hearted child, who blushed so prettily when first presented +to him, and blushed again when he praised her recitations, but who after +that forgot the difference in their social relations, laughing and +chatting as merrily in his presence as if she had been alone with Mrs. +Woodhull. This was the great charm to Wilford, Katy was so wholly +unconscious of himself or what he might think of her, that he could not +sit in judgment upon her, and he watched her eagerly as she sported, and +flashed, and sparkled, filling the room with sunshine, and putting to +rout the entire regiment of blues which had been for months harassing +the city-bred young man.</p> + +<p>If there was any one thing in which Katy excelled, it was music, both +vocal and instrumental, a taste for which had been developed very early, +and fostered by Morris Grant, who had seen that his cousin had every +advantage which Silverton could afford. Great pains, too, had been given +to her style of playing while at Canandaigua, so that as a performer +upon the piano she had few rivals in the seminary, while her bird-like +voice filled every nook and corner of the room, where, on the night +after her visit to Mrs. Woodhull, a select exhibition was held, Katy +shining as the one bright star, and winning golden laurels for beauty, +grace and perfect self-possession from others than Wilford Cameron, who +was one of the invited auditors.</p> + +<p>"Juno herself could not equal that," he thought, as Katy's fingers flew +over the keys, executing a brilliant and difficult piece without a +single mistake, and receiving the applause of the spectators easily, +naturally, as if it were an everyday occurrence. But when by request she +sang "Comin' through the Rye," Wilford's heart, if he had any before, +was wholly gone, and he dreamed of Katy Lennox that night, wondering +all the ensuing day how his haughty mother would receive that young +schoolgirl as her daughter, wife of the son whose bride she fancied must +be equal to the first lady in the land. And if Katy were not now equal +she could be made so, Wilford thought, wondering if Canandaigua were the +best place for her, and if she would consent to receive a year or two +years' tuition from him, provided her family were poor. He did not know +as they were, but he would ask, and he did, feeling a pang of regret +when he heard to some extent how Katy was circumstanced. Mrs. Woodhull +had never been to Silverton, and so she did not know of Uncle Ephraim, +with his old-fashioned spouse and his older-fashioned sister, but she +knew that they were poor—that some relation sent Katy to school; and +she frankly told Wilford so, adding, as she detected the shadow on his +face, that one could not expect everything, and that a girl like Katy +was not found every day. Wilford admitted all this, growing more and +more infatuated, until at last he consented to join the traveling +party, provided Katy joined it too, and when on the morning of their +departure for the Falls he seated himself beside her in the car, he +could not well have been happier, unless she had really been his wife, +as he so much wished she was.</p> + +<p>It was a most delightful trip, and Wilford was better satisfied with +himself than he had been before in years. His past life was not all free +from error, and there were many sad memories haunting him, but with Katy +at his side, seeing what he saw, admiring what he admired, and doing +what he bade her do, he gave the bygones to the wind, feeling only an +intense desire to clasp the young girl in his arms and bear her away to +some spot where with her pure fresh life all his own he could begin the +world anew, and retrieve the past which he had lost. This was when he +was with Katy. Away from her he could remember the difference in their +position, and prudential motives began to make themselves heard. Never +but once had he taken an important step without consulting his mother, +and then, alas! the trouble it brought him was not ended yet, and never +would be ended until death had set its seal upon the brow of one almost +as dear as Katy, though in a far different way. And this was why Katy +came back to Silverton unengaged, leaving her heart with Wilford +Cameron, who would first seek advice from his mother ere committing +himself by word. He had seen the white-haired man with his coarse, linen +coat and coarser pants, waiting eagerly for her when the train stopped +at Silverton, but standing there as he did, with his silvery locks +parted in the center, and shading his honest, open face, Uncle Ephraim +looked like some patriarch of old rather than a man to be despised, and +Wilford felt only a respect for him until he saw Katy's arms wound so +lovingly around his neck as she kissed and called him Uncle Eph. That +sight grated harshly, and Wilford, knowing this was the uncle of whom +Katy had often spoken, felt glad that he was not bound to her by any +pledge. Very curiously he looked after the couple, witnessing the +meeting between Katy and old Whitey, and guessing rightly that the +corn-colored vehicle was the one sent to transport Katy home. He was +very moody for the remainder of the route between Silverton and Albany, +where he parted with his Canandaigua friends, they going on to the +westward, while he stopped all night in Albany, where he had some +business to transact for his father. And this was why he did not reach +New York until late in the afternoon of the following day.</p> + +<p>He was intending to tell his mother everything, except indeed that he +paid Katy's bills. He would rather keep that to himself, as it might +shock his mother's sense of propriety and make her think less of Katy, +impulsive, confiding Katy, little dreaming as on that rainy afternoon +she sat in the kitchen at Silverton, with her feet in the stove-oven and +the cat asleep in her lap, of the conversation taking place between +Wilford Cameron and his mother. They had left the dinner table, and +lighting his cigar, which for that one time the mother permitted in the +parlor, Wilford opened the subject by asking her to guess what took him +off so suddenly with Mrs. Woodhull.</p> + +<p>The mother did not know—unless—and a strange light gleamed in her +eyes, as she asked if it were some girl.</p> + +<p>"Yea, mother, it was," and without any reservation Wilford frankly told +the story of his interest in Katy Lennox.</p> + +<p>He admitted that she was poor and unaccustomed to society, but he loved +her more than words could express.</p> + +<p>"Not as I loved Genevra," he said, as he saw his mother about to speak, +and there came a look of intense pain into his fine eyes as he +continued: "That was the passion of a boy of nineteen, simulated by +secrecy, but this is different—this is the love of a mature man of +thirty, who feels that he is capable of judging for himself."</p> + +<p>In Wilford's voice there was a tone warning the mother that opposition +would only feed the flame, and so she offered none directly, but heard +him patiently to the end, and then quietly questioned him of Katy and +her family, especially the last. What did he know of it? Was it one to +detract from the Cameron line kept untarnished so long? Were the +relatives such as he never need blush to own, even if they came there +into their drawing-room, as they would come if Katy did?</p> + +<p>Wilford thought of Uncle Ephraim as he had seen him upon the platform at +Silverton, and could scarcely repress a smile as he pictured to himself +his mother's consternation at beholding that man in her drawing-room, +but he did not mention the deacon, though he acknowledged that Katy's +family friends were not exactly the Cameron style. But Katy was young; +Katy could be easily molded, and once away from her old associates, his +mother and sisters could make of her what they pleased.</p> + +<p>"I understand, then, that if you marry her you do not marry the family," +and in the handsome, matronly face there was an expression from which +Katy would have shrunk; could she have seen it and understood its +meaning.</p> + +<p>"No, I do not marry the family," Wilford rejoined, emphatically, but the +expression of his face was different from his mother's, for where she +thought only of herself, not hesitating to trample on all Katy's love of +home and friends, Wilford remembered Katy, thinking how he would make +amends for separating her wholly from her home, as he surely meant to do +if he should win her. "Did I tell you," he continued, "that her father +was a judge? She must be well connected on that side, though I never +heard of a Judge Lennox in any of our courts."</p> + +<p>"It must have been when you were in Europe the first time," Mrs. Cameron +suggested, and as if the mention of Europe reminded him of something +else, Wilford rejoined: "Katy would be kind to Jamie, mother. In some +things she is almost as much a child as he, poor fellow," and again +there came into his eyes a look of pain, while his voice was sadder in +its tone, just as it always was when he spoke of little Jamie. "And now, +what shall I do?" he asked, playfully. "Shall I propose to Katy Lennox, +or shall I try to forget her?"</p> + +<p>"I should not do either," was Mrs. Cameron's reply for she well knew +that trying to forget her was the surest way of keeping her in mind, and +she dared not confess to him how wholly she was determined that Katy +Lennox should never be her daughter if she could prevent it.</p> + +<p>If she could not, then as a lady and a woman of policy, she should make +the most of it, receiving Katy kindly and doing her best to educate her +up to the Cameron ideas of style and manner.</p> + +<p>"Let matters take their course for a while," she said, "and see how you +feel after a little. We are going to Newport the first of August, Jamie +and all, and perhaps you may find somebody there infinitely superior to +this Katy Lennox. That's your father's ring. He is earlier than usual +to-night. I would not tell him yet till you are more decided," and the +lady went hastily out into the hall to meet her husband.</p> + +<p>A moment more and the elder Cameron appeared—a short, square-built man, +with a face seamed with lines of care and eyes much like Wilford's, save +that the shaggy eyebrows gave them a different expression. He was very +glad to see his son, though he merely shook his hand, asking what +nonsense took him off around the Lakes with Mrs. Woodhull, and wondering +if women were never happy unless they were chasing after fashion. The +elder Cameron was evidently not of his wife's way of thinking, but she +let him go on until he was through, and then, with the most unruffled +mien, suggested that his dinner would he cold. He was accustomed to +that, and so he did not mind, but he hurried through his lonely meal +to-night, for Wilford was home, and the father was always happier when +he knew his son was in the house. Contrary to his usual custom, he spent +the short summer evening in the parlor, talking with Wilford on various +items of business, and thus preventing any further conversation +concerning Katy Lennox, who just as their evening was commencing, was +bowing the knee reverently between her sister and her uncle, listening +while the good old man invoked the nightly blessing, without which he +never retired to sleep. But in that household on Fifth Avenue there was +no blessing asked of Heaven, no word of thanksgiving for the prosperity +so long vouchsafed, no prayer said except by the crippled Jamie, who, +remembering the Savior of whom Morris Grant had told him when across the +sea, whispered his childish prayer, thanking him most for bringing back +the uncle so dearly loved, the Wilford who, on his way to his own room, +had stopped as he always did to say good-night to Jamie, folding his +arms around him and kissing his sweet face with a fondness in which +there was something half regretful, half sad, as well as pleasing.</p> + +<p>It took but a short time for Wilford to fall back into his old way of +living, passing a few hours of each day in his office, driving with his +mother, reading to little Jamie, sparring with his imperious sister, +Juno, and teasing his blue sister, Bell, but never after that first +night breathing a word to any one of Katy Lennox. And still Katy was not +forgotten, as his mother sometimes believed. On the contrary, the very +silence he kept concerning her increased his passion, until he began +seriously to contemplate a trip to Silverton. The family's removal to +Newport, however, diverted his attention for a little, making him decide +to wait and see what Newport might have in store for him. But Newport +was dull this season, at least to him, though Juno and Bell both found +ample scope for their different powers of attraction, and his mother was +always happy when showing off her children and knowing that they were +appreciated. With Wilford it was different. Listless and taciturn, he +went through with the daily routine, wondering how he had ever found +happiness there, and finally, at the close of the season, casting all +policy and prudence aside, he wrote to Katy Lennox that he was coming +to Silverton on his way home, and that he presumed he should have no +difficulty in finding his way to the farmhouse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" ></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>PREPARING FOR THE VISIT.</h3> + + +<p>"Of course he will not, for I shall ask Dr. Morris to go after him in +his carriage," Katy said, as out in the orchard where she was gathering +the early harvest apples she read the letter brought her by Uncle +Ephraim, her face crimsoning all over with happy blushes as she saw +the dear affixed to her name.</p> + +<p>Katy had waited so anxiously for a letter, or some message which should +say that she was not forgotten by Wilford Cameron, but as the weeks went +by and it did not come, a shadow had fallen upon her spirits, and the +family missed something from her ringing laugh and frolicsome ways, +while she herself wondered why the household duties given to her should +be so utterly distasteful. She used to enjoy them so much, but now she +liked nothing except to go with Uncle Ephraim out into the fields where +she could sit alone while he worked nearby, or to ride with Morris as +she sometimes did when he made his round of calls. She was not as good +as she used to be, she thought, and with a view of making herself better +she took to teaching in Morris' and Helen's Sunday-school, greatly to +the distress of Aunt Betsy, who groaned bitterly when both her nieces +adopted the "Episcopal quirks," forsaking entirely the house where +Sunday after Sunday her old-fashioned leghorn with its faded ribbon of +green was seen, bending down in the humble worship which God so much +approves. But teaching in Sunday-school, taken by itself, could not make +Katy better, and the old restlessness remained until the morning when, +sitting on the grass beneath the apple tree, she read that Wilford +Cameron was coming. Then, as by magic, everything was changed, and Katy +never forgot the brightness of that day when the robins sang so merrily +above her head and all nature seemed to sympathize with her joy. +Afterward there came to her dark, wretched hours, when in her young +heart's agony she wished that day had never been, but there was no +shadow around her now, nothing but hopeful sunshine, and with a bounding +step she sought out Helen, to tell her the good news. Helen's first +remark, however, was a chill upon her spirits.</p> + +<p>"Wilford Cameron coming here? What will he think of us, we are so unlike +him?"</p> + +<p>This was the first time Katy had seriously considered the difference +between her surroundings and those of Wilford Cameron, or how it might +affect him. But Aunt Betsy, who had never dreamed of anything like +Wilford's home, and who thought her own quite as good as they would +average, comforted her, telling her how "if he was any kind of a chap he +wouldn't be looking round, and if he did, who cared; she guessed they +was as good as he, and as much thought of by the neighbors."</p> + +<p>Wilford's letter had been delayed so that the morrow was the day +appointed for his coming, and never sure was there a busier afternoon +at the farmhouse than the one which followed the receipt of the letter. +Everything that was not spotlessly clean before was made so now. Aunt +Betsy in her petticoat and short gown going down upon her knees to scrub +the door sill of the back room, as if the city guest were expected to +sit in there. On Aunt Hannah and Mrs. Lennox devolved the duty of +preparing for the wants of the inner man, while Helen and Katy bent +their energies to beautifying their humble home and making the most of +their plain furniture.</p> + +<p>"If Uncle Ephraim had only let me move the chimney, we could have had +a nice spare sleeping-room instead of this little tucked up hole," Mrs. +Lennox said, coming in with her hands covered with flour, and casting a +rueful look at the small room kept for company, and where Wilford was to +sleep.</p> + +<p>It was not very spacious, being only large enough to admit the high post +bed, a single chair, and the old-fashioned washstand with the hole in +the top for the bowl and a drawer beneath for towels, the whole +presenting a most striking contrast to those handsome chambers on Fifth +Avenue, or, indeed, to the one at the Ocean House where Wilford sat +smoking and wishing the time away, while Helen and Katy held a +consultation as to whether it would not be better to dispense with the +parlor altogether and give that room to their visitor. But this was +vetoed by Aunt Betsy, who, having finished the back door sill, had now +come around to the front, and, with her scrubbing brush in one hand and +her saucer of sand in the other, held forth upon the foolishness of the +girls.</p> + +<p>"Of course if they had a beau, they'd want a t'other room, else where +would they do their sparkin'."</p> + +<p>That settled it. The parlor should remain as it was, Katy said, and Aunt +Betsy went on with her scouring, while Helen and Katy consulted together +how to make the huge feather bed seem more like the mattresses such as +Morris had, and such as Mr. Cameron must be accustomed to. Helen's mind +being the most suggestive solved the problem first, and a large +comfortable was brought from the box in the garret and folded carefully +over the bed, which, thus hardened and flattened, "seemed like a +mattress," Katy said, for she tried it, pronouncing it good, and feeling +quite well satisfied with the room when it was finished. And certainly +it was not wholly uninviting with its snowy bed, whose covering almost +swept the floor, its strip of bright carpeting in front, its vase of +flowers upon the stand and its white fringed curtain sweeping back from +the narrow window.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to sleep here myself. It looks real nice," was Katy's comment, +while Helen offered no opinion, but followed her sister into the yard +where they were to sweep the grass and prune the early September +flowers.</p> + +<p>This afforded Aunt Betsy a chance to reconnoiter and criticise, which +last she did unsparingly.</p> + +<p>"What have they done to that bed to make it look so flat? Put on a +bed-quilt, as I'm alive! What children! It would break my back to lie +there, and this Cannon is none the youngest, accordin' to their +tell—nigh on to thirty, if not turned. It will make his bones ache, of +course. I am glad I know better than to treat visitors that way. The +comforter may stay, but I'll be bound I'll make it softer!" and stealing +up the stairs, Aunt Betsy brought down a second feather bed, much +lighter than the one already on, but still large enough to suggest the +thought of smothering. This she had made herself, intending it as a part +of Katy's "setting out," should she ever marry, and as things now seemed +tending that way, it was only right, she thought, that Mr. Cannon, as +she called him, should begin to have the benefit of it. Accordingly, the +handiwork of the girls was destroyed, and two beds, instead of one, were +placed beneath the comfortable, which Aunt Betsy permitted to remain.</p> + +<p>"I'm mighty feared they'll find me out," she said, stroking, and +patting, and coaxing the beds to lie down, taking great pains in the +making, and succeeding so well that when her task was done there was no +perceptible difference between Helen's bed and hers, except that the +latter was a few inches higher than the former, and more nearly +resembled a pincushion in shape.</p> + +<p>Carefully shutting the door, Aunt Betsy hurried away, feeling glad that +her nieces were too much engaged in training a vine over a frame to +afford them time for discovering what she had done. Katy, she knew, was +going to Linwood by and by, after various little things which Mrs. +Lennox thought indispensable to the entertaining of so great a man as +Wilford Cameron, and which the farmhouse did not possess, and as Helen +too would be busy, there was not much danger of detection.</p> + +<p>It was late when the last thing was accomplished, and the sun was quite +low ere Katy was free to start on her errand, carrying the market basket +in which she was to put the articles borrowed of Morris.</p> + +<p>He was sitting out on his piazza enjoying the fine prospect he had of +the sun shining across the pond, on the Silverton hill, and just gilding +the top of the little church nestled in the valley. At sight of Katy he +arose and greeted her with the kind, brotherly manner now habitual with +him, for since we last looked upon Morris Grant he had fought a fierce +battle with his selfishness, coming off conqueror, and learning to +listen quite calmly while Katy talked to him, as she often did, of +Wilford Cameron, never trying to conceal from him how anxious she was +for some word of remembrance, and often asking if he thought Mr. Cameron +would ever write to her. It was hard at first for Morris to listen, and +harder still to hold back the passionate words of love trembling on his +lips, to keep himself from telling her how improbable it was that one +like Mr. Cameron should cherish thoughts of her after mingling again +with the high-born city belles, and to beg of her to take him in +Cameron's stead—him who had loved her so long, ever since he first knew +what it was to love, and who would cherish her so tenderly, loving her +the more because of the childishness which some men might despise. But +Morris had kept silence, and, as weeks went by, there came insensibly +into his heart a hope, or rather conviction, that Cameron had forgotten +the little girl who might in time turn to him, gladdening his home just +as she did every spot where her fairy footsteps trod. Morris did not +fully know that he was hugging this fond dream, until he felt the keen +pang which cut like a dissector's knife as Katy, turning her bright, +eager face up to him, whispered softly: "He's coming to-morrow—he +surely is; I have his letter to tell me so."</p> + +<p>Morris did not see the sunshine then upon the distant hills, although it +lay there just as purple as before Katy came, bringing blackness and +pain when heretofore she had only brought him joy and gladness. There +was a moment of darkness, in which the hills, the pond, the sun +setting, and Katy seemed a great ways off to Morris, trying so hard to +be calm, and mentally asking for help to do so. But Katy's hat, which +she swung in her hand, had become entangled in the vines encircling one +of the pillars of the piazza, and so she did not notice him until all +traces of his agitation were past, and he could talk with her concerning +Wilford, and then playfully lifting her basket he asked what she had +come to get.</p> + +<p>This was not the first time the great house had rendered a like service +to the little house, and so Katy did not blush when she explained how +her mother wanted Morris' forks, and saltcellars, and spoons, and would +he be kind enough to bring the castor over himself, and come to dinner +to-morrow at two o'clock?—and would he go after Mr. Cameron? The forks, +and saltcellars, and spoons, and castor were cheerfully promised, while +Morris consented to go for the guest; and then Katy came to the rest of +her errand, the part distasteful to her, inasmuch as it might look like +throwing disrespect upon Uncle Ephraim—honest, unsophisticated Uncle +Ephraim—who would come to the table in his shirt sleeves. This was the +burden of her grief—the one thing she dreaded most, inasmuch as she +knew by experience how such an act was looked upon by Mr. Cameron, who, +never having lived in the country a day in his life, except as he was +either guest or traveler, could not make due allowance for these little +departures from refinement, so obnoxious to people of his training.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Katy?" Morris asked, as he saw how she hesitated, and +guessed her errand was not done.</p> + +<p>"I hope you will not think me foolish or wicked," Katy began, her eyes +filling with tears, as she felt that she might be doing Uncle Ephraim +a wrong by even admitting that in any way he could be improved. "I +certainly love Uncle Ephraim dearly, and I do not mind his ways, but Mr. +Cameron may—that is, oh, Cousin Morris! did you ever notice how Uncle +Ephraim will persist in coming to the table in his shirt sleeves."</p> + +<p>"Persist is hardly the word to use," Morris replied, smiling comically, +as he readily understood Katy's misgivings. "Persist would imply his +having been often remonstrated with for that breach of etiquette; +whereas I doubt much whether the idea that it was not in strict +accordance with politeness was ever suggested to him."</p> + +<p>"Maybe not," Katy answered. "It was never necessary till now, and I feel +so disturbed, for I want Mr. Cameron to like him, and if he does that I +am sure he won't."</p> + +<p>"Why do you think so?" Morris asked, and Katy replied: "He is so +particular, and was so very angry at a little hotel between Lakes +George and Champlain, where we took our dinner before going on the +boat. There was a man along—a real good-natured man, too, so kind to +everybody—and, as the day was warm, he carried his coat on his arm, and +sat down to the table that way, right opposite me. Mr. Cameron was so +indignant, and said such harsh things, which the man heard, I am sure, +for he put on his coat directly; and I saw him afterward on the boat, +sweating like rain, and looking sorry as if he had done something wrong. +I am sure, though, he had not?"</p> + +<p>This last was spoken interrogatively, and Morris replied: "There is +nothing wrong or wicked in going without one's coat. Everything depends +upon the circumstances under which it is done. For me to appear at table +in my shirt sleeves would be very impolite; but for an old man like +Uncle Ephraim, who has done it all his life and who never gave it a +thought, would, in my estimation, be a very different thing. Still, Mr. +Cameron may see from another standpoint. But I would not distress +myself. That love is not worth much which would think the less of you +for anything _outré_ which Uncle Ephraim may do. If Mr. Cameron cannot +stand the test of seeing your relatives as they are, he is not worth the +long face you are wearing," and Morris pinched her cheek playfully.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," Katy replied; "but if you only could manage Uncle Eph I +should be so glad."</p> + +<p>Morris had little hope of breaking a habit of years, but he promised to +try if an opportunity should occur, and as Mrs. Hull, the housekeeper, +had by this time gathered up the articles required for the morrow, +Morris himself took the basket in his own hands and went back with Katy +across the fields, which had never seemed so desolate as to-night, when +he felt how vain were all the hopes he had been cherishing.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, Katy, and may Mr. Cameron's visit bring you as much +happiness as you anticipate," he said as he set her basket upon the +doorstep and turned back without entering the house.</p> + +<p>Katy noticed the peculiar tone of his voice, and again there swept over +her the same thrill she had felt when Morris first said to her, "And did +Katy like this Mr. Cameron?" but so far was she from guessing the truth +that she only feared she might have displeased him by what she had said +of Uncle Ephraim; and as an unkind word breathed against a dear friend, +even to a mutual friend, always leaves a scar, so Katy, though saying +nothing ill, still felt that in some way she had wronged her uncle; and +the good old man, resting from his hard day's toil, in his accustomed +chair, with not only his coat, but his vest and boots cast aside, little +guessed what prompted the caresses which Katy bestowed upon him, sitting +in his lap and parting lovingly his snowy hair, as if thus she would +make amends for any injury done. Little Katy-did he called her, looking +fondly into her bright, pretty face, and thinking how terrible it would +be to see that face shadowed with pain and care. Somehow, of late, Uncle +Ephraim was always thinking of such a calamity as more than possible for +Katy, and when that night she knelt beside him, his voice was full of +pleading earnestness as he prayed that God would keep them all in +safety, and bring to none of them more grief, more suffering, than was +necessary to purify them for His own. "Purified by suffering" came +involuntarily into Katy's mind as she listened, and then remembered the +talk down in the meadow, when she sat on the rock beneath the butternut +tree. But Katy was far too thoughtless yet for anything serious to abide +with her long; and the world, while it held Wilford Cameron as he seemed +to her now, was too full of joy for her to be sad, and so she arose from +her knees, thinking only how long it would be before to-morrow noon, +wondering if Wilford would surely be there next time their evening +prayers were said, and if he would notice Uncle Ephraim's shocking +grammar!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" ></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>WILFORD'S VISIT.</h3> + + +<p>Much surprise was expressed by all the Cameron family, save the mother, +when told that instead of accompanying them to New York, Wilford would +take another route, and one directly out of his way; while, what was +stranger than all, he did not know when he should be home; it would +depend upon circumstances, he said, evincing so much annoyance at being +questioned with regard to his movements, that the quick-witted Juno +readily divined that there was some girl in the matter, teasing him +unmercifully to tell her who she was, and what the fair one was like.</p> + +<p>"Don't, for pity's sake, bring us a verdant specimen," she said, as she +at last bade him good-by, and turned her attention to Mark Ray, her +brother's partner, who had been with them at Newport, and whom she was +bending all her energies to captivate.</p> + +<p>With his sister's bantering words ringing in his ears, Wilford kept on +his way until the last change was made, and when he stopped again it +would be at Silverton. He did not expect any one to meet him, but as he +remembered the man whom he had seen greeting Katy, he thought it not +unlikely that he might be there now, laughing to himself as he pictured +Juno's horror, could she see him driving along in the corn-colored +vehicle which Uncle Ephraim drove. But that vehicle was safe at home +beneath the shed, while Uncle Ephraim was laying a stone wall upon the +huckleberry hill, and the handsome carriage waiting at Silverton depot +was certainly unexceptionable; while in the young man who, as the train +stopped and Wilford stepped out upon the platform, came to meet him, +bowing politely, and asking if he were Mr. Cameron, Wilford recognized +the true gentleman, and his spirits arose as Morris said to him: "I am +Miss Lennox's cousin, deputed by her to meet and take charge of you for +a time."</p> + +<p>Wilford had heard of Dr. Morris Grant, for his name was often on +Jamie's lips, while his proud Sister Juno, he suspected, had tried her +powers of fascination in vain upon the grave American, met in the +saloons of Paris; but he had no suspicion that his new acquaintance +was the one until they were driving toward the farmhouse and Morris +mentioned having met his family in France, inquiring after them all, and +especially for Jamie. Involuntarily then Wilford grasped again the hand +of Morris Grant, exclaiming: "And are you the doctor who was so kind to +Jamie? I did not expect this pleasure?"</p> + +<p>After that the ride seemed very short, and Wilford was surprised when as +they turned a corner in the sandy road, Morris pointed to the farmhouse, +saying: "We are almost there—that is the place."</p> + +<p>"That!" and Wilford's voice indicated his disappointment, for in all his +mental pictures of Katy Lennox's home he had never imagined anything +like this:</p> + +<p>Large, rambling and weird-like, with something lofty and imposing, just +because it was so ancient, was the house he had in his mind, and he +could not conceal his chagrin as his eye took in the small, low +building, with its high windows and tiny panes of glass, paintless and +blindless, standing there alone among the hills, Morris understood it +perfectly; but, without seeming to notice it, remarked: "It is the +oldest house probably in the country, and should be invaluable on that +account. I think we Americans are too fond of change and too much +inclined to throw aside all that reminds us of the past. Now I like +the farmhouse just because it is old and unpretentious."</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly," Wilford answered, looking ruefully around him at the +old stone wall, half tumbled down, the tall well-sweep, and the patch of +sunflowers in the garden, with Aunt Betsy bending behind them, picking +tomatoes for dinner, and shading her eyes with her hand to look at him +as he drove up.</p> + +<p>It was all very rural, no doubt, and very charming to people who liked +it, but Wilford did not like it, and he was wishing himself safely in +New York when a golden head flashed for an instant before the window and +then disappeared as Katy emerged into view, waiting at the door to +receive him and looking so sweetly in her dress of white with the +scarlet geranium blossoms in her hair, that Wilford forgot the +homeliness of her surroundings, thinking only of her and how soft and +warm was the little hand he held as she led him into the parlor. He did +not know she was so beautiful, he said to himself, and he feasted his +eyes upon her, forgetful for a time of all else. But afterward when +Katy left him for a moment he noticed the well-worn carpet, the six +cane-seated chairs, the large stuffed rocking chair, the fall-leaf +table, with its plain wool spread, and, lastly, the really expensive +piano, the only handsome piece of furniture the room contained, and +which he rightly guessed must have come from Morris.</p> + +<p>"What would Juno or Mark say?" he kept repeating to himself, half +shuddering as he recalled the bantering proposition to accompany him +made by Mark Ray, the only young man whom he considered fully his equal +in New York.</p> + +<p>Wilford knew these feelings were unworthy of him and he tried to shake +them off, listlessly turning over the books upon the table, books which +betokened in some one both taste and talent of no low order.</p> + +<p>"Mark's favorite," he said, lifting up a volume of Schiller, and turning +to the fly-leaf he read, "Helen Lennox, from Cousin Morris," just as +Katy returned and with her Helen, whom she presented to the stranger.</p> + +<p>Helen was prepared to like him just because Katy did, and her first +thought was that he was splendid-looking, but when she met fully his +cold glance and knew how closely he was scrutinizing her, there arose +in her heart a feeling of dislike for Wilford Cameron, which she could +never wholly conquer. He was very polite to her, but something in his +manner annoyed and provoked her, it was so cool, so condescending, as +if he endured her merely because she was Katy's sister, nothing more.</p> + +<p>"Rather pretty, more character than Katy, but odd, and self-willed, with +no kind of style."</p> + +<p>This was Wilford's running comment on Helen as he took her in from the +plain arrangement of her dark hair to the fit of her French calico and +the cut of her linen Collar.</p> + +<p>Fashionable dress would improve her very much, he thought, turning from +her with a feeling of relief to Katy, whom nothing could disfigure, and +who was now watching the door eagerly for the entrance of her mother. +That lady had spent a good deal of time at her toilet, and she came in +at last, flurried, fidgety, and very red, both from exercise and the +bright-hued ribbons streaming from her cap and sadly at variance with +the color of her dress. Wilford noticed the discrepancy at once, and +noticed too how little style there was about the nervous woman greeting +him so deferentially and evidently regarding him as something infinitely +superior to herself. Wilford had looked with indifference upon Helen, +but it would take a stronger word to express his opinion of the mother. +Had he come accidentally upon her without ever having met with Katy, he +would have regarded her as a plain, common country woman, who meant well +if nothing more; but now, alas! with Katy in the foreground, he was +weighing her in a far different balance and finding her sadly wanting. +He had not seen Aunt Hannah, nor yet Aunt Betsy, for they were in the +kitchen, making the last preparations for the dinner to which Morris was +to remain. He was in the parlor now and in his presence Wilford felt +more at ease, more as if he had found an affinity. Uncle Ephraim was not +there, having eaten his bowl of milk and gone back to his stone wall, so +that upon Morris devolved the duties of host, and he courteously led the +way to the little dining-room, which Wilford confessed was not +uninviting, with its clean floor and walls, and the table so loaded with +the good things Aunt Hannah had prepared, burning and browning her +wrinkled face, which nevertheless smiled pleasantly upon the stranger +presented as Mr. Cameron.</p> + +<p>About Aunt Hannah there was something naturally ladylike, and Wilford +saw it; but when it came to Aunt Betsy, of whom he had never heard, he +felt for a moment as if by being there in such promiscuous company he +had somehow fallen from the Cameron's high estate. By way of pleasing +the girls and doing honor to their "beau," as she called Wilford, Aunt +Betsy had donned her very best attire, wearing the slate-colored pongee +dress, bought twenty years before, and actually sporting a set of +Helen's cast off hoops, which being quite too large for the dimensions +of her scanty skirt, gave her anything but the stylish appearance she +intended.</p> + +<p>"Oh, auntie!" was Katy's involuntary exclamation, while Helen bit her +lip with vexation, for the hoop had been an after thought to Aunt Betsy +just before going in to dinner.</p> + +<p>But the good old lady never dreamed of shocking any one with her +attempts at fashion; and curtseying very low to Mr. Cameron, she hoped +for a better acquaintance, and then took her seat at the table, just +where each movement could be distinctly seen by Wilford, scanning her so +intently as scarcely to hear the reverent words with which Morris asked +a blessing upon themselves and the food so abundantly prepared. They +could hardly have gotten through that first dinner without Morris, who +adroitly tried to divert Wilford's mind from what was passing around +him. But with all his vigilance he could not prevent his hearing Aunt +Betsy as, in an aside to Helen, she denounced the heavy fork she was +awkwardly trying to use, first expressing her surprise at finding it by +her plate instead of the smaller one to which she was accustomed.</p> + +<p>"The land! if you didn't borry Morris' forks! I'd as soon eat with the +toastin' iron," she said, in a tone of distress, but Helen's foot +touching hers warned her to keep silence, which she did after that, and +the dinner proceeded quietly, Wilford discovering ere its close that +Mrs. Lennox, now that she was more composed, had really some pretensions +to a lady, while Helen's dress and collar ceased to be obnoxious, as he +watched the play of her fine features and saw her eyes kindle as she +took a modest part in the conversation when it turned on books and +literature.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Katy kept very still, her cheeks flushing and her eyes cast +down whenever she met Wilford's gaze; but when, after dinner was over +and Morris had gone, she went with him down to the shore of the pond, +her tongue was loosed, and Wilford found again the little fairy who had +so bewitched him a few weeks before. And yet there was a load upon his +mind—a shadow made by the actual knowledge that between Katy's family +and his there was a gulf which never could be crossed by either party. +He might bear Katy over, it was true, but would she not look longingly +back to the humble home, and might he not sometimes be greatly chagrined +by the sudden appearing of some one of this old-bred family who did not +seem to realize how ignorant they were, how far below him in the social +scale? Poor Wilford! he winced and shivered when he thought of Aunt +Betsy, in her antiquated pongee, and remembered that she was a near +relative of the little maiden sporting so playfully around him, stealing +his heart away in spite of family pride, and making him more deeply in +love than ever. It was very pleasant down by the pond, and Wilford, who +liked staying there better than at the house, kept Katy with him until +the sun was going down and they heard in the distance the tinkle of a +bell as the deacon's cows plodded slowly homeward. Supper was waiting +for them, and with his appetite sharpened by his walk, Wilford found no +cause of complaint against Aunt Hannah's viands, though he smiled +mentally as he accepted the piece of apple pie Aunt Betsy offered him, +saying by way of recommendation that "she made the crust but Catherine +peeled and sliced the apples."</p> + +<p>The deacon had not returned from his work, and so Wilford did not see +him until he came suddenly upon him, seated in the woodshed door, +washing his feet after the labor of the day. Ephraim Barlow was a man to +command respect, and to a certain extent Wilford recognized the true +worth embodied in that unpolished exterior. He did not, however, see +much of him that night, for, as the deacon said, apologetically: "The +cows is to milk and the chores all to do, for I never keep no boy," and +when at last the chores were done the clock pointed to half-past eight, +the hour for family worship. Unaccustomed as Wilford was to such things, +he felt the influence of the deacon's voice as he read from the Word of +God, and involuntarily found himself kneeling when Katy knelt, noticing +the deacon's grammar, it is true, but still listening patiently to the +rather lengthy prayer which included him as well as the rest of mankind.</p> + +<p>There was no chance of seeing Katy alone, and so full two hours before +his usual custom Wilford retired to the little room to which the deacon +conducted him, saying as he put down the lamp: "You'll find it pretty +snug quarters, I guess, for such a close, muggy night as this, but if +you can't stand it you must lie on the floor."</p> + +<p>And truly they were snug quarters, Wilford thought; but there was no +alternative, and a few moments found him in the center of two feather +beds, neither Helen nor Katy having discovered the addition made by Aunt +Betsy, and which came near being the death of the New York guest, who, +wholly unaccustomed to feathers, was almost smothered in them, besides +being nearly melted. To sleep was impossible, as the September night +was hot and sultry, and never for a moment did Wilford lose his +consciousness or forget to accuse himself of being an idiot for coming +into that heathenish neighborhood after a wife when at home there were +so many girls ready and waiting for him.</p> + +<p>"I'll go back to-morrow morning," he said, and, striking a match, he +read in his Railway Guide when the first train passed Silverton, feeling +comforted to think that only a few hours intervened between him and +freedom.</p> + +<p>But alas! for Wilford. He was but a man, subject to man's caprices, and +when next morning he met Katy Lennox, looking in her light muslin as +pure and fair as the white blossoms twined in her wavy hair, his +resolution began to waver. Perhaps there was a decent hotel in +Silverton; he would inquire of Dr. Grant; at all events he would not +take the first train as he had intended doing; and so he stayed, eating +fried apples and beefsteak, but forgetting to criticise, in his +appreciation of the rich thick cream poured into his coffee, and the +sweet, golden butter, which melted in soft waves upon the flakey rolls. +Again Uncle Ephraim was absent, having gone to the mill before Wilford +left his room, nor was he visible to the young man until after dinner, +for Wilford did not go home, but drove instead with Katy in the carriage +which Morris sent around, excusing himself from coming on the plea of +being too busy, but saying he would join them at tea, if possible. +Wilford's mind was not yet fully made up, so he concluded to remain +another day and see more of Katy's family. Accordingly, after dinner, he +bent his energies to read them all, from Helen down to Aunt Betsy, the +latter of whom proved the most transparent of the four. Arrayed again +in the pongee, but this time without the hoop, she came into the parlor, +bringing her calico patchwork, which she informed him was pieced in the +"herrin' bone pattern" and intended for Katy; telling him, further, that +the feather bed on which he slept was also a part of "Catherine's +setting out," and was made from feathers she picked herself, showing him +as proof a mark upon her arm, left there by the gray goose, which had +proved a little refractory when she tried to draw a stocking over its +head.</p> + +<p>Wilford groaned, and Katy's chance for being Mrs. Cameron was growing +constantly less and less as he saw more and more how vast was the +difference between the Barlows and himself. Helen, he acknowledged, was +passable, though she was not one whom he could ever introduce into New +York society; and he was wondering how Katy came to be so unlike the +rest, when Uncle Ephraim came up from the meadow, and announced himself +as ready now to visit, apologizing for his apparent neglect, and seeming +so absolutely to believe that his company was, of course, desirable, +that Wilford felt amused, wondering again what Juno, or even Mark Ray, +would think of the rough old man, sitting with his chair tipped back +against the wall, and going occasionally to the outside door to relieve +himself of his tobacco juice, for chewing was one of the deacon's +weaknesses. His pants were faultlessly clean, and his vest was buttoned +nearly up to his throat, but his coat was hanging on a nail out by the +kitchen door, and, to Katy's distress and Wilford's horror, he sat among +them in his shirt sleeves, all unconscious of harm or of the disquiet +awakened in the bosom of the young man, who on that point was foolishly +fastidious, and who showed by his face how much he was annoyed. Not even +the presence of Morris, who came in about tea time, was of any avail to +lift the cloud from his brow, and he seemed moody and silent until +supper was announced. This was the first opportunity Morris had had of +trying his powers of persuasion upon the deacon, and now, at a hint +from Katy, he said to him in an aside, as they were passing into the +dining-room: "Suppose, Uncle Ephraim, you put on your coat for once. It +is better than coming to the table so."</p> + +<p>"Pooh," was Uncle Ephraim's innocent rejoinder, spoken loudly enough +for Wilford to hear, "I don't need it an atom. I shan't catch cold, for +I am used to it; besides that, I never could stand the racket this hot +weather."</p> + +<p>In his simplicity he did not even suspect Morris' motive, but imputed it +wholly to his concern lest he should take cold. And so Wilford Cameron +found himself seated next to a man who willfully trampled upon all rules +of etiquette, shocking him in his most sensitive parts, and making him +thoroughly disgusted with the country and country people generally. All +but Morris and Katy—he did make an exception in their favor, leaning +most to Morris, whom he admired more and more as he became better +acquainted with him, wondering how he could content himself to settle +down quietly in Silverton, when he would surety die if compelled to live +there for a week. Something like this he said to Dr. Grant when that +evening they sat together in the handsome parlor at Linwood, for Morris +kindly invited him to spend the night with him:</p> + +<p>"I stay at Silverton, first, because I think I can do more good here +than elsewhere, and, secondly, because I really like the country and the +country people, for, strange and uncouth as they may seem to you, who +never lived among them, they have kinder, truer hearts beating beneath +their rough exteriors, than are often found in the city."</p> + +<p>This was Morris' reply, and in the conversation which ensued Wilford +Cameron caught glimpses of a nobler, higher phase of manhood than he had +thought existed, feeling an unbounded respect for one who, because he +believed it to be his duty, was, as it seemed to him, wasting his life +among people who could not appreciate his character, though they might +idolize the man. But this did not reconcile Wilford one whit the more to +Silverton. Uncle Ephraim had completed the work commenced by the two +feather beds, and at the breakfast, spread next morning in the coziest +of breakfast-rooms, he announced his intention of returning to New York +that day. To this Morris offered no objection, but asked to be +remembered to the mother, the sisters, and little Jamie, and then +invited Wilford to stop altogether at Linwood when he came again to +Silverton.</p> + +<p>"Thank you; but it is hardly probable that I shall be here very soon," +Wilford replied, adding, as he met the peculiar glance of Morris' eye: +"I found Miss Katy a delightful traveling acquaintance, and on my way +from Newport thought I would renew it and see a little of rustic life."</p> + +<p>Poor Katy! how her heart would have ached could she have heard those +words and understood their meaning, just as Morris did, feeling a rising +indignation for the man with whom he could not be absolutely angry, he +was so self-possessed, so pleasant and gentlemanly, while better than +all, was he not virtually giving Katy up? and if he did, might she not +turn at last to him?</p> + +<p>These were Morris' thoughts as he walked with Wilford across the fields +to the farmhouse, where Katy met them with her sunniest smile, singing +to them, at Wilford's request, her sweetest song, and making him half +wish he could revoke his hasty decision and tarry a little longer. But +it was now too late for that; the carriage which would take him to the +depot was already on its way from Linwood; and when the song was ended +he told her of his intentions to leave on the next train, feeling a pang +when he saw how the blood left her cheek and lip, and then came surging +back as she said timidly: "Why need you leave so soon?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I have already outstayed my time. I thought of going yesterday, +and my partner, Mr. Ray, will be expecting me," Wilford replied, +involuntarily laying his hand upon Katy's shining hair, while Morris +and Helen stole quietly from the room.</p> + +<p>Thus left to himself, Wilford continued:</p> + +<p>"Maybe I'll come again some time. Would you like to have me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," and Katy's blue eyes were lifted pleadingly to the young man, who +had never loved her so well as that very moment when resolving to cast +her off.</p> + +<p>And as for Katy, she mentally called herself a fool for suffering +Wilford Cameron to see what was in her heart; but she could not help it, +for she loved him with all the strength of her impulsive nature, and to +have him leave her so suddenly hurt her cruelly.</p> + +<p>For a moment Wilford was strongly tempted to throw all family pride +aside, and ask that young girl to be his; but thoughts of his mother, +of Juno and Bell, and more than all, thoughts of Uncle Ephraim and his +Sister Betsy, arose in time to prevent it, and so he only kissed her +forehead caressingly as he said good-by, telling her that he should not +soon forget his visit to Silverton, and then as the carriage drove up, +going out to where the remainder of the family were standing together +and commenting upon his sudden departure.</p> + +<p>It was not sudden, he said, trying to explain. He really had thought +seriously of going yesterday, and feeling that he had something to atone +for, he tried to be unusually gracious as he shook their hands, thanking +them for their kindness, but seeming wholly oblivious to Aunt Betsy's +remark that "she hoped to see him again, if not at Silverton, in New +York, where she wanted dreadfully to visit, but never had on account +of the 'bominable prices charged to the taverns, and she hadn't no +acquaintances there."</p> + +<p>This was Aunt Betsy's parting remark, and after Katy, simple-hearted +Aunt Betsy liked Wilford Cameron better than any one of the group which +watched him as he drove rapidly from their door. Aunt Hannah thought him +too much stuck up for farmer's folks, while Mrs. Lennox, whose ambition +would have accounted him a most desirable match for her daughter, could +not deny that his manner toward them, though polite in the extreme, was +that of a superior to people greatly beneath him; while Helen, who saw +clearer than the rest, read him tolerably aright, and detected the +struggle between his pride and his love for poor little Katy, whom she +found sitting on the floor, just where Wilford left her standing, her +head resting on the chair and her face hidden in her hands as she sobbed +quietly, hardly knowing why she cried or what to answer when Helen asked +what was the matter.</p> + +<p>"It was so queer in him to go so soon," she said; "just as if he were +offended about something."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Katy," Helen said, soothingly. "If he's for you he will come +back again. He could not stay here always, of course; and I must say I +respect him for attending to his business, if he has any. He has been +gone from home for weeks, you know."</p> + +<p>This was Helen's reasoning; but it did not comfort Katy, whose face +looked white and sad, as she moved listlessly about the house, almost +crying again when she beard in the distance the whistle of the train +which was to carry Wilford Cameron away, and end his first visit to +Silverton.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" ></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>IN THE SPRING.</h3> + + +<p>Katy Lennox had been very sick, and the bed where Wilford slept had +stood in the parlor during the long weeks while the obstinate fever ran +its course; but she was better now, and sat nearly all day before the +fire, sometimes trying to crochet a little, and again turning over the +books which Morris had brought to interest her—Morris, the kind +physician, who had attended her so faithfully, never leaving her while +the fever was at its height, unless it was necessary, but staying with +her day and night, watching her symptoms carefully, and praying so +earnestly that she might not die—not, at least, until some token had +been given that again in the better world he should find her, where +partings were unknown and where no Wilford Camerons could contest the +prize with him. Not that he was greatly afraid of Wilford now; that fear +had mostly died away just as the hope had died from Katy's heart that +she would ever meet him again.</p> + +<p>Since the September morning when he left her, she had not heard from him +except once, when in the winter Morris had been to New York, and having +a few hours' leisure on his hands had called at Wilford's office, +receiving a most cordial reception, and meeting with young Mark Ray, who +impressed him as a man quite as highly cultivated as Wilford; and +possessed of more character and principle. This call was not altogether +of Morris' seeking, but was made rather with a view to pleasing Katy, +who, when she learned that he was going to New York, had said +inadvertently: "Oh, I do so hope you'll meet with Mr. Cameron, for then +we shall know that he is neither sick nor dead, as I have sometimes +feared."</p> + +<p>And so, remembering this, Morris had sought out his rival, feeling more +than repaid for the mental effort it had cost him, when he saw how +really glad Wilford seemed to meet him. The first commonplaces over, +Wilford inquired for Katy. Was she well, and how was she occupying her +time this winter?</p> + +<p>"Both Helen and Katy are pupils of mine," Morris replied, "reciting +their lessons to me every day when the weather will admit of their +crossing the fields to Linwood. We have often wondered what had become +of you, that you did not even let us know of your safe arrival home," he +added, looking Wilford fully in the eye, and rather enjoying his +confusion as he tried to apologize.</p> + +<p>He had intended writing, but an unusual amount of business had occupied +his time. "Mark will tell you how busy I was," and he turned appealingly +to his partner, in whose expressive eyes Morris read that Silverton was +not unknown to him.</p> + +<p>But if Wilford had told him anything derogatory of the farmhouse or its +inmates, it did not appear in Mr. Ray's manner, as he replied that Mr. +Cameron had been very busy ever since his return from Silverton, adding: +"From what Cameron tells me of your neighborhood there must be some +splendid hunting and fishing there, and I had last fall half a mind to +try it."</p> + +<p>This time there was something comical in the eyes turned so +mischievously upon Wilford, who colored scarlet for an instant, but soon +recovered his composure, and invited Morris home with him to dinner.</p> + +<p>"I shall not take a refusal," he said, as Morris began to decline. +"Mother and the young ladies will be delighted to see you again, while +Jamie—well, Jamie, I believe, worships the memory of the physician who +was so kind to him in France. You did Jamie a world of good, Dr. Grant, +and you must see him. Mark will go with us, of course."</p> + +<p>There was something so hearty in Wilford's invitation that Morris did +not again object, and two hours later found him in the drawing-room at +No. —— Fifth Avenue, receiving the friendly greetings of Mrs. Cameron +and her daughter, each of whom vied with the other in their polite +attentions to him, while little Jamie, to whose nursery he was admitted, +wound his arms around his neck and laying his curly head upon his +shoulder, cried quietly, whispering as he did so: "I am so glad, Dr. +Grant, so glad to see you again. I thought I never should, but I've not +forgotten the prayer you taught me, and I say it often when my back +aches so I cannot sleep and there's no one around to hear but Jesus. I +love Him now, if he did make me lame, and I know that He loves me."</p> + +<p>Surely the bread cast upon the waters had returned again after many +days, and Morris Grant did not regret the time spent with the poor +crippled boy, teaching him the way of life and sowing the seed which +now was bearing fruit. Nor did he regret having accepted Wilford's +invitation to dinner, as by this means he saw the home which had +well-nigh been little Katy Lennox's. She would be sadly out of place +here with these people, he thought, as he looked upon all their +formality and ceremony and then contrasted it with what Katy had been +accustomed to. Juno would kill her outright, was his next mental +comment, as he watched that haughty young lady, dressed in the extreme +of fashion and dividing her coquetries between himself and Mr. Ray, who, +being every way desirable both in point of family and wealth, was +evidently her favorite. She had colored scarlet when first presented to +Dr. Grant, and her voice had trembled as she took his offered hand, for +she remembered the time when her liking had not been concealed, and was +only withdrawn at the last because she found how useless it was to waste +her affections upon one who did not prize them.</p> + +<p>When Wilford first returned from Silverton he had, as a sore means of +forgetting Katy, told his mother and sisters something of the farmhouse +and its inmates; and Juno, while ridiculing both Helen and Katy, had +felt a fierce pang of jealousy in knowing they were cousins to Morris +Grant, who lived so near that he could, if he liked, see them every day. +In Paris Juno had suspected that somebody was standing between her and +Dr. Grant and how with the quick insight of a smart, bright woman, she +guessed that it was one of these same cousins, Katy most likely, her +brother having described Helen as very commonplace, and for a time she +had hated poor, innocent Katy most cordially for having come between her +and the only man for whom she had ever really cared. Gradually, however, +the feeling died away, but was revived again at sight of Morris Grant, +and at the table she could not forbear saying to him:</p> + +<p>"By the way, Dr. Grant, why did you never tell us of those charming +cousins, when you were in Paris? Why, Brother Will describes one of them +as a little water lily, she is so fair and pretty. Katy, I think is her +name. Wilford, isn't it Katy Lennox whom you think so beautiful, and +with whom you are more than half in love?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is Katy," and Wilford spoke sternly, for he did not like Juno's +bantering tone, but he could not stop her, and she went on:</p> + +<p>"Are they your cousins, Dr. Grant?"</p> + +<p>"No, they are removed from me two or three degrees, their father having +been only my second cousin."</p> + +<p>The fact that Katy Lennox was not nearly enough related to Dr. Grant to +prevent his marrying her if he liked, did not improve Juno's amiability, +and she continued to ask questions concerning both Katy and Helen, the +latter of whom she persisted in thinking was strong-minded, until Mark +Ray came to the rescue, diverting her attention by adroitly +complimenting her in some way, and so relieving Wilford and Morris, +both of whom were exceedingly annoyed.</p> + +<p>"When Will visits Silverton again I mean to go with him," she said to +Morris at parting, but he did not tell her that such an event would give +him the greatest pleasure. On the contrary, he merely replied:</p> + +<p>"If you do you will find plenty of room at Linwood for those four trunks +which I remember seeing in Paris, and your brother will tell you whether +I am a hospitable host or not."</p> + +<p>Biting her lip with chagrin, Juno went back to the drawing-room, while +Morris returned to his hotel, accompanied by Wilford, who passed the +entire evening with him, appearing somewhat constrained, as if there was +something on his mind which he wished to say; but it remained unspoken, +and there was no allusion to Silverton until as Wilford was leaving, he +said:</p> + +<p>"Remember me kindly to the Silverton friends, and say I have not +forgotten them."</p> + +<p>And this was all there was to carry back to the anxious Katy, who on the +afternoon of Morris' return from New York was over at Linwood waiting to +pour his tea and make his toast, she pretended, though the real reason +was shining all over her telltale face, which grew so bright and eager +when Morris said:</p> + +<p>"I dined at Mr. Cameron's, Kitty."</p> + +<p>But the brightness gradually faded as Morris described his call and then +repeated Wilford's message.</p> + +<p>"And that was all," Katy whispered sorrowfully as she beat the damask +cloth softly with her fingers, shutting her lips tightly together to +keep back her disappointment.</p> + +<p>When Morris glanced at her again there was a tear on her long eyelashes, +and it dropped upon her cheek, followed by another and another, but he +did not seem to see it, talking of New York and the fine sights in +Broadway until Katy was herself again, able to take part in the +conversation.</p> + +<p>"Please don't tell Helen that you saw Wilford," she said to Morris as he +walked home with her after tea, and that was the only allusion she made +to it, never after that mentioning Wilford's name or giving any token of +the wounded love still so strong within her heart, and waiting only for +some slight token to waken it again to life and vigor.</p> + +<p>This was in the winter, and Katy had been very sick since then—so sick +that even to her the thought had sometimes come: "What if I should die?" +but she was too weak, too nearly unconscious, to go further and reflect +upon the terrible reality death would bring if it found her unprepared. +She had only strength and sense enough to wonder if Wilford would care +when he heard that she was dead; and once, as she grew better, she +almost worked herself into a second fever with assisting at her own +obsequies, seeing only one mourner, and that one Wilford Cameron. Even +he was not there in time to see her in her coffin, but he wept over her +little grave and called her "darling Katy." So vividly had Katy pictured +all this scene, that Morris, when he called, found her flushed and hot, +with traces of tears on her face.</p> + +<p>In reply to his inquiries as to what was the matter, she had answered +laughingly: "Oh, nothing much—only I have been burying myself," and so +Morris never dreamed of the real nature of her reveries, or guessed that +Wilford Cameron was mingled with every thought. She had forgotten him, +he believed; and when, as she grew stronger, he saw how her eyes +sparkled at his coming, and how impatient she seemed if he was obliged +to hurry off, hope whispered that she would surely be his, and his +usually grave face wore a look of happiness which even his patients +noticed, feeling themselves better after one of his cheery visits. Poor +Morris! he was little prepared for the terrible blow in store for him, +when one day early in April he started, as usual, to visit Katy, saying +to himself: "If I find her alone, perhaps I'll tell her of my love, and +ask if she will come to Linwood this summer;" and Morris paused a moment +beneath a beechwood tree to still the throbbings of his heart, which +beat so fast as he thought of going home some day from his weary work +and finding Katy there, his little wife—his own—whom he might caress +and love all his affectionate nature would prompt him to. He knew that +in some points she was weak—a silly little thing she called herself +when comparing her mind with Helen's—but there was about her so much +of purity, innocence, and perfect beauty, that few men, however strong +their intellect, could withstand her, and Morris, though knowing her +weakness, felt that in possessing her he should have all he needed to +make this life desirable. She would improve as she grew older, and it +would be a most delightful task to train her into what she was capable +of becoming. Alas! for Dr. Morris! He was very near the farmhouse now, +and there were only a few minutes between him and the cloud which would +darken his horizon so completely. Katy was alone, sitting up in her +pretty dressing gown of blue, which was so becoming to her pure +complexion. Her hair, which had been all cut away during her long +sickness, was growing out again somewhat darker than before, and lay in +rings upon her head, making her look more childish than ever. But to +this Morris did not object. He liked to have her a child, and he +thought he had never seen her so wholly beautiful as she was this +morning, when, with glowing cheek and dancing eyes, she greeted him as +he came in.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dr. Morris!" she began, holding up a letter she had in her hand, +"I am so glad you've come, for I wanted to tell you so badly Wilford has +not forgotten me, as I used to think, and as I guess you thought, too, +though you did not say so. He has written, and he is coming again, if I +will let him; and, oh, Morris! I am so glad! Ain't you? Seeing you knew +all about it, and never told Helen, I'll let you read the letter."</p> + +<p>And she held it toward the young man leaning against the mantel and +panting for the breath which came so heavily.</p> + +<p>Something he said apologetically about being snow blind, for there +was that day quite a fall of soft spring snow; and then with a mighty +effort, which made his heart quiver with pain, Morris was himself once +more, and took the letter in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I had better not read it," he said, but Katy insisted that he +might, and thinking to himself: "It will cure me sooner perhaps," he +read the few lines Wilford Cameron had written to his "dear little +Katy."</p> + +<p>That was the way he addressed her, going on to say that circumstances +which he could not explain to her had kept him silent ever since he left +her the previous autumn; but through all he never for a moment had +forgotten her, thinking of her the more for the silence he had +maintained. "And now that I have risen above the circumstances," he +added, in conclusion, "I write to ask if I may come to Silverton again. +If I may, just drop me one word, 'come,' and in less than a week I shall +be there. Yours very truly, W. Cameron."</p> + +<p>Morris read the letter through, feeling that every word was separating +him further and further from Katy, to whom he said: "You will answer +this?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, oh yes; perhaps to-day."</p> + +<p>"And you will tell him to come?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes—what else should I tell him?" and Katy's blue eyes looked +wonderingly at Morris, who hardly knew what he was doing, or why he said +to her next: "Listen to me, Katy. You know why Wilford Cameron comes +here a second time, and what he will probably ask you ere he goes away; +but, Katy, you are not strong enough yet to see him under so exciting +circumstances, and, as your physician, I desire that you tell him to +wait at least three weeks before he comes. Will you do so, Katy?"</p> + +<p>"That is just as Helen talked," Katy answered, mournfully. "She said I +was not able."</p> + +<p>"And will you heed us?" Morris asked again, while Katy after a moment +consented; and glad of this respite from what he knew to a certainty +would be, Morris dealt out her medicine, and for an instant felt her +rapid pulse, but did not retain her hand within his own, nor lay his +other upon her head, as he had sometimes done.</p> + +<p>He could not do that now, and so he hurried away, finding the world into +which he went far different from what it had seemed an hour ago. Then +all was bright and hopeful; but now, alas! a darker night was gathering +around him than any he had ever known, and the patients visited that day +marveled at the whiteness of his face, asking if he were ill? Yes, he +answered them truly, and for two days he was not seen again, but +remained at home alone, where none but his God was witness to what he +suffered; but when the third day came he went again among his sick, +grave, quiet and unchanged to outward appearance, unless it was that +his voice, always so kind, had now a kinder tone and his manner was +tenderer, more sympathizing. Inwardly, however, there was a change, for +Morris Grant had lain himself upon the sacrificial altar, willing to be +and to endure whatever God should appoint, knowing that all would +eventually be for his good. To the farmhouse he went every day, talking +most with Helen now, but never forgetting who it was sitting so demurely +in the armchair, or flitting about the room, for Katy was gaining +rapidly. Love perhaps had had nothing to do with her dangerous illness, +but it had much to do with her recovery, and those not in the secret +wondered to see how she improved, her cheeks growing round and full and +her eyes shining with returning health and happiness.</p> + +<p>At Helen's instigation Katy had deferred Wilford's visit four weeks +instead of three, but in that time there had come two letters from him, +letters so full of anxiety and sympathy for "his poor little Katy who +had been so sick," that even Helen began to think she had done injustice +to him, that he was not as proud and heartless as she supposed, and that +he did love her sister after all.</p> + +<p>"If I supposed he meant to deceive her I should wish I was a man to +cowhide him," she said to herself, with flashing eye, as she heard Katy +exulting that he was coming "to-morrow."</p> + +<p>This time he would stop at Linwood, for Katy had asked Morris if he +might, while Morris had told her "yes," feeling his heart wound throb +afresh, as he thought how hard it would be to entertain his rival. Of +himself Morris could do nothing, but with the help he never sought in +vain he could do all things, and so he gave orders that the best chamber +should be prepared for his guest, bidding Mrs. Hull, his housekeeper, +see that no pains were spared for his entertainment, and then with Katy +he waited for the day, the last one in April, which should bring Wilford +Cameron a second time to Silverton.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" ></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>WILFORD'S SECOND VISIT.</h3> + + +<p>Wilford Cameron had tried to forget Katy Lennox, while his mother and +sisters had done their best to help to forget, or at least sicken of +her; and as the three, Juno, Bell and the mother, were very differently +constituted, they had widely different ways of assisting him in his +dilemma, the mother complimenting his good sense in drawing back from +an alliance which could only bring him mortification; Bell, the blue +sister, ignoring the idea of Wilford's marrying that country girl as +something too preposterous to be contemplated for a moment, much less to +be talked about; while Juno spared neither ridicule nor sarcasm, using +the former weapon so effectually that her brother at one time nearly +went over to the enemy; and Katy's tears, shed so often when no one +could see her, were not without a reason. Wilford was trying to forget +her, both for his sake and her own, for he foresaw that she could not +be happy with his family, and he came to think it might be a wrong to +her, transplanting her into a soil so wholly unlike that in which her +habits and affections had taken root.</p> + +<p>His father once had abruptly asked him if there was any truth in the +report that he was about to marry and make a fool of himself, and when +Wilford had answered "No," he had replied with a significant:</p> + +<p>"Umph! Old enough, I should think, if you ever intend to marry. +Wilford," and the old man faced square about: "I know nothing of the +girl, except what I gathered from your mother and sisters. You have not +asked my advice. I don't suppose you want it, but if you do, here it is. +If you love the girl and she is respectable, marry her if she is poor as +poverty and the daughter of a tinker; but if you don't love her, and +she's rich as a nabob, for thunder's sake keep away from her."</p> + +<p>This was the elder Cameron's counsel, and Katy's cause arose fifty per +cent, in consequence. Still Wilford was sadly disquieted, so much so +that his partner, Mark Ray, could not fail to observe that something was +troubling him, and at last frankly asked what it was. Wilford knew he +could trust Mark, and he confessed the whole, telling him far more of +Silverton than he had told his mother, and then asking what his friend +would do were the case his own.</p> + +<p>Fond of fun and frolic, Mark laughed immoderately at Wilford's +description of Aunt Betsy bringing her "herrin' bone" patchwork into the +parlor, and telling him it was a part of Katy's "settin' out," but when +it came to her hint for an invitation to visit in New York, the amused +young man roared with laughter, wishing so much that he might live to +see the day when poor Aunt Betsy Barlow stood ringing for admittance at +No. —— Fifth Avenue.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't it be rich, though, the meeting between your Aunt Betsy and +Juno?" and the tears fairly poured down the young man's face.</p> + +<p>But Wilford was too serious for trifling, and after his merriment had +subsided, Mark talked with him candidly, sensibly, of Katy Lennox, whose +cause he warmly espoused, telling Wilford that he was far too sensitive +with regard to family and position.</p> + +<p>"You are a good fellow on the whole, but too outrageously proud," he +said. "Of course this Aunt Betsy in her pongee, whatever that may be, +and the uncle in his shirt sleeves, and this mother whom you describe as +weak and ambitious, are objections which you would rather should not +exist; but if you love the girl, take her, family and all. Not that you +are to transport the whole colony of Barlows to New York," he added, as +he saw Wilford's look of horror, "but make up your mind to endure what +cannot be helped, resting yourself upon the fact that your position is +such as cannot well be affected by any marriage you might make, provided +the wife were right."</p> + +<p>This was Mark Ray's advice, and it had great weight with Wilford, who +knew that Mark came, if possible, from a better line of ancestry than +himself, inasmuch as his maternal grandmother was a near relative of the +English Percys, and the daughter of a lord. And still Wilford hesitated, +waiting until the winter was over before he came to the decision which +when it was reached was firm as a granite rock. He had made up his mind +at last to marry Katy Lennox if she would accept him, and he told his +mother so in the presence of his sisters, when one evening they were all +kept at home by the rain. There was a sudden uplifting of Bell's +eyelashes, a contemptuous shrug of her shoulders, and then she went on +with the book she was reading, wondering if Katy was at all inclined to +literature, and thinking if she were that it might be easier to tolerate +her. Juno, who was expected to say the sharpest things, turned upon him +with the exclamation:</p> + +<p>"If you can stand those two feather beds, you can do more than I +supposed," and as one means of showing her disapproval, she quitted the +room, while Bell, who had taken to writing articles on the follies of +the age, soon followed her sister to elaborate an idea suggested to her +mind by her brother's contemplated marriage.</p> + +<p>Thus left alone with her son, Mrs. Cameron tried all her powers of +persuasion upon him in vain. But nothing she said influenced him in the +least, seeing which she suddenly confronted him with the question: +"Shall you tell her all? A husband should have no secrets of that kind +from his wife."</p> + +<p>Wilford's face was white as ashes, and his voice trembled as he replied: +"Yes, mother, I shall tell her all; but, oh! you do not know how hard it +has been for me to bring my mind to that, or how sorry I am that we ever +kept that secret—when Genevra died—"</p> + +<p>"Hush-h!" came warningly from the mother as Juno reappeared, the warning +indicating that Genevra, whoever she might be, was a personage never +mentioned, except by mother and son.</p> + +<p>As Juno remained the conversation was not resumed, and the next morning +Wilford wrote to Katy Lennox the letter which carried to her so much of +joy, and to Dr. Grant so much of grief. To wait four weeks, as Katy said +he must, was a terrible trial to Wilford, who counted every moment which +kept him from her side. It was all owing to Dr. Grant and that +perpendicular Helen, he knew, for Katy in her letter had admitted that +the waiting was wholly their suggestion; and Wilford's thoughts +concerning them were anything but complimentary, until a new idea was +suggested, which drove every other consideration from his mind.</p> + +<p>Wilford was naturally jealous, but that fault had once led him into so +deep a trouble that he had struggled hard to overcome it, and now, at +its first approach, after he thought it dead, he tried to shake it +off—tried not to believe that Morris cared especially for Katy. But +the mere possibility was unendurable, and in a most feverish state of +excitement he started again for Silverton.</p> + +<p>As before, Morris was waiting for him at the station, his cordial +greeting and friendly manner disarming him from all anxiety in that +quarter, and making him resolve anew to trample the demon jealousy under +his feet, where it could never rise again. Katy's life should not be +darkened by the green monster, he thought, and her future would have +been bright indeed had it proved all that he pictured it as he drove +along with Morris in the direction of the farmhouse, for he was to stop +there first and then at night go over to sleep at Linwood.</p> + +<p>Katy was waiting for him, and as he met her alone, he did not hesitate +to kiss her more than once as he kept her for a moment in his arms, and +then held her off to see if her illness had left any traces upon her. It +had not, except it were in the increased delicacy of her complexion and +the short hair now growing out in silky rings. She was very pretty in +her short hair, but Wilford felt a little impatient as he saw how +childish it made her look, and thought how long it would take for it to +attain its former length. He was already appropriating her to himself, +and devising ways of improving her. In New York, with Morris Grant +standing before his jealous gaze, he could see no fault in Katy, and +even now, with her beside him, and the ogre jealousy gone, he saw no +fault in her; it was only her dress, and that could be so easily +remedied. Otherwise she was perfect, and in his delight at meeting her +again he forgot to criticise the farmhouse and its occupants, as he had +done before.</p> + +<p>They were very civil to him—the mother overwhelmingly so—insomuch that +Wilford could not help detecting her anxiety that all should be settled +this time. Helen, on the contrary, was unusually cool, confirming him in +his opinion that she was strong-minded and self-willed, and making him +resolve to remove Katy as soon as possible from her strait-laced +influence. When talking with his mother he had said that if Katy had +told him "yes," he should probably place her at some fashionable school +for a year or two; but on the way to Silverton he had changed his mind. +He could not wait a year, and if he married Katy at all, it should he +immediately. He would then take her to Europe, where she could have the +best of teachers, besides the advantage of traveling; and it was a very +satisfactory picture he drew of the woman whom he should introduce into +New York society as his wife, Mrs. Wilford Cameron. It is true that Katy +had not yet said the all-important word, but she was going to say it, +and when late that afternoon they came up from the walk he had asked her +to take, she was his promised wife.</p> + +<p>They had sat together on the very rock where Katy sat that day when +Uncle Ephraim told her of the different paths there were through life, +some pleasant and free from care, some thorny and full of grief. Katy +had never forgotten the conversation, and, without knowing why, she had +always avoided that rock beneath the butternut as a place where there +had been revealed to her a glimpse of something sad; and so, when +Wilford proposed resting there, she at first objected, but yielded at +last, and, with his arm around her, listened to the story of his love. +It was what she had expected and thought herself prepared for, but when +it came it was so real, so earnest, that she could only clasp her hands +over her face, which she hid on Wilford's shoulder, weeping passionately +as she thought how strange it was for a man like Wilford Cameron to seek +her for his wife. Katy was no coquette; whatever she felt she expressed, +and when she could command herself she frankly confessed to Wilford her +love for him, telling him how the fear that he had forgotten her had +haunted her all the long, long winter; and then with her clear, truthful +blue eyes looking into his, asking him why he had not sent her some +message if, as he said, he loved her all the time.</p> + +<p>For a moment Wilford's lip was compressed and a flush overspread his +face, as, drawing her closer to him, he replied: "My little Katy will +remember that in my first note I spoke of certain circumstances which +had prevented my writing earlier. I do not know that I asked her not to +seek to know those circumstances; but I ask it now. Will Katy trust me +so far as to believe that all is right between us, and never allude to +these circumstances?"</p> + +<p>He was kissing her fondly, and his voice was so winning that Katy +promised all that was required; and then came the hardest, the trying to +tell her all, as he had said to his mother he would. Twice he essayed to +speak, and as often something sealed his lips, until at last he began: +"You must not think me perfect, Katy, for I have faults, and perhaps if +you knew my past life you would wish to revoke your recent decision and +render a different verdict to my suit. Suppose I unfold the blackest +leaf for your inspection?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, oh, no," and Katy playfully stopped his mouth with her hand. +"Of course you have some faults, but I would rather find them out +myself. I could not hear anything against you now. I am satisfied to +take you as you are."</p> + +<p>Wilford felt his heart throb wildly with the feeling that he was in some +way deceiving the young girl; but if she would not suffer him to tell +her, he was not to be censured if she remained in ignorance. And so the +golden moment fled, and when he spoke again he said: "If Katy will not +now read that leaf I offered to show her, she must not shrink back in +horror if ever it does meet her eye."</p> + +<p>"I don't, I promise," Katy answered, a vague feeling of fear creeping +over her as to what the reading of that mysterious page involved. But +this was soon forgotten, as Wilford, remembering his suspicions of Dr. +Grant, thought to probe a little by asking if she had ever loved any one +before himself?</p> + +<p>"No, never," she answered. "I never dreamed of such a thing until I saw +you, Mr. Cameron;" and Wilford believed the trusting girl, whose loving +nature shone in every lineament of her face, upturned to receive the +kisses he pressed upon it, resolving within himself to be to her what +he ought to be.</p> + +<p>"By the way," he continued, "don't call me Mr. Cameron again, as you did +just now. I would rather be your Wilford. It sounds more familiar. And +still," he added, "it may be better at present to reserve that name for +the time when we are alone. To your family I may as well remain Mr. +Cameron."</p> + +<p>This was an after thought, suggested by his knowing how he should shiver +to hear Aunt Betsy call him "Wilford," as she surely would if Katy did. +Then he told her of his projected tour to Europe, and Katy felt her +pulses quicken as she thought of London, Paris and Rome, as places which +her plain country eyes might yet look upon. But when it came to their +marriage, which Wilford said must be soon—within a few weeks—she +demurred, for this arrangement was not in accordance with her desires. +She should so much enjoy a long courtship with Wilford coming often to +Silverton, and such quantities of letters passing between them as should +make her the envy of all Silverton. This was Katy's idea, and she +opposed her lover with all her strength, telling him she was so young, +not eighteen till July, and she knew so little of housekeeping. He must +let her stay at home until she learned at least the art of making bread!</p> + +<p>Poor, ignorant Katy! Wilford could not forbear a smile as he thought how +different were her views from his, and tried to explain that the art of +bread-making, though very desirable in most wives, was not an essential +accomplishment for his. Servants would do that; besides he did not +intend to have a house of his own at once; he should take her first to +live with his mother, where she could learn what was necessary much +better than there in Silverton.</p> + +<p>Wilford Cameron expected to be obeyed in every important matter by the +happy person who should be his wife, and as he possessed the faculty of +enforcing perfect obedience without seeming to be severe, so he silenced +Katy's arguments, and when they left the shadow of the butternut tree +she knew that in all human probability six weeks' time would find her on +the broad ocean alone with Wilford Cameron. So perfect was Katy's faith +and love that she had no fear of Wilford now, but as his affianced wife +walked confidently by his side, feeling fully his equal, nor once +dreaming how great the disparity his city friends would discover between +the fastidious man of fashion and the unsophisticated country girl. And +Wilford did not seek to enlighten her, but suffered her to talk of the +delight it would be to live in New York, and how pleasant for mother and +Helen to visit her, especially the latter, who would thus have a chance +to see something of the world.</p> + +<p>"When I get a house of my own I mean she shall live with me all the +while," she said, stooping to gather a tuft of wild bluebells growing in +a marshy spot.</p> + +<p>Wilford winced a little, for in his estimation Helen Lennox formed no +part of that household to be established on Madison Square, but he would +not so soon tear down Katy's castles, and so he merely remarked as she +asked if it would not be nice to have Helen with them.</p> + +<p>"Yes, very nice, but do not speak of it to her yet, as it will probably +be some time before she will come to us, and she had better not have it +in anticipation."</p> + +<p>And so Helen never knew the honor in store for her as she stood in the +doorway anxiously waiting for her sister, who, she feared, would take +cold from being out so long. Something though in Katy's face made her +guess that to her was lost forever the bright little sister whom she +loved so dearly, and fleeing up the narrow stairway to her room she +wept bitterly as she thought of the coming time when she would share +that room alone, and know that never again would a little golden head +lie upon her neck just as it had lain, for there would be a new love, a +new interest between them, a love for the man whose voice she could hear +now talking to her mother in the peculiar tone he always assumed when +speaking to any one of them excepting Morris or Katy.</p> + +<p>"I wish it were not wrong to hate him," she exclaimed passionately; "it +would be such a relief; but if he is only kind to Katy, I do not care +how much he despises us," and bathing her face in water Helen sat down +by her window, gazing out upon the fresh green earth, where the young +grass was springing, wondering if Mr. Cameron took her sister, when it +would probably be. "Not this year or more," she said, "for Katy is so +young;" but on this point she was soon set right by Katy herself, who, +leaving her lover alone with her mother, stole up to tell her sister the +good news.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; I guessed as much when you came back from the meadows," +and Helen's voice was very unsteady in its tone as she smoothed back the +soft rings clustering around her sister's brow.</p> + +<p>"Crying. Helen! oh, don't. I shall love you just the same, and you are +coming to live with us in the new house on Madison Square," Katy said, +forgetting Wilford's instructions in her desire to comfort Helen, who +broke down again, while Katy's tears were mingled with her own.</p> + +<p>It was the first time Katy had thought what it would be to leave forever +the good, patient sister, who had been so true, so kind, treating her +like a petted kitten and standing between her and every hardship.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry, Nellie," she said, twining her arms around her neck; "New +York is not far away, and I shall come so often—that is, after we +return from Europe. Did I tell you we are going there first, and Wilford +will not wait, but says we must be married the tenth of June; that's his +birthday—thirty—and he is telling mother now."</p> + +<p>"So soon—oh, Katy! and you so young!" was all Helen could say, as with +quivering lip she kissed her sister's hand raised to wipe her tears +away.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is soon, and I am young; but Wilford is in such a hurry; he +don't care," Katy replied, trying to comfort Helen, and begging of her +not to cry so hard.</p> + +<p>No, Wilford did not care, as it would seem, how much he wrung the hearts +of Katy's family by taking her from them at once, and by dictating to a +certain extent the way in which he would take her. There must be no +invited guests, he said; no lookers-on, except such as chose to go to +the church where the ceremony would, of course, be performed, and from +which place he should go directly to the Boston train. It was his wish, +too, that the matter should be kept as quiet as possible, and not be +generally discussed in the neighborhood, as he disliked being a subject +for gossip. And Mrs. Lennox, to whom this was said, promised compliance +with everything, or if she ventured to object she found herself borne +down by a stronger will than her own, and weakly yielded, her manner +fully testifying to her delight at the honor conferred upon her by this +high marriage of her child. Wilford knew just how pleased she was, and +her obsequious manner annoyed him far more than did Helen's blunt, +straightforwardness, when, after supper was over, she told him how +averse she was to his taking Katy so soon, adding still further that if +it must be, she saw no harm in inviting a few of their neighbors. It was +customary—it would be expected, she said, while Mrs. Lennox, emboldened +by Helen's boldness, chimed in, "at least your folks will come; I shall +be glad to meet your mother."</p> + +<p>Wilford was very polite to them both; very good-humored, but he kept to +his first position, and poor Mrs. Lennox saw fade into airy nothingness +all her visions of roasted fowls and frosted cake trimmed with myrtle +and flowers, with hosts of the Silverton people there to admire and +partake of the marriage feast. It was too bad, and so Aunt Betty said, +when, after Wilford had gone to Linwood, the family sat together around +the kitchen stove, talking the matter over.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it was too bad, when there was that white hen turkey she could fat +up so easy before June, and she knew how to make 'lection cake that +would melt in your mouth, and was enough sight better than the black +stuff they called weddin' cake. Vum! she meant to try what she could do +with Mr. Cameron."</p> + +<p>And next morning when he came again she did try, holding out as +inducements why he should be married the night before starting for +Boston, the "white hen, turkey, the 'lection cake, and the gay old times +the young folks would have playing snap-and-catchem; or if they had a +mind, they could dance a bit in the kitchen. She didn't believe in it, +to be sure—none of the orthodox did; but as Wilford was a 'Piscopal, +and that was a 'Piscopal quirk, it wouldn't harm for once."</p> + +<p>Wilford tried not to show his disgust, and only Helen suspected how hard +it was for him to keep down his utter contempt. She saw it in his eyes, +which resembled two smoldering volcanoes as they rested upon Aunt Betsy +during her harangue.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, madam, for your good intentions, but I think we will +dispense with the turkey and the cake," was all he said, though he did +smile at the old lady's definition of dancing, which for once she might +allow.</p> + +<p>Even Morris, when appealed to, decided with Wilford against Mrs. Lennox +and Aunt Betsy, knowing how unequal he was to the task which would +devolve on him in case of a bridal party at the farmhouse. In +comparative silence he had heard from Wilford of his engagement, +offering no objection when told how soon the marriage would take place, +but congratulating him so quietly that, if Wilford had retained a +feeling of jealousy, it would have disappeared; Morris was so seemingly +indifferent to everything except Katy's happiness. But Wilford did not +observe closely, and failed to detect the hopeless look in Morris' eyes, +or the whiteness which settled about his mouth as he fulfilled the +duties of host and sought to entertain his guest. Those were dark hours +for Morris Grant, and he was glad when at the end of the second day +Wilford's visit expired, and he saw him driven from Linwood around to +the farmhouse, where he would say his parting words to Katy and then go +back to New York.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" ></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>GETTING READY TO BE MARRIED.</h3> + + +<p>"Miss Helen Lennox, Silverton, Mass."</p> + +<p>This was the superscription of a letter, postmarked New York, and +brought to Helen within a week after Wilford's departure. It was his +handwriting, too; and wondering what he could have written to her, Helen +broke the seal, starting as there dropped into her lap a check for five +hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>"What does it mean?" she said, her cheek flushing with anger and +insulted pride as she read the following brief lines:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>NEW YORK, May 8th.<br />> +MISS HELEN LENNOX: Please pardon the liberty I take in inclosing the sum +of five hundred dollars, to be used by you in procuring whatever Katy may +need for present necessities. Presuming that the country seamstresses +have not the best facilities for obtaining the latest fashions, my mother +proposes sending out her own private dressmaker, Mrs. Ryan. You may look +for her the last of the week.<br /> +Yours truly, WILFORD CAMERON.</p></div> + +<p>It would be impossible to describe Helen's indignation as she read this +letter, which roused her to a pitch of anger such as Wilford Cameron had +never imagined when he wrote the offensive lines. He had really no +intention of insulting her. On the contrary, the gift of money was +kindly meant, for he knew very well that Uncle Ephraim was poor, while +the part referring to the dressmaker was wholly his mother's +proposition, to which he had acceded, knowing how much confidence Juno +had in her taste, and that whatever she might see at the farmhouse would +remain a secret with her, or at most be confined to the ears of his +mother and sisters. He wished Katy to look well, and foolishly fancying +that no country artiste could make her look so, he consented to Mrs. +Ryan's going, never suspecting the storm of anger it would rouse in +Helen, whose first impulse was to throw the check into the fire. Her +second, however, was soberer. She would not destroy it, nor tell any one +she had it but Morris—he should know the whole. Accordingly, without a +word to any one, she repaired to Linwood, finding Morris at home, and +startling him with the vehemence of her anger as she explained the +nature of her errand.</p> + +<p>"If I disliked Wilford Cameron before, I hate him now. Yes, hate him," +she said, stamping her little foot in fury.</p> + +<p>"Why, Helen!" Morris exclaimed, laying his hand reprovingly on her +shoulder. "Is this the right spirit for one who professes better things? +Stop a moment and think."</p> + +<p>"I know it is wrong," Helen answered, the tears glittering in her eyes; +"but somehow since he came after Katy, I have grown so hard, so wicked +toward Mr. Cameron. He seems so proud, so unapproachable. Say, Cousin +Morris, do you think him a good man—that is, good enough for Katy?"</p> + +<p>"Most people would call him too good for her," Morris replied. "And, in +a worldly point of view, she is doing well, while Mr. Cameron, I +believe, is better than three-fourths of the men who marry our girls. He +is very proud; but that results from his education and training. Looking +only from a New York standpoint he misjudges country people, but he will +appreciate you by and by. Do not begin by hating him so cordially."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but this money. Now, Morris, we do not want him to get Katy's +outfit. I would rather go without clothes my whole life. Shall I send it +back?"</p> + +<p>"I think that the best disposition to make of it," Morris replied. "As +your brother, I can and will supply Katy's needs."</p> + +<p>"I knew you would, Morris. What should we do without you?" and Helen +smiled gratefully upon the doctor, who in word and deed was to her like +a dear brother. "And I'll send it to-day, in time to keep that dreadful +Mrs. Ryan from coming; for, Morris, I won't have any of Wilford +Cameron's dressmakers in the house."</p> + +<p>Morris could not help smiling at Helen's energetic manner as she +hurried to his library and taking his pen wrote to Wilford Cameron as +follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>SILVERTON, May 9th.<br /> +Mr. WILFORD CAMERON: I give you credit for the kindest of motives in +sending the check, which I now return to you, with my compliments. We are +not as poor as you suppose, and would almost deem it sacrilege to let +another than ourselves provide for Katy so long as she is ours. And +furthermore, that Mrs. Ryan's services will not be needed, so it is not +worth her while to make a journey here for nothing. Yours,<br /> +HELEN LENNOX.</p></div> + +<p>Helen felt better after this letter had gone, wondering often how it +would be received, and if Wilford would be angry. She hoped he would, +and his mother too. "The idea of sending that Ryan woman to us, as if we +did not know anything!" and Helen's lip curled scornfully as she thus +denounced the Ryan woman, whose trunk was all packed with paper patterns +and devices of various kinds when the letter arrived saying she was not +needed. Being a woman of few words, she quietly unpacked her patterns +and went back to the work she was engaged upon when Mrs. Cameron +proposed her going into the country. Juno, on the contrary, flew into a +violent passion to think their first friendly advances should be thus +received. Bell laughed immoderately, saying she rather liked Helen +Lennox's spirit, and almost wished her brother had chosen her instead of +the other, who, she presumed, was a milk and water thing, even if Mrs. +Woodhull did extol her so highly. Mrs. Cameron felt the rebuff keenly, +wincing under it, and saying "that Helen Lennox must be a very rude, +ill-bred girl," and hoping her son would draw the line of division +between his wife and her family so tightly that the sister could never +pass over it. She had received the news of her son's engagement without +opposition, for she knew the time for that was passed. Wilford would +marry Katy Lennox, and she must make the best of it, so she offered no +word of remonstrance, but, when they were alone, she said to him: "Did +you tell her? Does she know it all?"</p> + +<p>"No, mother," and the old look of pain came back into Wilford's face. +"I meant to do so, and I actually began, but she stopped me short, +saying she did not wish to hear my faults, she would rather find them +out herself. Away from her it is very easy to think what I will do, but +when the trial comes I find it hard, we have kept it so long; but I +shall tell her yet; not till after we are married though, and I have +made her love me even more than she does now. She will not mind it then. +I shall take her where I first met Genevra, and there I will tell her. +Is that right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, if you think so," Mrs. Cameron replied.</p> + +<p>Whatever it was which Wilford had to tell Katy Lennox, it was very +evident that he and his mother looked at it differently, he regarding it +as a duty he owed to Katy not to conceal from her what might possibly +influence her decision, while his mother only wished the secret told in +hopes that it would prevent the marriage; but now that Wilford had +deferred it till after the marriage, she saw no reason why it need be +told at all. At least Wilford could do as he thought best, and she +changed the conversation from Genevra to Helen's letter, which had so +upset her plans. That her future daughter-in-law was handsome she did +not doubt, for Wilford said so, and Mrs. Woodhull said so in her letter +of congratulation; but she, of course, had no manner, no style, and as a +means of improving her in the latter respect, and making her presentable +at the altar and in Boston, she had proposed sending out Ryan, as she +was called in the family; but that project had failed, and Helen Lennox +did not stand very high in the Cameron family, though Wilford in his +heart felt an increased respect for her independent spirit, +notwithstanding that she had thwarted his designs.</p> + +<p>"I have another idea," Mrs. Cameron said to her daughters that +afternoon, when talking with them upon the subject. "Wilford tells me +Katy and Bell are about the same size and figure, and Ryan shall make up +a traveling suit proper for the occasion. Of course there will be no one +at the wedding for whom we care, but in Boston, at the Revere, it will +be different. Cousin Harvey boards there, and she is very stylish. I saw +some elegant gray poplins, of the finest luster, at Stewarts yesterday. +Suppose we drive down this afternoon."</p> + +<p>This was said to Juno as the more fashionable one of the sisters, but +Bell answered quickly: "Poplin, mother, on Katy? It will not become her +style, I am sure, though suitable for many. If I am to be fitted I shall +say a word about the fabric. Get a little checked silk, as expensive as +you like. It will suit her better than a heavy poplin."</p> + +<p>Perhaps Bell was right, Mrs. Cameron said; they would look at both, and +as the result of this looking, two dresses, one of the finest poplin, +and one of the softest, richest, plaided silk were given the next day +into Mrs. Ryan's hands, with injunctions to spare no pains or expense in +trimming and making both. And so the dressmaking for Katy's bridal was +proceeding in New York, in spite of Helen's letter; while down in +Silverton, at the farmhouse, there were numerous consultations as to +what was proper and what was not, Helen sometimes almost wishing she had +thrown off her pride and suffered Mrs. Ryan to come. Katy would look +well in anything, but Helen knew there were certain styles preferable to +others, and in a maze of perplexity she consulted with this and that +individual, until all Silverton knew what was projected, each one +offering the benefit of her advice until Helen and Katy both were nearly +distracted. Aunt Betsy suggested a blue delaine and round cape, offering +to get it herself, and actually purchasing the material with her own +funds, saved from drying apples. That would answer for one dress, Helen +said, but not for the wedding; and she was becoming more and more +undecided, when Morris came to the rescue, telling Katy of a young woman +who had for some time past been his patient, but who was now nearly well +and anxious to obtain work again. She had evidently seen better days, he +said; was very ladylike in her manner, and possessed of a great deal of +taste, he imagined; besides that, she had worked in one of the largest +shops in New York. "As I am going this afternoon over to North +Silverton," he added, in conclusion, "and shall pass Miss Hazelton's +house, you or Helen might accompany me and see for yourself."</p> + +<p>It was decided that Helen should go, and about four o'clock she found +herself ringing at the cottage over whose door hung the sign: "Miss M. +Hazelton, Fashionable Dressmaker." She was at home, so said the little +slipshod girl who answered the ring, and in a few moments Helen was +talking with Marian Hazelton, whose face showed signs of recent illness, +but, nevertheless, very attractive, from its peculiarly sad expression +and the soft liquid eyes of dark blue, which looked as if they were not +strangers to tears. At twenty she must have been strikingly beautiful; +and even now, at thirty, few ladies could have vied with her had she +possessed the means for gratifying her taste and studying her style. +About the mouth, so perfect in repose, there was when she spoke a +singularly sweet smile, which in a measure prepared one for the low, +silvery voice, which had a strange note of mournful music in its tone, +making Helen start as it asked: "Did you wish to see me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; Dr. Grant told me you were—" Helen paused here, for though +Marian Hazelton's dress indicated poverty, the words "were wanting work" +seemed at variance with her whole being, and so she changed her form of +speech, and said instead: "Told me you could make dresses, and I drove +around with him to secure your services, if possible, for my sister, who +is soon to be married. We would like it so much if you could go to our +house instead of having Katy come here."</p> + +<p>Marian Hazelton was needing work, for there was due more than three +months' board, besides the doctor's bill, and so, though it was not +her custom to go from house to house, she would, in this instance, +accommodate Miss Lennox, especially as during her illness her customers +had many of them gone elsewhere, and her little shop was nearly broken +up. "Was it an elaborate trousseau she was expected to make?" and she +bent down to turn over some fashion plates lying upon the table.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! we are plain country people. We cannot afford as much for Katy +as we would like; besides, I dare say Mr. Cameron will prefer selecting +most of her wardrobe himself, as he is very wealthy and fastidious," +Helen replied, repenting the next instant the part concerning Mr. +Cameron's wealth, as that might look like boasting to Miss Hazelton, +whose head was bent lower over the magazine as she said: "Did I +understand that the gentleman's name was Cameron?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Wilford Cameron, from New York," Helen answered, holding up her +skirts and s-s-kt-ing at the kitten which came running toward her, +evidently intent upon springing into her lap.</p> + +<p>Fear of cats was Helen's weakness, if weakness it can be called, and in +her efforts to frighten her tormentor she did not look again at Miss +Hazelton until startled by a gasping cry and heavy fall. Marian had +fainted, and Helen was just raising her head from the floor to her lap +when Morris appeared, relieving her of her burden, of whom he took +charge until she showed signs of life. In her alarm Helen forgot +entirely what they were talking about when the faint came on, and her +first question put to Marian was: "Were you taken suddenly ill? Why did +you faint?"</p> + +<p>There was no answer at first, except tears, which quivered on the long +eyelashes, and then rolled down the cheeks; but when she did speak she +said: "I am still so weak that the least exertion affects me, and I was +bending over the table; it will soon pass off."</p> + +<p>If she was so weak, she was not able to work, Helen said, proposing that +the plan be for the present abandoned; but to this Marian would not +listen; her great eager eyes had in them so scared a look that Helen +said no more on that subject, but made arrangements for her coming to +them at once. Morris was to leave his patient some medicine, and while +he was preparing it Helen had time to notice her more carefully, +admiring her ladylike manners, and thinking her smile the sweetest she +had ever seen. Especially was this the case when it was given to Morris, +and Helen felt that in his presence Miss Hazelton was, if possible, +softer, sweeter, more gracious than before; and still there was nothing +immodest or unwomanly in her manner, nothing but that peculiar air which +attractive women sometimes put on before the other sex. She might not +have been conscious of it herself; and yet, when once she met Helen's +eyes as she was smiling gratefully upon Dr. Morris, there came a sudden +change into her face, and she bit her lip with evident vexation. Could +it be that she was fascinated by the young physician who had attended +her so long, and who, within the last few months, had grown so popular? +Helen asked herself this question several times on her way home, and +inquired of Morris what he knew of her.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, except that she came to North Silverton a year ago, opening +her shop, and by her faithfulness, and pleasant, obliging manners, +winning favor with all who employed her. Previous to her sickness she +had a few times attended St. Paul's at South Silverton, that being the +church of her choice. Had Helen never observed her?"</p> + +<p>No, Helen had not. And then she spoke of her fainting, telling how +sudden it was and wondering if she was subject to such turns. Marian +Hazelton had made a strong impression on Helen's mind, and she talked +of her so much that Katy waited her appearance at the farmhouse with +feverish anxiety. It was evening when she came, looking very white, and +seeming to Helen as if she had changed since she saw her first. In her +eyes there was a kind of hopeless, weary expression, while her smile +made one almost wish to cry, it was so sad, and yet so strangely sweet. +Katy felt its influence at once, growing very confidential with the +stranger, who, during the half hour in which they were accidentally left +alone, drew from her every particular concerning her intended marriage. +Very closely the dark blue eyes scrutinized little Katy, taking in first +the faultless beauty of her face, and then going away down into the +inmost depths of her character, as if to find out what was there.</p> + +<p>"Pure, loving, innocent, and unsuspecting," was Marian Hazelton's +verdict, and she followed wistfully every movement of the young girl as +she flitted around the room, chatting as familiarly with the dressmaker +as if she were a friend long known instead of an entire stranger.</p> + +<p>"You look very young to be married," said Miss Hazelton to her once, and +shaking back her short rings of hair Katy answered: "Eighteen next +Fourth of July; but Mr. Cameron is thirty."</p> + +<p>"Is he a widower?" was the next question, which Katy answered with a +merry laugh. "Mercy, no! I marry a widower! How funny! I don't believe +he ever cared a fig for anybody but me. I mean to ask him."</p> + +<p>"I would," and the pale lips shut tightly together, while a resentful +gleam shot for a moment across Marian's face; but it quickly passed +away, and her smile was as sweet as ever as she at last bade the family +good-night and repaired to the little room where Wilford Cameron once +had slept.</p> + +<p>A long time she stood before the glass, brushing her dark, abundant +hair, and intently regarding her own features, while in her eyes there +was a hard, terrible look, from which Katy Lennox would have shrunk +abashed. But that too passed, and the eyes grew soft with tears as she +turned away, and falling on her knees moaned sadly: "I never will—no, I +never will, God help me to keep the promise. Were it the other—Helen—I +might, for she could bear it; but Katy, that child—-no, I never will," +and as the words died on her lips there came struggling up from her +heart a prayer for Katy Lennox's happiness, as fervent and sincere as +any which had ever been made for her since she was betrothed.</p> + +<p>They grew to liking each other rapidly, Marian and Katy, the latter of +whom thought her new friend greatly out of place as a dressmaker, +telling her she ought to marry some rich man, calling her Marian +altogether, and questioning her very closely of her previous life. But +Marian only told her that she was born in London; that she learned her +trade on the Isle of Wight, near to the Osborne House, where the royal +family sometimes came, and that she had often seen the present Queen, +thus trying to divert Katy's mind from asking what there was besides +that apprenticeship to the Misses True on the Isle of Wight. Once, +indeed, she went further, learning that Marian's friends were dead; that +she had come to America in hopes of doing better than she could at home; +that she had stayed in New York until her health began to fail, and then +had tried what country air would do, coming to North Silverton because +a young woman who worked in the same shop was acquainted there, and +recommended the place. This was all Katy could learn, and Marian's heart +history, if she had one, was guarded carefully. One day as they sat +together alone, when Helen had gone to the village to do some shopping +for Katy, Marian abruptly said: "I have lived in New York, you know, +and why do you not ask if I ever saw these Camerons?"</p> + +<p>"You! did you?—have you, really?—and what are they like?" Katy almost +screamed, skipping across the floor and seating herself by Marian, who +replied: "Much like other ladies of their stamp—proud and fashionable. +The father I never saw, but your Mr. Cameron I used to see in the street +driving his handsome bays."</p> + +<p>Anything relating to the pride and fashion of her future relations made +Katy uncomfortable, and she remained silent, cutting into bits a piece +of silk, until Marian continued: "Sometimes there was a child in the +Cameron carriage. Do you know who it was?"</p> + +<p>Delighted that she too could impart information, Katy hastened to say +that it was probably "little Jamie, the orphan grandchild, whose parents +died in Italy. Morris told me he met them in Paris, and he said Jamie's +father died of consumption, and the mother, too, either then or +afterward. At all events Jamie is an orphan and a cripple. He will never +walk, Morris says; and he told me so much about him—how patient he was +and how good."</p> + +<p>Katy did not see the tears which threatened to mar the silk on which +Marian Hazelton was working, for they were brushed away almost as +quickly as they came, while in her usual voice she asked: "What was the +cause of his lameness?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know just how it happened," Katy replied, "but believe it +resulted from the carelessness of a servant in leaving him alone, or +something."</p> + +<p>"A servant!" Marian repeated, a flush rising to her cheek and a strange +light flashing on her eye.</p> + +<p>She had heard all she cared to hear of the Camerons that day, and +she was glad when Helen returned from the village, as her appearance +diverted Katy's mind into another channel, and in examining the dress +trimmings which Helen had brought, she forgot to talk of Jamie Cameron. +The trimmings, fringe and buttons were for the wedding dress, the one in +which Katy was to be married, and which Helen reserved the right to make +to herself. Miss Hazelton must fit it, of course, but to her belonged +the privilege of making it, every stitch; Katy would think more of it if +she did it all, she said; but she did not confess how the bending over +that one dress, both early and late, was the escape valve for the +feeling which otherwise would have found vent in passionate tears. Helen +was very wretched during the pleasant May days she usually enjoyed so +much, but over which now a dark pall was spread, shutting out all the +brightness and leaving only the terrible certainty that Katy was lost to +her forever—bright, frolicsome Katy, who, without a shadow on her heart +sported amid the bridal finery, unmindful of the anguish tugging at the +hearts of both the patient women, Marian and Helen, who worked on so +silently, reserving their tears for the night time, when Katy lay +sweetly sleeping and dreaming of Wilford Cameron. Helen had ceased to +think that Hiss Hazelton had any designs on Dr. Grant, for her manner +toward Uncle Ephraim was just as soft and conciliating, and she +dismissed that subject from her mind with the reflection that it was the +nature of some girls to be very pretty to the gentlemen, without meaning +any harm. She liked Marian on the whole, regarding her as a quiet woman, +who knew her business and kept to it, but never guessing that her +feelings, too, were stirred to their very depths as the bridal +preparations progressed. She only knew how wretched she was herself, and +how hard it was to fight her tears back as she bent over the plaided +silk, weaving in with every stitch a part of the clinging love which +each day grew stronger for the only sister, who would soon be gone, +leaving her alone. Only once did she break entirely down, and that was +when the dress was done and Katy tried it on, admiring its effect, and +having a second glass brought that she might see it behind.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it lovely?" she exclaimed; "and the more valuable because you +made it, I shall think of you every time I wear it," and the impulsive +girl found her arms around Helen's neck, kissing her lovingly, while +Helen sank into a chair and sobbed aloud: "Oh, Katy, darling Katy! you +won't forget me when you are rich and admired and can have all you want? +You will remember us here at home, so sad and lonely? You don't know how +desolate it will be, knowing you are gone, never to come back again, +just as you go away."</p> + +<p>In an instant Katy was on her knees before Helen whom she tried to +comfort by telling her how she should come back, come often, too, +staying a long while; and that when she had a city home of her own +she should live with her for good, and they would be so happy.</p> + +<p>"I cannot quite give Wilford up to please you," she said, when that +gigantic sacrifice suggested itself as something which it was possible +Helen might require of her; "but I will do anything else, only please +don't cry, darling Nellie—please don't cry. It spoils all my pleasure," +and Katy's soft hands wiped away the tears running so fast over her +sister's face.</p> + +<p>After that Helen did not cry again in Katy's presence, but the latter +knew she wanted to and it made her rather sad, particularly when she saw +reflected in the faces of the other members of the family the grief she +had witnessed in Helen. Even Uncle Ephraim was not as cheerful as usual, +and once when Katy came upon him in the woodshed chamber, where he was +shelling corn, she found him resting from his work and looking from the +window far off across the hills, with a look which made her guess he was +thinking of her, and stealing up beside him she laid her hand upon his +wrinkled face, whispering softly: "Poor Uncle Eph, are you sorry, too?"</p> + +<p>He knew what she meant, and the aged chin quivered, while a big tear +dropped into the tub of corn, as he replied: "Yes, Katy-did—very +sorry."</p> + +<p>That was all he said, and Katy, after smoothing his cheek a moment +kissed his silvery hair and then stole away, wondering if every girl's +family felt so badly before she was married, and wondering next if the +love to which she was going was equal to the love of home, which, as the +days went by, grew stronger and stronger, enfolding her in a mighty +embrace, which could only be severed by bitter tears and fierce +heart-pangs, such as death itself sometimes brings. In that household +there was, after Katy, no one glad of that marriage except the mother, +and she was only glad because of the position it would bring to her +daughter. But among them all Morris suffered most, and suffered more +because he had to endure in secret, to cover up his sorrow so that no +one guessed the pain it was for him to go each day where Katy was, and +watch her as she sometimes donned a part of her finery for his benefit, +asking him once if he did not almost wish he were in Wilford's place, so +as to have as pretty a bride as she should make. Then Marian Hazelton +glanced up in time to see the expression of his face, a look whose +meaning she readily recognized, and when Dr. Grant left the farmhouse +that day, another than himself knew of his love for Katy, drawing her +breath hurriedly as she thought of taking back the words "I never will," +of revoking the decision and telling Katy what Wilford Cameron should +have told her long before. But the wild wish fled, and Wilford's secret +was safe, while Marian watched Morris Grant with a pitying interest as +he came among them, speaking always in the same kind, gentle tone, and +trying so hard to enter into Katy's joy.</p> + +<p>"His burden is greater than mine. God help us both," Marian said, as she +resumed her work.</p> + +<p>And so amid joy and gladness, silent tears and breaking hearts the +preparations went on until all was done, and only three days remained +before the eventful tenth. Marian Hazelton was going home, for she would +not stay at the farmhouse until all was over, notwithstanding Katy's +entreaties, joined to those of Helen.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she would come to the church," she said, "though she could not +promise;" and her manner was so strange as she gathered up her things +that Katy wondered if in any way she could have been offended, and at +last said to her timidly, as she stood with her bonnet on waiting for +Uncle Ephraim: "You are not angry with me for anything, are you?"</p> + +<p>"Angry with you!" and Katy never forgot the glitter of the tearful eyes, +or their peculiar expression as they turned upon her. "No, oh, no; I +could not be angry with you, and yet, Katy Lennox, some in my position +would hate you, contrasting your prospects with their own; but I do not; +I love you; I bless you, and pray that you may be happy with your +husband; honor him, obey him if need be, and above all, never give him +the slightest cause to doubt you. You will have admirers, Katy Lennox. +In New York others than your husband will speak to you words of +flattery, but don't you listen. Remember what I tell you; and now, +again, God bless you."</p> + +<p>She touched her lips to Katy's forehead, and when they were withdrawn +there were great tears there which she had left! Marian's tears on +Katy's brow; and truly, it was very meet that just before her bridal day +Wilford Cameron's bride should receive such baptism from Marian +Hazelton.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" ></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>BEFORE THE MARRIAGE.</h3> + + +<p>On the morning of the ninth day of June, 18—, Wilford Cameron stood in +his father's parlor, surrounded by the entire family, who, after their +usually early breakfast, had assembled to bid him good-by, for Wilford +was going for his bride, and it would be months, if not a year, ere he +returned to them again. They had given him up to his idol, asking only +that none of the idol's family should be permitted to cross their +threshold, and also that the idol should not often be allowed the +privilege of returning to the place from whence she came. These +restrictions had emanated from the female portion of the Cameron family, +the mother, Juno and Bell. The father, on the contrary, had sworn +roundly as he would sometimes swear at what he called the contemptible +pride of his wife and daughters. Katy was sure of a place in his heart +just because of the pride which was building up so high a wall between +her and her friends, and when at parting he held his son's hand in his, +he said:</p> + +<p>"I charge you, Will, be kind to that young girl, and don't, for Heaven's +sake, go to cramming her with airs and nonsense which she does not +understand. Tell her I'll be a father to her; her own, you say, is dead, +and give her this as my bridal present."</p> + +<p>He held out a small-sized box containing a most exquisite set of pearls, +such as he fancied would be becoming to the soft, girlish beauty Wilford +had described. Something in his father's manner touched Wilford closely, +making him resolve anew that if Kitty were not happy as Mrs. Cameron it +should not be his fault. His mother had said all she wished to say, +while his sisters had been gracious enough to send their love to the +bride, Bell hoping she would look as well in the poplin and little plaid +as she had done. Either was suitable for the wedding day, Mrs. Cameron +said, and she might take her choice, only Wilford must see that she did +not wear with the poplin the gloves and belt intended for the silk; +country people had so little taste, and she did want Katy to look well, +even if she were not there to see her. And with his brain a confused +medley of poplins and plaids, belts and gloves, pearls and Katy, Wilford +finally tore himself away, and at three o'clock that afternoon drove +through Silverton village, past the little church which the Silverton +maidens were decorating with flowers, pausing a moment in their work to +look at him as he went by. Among them was Marian Hazelton, but she did +not look up, she only bent lower over her work, thus hiding the tear +which dropped from the delicate buds she was fashioning into the words, +"Joy to the Bride," intending the whole as the center of the wreath to +be placed over the altar just where all could see it.</p> + +<p>"The handsomest man I ever saw," was the verdict of most of the girls as +they came hack to their work, while Wilford drove on to the farmhouse +where Katy had been so anxiously watching for him.</p> + +<p>When he came in sight, however, and she knew he was actually there, she +ran away to hide her blushes and the feeling of awe which had come +suddenly over her for the man who was to be her husband. But Helen bade +her go back, and so she went coyly in to Wilford, who met her with +loving caresses, and then put upon her finger the superb diamond which +he said he had thought to send as a pledge of their engagement, but had +finally concluded to wait and present himself. Katy had heard much of +diamonds, and seen some in Canandaigua; but the idea that she, plain +Katy Lennox, would ever wear them, had never once entered her mind; and +now as she looked at the brilliant gem sparkling upon her hand, she felt +a thrill of something more than joy at that good fortune which had +brought her to diamonds. Vanity, we suppose it was—such vanity as was +very natural in her case, and she thought she should never tire of +looking at the precious stone; but when Wilford showed her next the +plain broad band of gold, and tried it on her third finger, asking if +she knew what it meant, the true woman spoke within her, and she +answered, tearfully:</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know, and I will try to prove worthy of what I shall be to you +when I wear that ring for good."</p> + +<p>Katy was very quiet for a moment as she sat with her head nestled +against Wilford's bosom, but when he observed that she was looking +tired, and asked if she had been working hard, the quiet fit was broken, +and she told him of the dress "we had made," that "we" referring solely +to Helen and Marian, for Katy had hardly done a thing. But it did not +matter; she fancied she had, and she asked if he did not wish to see her +dresses. Wilford knew it would please Katy, and so, though he cared very +little about it, he followed her into the adjoining room where they were +still spread out upon the tables and chairs, with Helen in their midst, +ready to pack them away. Wilford thought of Mrs. Ryan and the check, but +he shook hands with Helen very civilly, saying to her, playfully:</p> + +<p>"I suppose that you are willing I should take your sister with me this +time."</p> + +<p>Helen could not answer, but turned away to hide her face, while Katy +showed to her lover one dress after another, until she came to the +little plaid, which, with a bright blush she told him "was the very +thing itself—the one intended for to-morrow, and asked if he did not +like it."</p> + +<p>Wilford could not help telling her yes, for he knew she wished him to do +so, but in his heart he was thinking bad thoughts against the wardrobe +of his bride-elect—thoughts which would have won for him the title of +hen-huzzy from Helen, could she have known them. And yet Wilford did not +deserve that name. Accustomed all his life to hearing dress discussed in +his mother's parlor, and in his sister's boudoir, it was natural he +should think more of it and notice it more than Morris Grant would do, +while for the last five weeks he had heard at home of little else than +the probably _tout ensemble_ of Katy's wardrobe, bought and made in the +country, his mother deciding finally to write to her cousin, Mrs. +Harvey, who boarded at the Revere, and have her see it before Katy left +the city. Under these circumstances, it was not strange that Wilford did +not enter into Katy's delight, even after she told him how Helen had +made every stitch of the dress herself, and that it would on that +account be very dear to her. This was a favorable time for getting the +poplin off his mind, and with a premonitory ahem, he said: "Yes, it is +very nice, no doubt; but," and here he turned to Helen, "after Mrs. +Ryan's services were declined, my mother determined to have two dresses +fitted to Sister Bell, who I think is just Katy's size and figure. I +need not say"—and his eyes still rested on Helen, who gave him back an +unflinching glance—"I need not say that no pains have been spared to +make these garments everything they should be in point of quality and +style. I have them in my trunk," and, tuning now to Katy, "it is my +mother's special request that one of them be worn to-morrow. You could +take your choice, she said—either was suitable. I will bring them for +your inspection."</p> + +<p>He left the room, while Helen's face resembled a dark thundercloud, +whose lightnings shone in her flashing eyes as she looked after him and +then back to where Katy stood, bewildered and wondering what was wrong.</p> + +<p>"Who is Mrs. Ryan?" she asked. "What does he mean?" but before Helen +could command her voice to explain, Wilford was with them again, +bringing the dresses, over which Katy nearly went wild.</p> + +<p>She had never seen anything as elegant as the rich heavy poplin or the +soft lustrous silk, while even Helen acknowledged that there was about +them a finish which threw Miss Hazelton's quite in the shade.</p> + +<p>"Beautiful!" Katy exclaimed; "and trimmed so exquisitely! I do so hope +they will fit!"</p> + +<p>"I dare say they will," Wilford replied, enjoying her appreciation of +his mother's gift. "At all events they will answer for to-morrow, and +any needful alterations can be made in Boston. Which will you wear?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. I wish I could wear both. Helen, which shall I?" and +Katy appealed to her sister, who could endure no more, but hid her head +among the pillows of the bed and cried.</p> + +<p>Katy understood the whole, and dropping upon the floor the silk to +which she inclined the most, she flew to Helen's side, and whispered to +her: "Don't, Nellie, right before Wilford. I won't wear either of them. +I'll wear the one you made. It was mean and vain in me to think of doing +otherwise."</p> + +<p>During this scene Wilford had stolen from the room, and with him gone +Helen was herself, capable of judging candidly and sensibly. She knew +the city silk, which cost three dollars per yard, and was fastened with +buttons of gold, having Katy's initial upon their face, was handsomer +and better suited for Wilford Cameron's bride than the country plaid, +costing one dollar per yard, and trimmed with buttons at eighteen pence +per dozen, and so she said to Katy: "I would rather you should wear the +one they sent. It will become you better. Suppose you try it on," and in +seeking to gratify her sister Helen forgot in part her own cruel +disappointment, and that her work of days had been for naught. The dress +fitted well, though Katy pronounced it too tight and too long. A few +moments, however, accustomed her to the length, and then her mother, +Aunt Hannah, and Aunt Betsy came to see and admire, while Katy proposed +going out to Wilford, but Helen kept her back. Aunt Betsy remarking, +under her breath, that "she didn't see for the life on her how Catherine +could be so free and easy with that man when just the sight of him was +enough to take away a body's breath."</p> + +<p>"More free and easy than she will be by and by," was Helen's mental +comment as she proceeded quietly to pack the trunk which Morris had +brought for the voyage across the sea, dropping into it many a tear as +she folded away one article after another, and wondered under what +circumstances she should see them again if she saw them ever.</p> + +<p>Helen was a Christian girl, and many a time had she prayed in secret +that He who rules the deep would keep its waters calm and still while +her sister was upon them, and she prayed so now, constantly, burying her +face once in her hands, and asking that Katy might come back to them +unchanged, if possible, and asking next that God would remove from her +heart all bitterness toward the bridegroom, who was to be her brother, +and whom, after that short, earnest prayer, she found herself liking +better. He loved Katy, she was sure, and that was all she cared for, +though she did wish he would release her before twelve o'clock on that +night, the last she would spend with them for a long, long time. But +Wilford kept her with him in the parlor, kissing away the tears which +flowed so fast when she recalled the prayer said that night by Uncle +Ephraim, with her kneeling by him as she might never kneel again. He had +called her by her name and his voice was very sad as he commended her to +God, asking that he would "be with our little Katy wherever she might +go, keeping her in all the mewandering scenes of life, and bringing her +at last to his own heavenly home."</p> + +<p>Wilford himself was touched, and though he noticed the deacon's +pronunciation, he did not even smile, and his manner was very +respectful, when after the prayer over and they were alone, the +white-haired deacon felt it incumbent upon him to say a few words +concerning Katy.</p> + +<p>"She's a young, rattle-headed creature, not much like your own kin, I +guess; but, young man, she is as dear as the apple of our eyes, and I +charge you to treat her well. She has never had a crossways word spoke +to her all her life, and don't you be the first to speak it, nor let +your folks browbeat her."</p> + +<p>As they were alone, and it was easier for Wilford to be humble and +conciliatory, he promised all the old man required, and then went back +to Katy, going into raptures over the beautiful little Geneva watch +which Morris had just sent over as her bridal gift from him. Even Mrs. +Cameron herself could have found no fault with this, and Wilford praised +it as much as Katy could desire, noticing the inscription: "Katy, from +Cousin Morris, June 10th, 18—," wishing that after the "Katy" had come +the name Cameron, and wondering if Morris had any design in omitting it. +Wilford had not yet presented his father's gift, but he did so now, and +Katy's tears dropped upon the pale, soft pearls as she whispered: "I +shall like your father. I never thought of having things like these."</p> + +<p>Nor had she, but she would grow to them very soon, while even the family +gathering around and sharing in her joy began to realize how great a +lady their Katy was to be. It was late that night ere anybody slept, if +sleep at all they did, which was doubtful, unless it were the bride, who +with Wilford's kisses warm upon her lips, crept up to bed just as the +clock was striking twelve, nor woke until it was again chiming for six, +and over her Helen bent, a dark ring about her eyes and her face very +white as she whispered: "Wake, Katy darling, this is your wedding day."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" ></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>MARRIAGE AT ST. JOHN'S.</h3> + + +<p>There were more than a few lookers-on to see Katy Lennox married, and +the church was literally jammed for full three-quarters of an hour +before the appointed time. Back by the door, where she commanded a full +view of the middle aisle, Marian Hazelton sat, her face as white as +ashes, and her eyes gleaming strangely wild even from beneath the +thickly dotted veil she wore over her hat. Doubts as to her wisdom in +coming there were agitating her mind, but something kept her sitting +just as others sat waiting for the bride until the sexton, opening wide +the doors, and assuming an added air of consequence, told the anxious +spectators that the party had arrived—Uncle Ephraim and Katy, Wilford +and Mrs. Lennox, Dr. Morris and Helen, Aunt Hannah and Aunt Betsy—that +was all, and they came slowly up the aisle, while countless eyes were +turned upon them, every woman noticing Katy's dress sweeping the carpet +with so long a trail, and knowing by some queer female instinct that it +was city-made, and not the handiwork of Marian Hazelton, panting for +breath in that pew near the door, and trying to forget herself by +watching Dr. Grant. She could not have told what Katy wore; she would +not have sworn that Katy was there, for she saw only two, Wilford and +Morris Grant. She could have touched the former as he passed her by, and +she did breathe the odor of his garments while her hands clasped each +other tightly, and then she turned to Morris Grant, growing content with +her own pain, so much less than his as he stood before the altar with +Wilford Cameron between him and the bride which should have been his. +How pretty she was in her wedding garb, and how like a bird her voice +rang out as she responded to the solemn question:</p> + +<p>"Will you have this man to be thy wedded husband?" etc.</p> + +<p>Upon Uncle Ephraim devolved the duty of giving her away, a thing which +Aunt Betsy denounced as a "'Piscopal quirk," classing it in the same +category with dancing. Still if Ephraim had got it to do she wanted him +to do it well, and she had taken some pains to study that part of the +ceremony, so as to know when to nudge her brother in case he failed of +coming up to time.</p> + +<p>"Now, Ephraim, now; they've reached the quirk," she whispered, audibly, +almost before Katy's "I will" was heard, clear and distinct; but Ephraim +did not need her prompting, and his hand rested lovingly upon Katy's +shoulder as he signified his consent, and then fell back to his place +next to Hannah. But when Wilford's voice said: "I, Wilford, take thee +Katy to be my wedded wife," there was a slight confusion near the door, +and those sitting by said to those in front that some one had fainted.</p> + +<p>Looking around, the audience saw the sexton leading Marian Hazelton out +into the open air, where, at her request, he left her, and went hack to +see the closing of the ceremony which made Katy Lennox a wife. Morris' +carriage was at the door, and the newly married pair moved slowly out, +Katy smiling upon all, kissing her hand to some and whispering a good-by +to others, her diamond flashing in the light and her rich silk rustling +as she walked, while at her side was Wilford, proudly erect, and holding +his head so high as not to see one of the crowd around him, until +arrived at the vestibule he stopped a moment and was seized by a young +man with curling hair, saucy eyes, and that air of ease and assurance +which betokens high breeding and wealth.</p> + +<p>"Mark Ray!" was Wilford's astonished exclamation, while Mark Ray +replied:</p> + +<p>"You did not expect to see me here, neither did I expect to come until +last night, when I found myself in the little village where you know +Scranton lives. Then it occurred to me that as Silverton was only a few +miles distant I would drive over and surprise you, but I am too late for +the ceremony, I see," and Mark's eyes rested admiringly upon Katy, whose +graceful beauty was fully equal to what he had imagined.</p> + +<p>Very modestly she received his congratulatory greeting, blushing +prettily when he called her by the new name she had not heard before, +and then at a motion from Wilford, entered the carriage waiting for her. +Close behind her came Morris and Helen, the former quite as much +astonished at meeting Mark as Wilford had been. There was no time for +conversation, and hurriedly introducing Helen as Miss Lennox, Morris +followed her into the carriage with the bridal pair, and was driven to +the depot, where they were joined by Mark, whose pleasant, good-humored +sallies did much toward making the parting more cheerful than it would +otherwise have been. It was sad enough at the most, and Katy's eyes were +very red, while Wilford was beginning to look chagrined and impatient, +when at last the train swept around the corner and the very last good-by +was said. Many of the village people were there to see Katy off, and in +the crowd Mark had no means of distinguishing the Barlows from the +others except it were by the fond caresses given to the bride. Aunt +Betsy he had observed from all the rest, both from the hanging of her +pongee and the general quaintness of her attire, and thinking it just +possible that it might be the lady of herrin' bone memory, he touched +Wilford's arm as she passed them by, and said:</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Will, quick, who is that woman in the poke bonnet and short, +slim dress?"</p> + +<p>Wilford was just then too much occupied in his efforts to rescue Katy +from the crowd of plebeians who had seized upon her to hear his friend's +query, but Helen heard it, and with a cheek which crimsoned with anger, +she replied:</p> + +<p>"That, sir, is my aunt, Miss Betsy Barlow."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, I really do, I was not aware—" Mark began, +lifting his hat involuntarily, and mentally cursing himself for his +stupidity in not observing who was near to him before asking personal +questions.</p> + +<p>With a toss of her head Helen turned away, forgetting her resentment +in the more absorbing thought that Katy was really leaving her.</p> + +<p>The bell had rung, the heavy machinery groaned and creaked, and the long +train was under way, while from an open window a little white hand was +thrust, waving its handkerchief until the husband quietly drew it in, +experiencing a feeling of relief that all was over, and that unless he +chose, his wife need never go back again to that vulgar crowd standing +upon the platform and looking with tearful eyes and aching hearts after +the fast receding train.</p> + +<p>For a moment Mark talked with Morris Grant, explaining how he came +there, and adding that on the morrow he, too, intended going on to +Boston, to remain for a few days before Wilford sailed; then, feeling +that he must in some way atone for his awkward speech regarding Aunt +Betsy, he sought out Helen, still standing like a statue and watching +the feathery line of smoke rising above the distant trees. Her bonnet +had partially fallen from her head, revealing her bands of rich brown +hair and the smooth, broad forehead, while her hands were locked +together, and a tear trembled on her dark eyelashes. Taken as a whole +she made a striking picture standing apart from the rest and totally +oblivious to them all, and Mark gazed at her a moment curiously; then as +her attitude changed and she drew her hat back to its place he advanced +toward her, and making some pleasant remark about the morning and the +appearance of the country generally. He knew he could not openly +apologize, but he made what amends he could by talking to her so +familiarly that Helen almost forgot how she hated him and all others who +like him lived in New York and resembled Wilford Cameron. It was Mark +who led her to the carriage which Morris said was waiting, Mark who +handed her in, smoothing down carefully the folds of her dress, and then +stood leaning against the door, chatting with Morris, who thought once +of asking him to enter and go back to Linwood. But when he remembered +how unequal he was to entertaining any one that day, he hesitated, +saying merely:</p> + +<p>"On your way from Boston call and see me. I shall be glad of your +company then."</p> + +<p>"Which means that you do not wish it now," Mark laughingly rejoined, as, +offering his hand to both Morris and Helen, he again touched his hat +politely and walked away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" ></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>AFTER THE MARRIAGE.</h3> + + +<p>"Why did you invite him to Linwood?" Helen began. "I am sure we have +had city guests enough. Oh, if Wilford Cameron had only never come, we +should have had Katy now," and the sister-love overcame every other +feeling, making Helen cry bitterly as they drove back to the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>Morris could not comfort her then, for he needed it the most, and so in +silence he left her and went on his way to Linwood, which seemed as if a +funeral train had left it, bearing away all Morris' life and love, and +leaving only a cheerless blank. It was well for him that there were many +sick ones on his list, for in attending to them he forgot himself in +part so that the day with him passed faster than at the farmhouse, where +life and its interests seemed suddenly to have stopped. Nothing had +power to rouse Helen, who never realized how much she loved her young +sister until now, when, with swelling heart she listlessly put to rights +the room which had been theirs so long, but which was now hers alone. It +was a sad task picking up that disordered chamber bearing so many traces +of Katy, and Helen's heart ached terribly as she hung away the little +pink calico dressing gown in which Katy had looked so pretty, and picked +up from the floor the pile of skirts lying just where they had been left +the previous night; but when it came to the little half-worn slippers +which had been thrown one here and another there as Katy danced out of +them, she could control herself no longer, and stopping in her work +sobbed bitterly: "Oh, Katy, Katy, how can I live without you?" But tears +could not bring Katy back, and knowing this, Helen dried her eyes ere +long and joined the family below, who like herself were spiritless and +sad.</p> + +<p>It was some little solace to them all that day to follow Katy in her +journey, saying, she is at Worcester, or Framingham, or Newtown, and +when at noon they sat down to their dinner in the tidy kitchen, they +said: "She is in Boston," and the saying so made the time which had +elapsed since the morning seem interminable. Slowly the hours dragged, +and at last, before the sunsetting, Helen, who could bear the loneliness +of home no longer, stole across the fields to Linwood, hoping in Morris' +companionship to forget her own grief in part. But Morris was a sorry +comforter then. If the day had been sad to Helen, it had been doubly so +to him. He had ministered as usual to his patients, listening to their +complaints and answering patiently their inquiries; but amid it all he +walked as in a maze, hearing nothing except the words: "I, Katy, take +thee, Wilford, to be my wedded husband," and seeing nothing but the airy +little figure which stood up on tiptoe for him to kiss its lips at +parting. His work for the day was over now, and he sat alone in his +library when Helen came hurriedly in, staring at sight of his face, and +asking if he was ill.</p> + +<p>"I have had a hard day's work," he said. "I am always tired at night," +and he tried to smile and appear natural. "Are you very lonely at the +farmhouse?" he asked, and then Helen broke out afresh, mourning +sometimes for Katy, and again denouncing Wilford as proud and heartless.</p> + +<p>"Positively, Cousin Morris," and Helen's eye flashed as she said it, "he +acted all the while he was in the church as if he were doing something +of which he was ashamed; and then did you notice how impatient he seemed +when the neighbors were shaking hands with Katy at the depot and bidding +her good-by? He looked as if he thought they had no right to touch her, +she was so much their superior, just because she had married him, and he +even hurried her away before Aunt Betsy had time to kiss her. And yet +the people think it such a splendid match for Katy, because he is so +rich and generous. Gave the clergyman fifty dollars and the sexton five, +so I heard; but that does not help him with me. I know it's wicked, +Morris, as well as you, but somehow I find myself taking real comfort +in hating Wilford Cameron."</p> + +<p>"That is wrong, Helen, all wrong," and Morris tried to reason with her; +but his arguments this time were not very strong, and he finally said to +her, inadvertently: "If I can forgive Wilford Cameron for marrying our +Katy, you surely ought to do so, for he has hurt me the most."</p> + +<p>"You, Morris! you, you!" Helen kept repeating, standing back still +further and further front him, while strange, overwhelming thoughts +passed like lightning through her mind as she marked the pallid face, +where was written since the morning more than one line of suffering, +and saw in the brown eyes a look such as they were not wont to wear. +"Morris, tell me—tell me truly—did you love my Sister Katy?" and with +an impetuous rush Helen knelt beside him, as, laying his head upon the +table he answered:</p> + +<p>"Yes, Helen. God forgive me if it were wrong. I did love your Sister +Katy, and love her yet, and that is the hardest to bear."</p> + +<p>All the tender, pitying woman was roused in Helen, and like a sister she +smoothed the locks of damp, dark hair, keeping a perfect silence as the +strong man, no longer able to bear up, wept like a very child. For a +time Helen felt as if bereft of reason, while earth and sky seemed +blended in one wild chaos as she thought: "Oh, why couldn't it have +been? Why didn't you tell her in time?" and at last she said to him; +"If Katy had known it! Oh, Morris, why didn't you tell her? She never +guessed it, never! If she had—if she had," Helen's breath came +chokingly: "I am very sure—yes, I know it might have been!"</p> + +<p> +"Of all sad words of tongue or pen,<br /> +The saddest are these—it might have been."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Morris involuntarily thought of these lines, but they only mocked his +sorrow as he answered Helen: "I doubt if you are right; I hope you are +not; hope that it might not have been, as it is not now. Katy loved me +as her brother, nothing more, I am confident. Had she waited till she +was older, God only knows what might have been, but now she is gone and +our Father will help me to bear, will help us both, if we ask him, as we +must."</p> + +<p>And then as only he could do, Morris talked with Helen until she felt +her hardness toward Wilford giving way, while she wondered how Morris +could speak thus kindly of one who was his rival.</p> + +<p>"Not of myself could I do it," Morris said; "but I trust in One who +says: 'As thy day shall thy strength be,' and He, you know, never +fails."</p> + +<p>There was a fresh bond of sympathy now between Morris and Helen, and the +latter needed no caution against repeating what she had discovered. The +secret was safe with her, and by dwelling on what "might have been" she +forgot to think so much of what was, and so the first days after Katy's +departure were more tolerable than she had thought it possible for them +to be. At the close of the fourth there came a short note from Katy, who +was still in Boston at the Revere, and perfectly happy, she said, going +into ecstasies over her husband, the best in the world, and certainty +the most generous and indulgent. "Such beautiful things as I am having +made," she wrote, "when I already had more than I needed, and so I told +him, but he only smiled a queer kind of smile as he said: 'Very true; +you do not need them.' I wonder then why he gets me more. Oh, I forgot +to tell you how much I liked his cousin, Mrs. Harvey, who boards at the +Revere, and whom Wilford consults about my dress. I am somewhat afraid +of her, too, she is so grand, but she pets me a great deal and laughs at +my speeches. Mr. Ray is here too, and I think him splendid.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Helen, I heard him tell Wilford that you had one of the +best shaped heads he ever saw, and that he thought you decidedly good +looking. I must tell you now of the only thing which troubles me in the +least, and I shall get used to that, I suppose. It is so strange Wilford +never told me a word until she came, my waiting maid. Think of that! +little Katy Lennox with a waiting maid, who jabbers French half the +time, for she speaks that language as well as her own, having been +abroad with the family once before. That is why they sent her to me; +they knew her services would be invaluable in Paris. Her name is Esther, +and she came the day after we did and brought me such a beautiful +mantilla from Wilford's mother, and the loveliest dress. Just the +pattern was fifty dollars, she said.</p> + +<p>"The steamer sails in three days, and I will write again before that +time, sending it by Mr. Ray, who is to stop over one train at Linwood. +Wilford has just come in and says I have written enough for now, but +I will tell you how he has bought me a diamond pin and earrings, which +Esther, who knows the value of everything, says never cost less than +five hundred dollars.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"Yours, loving, KATY CAMERON."</p> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Five hundred dollars!" and Aunt Betsy held up her hands in horror, +while Helen sat a long time with the letter in her hand, cogitating upon +its contents, and especially upon the part referring to herself, and +what Mark Ray said of her.</p> + +<p>Every human heart is susceptible of flattery, and Helen was not an +entire exception. Still with her ideas of city men she could not at once +think favorably of Mark Ray, just for a few complimentary words which +might or might not have been in earnest, and she found herself looking +forward with nervous dread to the time when he would stop at Linwood, +and of course call on her, as he would bring a letter from Katy.</p> + +<p>Very sadly to the inmates of the farmhouse rose the morning of the day +when Katy was to sail, and as if they could really see the tall masts of +the vessel which was to bear her away, the eyes of the whole family were +turned often to the eastward with a wistful, anxious gaze, while on +their lips and in their hearts were earnest prayers for the safety of +that ship and the precious freight it bore. But hours, however sad, will +wear themselves away, and so the day went on, succeeded by the night, +until that too had passed and another day had come, the second of Katy's +ocean life. At the farmhouse the work was all done up, and Helen in her +neat gingham dress, with her bands of brown hair bound about her head, +sat listlessly at her sewing, when she was startled by the sound of +wheels, and looking up saw the boy employed to carry packages from the +express office, driving to their door with a trunk, which he said had +come that morning from Boston.</p> + +<p>In some surprise Helen hastened to unlock it with the key which she +found appended to it. The trunk was full, and over the whole a linen +towel was folded, while on the top of that lay a letter in Katy's +handwriting, directed to Helen, who, sitting down upon the floor, broke +the seal and read aloud as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"BOSTON, June—, Revere House,<br /> +"Nearly midnight.</p> + +<p>"MY DEAR SISTER HELEN: I have just come in from a little party given by +one of Mrs. Harvey's friends, and I am so tired, for you know I am not +accustomed to such late hours. Wilford says I will get accustomed to +them, that in New York they are seldom in bed before eleven or twelve, +but I never shall. It will kill me, I am sure, and yet I rather enjoy +the sitting up if I did not feel so wretchedly next day. The party was +very pleasant indeed, and everybody was so kind to me, especially Mr. +Ray, who stood by me all the time, and who somehow seemed to help me, so +that I knew just what to do, and was not awkward at all. I hope not, at +least for Wilford's sake.</p> + +<p>"You do not know how grand and dignified he is here in Boston among his +own set; he is so different from what he was in Silverton that I should +be afraid of him if I did not know how much he loves me. He shows that +in every action, and I am perfectly happy, except when I think that +to-morrow night at this time I shall be on the sea, going away from you +all. Here it does not seem far to Silverton, and I often look toward +home, wondering what you are doing, and if you miss me any. I wish I +could see you once before I go, just to tell you all how much I love +you—more than I ever did before, I am sure.</p> + +<p>"And now I come to the trunk. I know you will be surprised at its +contents, but you cannot be more so than I was when Wilford said I must +pack them up and send them back—all the dresses you and Marion made."</p></div> + +<p>"No, oh no," and Helen felt her strength leave her wrists in one sudden +throb as the letter dropped from her hand, while she tore off the linen +covering and saw for herself that Katy had written truly.</p> + +<p>She could not weep then, but her face was white as marble as she again +took up the letter and commenced at the point where she had broken off.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It seems that people traveling in Europe do not need many things, but +what they have must be just right, and so Mrs. Cameron wrote for Mrs. +Harvey to see to my wardrobe, and if I had not exactly what was proper +she was to procure it. It is very funny that she did not find a single +proper garment among them all, when we thought them so nice. They were +not just the style, she said, and that was very desirable in Mrs. +Wilford Cameron. Somehow she tries to impress me with the idea that Mrs. +Wilford Cameron is a very different person from little Katy Lennox, but +I can see no difference except that I am a great deal happier and have +Wilford all the time.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I was telling you, I was measured and fitted, and my figure +praised, until my head was nearly turned, only I did not like the horrid +stays they put on me, squeezing me up and making me feel so stiff. Mrs. +Harvey says no lady does without them, expressing much surprise that I +had never worn them, and so I submit to the powers that be; but every +chance I get here in my room I take them off and throw them on the +floor, where Wilford has stumbled over them two or three times.</p> + +<p>"This afternoon the dresses came home, and they do look beautifully, +while every one has belt, and gloves, and ribbons, and sashes, and laces +or muslins to match—fashionable people are so particular about these +things. I have tried them on, and except that I think them too tight, +they fit admirably, and do give me a different air from what Miss +Hazelton's did. But I really believe I like the old ones best, because +you helped to make them; and when Wilford said I must send them home, I +went where he could not see me and cried, because—well, I hardly know +why I cried, unless I feared you might feel badly. Dearest Helen, don't, +will you? I love you just as much, and shall remember you the same as if +I wore the dresses. Dearest sister, I can fancy the look that will come +on your face, and I wish I could be present to kiss it away. Imagine me +there, will you? with my arms around your neck, and tell mother not to +mind. Tell her I never loved her so well as now, and that when I come +home from Europe I shall bring her ever so many things. There is a new +black silk for her in the trunk, and one for each of the aunties, while +for you there is a lovely brown, which Wilford said was just your style, +telling me to select as nice a silk as I pleased, and this he did I +think because he guessed I had been crying. He asked what made my eyes +so red, and when I would not tell him he took me with him to the silk +store and bade me get what I liked. Oh, he is the dearest, kindest +husband, and I love him all the more because I am the least bit afraid +of him.</p> + +<p>"And now I must stop, for Wilford says so. Dear Helen, dear all of you, +I can't help crying as I say good-by. Remember little Katy, and if she +ever did anything bad, don't lay it up against her. Kiss Morris and +Uncle Ephraim, and say how much I love them. Darling sister, darling +mother, good-by."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>This was Katy's letter, and it brought a gush of tears from the four +women remembered so lovingly in it, the mother and the aunts stealing +away to weep in secret, without ever stopping to look at the new dresses +sent to them by Wilford Cameron. They were very soft, very handsome, +especially Helen's rich golden brown, and as she looked at it she felt a +thrill of satisfaction in knowing it was hers, but this quickly passed +as she took out one by one the garments she had folded with so much +care, wondering when Katy would wear each one and where she would be.</p> + +<p>"She will never wear them, never—they are not fine enough for her now!" +she exclaimed, and as she just then came upon the little plaid, she laid +her head upon the trunk lid, while her tears dropped like rain in among +the discarded articles condemned by Wilford Cameron.</p> + +<p>It seemed to her like Katy's grave, and she was still sobbing bitterly, +when a step sounded outside the window, and a voice called her name. It +was Morris, and lifting up her head Helen said, passionately:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Morris, look! he has sent back all Katy's clothes, which you bought +and I worked so hard to make. They were not good enough for his wife to +wear, and so he insulted us. Oh, Katy, I never fully realized till now +how wholly she is lost to us!"</p> + +<p>"Helen, Helen," Morris kept saying, trying to stop her, for close behind +him was Mark Ray, who heard her distinctly, and glancing in, saw her +kneeling before the trunk, her pale face stained with tears, and her +dark eyes shining with excitement.</p> + +<p>Mark Ray understood it at a glance, feeling indignant at Wilford for +thus unnecessarily wounding the sensitive girl, whose expression, as she +sat there upon the floor, with her face upturned to Morris, haunted him +for months. Mark was sorry for her—so sorry that his first impulse was +to go quietly away, and so spare her the mortification of knowing that +he had witnessed that little scene; but it was now too late. As she +finished speaking her eye fell on him, and coloring scarlet she +struggled to her feet, and covering her face with her hands wept still +more violently. Mark was in a dilemma, and whispered softly to Morris: +"I think I had better leave. You can tell her all I had to say;" but +Helen heard him, and mastering her agitation she said to him:</p> + +<p>"Please, Mr. Ray, don't go—not yet at least, not till I have asked you +of Katy. Did you see her off? Has she gone?"</p> + +<p>Thus importuned, Mark Ray came in, and sitting down where his boot +almost touched the new brown silk, he very politely began to answer her +rapid questions, putting her entirely at her ease by his pleasant, +affable manner, and making her forget the littered appearance of the +room as she listened to his praises of her sister, who, he said, seemed +so very happy, attracting universal admiration wherever she went. No +allusion whatever was made to the trunk during the time of Mark's stay, +which was not long. If he took the next train to New York, he had but an +hour more to spend, and feeling that Helen would rather he should spend +it at Linwood he soon arose to go. Offering his hand to Helen, there +passed from his eyes into hers a look which had over her a strangely +quieting influence, and prepared her for a remark which otherwise might +have seemed out of place.</p> + +<p>"I have known Wilford Cameron for years; he is my best friend, and I +respect him as a brother. In some things he may be peculiar, but he +will make your sister a kind husband. He loves her devotedly, I know, +choosing her from the throng of ladies who would gladly have taken her +place. I hope you will like him for my sake as well as Katy's."</p> + +<p>His warm hand unclasped from Helen's, and with another good-by he was +gone, without seeing either Mrs. Lennox, Aunt Hannah or Aunt Betsy. This +was not the time for extending his acquaintance, he knew, and he went +away with Morris, feeling that the farmhouse, so far as he could judge, +was not exactly what Wilford had pictured it. "But then he came for a +wife, and I did not," he thought, while Helen's face came before him +as it looked up to Morris, and he wondered, were he obliged to choose +between the sisters, which he should prefer. During the few days passed +in Boston he had become more than half in love with Katy himself, almost +envying his friend the pretty little creature he had won. She was very +beautiful and very fascinating in her simplicity, but there was +something in Helen's face more attractive than mere beauty, and Mark +said to Morris as they walked along:</p> + +<p>"Miss Lennox is not much like her sister."</p> + +<p>"Not much, no; but Helen is a splendid girl—more strength of character, +perhaps, than Katy, who is younger than her years even. She has always +been petted from babyhood; it will take time or some great sorrow to +show what she really is."</p> + +<p>This was Morris' reply, and the two then proceeded on in silence until +they reached the boundary line between Morris' farm and Uncle Ephraim's, +where they found the deacon mending a bit of broken fence, his coat +lying on a pile of stones, and his wide, blue cotton trousers hanging +loosely around him. When told who Mark was and that he brought news of +Katy, he greeted him cordially, and sitting down upon his fence listened +to all Mark had to say. Between the old and young man there seemed at +once a mutual liking, the former saying to himself as Mark went on, and +he resumed his work:</p> + +<p>"I most wish it was this chap with Katy on the sea. I like his looks the +best," while Mark's thoughts were:</p> + +<p>"Will need not be ashamed of that man, though I don't suppose I should +really want him coming suddenly in among a drawing-room full of guests."</p> + +<p>Morris did not feel much like entertaining Mark, but Mark was fully +competent to entertain himself, and thought the hour spent at Linwood a +very pleasant one, half wishing for some excuse to tarry longer; but +there was none, and so at the appointed time he bade Morris good-by and +went on his way to New York.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" ></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>FIRST MONTH OF MARRIED LIFE.</h3> + + +<p>If Katy's letters, written, one on board the steamer and another from +London, were to be trusted, she was as nearly perfectly happy as a young +bride well can be, and the people at the farmhouse felt themselves more +and more kindly disposed toward Wilford Cameron with each letter +received. They were going soon into the northern part of England, and +from thence into Scotland, Katy wrote from London, and two weeks after +found them comfortably settled at the inn at Alnwick, near to Alnwick +Castle. Wilford had seemed very anxious to get there, leaving London +before Katy was quite ready to leave, and hurrying across the country +until Alnwick was reached. He had been there before, years ago, he said, +but no one seemed to recognize him, though all paid due respect to the +distinguished-looking American and his beautiful young wife. An entrance +into Alnwick Castle was easily obtained, and Katy felt that all her +girlish dreams of grandeur and magnificence were more than realized +here in this home of the Percys, where ancient and modern styles of +architecture and furnishing were so blended together. She would never +tire of that place, she thought, but Wilford's taste led him elsewhere, +and he took more delight, it would appear, in wandering around St. +Mary's Church, which stood upon a hill commanding a view of the castle +and of the surrounding country for miles away. Here Katy also came, +rambling with him through the village graveyard where slept the dust of +centuries, the gray, mossy tombstones bearing date backward for more +than a hundred years, their quaint inscriptions both puzzling and +amusing Katy, who studied them by the hour.</p> + +<p>One quiet summer morning, however, when the heat was unusually great, +she felt too listless to wander about, and so sat upon the grass, +listening to the birds as they sang above her head, while Wilford, at +some distance from her, stood leaning against a tree and thinking sad, +regretful thoughts, as his eye rested upon the rough headstone at his +feet.</p> + +<p>"Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," was the lettering upon it, and as he +read it a feeling of reproach was in his heart, while he said: "I hope I +am not glad to know that she is dead."</p> + +<p>He had come to Alnwick for the sole purpose of finding that humble +grave, of assuring himself that after life's fitful fever, Genevra +Lambert slept quietly, forgetful of the wrong once done to her by him. +It is true he had not doubted her death before, but as seeing was +believing, so now he felt sure of it, and plucking from the turf above +her a little flower growing there, he went back to Katy and sitting down +beside her with his arm around her waist, tried to devise some way of +telling her what he had promised himself he would tell her there in that +very yard, where Genevra was buried. But the task was harder now than +before. Katy was so happy with him, trusting his love so fully that he +dared not lift the veil and read to her that page hinted at once before +in Silverton, when they sat beneath the butternut tree, with the fresh +young grass springing around them. Then, she was not his wife, and the +fear that she would not be if he told her all had kept him silent, but +now she was his alone; nothing could undo that, and there, in the shadow +of the gray old church through whose aisles Genevra had been borne out +to where the rude headstone was gleaming in the English sunlight, it +seemed meet that he should tell her sad story. And Katy would have +forgiven him then, for not a shadow of regret had darkened her life +since it was linked with his, and in her perfect love she could have +pardoned much. But Wilford did not tell. It was not needful; he made +himself believe—not necessary for her ever to know that once he met a +maiden called Genevra, almost as beautiful as she, but never so beloved. +No, never. Wilford said that truly, when that night he bent over his +sleeping Katy, comparing her face with Genevra's, and his love for her +with his love for Genevra.</p> + +<p>"That was a boyish fancy, this love of mature years," and Wilford +pressed a kiss upon Katy's pure forehead, showing so white in the +moonlight.</p> + +<p>Wilford was very fond of his girlish wife and very proud of her, too, +when strangers paused, as they often did, to look back after her. Thus +far nothing had arisen to mar the happiness of his first weeks of +married life; nothing except the letters from Silverton, over which Katy +always cried, until he sometimes wished that the family could not write. +But they could and they did; even Aunt Betsy inclosed in Helen's letter +a note, wonderful both in orthography and composition, and concluding +with the remark that she would be glad when Catherine returned and was +settled in a home of her own, as she would then have a new place to +visit.</p> + +<p>There was a dark frown on Wilford's face, and for a moment he felt +tempted to withhold the note from Katy, but this he could not do then, +so he gave it into her hands, watching her as with burning cheeks, she +read it through, and asking her at its close why she looked so red.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Wilford," and she crept closely to him, "Aunt Betsy spells so +queerly, that I was wishing you would not always open my letters first. +Do all husbands do so?"</p> + +<p>It was the only time Katy had ventured to question a single act of his, +submitting without a word to whatever was his will. Wilford knew that +his father would never have presumed to break a seal belonging to his +mother, but he had broken Katy's and he should continue breaking them, +so he answered, laughingly;</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, I guess they do. My little wife has surely no secrets to hide +from me?"</p> + +<p>"No secrets," Katy answered, "only I did not want you to see Aunt +Betsy's letter, that's all."</p> + +<p>"I did not marry Aunt Betsy—I married you," was Wilford's reply; which +meant far more than Katy guessed.</p> + +<p>With three thousand miles between him and his wife's relatives, Wilford +could endure to think of them; but whenever letters came to Katy bearing +the Silverton postmark, he was conscious of a far different sensation +from what he experienced when the postmark was New York and the +handwriting that of his own family. But not in any way did this feeling +manifest itself to Katy, who, as she always wrote to Helen, was very, +very happy, and never more so, perhaps, than while they were at Alnwick, +where, as if he had something for which to atone, he was unusually kind +and indulgent, caressing her with unwonted tenderness, and making her +ask him once if he loved her a great deal more now than when they were +first married.</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling, a great deal more," was Wilford's answer, as he kissed +her upturned face, and then went for the last time to Genevra's grave; +for on the morrow they were to leave the neighborhood of Alnwick for the +heather blooms of Scotland.</p> + +<p>There was a trip to Edinburgh, a stormy passage across the Straits of +Dover, a two months' sojourn in Paris, and then they went to Rome, where +Wilford intended to pass the winter, journeying in the spring through +different parts of Europe. He was in no haste to return to America; he +would rather stay where he could have Katy all to himself, away from her +family and his own. But it was not so to be, and not very long after his +arrival at Rome there came a letter from his mother apprising him of his +father's dangerous illness, and asking him to come home at once. The +elder Cameron had not been well since Wilford left the country, and the +physician was fearful that the disease had assumed a consumptive form, +Mrs. Cameron wrote, adding that her husband's only anxiety was to see +his son again. To this there was no demur, and about the first of +December, six months from the time he had sailed, Wilford arrived in +Boston, having taken a steamer for that city. His first act was to +telegraph for news of his father, receiving a reply that he was better; +the alarming symptoms had disappeared, and there was now great hope of +his recovery.</p> + +<p>"We might have stayed longer in Europe," Katy said, feeling a little +chill of disappointment—not that her father-in-law was better, but at +being called home for nothing, when her life abroad was so happy and +free from care.</p> + +<p>Somehow the atmosphere of America seemed different from what it used +to be. It was colder, bluer, the little lady said, tapping her foot +uneasily and looking from her windows at the Revere out upon the snowy +streets, through which the wintry wind was blowing in heavy gales.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is a heap colder," she sighed, as she returned to the large +chair which Esther had drawn for her before the cheerful fire, charging +her disquiet to the weather once, never dreaming of imputing it to her +husband, who was far more its cause than was the December cold.</p> + +<p>He, too, though glad of his father's improvement, was sorry to have been +recalled for nothing to a country which brought his old life back again, +with all its forms and ceremonies, reviving his dread lest Katy should +not acquit herself as was becoming Mrs. Wilford Cameron. In his +selfishness he had kept her almost wholly to himself, so that the polish +she was to acquire from her travels abroad was not as perceptible as, +now that he looked at her with his family's eyes, he could desire. Katy +was Katy still, in spite of London, Paris, or Rome. To be sure there +was about her a little more maturity and self-assurance, but in all +essential points she was the same; and Wilford winced as he thought how +the free, impulsive manner which, among the Scottish hills, where there +was no one to criticise, had been so charming to him, would shock his +lady mother and Sister Juno. And this it was which made him moody and +silent, replying hastily to Katy when she said to him: "Please, Wilford, +telegraph to Helen to be with mother at the West depot when we pass +there to-morrow. The train stops five minutes, you know, and I want to +see them so much. Will you, Wilford?"</p> + +<p>She had come up to him now, and was standing behind him, with her hands +upon his shoulder; so she did not see the expression of his face as he +answered quickly;</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes."</p> + +<p>A moment after he quitted the room, and it was then that Katy, standing +before the window, charged the day with what was strictly Wilford's +fault. Returning at last to her chair she went off into a reverie as to +the new home to which she was going and the new friends she was to meet, +wondering much what they would think of her, and wondering most if they +would like her. Once she had said to Wilford:</p> + +<p>"Which of your sisters shall I like best?"</p> + +<p>And Wilford had answered her by asking:</p> + +<p>"Which do you like best, books or going to parties in full dress?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, parties and dress," Katy had said, and Wilford had then rejoined:</p> + +<p>"You will like Juno best, for she is all fashion and gayety, while +Bluebell prefers her books and the quiet of her own room."</p> + +<p>Katy felt afraid of Bell, and in fact, now that they were so near, she +felt afraid of them all, notwithstanding Esther's assurances that they +could not help loving her. During the six months they had been together +Esther had learned to feel for her young lady that strong affection +which sometimes exists between mistress and servant. Everything which +she could do for her she did, smoothing as much as possible the meeting +which she also dreaded, for though the Camerons were too proud to +express before her their opinion of Wilford's choice, she had guessed it +readily, and pitied the young wife brought up with ideas so different +from those of her husband's family. More accustomed to Wilford's moods +than Katy, she saw that something was the matter, and it prompted her to +unusual attentions, stirring the fire into a still more cheerful blaze +and bringing a stool for Katy, who in blissful ignorance of her +husband's real feelings, sat waiting his return from the telegraph +office, whither she supposed he had gone, and building pleasant pictures +of to-morrow's meeting with her mother and Helen, and possibly Dr. +Morris, if not Uncle Ephraim himself.</p> + +<p>The voyage home had been long and wearisome, and Katy, who had suffered +from seasickness, was feeling jaded and tired, wishing, as she told +Esther, that instead of going to New York direct she could go straight +to the farmhouse and "rest on mother's bed," that receptacle for all her +childish ills.</p> + +<p>"I mean to ask Wilford if I may," she said to herself, and her cheeks +grew brighter as she thought of really going home to mother and Helen +and the kind old people who would pet and love her so much.</p> + +<p>So absorbed was she in her reverie as not to hear Wilford's step as he +came in, but when he stood behind her and took her head playfully +between his hands, she started up, feeling that the weather had changed; +it was not as cold and dreary in Boston as she imagined, neither did +mother's bed seem as desirable a place to rest upon as the shoulder +where she laid her head, playing with Wilford's buttons, and saying to +him at last:</p> + +<p>"You went out to telegraph, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>He had gone out with the intention of telegraphing as she desired, but +in the hall below he had met with an old acquaintance who talked with +him so long that he entirely forgot his errand until Katy recalled it to +his mind, making him feel very uncomfortable as he frankly told her of +his forgetfulness.</p> + +<p>"It is too late now," he added; "besides you could only see them for a +moment, just long enough to make you cry—a thing I do not greatly +desire, inasmuch as I wish my wife to look her best when I present her +to my family, and with red eyes she couldn't, you know."</p> + +<p>Katy knew it was settled, and choking back her tears she tried to +listen, while Wilford, having fairly broken the ice with regard to his +family, told her how anxious he was that she should make a good first +impression upon his mother. Did Katy remember that Mrs. Morey whom they +met at Paris, and could she not throw a little of her air into her +manner—that is, could she not drop her girlishness when in the presence +of others and be a little more dignified? When alone with him he liked +to have her just what she was, a loving, affectionate little wife, but +the world looked on such things differently. Would Katy try?</p> + +<p>Wilford, when he commenced, had no definite idea as to what he should +say, and without meaning it he made Katy moan piteously:</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean. I would do anything if I knew how. Tell me, +how shall I be dignified?"</p> + +<p>She was crying so hard that Wilford, while mentally calling himself a +fool and a brute, could only try to comfort her, telling her she need +not be anything but what she was—that his mother and sisters would love +her just as he did—and that daily association with them would teach her +all that was necessary.</p> + +<p>Katy's tears were stopped at last; but the frightened, anxious look did +not leave her face, even though Wilford tried his best to divert her +mind. A nervous terror of her new relations had gained possession of her +heart, and nearly the entire night she lay awake, pondering in her mind +what Wilford had said, and thinking how terrible it would be if he +should be disappointed in her after all. The consequence of this was +that a very white, tired face sat opposite Wilford next morning at the +breakfast served in their private parlor; nor did it look much fresher +even after they were in the cars and rolling out of Boston. But when +Worcester was reached, and the old home waymarks began to grow familiar, +the color came stealing back, until the cheeks burned with an unnatural +red, and the blue eyes fairly danced as they rested on the hills of +Silverton.</p> + +<p>"Only three miles from mother and Helen! Oh, if I could go there!" Katy +thought, working her fingers nervously; but the express train did not +pause there, and it went so swiftly by the depot that Katy could hardly +discover who was standing there, whether friend or stranger.</p> + +<p>But when at last they came to West Silverton, and the long train slowly +stopped, the first object she saw was Dr. Morris, driving down from the +village. He had no intention of going to the depot, and only checked his +horse a moment, lest it should prove restive if too near the engine; but +when a clear young voice called from the window: "Morris! oh, Cousin +Morris! I've come!" his heart gave a great heavy throb, for he knew +whose voice that was and whose the little hand beckoning to him. He had +supposed her far away beneath Italian skies, for at the farmhouse no +intelligence had been received of her intended return, and in much +surprise he reined up to the rear door, and throwing his lines to a boy, +went forward to where Katy stood, her face glowing with delight as she +flew into his arms, wholly forgetful of the last night's lecture on +dignity, also forgetful of Wilford, standing close beside her. He had +not tried to hold her back when, at the sight of Morris, she sprang away +from him; but he followed after, biting his lip, and wishing she had a +little more discretion. Surely it was not necessary to half strangle Dr. +Grant as she was doing, kissing his hand even after she had kissed his +face a full half dozen times, and all the people looking on. But Katy +did not care for people. She only knew that Morris was there—the Morris +whom, in her great happiness abroad, she had perhaps slighted by not +writing directly to him but once. In Wilford's sheltering care she had +not felt the need of this good cousin, as she used to do; but she was so +glad to see him, wondering why he looked so thin and sad. Was he sick? +she asked, gazing up into his face with a pitying look, which made him +shiver as he answered:</p> + +<p>"No, not sick, though tired, perhaps, as I have at present an unusual +amount of work to do."</p> + +<p>And this was true—he was usually busy. But that was not the cause of +the thin face, which others than Katy remarked. Helen's words: "It might +have been," spoken to him on the night of Katy's bridal, had never left +his mind, much as he had tried to dislodge them. Some men can love a +dozen times; but it was not so with Morris. He could overcome his love +so that it should not be a sin, but no other could ever fill the place +where Katy had been; and as he looked along the road through life he +felt that he must travel it alone. Truly, if Katy were not yet passing +through the fire, he was, and it had left its mark upon him, purifying +as it burned, and bringing his every act into closer submission to his +God. Only Helen and Marian Hazelton interpreted aright that look upon +his face, and knew it came from the hunger of his heart, but they kept +silence; while others said that he was working far too hard, urging him +to abate his unwearied labors, for they would not lose their young +physician yet. But Morris smiled his patient, kindly smile on all their +fears and went his way, doing his work as one who knew he must render +strict account for the popularity he was daily gaining, both in his own +town and those around. He could think of Katy now without a sin, but he +was not thinking of her when she came so unexpectedly upon him, and for +an instant she almost bore his breath away in her vehement joy.</p> + +<p>Quick to note a change in those he knew, he saw that her form was not +quite so full, nor her cheeks so round; but she was weary with the +voyage, she said, and knowing how seasickness will wear upon one's +strength, Morris imputed it wholly to that, and believed she was, as +she professed to be, perfectly happy.</p> + +<p>"Come, Katy, we must go now," Wilford said, as the bell rang its first +alarm, and the passengers, some with sandwiches and some with fried +cakes in their hands, ran back to find their seats.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know, but I have not asked half I meant to. Oh, how I want to go +home with you, Morris," Katy exclaimed, again throwing her arms around +the doctor's neck as she bade him good-by, and sent fresh messages of +love to the friends at home, who, had they known she was to be there at +that time, would have walked the entire distance for the sake of looking +once more into her dear face.</p> + +<p>"I intended to have brought them heaps of things," she said, "but we +came home so suddenly I had no time. Here, take Helen this. Tell her +it is real," and the impulsive creature drew from her finger a small +diamond set in black enamel, which Wilford had bought in Paris. "She did +not need it; she had two more, and she was sure Wilford would not mind," +she said, turning to him for his approbation.</p> + +<p>But Wilford did mind, and his face indicated as much, although he tried +to be natural as he replied: "Certainly, send it if you like."</p> + +<p>In her excitement Katy did not observe it, but Morris did, and he at +first declined taking it, saying Helen had no use for it and would be +better pleased with something not half as valuable. Katy, however, +insisted, appealing to Wilford, who, ashamed of his first emotion, now +seemed quite as anxious as Katy herself, until Morris placed the ring +in his purse, and then bade Katy hasten or she would certainly be left. +One more wave of the hand, one more kiss thrown from the window, and the +train moved on, Katy feeling like a different creature for having seen +some one from home.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad I saw him—so glad I sent the ring, for now they will know +I am the same Katy Lennox, and I think Helen sometimes feared I might +get proud with you," she said, while Wilford pulled her rich fur around +her, smiling to see how bright and pretty she was looking since that +meeting with Dr. Grant. "It was better than medicine," Katy said, when +beyond Springfield he referred to it a second time, and leaning her head +upon his shoulder she fell into a refreshing sleep, from which she did +not waken until New York was reached, and Wilford, lifting her gently +up, whispered to her: "Come, darling, we are home at last."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" ></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>KATY'S FIRST EVENING IN NEW YORK.</h3> + + +<p>The elder Cameron was really better, and more than once he had regretted +recalling his son, who he knew had contemplated a longer stay abroad. +But that could not now be helped; Wilford had arrived in Boston, as +his telegram of yesterday announced—he would be at home to-day; and +No —— Fifth Avenue was all the morning and a portion of the afternoon +the scene of unusual excitement, for both Mrs. Cameron and her daughters +wished to give the six months' wife a good impression of her new home. +At first they thought of inviting company to dinner, but to this the +father objected. "Katy should not be troubled the first day," he said; +"it was bad enough for her to meet them all; they could ask Mark if they +chose, but no one else."</p> + +<p>And so only Mark Ray was invited to the dinner, gotten up as elaborately +as if a princess had been expected instead of little Katy, trembling in +every joint, when, about four P.M., Wilford awoke her at the depot and +whispered: "Come, darling, we are home at last."</p> + +<p>"Why do you shiver so?" he asked, wrapping her cloak around her, and +almost lifting her from the car.</p> + +<p>"I don't—know. I guess—I'm cold," and Katy drew a long breath as she +thought of Silverton and the farmhouse, wishing so much that she was +going into its low-walled kitchen, where the cook-stove was, and where +the chairs were all splint-bottomed, instead of into the handsome +carriage, where the cushions were so soft and yielding, and the whole +effect so grand.</p> + +<p>She knew it was the Cameron carriage, for Wilford had said it would meet +them; but she had not expected it to be just what it was, and she bowed +humbly to the polite coachman greeting Wilford and herself so +respectfully. "What would our folks say?" she kept repeating to herself +as she drove along the streets, where they were beginning to light the +street lamps, for the December day was dark and cloudy. It seemed so +like a dream that she, who once had picked huckleberries on the +Silverton hills, and bound coarse, heavy shoes to buy herself a pink +gingham dress, should now be riding in her carriage toward the home +which she knew was magnificent; and Katy's tears fell like rain as, +nestling close to Wilford, who asked what was the matter, she whispered: +"I can hardly believe that it is I—it is so unreal."</p> + +<p>"Please don't cry," Wilford rejoined, brushing her tears away. "You know +I don't like your eyes to be red."</p> + +<p>With a great effort, Katy kept her tears back, and was very calm when +they reached the brownstone front, far enough uptown to save it from +the slightest approach to plebeianism from contact with its downtown +neighbors. In the hall the chandelier was burning, and as the carriage +stopped a flame of light seemed suddenly to burst from every window as +the gas heads were turned up, so that Katy caught glimpses of rich +silken curtains and costly lace as she went up the steps, clinging to +Wilford and looking ruefully around for Esther, who had disappeared +through the basement door. Another moment and they stood within the +marbled hall, Katy conscious of nothing definite—nothing but a vague +consciousness of refined elegance, and that a handsome, richly-dressed +lady came out to meet them, kissing Wilford quietly, and calling him her +son—that the same lady later turned to her, saying, kindly: "And this +is my new daughter?"</p> + +<p>Then Katy came to life, and did that at the very thought of which she +shuddered when a few months' experience had taught her the temerity of +the act—she wound her arms impulsively around Mrs. Cameron's neck, +rumpling her point lace collar, and sadly displacing the coiffeur of the +astonished lady, who had seldom received so genuine a greeting as that +which Katy gave her, kissing her lips and whispering softly: "I love you +now, because you are Wilford's mother, but by and by because you are +mine. And you will love me some because I am his wife."</p> + +<p>Wilford was horrified, particularly when he saw how startled his mother +looked as she tried to release herself and adjust her tumbled headgear. +It was not what he had hoped, nor what his mother had expected, for she +was unaccustomed to such demonstrations; but under the circumstances +Katy could not have done better. There was a tender spot in Mrs. +Cameron's heart, and Katy touched it, making her feel a throb of +affection for the childish creature suing for her love.</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling, I love you now," she said, removing Katy's clinging arms +and taking care that they should not enfold her a second time. "You are +tired and cold," she continued; "you had better go at once to your +rooms. You will find them in order, and I will send Esther up. There is +plenty of time to dress for dinner," and with a wave of her hand she +dismissed Katy up the stairs, noticing as she went the exquisite +softness of her fur cloak; but thinking it too heavy a garment for her +slight figure, and noticing, too, the graceful ankle and foot which the +little high-heeled gaiter showed to good advantage. "I did not see her +face distinctly, but she has a well-turned instep and walks easily," was +the report she carried to her daughters, who in their own room, over +Katy's, were dressing for dinner.</p> + +<p>"She will undoubtedly make a good dancer, then, unless like Dr. Grant, +she is too blue for that," Juno said, while Bell shrugged her shoulders, +congratulating herself that she had a mind above such frivolous matters +as dancing and well-turned insteps, and wondering if Katy cared in the +least for books.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you see her face at all, mother?" Juno asked.</p> + +<p>"Scarcely; but the glimpse I did get was satisfactory. I think she is +pretty."</p> + +<p>And this was all the sisters could ascertain until their toilets were +finished, and they went down into the library, where their brother +waited for them. He had seen his father and Jamie, and now he arose to +meet his sisters, kissing them both affectionately, and complimenting +them on their good looks.</p> + +<p>"I wish we could say the same of you," saucy Juno answered, playfully +pulling his mustache; "but, upon my word, Will, you are fast settling +down into an oldish married man, even turning gray," and she ran her +fingers through his dark hair, where there was now and then a thread of +silver. "Disappointed in your domestic relations, eh?" she continued, +looking him archly in the face.</p> + +<p>Wilford was rather proud of his good looks, and during his sojourn +abroad, Katy had not helped him any in overcoming this weakness, but, on +the contrary, had fed his vanity by constant flattery. And still he was +himself conscious of not looking quite as well as usual just now, for +the sea voyage had tired him as well as Katy, but he did not care to be +told of it, and Juno's ill-timed remarks aroused him at once, +particularly as they reflected somewhat on Katy.</p> + +<p>"I assure you I am not disappointed," he answered, "and the six months +of my married life have been the happiest I ever knew. Katy is more than +I expected her to be."</p> + +<p>Juno elevated her eyebrows slightly, but made no direct reply, while +Bell began to ask about Paris and the places he had visited.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Katy had been ushered into her room, which was directly over +the library and separated from Mrs. Cameron's only by a range of closets +and presses, a portion of which were to be appropriated to her own use. +Great pains had been taken to make her rooms attractive, and as the +large bay window in the library below extended to the third story, it +was really the pleasantest chamber in the house. To Katy it was perfect, +and her first exclamation was one of delight.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how pleasant, how beautiful," she cried, skipping across the soft +carpet to the warm fire blazing in the grate. "A bay window, too, when I +like them so much, and such handsome curtains and furniture. I shall be +happy here."</p> + +<p>But happy as she was, Katy could not help feeling tired, and she sank +into one of the luxurious easy-chairs, wishing she could stay there all +the evening, instead of going down to that formidable dinner with her +new relations. How she dreaded it, especially when she remembered that +Mrs. Cameron had said there would be plenty of time to dress, a thing +which Katy hated, the process was so tiresome, particularly to-night. +Surely, her handsome traveling dress, made in Paris, was good enough, +and she was about settling in her own mind to venture upon wearing it, +when Esther demolished her castle at once.</p> + +<p>"Wear your traveling habit!" she exclaimed, "when the young ladies, +especially Miss Juno, are so particular about their dinner costume? +There would be no end to the scolding I should get for suffering it. So +there's no help, you see," and she began good-naturedly to remove her +mistress' collar and pin, while Katy, standing up, sighed as she said; +"I wish I was in Silverton to-night. I could wear anything there. What +must I put on? How I dread it!" and she began to shiver again.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for Katy, Esther had been in the family long enough to know +just what they regarded as proper, as by this means the dress selected, +a delicate pearl-colored silk was sure to please. It was very becoming +to Katy, and having been made in Paris, was not open to criticism. +Esther's taste was perfect, so that Katy was never over-dressed, and she +was very simple and pretty this night, with the rich, soft lace around +her neck and around her white, plump arms, where the golden bands were +shining.</p> + +<p>"Very pretty, indeed," was Mrs. Cameron's verdict when at half-past five +she knocked at the door and then came in to see her daughter, kissing +her cheek and stroking her head, wholly unadorned, except by the short, +silken curls which could not be coaxed to grow faster than they chose, +and which had sometimes annoyed Wilford. They made his wife seem so +young beside him. Mrs. Cameron was annoyed, too, for she had no idea +of a head, except as it was connected with a hairdresser, and her +annoyance showed itself as she asked:</p> + +<p>"Did you have your hair cut on purpose?"</p> + +<p>But when Katy explained, she answered, pleasantly:</p> + +<p>"Never mind; it is a fault which will mend every day, only it makes you +look like a child."</p> + +<p>"I am eighteen and a half," Katy said, feeling a lump rising in her +throat, for she guessed that her mother-in-law was not quite pleased +with her hair.</p> + +<p>For herself, she liked it; it was so easy to brush and fix. She should +go wild if she had to submit to all Esther had told her of hairdressing +and what it involved.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron had asked if she would not like to see Mr. Cameron, the +elder, before going down to dinner, and Katy had answered that she +would; so as soon as Esther had smoothed a refractory fold and brought +her handkerchief, she followed to the room where Wilford's father was +sitting. He might not have felt complimented could he have known that +something in his appearance reminded Katy of Uncle Ephraim. He was not +nearly as old or as tall, nor was his hair as white, but the +resemblance, if there were any, lay in the smile with which he greeted +Katy, calling her his youngest child, and drawing her closely to him.</p> + +<p>It was remarked of Mr. Cameron that since their babyhood he had never +kissed one of his own children; but when Katy, who looked upon such a +salutation as a matter of course, put up her rosy lips, making the first +advance, he could not resist them, and he kissed her twice. Hearty, +honest kisses they were, for the man was strongly drawn toward the young +girl, who said to him, timidly:</p> + +<p>"I am glad to have a father—mine died before I could remember him. May +I call you so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; God bless you, my child," and Mr. Cameron's voice shook as he +said it, for neither Bell nor Juno were wont to address him just as Katy +did—Katy, standing close to him, with her hand upon his shoulder and +her kiss yet fresh upon his lips.</p> + +<p>She had already crept a long way into his heart, and he took her hand +from his shoulder and holding it between his own, said to her:</p> + +<p>"I did not think you were so small or young. You are my little +daughter, my baby, instead of my son's wife. How do you ever expect +to fulfill the duties of Mrs. Wilford Cameron?"</p> + +<p>"It's my short hair, sir. I am not so young," Katy answered, her eyes +filling with tears as she began to wish back the heavy braids which +Helen cut away when the fever was at its height.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, child," Mr. Cameron rejoined, playfully. "Youth is no +reproach; there's many a one would give their right hand to be young +like you. Juno, for instance, who is—"</p> + +<p>"Hus-band!" came reprovingly from Mrs. Cameron, spoken as only she could +speak it, with a prolonged buzzing sound on the first syllable, and +warning the husband that he was venturing too far.</p> + +<p>"It is time to go down if Mrs. Cameron sees the young ladies before +dinner," she said, a little stiffly; whereupon her better half startled +Katy with the exclamation:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Cameron! Thunder and lightning, wife, call her Katy, and don't go +into any nonsense of that kind."</p> + +<p>The lady reddened, but said nothing until she reached the hall, when she +whispered to Katy, apologetically:</p> + +<p>"Don't mind it. He is rather irritable since his illness, and sometimes +makes use of coarse language."</p> + +<p>Katy had been a little frightened at the outburst, but she liked Mr. +Cameron, notwithstanding, and her heart was lighter as she went down to +the library, where Wilford met her at the door, and taking her on his +arm led her in to his sisters, holding her back as he presented her, +lest she should assault them as she had his mother. But Katy felt no +desire to hug the tall, queenly girl whom Wilford introduced as Juno, +and whose large, black eyes seemed to read her through as she offered +her hand and very daintily kissed her forehead, murmuring something +about a welcome to New York. Bell came next, broad-faced, +plainer-looking Bell, who yet had many pretentions to beauty, but whose +manner, if possible, was frostier, cooler, than her sister's. Of the +two, Katy liked Juno best, for there was about her a flash and sparkle +very fascinating to one who had never seen anything of the kind and did +not know that much of this vivacity was the result of patient study and +practice. Katy would have known they were high-bred, as the world +defines high breeding, and something in their manner reminded her of the +ladies she had seen abroad, ladies in whose veins lordly blood was +flowing. She could not help feeling uncomfortable in their presence, +especially as she felt that Juno's black eyes were on her constantly. +Not that she could ever meet them looking at her, for they darted away +the instant hers were raised, but she knew just when they returned to +her again, and how closely they were scanning her.</p> + +<p>"Your wife looks tired, Will. Let her sit down," Bell said, herself +wheeling the easy-chair nearer to the fire, while Wilford placed Katy in +it; then, thinking she would get on better if he were not there, he left +the room, and Katy was alone with her new sisters.</p> + +<p>Juno had examined her dress and found no fault with it, simply because +it was Parisian make; while Bell had examined her head, deciding that +there might be something in it, though she doubted it, but that, at all +events, short hair was very becoming to it, showing all its fine +proportions, and half deciding to have her own locks cut away. Juno had +a similar thought, wondering if it were the Paris fashion, and if she +would look as young in proportion as Katy did were her hair worn on her +neck.</p> + +<p>With their brother's departure, the tongues of both the girls were +loosened, and standing near to Katy, they began to question her of what +she had seen, Juno asking if she did not hate to leave Italy, and did +not wish herself back again. Wholly truthful, Katy answered: "Oh, yes, +I was very sorry, I would rather be there than here."</p> + +<p>"Complimentary to us, very," Bell murmured audibly in French, blushing +as Katy's eyes were lifted quickly to hers, and she knew she was +understood.</p> + +<p>If there was anything which Katy liked more than another in the way of +study, it was French. She had excelled in it at Canandaigua, and while +abroad had taken great pains to acquire a pure pronunciation, so that +she spoke it with a good deal of fluency, and readily comprehended Bell.</p> + +<p>"I did not mean to be rude," she said, earnestly. "I liked Italy so +much, and we expected to stay longer; but that does not hinder my liking +to be here. I hope I did not offend you."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not; you are an honest little puss," Bell replied, placing +her hand caressingly upon the curly head laying back so wearily on the +chair. "Here in New York we have a bad way of not telling the whole +truth, but you will soon be used to it."</p> + +<p>"Used to not telling the truth! Oh, I hope not!" and this time the blue +eyes lifted so wonderingly to Bell's face had in them a startled look.</p> + +<p>"Simpleton," was Juno's comment, while Bell's was: "I rather like the +child," as she continued to smooth the golden curls and wound them +around her finger, wondering if Katy had a taste for metaphysics, that +being the last branch of science which she had taken up.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you will find Will a pattern husband," Juno said, after a +moment's pause, and Katy replied: "There never could be a better, I am +sure, and I have been very happy."</p> + +<p>"Has he never said one cross word to you in all these six months?" was +Juno's next question, to which Katy answered, truthfully: "Never."</p> + +<p>"And lets you do as you please?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, just as I please," Katy replied, while Juno continued: "He must +have changed greatly, then, from what he used to be; but marriage has +probably improved him. He tells you all his secrets, too, I presume?"</p> + +<p>Anxious that Wilford should appear well in every light, Katy replied at +random: "Yes, if he has any."</p> + +<p>"Well, then," and in Juno's black eyes there was a wicked look, "perhaps +you will tell me who was or is the original of that picture he guards so +carefully?"</p> + +<p>"What picture?" and Katy looked up inquiringly, while Juno, with a +little sarcastic laugh, continued: "Oh, he has not told you, then. I +thought he would not, he seemed so angry and annoyed when he saw me with +it once three or four years ago. I found it in his room, where he had +accidentally left it, and was looking at it when he came in. It was the +picture of a young girl, who must have been very beautiful, and I did +not blame Will for loving her, if he ever did, but he need not have been +so indignant at me for wishing to know who it was. I never saw him so +angry or so much disturbed. I hope you will ferret the secret out and +tell me, for I have a great deal of curiosity, fancying that picture +had something to do with his remaining so long a bachelor. I do not mean +that he does not love you," she added, as she saw how white Katy grew. +"It is not to be expected that a man can live to be thirty without +loving more than one. There was Sybil Grey, a famous belle, whom I +thought at one time he would marry; but when Judge Grandon offered she +accepted, and Will was left in the lurch. I do not really believe he +cared, though, for Sybil was too much of a flirt to suit his jealous +lordship, and I will do him the justice to say that, however many +fancies he may have had, he likes you best of all," and this Juno felt +constrained to say because of the look in Katy's face, a look which +warned her that in her thoughtlessness she had gone too far and pierced +the young wife's heart with a pang as cruel as it was unnecessary.</p> + +<p>Bell had tried to stop her, but she had rattled on until now it was too +late, and she could not recall her words, however much she might wish to +do so. "Don't tell Will," she was about to say, when Will himself +appeared, to take Katy out to dinner. Very beautiful and sad were the +blue eyes which looked up at him so wistfully, and nothing but the +remembrance of Juno's words, "He likes you best of all," kept Katy from +crying outright, when he took her hand, passing it between his own and +asking if she was tired.</p> + +<p>"Let us try what dinner will do for you," he said, and in silence Katy +went with him to the pleasant dining-room, where the glare and the +ceremony bewildered her, bringing a homesick feeling as she thought of +Silverton, contrasting the elegance around her with the plain tea table, +graced with the mulberry set instead of the costly china before her.</p> + +<p>Never had Katy felt so embarrassed in her life as she did this night, +when seated for the first time at dinner in her husband's home, with all +those criticising eyes upon her, as she knew they were. She had been +very hungry, but her appetite was gone, and she almost loathed the rich +food offered her, feeling so glad when the dinner was ended, and Wilford +asked if she would go then to Jamie's room. He was sitting in his +wheel-chair when they went in, and his eyes turned eagerly toward them, +lighting up with pleasure when Wilford said: "This is your Aunt Katy. +You will love each other, I am sure."</p> + +<p>That they would love each other was very apparent from the kisses Katy +pressed upon his lips, and the way in which his arms clung around her +neck as he said: "I am glad you have come, Aunt Katy, and you will tell +me of the good doctor. He is your cousin, Uncle Wilford says."</p> + +<p>With Jamie Katy was perfectly at her ease. There was some affinity +between him and herself, and she was glad when Wilford left them alone, +as he wisely did, going back to where his mother and sisters were freely +discussing his bride, his mother calling her a mere child, who would +improve, and Juno saying she had neither manner nor style, while Bell +offered no opinion, except that she was pretty. A part of these +criticisms Wilford heard, and they made his blood tingle, for he had +great faith in their opinions, even though he sometimes savagely +combated them, and into his heart there crept a slight feeling of +dissatisfaction toward Katy, now kneeling on the floor by Jamie's side, +and with her head almost in his lap, talking to him of Morris Grant, +whose very name had a strange power to soothe her.</p> + +<p>"You don't seem like an aunt," Jamie said at last, smoothing her short +hair; "you look so like a girl. I wonder, must I call you so? I guess +I must, though, for Uncle Will told me to, and we all mind him, grandma +and all! Do you?" and the child looked curiously at her.</p> + +<p>Had Jamie's question been put to her two weeks ago, she would have +hesitated in her answer, and even now she had not waked to the fact that +in all essential points her husband's wish was the law she could not +help obey, but she replied, laughingly: "Yes, I mind him," while Jamie +continued: "I love him so much, and he loves us and you. I heard him +tell grandma so, and by his voice I knew he was in earnest. He never +loved any one half so well before, he said, not even—somebody—I forget +who—a funny name it was."</p> + +<p>Katy felt almost as if she were doing wrong, but remembering what Juno +had said of Sybil Grey, she faintly asked:</p> + +<p>"Was Sybil the name?"</p> + +<p>Jamie hardly thought it was. It seemed more like some town; still, it +might have been, he said, and Katy's heart grew lighter, for Juno's idle +words had troubled her, and Sybil Grey most of all; but if her husband +now loved her best, she did not care so much; and when Wilford came for +her to join them in the parlor, he found her like herself both in looks +and spirits. Mark Ray had been obliged to decline Mr. Cameron's +invitation to dinner, but he was now in the library, Wilford said, and +Katy was glad, for she remembered how he had helped her during that week +of gayety in Boston, when society was so new to her. As he had been +then, so he was now, and his friendly, respectful manner put Katy as +much at her ease as it was possible for her to be in the presence of +Wilford's mother and sisters, who watched her so narrowly.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you have not seen your Sister Helen? You know I called there, +of course?" Mark said to Katy; but before she could reply, a pair of +black eyes shot a keen glance at the luckless Mark, and Juno's sharp +voice said, quickly: "Called on her! When, pray? I did not know you had +the honor of Miss Lennox's acquaintance."</p> + +<p>Mark was in a dilemma. He had kept his call at Silverton to himself, as +he did not care to be questioned about Katy's family; and now, when it +accidentally came out, he tried to make some evasive reply, pretending +that he had spoken of it, and Juno had forgotten. But Juno knew better, +and from that night dated a strong feeling of dislike, almost hatred, +for Helen Lennox, whom she affected to despise, even though she could be +jealous of her. Wisely changing the conversation, Mark asked Katy next +to play, and as she seldom refused, she went at once to the piano, +astonishing both Mrs. Cameron and her daughters with the brilliancy of +her performance. Even Juno complimented her, saying she must have taken +lessons very young.</p> + +<p>"When I was ten," Katy answered. "Cousin Morris gave me my first +exercises himself. He plays sometimes."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew that," Juno replied. "Does your sister play as well as +you?"</p> + +<p>Katy knew that Helen did not, and she answered frankly: "Morris thinks +she does not. She is not as fond of it as I am." Then feeling that she +must in some way make amends for Helen, she added: "But she knows a +great deal more than I do about books. Helen is very smart."</p> + +<p>There was a smile on every lip at this ingenuous remark, but only Mark +and Bell liked Katy the better for it. Wilford did not care to have her +talking of her friends, and he kept her at the piano until she said her +fingers were tired, and begged leave to stop.</p> + +<p>It was late ere Mark bade them good-night; so late that Katy began to +wonder if he would never go, yawning once so perceptibly that Wilford +gave her a reproving glance, which sent the hot blood to her face and +drove from her every feeling of drowsiness. Even after he had gone the +family were in no haste to retire, but sat chatting with Wilford until +the city clock struck twelve and Katy was actually nodding in her chair.</p> + +<p>"Poor child, she is very tired," Wilford said, apologetically, gently +waking Katy, who, really mortified, begged them to excuse her, and +followed her husband to her room, where she was free to ask him what she +must ask before she could ever be quite as happy as she had been before.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding what Jamie had said, Juno's words kept recurring to her +mind, and going up to the chair where Wilford was sitting before the +fire, and standing partly behind him, she said, timidly: "Will you +answer me one thing truly?"</p> + +<p>Alone with Katy, Wilford felt all his old tenderness returning, and +drawing her into his lap, he asked her what it was she wished to know.</p> + +<p>"Did you love anybody three or four years ago, or ever—that is, love +them well enough to wish to make them your wife?"</p> + +<p>Katy could feel how Wilford started, as he said: "What put that idea +into your head? Who has been talking to you?"</p> + +<p>"Juno," Katy answered. "She told me she believed that it was some other +love which kept you a bachelor so long. Was it, Wilford?" and Katy's +lips quivered in a grieved kind of way as she put the question.</p> + +<p>"Juno be—"</p> + +<p>Wilford did not say what, for he seldom swore, and never in a lady's +presence, even if the lady were his wife. So he said, instead:</p> + +<p>"It was very unkind in Juno to distress you thus with matters about +which she knew nothing."</p> + +<p>"But did you?" Katy asked again. "Was there not a Sybil Grey, or some +one of that name?"</p> + +<p>At mention of Sybil Grey, Wilford looked relieved, and answered her at +once:</p> + +<p>"Yes, there was a Sybil Grey, Mrs. Judge Grandon now, and a dashing +widow. Don't sigh so wearily," he continued, as Katy drew a gasping +breath. "Knowing she was a widow, I chose you, thus showing which I +preferred. Few men live to be thirty without more or less fancies, which +under some circumstances might ripen into something stronger, and I am +not an exception. I never loved Sybil Grey, nor wished to make her my +wife. I admired her very much. I admire her yet, and among all my +acquaintances there is not one upon whom I would care to have you make +so good an impression as upon her, nor one whose manner you could better +imitate."</p> + +<p>"Oh, will she call? Shall I see her?" Katy asked, beginning to feel +alarmed at the very thought of Sybil Grey, with all her polish and +manner.</p> + +<p>"She is spending the winter in New Orleans with her late husband's +relatives. She will not return till spring," Wilford replied. "But do +not look so distressed, for I tell you solemnly that I never loved +another as I love you, my wife. Do you believe me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," and Katy's head drooped upon his shoulder.</p> + +<p>She was satisfied with regard to Sybil Grandon, only hoping she would +not have to meet her when she came home. But the picture. Whose was +that? Not Sybil's certainly, else Juno would have known. The picture +troubled her, but she dared not speak of it, Wilford had seemed so angry +at Juno. Still, she would probe him a little further, and so she +continued:</p> + +<p>"I do believe you, and if I ever see this Sybil I will try to imitate +her; but tell me, if, after her, there was among your friends one better +than the rest, one almost as dear as I am, one whom you sometimes +remember even now—is she living, or is she dead?"</p> + +<p>Wilford thought of that humble grave far off in St. Mary's churchyard, +the grave whose headstone bore the inscription: "Genevra Lambert, aged +22," and he answered quickly:</p> + +<p>"If there ever was such a one, she certainly is not living. Are you +satisfied?"</p> + +<p>Katy answered that she was, but perfect confidence in her husband's +affection had been terribly shaken by Juno's avowal and his partial +admission of an earlier love, and Katy's heart was too full to sleep, +even after she had retired. Visions of Sybil Grey, blended with visions +of another whom she called the "dead fancy," flitted before her mind, as +she lay awake, while hour after hour went by, until tired nature could +endure no longer, and just as the great city was waking up and the +rattle of wheels was beginning to be heard upon the distant pavements, +she fell away to sleep.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" ></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>EXTRACTS FROM BELL CAMERON'S DIARY.</h3> + + +<p>NEW YORK, December—.</p> + +<p>After German philosophy and Hamilton's metaphysics, it is a great relief +to have introduced into the family an entirely new element—a character +the dissection of which is at once a novelty and a recreation. It is +absolutely refreshing, and I find myself returning to my books with +increased vigor after an encounter with that simple-hearted, +unsophisticated, innocent-minded creature, our sister-in-law, Mrs. +Wilford Cameron. Such pictures as Juno and I used to draw of the stately +personage who was one day coming to us as Wilford's wife, and of whom +even mother was to stand in awe. Alas! how hath our idol fallen! Tell it +not in Gath, nor yet in Gotham! And still I rather like the little +creature, who, the very first night, nearly choked mother to death, +giving her lace streamers a most uncomfortable twitch, and actually +kissing father—a thing I have not done since I can remember. But, then, +with the exception of Will and Jamie, the Camerons are all a set of +icicles, encased in a refrigerator at that. If we were not, we should +thaw out, when Katy leans on us so affectionately and looks up at us so +wistfully, as if pleading for our love. Wilford does wonders; he used to +be so grave, so dignified and silent, that I never supposed he would +bear having a wife meet him at the door with cooing and kisses, and +climbing into his lap right before us all. Juno says it makes her sick, +while mother is dreadfully shocked; and even Will sometimes seems +annoyed, gently shoving her aside and telling her he is tired.</p> + +<p>After all, it is a query in my mind whether it is not better to be like +Katy than like Sybil Grandon, about whom Juno was mean enough to tell +her the first day of her arrival. On the whole, I would rather be Katy, +but better yet, would prefer remaining myself, Bell Cameron, the happy +medium between the two extremes, of art perfected and nature in its +primeval state, just as it existed among the Silverton hills. From my +own standpoint, I can look on and criticise, giving my journal the +benefit of my criticisms and conclusions.</p> + +<p>Very pretty, but shockingly insipid, is Juno's verdict upon Mrs. +Wilford, while mother says less, but looks a great deal more, especially +when she talks about "my folks," as she did to Mrs. General Reynolds the +very first time she called. Mother and Juno were so annoyed, while Will +looked like a thundercloud, particularly when she spoke of Uncle +Ephraim, saying so and so. He was better satisfied with Katy in Europe, +where he was not known, than he is here, where he sees her with other +people's eyes. One of his weaknesses is a too great reverence for the +world's opinion, as held and expounded by our very fashionable mother, +and as in a quiet kind of way she has arrayed herself against poor Katy, +while Juno is more open in her acts and sayings. I predict that it will +not be many months before he comes to the conclusion that he has made a +mesalliance, a thing of which no Cameron was ever guilty.</p> + +<p>I wonder if there is any truth in the rumor that Mrs. General Reynolds +once taught a district school, and if she did, how much would that +detract from the merits of her son, Lieutenant Bob. But what nonsense to +be writing about him. Let me go back to Katy, who has no more idea of +etiquette than Jamie in his wheel-chair. Still, there is something very +attractive about her, and Mrs. General Reynolds took to her at once, +petting her as she would a kitten, and laughing merrily at her naive +speeches, as she called them—speeches which made Will turn black in the +face, they betrayed so much of rustic life and breeding. I fancy that he +has given Katy a few hints, and that she is beginning to be somewhat +afraid of him, for she watches him constantly when she is talking, and +she does not now slip her hand into his as she used to when guests are +leaving and she stands at his side; neither is she quite so +demonstrative when he comes up from the office at night, and there is a +look upon her face which was not there when she came. They are taming +her down, mother and Juno, and to-morrow they are actually going to +commence a systematic course of training, preparatory to her _début_ +into society, said _début_ to occur on the night of the ——, when Mrs. +General Reynolds gives the party talked about so long. I was present +when they met in solemn conclave to talk it over, mother asking Will if +he had any objections to Juno's instructing his wife with regard to +certain things of which she was ignorant. Will's forehead knit itself +together at first, and I half hoped he would veto the whole proceedings, +but after a moment he replied:</p> + +<p>"No, providing Katy is willing. Her feelings must not be hurt."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," mother said. "Katy is a dear little creature, and we +all love her very much, but that does not blind us to her deficiencies, +and as we are anxious that she should fill that place in society which +Mrs. Wilford Cameron ought to fill, it seems necessary to tone her down +a little before her first appearance at a party."</p> + +<p>To this Will assented, and then Juno went on to enumerate her +deficiencies, which, as nearly as I can remember, are these: She laughs +too much and too loud; is too enthusiastic over novelties, conducting as +if she never saw anything before; has too much to say about Silverton +and "my folks," quotes Uncle Ephraim and Sister Helen too often, and is +even guilty at times of mentioning a certain Aunt Betsy, who must have +floated with the Ark and snuffled the breezes of Ararat. She does not +know how to enter, or cross, or leave a room properly, or receive an +introduction; or, in short, do anything according to New York ideas as +understood by the Camerons, etc.; she is to be taught—toned down, +mother called it—dwelling upon her high spirits as something vulgar, if +not absolutely wicked. How father would have sworn, for he calls her his +little sunbeam, and says he never should have gained so fast if she had +not come with her sunny face and lively, merry laugh to cheer his +sickroom. Katy has a fast friend in him and Jamie. But mother and +Juno—well, I shall be glad if they do not annihilate her altogether, +and I am surprised that Will allows it. I wonder if Katy is really happy +with us? She says she is, and is evidently delighted with New York life, +clapping her hands when the invitation to Mrs. Reynolds' party was +received, and running with it to Wilford as soon as he came home. It is +her first big party, she says, she having never attended any except that +little sociable in Boston, and those insipid schoolgirl affairs at the +seminary. I may be conceited—Juno thinks I am—but really and truly, +Bell Cameron's private opinion of herself is that at heart she is better +than the rest of her family, and so I pity this little sister of ours, +while at the same time I am exceedingly anxious to be present whenever +Juno takes her in hand, for I like to see the fun. Were she at all +bookish, I should avow myself her champion, and openly defend her; but +she is not, and so I give her into the hands of the Philistines, hoping +they will at least spare her hair and not worry her life out on that +head. It is very becoming to her, and several young ladies have +whispered their intention of trying its effect upon themselves, so that +Katy may yet be a leader of the fashion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" ></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>TONING DOWN.</h3> + + +<p>_Bell's Diary Continued_.</p> + +<p>Such fun as it was to see mother and Juno training Katy, showing her how +to enter the parlor, how to arrange her dress, how to carry her hands +and feet, and how to sit in a chair—Juno going through with the +performance first, and then requesting Katy to imitate her, which I must +say she did to perfection, even excelling her teacher, inasmuch as she +is naturally very easy and graceful. Had I been Katy I should have +rebelled, but she is far too sweet-tempered and anxious to please, while +I half suspect that fear of my lord Wilford had something to do with it, +for when the drill was over, she asked so earnestly if we thought he +would be ashamed of her, and there were tears in her great blue eyes as +she said it. Hang Wilford! Hang the whole of them! I am not sure but I +shall espouse her cause myself, or else tell father, who will do it so +much better.</p> + +<p>Dec.—th.—Another drill, with Juno commanding officer, while the +poor little private seemed completely worried out. This time there were +open doors, but so absorbed were mother and Juno as not to hear the +bell, and just as Juno was saying, "Now, imagine me Mrs. General +Reynolds, to whom you are being presented," while Katy was bowing almost +to the floor, who should appear but Mark Ray, stumbling square upon that +ludicrous rehearsal, and of course bringing it to an end. No explanation +was made, nor was any needed, for Mark's face showed that he understood +it, and it was as much as he could do to keep from roaring with +merriment; I am sure he pitied Katy, for his manner toward her was very +affectionate and kind, and when once she left the room he complimented +her highly, repeating many things he had heard in her praise from those +who had seen her both in the street and here at home. Juno's face was +like a thundercloud, for she was as much in love with Mark Ray as she +was once with Dr. Grant, and is even jealous of his praise of Katy. Glad +am I that I never yet saw the man who could make me jealous, or for whom +I cared a pin. There's Bob Reynolds up at West Point. I suppose I do +think his epaulettes very becoming to him, but his hair is too light and +he cannot raise whiskers big enough to cast a shadow on the wall, while +I know he looks with contempt upon females who write, even though their +writings never see the light of day; thinks them strong-minded, +self-willed, and all that. He is expected to be present at the party, +but I shall not be. I had rather stay at home and finish that article +entitled "Women of the Present Century," and suggested to my mind by my +Sister Katy, who stands for the picture I am drawing of a pretty woman, +with more heart than brains, contrasting her with such a one as Juno, +her opposite extreme.</p> + +<p>January 10.—The last time I wrote in my journal was just before the +party, which is over now, the long-talked-of affair at which Katy was +the reigning belle. I don't know how it happened, but happen it did, and +Juno's glory faded before that of her rival, whose merry, ringing laugh +frequently penetrated to every room, and made more than one look up in +some surprise. But when Mrs. Humphreys said: "It's that charming little +Mrs. Cameron, the prettiest creature I ever saw, her laugh is so +refreshing and genuine," the point was settled, and Katy was free to +laugh as loudly as she pleased.</p> + +<p>She did look beautiful, in lace and pearls, with her short hair curling +on her neck. She would not allow us to put so much as a bud in her hair, +showing in this respect a willfulness we never expected; but as she was +perfectly irresistible, we suffered her to have her way, and when she +was dressed, sent her in to father, who had asked to see her. And now +comes the strangest thing in the world.</p> + +<p>"You are very beautiful, little daughter," father said. "I almost wish +I was going with you to see the sensation you are sure to create."</p> + +<p>Then straight into his lap climbed Katy—father's lap—where none of us +ever sat, I am sure, and began to coax him to go, telling him she should +appear better if he were there, and that she should need him when +Wilford left her, as of course he must a part of the time. And father +actually dressed himself and went. But Katy did not need him after the +people began to understand that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was the rage. Even +Sybil Grey, in her palmiest days, never received such homage as was paid +to the little Silverton girl, whose great charm was her perfect +enjoyment of everything, and her perfect faith in what people said to +her. Juno was nothing, and I worse than nothing, for I did go, wearing +a plain black silk, with high neck and long sleeves, looking, as Juno +said, like a Sister of Charity. But Bell Cameron can afford to dress +plainly if she chooses, and I am glad, as it saves a deal of trouble, +and somehow people seem to like me quite as well in my Quakerish dress +as they do the fashionable Juno in diamonds and flowers, with uncovered +neck and shoulders.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Bob was there; his light hair lighter than ever, and his +chin as smooth as my hand. He likes to dance, and I do not, but somehow +he persisted in staying where I was, notwithstanding that I said my +sharpest things in hopes to get rid of him. He left me at last to +dance with Katy, who makes up in grace and airiness what she lacks in +knowledge. Once upon the floor, she did not lack for partners, but, I +verily believe, danced every set, growing prettier and fairer as she +danced, for hers is a complexion which does not get red and blowsy with +exercise.</p> + +<p>Mark Ray was there, too, and I saw him smile comically when Katy met the +people with that bow she was making at the time he came so suddenly upon +us. Mark is a good fellow, and I really think we have him to thank in a +measure for Katy's successful _début_. He was the first to take her from +Wilford, walking with her up and down the hall by way of reassuring her, +and once as they passed me I heard her say:</p> + +<p>"I feel so timid here—so much afraid of doing something +wrong—something countrified."</p> + +<p>"Never mind," he answered. "Act yourself just as you would were you +at home in Silverton, where you are known. That is far better than +affecting a manner not natural to you."</p> + +<p>After that Katy brightened wonderfully. The stiffness which at first +was perceptible passed off, and she was Katy Lennox, queening it over +all the city belles, who, because she was married, would not be +jealous—drawing after her a host of gentlemen, and between the sets +holding a miniature court at one end of the room, where the more +desirable of the guests crowded around; flattering her until her little +head ought to have been turned if it was not. To do her justice, she +bore her honors well, and when we were in the carriage, and father +complimented her upon her success, she only said:</p> + +<p>"If I pleased you all I am glad."</p> + +<p>So many calls as we had the next day, and so many invitations as there +are now on our table for Mrs. Wilford Cameron, while our opera box +between the scenes is packed with beaus, until one would suppose Wilford +might be jealous; but Katy takes it all so quietly and modestly, seeming +only gratified for his sake, that I really believe he enjoys it more +than she does. At all events, he persists in her going, even when she +would rather stay at home, so if she is spoiled, the fault will rest +with him.</p> + +<p>February—th.—Poor Katy. Dissipation is beginning to wear upon her, +for she is not accustomed to our late hours, and sometimes falls asleep +while Esther is dressing her. But go she must, for Wilford wills it so, +and she is but an automaton to do his bidding.</p> + +<p>Why can't mother let her alone, when everybody seems so satisfied with +her? Somehow, she does not believe that people are as delighted as they +pretend, and so she keeps training and tormenting her until I do not +wonder that Katy sometimes hates to go out, lest she shall unconsciously +be guilty of an impropriety. I pitied her last night, when, after she +was ready for the opera, she came into my room, where I was indulging in +the luxury of a loose dressing gown, with my feet on the sofa. Latterly +she has taken to me, and now sitting down before the fire into which her +blue eyes looked with a steady stare, she said:</p> + +<p>"I wish I might stay here with you to-night. I have heard this opera +before, and it will be so tiresome. I get so sleepy while they are +singing, for I never care to watch the acting. I did at first, when it +was new, but now it seems insipid to see them make-believe, while the +theatre is worse yet," and she gave a weary yawn.</p> + +<p>In less than three months she has exhausted fashionable life, and I +looked at her in astonishment, asking what would please her if the opera +did not. What would she like?</p> + +<p>Turning her eyes full upon me, she exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"I do like it some, I suppose, only I get so tired. I like to ride, I +like to skate, I like to shop, and all that; but, oh, you don't know how +I want to go home to mother and Helen. I have not seen them for so long, +but I am going in the spring—going in May. How many days are there in +March and April? Sixty-one," she continued; "then I may safely say that +in eighty days I shall see mother, and all the dear old places. It is +not a grand home like this. You, Bell, might laugh at it. Juno would, I +am sure, but you do not know how dear it is to me, or how I long for a +sight of the huckleberry hills and the rocks where Helen and I used to +play, Helen is a darling sister, and I know you will like her."</p> + +<p>Just then Will called to say the carriage was waiting, and Katy was +driven away, while I sat thinking of her and the devoted love with which +she clings to her home and friends, wondering if it were the kindest +thing which could have been done, transplanting her to our atmosphere, +so different from her own.</p> + +<p>March 1st.—As it was in the winter, so it is now; Mrs. Wilford Cameron +is the rage—the bright star of society—which quotes and pets and +flatters, and even laughs at her by turns; and Wilford, though still +watchful, lest she should do something _outré_, is very proud of her, +insisting upon her accepting invitations, sometimes two for one evening, +until the child is absolutely worn out, and said to me once, when I told +her how well she was looking and how pretty her dress was: "Yes, pretty +enough, but I am so tired. If I could lie down on mother's bed, in a +shilling calico, just as I used to do!"</p> + +<p>Mother's bed seems at present to be the height of her ambition—the +thing she most desires; and as Juno fancied it must be the feathers she +is sighing for, she wickedly suggests that Wilford either buy a feather +bed for his wife, or else send to that Aunt Betsy for the one which was +to be Katy's setting out! They go to housekeeping in May, and on Madison +Square, too, I think Wilford would quite as soon remain with us, for he +does not fancy change; but Katy wants a home of her own, and I never saw +anything more absolutely beautiful than her face when father said to +Wilford that No. —— Madison Square was for sale, advising him to +secure it. But when mother intimated that there was no necessity for the +two families to separate at present—that Katy was too young to have +charge of a house—there came into her eyes a look of such distress that +it went straight to father's heart, and calling her to him, he said:</p> + +<p>"Tell me, sunbeam, what is your choice—to stay with us, or have a home +of your own?"</p> + +<p>Katy was very white, and her voice trembled as she replied:</p> + +<p>"You have been kind to me here, and it is very pleasant; but I guess—I +think—I'm sure—I should like the housekeeping best. I am not so young, +either. Nineteen in July, and when I go home next month I can learn so +much of Aunt Betsy and Aunt Hannah."</p> + +<p>Mother looked at Wilford then; but he was looking into the fire, with an +expression anything but favorable to that visit home, fixed now for +April instead of May. But Katy has no discernment, and believes she is +actually going home to learn how to make apple dumplings and pumpkin +pies. In spite of mother, the house is bought, and now she is gone all +day, deciding how it shall be furnished, always leaving Katy out of the +question, as if she were a cipher, and only consulting Wilford's choice. +They will be happier alone, I know. Mrs. General Reynolds says that it +is the way for young people to live; that her son's wife shall never +come home to her, for of course their habits could not be alike; and +then she looked queerly at me, as if she knew I was thinking of +Lieutenant Bob and who his wife might be.</p> + +<p>Sybil Grandon is coming home in April or May, and Mrs. Reynolds wonders +will she flirt as she used to do. Just as if Bob would care for a widow. +There is more danger from Will, who thinks Mrs. Grandon a perfect +paragon, and who is very anxious that Katy may appear well before her, +saying nothing and doing nothing which shall in any way approximate to +Silverton and the shoes which Katy told Esther she used to bind when a +girl. Will need not be disturbed, for Sybil Grandon was never half as +pretty as Katy, or half as much admired. Neither need Mrs. General +Reynolds fret about Bob, as if he would care for her. Sybil Grandon, +indeed!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI" ></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>KATY.</h3> + + +<p>For nearly four months Katy had been in New York, drinking deep draughts +from the cup of folly and fashion held so constantly to her lips; but +she cloyed of it at last, and what at first had been so eagerly grasped, +began, from daily repetition, to grow insipid and dull. To be the belle +of every place, to know that her dress, her style, and even the fashion +of her hair, was copied and admired, was gratifying to her, because she +knew how much it pleased her husband, who was never happier or prouder +than when, with Katy on his arm, he entered some crowded parlor and +heard the buzz of admiration as it circled around, while Katy, +simple-hearted and guileless still, smiled and blushed like a little +child, wondering at the attentions lavished upon her, and attributing +them mostly to her husband, whose position she thoroughly understood, +marveling more and more that he should have chosen her to be his wife. +That he had so honored her made her love him with a strange kind of +grateful, clinging love, which as yet would acknowledge no fault in him, +no wrong, no error; and if ever a shadow did cloud her heart, she was +the one to blame, not Wilford; he was right—he the idol she +worshiped—he the one for whose sake she tried so hard to drop her +country ways and conform to the rules his mother and sister taught, +submitting with the utmost good-nature to what Bell in her journal had +called the drill, but it must be confessed not succeeding very well in +imitating Juno. Katy could hardly be other than her own easy, graceful +self, and though the drills had their effect, and taught her many +things, they could not divest her of that natural, playful, airy manner +which so charmed the city people and made her the reigning belle. As +Marian Hazleton had predicted, others than her husband had spoken words +of praise in Katy's ear; but such was her nature that the shafts of +flattery glanced aside, leaving her unharmed, so that her husband, +though sometimes startled and disquieted, had no cause for jealousy, +enjoying Katy's success far more than she did herself, urging her out +when she would rather have stayed at home, and evincing so much +annoyance if she ventured to remonstrate that she gave it up at last +and floated on with the tide.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron had at first been greatly shocked at Katy's want of +propriety, looking on aghast when she wound her arms around Wilford's +neck, or sat upon his knee; but to the elder Cameron the sight was a +pleasant one, bringing back sunny memories of a summer time years ago, +when he was young, and a fair bride had for a few brief weeks made this +earth a paradise to him. But fashion had entered his Eden—that summer +time was gone, and only the dim leaves of autumn lay where the buds +which promised so much had been. The girlish bride was a stately matron +now, doing nothing amiss, but making all her acts conform to a +prescribed rule of etiquette, and frowning majestically upon the +frolicsome, impulsive Katy, who had crept so far into the heart of +the eccentric man that he always found the hours of her absence long, +listening intently for the sound of her bounding footsteps, and feeling +that her coming to his household had infused into his veins a better, +healthier life than he had known for years. Katy was very dear to him, +and he felt a thrill of pain, while a shadow lowered on his brow when +first the toning down process commenced. He had heard them talk about +it, and in his wrath he had hurled a cut-glass goblet upon the marble +hearth, breaking it in atoms, while he called them a pair of precious +fools, and Wilford a bigger one because he suffered it. So long as his +convalescence lasted, he was some restraint upon his wife, but when he +was well enough to resume his duties in his Wall Street office, there +was nothing in the way, and Katy's education progressed accordingly. For +Wilford's sake, Katy would do anything, and as from some things he had +dropped she guessed that her manner was not quite what suited him, she +submitted to much which would otherwise have been excessively annoying. +But she was growing tired now, and it told upon her face, which was +whiter than when she came to New York, while her figure was, if +possible, slighter and more airy; but this only enhanced her loveliness, +Wilford thought, and so he paid no heed to her complaints of weariness, +but kept her in the circle which welcomed her so warmly, and would have +missed her so much.</p> + +<p>Little by little it had come to Katy that she was not quite as +comfortable in her husband's family as she would be in a house of her +own. The constant watch kept over her by Mrs. Cameron and Juno irritated +and fretted her, making her wonder what was the matter, and why she +should so often feel lonely and desolate when surrounded by every luxury +which wealth could purchase. "It is his folks," she always said to +herself when cogitating upon the subject. "Alone with Wilford I shall +feel as light and happy as I used to do in Silverton."</p> + +<p>And so Katy caught eagerly at the prospect of a release from the +restraint of No. ——, seeming so anxious that Wilford, almost before he +was aware of it himself, became the owner of one of the most desirable +situations on Madison Square; and Katy was the envy of the belles, who +had copied and imitated her, even to the cutting off their hair, which +fashion may be fairly said to have originated from Katy herself, whose +short curls had ceased to be obnoxious to the fastidious Mrs. Cameron, +for Juno had tried the effect, looking, as Bell said, "like a fool," +while Juno would have given much to have again the long black tresses, +the cutting of which did not make her look like Katy. Of all the +household, after Katy, Juno was perhaps the only one glad of the new +house. It would be a change for herself, for she meant to spend much +of her time on Madison Square, where everything was to be on the most +magnificent scale. Fortunately for Katy, she knew nothing of Juno's +intentions and built many a castle of her new home, where mother could +come with Helen and Dr. Grant. Somehow she never saw Uncle Ephraim, nor +his wife, nor yet Aunt Betsy there. She knew how out of place they would +appear, and how they would annoy Wilford: but surely to her mother and +Helen there could be no objection, and when she first went over the +house, she designated mentally this room as mother's, and another one as +Helen's, thinking how each should be fitted up with direct reference to +their tastes, Helen's containing a great many books, while her mother's +should have easy-chairs and lounges, with a host of drawers for holding +things. And Wilford heard it all, making no reply, but considering how +he could manage best so as to have no scene, for he had not the +slightest intention of inviting either Mrs. Lennox or Helen to visit +him, much less to become a part of his household. That he did not marry +Katy's relatives was a fact as fixed as the laws of the Medes and +Persians, and Katy's anticipations were answering no other purpose than +to divert her mind for the time being, keeping her bright and cheerful.</p> + +<p>Very pleasant indeed were the pictures Katy drew of the new house where +Helen was to come, but pleasanter far were her pictures of that visit to +Silverton, to occur in April, and about which she thought so much, +dreaming of it many a night, and waking in the morning with the belief +that she had actually been where the young buds were swelling and the +fresh grass was springing by the door. Poor Katy, how much she thought +about that visit when she should see them all and go again with Uncle +Ephraim down into the meadows, making believe she was Katy Lennox +still—when she could climb the ladder in the barn after new-laid eggs, +or steal across the fields to Linwood, talking with Morris as she used +to talk in the days which seemed so long ago. Morris she feared was not +liking her as well as of old, thinking her very frivolous and silly, for +he had only written her one short note in reply to the letter she had +sent, telling him of the opera, the parties she attended, and the gay, +happy life she led, for to him she would not then confess that in her +cup of joy there was a single bitter dreg. All was bright and fair, she +said, and Morris had replied that he was glad. "But do not forget that +death can find you even there amid your splendor, or that after death +the judgment comes, and then what shall it profit you if you gain the +whole world and lose your own soul."</p> + +<p>These words had rung in Katy's ears for many a day, following her to +the dance and to the opera, where even the music was drowned by the +echo of the words, "lose your own soul." But the sting grew less and +less, till Katy no longer felt it, and now was only anxious to talk with +Morris and convince him that she was not as thoughtless as he might +suppose, that she still remembered his teachings, remembered the Sunday +school and the little church in the valley, preferring it to the +handsome, aristocratic house where she went with the Camerons once on +every Sunday, and would willingly go twice if Wilford would go with her. +But the Camerons were merely fashionable churchgoers, and so their +afternoons were spent at home, Katy enjoying them vastly because she +usually had Wilford all to herself in her own room, a thing which did +not often occur during the weekdays.</p> + +<p>There was a kind of peace to be made with Helen, too, Katy feared; for +Helen had sent back the diamond ring, saying it was not suitable for +her, but never hinting that she had drawn from Morris the inference that +Wilford was not well pleased at having his wife thus dispose of his +costly presents. Katy had cried when she received the ring, feeling that +something was wrong and longing so much for the time when she could make +it right.</p> + +<p>"One more week and then it is April," she said to Wilford one evening +after they had retired to their room, and she was talking of Silverton. +"I guess I had better go about the tenth. Shall you stay as long as I +do?"</p> + +<p>Wilford bit his lip, and after a moment replied:</p> + +<p>"I have been talking with mother, and we think April is not a good time +for you to be in the country; it is so wet and cold. You had better not +till summer, and then I want you here to help order our furniture."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Wilford," and Katy's voice trembled, for from past experience +she knew that for Wilford to object to her plans was equivalent to +a refusal, and her heart throbbed with disappointment as she tried +to listen while Wilford urged many reasons why she should not go, +convincing her at last that of all times for visiting Silverton spring +was the worst, that summer or autumn were better, and that it was her +duty to remain where she was until such time as he saw fit for her to +do otherwise.</p> + +<p>This was the meaning of what he said, and though his manner was guarded +and his words kind, they were very conclusive, and with one gasping sob +Katy gave up Silverton, charging it more to Mrs. Cameron than to +Wilford, and writing next day to Helen that she could not come just +then, but after she was settled they might surely expect her.</p> + +<p>With a bitter pang Helen read this letter to the three women who had so +much anticipated Katy's visit, and each of whom cried quietly over her +disappointment, while even Uncle Ephraim went back to his work that +afternoon with a sad, heavy heart, for now his labor was not lightened +by thoughts of Katy's being there so soon.</p> + +<p>"Please God she may come to us some time," he said, pausing beneath the +butternut in the meadow, and remembering just how Katy looked on that +first day of her return from Canandaigua, when she sat on the flat stone +while he piled up the hay and talked with her of different paths through +life, one of which she must surely tread.</p> + +<p>She had said, "I will choose the straight and pleasant," and some would +think she had; but Uncle Ephraim was not so sure, and leaning against a +tree, he asked silently that, whether he ever saw his darling again or +not, God would care for her and keep her unspotted from the world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII" ></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>THE NEW HOUSE.</h3> + + +<p>It was a cruel thing for Wilford Cameron to try thus to separate Katy +from the hearts which loved her so much: and, as if he felt reproached, +there was an increased tenderness in his manner toward her, particularly +as he saw how sad she was for a few days after his decision. But Katy +could not be sorry long, and in the excitement of settling the new house +her spirits rallied, and her merry laugh thrilled like a bird through +the rooms where the workmen were so busy, and where Mrs. Cameron was the +real superintendent, though there was always a show of consulting Katy, +who nevertheless was a mere cipher in the matter. In everything the +mother had her way, until it came to the room designed for Helen, and +which Mrs. Cameron was for converting into a kind of smoking or lounging +room for Wilford and his associates. Katy must not expect him to be +always as devoted to her as he had been during the winter, she said. He +had a great many bachelor friends, and now that he had a house of his +own, it was natural that he should have some place where they could +spend an hour or so with him without the restraint of ladies' society, +and this was just the room—large, airy, quiet, and so far from the +parlors that the odor of the smoke could not reach them.</p> + +<p>"Oak and green will do nicely here," turning to Wilford, "but you must +have some very handsome cigar sets, and one or two boxes of chess. Shall +I see to that?"</p> + +<p>Katy had submitted to much without knowing that she was submitting; but +something Bell had dropped that morning had awakened a suspicion that +possibly she was being ignored, and the wicked part of Helen would have +enjoyed the look in her eye as she said, decidedly, not to Mrs. Cameron, +but to Wilford: "I have from the very first decided this chamber for +Helen, and I cannot give it up for a smoking room. You never had one +at home. Why did you not, if it is so necessary?"</p> + +<p>Wilford could not tell her that his mother would as soon have brought +into her house one of Barnum's shows as to have had a room set apart for +smoking, which she specially disliked; neither could he at once reply at +all, so astonished was he at this sudden flash of spirit. Mrs. Cameron +was the first to rally, and in her usual quiet tone she said: "Indeed, I +did not know that your sister was to form a part of your household. When +do you expect her?" and her cold gray eyes rested steadily upon Katy, +who never before so fully realized the distance there was between her +husband's friends and her own. But as the worm will turn when trampled +on, so Katy, though hitherto powerless to defend herself, aroused in +Helen's behalf, and in a tone as quiet and decided as that of her +mother-in-law, replied: "She will come whenever I write for her. It was +arranged from the first. Wasn't it, Wilford?" and she turned to her +husband, who, unwilling to decide between a wife he loved and a mother +whose judgment he considered infallible, affected not to hear her, and +stole from the room, followed soon by Mrs. Cameron, so that Katy was +left mistress of the field.</p> + +<p>After that no one interfered in her arrangement of Helen's room, which, +with far less expense than Mrs. Cameron would have done, she fitted up +so cosily that Wilford pronounced it the pleasantest room in the house, +while Bell went into ecstasies over it, and even Juno might have unbent +enough to praise it, were it not that Mark Ray, who from being tacitly +claimed by Juno was frequently admitted to their counsels, had asked +the privilege of contributing to Helen's room a handsome volume of +German poetry, such as he fancied she might enjoy. So long as Mark's +attentions were not bestowed in any other quarter Juno was comparatively +satisfied, but the moment he swerved a hair's breadth from the line she +had marked out, her anger was aroused; and now, remembering his +commendations of Helen Lennox, she hated her as cordially as one jealous +girl can hate another whom she has not seen, making Katy so +uncomfortable, without knowing what was the matter, that she hailed the +morning of her exit from No. —— as the brightest since her marriage.</p> + +<p>It was a very happy day for Katy, and when she first sat down to dinner +in her own handsome home her face shone with a joy which even the +presence of her mother-in-law could not materially lessen. She would +rather have been alone with Wilford, it is true, but as her choice was +not consulted she submitted cheerfully, proudly taking her rightful +place at the table, and doing the honors so well that Mrs. Cameron, in +speaking of it to her daughters, acknowledged that Wilford had little to +fear if Katy always appeared as much at ease as she did that day. A +thought similar to this passed through the mind of Wilford, who was very +observant of such matters, and that night, after his mother was gone, he +warmly commended Katy, but spoiled the pleasure his commendation would +have given by telling her next, as if one thought suggested the other, +that Sybil Grandon had returned, that he saw her on Broadway, accepting +her invitation to a seat in her carriage which brought him to his door. +She had made many inquiries concerning Katy, he said, expressing a great +curiosity to see her, and saying that as she drove past the house that +morning, she was strongly tempted to waive all ceremony and run in, +knowing she should be pardoned for the sake of Auld Lang Syne, when she +was privileged to take liberties with the Camerons. All this Wilford +repeated to Katy, but he did not tell her how at the words Auld Lang +Syne, Sybil had turned her fine eyes upon him with an expression which +made him color, for he knew she was referring to the time when her name +and his were always coupled together.</p> + +<p>Wilford would not have exchanged Katy for a dozen Sybils, but there was +about the latter a flash and sparkle very fascinating to most men, and +Wilford felt himself so much exhilarated in her society that he half +regretted leaving it, wishing as he did so that in some things Katy was +more like the brilliant woman of the world, who, flashing upon him her +most bewitching smile, leaned back in her handsome carriage with a +careless, easy abandon, while he ran up the steps of his own dwelling, +where Katy waited for him. In this state of mind her achievement at the +dinner table was exceedingly gratifying. Sybil herself could not have +done better. But alas, there were many points where Katy fell far below +this standard; so after speaking of Sybil's inquiries for his wife, he +went on to talk of Sybil herself, telling how much she was admired and +how superior she was to the majority of ladies whom Katy had met, adding +that he felt more anxious that Katy should make a favorable impression +upon her than any one of his acquaintance, as she would be sure to note +the slightest departure from her code of etiquette. How Katy hated the +words etiquette, and style and manner, wishing they might be stricken +from the language, and how she dreaded this Sybil Grandon, who seemed to +her like some ogress, instead of the charming creature she was described +to be. Thoughts of the secret picture and the dread fancy did not +trouble her now, for she was sure of Wilford's love; but she had +sometimes dreaded the return of Sybil Grandon, and now that she had +come, she felt for a moment a chill at her heart and a terror at meeting +her which she tried to shake off, succeeding at last, for perfect faith +in Wilford was to her a strong shield of defense, and her only trouble +was a fear lest she should fall in the scale of comparison which might +be instituted between herself and Mrs. Grandon.</p> + +<p>Nestling close to Wilford, she said, half earnestly, half playfully:</p> + +<p>"I will try not to disgrace you when I meet this Mrs. Grandon."</p> + +<p>Then, anxious to change the conversation to something more agreeable to +herself, she began to talk of their house, thus diverting her own mind +from Sybil Grandon, who after a few days ceased to be a bugbear, Wilford +never mentioning her again, and Katy only hearing of her through Juno +and Bell, the first of whom went into raptures over her, while the +latter styled her a silly, coquettish widow, who would appear much +better to have worn her weeds a little longer, and not throw herself +quite so soon into the market. That she should of course meet her some +time, Katy knew, but she would not distress herself till the time +arrived, and so she dismissed her fears, or rather lost them in the +excitement of her new dignity as mistress of a house.</p> + +<p>In her girlhood Katy had evinced a taste for housekeeping, which now +developed so rapidly that she won the respect of all the servants, from +the man who answered the bell to the accomplished cook, hired by Mrs. +Cameron, and who, like most accomplished cooks, was sharp and cross and +opinionated, but who did not find it easy to scold the blithe little +woman who every morning came flitting into her dominions, not asking +what they would have for dinner, as she had been led to suppose she +would, but ordering it with a matter of course air, which amused the +usually overbearing Mrs. Phillips. But when the little lady, rolling her +sleeves above her dimpled elbows and donning the clean white apron which +Phillips was reserving for afternoon, announced her intention of +surprising Wilford, who was very particular about dessert, with a +pudding such as Aunt Betsy used to make, there were signs of rebellion, +Phillips telling her bluntly that she couldn't be bothered—that it was +not a lady's place in the kitchen under foot—that the other Mrs. +Cameron never did it, and would not like it in Mrs. Wilford.</p> + +<p>For a moment Katy paused and looked straight at Mrs. Phillips; then +without a word of reply to that worthy's remarks, said, quietly: "I have +only six eggs here—the receipt is ten. Bring me four more, please."</p> + +<p>There was something in the blue eyes which compelled obedience, and the +dessert progressed without another word of remonstrance. But when the +door bell rang, and word came down that there were ladies in the +parlor—Juno with some one else—Phillips would not tell her of the +flour on her hair; and as Katy, after casting aside her apron and +putting down her sleeves, only glanced hastily at herself in the hall +mirror as she passed it, she appeared in the parlor with this mark upon +her curls, and greatly to her astonishment was presented to "Mrs. Sybil +Grandon," Juno explaining, that as Sybil was very anxious to see her, +and they were passing the house, she had presumed upon her privilege as +a sister and brought her in.</p> + +<p>For a moment the room turned dark, and Katy felt that she was falling; +it was so sudden, so unexpected, and she so unprepared; but Sybil's +familiar manner soon quieted her, and she was able at last to look fully +at her visitor, finding her not as handsome as she expected, nor as +young but in all other points she had not perhaps been exaggerated. +Cultivated and self-possessed, she was still very pleasing in her +manner, making Katy feel wholly at ease by a few well-timed compliments, +which had the merit of seeming genuine, so perfect was she in the art of +deception, practicing it with so much skill that few saw through the +mask, and knew it was put on.</p> + +<p>To Katy she was very gracious, admiring her house, admiring herself, +admiring everything, until Katy wondered how she could ever have dreaded +to meet her, laughing and chatting as familiarly as if the fashionable +woman were not criticising every movement and every act and every +feature of her face, wondering most at the flour upon her hair!</p> + +<p>Juno wondered, too, but knowing Katy's domestic propensities, suspected +the truth, and feigning some errand with Phillips, she excused herself +for a moment and descended to the kitchen, where she was not long in +hearing about Katy's queer ways, coming where she was not needed, and +making country puddings after some heathenish aunt's rule.</p> + +<p>"Was it Aunt Betsy?" Juno asked, her face betokening its disgust when +told that she was right, and her manner on her return to the parlor very +frigid toward Katy, who had discovered the flour on her hair, and was +laughing merrily over it, telling Sybil how it happened—how cross +Phillips was—and lastly, how "our folks" often made the pudding, and +that was why she wished to surprise Wilford with it.</p> + +<p>There was a sarcastic smile upon Sybil's lip as she wished Mrs. Cameron +success and then departed, leaving Katy to finish the dessert, which, +when ready for the table, was certainly very inviting, and would have +tempted the appetite of any man who had not been listener to matters +not wholly conducive to his peace of mind.</p> + +<p>On his way home Wilford had stopped at his father's, finding Juno, who +had just come in, relating the particulars of her call upon his wife, +and as she did not think it necessary to stop for him, he heard of +Katy's misdoings, and her general appearance in the presence of Sybil +Grandon, whom she entertained with a description of "our folks'" +favorite dishes, together with Aunt Betsy's receipts. This was the straw +too many, and since his marriage Wilford had not been as angry as he was +while listening to Juno, who reported Sybil's verdict on his wife, "A +domestic little body and very pretty."</p> + +<p>Wilford did not care to have his wife domestic; he did not marry her +for that, and in a mood anything but favorable to the light, delicate +dessert Katy had prepared with so much care, he went to his luxurious +home, where Katy ran as usual to meet him, her face brimming with the +surprise she had in store for him, and herself so much excited that she +did not at first observe the cloud upon his brow, as he moodily answered +her rapid questions. But when the important moment arrived, and the +dessert was brought on, he promptly declined it, even after her +explanation that she made it herself, just to gratify and astonish him, +urging him to try it for the sake of pleasing her, if nothing more. But +Wilford was not hungry then, and even had he been, he would have chosen +anything before a pudding formed from a receipt of Betsy Barlow, so the +dessert was untasted even by Katy herself, who, knowing now that +something had gone wrong, sat fighting back her tears until the servant +left the room, when she timidly asked: "What is it, Wilford? What makes +you seem so—". She would not say cross, and substituted "queer," +while Wilford plunged at once into the matter by saying, "Juno tells me +she called here this afternoon with Mrs. Grandon."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I forgot to mention it," Katy answered, feeling puzzled to know +why that should annoy her husband; but his next remarks disclosed the +whole, and Katy's tears flowed fast as Wilford asked what he supposed +Mrs. Grandon thought, to see his wife looking as if fresh from the flour +barrel, and to hear her talk about Aunt Betsy's receipts and our folks. +"That is a bad habit of yours, Katy," he continued, "one of which I wish +you to break yourself, if possible. I have never spoken to you directly +on the subject before, but it annoys me exceedingly, inasmuch as it is +an indication of low breeding."</p> + +<p>There was no answer from Katy, whose heart was too full to speak, and +so Wilford went on: "Our servants were selected by mother with a direct +reference to your youth and inexperience, and it is not necessary for +you to frequent the kitchen, or, indeed, to go there oftener than once a +week. Let them come to you for orders, not you go to them. Neither need +you speak quite so familiarly to them, treating them almost as if they +were your equals. Try to remember your true position, that whatever you +may have been you are now Mrs. Wilford Cameron, equal to any lady in New +York."</p> + +<p>They were in the library now, and the soft May breeze came stealing +through the open window, stirring the fleecy curtain and blowing across +the tasteful bouquet which Katy had arranged; but Katy was too wretched +to care for her surroundings. It was the first time Wilford had ever +spoken to her just in this way, and his manner hurt her more than his +words, making her feel as if she were an ignorant, ill-bred creature, +whom he had raised to a position she did not know how to fill. It was +cruel thus to repay her attempts to please, and so, perhaps, Wilford +thought, as with folded arms he sat looking at her weeping so bitterly +upon the sofa; but he was too indignant to make any concession then, and +he suffered her to weep in silence until he remembered that his mother +had requested him to bring her around that evening, as they were +expecting a few of Juno's friends, and among them Sybil Grandon. If Katy +went he wished her to look her best, and he unbent so far as to try to +check her tears. But Katy could not stop, and she wept so passionately +that Wilford's anger subsided, leaving only tenderness and pity for the +wife he tried so hard to soothe, telling her he was sorry, and suing for +forgiveness, until the sobbing ceased, and Katy lay passively in his +arms, her face so white and the dark rings about her eyes showing so +distinctly that Wilford did not press her when she declined his mother's +invitation. He could go, she said, urging so many reasons why he +should, that, for the first time since their marriage, he left her +alone, and went to where Sybil Grandon smiled her sunniest smile, and +put forth her most persuasive powers to keep him at her side, expressing +so much regret that he did not bring his charming little wife, who +completely won her heart, she was so childlike and simple-hearted, +laughing so merrily when she discovered the flour on her hair, but not +seeming to mind it in the least. Really, she did not see how it happened +that he was fortunate enough to win such a domestic treasure. Where did +he find her?</p> + +<p>If Sybil Grandon meant this to be complimentary it was not received as +such, Wilford almost grating his teeth with vexation as he listened to +it, and feeling doubly mortified with Katy, whom he found waiting for +him, when at a late hour he left the society of Sybil Grandon and +repaired to his home.</p> + +<p>To Katy the time of his absence had seemed an age, for her thoughts had +been busy with the past, gathering up every incident connected with her +married life since she came to New York, and deducing from them the +conclusion that "Wilford's folks" were ashamed of her, and that Wilford +himself might perhaps become so, if he were not already. That would be +worse than death itself, and the darkest hours she had ever known were +those she spent alone that night, sobbing so violently as to bring on a +racking headache, which showed itself upon her face and touched Wilford +at once.</p> + +<p>Sybil Grandon was forgotten in those moments of contrition, when he +ministered so tenderly to his suffering wife, whom he felt that he had +wronged. But somehow he could not tell her so then. It was not natural +for him to confess his errors. There had already been a struggle between +his duty and his pride when he had done so, and now the latter +conquered, especially as Katy, grown more calm, began to take the +censure to herself, lamenting her shortcomings, and promising to do +better, even to the imitating of Sybil Grandon, if that would make him +forget the past and love her as before.</p> + +<p>Wilford could accord forgiveness far more graciously than he could ask +it, and so peace was restored again, and Katy's face next day looked +bright and happy when seen in her new carriage, which took her down +Broadway to Stewart's, where she encountered Sybil Grandon, and with her +Juno Cameron.</p> + +<p>From the latter Katy instinctively shrank, but she could not resist the +former, who greeted her so familiarly that Katy readily forgave her the +pain of which she had been the cause, and could even speak of her to +Wilford without a pang when he next came home to dinner. Still she could +not overcome her dread of meeting her, and she grew more and more averse +to mingling in society, where she might do many things to mortify her +husband or his family, and thus provoke a scene she hoped never again to +pass through.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if Helen were only here," she thought, as she began to experience a +sensation of loneliness she had never felt before.</p> + +<p>But Helen was not there, nor yet coming there at present. One word from +Wilford had settled that, convincing Katy that it was better to wait +until the autumn, inasmuch as they were going so soon to Saratoga and +Newport, which Katy had so much wished to visit, but from which she now +shrank, especially after she knew that Mrs. Cameron and Juno were to be +of the party, and probably Sybil Grandon. Katy did not dislike the +latter, but she was never quite easy in her presence, and was conscious +of appearing to disadvantage whenever they were together, while she +could not deny to herself that since Sybil's return Wilford had not been +quite the same as before. In company he was more attentive than ever, +but at home he was sometimes moody and silent, while Katy strove in vain +to ascertain the cause.</p> + +<p>They were not as happy in the new home as she had expected to be, but +the fault did not lie with Katy. She performed well her part, and more, +taking upon her young shoulders the whole of the burden which her +husband should have helped her bear. Housekeeping far more than boarding +brings out a husband's nature, for whereas in the latter case one +rightfully demands the services for which he pays, in the former he is +sometimes expected to do and think, and even wait upon himself. But this +was not Wilford's nature. The easy, indolent life he had led so long as +a petted son of a partial mother unfitted him for care, and he was as +much a boarder in his own home as he had ever been in the hotels in +Paris, thoughtlessly requiring of Katy more than he should have +required, so that Bell was not far from right when in her journal she +described her sister-in-law as "a little servant whose feet were never +supposed to be tired, and whose wishes were never consulted." It is true +Bell had put it rather strongly, but the spirit of what she said was +right, Wilford seldom considering Katy, or allowing her wishes to +interfere with his own plans, while accustomed to every possible +attention from his mother, he exacted the same from his wife, whose life +was not one of unmixed happiness, notwithstanding that every letter home +bore assurance to the contrary.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII" ></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>MARIAN HAZELTON.</h3> + + +<p>The last days of June had come, and Wilford was beginning to make +arrangements for removing Katy from the city before the warmer weather. +To this he had been urged by Mark Ray's remarking that Katy was not +looking as well as when he first saw her, one year ago, "She had grown +thin and pale," he said. "Had Wilford remarked it?"</p> + +<p>Wilford had not. She complained much of headache; but that was only +natural. Still he wrote to the Mountain House that afternoon to secure +rooms for himself and wife, and then at an earlier hour than usual went +home to tell her of the arrangement. Katy was out shopping, Esther said, +and had not yet returned, adding: "There is a note for her upstairs, +left by a woman who insisted on seeing the house, until I took her over +it, showing her every room."</p> + +<p>"A strange woman went over my house in Mrs. Cameron's absence! Who was +it?" Wilford asked, hastily, visions of Helen, or possibly Aunt Betsy, +rising before his mind.</p> + +<p>"She said she was a friend of Mrs. Cameron, and that she knew she would +allow the liberty," Esther replied, thus confirming Wilford in his +suspicions that some country acquaintance had thrust herself upon them, +and hastening up to Katy's room, where the note was lying, he took it up +and examined the superscription, examined it closely, holding it up to +the light full a minute, and forgetting to open it in his perplexity and +the train of thought it awakened.</p> + +<p>"They are singularly alike," he said, and still holding the note in his +hand he went downstairs to the library, and opening a drawer of his +writing desk, which was always kept locked, he took from it a picture +and a bit of soiled paper, on which was written: "I am not guilty, +Wilford, and God will never forgive the wrong you have done to me."</p> + +<p>There was no name or date, but Wilford needed neither, for he knew well +whose hand had penned those lines, and he sat looking at them, comparing +them at last with the "Mrs. Wilford Cameron" which the strange woman had +written. Then opening the note, he read that, having returned to New +York, and wishing employment either as seamstress or dressmaker, Marian +Hazelton had ventured to call upon Mrs. Cameron, remembering her promise +to give her work if she should desire it. The note concluded by saying:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>I am sure you will pardon me for the liberty I took of going over the +house. It was a temptation I could not resist. You have a delightful +home. God grant you may be happy in it. You see I have also made bold +to write this in your library, for which I beg pardon,</p> + +<p>Yours truly, MARIAN HAZELTON,<br /> +No. —— Fourth St., 4th floor, N.Y.</p></div> + +<p>"Who is Marian Hazelton?" Wilford asked himself as he threw down the +missive. "Some of Katy's country friends, I dare say. Seems to me I have +heard that name. She certainly writes as Genevra did, except that this +Hazelton's is more decided and firm. Poor Genevra!"</p> + +<p>There was a pallor about Wilford's lips as he said this, and taking up +the picture he gazed for a long time upon the handsome, girlish face, +whose dark eyes seemed to look reproachfully upon him, just as they must +have looked when the words were penned: "God will never forgive the +wrong you have done to me."</p> + +<p>"Genevra was mistaken," he said. "At least, if God has not forgiven, he +has prospered me, which amounts to the same thing;" and without a single +throb of gratitude to Him who had thus prospered him, Wilford laid +Genevra's picture and Genevra's note back with the withered grass and +flowers plucked from Genevra's grave, and then went again upstairs, just +as Katy's ring was heard and Katy herself came in.</p> + +<p>As thoughts of Genevra always made Wilford kinder toward his wife, so +now he kissed her white cheek, noticing that, as Mark had said, it was +whiter than last year in June. But mountain air would bring back the +roses, he thought, as he handed her the note.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, from Marian Hazelton," Katy said, glancing first at the name +and then hastily reading it through.</p> + +<p>"Who is Marian Hazelton? Some intimate friend, I judge, from the liberty +she took."</p> + +<p>"Not very intimate, though I liked her so much, and thought her above +her position," Katy replied, repeating all she knew of Marian, and how +she chanced to know her at all. "Don't you remember Helen wrote that she +fainted at our wedding, and I was so sorry, fearing I might have +overworked her."</p> + +<p>Wilford did remember something about it, and satisfied that Marian +Hazelton had no idea of intruding herself upon them, except as she might +ask for work, he dismissed her from his mind and told Katy of his plan +for taking her to the Mountain House a few weeks before going to +Saratoga.</p> + +<p>"Would you not like it?" he asked, as she continued silent, with her +eyes fixed upon the window opposite.</p> + +<p>"Yes," and Katy drew a long and weary breath. "I shall like any place +where there are birds, and rocks, and trees, and real grass, such as +grows of itself in the country; but Wilford," and Katy crept close to +him now, "if I might go to Silverton, I should get strong so fast. You +don't know how I long to see home once more. I dream about it nights and +think about it days, knowing just how pleasant it is there, with the +roses in bloom and the meadows so fresh and green. May I go, Wilford? +May I go home to mother?"</p> + +<p>Had Katy asked for half his fortune, just as she asked to go home, +Wilford would have given it to her, but Silverton had a power to lock +all the softer avenues of his heart, and so he answered that the +Mountain House was preferable, that the rooms were engaged, and that as +he should enjoy it so much better he thought they would make no change.</p> + +<p>Katy did not cry, nor utter a word of remonstrance; she was fast +learning that quiet submission was better than useless opposition, and +so Silverton was again given up. But there was one consolation. Seeing +Marian Hazelton would be almost as good as going home, for had she not +recently come from that neighborhood, bringing with her the odor from +the hills and freshness from the woods. Perhaps, too, she had lately +seen Helen or Morris at church, and had heard the music of the organ +which Helen played, and the singing of the children just as it sometimes +came to Katy in her dreams, making her start in her sleep and murmur +snatches of the sacred songs which Dr. Morris taught. Yes, Marian could +tell her of all this, and very impatiently Katy waited for the morning +when she would drive around to Fourth Street with the piles of sewing +she was going to take to Marian.</p> + +<p>"Dear Marian, I wonder is she very poor?" Katy thought, as she next day +made her preparations for the call, and had Wilford been parsimoniously +inclined, he might have winced could he have seen the numerous stores +gathered up for Marian and packed away in the carriage with the bundle +of cambric and linen and lace, all destined for that fourth-story +chamber where Marian Hazelton sat that summer morning, looking drearily +out upon the dingy court and contrasting its sickly patch of grass, +embellished with rain water barrels, coal hods and ash pails, with the +country she had so lately left, the wooded hills and blooming gardens of +Silverton, which had been her home for nearly two years.</p> + +<p>It was a fault of Marian's not to remain long contented in any place, +and so tiring of the country she had returned to the great city, urged +on by a strange desire it may be to see Mrs. Wilford Cameron, to know +just how she lived, to judge if she were happy, and perhaps—some time +see Wilford Cameron, herself unknown, for not for the world would she +have met face to face the man who had so often stood by Genevra +Lambert's grave in the churchyard beyond the sea. Thinking she might +succeed better alone, she had hired a room far up the narrow stairway of +a high, somber-looking building, and then from her old acquaintances, of +whom she had several in the city, she had solicited work. More than once +she had passed the handsome house on Madison Square where Katy lived, +walking slowly and gazing with dim eyes which could not weep at Wilford +Cameron's luxurious home, and contrasting it with hers, that one room, +which yet was not wholly uninviting, for where Marian went there was +always an air of humble comfort; and Katy, as she crossed the threshold, +uttered an exclamation of delight at the cheerful, airy aspect of the +apartment, with its bright ingrain carpet, its simple shades of white, +its chintz-covered lounge, its one rocking-chair, its small parlor +stove, and its pots of flowers upon the broad window sill.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Marian," she exclaimed, tripping across the floor, and impulsively +throwing her arms around Miss Hazelton's neck, "I am so glad to meet +some one from home. It seems almost like Helen I am kissing," and her +lips again met those of Marian Hazelton, who amid her own joy at finding +Katy unchanged, wondered what the Camerons would say to see their Mrs. +Wilford kissing a poor seamstress whom they would have spurned.</p> + +<p>But Katy did not care for Camerons then, or even think of them, as in +her rich basquine and pretty hat, with emeralds and diamonds sparkling +on her fingers, she sat down by Marian, whose hands, though delicate and +small, showed marks of labor such as Katy had never known.</p> + +<p>"You must forgive me for going over your house," Marian said, after they +had talked together a moment, and Katy had told how sorry she was to +miss the call. "I could not resist the temptation, and it did me so much +good, although I must confess to a good cry when I came back and thought +of the difference between us."</p> + +<p>There was a quiver of her lip and a tone in her voice which touched +Katy's heart, and she tried to comfort her, forgetting entirely whether +what she said was proper or not, and impetuously letting out that even +in houses like hers there was trouble. Not that she was unhappy in the +least, for she was not; but, oh! the fuss it was to be fashionable and +keep from doing anything to shock his folks, who were so particular +about every little thing, even to the way she tied her bonnet and sat +in a chair.</p> + +<p>This was what Katy said, and Marian, looking straight into Katy's face, +felt that she would not exchange places with the young girl-wife whom so +many envied.</p> + +<p>"Tell me of Silverton," was Katy's next remark. "You don't know how +I want to go there; but Wilford does not think it best—that is, at +present. Next fall I am surely going. I picture to myself just how it +will look; Morris' garden, full of the autumnal flowers—the ripe +peaches in our orchard, the grapes ripening on the wall, and the long +shadows on the grass, just as I used to watch them, wondering what made +them move so fast, and where they could be going. Will it be unchanged, +Marian? Do places seem the same when once we have left them?" and Katy's +eager eyes looked wistfully at Marian, who replied: "Not always—not +often, in fact; but in your case they may. You have not been long away."</p> + +<p>"Only a year," Katy said. "I was as long as that in Canandaigua; but +this past year is different. I have seen so much, and lived so much, +that I feel ten years older than I did last spring, when you and Helen +made my wedding dress. Darling Helen! When did you see her last?"</p> + +<p>"I was there five weeks ago," Marian replied. "I saw them all, and told +them I was coming to New York."</p> + +<p>"Do they miss me any? Do they talk of me? Do they wish me back again?" +Katy asked, and Marian replied: "They talked of little else—that is, +your own family. Dr. Morris, I think, did not mention your name. He +has grown very silent and reserved," and Marian's eyes were fixed +inquiringly upon Katy, as if to ascertain how much she knew of the +cause for Morris' reserve.</p> + +<p>But Katy had no suspicion, and only replied: "Perhaps he is vexed that +I do not write to him oftener, but I can't. I think of him a great deal, +and sometimes have so wished I could sit in his public library, and +forget that there are such things as dinner parties, where you are in +constant terror lest you should do something wrong—evening parties, +where your dress and style are criticised—receptions or calls, and all +the things which make me so confused. Morris could always quiet me. It +rested me just to hear him talk, and I respect him more than any living +man, except, of course, Wilford; but when I try to write, something +comes in between me and what I wish to say, for I want to convince him +that I am not as frivolous as I fear he thinks I am. I have not +forgotten the Sunday school, nor the church service, which I so loved to +hear, especially when Morris read it, as he did in Mr. Browning's +absence; but in the city it is so hard to be good, particularly when one +is not, you know—that is, good like you and Helen and Morris—and the +service and music seem all for show, and I feel so hateful when I see +Juno and Wilford's mother making believe, and putting their heads down +on velvet cushions, knowing as I do that they both are thinking either +of their own bonnets or those just in front."</p> + +<p>"Are you not a little uncharitable?" Marian asked, laughing in spite of +herself at the picture Katy drew of fashion trying to imitate religion +in its humility.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so," Katy answered. "I grow bad from looking behind the scenes, +and the worst is that I do not care. But tell me, do you think Morris +likes me less than formerly?"</p> + +<p>Marian did not, and assured on that point, Katy went back to the +farmhouse, asking numberless questions about its inmates, and at last +coming to the business which had brought her to Marian's room.</p> + +<p>There were perceptible spots on Marian's neck, and her lips were very +white, while her hands grasped the bundles tossed into her lap—the +yards and yards of lace and embroidery, linen, and cambric, which she +was expected to make for the wife of Wilford Cameron; and her voice was +husky as she asked directions or made suggestions of her own.</p> + +<p>"It's because she has no such joy in expectation. I should feel so, too, +if I were thirty and unmarried," Katy thought, as she noticed Marian's +agitation, and tried to divert her mind by telling her as delicately as +possible that she had brought with her sundry stores of which she had +such an abundance.</p> + +<p>"I knew you were not an object of charity," she said, as she saw the +flush on Marian's brow, "but when I have so much I like to share it with +others, and you seem like our folks."</p> + +<p>"Did Wilf—did Mr. Cameron know?" Marian asked, and Katy answered "No; +but it does not matter. He lets me do as I like in these matters, and +the greatest pleasure I have is giving. You are not offended?" she +continued, as she saw a tear drop from Marian's eyelids.</p> + +<p>"No—oh, no," and Marian quietly laid aside the packages which would +find their way to many an humble garret or cellar, where biting poverty +had its abode.</p> + +<p>It would choke her to eat whatever came from Wilford Cameron, but she +could not tell Katy so, though she did say: "I will keep these because +you brought them, but do not do so again. There are many far more needy. +I saved something in Silverton. I shall not suffer so long as my health +is spared."</p> + +<p>Then after a few more inquiries concerning the work, about which she +could now talk calmly, she asked where Katy went when she was abroad, +her blue eyes growing almost black as Katy talked of Rome, of Venice, of +Paris, and then of Alnwick, where they had stopped so long.</p> + +<p>"By the way, you were born in England? Were you ever at Alnwick?" Katy +asked, and Marian replied: "Once, yes. I've seen the castle and the +church. Did you go there—to St. Mary's, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, and I was never tired of that old churchyard, Wilford liked +it, too, and we wandered by the hour among the sunken graves and quaint +headstones."</p> + +<p>"Do you remember any of the names upon the stones? Perhaps I may know +them?" Marian asked; but Katy did not remember any, or if she did, it +was not "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two." And so Marian asked her no +more questions concerning St. Mary's, at Alnwick, but talked instead of +London and other places, until three hours went by, and down in the +street the coachman chafed and fretted at the long delay, wandering what +kept his mistress in that neighborhood so long. Had she friends, or had +she come on some errand of mercy? The latter most likely, he concluded, +and so his face was not quite so cross when Katy at last appeared, +looking at her watch and exclaiming at the lateness of the hour. But +when, as they turned into the avenue, Katy called to him to stop, +bidding him drive back, as she had forgotten something, he showed +unmistakable signs of irritation, but nevertheless obeyed, and Katy was +soon mounting a second time to the fourth story of No. ——, where Marian +Hazelton knelt upon the floor, her head resting upon the costly fabrics +and her frame quivering with the anguish of the sobs which reached +Katy's ear even before she opened the unbolted door.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Marian?" she asked, in great distress, while Marian, +struggling to her feet, remained for a moment speechless.</p> + +<p>She had not expected Katy to return, else she had never given way as she +did, calling on her God to help her bear what she now knew she was not +prepared to bear. She had thought the heart struggle conquered, and that +she could calmly look upon Wilford Cameron's wife; but the sight of +Katy, together with the errand on which she came, had unnerved her, and +she wept bitterly in her desolation, until Katy's reappearance startled +her from her position on the floor, making her stammer out some excuse +about "homesickness and the seeing Katy bringing back the past."</p> + +<p>Very lovingly Katy tried to comfort her, putting into her manner just +enough of pretty patronage to amuse without annoying Marian, who soon +grew calm, and then listened while Katy told why she returned. She +feared she had talked too much of her own affairs—too much of his +folks, who, after all, were nice, kind people, and she came to take +it back, asking Marian never to speak of it, as it might get to them +indirectly, and Wilford would be angry.</p> + +<p>With a smile, as she thought how improbable it was that anything said to +her up in that humble room should reach to No. —— Fifth Avenue, Marian +promised silence; and with a good-by kiss, given to convince Marian that +she was not proud, Katy again departed, and was soon driving toward +Madison Square. She was very happy that morning, for seeing Marian had +brought Silverton near to her, and airy as a bird she ran up the steps +of her own dwelling, where the door opened as by magic, and Wilford +himself confronted her, asking, with the tone which always made her +heart beat, where she had been, and he waiting for her two whole hours. +Surely it was not necessary to stop so long with a seamstress, he +continued when she tried to explain. Ten minutes would suffice for +directions, and he could not imagine what attractions there were in Miss +Hazelton to keep her there three hours, and then the real cause of his +vexation came out. He had come expressly for the carriage to take her +and Sybil Grandon to a picnic up the river, whither his mother, Juno and +Bell had already gone. Mrs. Grandon must wonder why he stayed so long, +and perhaps give up going. Could Katy be ready soon; and Wilford walked +rapidly up and down the parlor as he talked, with a restless motion of +his hands which always betokened impatience. Poor Katy, how the +brightness of the morning faded, and how averse she felt to joining that +picnic, which she knew had been in prospect for some time, and had +fancied she should enjoy. But not to-day, not with that cold, proud look +on Wilford's face, and the feeling that he was vexed. Still she could +think of no reasonable excuse, and so an hour later found her driving +into the country with Sybil Grandon, who received her apologies with as +much good-natured grace as if she had not worked herself into a passion +at the delay, for Sybil had been very cross and impatient; but all this +vanished when she met Wilford and saw that he, too, was disturbed and +irritated. Soft and sweet and smooth was she both in word and manner, so +that by the time the pleasant grove was reached Wilford's ruffled +spirits had been soothed, and he was himself again, ready to enjoy the +pleasures of the day as keenly as if no harsh word had been said to +Katy, who, silent and unhappy, listened to the graceful badinage between +Sybil and her husband, thinking how differently his voice had sounded +when addressing her only a little while before.</p> + +<p>"Pray put some animation into your face, or Mrs. Grandon will certainly +think we have been quarreling," Wilford whispered, as he lifted his wife +from the carriage, and with a great effort Katy tried to be gay and +natural.</p> + +<p>But all the while was she fighting back her tears and wishing she were +away. Even Marian's room, looking into the dingy court, was preferable +to that place, and she was glad when the long day came to an end, and +she with a fearful headache was riding back to the city.</p> + +<p>The next morning was dark and rainy; but in spite of the weather Katy +found her way to Marian's room, this time taking the —— avenue cars, +which left her independent as regarded the length of her stay. About +Marian there was something more congenial than about her city friends, +and day after day found her there, watching while Marian fashioned into +shape the beautiful little garments, the sight of which had over Katy a +strangely quieting influence, sobering her down and maturing her more +than all the years of her life had done. Those were happy hours spent +with Marian Hazelton, the happiest of the entire day, and Katy felt it +keenly when Wilford at last interfered, telling her she was growing +quite too familiar with that sewing woman, and her calls had best be +discontinued, except, indeed, such as were necessary to the work in +progress.</p> + +<p>There was a grieved look on Katy's face, but she uttered no word of +remonstrance; while her husband went on to say, that of course he did +not wish to be unreasonable, nor interfere between her and her +acquaintances as a general thing, but when the acquaintance chosen was a +sewing woman, whose antecedents no one knew, and whose society could not +be improving, the case was different.</p> + +<p>After this there were no more mornings spent in Marian's room, no more +talks of Silverton and Morris Grant; talks which did Katy a world of +good, and kept her heart open to better influences, which might +otherwise have been wholly choked and destroyed by the life she saw +around her. With one great gush of tears, when there was no one to see +her, Katy gave Marian up, writing her a note, in which were sundry +directions for the work, which would go on even after she had left for +the Mountain House, as she intended doing the last of June. And Marian, +reading this note, guessed at more than Katy meant she should, and with +a bitter sigh laid it in her basket, and then resumed the work, which +seemed doubly monotonous now that there was no more listening for the +little feet tripping up the stairs, or for the bird-like voice which had +brought so much of music and sunshine to her lonely room.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX" ></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>SARATOGA AND NEWPORT.</h3> + + +<p>For three weeks Katy had been at the Mountain House, growing stronger +every day, until now she was much like the Katy of one year ago, and +Wilford was very proud of her, as he saw how greatly she was admired by +those whose admiration he deemed worth having. But their stay among the +Catskills was ended, and on the morrow they were going to Saratoga, +where Mrs. Cameron and her daughter were, and where, too, was Sybil +Grandon, the reigning belle of the United States. So Bell had written to +her brother, bidding him hasten on with Katy, as she wished to see "that +chit of a widow in her proper place." And Katy had been weak enough for +a moment to feel a throb of satisfaction in knowing how effectually +Sybil's claims to belleship would be put aside when she was once in the +field; even glancing at herself in the mirror as she leaned on Wilford's +shoulder, and feeling glad that mountain air and mountain exercise had +brought the roses back to her white cheeks and the brightness to her +eyes. But Katy wept passionate tears of repentance for that weakness, +when an hour later she read the letter which Dr. Grant had sent in +answer to one she had written from the Mountain House, and in which she +had told him much of her life in New York, confessing her shortcomings, +and lamenting that the evils and excesses which shocked her once did not +startle her now. To this letter Morris had replied as a brother might +write to an only sister, first expressing his joy at her happiness, and +then coming to the subject which lay nearest his heart, warning her +against temptation, reminding her of that other life to which this is +only a preparation, and beseeching her so to use the good things of this +world, given her in such profusion, as not to lose the life eternal.</p> + +<p>This was the substance of Morris' letter, which Katy read with +streaming eyes, forgetting Saratoga as Morris' solemn words of warning +and admonition rang in her ears, and shuddering as she thought of losing +the life eternal of going where Morris would never come, nor any of +those she loved the best, unless it were Wilford, who might reproach her +with having dragged him there when she could have saved him.</p> + +<p>"Keep yourself unspotted from the world," Morris had said, and she +repeated it to herself, asking: "How shall I do that? How can one be +good and fashionable, too?"</p> + +<p>Then laying her hand upon the rock where she was sitting, Katy tried to +pray as she had not prayed in months, asking that God would teach her +what she ought to know, and keep her unspotted from the world. But at +the Mountain House it is easier to pray that one be kept from temptation +than it is at Saratoga, which this summer was crowded to overflowing, +its streets presenting a fitting picture of Vanity Fair, so full were +they of show and gala dress. At the United States, where Mrs. Cameron +stopped, two rooms, for which an enormous price was paid, had been +reserved for Mr. and Mrs. Wilford Cameron, and this of itself would have +given them a certain _éclat_, even if there had not been present many +who remembered the proud, fastidious bachelor, and were proportionately +anxious to see his wife. She came, she saw, she conquered; and within +three days after her arrival Katy Cameron was the acknowledged belle of +Saratoga, from the United States to the Clarendon. And Katy, alas! was +not quite the same who on the mountain ridge had sat with Morris' letter +in her hand, praying that its teachings might not be all forgotten. Nor +were they, but she did not heed them here where all was so bright and +gay, and where the people thought her so perfect. Saratoga seemed +different to her from New York, and she plunged into its gayeties, never +pausing, never tiring, and seldom giving herself time to think, much +less to pray, as Morris had bidden her do. And Wilford, though hardly +able to recognize the usually timid Katy in the brilliant woman who led +rather than followed, was sure of her faith to him, and so was only +proud and gratified to see her bear off the palm from every competitor, +while even Juno, though she quarreled with the shadow into which she +was so completely thrown, enjoyed the _éclat_ cast upon their party by +the presence of Mrs. Wilford, who had passed beyond her criticism. Sybil +Grandon, too, stood back in wonder that a simple country girl should win +and wear the laurels she had so long claimed as her own; but as there +was no help for it she contented herself as best she could with the +admiration she did receive, and whenever opportunity occurred, said +bitter things of Mrs. Wilford, whose parentage and low estate were +through her pretty generally known. But it did not matter there what +Katy had been; the people took her for what she was now, and Sybil's +glory faded like the early dawn in the coming of the full day.</p> + +<p>As it had been at Saratoga, so it was at Newport. Urged on by Mrs. +Cameron and Bell, who greatly enjoyed her notoriety, Katy plunged into +the mad excitement of dancing and driving and coquetting, until Wilford +himself became uneasy, locking her once in her room, where she was +sleeping after dinner, and conveniently forgetting to release her until +after the departure at evening of some young men from Cambridge, whose +attentions to the Ocean House belle had been more strongly marked than +was altogether agreeable to him. Of course it was a mistake—the locking +of the door—and a great oversight in him not to have remembered it +sooner, he said to Katy, by way of apology; and Katy, with no suspicion +of the truth, laughed merrily at the joke, repeating it downstairs to +the old dowagers, who shrugged their shoulders meaningly and whispered +to each other that it might be well if more young, handsome wives were +locked into their rooms and thus kept out of mischief.</p> + +<p>Though flattered, caressed and admired, Katy was not doing herself much +credit at Newport, but after Wilford there was no one to raise a warning +voice, until Mark Ray came down for a few days' respite from the heated +city, where he spent the entire summer, taking charge of the business +which belonged as much to Wilford as to himself. But Wilford had a wife; +it was more necessary that he should leave, Mark had argued; his time +would come by and by. And so he had remained at home until the last of +August, when he appeared suddenly at the Ocean House one night when +Katy, in her airy robes and childlike simplicity, was breaking hearts by +the score. Like others, Mark was charmed, and not a little proud, for +Katy's sake, to see her thus appreciated; but when one day's experience +had shown him more and given him a look behind the scenes, he trembled +for her, knowing how hard it would be for her to come out of that sea of +dissipation as pure and spotless as she went in.</p> + +<p>"If I were her brother I would warn her that her present career, though +very delightful now, is not one upon which she will look back with +pleasure when the excitement is over," he said to himself; "but if +Wilford is satisfied it is not for me to interfere. It is surely nothing +to me what Katy Cameron does," he kept repeating to himself; but as +often as he said it there came up before him a pale, anxious face, +shaded with Helen Lennox's bands of hair, and Helen Lennox's voice +whispered to him: "Save Katy, for my sake;" and so next day, when Mark +found himself alone with Katy, while most of the guests were at the +beach, he questioned her of her life at Saratoga and Newport, and +gradually, as he talked, there crept into Katy's heart a suspicion that +he was not altogether pleased with her account, or with what he had seen +of her since his arrival.</p> + +<p>For a moment Katy was indignant, but when he said to her kindly: "Would +Helen he pleased?" her tears started at once, and she attempted an +excuse for her weak folly, accusing Sybil Grandon as the first cause of +the ambition for which she hated herself.</p> + +<p>"She had been held up as my pattern," she said, half bitterly, and +forgetting to whom she was talking—"she the one whom I was to imitate; +and when I found that if I would I could go beyond her, I yielded to the +temptation, and exulted to see how far she was left behind. Besides +that," she continued, "is it no gratification, think you, to let +Wilford's proud mother and sister see the poor country girl, whom +ordinarily they would despise, stand where they cannot come, and even +dictate to them if she chooses so to do? I know it is wrong—I know it +is wicked—but I rather like the excitement, and so long as I am with +these people I shall never be any better. Mark Ray, you don't know what +it is to be surrounded by a set who care for nothing but fashion and +display, and how they may outdo each other. I hate New York society. +There is nothing there but husks."</p> + +<p>Katy's tears had ceased, and on her white face there was a new look of +womanhood, as if in that outburst she had changed, and would never again +be just what she was before.</p> + +<p>"Say," she continued, "do you like New York society?"</p> + +<p>"Not always—not wholly," Mark answered; "and still you misjudge it +greatly, for all are not like the people you describe. Your husband's +family represent one extreme, while there are others equally high in the +social scale who do not make fashion the rule of their lives—sensible, +cultivated, intellectual people, of whose acquaintance one might be +glad—people whom I fancy your Sister Helen would enjoy. I have only met +her twice, it is true, but my impression is that she would not find New +York utterly distasteful."</p> + +<p>Mark did not know why he had dragged Helen into that conversation, +unless it were that she seemed very near to him as he talked with Katy, +who replied:</p> + +<p>"Yes, Helen finds some good in all. She sees differently from what I do, +and I wish so much that she was here."</p> + +<p>"Why not send for her?" Mark asked, casting about in his mind whether in +case Helen came, he, too, could tarry for a week and leave that business +in Southbridge, which he must attend to ere returning to the city.</p> + +<p>It would be a study to watch Helen Lennox there at Newport, and in +imagination Mark was already her sworn knight, shielding her from +criticism, and commanding her respect from those who respected him, when +Katy tore his castle down by answering impulsively:</p> + +<p>"I doubt if Wilford would let me send for her here, nor does it matter, +as I shall not remain much longer. I do not need her now, since you have +showed me how foolish I have been. I was angry at first, but now I thank +you for it, and so would Helen. I shall tell her when I am in Silverton. +I am going there from here, and oh, I so wish it was to-day."</p> + +<p>The guests were beginning to return from the beach by this time, and as +Mark had said all he had intended saying, and even more, he left Katy +with Wilford, who had just come in and joined a merry party of +Bostonians only that day arrived. That night at the Ocean House the +guests missed something from their festivities; the dance was not so +exhilarating or the small-talk between them so lively, while more than +one white-kidded dandy swore mentally at the innocent Wilford, whose +wife declined to join in the gayeties, and in a plain white muslin, with +only a pond lily in her hair, kept by her husband's side, +notwithstanding that he more than once bade her leave him and accept +some of her numerous invitations to join the giddy dance. This sober +phase of Katy did not on the whole please Wilford as much as her gayer +ones had done. Perfectly sure of her devotion to himself, he liked to +watch her as she glided amid the throng which paid her so much homage. +All he had ever dreamed of the sensation his bride would create was more +than verified. Katy had fulfilled his highest expectations, reaching a +point from which, as she had said to Mark, she could even dictate to his +mother, if she chose, and he did not care to see her relinquish it.</p> + +<p>But Katy remained true to herself. Dropping her girlish playfulness she +assumed a quiet, gentle dignity, which became her even better than her +gayer mood had done, making her ten times more popular and more sought +after, until she begged to go away, persuading Wilford at last to name +the day for their departure, and then, never doubting for a moment that +her destination was Silverton, she wrote to Helen that she was coming on +such a day, and as they would come by way of Providence and Worcester, +they would probably reach West Silverton at ten o'clock, A.M.</p> + +<p>"Wilford," she added, in a postscript, "has gone down to bathe, and as +the mail is just closing, I shall send this letter without his seeing +it. Of course it can make no difference, for I have talked all summer of +coming, and he understands it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX" ></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>MARK RAY AT SILVERTON.</h3> + + +<p>The last day of summer was dying out in a fierce storm of rain which +swept in sheets across the Silverton hills, hiding the pond from +view, and beating the windows of the farmhouse, whose inmates were +nevertheless unmindful of the storm save as they hoped the morrow would +prove bright and fair, such as the day should be which brought them back +their Katy. Nearly worn out with constant reference was her letter, the +mother catching it up from time to time to read the part referring to +herself, the place where Katy had told how blessed it would be "to rest +again on mother's bed," just as she had often wished to do, "and hear +mother's voice;" the deacon spelling out by his spluttering tallow +candle, with its long, smoky wick, what she had said of "darling old +Uncle Eph," and the rides into the fields which she should have with +him; Aunt Betsy, too, reading mostly from memory the words: "Good old +Aunt Betsy, with her skirts so limp and short, tell her she will look +handsomer to me than the fairest belle at Newport;" and as often as Aunt +Betsy read it she would ejaculate: "The land! what kind of company must +the child have kept?" wondering next if Helen had never written of the +hoop, for which she had paid a dollar, and which was carefully hung in +her closet, waiting for the event of to-morrow, while the hem of her +pongee had been let down and one breadth added to accommodate the hoop. +On the whole, Aunt Betsy expected to make a stylish appearance before +the little lady of whom she stood slightly in awe, always speaking of +her to the neighbors as "My niece, Miss Cameron, from New York," and +taking good care to report what she had heard of "Miss Cameron's" costly +dress and the grandeur of her house, where the furniture of the best +chamber cost over fifteen hundred dollars.</p> + +<p>"What could it be—gold?" Aunt Betsy had asked in her simplicity, +feeling an increased respect for Katy, and consenting the more readily +to the change in her pongee, as suggested to her by Helen.</p> + +<p>But that was for to-morrow when Katy came; to-night she only wore a +dotted brown, whose hem just reached the top of her "bootees," as she +stood by the window, wondering, first, if the rain would ever stop, and +wondering, secondly, where all them fish worms, squirming on the grass +by the back door, did come from. Needn't tell her they crawled out of +the ground; she knew better—they rained from the clouds, though she +should s'pose that somebody would sometime have catched one on their +bunnet or umberill. Dammed if she didn't mean to stand out o' doors some +day till she was wet to the skin, and see what would come, and having +thus settled a way by which to decide the only question, except that of +the "'Piscopal Church and its quirks," on which she was still obstinate, +Aunt Betsy went to strain the milk just brought by Uncle Ephraim, while +Helen took her position near the window, looking drearily out upon the +leaden clouds, and hoping it would brighten before the morrow. Like the +others, Helen had read Katy's letter many times, dwelling longest upon +the part which said: "I have been so bad, so frivolous and wicked here +at Newport, that it will be a relief to make you my confessor, +depending, as I do, upon your love to grant me absolution."</p> + +<p>From a family at Silverton, who had spent a few days at a private house +in Newport, Helen had heard something of her sister's life; the lady had +seen her once driving a tandem team, or as Aunt Betsy had it, "driving +tanterum," down the avenue, with Wilford at her side giving her +instructions. Since then there had been some anxiety felt for her at the +farmhouse, and more than Dr. Grant had prayed that she might be kept +unspotted from the world; but when her letter came, so full of love and +self-reproaches, the burden was lifted, and there was nothing to mar +the anticipations of the events for which they had made so many +preparations, Uncle Ephraim going to the expense of buying at auction a +half-worn, covered buggy, which he fancied would suit Katy better than +the corn-colored wagon in which Katy used to ride. To pay for this the +deacon had parted with the money set aside for the "greatcoat" he so +much needed for the coming winter, his old gray one having done him +service for fifteen years. But his comfort was nothing compared with +Katy's happiness, and so, with his wrinkled face beaming with delight, +he had brought home his buggy, which he designated a carriage, putting +it carefully in the barn, and saying no one should ride in it till +Katy came, the corn-color was good enough for them, but Katy was +different—Katy was Mrs. Cameron, and used to something better. With +untiring patience the old man mended up his harness, for what he had +heard of Katy's driving had impressed him strongly with her powers of +horsemanship, and, truth to tell, raised her somewhat in his respect. +Could he have afforded it Uncle Ephraim in his younger days would have +been a horse jockey, and even now he liked nothing better than to make +Old Whitey run when alone in the strip of woods between the house and +the head of the pond.</p> + +<p>"Katy inherits her love of horses from me," he said, complacently, and +with a view of improving Whitey's style and metal, he took to feeding +him on corn and oats, talking to him at times, and telling him who was +coming.</p> + +<p>Dear, simple-hearted Uncle Ephraim, the days which he must wait seemed +long to him as they did to the female portion of his family, to Mrs. +Lennox, Aunt Hannah and Aunt Betsy, who each did what she could to make +the house attractive. They were ready for Katy at last, or could be +early on the morrow, and with the shutting in of night the candles were +lighted in the sitting-room, and Helen sat down to her work, wishing it +was to-night that Katy was coming. As if in answer to her wish there was +the sound of wheels, which stopped before the house, and dropping her +work, Helen ran quickly to the door, just as from under the dripping +umbrella held by a driver boy, a tall young man, sprang upon the step, +nearly upsetting her, but passing an arm around her shoulders in time to +keep her from falling.</p> + +<p>"I beg pardon for this assault upon you," the stranger said; and then, +turning to the boy, he continued: "It's all right, you need not wait."</p> + +<p>With a chirrup and a blow the horse started forward, and the +mud-bespattered vehicle was rapidly moving down the road ere Helen had +recovered her surprise at recognizing Mark Ray, who shook the raindrops +from his hair, and offering her his hand said in reply to her +involuntary exclamation: "I thought it was Katy." "Shall I infer, +then, that I am the less welcome?" and his bright, saucy eyes looked +laughingly into hers. "Business had brought him to Southbridge," he +said, "and it was his intention to take the cars that afternoon for New +York, but having been detained longer than he expected, and not liking +the looks of the hotel arrangements, he had decided to presume upon his +acquaintance with Dr. Grant and spend the night at Linwood. But," and +again his eyes looked straight at Helen, "it rained so hard and the +light from your window was so inviting that I ventured to stop, so here +I am, claiming your hospitality until morning, if convenient; if not, I +will find my way to Linwood."</p> + +<p>There was something in this pleasant familiarity which won Uncle Ephraim +at once, and he bade the young man stay, as did Aunt Hannah and Mrs. +Lennox, who now for the first time were presented to Mark Ray. Always +capable of adapting himself to the circumstances around him, Mark did so +now with so much ease and courteousness as to astonish Helen, and partly +thaw the reserve she had assumed when she found the visitor was from the +hated city.</p> + +<p>"Are you expecting Mrs. Cameron?" he asked, adding as Helen explained +that she was coming to-morrow: "That is strange. Wilford wrote decidedly +that he should be in New York to-morrow. Possibly, though, he does not +intend himself to stop."</p> + +<p>"I presume not," Helen replied, a weight suddenly lifting from her heart +at the prospect of not having to entertain the formidable brother-in-law +who, if he stayed long, would spoil all her pleasure.</p> + +<p>Thus at her ease on this point, she grew more talkative, half wishing +that her dress was not a shilling calico, or her hair combed back quite +so straight, giving her that severe look which Morris had said was +unbecoming. It was very smooth and glossy, and even Sybil Grandon would +have given her best diamond to have had in her own natural right the +long heavy coil of hair bound so many times around the back of Helen's +head, ornamented with neither ribbon, comb, nor bow—only a single +geranium leaf, with a white and scarlet blossom, was fastened just +below the ear, and on the side where Mark could see it best, admiring +its effect and forgetting the arrangement of the hair in his admiration +of the well-shaped head, bending so industriously over the work which +Helen had resumed—not crocheting, nor yet embroidery, but the very +homely work of darning Uncle Ephraim's socks, a task which Helen always +did, and on that particular night. Helen knew it was not delicate +employment and there was a moment's hesitancy as she wondered what Mark +would think—then with a grim delight in letting him see that she did +not care, she resumed her darning needle, and as a kind of penance of +the flash of pride in which she had indulged, selected from the basket +the very coarsest, ugliest sock she could find, stretching out the huge +fracture at the heel to its utmost extent, and attacking it with a right +good will, while Mark, with a comical look on his face, sat watching +her. She knew he was looking at her, and her cheeks were growing very +red, while her hatred of him was increasing, when he said, abruptly: +"You follow my mother's custom, I see. She used to mend my socks on +Tuesday nights."</p> + +<p>"Your mother mend socks!" and Helen started so suddenly as to run the +point of her darning needle a long way into her thumb, the wound +bringing a stream of blood which she tried to wipe away with her +handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"Bind it tightly around. Let me show you, please," Mark said, and ere +she was aware of what she was doing Helen was quietly permitting the +young man to wind her handkerchief around her thumb which he held in his +hand, pressing it until the blood ceased flowing, and the sharp pain had +abated.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Mark Ray liked holding that small, warm hand, even though it +were not as white and soft as Juno's; at all events he did hold it until +Helen drew it from him with a quick, sudden motion, telling him it would +now do very well, and she would not trouble him. Mark did not look as if +he had been troubled, but went back to his seat and took up the +conversation just where the needle had stopped it.</p> + +<p>"My mother did not always mend herself, but she caused it to be done, +and sometimes helped. I remember she used to say a woman should know +how to do everything pertaining to a household, and she carried out her +theory in the education of my sister."</p> + +<p>"Have you a sister?" Helen asked, now really interested, and listening +intently while Mark told her of his only sister, Julia, now Mrs. Ernst, +whose home was in New Orleans, though she at present was in Paris, and +his mother was there with her. "After Julia's marriage, nine years ago, +mother went to live with her," he said, "but latterly, as the little +Ernsts increase so fast, she wishes for a more quiet home, and this +winter she is coming to New York to keep house for me."</p> + +<p>Helen thought she might like Mark's mother, who, he told her, had been +twice married, and was now Mrs. Banker, and a widow. She must be +different from Mrs. Cameron; and Helen let herself down to another +degree of toleration for the man whose mother taught her daughter to +mend the family socks. Still there was about her a chilling reserve, +which Mark wondered at, for it was not thus that ladies were accustomed +to receive his advances. He did not guess that Wilford Cameron stood +between him and Helen's good opinion; but when, after the family came +in, the conversation turned upon Katy and her life in New York, the +secret came out in the sharp, caustic mariner with which she spoke of +New York and its people.</p> + +<p>"It's Will and the Camerons," Mark thought, blaming Helen less than he +would have done, if he, too, had not known something of the Cameron +pride.</p> + +<p>It was a novel position in which Mark found himself that night; an +inmate of a humble farmhouse, where he could almost touch the ceiling +with his hand, and where his surroundings were so different from what he +had been accustomed to; but, unlike Wilford Cameron, he did not wish +himself away, nor feel indignant at Aunt Betsy's odd, old-fashioned +ways, or Uncle Ephraim's grammar. He noticed Aunt Betsy's oddities, it +is true, and noticed Uncle Ephraim's grammar, too; but the sight of +Helen sitting there, with so much dignity and self-respect, made him +look beyond all else, straight into her open face and clear brown eyes, +where there was nothing obnoxious or distasteful. Her grammar was +correct, her manner, saving a little stiffness, ladylike and refined; +and Mark rather enjoyed his situation as self-invited guest, making +himself so agreeable that Uncle Ephraim forgot his hour of retiring, nor +discovered his mistake until, with a loud yawn, Aunt Betsy told him that +it was half-past nine, and she was "desput sleepy."</p> + +<p>Owing to Helen's influence there had been a change of the olden customs, +and instead of the long chapter, through which Uncle Ephraim used to +plod so wearily, there was now read the Evening Psalms, Aunt Betsy +herself joining in the reading, which she mentally classed with the +"quirks," but confessed to herself that it "was most as good as the +Bible."</p> + +<p>As there were only Prayer Books enough for the family, Helen, in +distributing them, purposely passed Mark by, thinking he might not care +to join them. But he did, and when the verse came around to Helen he +quickly drew his chair near to hers, and taking one side of her book, +performed his part, while Helen's face grew red as the blossoms in her +hair, and her hand so near to Mark's trembled visibly.</p> + +<p>"A right nice chap, and not an atom stuck up," was Aunt Betsy's mental +comment, and then, as he often will do, Satan followed the saintly woman +even to her knees, making her wonder if "Mr. Ray hadn't some notion +after Helen." She hoped not, for she meant that Morris should have +Helen, "though if 'twas to be it was, and she should not go agin' it;" +and while Aunt Betsy thus settled the case, Uncle Ephraim's prayer +ended, and the conscience-smitten woman arose from her knees with the +conviction that "the evil one had got the better of her once," mentally +asking pardon for her wandering thoughts, and promising to do better.</p> + +<p>Mark was in no haste to retire, and when Uncle Ephraim offered to +conduct him to his room, he frankly answered that he was not sleepy, +adding, as he turned to Helen: "Please let me stay until Miss Lennox +finishes her socks. There are several pairs yet undarned. I will not +detain you, though," he continued, bowing to Uncle Ephraim, who, a +little uncertain what to do, finally departed, as did Aunt Hannah and +his sister, leaving Helen and her mother to entertain Mark Ray. It had +been Mrs. Lennox's first intention to retire also, but a look from +Helen detained her, and she sat down by that basket of socks, while Mark +wished her away. Still it was proper for her to remain, he knew, and he +respected Helen for keeping her, as he knew she did. A while they talked +of Katy and New York, Mark laboring to convince Helen that its people +were not all heartless and fickle, and at last citing his mother as an +instance.</p> + +<p>"You would like mother, Miss Lennox. I hope you will know her some +time," he said, and then they talked of books, Helen forgetting that +Mark was city bred in the interest with which she listened to him, while +Mark forgot that the girl who appreciated and understood his views +almost before they were expressed was country born, and sitting there +before him clad in homely garb, with no ornaments save those of her fine +mind and the sparkling face turned so fully toward him.</p> + +<p>"Mark Ray is not like Wilford Cameron," Helen said to herself, when as +the clock was striking eleven she bade him good-night and went up to her +room. "But of course in his heart he feels above us all," and opening +her window she leaned her hot cheek against the wet casement, and looked +out upon the night, now so beautiful and clear, for the rain was over, +and up in the heavens the bright stars were shining, each one bearing +some resemblance to Mark's eyes as they kindled and grew bright with his +excitement, resting always kindly on her—on Helen, who, leaning thus +from the window, felt stealing over her that feeling which, once born, +can never be quite forgotten.</p> + +<p>Helen did not recognize the feeling, for it was a strange one to her. +She was only conscious of a sensation half pleasurable, half sad, of +which Mark Ray had been the cause, and which she tried in vain to put +aside, wondering what he thought of them all, and if he did not secretly +despise them even while making himself so familiar. And then there swept +over her a feeling of desolation such as she had never experienced +before, a shrinking from living all her life in Silverton, as she fully +expected to do, and laying her head upon the little stand, she cried +passionately.</p> + +<p>"This is weak, this is folly," she suddenly exclaimed, as she became +conscious of acting as Helen Lennox was not wont to act, and with a +strong effort of the will she dried her tears and crept quietly to bed +just as Mark was falling into his first sleep, and dreaming of +smothering.</p> + +<p>Helen would not have acknowledged it, and yet it was a truth not to be +denied, that she stayed next morning a much longer time than usual +before her glass, arranging her hair, which was worn more becomingly +than on the previous night, softening the somewhat too intellectual +expression of her face, and making her seem more womanly and modest. +Once she thought to wear the light buff gown in which she looked so +well, but the thought was repudiated as soon as formed, and donning the +same dark calico she would have worn if Mark had not been there, she +finished her simple toilet and went downstairs, just as Mark came in at +the side door, his hands full of water lilies and his boots bearing +marks of what he had been through to get them.</p> + +<p>"Early country air is healthful," he said, "and as I do not often have a +chance to try it I thought I would improve the present opportunity! So I +have been down by the pond, and spying these lilies I persevered until I +reached them, in spite of mud and mire. There is no blossom I like so +well. Were I a young girl I would always wear one in my hair, just as +your sister did one night at Newport, and I never saw her look better. +Just let me try the effect on you;" and selecting a half-opened bud, +Mark placed it among Helen's braids as if hairdressing were one of his +accomplishments. "The effect is good," he continued, turning her +blushing face to the glass and asking if it were not.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Helen stammered, seeing more the saucy eyes looking over her head +than the lily in her hair. "Yes, good enough, but hardly in keeping with +this old dress," and vanity whispered the wish that the buff had really +been worn.</p> + +<p>"Your dress is suitable for morning, I am sure," Mark replied, turning +a little more to the right the lily and noticing as he did so how very +white and pretty was the neck and throat seen above the collar.</p> + +<p>Mark liked a pretty neck, and he was glad to know that Helen had one, +though why he should care was a puzzle. He could hardly have analyzed +his feelings then, or told what he did think of Helen. He only knew +that by her efforts to repel him she attracted him the more, she was so +different from any young ladies he had known; so different from Juno, +into whose hair he had never twined a water lily. It would not become +her as it did Helen, he thought, as he sat opposite her at the table, +admiring his handiwork, which even Aunt Betsy observed, remarking that +"Helen was mightily spruced up for morning," a compliment which Helen +acknowledged with a painful blush, while Mark began a disquisition upon +the nature of lilies generally, which lasted until breakfast was ended.</p> + +<p>It was arranged that Mark should ride to the cars with Uncle Ephraim +when he went for Katy, and as this gave him a good two hours of leisure, +he spoke of Dr. Grant, asking Helen if she did not suppose he would call +around. Helen thought it possible, and then remembering how many things +were to be done that morning, she excused herself from the parlor, and +repairing to the platform out by the back door, where it was shady and +cool, she tied on a broad check apron, and rolling her sleeves above her +elbows, was just bringing the churn-dasher to bear vigorously upon the +thick cream she was turning into butter, when, having finished his +cigar, Mark went out into the yard, and following the winding path came +suddenly upon her. Helen's first impulse was to stop, but with a strong +nerving of herself she kept on while Mark, coming as near as he dared, +said to her: "Why do you do that? Is there no one else?"</p> + +<p>"No," Helen answered; "that is, we keep no servant, and my young arms +are stronger than the others."</p> + +<p>"And mine are stronger still," Mark laughingly rejoined, as he put Helen +aside and plied the dasher himself, in spite of her protestations that +he would certainly ruin his clothes.</p> + +<p>"Tie that apron around me, then," he said, with the utmost nonchalance, +and Helen obeyed, tying her check apron around the young man's neck, who +felt her hands as they touched his hair and knew that they were brushing +queer fancies into his brain, fancies which made him wonder what his +mother would think of Helen, or what she would say if she knew just how +he was occupied that morning, absolutely churning cream until it turned +to butter, for Mark persisted until the task was done, standing by while +Helen gathered up the golden lumps, and admiring her plump, round arms +quite as much as he had done her neck.</p> + +<p>She would be a belle like her sister, though of a different stamp, he +thought, as he again bent down his head while she removed the apron and +disclosed more than one big spot upon his broadcloth. Mark assured her +that it did not matter; his coat was nearly worn out; and anyway he +never should regret that he had churned once in his life, or forget +it either; and then he asked if Helen would be in New York the coming +winter, talking of the pleasure it would be to meet her there until +Helen herself began to feel what she never before had felt, a desire to +visit Katy in her own home.</p> + +<p>"Remember if you come that I am your debtor for numerous hospitalities," +he said, when he at last bade her good-by, and sprang into the covered +buggy, which Uncle Ephraim had brought out in honor of Katy's arrival.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Old Whitey was hitched at a safe distance from all possible harm. Uncle +Ephraim had returned from the store nearby, laden with the six pounds +of crush sugar and the two pounds of real old Java, he had been +commissioned to purchase with a view to Katy's taste, and now upon the +platform at West Silverton, he stood with Mark Ray, waiting for the +arrival of the train just appearing in view across the level plain.</p> + +<p>"It's fifteen months since she went away," he said, and Mark saw that +the old man's form trembled with the excitement of meeting her again, +while his eyes scanned eagerly every window and door of the cars now +slowly stopping before him. "There, there," and he laid his hand +nervously on Mark's shoulder as a white, jaunty feather appeared in +view; but no, that was not Katy, and the dim eyes ran again along the +whole line of the cars, from which so many were alighting, for that was +an eating house.</p> + +<p>But Katy did not come, and with a long breath of wonder and +disappointment the deacon said: "Can it be she is asleep. Young +man, you are spryer than I. Go through the cars and find her."</p> + +<p>Mark knew there was plenty of time, and so he made the tour of the cars, +but found, alas! no Katy.</p> + +<p>"She's not there," was the report carried to the poor old man, who +tremblingly repeated his words: "Not there, not come," while over his +aged face there broke a look of touching sadness, which Mark never +forgot, remembering it always just as he remembered the big tear drops +which from his seat by the window he saw the old man wipe away with his +coat sleeve, whispering softly to Whitey of his disappointment as he +unhitched the horse and drove away alone.</p> + +<p>"Maybe she's writ. I'll go and see," he said, and driving to their +regular office he found a letter directed by Wilford Cameron, but +written by Katy.</p> + +<p>This last he knew, for he tore the envelope open; but he could not read +it then, and thrusting it into his pocket he went slowly back to the +home where the tempting dinner was prepared, and the family waiting +so eagerly for him. Even before he reached there they knew of the +disappointment, for from the garret window Helen had watched the road by +which he would come, and when the buggy appeared in sight she saw he was +alone.</p> + +<p>There was a mistake; Katy had missed the train, she said to her mother +and aunts, who hoped she might be right. But Katy had not missed the +train, as was indicated by the letter which Uncle Ephraim without a word +put into Helen's hand, leaning on old Whitey's neck while she read aloud +the attempt at an explanation which Katy had hurried written, a stain on +the paper where a tear had fallen attesting her distress at the bitter +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"Wilford did not know of the other letter," she said, "and had made +arrangements for her to go back with him to New York, inasmuch as the +house was already opened, and the servants there wanting ahead; besides +that, Wilford had been absent so long that he could not possibly stop at +Silverton himself, and as he would not think of living without her, even +for a few days, there was no alternative but for her to go with him on +the boat directly to New York. I am sorry, oh, so sorry, but indeed I +am not to blame," she added, in conclusion, and this was the nearest +approach there was to an admission that anybody was to blame for this +disappointment which cut so cruelly, making even Uncle Ephraim cry as +out in the barn he hung away the mended harness and covered the new +buggy, which had been bought for naught.</p> + +<p>"I might have had the overcoat, for Katy will never come home again, +never. God grant that it's the Cameron pride, not hers, that kept her +from us," the old man said, as on the hay he knelt down and prayed that +Katy had not learned to despise the home where she was so beloved.</p> + +<p>"Katy will never come to us again," seemed the prevailing opinion at +Silverton, where more than Uncle Ephraim felt a chilling doubt at times +as to whether she really wished to come or not. If she did, it seemed +easy of accomplishment to those who knew not how perfect and complete +were the fetters thrown around her, and how unbending the will which +governed hers. Could they have seen the look in Katy's face when she +first understood that she was not going to Silverton, their hearts would +have bled for the thwarted creature who fled up the stairs to her own +room, where Esther found her twenty minutes later, cold and fainting +upon the bed, her face as white as ashes, and her hands clinched so +tightly that the nails left marks upon the palms.</p> + +<p>"It was not strange that the poor child should faint—indeed, it was +only natural that nature should give way after so many weeks of gayety, +and she very far from being strong," Mrs. Cameron said to Wilford, who +was beginning to repent of his decision, and who but for that remark +perhaps might have revoked it.</p> + +<p>Indeed, he made an attempt to do so when, as consciousness came back, +Katy lay so pale and still before him; but Katy did not understand him +or guess that he wished her to meet him more than half the way, and so +the verdict was unchanged, and in a kind of bewilderment, Katy wrote the +hurried letter, feeling less actual pain than did its readers, for the +disappointment had stunned her for a time, and all she could remember of +the passage home on that same night when Mark Ray sat with Helen in the +sitting-room at Silverton, was that there was a fearful storm of rain +mingled with lightning flashes and thunder peals, which terrified the +other ladies, but brought to her no other sensation save that it would +not be so very hard to perish in the dark waters dashing so madly about +the vessel's side.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI" ></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>A NEW LIFE.</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>NEW YORK, December 16th.<br /> +To Miss HELEN LENNOX, Silverton, Mass.:<br /> +Your sister is very ill. Come as soon as possible.<br /> +W. CAMERON.</p></div> + +<p>This was the purport of a telegram received at the farmhouse toward the +close of a chill December day, and Helen's heart almost stopped its +beating as she read it aloud, and then looked in the white, scared faces +of those around her. Katy was very ill—dying, perhaps—or Wilford had +never telegraphed. What could it be? What was the matter? Had it been +somewhat later, they would have known; but now all was conjecture worse +than useless, and in a half-distracted state Helen made her hasty +preparations for the journey on the morrow, and then sent for Morris, +hoping he might offer some advice or suggestion for her to carry to that +sickroom in New York.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you will go with me," Helen said. "You know Katy's +constitution. You might save her life."</p> + +<p>But Morris shook his head. If he was needed they might send and he would +come, but not without; and so next day he carried Helen to the cars, +saying to her, as they were waiting for the train: "I hope for the best, +but it may be Katy will die. If you think so, tell her. Oh, tell her! of +the better world, and ask if she is prepared. I cannot lose her in +heaven."</p> + +<p>And this was all the message Morris sent, though his heart and prayers +went after the rapid train which bore Helen safely onward, until +Hartford was reached, where there was a long detention, so that the +dark wintry night had closed over the city ere Helen had reached it, +timid, anxious, and wondering what she should do if Wilford was not +there to meet her. "He will be, of course," she kept repeating to +herself, looking around in dismay, as passenger after passenger left, +seeking in stages and street cars a swifter passage to their homes.</p> + +<p>"I shall soon be all alone," she said, feeling some relief as the car in +which she was seated began at last to move, and she knew she was being +taken whither the others had gone, wherever that might be.</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Helen Lennox here?" sounded cheerily in her ears as she stopped +before the depot, and Helen uttered a cry of joy, for she recognized the +voice of Mark Ray, who was soon grasping her hand, and trying to +reassure her, as he saw how she shrank from the noise and clamor of New +York, heard now for the first time. "Our carriage is here," he said, and +in a moment she found herself in a close-covered vehicle, with Mark +sitting opposite, tucking the warm blanket around her, asking if she +were cold, and paying those numberless little attentions so gratifying +to one always accustomed to act and think for herself.</p> + +<p>Helen could not see Mark's face distinctly; but full of fear for Katy, +she fancied there was a sad tone in his voice, as if he were keeping +something back, something he dreaded to tell her; and then, as it +suddenly occurred to her that Wilford should have met her, not Mark, her +great fear found utterance in words, and leaning forward so that her +face almost touched Mark's, she said: "Tell me, Mr. Ray, is Katy dead?"</p> + +<p>"Not dead, oh, no, nor yet very dangerous, my mother hopes; but she kept +asking for you, and so my—that is, Mr. Cameron, sent the telegram."</p> + +<p>There was an ejaculatory prayer of thankfulness, and then Helen +continued: "Is it long since she was taken sick?"</p> + +<p>"Her little daughter will be a week old to-morrow," Mark replied; while +Helen, with an exclamation of surprise she could not repress, sank back +into the corner, faint and giddy with the excitement of this fact, which +invested little Katy with a new dignity, but drew her, oh, so much +nearer to the sister who could scarcely wait for the carriage to stop, +so anxious was she to be where Katy was, to kiss her dear face once +more, and whisper the words of love she knew she must have longed to +hear.</p> + +<p>Awe-struck, bewildered and half terrified, Helen looked up at the huge +brown structure, which Mark designated as "the place." It was so lofty, +so high, so like the Camerons, and so unlike the farmhouse far away, +that Helen trembled as she followed Mark into the rooms flooded with +light, and seeming to her like fairyland. They were so different from +anything she had imagined, so much handsomer than even Katy's vivid +descriptions had implied, that for the moment the sight took her breath +away, and she sank passively into the chair Mark brought for her, +himself taking her muff and tippet, and noting, as he did so, that they +were not mink, nor yet Russian sable, but well-worn, well-kept fitch, +such as Juno would laugh at and criticise. But Helen's dress was a +matter of small moment to Mark, as he thought more of the look in her +dark eyes as she said to him: "You are very kind, Mr. Ray. I cannot +thank you enough," than of all the furs in Broadway. This remark had +been wrung from Helen by the feeling of homesickness and desolation +which swept over her, as she thought how really alone she should be +there, in her sister's house, on this first night of her arrival, if +it were not for Mark, thus virtually taking the place of the +brother-in-law, who should have been there to greet her.</p> + +<p>"He was with Mrs. Cameron," the servant said, and taking out a card Mark +wrote down a few words, and handing it to the servant who had been +looking curiously at Helen, he continued standing until a step was heard +on the stairs and Wilford came quietly in.</p> + +<p>It was not a very loving meeting, but Helen was civil and Wilford was +polite, offering her his hand and asking some questions about her +journey.</p> + +<p>"I was intending to meet you myself," he said, "but Mrs. Cameron does +not like me to leave her, and Mark kindly offered to take the trouble +off my hands."</p> + +<p>This was the most gracious thing he had said; this the nearest approach +to friendliness, and Helen felt herself hating him less than she had +supposed she should. He was looking very pale and anxious, while there +was on his face the light of a new joy, as if the little life begun so +short a time ago had brought an added good to him, softening his haughty +manner and making him even endurable to the prejudiced sister watching +him so closely!</p> + +<p>"Does Phillips know you are here?" he asked, answering his own query by +ringing the bell and bidding Esther, who appeared, tell Phillips that +Miss Lennox had arrived and wished for supper, explaining to Helen that +since Katy's illness they had dined at three, as that accommodated them +the best.</p> + +<p>This done and Helen's baggage ordered to her room, he seemed to think he +had discharged his duty as host, and as Mark had left he began to grow +fidgety, for a _tête-à-tête_ with Helen was not what he desired. He had +said to her all he could think to say, for it never once occurred to him +to inquire after the deacon's family. He had asked for Dr. Grant, but +his solicitude went no further, and the inmates of the farmhouse might +have been dead and buried for aught he knew to the contrary. The +omission was not made purposely, but because he really did not feel +enough of interest in people so widely different from himself even to +ask for them, much less to suspect how Helen's blood boiled as she +detected the omission and imputed it to intended slight, feeling so glad +when he at last excused himself, saying he must go back to Katy, but +would send his mother down to see her. His mother. Then she was there, +the one whom Helen dreaded most of all, whom she had invested with every +possible terror, hoping now that she would not be in haste to come down. +She might have spared herself anxiety on this point, as the lady in +question was not anxious to meet a person who, could she have had her +way, would not have been there at all.</p> + +<p>From the first moment of consciousness after the long hours of +suffering, Katy had asked for Helen, rather than her mother, feeling +that the former would be more welcome, and could more easily conform +to their customs.</p> + +<p>"Send for Helen; I am so tired, and she could always rest me," was her +reply, when asked by Wilford what he could do for her. "Send for Helen; +I want her so much," she had said to Mrs. Cameron, when she came, +repeating the wish until a consultation was held between the mother and +son, touching the propriety of sending for Helen. "She would be of no +use whatever, and might excite our Katy. Quiet is highly important just +now," Mrs. Cameron had said, thus veiling under pretended concern for +Katy her aversion to the girl whose independence in declining her +dressmaker had never been forgiven, and whom she had set down in her +mind as rude and ignorant.</p> + +<p>She was well suited with Katy now, petting and caressing and talking +constantly of her; but it did not follow that she must like the sister, +too, and so she checked the impulse which would have prompted Wilford to +send for her as Katy so much desired.</p> + +<p>"If her coming would do Katy harm she ought not to come," and so +Wilford's conscience was partially quieted, white Katy in her darkened +room moaned on.</p> + +<p>"Send for Sister Helen, please send for Sister Helen."</p> + +<p>At last on the fourth day came Mrs. Banker, Mark Ray's mother, to the +house, and in consideration of the strong liking she had evinced for +Katy ever since her arrival in New York, and the great respect felt for +her by Mrs. Cameron, she was admitted to the chamber and heard the +plaintive pleadings: "Send for Sister Helen," until her motherly heart +was touched, and as she sat with her son at dinner she spoke of the +young girl-mother moaning so for Helen.</p> + +<p>Whether it was Mark's great pity for Katy, or whether he was prompted +by some more selfish motive, we do not profess to say, but that he was +greatly excited was very evident from his manner, as he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Why not send for Helen, then? She is a splendid girl, and they idolize +each other. Talk of her injuring Katy, that's all a humbug. She is just +fitted for a nurse. Almost the sight of her would cure one of +nervousness, she is so calm and quiet."</p> + +<p>This was what Mark said, and again the next morning Mrs. Banker's +carriage stood at the door of No. —— Madison Square, while Mrs. Banker +herself was talking to Wilford in the library, and urging that Helen be +sent for at once.</p> + +<p>"It may save her life. She is more feverish to-day than yesterday, and +this constant asking for her sister will wear her out so fast," she +added, and that last argument prevailed.</p> + +<p>Helen was sent for and now sat waiting in the parlor for the coming of +Mrs. Cameron. Wilford did not mean Katy to hear him as he whispered to +his mother that Helen was below; but she did, and her blue eyes flashed +brightly as she started from her pillow, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"I am so glad, so glad. Kiss me, Wilford, because I am so glad. Does she +know? Have you told her? Wasn't she surprised, and will she come up +quick?"</p> + +<p>They could not quiet her at once, and only the assurance that unless she +were more composed Helen should not see her that night had any effect +upon her; but when they told her that, she lay back upon her pillow +submissively, and Wilford saw the great tears dropping from her hot +cheeks, while the pallid lips kept softly whispering "Helen." Then the +sister love took another channel, and she said:</p> + +<p>"She has not been to supper, and Phillips is always cross at extras. +Will somebody see to it? Send Esther to me, please. Esther knows and is +good-natured."</p> + +<p>"Mother will do all that is necessary. She is going down," Wilford said; +but Katy had quite as much fear of leaving Helen to "mother" as to +Phillips, and insisted upon Esther until the latter came, receiving +numerous injunctions as to the jam, the sweetmeats, the peaches and the +cold ham Helen must have, each one being remembered as her favorite.</p> + +<p>Wholly unselfish, Katy thought nothing of herself or the effort it cost +her thus to care for Helen, but when it was over and Esther had gone, +she seemed so utterly exhausted that Mrs. Cameron did not leave her, but +stayed at her bedside, ministering to her until the extreme paleness was +gone, and her eyes were more natural. Meanwhile the supper, which as +Katy feared had made Phillips cross, had been arranged by Esther, who +conducted Helen to the dining-room, herself standing by and waiting upon +her because the one whose duty it was had gone out for the evening, and +Phillips had declined the "honor," as she styled it.</p> + +<p>There was a homesick feeling tugging at Helen's heart, while she tried +to eat, and only the certainty that Katy was not far away kept her tears +back. To her the very grandeur of the house made it desolate, and she +was so glad it was Katy who lived there and not herself as she went up +the soft carpeted stairway, which gave back no sound, and through the +marble hall to the parlor, where by the table on which her cloak and +furs were still lying, a lady stood, as dignified and unconscious as +if she had not been inspecting the self-same fur which Mark Ray had +observed, but not like him thinking it did not matter, for it did matter +very materially with her, and a smile of contempt had curled her lip as +she turned over the tippet which even Phillips would not have worn.</p> + +<p>"I wonder how long she means to stay, and if Wilford will have to take +her out," she was thinking, just as Helen appeared in the door and +advanced into the room.</p> + +<p>By herself, it was easy to slight Helen Lennox, but in her presence Mrs. +Cameron found it very hard to appear as cold and distant as she had +meant to do, for there was something about Helen which commanded her +respect, and she went forward to meet her, offering her hand, and +saying, cordially:</p> + +<p>"Miss Lennox, I presume—my daughter Katy's sister?"</p> + +<p>Helen had not expected this, and the warm flush which came to her cheeks +made her very handsome, as she returned Mrs. Cameron's greeting, and +then asked more particularly for Katy than she had yet done. For a while +they talked together, Mrs. Cameron noting carefully every item of +Helen's attire, as well as the purity of her language and her perfect +repose of manner after the first stiffness had passed away.</p> + +<p>"Naturally a lady as well as Katy; there must be good blood somewhere, +probably on the Lennox side," was Mrs. Cameron's private opinion, while +Helen, after a few moments, began to feel far more at ease with Mrs. +Cameron than she had done in the dining-room with Esther, waiting on +her, and the cross Phillips stalking once through the room for no +ostensible purpose except to get a sight of her.</p> + +<p>Helen wondered at herself as much as Mrs. Cameron wondered at her, +trying to decide whether it were ignorance, conceit, obtuseness, or +what, which made her so self-possessed when she was expected to appear +so different.</p> + +<p>"Strong-minded," was her final decision, as she said at last: "We +promised Katy she should see you to-night. Will you go now?"</p> + +<p>Then the color left Helen's face and lips, and her limbs shook +perceptibly, for the knowing she was soon to meet her sister unnerved +her; but by the time the door of Katy's room was reached she was herself +again, and there was no need for Mrs. Cameron to whisper: "Pray do not +excite her."</p> + +<p>Katy heard her coming, and it required all Wilford's and the nurse's +efforts to keep her quiet, so great was her joy.</p> + +<p>"Helen, Helen, darling, darling sister," she cried, as she wound her +arms around Helen's neck, and laid her golden head on Helen's bosom, +sobbing in a low, mournful way which told Helen more how much she was +beloved and had been longed for than did the weak, childish voice which +whispered: "I've wanted you so much, oh, Helen; you don't know how much +I've missed you all the years I've been away. You will not leave me +now," and Katy clung closer to the dear sister who gently unclasped the +clinging arms and put back upon the pillow the quivering face, which she +kissed so tenderly, whispering in her own old half-soothing, +half-commanding way: "Be quiet now, Katy. It's best that you should. +No, I will not leave you."</p> + +<p>Next to Dr. Grant, Helen had more influence over Katy than any living +being, and it was very apparent now, for as if her presence had a power +to soothe, Katy grew very quiet, and utterly wearied out, slept for a +few moments with Helen's hand fast locked in hers. When she awoke the +tired look was gone, and turning to her sister, she said: "Have you seen +my baby?" while the young mother love which broke so beautifully over +her pale face, made it the face of an angel.</p> + +<p>"It seems so funny that it is Katy's baby," Helen said, taking the puny +little thing, which with its wrinkled face and red, clinched fists was +not very attractive to her, save as she looked at it with Katy's eyes.</p> + +<p>She did not even kiss it, but her tears dropped upon its head as she +thought how short the time since up in the old garret at home she had +dressed rag dolls for the Katy who was now a mother. And still in a +measure she was the same, hugging Helen fondly when she said good-night, +and welcoming her so joyfully in the morning when she came again, +telling her how just the sight of her sitting there by baby's crib +did her so much good.</p> + +<p>"I shall get well so fast," she said; and she was right, for Helen was +worth far more to her than all the physician's powders, and Wilford, +when he saw how she improved, was glad that Helen came, even if she did +sometimes shock him with her independent ways, upsetting all his plans +and theories with regard to Katy, and meeting him on other grounds with +an opposition as puzzling as it was new to him.</p> + +<p>To Mrs. Cameron, Helen was also a study, she seemed to care so little +for what others might think of her, evincing no hesitation, no timidity, +when told one day, the second day after her arrival, that Mrs. Banker +was in the parlor and had asked to see Miss Lennox. Mrs. Cameron did not +suspect how under that calm, unmoved exterior, Helen was hiding a heart +which beat most painfully as she went down to meet the mother of Mark +Ray, going first to her own room to make some little change in her +toilet, and wishing that her dress was more like the dress of those +around her—like Mrs. Cameron's, or even Esther's and the fashionable +nurse's. One glance she gave to the brown silk, Wilford's gift, but her +good sense told her that the plain merino she wore was far more suitable +to the sickroom, where she spent her time, and so with a fresh collar +and cuffs, and another brush of her rich hair, she went to Mrs. Banker, +forgetting herself in her pleasure at finding in the stranger a lady so +wholly congenial and familiar, whose mild, dark eyes, so like Mark +Ray's, rested so kindly on her, and whose pleasant voice had something +motherly in its tone, putting her wholly at her ease, and making her +appear at her very best.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Banker was pleased with Helen, while she felt a kind of pity for +the young girl thrown so suddenly among strangers, without even her +sister to aid and assist her.</p> + +<p>"Have you been out at all?" she asked, and upon Helen's replying that +she had not, she answered: "That is not right. Accustomed to the fresh +country air, you will suffer from too close confinement. Suppose you +ride with me. My carriage is at the door, and I have a few hours' +leisure. Tell your sister I insist," she continued, as Helen hesitated +between inclination and what she fancied was her duty.</p> + +<p>To see New York with Mrs. Banker was a treat indeed, and Helen's heart +bounded high as she ran up to Katy's room with the request.</p> + +<p>"Yes, by all means," Katy said. "It is so kind in Mrs. Banker, and so +like her, too. I meant that Wilford should have driven with you to-day, +and spoke to him about it, but Mrs. Banker will do better. Tell her I +thank her so much for her thoughtfulness," and with a kiss Katy sent +Helen away, while Mrs. Cameron, after twisting her rings nervously for +a moment, said to Katy:</p> + +<p>"Perhaps your sister would do well to wear your furs. Hers are small and +common fitch."</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly. Take them to her," Katy answered, knowing intuitively +the feeling which had prompted this suggestion from her mother-in-law, +who hastened to Helen's room with the rich sable she was to wear in +place of the old fitch.</p> + +<p>Helen appreciated the difference at once between her furs and Katy's, +and felt a pang of mortification as she saw how old and poor and dowdy +hers were beside the others. But they were her own; the best she could +afford. She would not begin by borrowing, and so she declined the offer, +and greatly to Mrs. Cameron's horror went down to Mrs. Banker clad in +the despised furs, which Mrs. Cameron would on no account have had +beside her on Broadway in an open carriage. Mrs. Banker noticed them, +too, but the eager, happy face, which grew each moment brighter as they +drove down the street, more than made amends; and in watching that and +pointing out the places which they passed, Mrs. Banker forgot the furs +and the coarse straw hat whose strings of black had undeniably been +dyed. Never in her life had Helen enjoyed a ride as she did that +pleasant winter day, when her kind friend took her wherever she wished +to go, showing her Broadway in its glory from Union Square to Wall +Street, where they encountered Mark in a bustling crowd. He saw them, +too, and beckoned to them, while Helen's face grew red as, lifting his +hat to her, he came up to the carriage, and at his mother's suggestion +took a seat just opposite, asking where they had been and jocosely +laughing at his mother's taste in selecting such localities as the +Bowery, the Tombs and Barnum's Museum, when there were so many finer +places to be seen.</p> + +<p>Helen felt the hot blood pricking the roots of her hair, for the Bowery, +the Tombs and Barnum's Museum had been her choice as the points of which +she had heard the most. So when Mark continued:</p> + +<p>"You shall ride with me, Miss Lennox, and I will show you something +worth your seeing," she frankly answered:</p> + +<p>"Your mother is not in fault, Mr. Ray. She asked me where I wished to +go, and I mentioned these places; so please attribute it wholly to my +country breeding, and not to your mother's lack of taste."</p> + +<p>There was something in the frank speech which won Mrs. Banker's heart, +while she felt an increased respect for the young girl, who, she saw, +was keenly sensitive, even with all her strength of character.</p> + +<p>"You were quite right to commence as you have," she said, "for now you +have a still greater treat in store, and Mark shall drive you to the +park some day. I know you will like that."</p> + +<p>Helen felt that she should like anything with that friendly voice to +reassure her, and leaning back she was thinking how pleasant it was to +be in New York, how different from what she had expected, when a bow +from Mark made her look up in time to see that they were meeting a +carriage, in which sat Wilford, and with two gayly-dressed ladies, both +of whom gave her a supercilious stare as they passed by, while the +younger of the two half turned her head, as if for a more prolonged +gaze.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Grandon and Juno Cameron," Mrs. Banker said, making some further +remark to her son; while Helen felt that the brightness of the day +changed, for she could not be unconscious of the look with which she had +been regarded by these two fashionable ladies, and again her furs came +up before her, bringing a feeling of which she was ashamed, especially +as she had fancied herself above all weakness of the kind.</p> + +<p>But Helen was a woman, with a woman's nature, and so that ride was not +without its annoyance, though her face was very bright as she bade Mrs. +Banker and Mark good-by, and then ran up the steps to Katy's home. That +night at the dinner, from which Mrs. Cameron was absent, Wilford was +unusually gracious, asking "had she enjoyed her ride, and if she did +not find Mrs. Banker a very pleasant acquaintance."</p> + +<p>The fact was, Wilford felt a little uncomfortable himself for having +suffered a stranger to do for Katy's sister what devolved upon himself. +Katy had asked him to drive with Helen; but he had found it very +convenient to forget it, and take a seat instead with Juno and Mrs. +Grandon, the latter of whom complimented "Miss Lennox's fine +intellectual face," after they had passed, and complimented it the more +as she saw how it vexed Juno, who could see nothing "in those bold eyes +and that masculine forehead," just because their _vis-à-vis_ chanced to +be Mark Ray's. Juno was not pleased with Helen's first appearance in the +street, but nevertheless she called upon her next day, with Sybil +Grandon and her sister, Bell. To this she was urged by Sybil, who, +having a somewhat larger experience of human nature, foresaw that Helen +would be popular just because Mrs. Banker had thus early taken her up, +and who, besides, had conceived a capricious fancy to patronize Miss +Lennox. But in this she was foiled, for Helen was not to be patronized, +and she received her visitors with that calm, assured manner so much a +part of herself.</p> + +<p>"Diamond cut diamond," Bell thought, as she saw how frigidly polite +both Juno and Helen were, each recognizing in the other something +antagonistic, which could never harmonize.</p> + +<p>Had Juno never cared for Dr. Grant, or suspected Helen of standing +between herself and him, and had Mark Ray never stopped at Silverton, or +been seen on Broadway with her, she might have judged her differently, +for there was something attractive in Helen's face and appearance as +she sat talking to her guests, not awkwardly nor timidly, but with as +much quiet dignity as if she had never mended Uncle Ephraim's socks, or +made a pound of butter among the huckleberry hills. Bell was delighted, +detecting at once traces of the rare mind which Helen Lennox possessed, +and wondering to find it so.</p> + +<p>"I hope we shall see each other often," she said, at parting. "I do not +go out a great deal myself—that is, not as much as Juno—but I shall be +always glad to welcome you to my den. You may find something there to +interest you."</p> + +<p>This was Bell's leave-taking, while Sybil's was, if possible, even more +friendly, for aside from really fancying Helen, she took a perverse kind +of pleasure in annoying Juno, who wondered "what she or Bell could see +to like in that awkward country girl, whom she knew had on one of Katy's +cast-off collars, and her wardrobe was the most ordinary she ever saw; +fitch furs, think of that!" and Juno gave a little pull at the +fastenings of her rich ermine collar, showing so well over her velvet +basquine.</p> + +<p>"Fitch furs or not, they rode with Mark Ray on Broadway," Bell retorted, +with a wicked look in her eyes, which aroused Juno to a still higher +pitch of anger, so that by the time the carriage stopped at No. ——, +the young lady was in a most unamiable frame of mind as regarded both +Helen Lennox and the offending Mark.</p> + +<p>That evening there was at Mrs. Reynolds' a little company of thirty +or more, and as Mark was present, Juno seized the opportunity for +ascertaining, if possible, his real opinion of Helen Lennox, joking him +first about his having taken her to ride so soon, and insinuating that +he must have a penchant for every new and pretty face.</p> + +<p>"Then you think her pretty? You have called on her?" Mark replied, his +manner evincing so much pleasure that Juno bit her lip to keep down her +wrath, and flashing upon him her scornful eyes, replied: "Yes, Sybil and +Bell insisted that I should. Of myself I would never have done it, for I +have now more acquaintances than I can attend to, and do not care to +increase the list. Besides that, I do not imagine that Miss Lennox can +in any way add to my happiness, brought up as she has been among the +woods and hills, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have been there—to her home, I mean," Mark rejoined, and Juno +continued:</p> + +<p>"Only for a moment, though. You should have stayed, like Will, to +appreciate it fully. I wish you could hear him describe the feather beds +in which he slept—that is, describe them before he decided to take +Katy; for after that he was chary of his remarks, and the feathers by +some marvelous process were changed into hair, for what he knew or +cared."</p> + +<p>Mark hesitated a moment, and then said, quietly:</p> + +<p>"I have stayed there all night, and have tested that feather bed, but +found nothing disparaging to Helen, who was as much a lady in the +farmhouse as here in the city."</p> + +<p>There was a look of withering scorn on Juno's face as she replied:</p> + +<p>"As much a lady as here! That may very well be; but, pray, how long +since you took to visiting Silverton so frequently—becoming so familiar +as to spend the night?"</p> + +<p>There was no mistaking the jealousy which betrayed itself into every +tone of Juno's voice as she stood before Mark a fit picture of the +enraged goddess whose name she bore. Soon recollecting herself, however, +she changed her mode of attack, and said, laughingly:</p> + +<p>"Seriously, though, this Miss Lennox seems a very nice girl, and is +admirably fitted, I think, for the position she is to fill—that of a +country physician's wife," and in the black eyes there was a wicked +sparkle as Juno saw that her meaning was readily understood, Mark +looking quickly at her and asking if she referred to Dr. Grant.</p> + +<p>"Certainly; I imagine that was settled as long ago as we met him in +Paris. Once I thought it might have been our Katy, but was mistaken. I +think the doctor and Miss Lennox well adapted to each other—it is an +excellent match."</p> + +<p>There was for a moment a dull, heavy pain at Mark's heart, caused by +that little item of information which made him so uncomfortable. On the +whole he did not doubt it, for everything he could recall of Morris had +a tendency to strengthen the belief. Nothing could he more probable, +thrown together as they had been, without other congenial society, and +nothing could be more suitable.</p> + +<p>"They are well matched," Mark thought, as he walked listlessly through +Mrs. Reynolds' parlors, seeing only one face, and that the face of Helen +Lennox, with the lily in her hair, just as it looked when she had tied +the apron about his neck and laughed at his appearance.</p> + +<p>Helen was not the ideal which in his boyhood Mark had cherished of the +one who was to be his wife, for that was of a more brilliant, beautiful +woman, a woman more like Juno, with whom he had always been on the best +of terms, giving her some reason, it is true, for believing herself the +favored one; but ideals change as years go on, and Helen Lennox had more +attractions for him now than the most dashing belle of his acquaintance.</p> + +<p>"I do not believe I am in love with her," he said to himself that night, +when, after his return from Mrs. Reynolds' he sat for a long time before +the fire in his dressing-room, cogitating upon what he had heard, and +wondering why it should affect him so much. "Of course I am not," he +continued, feeling the necessity of reiterating the assertion by way of +making himself believe it. "She is not at all what I used to imagine the +future Mrs. Mark Ray to be. Half my friends would say she had no style, +no beauty, and perhaps she has not. Certainly she does not look just +like the ladies at Mrs. Reynolds' to-night, but give her the same +advantages and she would surpass them all."</p> + +<p>And then Mark Ray went off into a reverie, in which he saw Helen Lennox +his wife, and with the aids by which he would surround her rapidly +developing into as splendid a woman as little Katy Cameron, who did not +need to be developed, but took all hearts at once by that natural, +witching grace so much a part of herself. It was a very pleasant picture +which Mark painted upon the mental canvas; but there came a great blur +blotting out its brightness as he remembered Dr. Grant, and felt that +Linwood was one day to be Helen's home.</p> + +<p>"But it shall not interfere with my being just as kind to her as before. +She will need some attendant here, and Wilford, I know, will be glad to +shove her off his hands. He is so infernal proud," Mark said, and taking +a fresh cigar he finished his reverie with the magnanimous resolve that +were Helen a hundred times engaged she should be his especial care +during her sojourn in New York.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII" ></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3>HELEN IN SOCIETY.</h3> + + +<p>It was three days before Christmas, and Katy was talking confidentially +to Mrs. Banker, whom she had asked to see the next time she should call.</p> + +<p>"I want so much to surprise her," she said, speaking in a whisper, "and +you have been so kind to us both that I thought it might not trouble you +very much if I asked you to make the selection for me, and see to the +engraving. Wilford gave me fifty dollars, all I needed, as I had fifty +more of my own, and now that I have a baby, I am sure I shall never +again care to go out. My darling baby, how small the whole world seems +to me now when compared with her," and the little mother glanced +lovingly at the crib where slept the baby, worth more than all the +world.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Mrs. Banker said, thoughtfully, as she rolled up the bills, +"you wish me to get as heavy bracelets as I can find—for the hundred +dollars."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Katy replied, "I think that will please her, don't you?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Banker knew Katy's fondness for jewelry, and knowing, too, that her +girlhood was spent in comparative poverty, she could readily understand +how she would gratify her taste when circumstances were favorable; but +Helen was different, and she felt certain that the hundred dollars could +be spent to better advantage and in a manner more satisfactory to her. +Still she hardly liked to interfere until Katy, observing her hesitancy, +asked again if she did not think Helen would be pleased.</p> + +<p>"Yes, pleased with anything you choose to give her, but—excuse me, dear +Mrs. Cameron, if I speak as openly as if I were the mother of you both. +Bracelets are suitable for you who can have everything else, but is +there not something your sister needs more, something which will do more +good? Now, allowing me to suggest, I should say, buy her some furs, and +let the bracelets go. In Silverton her furs were well enough, but here, +as the sister of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, she is deserving of better."</p> + +<p>It was the first time that Katy had thought that in New York her sister +might need more than at home. Seeing her only in the dim sickroom, the +contrast between Helen and her and her husband's sisters had not struck +her, or if it had, she gave the preference to Helen in her dark merino +and linen collar, rather than to Juno in her silks and velvet; but she +understood Mrs. Banker at once, her cheeks reddening as there flashed +upon her the reason why Wilford had never yet been in the street with +Helen, notwithstanding that she had more than once requested it.</p> + +<p>"You are right," she said. "It was thoughtless in me not to think of +this myself. Helen shall have the furs, and whatever else is necessary. +I am so glad you reminded me of it. You are kind as my own mother," and +Katy kissed her friend fondly as she bade her good-by, charging her a +dozen times not to let Helen know the surprise in store for her.</p> + +<p>There was little need of this caution, for Mrs. Banker understood human +nature too well to divulge a matter which might wound one as sensitive +as Helen. Between the latter and herself there was a strong bond of +friendship, and to the kind patronage of this lady Helen owed most of +the attentions she had as yet received from her sister's friends; while +Mark Ray did much toward lifting her to the place she held in spite of +the common country dress, which Juno unsparingly criticised, and which, +in fact, kept Wilford from taking her out, as his wife so often asked +him to do. And Helen, too, keenly felt the difference between herself +and those with whom she came in contact, crying over it more than once, +but never dreaming of the surprise in store for her, when on Christmas +morning she went as usual to Katy's room, finding her alone, her face +all aglow with excitement, and her bed a perfect showcase of dry goods, +which she bade Helen examine and say how she liked them.</p> + +<p>Wilford was no niggard with his money, and when Katy had asked for more, +it had been given unsparingly, even though he knew the purpose to which +it was to be applied.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Katy, Katy, why did you do it?" Helen cried, her tears falling +like rain through the fingers she clasped over her eyes.</p> + +<p>"You are not angry?" Katy said, in some dismay, as Helen continued to +sob without looking at the handsome furs, the stylish hat, the pretty +cloak, and rich patterns of blue and black silk, which Mrs. Banker had +selected.</p> + +<p>"No, oh, no!" Helen replied. "I know it was all meant well; but there is +something in me which rebels against taking this from Wilford. He had +better have sent to Silverton for that trunk. Its contents have never +been disturbed, and surely there might be something found good enough +for me."</p> + +<p>It was the first time Helen had alluded to that trunk; but Katy did not +think that anything ill-natured was meant by the remark. She only felt +that Helen shrank from receiving so much from Wilford, as it was natural +she should, and she hastened to reassure her, using all her powers to +comfort her until she at last grew calm enough to examine and admire the +Christmas gifts upon which no expense had been spared. Much as we may +ignore dress, and sinful as is an inordinate love for it, there is yet +about it an influence for good, when the heart of the wearer is right, +holding it subservient to all higher, holier affections. At least Helen +Lennox found it so, when, clad in her new garments, which added so much +to her good looks, she drove with Mrs. Banker, or returned Sybil +Grandon's call, feeling that there was about her nothing for which Katy +need to blush, or even Wilford, who blandly invited her one pleasant day +to drive with him to the Park, seeming so disappointed when told that he +had been forestalled by Mr. Ray, whose fine turnout attracted less +attention that afternoon than did the handsome lady at his side, Helen +Lennox, who bade fair to rival even her Sister Katy tarrying at home, +and listening with delight to the flattering things which Wilford +reported as having been said of Helen by those for whose opinion he +cared the most. He was not afraid to be seen with her now, and Helen, +while knowing the reason of the change, did not feel like quarreling +with him for it, but accepted with a good-natured grace of what made her +life in New York very happy. With Bell Cameron she was on the best of +terms; while Sybil Grandon, always going with the tide, professed for +her an admiration, which, whether fancied or real, did much toward +making her popular; and when, as the mistress of her brother's house, +she issued cards of invitation for a large party, she took especial +pains to insist upon Helen's attending, even if Katy were not able. But +from this Helen shrank. She could not meet so many strangers alone, she +said, and so the matter was dropped, until Mrs. Banker offered to +chaperone her, when Helen began to waver, changing her mind at last +and promising to go.</p> + +<p>Never since the days of her first party had Katy been so wild with +excitement as she was in deciding upon Helen's dress, which well became +the wearer, who scarcely knew herself when, before the mirror, with the +blaze of the chandelier falling upon her, she saw the picture of a young +girl arrayed in rich pink silk, with an overskirt of lace, and the light +pretty cloak, just thrown upon her uncovered neck, where Katy's pearls +were shining. Even Wilford was pleased, and stood by admiring her almost +as much as Katy.</p> + +<p>"What would they say at home if they could only see you?" Katy +exclaimed, throwing back the handsome cloak so as to show more of the +well-shaped neck, gleaming so white beneath it.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Betsy would say I had forgotten half my dress," Helen replied, +blushing as she glanced at the uncovered arms, which never since her +childhood had been thus exposed to view, except at such times as her +household duties had required it.</p> + +<p>Even this exception would not apply to the low neck, at which Helen long +demurred, yielding finally to Katy's entreaties, but often wondering +what Mark Ray would think, and if he would not be shocked. Mark Ray had +been strangely blended with all Helen's thoughts as she submitted +herself to Esther's practiced hands, and when the hairdresser, summoned +to her aid, asked what flowers she would wear, it was a thought of him +which led her to select a single water lily, which looked as natural as +if its bed had really been the bosom of Fairy Pond.</p> + +<p>"Nothing else? Surely mademoiselle will have these few green leaves?" +Celine had said, but Helen would have nothing save the lily, which was +twined tastefully amid the heavy braids of the brown hair, whose length +and luxuriance had thrown the hairdresser into ecstasies of delight, +and made Esther lament that in these days of false tresses no one would +give Miss Lennox credit for what was wholly her own.</p> + +<p>"You will be the belle of the evening," Katy said, as she kissed her +sister good-night and then ran back to her baby, while Wilford, yielding +to her importunities that he should not remain with her, followed Mrs. +Banker's carriage in his own private conveyance, and was soon set down +at Sybil Grandon's door.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, at the elder Cameron's there had been a discussion touching +the propriety of their taking Helen under their protection, instead of +leaving her to Mrs. Banker to chaperone, Bell insisting that it ought to +be done, while the father swore roundly at the imperious Juno, who would +not "be bothered with that country girl."</p> + +<p>"You would rather leave her wholly to Mark Ray and his mother, I +suppose," Bell said, adding, as she saw the flush on Juno's face. "You +know you are dying of jealousy, and nothing annoys you so much as to +hear people talk of Mark's attentions to Miss Lennox."</p> + +<p>"Do they talk?" Mrs. Cameron asked quickly, while in her gray eyes there +gleamed a light far more dangerous and threatening to Helen than Juno's +open scorn.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron had long intended Mark Ray for her daughter, and accustomed +to see everything bend to her wishes, she had come to consider the +matter as almost certain, even though he had never proposed in words. He +had done everything else, she thought, attending Juno constantly and +frequenting their house so much that it was a standing joke for his +friends to seek him there when he was not at home or at his office. +Latterly, however, there had been a change, and the ambitious mother +could not deny that since Helen's arrival in New York Mark had visited +them less frequently and stayed a shorter time, while she had more than +once heard of him at her son's in company with Helen. Very rapidly a +train of thought passed through her mind; but it did not manifest itself +upon her face, which was composed and quiet as she decided with Juno +that Helen should not trouble them. With the utmost care Juno arrayed +herself for the party, thinking with a great deal of complacency how +impossible it was for Helen Lennox to compete with her in point of +dress.</p> + +<p>"She is such a prude, I daresay she will go in that blue silk with the +long sleeves and high neck, looking like a Dutch doll," she said to +Bell, as she shook back the folds of her rich crimson, and turned her +head to see the effect of her wide braids of hair.</p> + +<p>"I am not certain that a high dress is worse than bones," Bell retorted, +playfully touching Juno's neck, which, though white and gracefully +formed, was shockingly guiltless of flesh.</p> + +<p>There was an angry reply, and then wrapping her cloak about her Juno +followed to their carriage, and was ere long one of the gay crowd +thronging Sybil Grandon's parlors. Helen had not yet arrived, and Juno +was hoping she would not come, when there was a stir at the door and +Mrs. Banker, in her velvet and diamonds, appeared, and with her Helen +Lennox, but so transformed that Juno hardly knew her, looking twice ere +she was sure that the beautiful young lady, so wholly self-possessed, +was indeed the country girl she affected to despise.</p> + +<p>"Who is she?" was asked by many, who at once acknowledged her claims to +their attention, and as soon as practicable sought her acquaintance, so +that Helen suddenly found herself the center of a little court of which +she was the queen and Mark her sworn knight.</p> + +<p>Presuming upon his mother's chaperonage, he claimed the right of +attending her, and Juno's glory waned quite as effectually as it had +done when Katy was the leading star to which New York paid homage.</p> + +<p>Juno had been annoyed then, but now fierce jealousy took possession +of her heart as she watched the girl whom all seemed to admire, even +Wilford feeling a thrill of pride that the possession of so attractive +a sister-in-law reflected credit upon himself.</p> + +<p>He was not ashamed of her now, nor did he retain a single thought of the +farmhouse or Uncle Ephraim as he made his way to her side, standing +protectingly at her left, just as Mark was standing at her right, and +at last asking her to dance.</p> + +<p>With a heightened color Helen declined, saying frankly:</p> + +<p>"I have never learned."</p> + +<p>"You miss a great deal," Wilford rejoined, appealing to Mark for a +confirmation of his words.</p> + +<p>But Mark did not heartily respond. He, too, had solicited Helen as a +partner when the dancing first commenced, and her quiet refusal had +disappointed him a little, for Mark was fond of dancing, and though +as a general thing he disapproved of waltzes and polkas when he was the +looker-on, he felt that there would be something vastly agreeable and +exhilarating in clasping Helen in his arm and whirling her about the +room just as Juno was being whirled by a young cadet, a friend of +Lieutenant Bob's. But when he reflected that not his arm alone would +encircle her waist, or his breath touch her snowy neck, he was glad she +did not dance, and professing a weariness he did not feel, he declined +to join the dancers on the floor, but kept with Helen, enjoying what she +enjoyed, and putting her so perfectly at her ease that no one would ever +have dreamed of the curdy cheeses she had made, or the pounds of butter +she had churned. But Mark thought of it as he secretly admired the neck +and arms seen once before on that memorable day when he assisted Helen +in the labors of the dairy. If nothing else had done so, the lily in +her hair would have brought that morning to his mind, and once as they +walked up and down the hall he spoke of the ornament she had chosen, and +how well it became her.</p> + +<p>"Pond lilies are my pets," she said, "and I have kept one of those I +gathered last fall when at Silverton. Do you remember them?" and his +eyes rested upon Helen with a look that made her blush as she faintly +answered "yes"; but she did not tell him of a little box at home, a box +made of cones and acorns, and where was hidden a withered water lily, +which she could not throw away, even after its beauty and fragrance had +departed.</p> + +<p>Had she told him this it might have put to flight the doubts troubling +Mark so much, and making him wonder if Dr. Grant had really a claim upon +the girl stealing his heart so fast.</p> + +<p>"I mean to sound her," he thought, and as just then Lieutenant Bob +passed by, making some jocose remark about his offending all the fair +ones by the course he was taking, Mark said to Helen, who suggested +returning to the parlor:</p> + +<p>"As you like, though it cannot matter; a person known to be engaged is +above Bob Reynolds' jokes."</p> + +<p>Quick as thought the hot blood stained Helen's face and neck, for Mark +had made a most egregious blunder, giving her only the impression that +he was the engaged one referred to, not herself, and for a moment she +forgot the gay scene around her in the sharpness of the pang with which +she recognized all that Mark Ray was to her.</p> + +<p>"It was kind in him to warn me. I wish it had been sooner," she thought, +and then with a bitter feeling of shame she wondered how much he had +guessed of her real feelings, and who the betrothed one was. "Not Juno +Cameron," she hoped, as after a few moments Mrs. Cameron came up, and +adroitly detaching Mark from her side, took his place while he sauntered +to a group of ladies and was ere long dancing merrily with Juno, whose +crimson robe once brushed against Helen's pink, and whose black eyes +looked exultingly into Helen's face.</p> + +<p>"They are a well-matched pair," Mrs. Cameron said, assuming a very +confidential manner toward Helen, who assented to the remark, while the +lady continued: "There is but one thing wrong about Mark Ray. He is a +most unscrupulous flirt, pleased with every new face, and this of course +annoys Juno."</p> + +<p>"Are they engaged?" came faintly and involuntarily from Helen's lips, +while Mrs. Cameron's foot beat the carpet with a very becoming +hesitancy, as she replied: "Oh, that was settled in our family a long +time ago. Wilford and Mark have always been like brothers."</p> + +<p>If Helen had been on the watch for equivocations she would not have +placed as much stress as she did on Mrs. Cameron's words, for that lady +did not say positively "They are engaged." She could not quite bring +herself to a deliberate falsehood, which, if detected, would reflect +upon her character as a lady, but she could mislead Helen, and she did +so effectually, as was evinced by the red spot which burned on her +cheeks, and by her uncertain way of replying to a gentleman who stood by +her for a moment, addressing to her some casual remark and departing +with the impression that Miss Lennox was very timid and shy. After he +was gone, Mrs. Cameron continued, "It is not like us to bruit our +affairs abroad, and were my daughter ten times engaged, the world would +be none the wiser. I doubt if even Katy suspects what I have admitted; +but knowing how fascinating Mark can be, and that just at present he +seems to be pleased with you, I have acted as I should wish a friend to +act toward my own child. Were it not that you are one of our family, I +might not have interfered, and I trust you not to repeat even to Katy +what I have said."</p> + +<p>Helen nodded assent, while in her heart was a wild tumult of +feelings—flattered pride, disappointment, indignation and mortification +all struggling for the mastery—-mortification to feel that she who had +quietly ignored such a passion as love when connected with herself, had, +nevertheless, been pleased with the attentions of one who was only +amusing himself with her, as a child amuses itself with some new toy +soon to be thrown aside—indignation at him for vexing Juno at her +expense—disappointment that he should care for such as Juno, and +flattered pride that Mrs. Cameron should include her in "our family." +Helen had as few weak points as most young ladies, but she was not free +from them all, and the fact that Mrs. Cameron had taken her into a +confidence which even Katy did not share, was soothing to her ruffled +spirits, particularly as after that confidence Mrs. Cameron was +excessively gracious to her, introducing her to many whom she did not +know before, and paying her numberless little attentions, which made +Juno stare, while the clearer-seeing Bell arched her eyebrows, and +wondered for what Helen was to be made a catspaw by her clever mother. +Whatever it was, it did not appear, save as it showed itself in Helen's +slightly changed demeanor when Mark again sought her society, and tried +to bring back to her face the look he had left there. But something +evidently had come between them, and the young man racked his brain to +find the cause of this sudden indifference in one who had been pleased +with him only a short half hour before.</p> + +<p>"It's that confounded waltzing which disgusted her," he said, "and no +wonder, for if ever a man looks like an idiot, it is when he is kicking +up his heels to the sound of a viol, and wheeling around some woman +whose skirts sweep everything within the circle of a rod, and whose face +wears that die-away expression I have so often noticed. I've half a mind +to swear I'll never dance again."</p> + +<p>But Mark was too fond of dancing to quit it at once, and finding Helen +still indifferent, he yielded to circumstances, and the last she saw of +him, as at a comparatively early hour she left the gay scene, he was +dancing again with Juno, whose face beamed with a triumphant look, as if +she in some way guessed the aching heart her rival carried home. It was +a heavy blow to Helen, for she had become greatly interested in Mark +Ray, whose attentions had made her stay in New York so pleasant. But +these were over now—at least the excitement they brought was over, and +Helen, as she sat in her dressing-room at home, and thought of the +future as well as the past, felt stealing over her a sense of desolation +and loneliness such as she had experienced but once before, and that on +the night when leaning from her window at the farmhouse where Mark Ray +was stopping she had shuddered and shrank from living all her days among +the rugged hills of Silverton. New York had opened an entirely new world +to her, showing her much that was vain and frivolous, with much too, +that was desirable and good; and if there had crept into her heart the +vague thought that a life with such people as Mrs. Banker and those who +frequented her house would be preferable to a life in Silverton, where +only Morris understood her, it was but the natural result of daily +intercourse with one who had studied to please and interest as Mark Ray +had done. But Helen had too much good sense and strength of will long to +indulge in what she would have called "love-sick regrets" in others, and +she began to devise the best course for her to adopt hereafter, +concluding finally to treat him much as she had done, lest he should +suspect how deeply she had been wounded. Now that she knew of his +engagement, it would be an easy matter, she thought, so to demean +herself as neither to annoy Juno nor really to vex him. Thoroughly now +she understood why Juno Cameron had seemed to dislike her so much.</p> + +<p>"It is natural," she said, "and yet I honestly believe I like her better +for knowing what I do. There must be some good beneath that proud +exterior, or Mark would never seek her."</p> + +<p>Still, look at it from any point she chose, it seemed a strange, +unsuitable match, and Helen's heart ached sadly as she finally retired +to rest, thinking what might have been had Juno Cameron found some other +lover more like her than Mark could ever be.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII" ></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3>GENEVRA.</h3> + + +<p>Far more elated with her sister's success than Helen herself, Katy could +talk of little else next morning, telling Helen how many complimentary +things Wilford had said of her, and how much he had heard others say, +while Mark Ray had seemed perfectly fascinated.</p> + +<p>"I never thought till last night how nice it would be for you to marry +Mark and settle in New York," Katy said, never dreaming how she was +wounding Helen, who, but for Mrs. Cameron's charge, would have +proclaimed Mark's engagement with Juno.</p> + +<p>As it was, she felt the words struggling against her lips; but she +forced them back, and tried to laugh at Katy's castles in the air, as +she called them.</p> + +<p>"You looked beautiful, Wilford said," Katy continued, "and I am so glad, +only," and Katy's voice fell, while her eyes rested upon the crib where +the baby was sleeping, "only I think Wilford is more anxious than ever +for me to go again into society. He will not hear of my staying home for +the entire season, as I wish to do, for baby is better to me than all +the parties in the world. I am so tired of it all, and have been ever +since I was at Newport. I was so vain and silly there, and I have been +so sorry since. But that summer cured me entirely, and you don't know +how I loathe the very thought of entering society again. For your sake I +should be willing to go sometimes, if there were no one else. But Mrs. +Banker has kindly offered to take you under her charge, and so there is +no necessity for me to matronize you."</p> + +<p>Helen laughed merrily at the idea of being matronized by the little +girlish creature not yet twenty years of age, kissing fondly the white, +thin cheek so much whiter and thinner than it used to be.</p> + +<p>"You are confining yourself too much," she said. "You are losing all +your color. Fresh air will do you good, even if parties will not. +Suppose we drive this afternoon to Marian Hazelton's and show her the +baby."</p> + +<p>Nothing could please Katy better. Several times since baby's birth she +sent a message to Fourth Street, begging of Marian to come and see her +treasure, and once, urged by her entreaties, Wilford himself had written +a brief note asking that Miss Hazleton would call if perfectly +convenient. But there had always been some excuse, some plea of work, +some putting off the coming, until Katy feared that something might he +wrong, and entered heartily into Helen's propositions. It was a pleasant +winter's day, and toward the middle of the afternoon the Cameron +carriage stopped before the humble dwelling where Marian Hazleton was +living.</p> + +<p>"You needn't go up," Katy said to the nurse, feeling that she would +rather meet Marian without the presence of a stranger. "Miss Lennox will +carry baby and you can wait here. It is not cold," she added, as the +nurse showed signs of remonstrance, "and if it is, John can drive you +around a square or two."</p> + +<p>After this there was no further demur, and Katy soon stood with Helen at +the door of Marian's room. She was at home, uttering an exclamation of +astonishment when she saw who her visitors were, and turning white as +ashes, when Katy, taking her baby from Helen's arms, placed it in her +lap, saying,</p> + +<p>"You would not come to see it and so I brought it to you. Isn't she a +beauty?"</p> + +<p>There was a blur before Marian's eyes, a pressure about her heart which +seemed congealing into stone, but she tried to stammer out something, +bending over the tiny thing. Wilford Cameron's child, which she could +not see for the thick blackness around her. Tears and bitter pangs of +grief had the news of that child's birth wrung from Marian, bringing +back all the dreadful past, and making her hear again as if it were but +yesterday, the cold, decisive words:</p> + +<p>"If there were a child it would of course be different."</p> + +<p>There was a child now, and it lay in Marian's lap, clad in the garments +she had made, the cambric and the lace, the flannel and the merino, +which nevertheless could not take from it that look of sickly infancy, +or make it beautiful to others beside the mother. But it was Wilford's +child, and so when for a moment both Helen and Katy turned to examine a +rosebush just in bloom, Marian Hazleton hugged the little creature to +her bosom, whispering over it a blessing which, coming from one so +wronged, was doubly valuable. There was a tear, one of Marian's, on its +face, when Katy came back to it, and there were more in Marian's eyes, +falling like rain, as Katy asked, "What makes you cry?"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of what might have been," came struggling from Marian's +pale lips, and Helen felt a throb of pain as she remembered Dr. Grant, +and then thought of herself in connection with this sad "Might have +been."</p> + +<p>Marian, too, knew the full meaning of those words, as was attested by +the gush of tears which dropped so fast on baby's face that Katy, +alarmed for the safety of the crimson cloak wrapped around it for +effect, took the child in her own arms, commencing that cooing +conversation which shows how much young mothers love their first born. +Marian's tears ceased at last, and after questioning Helen of Silverton +and its people, she turned abruptly to Katy, still rocking and talking +to her child, and asked:</p> + +<p>"What do you intend to call her?"</p> + +<p>"Genevra," Katy said, and simultaneously with that word Marian Hazleton +dropped without sound or motion to the floor.</p> + +<p>Had Helen and Katy been put upon their oath, both would have testified +that even before the answer came, Marian had fainted, just as she did +when Helen first went to secure her services for Katy's bridal wardrobe. +This time, however, there was no Dr. Grant at hand, and so the +frightened ladies did what they could, bathing her face and chafing +her cold hands until the life came slowly back, and with a frightened +expression Marian looked around her, asking what had happened?</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know now," she said, as baby's cry fell on her ear, but +restoring her wholly to herself. "Fainting is one of my weaknesses," +she continued, turning to Helen. "You have seen me so before. It is my +heart," and with this explanation she satisfied her visitors, though +Katy expressed much solicitude and proposed to send her medical aid.</p> + +<p>But Marian declined, and when it was time for Katy to go, she took the +child in her own arms again, and as if there was now a new link which +bound her to it, she kissed it many times, while in the eyes fastened so +lovingly, so wistfully upon its face, there was a strange, yearning look +which neither Helen nor Katy could fathom. Certain it is they had no +suspicion of the truth, and on their way home they spoke with much +concern of these fainting attacks, wondering if nothing could be done +to ward them off.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV" ></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>THE NAME.</h3> + + +<p>Wilford had wished for a son, and in the first moment of disappointment +he had almost been conscious of a half-resentful feeling toward Katy, +who had given him only a daughter. A boy, a Cameron heir, was something +of which to be proud, especially as Jamie would always remain a helpless +cripple; but a little girl, scarcely larger than the last doll with +which Katy had played, was a different thing, and it required all +Wilford's philosophy and common sense to keep him from showing his +chagrin to the girlish creature, whose love had fastened with an +idolatrous grasp upon her child, clinging to it with a devotion which +made Helen tremble as she thought what if God should take it from her.</p> + +<p>"He won't, oh, He won't," Katy had said, when once she suggested the +possibility, and in the eyes usually so soft and gentle there was a +fierce gleam, as Katy hugged her baby closer to her, and said:</p> + +<p>"God does not willfully torment us. He will not take my baby, when my +whole life would die with it. I had almost forgotten to pray, there was +so much else to do, till baby came, but now I never go to sleep at night +or waken in the morning, that there does not come a prayer of thanks +for baby given to me. I could hardly love God if He took her away."</p> + +<p>There was a chill feeling at Helen's heart as she listened to her sister +and then glanced at the baby so passionately loved. In time it would be +pretty, for it had Katy's perfect features, and the hair just beginning +to grow was a soft, golden brown; but it was too small now, too puny to +be handsome, while in its eyes there was a scared, hunted kind of look, +which chafed Wilford more than aught else could have done, for that was +the look which had crept into Katy's eyes at Newport when she found she +was not going home. Still it was a Cameron, of royal lineage, loved at +least by four, its mother, its grandfather, Helen and Jamie, while the +others looked forward to a time when they should be proud of it, even if +they were not so now.</p> + +<p>Many discussions had been held at the elder Cameron's concerning its +name, Mrs. Cameron deciding finally that it should bear her own, +Margaret Augusta, while Juno advocated that of Rose Marie, inasmuch as +their new clergyman would Frenchify the pronunciation so perfectly, +rolling the "_r_," and placing so much accent on the last syllable. At +this the Father Cameron swore as cussed nonsense—"better call it +Jemima, a grand sight, than saddle it with such a silly name as Rose +Mah-ree, with a roll to the 'r,'" and with another oath the disgusted +old man departed, while Bell suggested that Katy might wish to have a +voice in naming her own child.</p> + +<p>This was a possibility that had formed no part of Mrs. Cameron's +thoughts, or Juno's. Of course Katy would acquiesce in whatever Wilford +said was best, and he always thought as they did. Consequently there +would be no trouble whatever. It was time the child had a name—time it +wore the elegant christening robe, Mrs. Cameron's gift, which cost more +money than would have fed a hungry family for weeks. The matter must be +decided, and so with a view of deciding it a family dinner party was +held at No. —— Fifth Avenue, the day succeeding the call on Marian +Hazleton.</p> + +<p>Very pure and beautiful Katy looked as she once more took her old place +in the chair they called hers at Father Cameron's, because it was the +one she had always preferred to any other—a large, motherly +easy-chair, which took in nearly the whole of her petite figure, and +against whose soft cushioned back she leaned her curly head with a +pretty air of importance, as after dinner was over, she came back to the +parlor with the other ladies, waiting for the gentlemen to join them, +when they were to talk up baby's name.</p> + +<p>Katy knew exactly what it would be called, but as Wilford had never +asked her, she was keeping it a secret, not doubting that the others +would be quite as much delighted as herself with the novel name, +"Genevra." Not long before her illness she had read an English story, +which had in it a Genevra, and she had at once seized upon it as the +most delightful cognomen a person could well possess. "Genevra Cameron!" +She had repeated it to herself many a time as she sat with her baby on +her lap. She had written it on sundry slips of paper, which had +afterward found their way into the grate; and once she had scratched +with her diamond ring upon the window pane in her dressing-room, where +it now stood in legible characters, "Genevra Cameron!" There should be +no middle name to take from the sweetness of the first—only +Genevra—that was sufficient; and the little lady tapped her foot +impatiently upon the carpet, wishing Wilford and father would hurry and +come in.</p> + +<p>Never for an instant had it entered her mind that she, as the mother, +would not be permitted to call her baby what she chose; so when she +heard Mrs. Cameron speaking to Helen of Margaret Augusta, she smiled +complacently, tossing her curls of golden brown, and thinking to +herself, "Maggie Cameron—pretty enough, but not like Genevra. Indeed +I shall not have any Margarets now; next time perhaps I may."</p> + +<p>Since the party at Mrs. Grandon's, Mrs. Cameron had been very kind and +gracious to Helen, while Juno, who understood that Helen believed her +engaged to Mark, treated her with far more attention than before, and +now both kept near to her, chatting familiarly, Mrs. Cameron about the +opera, and Juno the matinée, to which they were to take her, without +waiting for Katy. Helen's success at the party, together with Mrs. +Banker's and Sybil's evident determination to bring her forward, had +taught them that she could not well be longer ignored, and as Juno did +not greatly dread her as a rival now, she could afford to be gracious; +and she was, making herself so agreeable that Helen observed the change, +imputing it to the fact that Mark had probably returned to his +allegiance, and blaming herself for having unwittingly wounded Juno by +receiving his attentions. The belief that she was adding to another's +happiness made it easier to bear the pang, which would make itself felt +whenever she recalled the kindly manner, the handsome face, and more +than all the expressive eyes, which had looked whole volumes into hers; +and Helen quite enjoyed her first dinner party at the Camerons, though +she began to wish, with Katy, that the gentlemen would join them.</p> + +<p>They came at last, and Father Cameron drew his chair close to Katy's +side, laying his hand on her little soft, warm one, giving it a squeeze +as the bright face glanced lovingly into his. Father Cameron was a +milder, gentler man than he was before Katy came, going much oftener +into society, and not so frequently shocking his wife with expressions +and opinions which she held as heterodox. Katy had a softening influence +over him, and he loved her as well perhaps as he had ever loved his own +children.</p> + +<p>"Better," Juno said, and now she touched Bell's arm, to have her see +"how father was petting Katy."</p> + +<p>But Bell did not care, while Wilford was pleased, and drew himself +nearer the chair, standing just behind it, so that Katy could not see +him as he smoothed her curly head, and said, half indifferently, "Now +for the all-important name. What shall we call our daughter?"</p> + +<p>"Let your mother speak first," Katy said, and thus appealed to Mrs. +Cameron came up to Wilford and expressed her preference for Margaret, as +being a good name—an aristocratic name, and her own.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but not half so pretty and striking as Rose Marie," Juno chimed +in.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary! Thunder!" Father Cameron exclaimed. "Call her a marygold, or +a sunflower, just as much. Don't go to being fools by giving a child a +heathenish name. Give us your opinion, Katy."</p> + +<p>"I have known from the first," Katy replied, "and I am sure you will +agree with me. Tis such a beautiful name of a sweet young girl, and +there was a great secret about her, too—Genevra, baby will be called," +and Katy looked straight into the fire, wholly unconscious of the effect +that name had produced upon two of her auditors, Wilford and his mother.</p> + +<p>They did not faint, like Marian, but Wilford's face was white as marble, +and his eyes turned quickly to his mother, who, in her first shock, +started so violently as to throw down from the stand a costly vase, +which was broken in many pieces. This occasioned a little diversion, and +by the time the flowers and fragments were gathered up, Wilford's lips +were not quite as livid, but he dared not trust his voice yet, and +listened while his sisters gave their opinion of the name. Bell deciding +for it at once, and Juno hesitating until she had heard from a higher +power than Katy. One there was in that family council who seized upon it +eagerly. Jamie had been brought into the parlor in his wheel-chair, and +sat leaning his cheek upon his hand when the name was spoken. Then, with +a sudden lighting up of his face, he exclaimed, "Genevra! I've heard it +before. Where was it, grandma? Didn't you talk of it once with—"</p> + +<p>"Hush-h, Jamie. Don't interrupt us now," Wilford said, in a voice so +much sterner than he was wont to use when addressing the little boy, +that Jamie shrank back abashed and frightened; while Mrs. Cameron, still +with her back to Katy, asked, what had put that fanciful name into her +mind? Where had she heard it?</p> + +<p>Katy explained, and, with the removal of the fear which for a few +moments had chilled his blood, Wilford grew calm again; while into his +heart there crept the thought that by giving that name to his child some +slight atonement might be made to the occupant of that grave in St. +Mary's churchyard—to her above whose head the English daisies had +blossomed and faded many a year. But not so with his mother—the child +should not be called Genevra if she could prevent it; and she opposed it +with all her powers, offering at last, as a great concession on her +part, to let it bear the name of any of Katy's family—Hannah and Betsy +mentally excepted, of course—Lucy Lennox, Helen Lennox, Katy Lennox, +anything but Genevra. As usual, Wilford when he had learned her mind, +joined with her, notwithstanding the secret preference, and the +discussion became quite warm, especially as Katy evinced a willfulness +for which Helen had never given her credit. Hitherto she had been as +yielding as wax, but on this point she was firm, gathering strength from +the fact that Wilford did not oppose her as he usually did. She could +not, perhaps, have resisted him, but his manner was not very decided, +and so she quietly persisted. "Genevra, or nothing," until the others +gave up the contest, hoping she would feel differently after a few days' +reflection. But Katy knew she shouldn't; and Helen could not overcome +the exultation with which she saw her little sister put the Camerons to +rout and remain master of the field.</p> + +<p>"After all it does not matter," Mrs. Cameron said to her daughters, +when, after Mrs. Wilford had gone, she sat talking of Katy's queer fancy +and her obstinacy in adhering to it. "It does not matter; and on the +whole I had as soon the christening would be postponed until the child +is more presentable than now. It will be prettier by and by, and the +dress will become it better. We can afford to wait."</p> + +<p>This heartless view of the case was readily adopted by Juno, while Bell +professed to be terribly shocked at hearing them talk thus of a baptism, +as if it were a mere show and nothing more, wondering if the Savior +thought either of dress or personal appearance when the Hebrew mothers +brought their children to Him. But little did Mrs. Cameron or Juno care +for the baptism except as a display, and as both would be much prouder +of a fine looking child, they were well content to wait until such time +as Katy should incline more favorably to their Margaret or Rose Marie. +To Helen it seemed highly probable that after a private interview with +Wilford Katy would change her mind, and she felt a wickedly agreeable +degree of disappointment when, on the day following the dinner party, +she found her sister even more resolved than ever upon having her own +way. Like the Camerons, she did not feel the necessity of haste—time +enough by and by, when she would not have so much opposition to +encounter, she said; and as Wilford did not care, it was finally +arranged that they would wait a while, ere they gave a cognomen to +the little nameless child, only known as Baby Cameron.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV" ></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3>TROUBLE IN THE HOUSEHOLD.</h3> + + +<p>As soon as it was understood that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was able to go +out, there were scores of pressing invitations from the gay world which +had missed her so much, but Katy declined them all on the plea that baby +needed her care. She was happier at home, and as a mother it was her +place to stay there. At first Wilford listened quietly, but when he +found it was her fixed determination to abjure society entirely, he +interfered in his cool, decisive way, which always carried its point.</p> + +<p>"It was foolish to take that stand," he said. "Other mothers went and +why should not she? She had already stayed in too much. She was injuring +herself, and"—what was infinitely worse to Wilford—"she was losing her +good looks."</p> + +<p>As proof of this he led her to the glass, showing her the pale, thin +face and unnaturally large eyes, so distasteful to him. Wilford Cameron +was very proud of his handsome house, proud to know that everything +there was in keeping with his position and wealth, but when Katy was +immured in the nursery, the bright picture was obscured, for it needed +her presence to make it perfect, and he began to grow dissatisfied with +his surroundings, while abroad he missed her quite as much, finding the +opera, the party or the reception insipid where she was not, and feeling +fully conscious that Wilford Cameron, without a wife, and that wife +Katy, was not a man of half the consequence he had thought himself to +be. Even Sybil Grandon did not think it worth her while to court his +attention, especially if Katy were not present, for unless some one saw +and felt her triumph it ceased directly to be one. On the whole Wilford +was not well pleased with society, as he found it this winter, and +knowing where the trouble lay he resolved that Katy should no longer +remain at home, growing pale and faded and losing her good looks. +Wilford would not have confessed it, and perhaps was not himself aware +of the fact, that Katy's beauty was quite as dear to him as Katy +herself. If she lost it her value was decreased accordingly, and so as +a prudent husband it behooved him to see that what was so very precious +was not unnecessarily thrown away. It did not take long for Katy to +understand that her days of quiet were at an end, that neither crib nor +cradle could avail her longer. Mrs. Kirby, selected from a host of +applicants, was wholly competent for Baby Cameron, and Katy must throw +aside the mother which sat so prettily upon her and become again the +belle. It was a sad trial, but Katy knew that submission was the only +alternative, and so when Mrs. Banker's invitation came, she accepted it +at once, but there was a sad look upon her face as she kissed her baby +for the twentieth time ere going to her dressing-maid.</p> + +<p>Never until this night had Helen realized how beautiful Katy was when in +full evening dress, and her exclamations of delight brought a soft flush +to Katy's cheek, while she felt a thrill of the olden vanity as she saw +herself once more arrayed in all her costly apparel. Helen did not +wonder now at Wilford's desire to have Katy with him, and very proudly +she watched her young sister as Esther twined the flowers in her hair +and then brought out the ermine cloak she was to wear as a protection +against the cold.</p> + +<p>"If they could only see you at home," she said, while instantly there +arose a thought of Dr. Grant, and Helen felt a throb of keen regret as +she contrasted the gay, airy figure with the grave, quiet Morris, who +found his chief delights in works of charity, and whose feet lingered +amid the haunts of poverty and suffering, rather than such scenes as +that to which she was going.</p> + +<p>But Katy's path lay far from Dr. Grant's, and only Wilford Cameron had +A right to say whither she should go or when return. He was standing by +her now, making a few suggestions and expressing his approbation in a +way which reminded Helen of that night before the marriage, when Katy's +dress had been condemned, and of that sadder, bitterer time when she +had poured her tears like rain into that trunk returned. All she had +thought of Wilford then was now more than confirmed, but he was kind to +her and very proud of Katy, so she forced back her feelings of disquiet, +which, however, were roused again when she saw the dark look on his +face, as Katy, at the very last, ran to the nursery to kiss baby again, +succeeding this time in waking it, as was proven by the cry that made +Wilford scowl angrily and brought to his lips a word of rebuke for +Katy's childishness.</p> + +<p>"You are like a girl with her first doll," he said, as he opened the +door for her to pass, and Helen, though she felt the truth of the +remark, knew there was no necessity for him to throw so much of lordly +displeasure into his manner, and make poor Katy look so distressed and +worried as they drove rapidly along the streets to Mrs. Banker's.</p> + +<p>The party was not so large as that at Sybil Grandon's, but it was more +select, and Helen enjoyed it better, meeting people like Morris, who +readily appreciated the peculiarities of her mind, and who would have +made her forget all else around her if she had not been a guest at Mark +Ray's house. It was the first time she had met him away from home since +the night of Mrs. Grandon's, and as if forgetful of her reserve, he paid +her numberless attentions, which, coming from the master of the house, +were the more to be valued.</p> + +<p>With a quiet dignity Helen received them all, the thought once creeping +into her heart that she was preferred, notwithstanding that engagement. +But she soon repudiated this idea as unworthy of her. She could not be +wholly happy with one who, to win her hand, had trampled upon the +affections of another, even if that other were Juno Cameron.</p> + +<p>And so she kept out of his way as much as possible, watching her sister +admiringly as she moved about with an easy, assured grace, or floated +like a snow flake through the dance in which Wilford persuaded her to +join, looking after her with a proud, all-absorbing feeling, which left +no room for Sybil Grandon's coquettish advances.</p> + +<p>As if the reappearance of Katy had awakened all that was weak and silly +in Sybil's nature, she now put forth her full powers of attraction, but +met only with defeat. Katy, and even Helen, was preferred before +her—both belles of a different type; but both winning golden laurels +from those who hardly knew which to admire most—Katy, with her pure, +delicate beauty and charming simplicity, or Helen, with her attractive +face and sober, quiet manner. But Katy grew tired early. She could not +endure what she once did; and when she came to Wilford with a weary look +upon her face and asked him to go home, he did not refuse, though Mark, +who was near, protested against their leaving so soon.</p> + +<p>"Surely Miss Lennox might remain; the carriage could be sent back for +her; and he had hardly seen her at all."</p> + +<p>But Miss Lennox chose to go; and after her white cloak and hood passed +down the stairs and through the door into the street, there was nothing +attractive for Mark in his crowded parlors, and he was glad when the +last guest had departed and he was left alone with his mother.</p> + +<p>Operas, parties, receptions, dinners, matineés, morning calls, drives, +visits and shopping; how fast one crowded upon the other, leaving +scarcely an hour of leisure to the devotee of fashion who attended to +them all. How astonished Helen was to find what high life in New York +implied, ceasing to wonder that so many of the young girls grew haggard +and old before their time, or that the dowagers grew selfish and hard +and scheming. She would die outright, she thought, and she pitied poor +little Katy, who, having once returned to the world, seemed destined to +remain there, in spite of her entreaties and the excuses she made for +declining the invitations which poured in so fast.</p> + +<p>"Baby was not well—baby needed her," was the plea with which she met +Wilford's arguments, until the mention of his child was sure to bring a +scowl upon his face, and it became a question in Helen's mind whether he +would not be happier if baby had never come between him and his +ambition.</p> + +<p>To hear Katy's charms extolled, and know that she was admired, and he +was envied the possession of so rare a gem, feeling all the while sure +of her faith, was Wilford's great delight, and it is not strange that, +without any very strong fatherly feeling or principle of right in that +respect, he should be irritated by the little life so constantly +interfering with his pleasure and so surely undermining Katy's health. +For Katy did not improve, as Wilford hoped she might; and with his two +hands he could almost span her slender waist, while the beautiful neck +and shoulders, once his chiefest pride, were no longer worn uncovered, +for Katy would not display her bones, whatever the fashion might be. In +this dilemma Wilford sought his mother, and the result of that +consultation brought a more satisfied look to his face than it had worn +for many a day.</p> + +<p>"Strange he had never thought of it, when it was what so many people +did," he said to himself as he hurried home. "It was the very best thing +both for Katy and the child, and would obviate every difficulty."</p> + +<p>Next morning, as she sometimes did when more than usually fatigued, Katy +breakfasted in bed; while Wilford's face, as he sat opposite Helen at +the table, had on it a look of quiet determination, such as she had +rarely seen there before. In a measure accustomed to his moods, she felt +that something was wrong, and never dreaming that he intended honoring +her with his confidence, she was wishing he would finish the coffee and +leave, when, motioning the servant from the room, he said abruptly, and +in a tone which roused Helen's antagonistic powers at once, it was so +cool, so decided: "I believe you have more influence over your sister +than I have; at least, she has latterly shown a willfulness in +disregarding me and a willingness to listen to you, which confirms +me in this conclusion—"</p> + +<p>"Well," and Helen twisted her napkin ring nervously, waiting for him to +say more; but her manner, so different from Katy's, disconcerted him, +making him a little uncertain what might be hidden behind that rigid +face, confronting him so steadily, a little doubtful as to the +expression it would put on when he had said all he meant to say.</p> + +<p>He did not expect it to wear a look as frightened and hopeless as Katy's +did when he last saw it upon the pillow, for he knew how different the +two sisters were, and much as he had affected to despise Helen Lennox, +he was afraid of her now. It had never occurred to him before that he +was somewhat uncomfortable in her presence, that her searching brown +eyes held him often in check; but it came to him now that his wife's +sister was in his way, for what could he do with a will almost as firm +as his own, and she was sure to take Katy's part. He saw it in her face, +even though she had no idea of what he meant to say.</p> + +<p>"Well;" that was the last sound heard in the quiet room; but since its +utterance the relative positions of the two individuals sitting opposite +each other had changed. Wilford regarding Helen as an obstacle in his +path, and Helen regarding him as a tyrant contemplating some direful +harm against her sister.</p> + +<p>He must explain some time, and so at last he continued: "You must have +seen how opposed Katy is to complying with my wishes, setting them at +naught, when she knows how much pleasure she would give me by yielding +as she used to do."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean," Helen replied, "unless it is her aversion +to going out, as that I think is the only point where her obedience has +not been absolute."</p> + +<p>Wilford did not like the words "obedience" and "absolute;" that is, he +did not like the sound. Their definition suited him, but Helen's +enunciation was at fault, and he answered quickly: "I do not require +absolute obedience from Katy. I never did; but in the matter to which +you refer, I think she might consult my wishes as well as her own. There +is no reason for her secluding herself in the nursery as she does. Do +you think there is?"</p> + +<p>He put the question direct, and Helen answered it.</p> + +<p>"I do not believe Katy means to displease you, but she has conceived a +strong aversion for festive scenes, and besides baby is not healthy, you +know, and like all young mothers she may be over-anxious, while I fancy +she has not the fullest confidence in the nurse, and this may account +for her unwillingness to leave the child with her."</p> + +<p>Kirby was all that was desirable, Wilford replied. His mother had taken +her from a genteel, respectable house in Bond Street, and he paid her an +enormous price, consequently she must be right; and then there came out +the story how his mother had decided that neither Katy nor baby would +improve so long as they remained together—that for both a separation +was desirable—that she had recommended sending the child into the +country, where it would be better cared for than it could be at home +with Katy constantly undoing all Mrs. Kirby had done, disregarding her +orders, waking it from sleep whenever the fancy took her, and in short +treating it much as she probably did her doll when she was a little +girl. With the child away there would be nothing to prevent Katy's going +out as she used to do, and getting back her good looks, which were +somewhat impaired.</p> + +<p>"Why, she looks older than you do," Wilford said, thinking thus to +conciliate Helen, who quietly replied:</p> + +<p>"There is not two years difference between us, and I have always been +well, keeping regular hours until I came here."</p> + +<p>Wilford's compliment had failed, and more annoyed than before, he asked, +not what Helen thought of the arrangement, but if she would influence +Katy to act and think rationally upon it; "at least you will not make it +worse," he said, and this time there was something quite deferential and +pleading in his manner.</p> + +<p>Helen knew the matter was fixed, that neither Katy's tears nor +entreaties would avail to revoke the decision, and so, though her whole +soul rose in indignation against a man who would deliberately send his +nursing baby from his roof because it was in his way, and was robbing +his bride's cheek of its girlish bloom, she answered composedly:</p> + +<p>"I will do what I can, but I must confess it seems to me an unnatural +thing. I had supposed parents less selfish than that."</p> + +<p>Wilford did not care what Helen had supposed, and her opposition only +made him more resolved. Still he did not say so, and he even tried to +smile as he quitted the table and remarked to her:</p> + +<p>"I hope to find Katy reconciled when I come home. I think I had better +not go up to her again, so tell her I send a good-by kiss by you. I +leave her case in your hands."</p> + +<p>It was a far more difficult case than either he or Helen imagined, and +the latter started back in alarm from the white face which greeted her +view as she entered Katy's room, and then with a moan hid itself in the +pillow.</p> + +<p>"Wilford thought he had better not come up, but he sent a kiss by me," +Helen said, softly touching the bright, disordered hair, all she could +see of her sister.</p> + +<p>"It does not matter," Katy gasped. "Kisses cannot help me if they take +my baby away. Did he tell you?" and she turned now partly toward Helen, +who nodded affirmatively while Katy continued: "Had he taken a knife and +cut a cruel gash it would not have hurt me half so badly. I could bear +that, but my baby—oh, Helen, do you think they will take her away?"</p> + +<p>She was looking straight at Helen, who shivered as she met an expression +so unlike Katy, and so like to that a hunted deer might wear if its +offspring were in danger.</p> + +<p>"Say, do you think they will?" she continued, shedding back with her +thin hand the mass of tangled curls which had fallen about her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Whom do you mean by 'they'?" Helen asked, coming near to her, and +sitting down upon the bed.</p> + +<p>There was a resentful gleam in the blue eyes usually so gentle, as Katy +answered:</p> + +<p>"Whom do I mean? His folks of course! They have been the instigators of +every sorrow I have known since I left Silverton. Oh, Helen, never, +never marry anybody who has folks, if you wish to be happy."</p> + +<p>Helen could not repress a smile, though she pitied her sister, who +continued:</p> + +<p>"I don't mean Father Cameron, nor Bell, nor Jamie, for I love them all, +and I believe that they love me. Father does, I know, and Jamie, while +Bell has helped me so often; but Mrs. Cameron and Juno—oh, Helen, you +will never know what they have been to me."</p> + +<p>"I notice you always say 'father' and 'Mrs. Cameron.' Why is that?" +Helen asked, hoping thus to divert Katy's mind from her present trouble, +and feeling a little anxious to hear Katy's real sentiments with regard +to her husband's family.</p> + +<p>Since Helen came to New York there has been so much to talk about +that, though Katy had told her of her fashionable life, she had said +comparatively little of the Camerons. Now, however, there was no holding +back on Katy's part, and beginning with the first night of her arrival +in New York she told what is already known to the reader, and more, +exonerating Wilford in word, but dealing out full justice to his mother +and Juno, the former of whom controlled him so completely.</p> + +<p>"I tried so hard to love her," Katy said, "and if she had given me ever +so little in return I would have been satisfied, but she never did—that +is, when I hungered for it most, missing you at home, and the loving +care which sheltered me in childhood. After the world took me into favor +she too began to caress me, but I was wicked enough to think it all came +of selfishness. I know I am hard and bad, for when I was sick Mrs. +Cameron was really very kind, and I began to like her; but if she takes +baby away, I shall surely die."</p> + +<p>Katy had come back to the starting point, and in her eye there was the +same fierce look which Helen had at first observed.</p> + +<p>"Where is baby to be sent?" Helen asked, and Katy answered:</p> + +<p>"Up the river, to a house which Father Cameron owns, and which is kept +by a farmer's family. I can't trust Kirby. I do not like her. She keeps +baby asleep too long, and acts so cross if I try to wake her, or hint +that she looks unnatural. I cannot give baby to her care, with no one to +look after her, though Wilford says I must."</p> + +<p>"Why then do you try to resist, when you know how useless it is?" Helen +asked, and something in her manner brought a sudden flush of shame to +Katy's cheek, as she said:</p> + +<p>"What do you mean? Of what are you thinking?"</p> + +<p>Helen did not stop to consider the propriety of her remarks, but +replied:</p> + +<p>"I was thinking that you reminded me of a bird beatings wings against +the bars of its cage, vainly hoping to escape into the freedom which it +feels is outside its prison house, but falling back bruised and bleeding +with its efforts, and no nearer escape."</p> + +<p>For a moment Katy regarded her sister intently, while she seemed trying +to digest the meaning of her words; then, as it vaguely flashed upon +her, tears gathered on her eyelashes and rolled down her cheeks, while +with a quivering lip she asked:</p> + +<p>"If you were that bird, what would you do?"</p> + +<p>"I? What would I do? I should beat my wings until I died; but your +nature is different. You are more yielding, more loving, more +submissive. You can bear it better."</p> + +<p>This was not the first time since she came to New York and saw how firm, +how unbending was the will which held Katy in its grasp, that Helen had +thought how surely she, with her high, imperious spirit, should die, +from the very resistance she should offer to that will. But as she had +truly expressed it, Katy's gentle, submissive nature saved her, for +never had she offered so violent opposition to any plan as she did now +to that of sending her child away.</p> + +<p>"I can't, I can't," she repeated constantly, and Mrs. Cameron's call, +made that afternoon with a view to reconcile the matter, only made it +worse, so that Wilford, on his return at night, felt a pang of +self-reproach as he saw the drooping figure holding his child upon its +lap and singing it a lullaby in a plaintive voice, which told how sore +was its heart.</p> + +<p>Wilford did not mean to be either a savage or a brute. On the contrary +he had made himself believe that he was acting only for the good of both +mother and child; but the sight of Katy touched him, and he might have +given up the contest had not Helen unfortunately taken up the cudgels in +Katy's defense, neglecting to conceal the weapons, and so defeating her +purpose. It was at the dinner from which Katy was absent that she +ventured to speak, not asking that the plan be given up, but speaking of +it as an unnatural one which seemed to her not only useless but cruel.</p> + +<p>Wilford did not tell her that her opinion was not desired, but his +manner implied as much, and Helen felt the angry blood prickling through +her veins as she listened to his reply, that it was neither unnatural +nor cruel, that many people did it, and his would not be an isolated +case.</p> + +<p>"Then if it must be," Helen said, "pray let it go to Silverton, and I +will be its nurse. Katy will not object to that."</p> + +<p>In a very ironical tone Wilford thanked her for her offer, which he +begged leave to decline, intimating a preference for settling his own +matters according to his own ideas. Helen knew that further argument was +useless, and but for Katy, wished herself at home, where there were no +wills like this with which she had unwittingly come in contact, and +which, ignoring Katy's tears and Katy's pleading face, would not retract +one iota, or even stoop to reason with the suffering mother, except to +reiterate, "It is only for your good, and every one with common sense +will say so."</p> + +<p>Next morning Helen was surprised at Katy's proposition to drive around +to Fourth Street, and call on Marian, whom they had not seen for several +days.</p> + +<p>"I am always better after talking with her," Katy said, "And I have a +strong presentiment that she can do me good."</p> + +<p>"Shall you tell her?" Helen asked in some surprise; and Katy replied, +"perhaps I may. I'll see."</p> + +<p>An hour later, and Katy, up in Marian's room, sat with her hands clasped +together upon the table, listening intently while Marian spoke of a +letter received a few days since from an old friend who had worked with +her at Madam ——'s, and to whom she had been strongly attached, keeping +up a correspondence with her after her marriage and removal to New +London, in Connecticut; and whose little child, born two months before +Katy's, was dead, and the mother, finding her home so desolate, had +written, beseeching Marian to come to her for the remainder of the +winter, adding in conclusion: "If you know of any little homeless baby, +bring it to me in place of mine, which God has taken. I shall thus be +doing good, and in part forget my sorrow."</p> + +<p>Instantly Helen and Katy glanced at each other, the same thought +flashing upon both, and finding form in Katy's vehement outburst, "If +Mrs. Hubbell would take baby, and Marian would go, too, I should be so +happy."</p> + +<p>In a few moments Marian had heard Katy's trouble—struggling hard to +fight back the giddy faintness she felt stealing over her, as she +thought of nursing Wilford Cameron's child.</p> + +<p>"Write to her, Marian—write to-day—now, before I go," Katy continued, +clasping Marian's hand, with an expression which, more than aught else +won Marian Hazelton's consent to a plan which seemed so strange.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will write," she answered; "I will tell Amelia what you desire."</p> + +<p>"But, Marian, you, too, must go. I'll trust baby with you. Say, Marian, +will you take care of my darling?"</p> + +<p>It was hard to refuse, with those great, wistful, pleading eyes looking +so earnestly into hers; but Marian must have time to consider. She had +thought of going to New London to open a shop, and if she did she should +board with Mrs. Hubbell, and so be with the child. She would decide when +the answer came to the letter.</p> + +<p>This was all the encouragement she would give; but it was enough to +change the whole nature of Katy's feelings, and her face looked bright +and cheerful as she tripped down the stairway, talking to Helen of what +seemed to both like a direct interposition of Providence, and what she +was sure would please Wilford quite as well as the farmhouse up the +river.</p> + +<p>"Surely he will yield to me in this," she said. Nor was she wrong; for +glad of an opportunity to make some concessions, and still in the main +have his own way, Wilford raised no objection to the plan as +communicated to him by Katy, when, at an earlier hour than usual, he +came home to dinner, drawn thither by a remembrance of the face which +had haunted him the entire day, and bringing as a peace offering to both +wife and sister—a new book for the one, and for the other a set of +handsome coral, which he had heard her admire only the week before.</p> + +<p>These he presented with that graceful, winning manner he knew so well +how to assume, and with the harmony of his household once more restored, +felt himself a model husband as he listened to Katy's plan of sending +baby to New London. On the whole, it might be better even than the +farmhouse up the river, he thought, for it was farther away, and Katy +could not be tiring herself with driving out every few days, and keeping +herself constantly uneasy and excited. The distance between New York +and New London was the best feature of the whole; and he wondered Katy +had not thought of it as an objection. But she had not, and but for the +pain when she remembered the coming separation, she would have been very +happy that evening, listening with Wilford and Helen to the opera of +"Norma," and sympathizing so keenly with the poor distracted mother.</p> + +<p>Very differently from this was Marian's evening passed, and on her face +there was a look such as Katy's had never worn, as on her knees she +asked for guidance to choose the right, to lay all self aside, and if it +were her duty and care for the child which had stirred the pulsations of +her heart and made the old wound bleed and throb with bitter anguish as +she remembered what she once hoped would be, and what but for a cruel +wrong might still have been. And as she prayed there crept into her face +another look which told that self was sacrificed at last, and Katy +Cameron was safe with her.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mrs. Hubbell was willing—aye, more than that—was glad to take the +child, and the generous remuneration offered would make them so +comfortable in their little cottage, she wrote to Marian, who hastened +to confer by note with Katy, adding in a postscript, "Is it still your +wish that I should go? if so, I am at your disposal."</p> + +<p>It was Katy's wish, and she hastened to reply, going next to the nursery +to confer with Mrs. Kirby. Dark were the frowns and dire the displeasure +of that lady when told that her services would soon be no longer needed +on Madison Square—that instead of going up the river as she had hoped, +she was free to return to the "genteel and highly respectable home on +Bond Street," where Mrs. Cameron had found her.</p> + +<p>"Wait till the madam comes and then we'll see," she thought, referring +to Mrs. Cameron, and feeling delighted when that very day she heard that +lady's voice in the parlor.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Cameron, though a little anxious with regard to both Mrs. +Hubbell's and Marian's antecedents, and a little doubtful as to the +effect a common dressmaker's nursing might have upon the child, saw at +once that Wilford was in favor of New London and so voted accordingly, +only asking that she might see and talk with Marian Hazelton herself.</p> + +<p>"One can judge so much better from hearing one converse. If her manner +should be very bad and her grammar execrable, I should consider it my +duty to withdraw my consent," she said, with as much deliberation as if +the matter were wholly at her disposal. "Would Katy drive around with +her to Marian Hazelton's to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>Katy would be delighted; and so next day Mrs. Cameron, the elder, was +holding high her aristocratic skirts and glancing ruefully around as she +followed Mrs. Cameron, the younger, up the three flights of stairs to +Marian's door, which did not open to the assured knock, nor yet yield to +the gentle pressure. Marian was out, and there was no alternative but +for Katy to scribble a few lines upon the card she left upon the knob, +telling Marian who had been there, and requesting her to call that +evening at No. —— Fifth Avenue, as the elder Mrs. Cameron was +particularly anxious to see her before committing her grandchild to her +care. "Please go, Marian, for my sake," Katy added, but in reading to +Wilford's mother what she had written, she omitted that, and so escaped +a lecture from that lady upon undue familiarity with inferiors.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI" ></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3>HOW IT ENDED.</h3> + + +<p>"Will Marian go to No. —— Fifth Avenue?" Marian asked herself that +question many times, as with Katy's card in her hand she stood pondering +the subject and feeling glad of the good fortune which had sent her from +home when Wilford's mother called.</p> + +<p>Yes, Marian would; and at the hour between the daylight and the dark, +just as the lamps are lighted in the street, and before they are usually +lighted in the parlors there was a ring at the door, whose massive plate +bore the name of Cameron, and the colored man who answered that ring +stared at the figure he ushered in, seating it in the dim hall and +asking for the name.</p> + +<p>"Miss Hazelton wishes to see Mrs. Cameron," was the reply, and at the +sound of that musical, well-bred voice, the servant half opened the +parlor door, but closed it again as he went for his mistress, who +expressed her surprise that Marian Hazelton should presume to enter +where she did.</p> + +<p>"Maybe she is a lady, mother; Katy raves about her continually," Bell +said; but with an air of incredulity at the lady part, Mrs. Cameron +swept haughtily down the broad staircase, the rustle of her heavy silk +sending a chill of fear through Marian's frame, but not affecting her so +much as did the voice; the cold, proud, metallic voice, which said to +her as she half arose to her feet, "Miss Hazelton, I believe?"</p> + +<p>At that sound there crept over her the same sensation she had felt years +ago, whenever the tones of that voice fell on her ear, for this was not +the first meeting of Mrs. Cameron and Marian Hazelton. But for all the +former guessed or knew, it was the first, and she looked curiously at +the graceful figure, but dimly seen in the shadowy twilight, noticing +the thick green veil which so nearly concealed the face, and wondering +why it was worn, or being worn, why it was kept so nearly down.</p> + +<p>"Miss Hazelton, I believe?" was all that had passed between them as yet, +for at these words a great fear had come upon Marian lest her own voice +should seem as natural as did the one which had just spoken to her.</p> + +<p>But she could not stand there long without answering, and so she +ventured at last to say:</p> + +<p>"Yes, I found Mrs. Wilford Cameron's note, and came around as she +requested."</p> + +<p>There was nothing objectionable in that remark, while the voice was +very, very sweet and musical, so musical, indeed, so like a voice heard +before, that Mrs. Cameron involuntarily went a step nearer to the +stranger, and even thought of calling up a servant to light the gas. But +that would perhaps be too great a civility, or at least betoken too +great a curiosity, and so she forebore, while she began to question +Marian of her own and Mrs. Hubbell's antecedents. Both were English, +both had worked upon the Isle of Wight, and later in New York, at +Madam ——'s; one had married, living now in New London, and the other +Stood there as Marian Hazelton, puzzling and bewildering Mrs. Cameron, +who tried to recall the person of whom she was reminded by that voice and +that manner, so wholly ladylike and refined.</p> + +<p>Marian Hazelton pleased her, as was apparent from her expressing a wish +that "as far as practicable Miss Hazelton should take charge of the +child. We cannot tell how early life-long impression may be made, and it +is desirable that they be of the right nature, and wholly in accordance +with refinement and good-breeding."</p> + +<p>There was a curl on Marian's lip as she remembered another meeting with +the proud lady whose words were not as complimentary as now, but she +merely bent her head in supposed acquiescence to the belief that Baby +Cameron was, or soon would be, capable of discriminating between a nurse +refined and one the opposite. There was a moment's silence and then +Marian asked if baby had been christened?</p> + +<p>"Not yet, we cannot decide upon a name," was the reply, while Marian +continued:</p> + +<p>"I understood your daughter that it was to be Genevra."</p> + +<p>Marian Hazelton was growing too familiar, and so the lady deigned no +answer, but stepped a little to one side, as if she would thus indicate +that the conference was ended.</p> + +<p>Dropping her veil entirely over her face, for the servant was now +lighting the parlor lamps, Marian turned toward the door which Mrs. +Cameron opened, and she passed out just as up the steps came Wilford, +Marian's skirts brushing him as she passed, and her heart beating +painfully as she thought of her escape and began to realize the danger +she incurred when she accepted the office of partial nurse to his child.</p> + +<p>"Dark, mother? How is that? Why is the hall not lighted?" she heard him +say, and the old, familiar tones, so little changed, vibrated sadly in +her ear, as she dashed away a tear, and then hurried on through the +darkened streets toward her humble home, so different from the Cameron's.</p> + +<p>"Who was that, mother?" Wilford said, expressing regret that he had not +happened in a little earlier, so as to have seen her himself, and +asking what his mother thought of her.</p> + +<p>"I liked her. She seemed a well-bred person, and her voice is much like +Genevra's."</p> + +<p>Wilford turned his eyes quickly upon his mother, who continued:</p> + +<p>"I did not think of her, it is true, until Miss Hazelton inquired about +baby's name, and said she understood from Katy that it was to be +Genevra. Then it came to me whose her voice was like. Genevra's, you +know, was very musical."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Wilford answered, and in his eyes there was a look of pain, such +as thoughts of Genevra always brought.</p> + +<p>She was in his mind when he ran up his father's steps, not Genevra +living, but Genevra dead—she who slept in that lone corner of the +churchyard across the sea. "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," and not +Genevra, aged nearly thirty-two, if she had been still living. Kindly, +regretfully, he always spoke of her now, separating her entirely from +the little fairy who was mistress of his house and love—Katy, who was +preferred before Genevra, and to whom no wrong was done, he thought, by +his sad memories of the beautiful English girl, whose grave was at St. +Mary's, and whose picture was so securely hidden from every eye save his +own. He never liked to talk of her now, and he changed the subject at +once, asking when it would be best to send his child away.</p> + +<p>"Miss Hazelton is ready any time, and so I decided upon the day after +to-morrow—that will be Saturday—thus giving Katy the benefit of Sunday +in which to get over it and recover her usual spirits."</p> + +<p>"You are sure it is right?" Wilford asked, for now that the time drew +near when the little crib at home would be empty, the nursery desolate, +with no fretful, plaintive wail to annoy and worry him, he began to feel +that after all that cry was not so very vexing as he had imagined it to +be; that he might miss it when it was gone, and wish back the little +creature which had been so greatly in his way.</p> + +<p>Besides this, there was a sense of injustice to Katy. Perhaps he had not +been considerate enough of her feelings; at all events, his mother's +arranging the time of baby's departure looked like ignoring Katy +altogether, and he ventured a remonstrance. But his mother soon +convinced him of her infallible judgment; not only in that matter, but +in all others pertaining to his household; and so with his good opinion +of himself restored, he went home to where Katy waited for him, with her +baby in her lap, both tastefully attired, and making a most lovely +picture. Wilford kissed them both, and took his daughter in his arms, an +act he had not often been guilty of, for baby tending was not altogether +to his taste.</p> + +<p>In the dark hours of agony which came to him afterward, he remembered +that night, feeling again the touch of the velvet cheek and the warmth +of the faint breath which floated across his face as he held his little +girl for a moment to it, laughing at Katy's distress because "his +whiskers scratched it."</p> + +<p>It was strange how much confidence Katy had in Marian Hazelton, and how +the fact that she was going to New London reconciled her to the plan, +making her even cheerful during the last day of baby's stay at home. But +as the daylight waned and the night came on, a shadow began to steal +across her sunny face, and her step was slower as it went up the stairs +to the nursery, while only herself that night could disrobe the little +creature and hush it into sleep.</p> + +<p>"'Tis the last time, you know," she said to Kirby, who readily yielded +her post and went out, leaving the young mother and child alone.</p> + +<p>Mournfully sad and sweet was the lullaby Katy sang, and Helen, in the +hall, listening to the low, sad moaning, half prayer, half benediction, +likened it to a farewell between the living and the dead. Half an hour +later, when she glanced into the room, lighted only by the moonbeams, +baby was sleeping in her crib, which Katy knelt beside, her face buried +in her hands, and her form quivering with the sobs she tried to smother +as she softly prayed that her darling might come back again; that God +would keep the little child and forgive the erring mother who had sinned +so deeply since the time she used to pray in the home among the hills of +Massachusetts. She was very white next morning, and to Helen she seemed +to be expanding into something more womanly, more mature, as she +disciplined herself to bear the pain welling up so constantly from her +heart, and at last overflowing in a flood of tears when Marian was +announced as in the parlor below waiting for her charge. Fortunately +there was but little time for parting kisses and fond good-byes, for +Marian had purposely waited as long as possible ere coming, and +expedition was necessary if she reached the train.</p> + +<p>It was Katy who made her baby ready, trusting her to no one else, and +repelling with a kind of fierce decision all offers of assistance made +either by Helen, Mrs. Cameron, Bell, or the nurse, who were present. +While Katy's hands drew on the little bright, soft socks of wool, tied +the hood of satin and lace, and fastened the scarlet cloak, her tears +falling like rain as she met the loving, knowing look the baby was just +learning to give her, half smiling, half cooing, as she bent her face +down to it.</p> + +<p>"Please all of you go out," she said, when baby was ready—"Wilford and +all. I had rather be alone."</p> + +<p>They granted her request, but Wilford stood beside the open door, +listening while the mother bade farewell to her baby.</p> + +<p>"Darling," she murmured, "what will poor Katy do when you are gone, +or what will comfort her as you have done? Precious baby, my heart is +breaking to give you up; but will the Father in Heaven who knows how +much you are to me, keep you from harm and bring you back again? Some +time I'd give the world to keep you, but I cannot do it, for Wilford +says that you must go, and Wilford is your father."</p> + +<p>At that moment Wilford Cameron would have given half his fortune to have +kept his child for Katy's sake, but it was now too late; the carriage +was at the door, and Marian, whom no one had seen but Helen, was waiting +in the hall, her thick green veil dropped before her face, and a muffler +about her mouth as if suffering from the toothache. Helen had asked if +it were so, but Marian's answer was prevented by the little procession +filing down the stairs—Mrs. Cameron and Bell, Wilford and Katy, who +carried the baby herself, her face bent over it and her tears still +dropping like rain. But it was Wilford who put his child into Marian's +extended arms, forgetting in his excitement to notice aught in the new +nurse except the long, green veil which was not raised at all, even when +Katy said, pleadingly, "You will care for her, Marian, as if she were +your own."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will, I will," was the response, spoken huskily and having in +it no tone like Genevra's. "I will as if it were my own," were the last +words Marian said as she went down the steps, followed by Wilford, to +whom the thought had just occurred that he ought to see her off.</p> + +<p>Marian had not expected this, and the tension of her nerves was hardly +equal to the task of sitting there with Wilford Cameron opposite, his +baby in her lap, his voice in her ear, and his eyes turned upon her as +if curious to know what manner of woman she was. But the thick veil did +its duty well, while the muffler answered the purpose intended; it +changed the voice which was only natural once, and that when it +addressed the baby, which began to grow restless as they drew near the +depot. Then Wilford was reminded of Genevra, and the thought carried him +across the sea, so that he forgot all else until the station was reached +and he was busy, procuring checks and ticket. He saw her into the car, +procuring for her a double seat, and speaking a word for her to the +conductor, whom he knew. And this he did partly for Katy's sake, and +partly because in spite of the plain attire he recognized the lady and +felt that Marian Hazelton was no ordinary person. He offered her his +hand, wondering why hers trembled so in his grasp, wondering why it was +so cold, and wondering, too, why, if she had never been a wife, she wore +that plain gold circlet which glittered upon her third finger.</p> + +<p>"They certainly call her Miss Hazelton," he thought, as he bade her +good-by and then left her alone, going back to the house which even to +him seemed lonely, with all the paraphernalia of babyhood removed. +Still, now that the worst was over, he rather enjoyed it, for Katy was +free from care; there was nothing to hinder her gratifying his every +wish, and with his spirits greatly enlivened as he reflected how +satisfactory everything had been managed at the last, he proposed taking +both Helen and Katy to the theatre that night. But Katy answered: "No, +Wilford, not to-night; it seems too much like baby's funeral. I'll go +next week, but not to-night."</p> + +<p>So Katy had her way, but among the worshipers who next day knelt in +Grace Church with words of prayer upon their lips, there was not one +more in earnest than she whose only theme was, "My child, my darling +child."</p> + +<p>She did not get over it by Monday, as Mrs. Cameron had predicted. She +did not get over it at all, though she went without a word where Wilford +willed that she should go, and even Helen, with her sounder health and +stronger constitution, grew tired of that endless round, which gave her +scarcely a quiet hour at home. And Katy was a belle again, her name on +every lip, her praise in every heart, for none could feel jealous, she +bore her honors so meekly, wondering why people liked her so much and +loving them because they did. And none admired her more than Helen, who, +scarcely less a belle herself, yielded everything to her young sister +whom she pitied while she admired, for nothing had power to draw one +look from her blue eyes, the look which many observed, and which Helen +knew sprang from the mother love, hungering for its child. Only once +before had Helen seen a look like this, and that came to Morris' face on +the sad night when she said to him, "It might have been." It had been +there ever since, and Helen, though revering him before, felt that by +the pangs with which that look was born he was a better man, just as +Katy was growing better for that hunger in her heart. God was taking his +own way to purify them both, but the process was going on and Helen +watched it intently, wondering what the end would be.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII" ></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3>AUNT BETSY GOES ON A JOURNEY.</h3> + + +<p>Just through the woods, where Uncle Ephraim was wont to exercise old +Whitey, was a narrow strip of land, extending from the highway to the +pond, and fertile in nothing except the huckleberry bushes, where the +large, dark fruit grew so abundantly, and the rocky ledges over which a +few sheep roamed, seeking for the short grass and stunted herbs, which +gave them a meager sustenance. As a whole it was comparatively +valueless, but to Aunt Betsy Barlow it was of great importance, as it +was her own—her property—her share—set off from the old estate—the +land on which she paid taxes willingly—the real estate the deed of +which was lying undisturbed in her hair trunk, where it had lain for +years. Several dispositions the good old lady had mentally made of this +property, sometimes dividing it equally between Helen and Katy, +sometimes willing it all to the former, and again, when she thought of +Mark Ray, leaving the interest of it to some missionary society in which +she was greatly interested.</p> + +<p>How then was the poor woman amazed and confounded when suddenly there +appeared a claimant to her property; not the whole, but a part, and that +part taking in the big sweet apple tree and the very best of the berry +bushes, leaving her nothing but rocks and bogs, a pucker cherry tree, a +patch of tansy, and one small tree, whose gnarly apples were not fit, +she said, to feed the pigs.</p> + +<p>Of course she was indignant, and all the more so because the claimant +was prepared to prove that the line fence was not where it should be, +but ran into his own dominions for the width of two or three rods, a +fact he had just discovered by looking over a bundle of deeds, in which +the boundaries of his own farm were clearly defined.</p> + +<p>In her distress Aunt Betsy's first thoughts were turned to Wilford as +the man who could redress her wrongs if any one, and a long letter was +written to him in which her grievances were told in detail and his +advice solicited. Commencing with "My dear Wilford," closing with +"Your respected ant," sealed with a wafer, stamped with her thimble, +and directed bottom side up, it nevertheless found its way to +No. —— Broadway, and into Wilford's hands. But with a frown and pish of +contempt he tossed it into the grate, and vain were all Aunt Betsy's +inquiries as to whether there was any letter for her when Uncle Ephraim +came home from the office. Letters there were from Helen, and sometimes +one from Katy, but none from Wilford, none for her, and her days were +passed in great perplexity and distress, until another idea took +possession of her mind. She would go to New York herself! She had never +traveled over half a dozen miles in the cars, it was true, but it was +time she had, and now that she had a new bonnet and shawl, as good as +anybody's, she could go to York as well as not!</p> + +<p>Wholly useless were the expostulations of the family, for she would not +listen to them, nor believe that she would not be welcome at that house +on Madison Square, to which even Mrs. Lennox had never been invited +since Katy was fairly settled in it. Much at first had been said of her +coming, and of the room she was to occupy; but all that had ceased, and +in the mother's heart there had been a painful doubt as to the reason of +the silence, until Helen's letters enlightened her, telling her it was +not Katy, for she was still unchanged—was still the loving, impulsive +creature who, if she could, would take all Silverton to her arms. It was +Wilford who had built so high a wall between Katy and her friends; +Wilford who at first had endured Helen because he must, but who now kept +her with him from choice, even though she was sometimes greatly in his +way, especially when her will clashed with his and her stronger +arguments for the right swept his own aside. Far better than she used, +did Mrs. Lennox understand her son-in-law, and she shrank in horror from +suffering her aunt to go where she would be so serious an annoyance, +frankly telling her the reason for her objections, and asking if she +wished to mortify the girls.</p> + +<p>At this Aunt Betsy took umbrage at once.</p> + +<p>"She'd like to know what there was about her to mortify anybody? Wasn't +her black silk dress made long and full, and the old pongee fixed into a +Balmoral, and hadn't she a bran-new cap with purple ribbon, and couldn't +she travel in her delaine, and didn't she wear hoops always now, except +at cleanin' house times? Didn't she nuss both the girls, especially +Catherine, carrying her in her arms one whole night when she had the +canker-rash, and everybody thought she'd die; and when she swallered +that tin whistle didn't she spat her on the back and swing her in the +air till she came to and blew the whistle clear across the room? Tell +her that Catherine would be ashamed? she knew better!"</p> + +<p>Then as a doubt began to cross her own mind as to Wilford's readiness to +entertain her at his house, she continued:</p> + +<p>"At any rate, the Tubbses, who moved from Silverton last fall, and who +were living in such style on the Bowery, wouldn't be ashamed, and I can +stop with them at first, till I see how the land lies. They have invited +me to come, both Miss Tubbs and 'Tilda, and they are nice folks, who +belong to the Orthodox Church. Tom is in town now, and if I see him I +shall talk with him about it, even if I never go."</p> + +<p>Most devoutly did Mrs. Lennox and Aunt Hannah hope that Tom would +return to New York without honoring the farmhouse with a call; but +unfortunately for them he came that very afternoon, and instead of +throwing obstacles in Aunt Betsy's way, urged her warmly to make the +proposed visit.</p> + +<p>"Mother would be so glad to see an old neighbor," the honest youth said, +"for she did not know many folks in the city. 'Till had made some flashy +acquaintances, of whom he did not think much, and they kept a few +boarders, but nobody had called, and mother was real lonesome. He wished +Miss Barlow would come; she would have no difficulty in finding them," +and on a bit of paper he marked out the route of the Fourth Avenue cars, +which passed their door, and which Aunt Betsy would take after arriving +at the New Haven depot. "If he knew when she was coming he would meet +her," he said, but Aunt Betsy could not tell; she was not quite certain +whether she should go at all, she was so violently opposed.</p> + +<p>Still she did not give it up entirely, and when, a few days after Tom's +return to New York, there came a pressing invitation from the daughter +Matilda, or Mattie, as she signed herself, the fever again ran high, and +this time with but little hope of its abating.</p> + +<p>"We shall be delighted, both mother and me," Mattie wrote. "I will show +you all the lions of the city, and when you get tired of us you can go +up to Mrs. Cameron's. I know exactly where they live, and have seen her +at the opera in full dress, looking like a queen."</p> + +<p>Over the last part of this letter Aunt Betsy pondered for some time. +That as good an orthodox as Miss Tubbs should let her girl go to the +opera, passed her. She had wondered at Helen's going, but then she was a +'Piscopal, and them 'Piscopals had queer notions about usin' the world +and not abusin' it. Still, as Helen did not attend the theatre and did +attend the opera, there must be a difference in the two places, and into +the old lady's heart there slowly crept the thought that possibly she +might try the opera too, if 'Tilda Tubbs would go, and promise never to +tell the folks at Silverton! She should like to see what it was, and +also what full dress meant, though she s'posed it was pilin' on all the +clothes you had so as to make a show; but if she wore her black silk +gown with her best bunnet and shawl, she guessed that would be dress +enough for her.</p> + +<p>This settled, Aunt Betsy began to devise the best means of getting off +with the least opposition. Both Morris and her brother would be absent +from town during the next week, and she finally resolved to take that +opportunity for starting on her visit to New York, wisely concluding to +keep her own counsel until she was quite ready. Accordingly, on the very +day Morris and the deacon left Silverton, she announced her intention so +quietly and decidedly that further opposition was useless, and Mrs. +Lennox did what she could to make her aunt presentable. And Aunt Betsy +did look very respectable in her dark delaine, with her hat and shawl, +both Morris' gift, and both in very good taste. As for the black silk +and the new cap, they were carefully folded away, one in a box and the +other in a satchel she carried on her arm, and in one compartment of +which were sundry papers of fennel, caraway, and catnip, intended for +Katy's baby, and which could be sent to it from New York. There was also +a package of dried plums and peaches for Katy herself, and a few cakes +of yeast of her own make, better than any they had in the city! Thus +equipped she one morning took her seat in the Boston and New York train, +which carried her swiftly on toward Springfield.</p> + +<p>"If anybody can find their way in New York, it is Betsy," Aunt Hannah +said to Mrs. Lennox, as the day wore on and their thoughts went after +the lone woman, who with satchel, umbrella and capbox, was felicitating +in the luxury of a whole seat, and the near neighborhood of a very nice +young man, who listened with well-bred interest while she told of her +troubles concerning the sheep pasture, and how she was going to New York +to consult a first-rate lawyer.</p> + +<p>Once she thought to tell who the lawyer was, and perhaps enhance her own +merits in the eyes of her auditors by announcing herself as aunt to Mrs. +Wilford Cameron, of whom she had no doubt he had heard—nay, more, whom +he possibly knew, inasmuch as his home was in New York, though he spent +much of his time at West Point, where he had been educated. But certain +disagreeable remembrances of Aunt Hannah's parting injunction, "not to +tell everybody in the cars that she was Katy's aunt," kept her silent on +that point, and so Lieutenant Bob Reynolds failed to be enlightened with +regard to the relationship existing between the fastidious Wilford +Cameron of Madison Square, and the quaint old lady whose very first act +on entering the car amused him vastly. At a glance he saw that she was +unused to traveling, and as the car was crowded, he had kindly offered +his seat near the door, taking the side one under the window, and so +close to her that she gave him her capbox to hold while she adjusted her +other bundles. This done and herself comfortably settled, she was just +remarking that she liked being close to the door in case of a fire, when +the conductor appeared, extending his hand officially toward her as the +first one convenient. For an instant Aunt Betsy scanned him closely, +thinking she surely had never seen him before, but as he seemed to claim +acquaintance she could not find it in her kind heart to ignore him +altogether, and so she grasped the offered hand, which she tried to +shake, saying apologetically:</p> + +<p>"Pretty well, thank you, but you've got the better of me, as I don't +justly recall your name."</p> + +<p>Instantly the eyes of the young man under the window met those of the +conductor with a look which changed the frown gathering in the face of +the latter into a comical smile as he withdrew his hand and shouted:</p> + +<p>"Ticket, madam, your ticket!"</p> + +<p>"For the land's sake, have I got to give that up so quick, when it's at +the bottom of my satchel," Aunt Betsy replied, somewhat crestfallen at +her mistake, and fumbling in her pocket for the key, which was finally +produced, and one by one the paper parcels of fennel, caraway, and +catnip, dried plums, peaches and yeast cakes, were taken out, until at +the very bottom, as she had said, the ticket was found, the conductor +waiting patiently, and advising her, by way of avoiding future trouble, +to pin the card to her shawl, where it could be seen.</p> + +<p>"A right nice man," was Aunt Betsy's mental comment, but for a long time +there was a red spot on her cheeks as she felt that she had made herself +ridiculous, and hoped the girls would never hear of it.</p> + +<p>The young man, however, helped to reassure her, and in telling him her +troubles she forgot her chagrin, feeling very sorry that he was going on +to Albany, and so down the river to West Point. West Point was +associated in Aunt Betsy's mind with that handful of noble men who +within the walls of Sumter were then the center of so much interest, and +at parting with her companion she said to him:</p> + +<p>"Young man, you are a soldier, I take it, from your havin' been to +school at West Point. Maybe you'll never have to use your learning, but +if you do, stick to the old flag. Don't you go against that, and if an +old woman's prayers for your safety can do any good, be sure you'll have +mine."</p> + +<p>She raised her hand reverently, and Lieutenant Bob felt a kind of awe +steal over him as if he might one day need that benediction, the first +perhaps given in the cause now so terribly agitating all hearts both +North and South.</p> + +<p>"I'll remember what you say," he answered, and then as a new idea was +presented he took out a card, and writing a few lines upon it, bade her +hand it to the conductor just as she was getting into the city.</p> + +<p>Without her glasses Aunt Betsy could not read, and thinking it did not +matter now, she thrust the card into her pocket, and bidding her +companion good-by, took her seat in the other train. Lonely and a very +little homesick she began to feel; for her new neighbors were not +one-half as willing to talk as Bob had been, and she finally relapsed +into silence, which resulted in a quiet sleep, from which she awoke +just as they were entering the long, dark tunnel, which she would have +likened to Purgatory had she believed in such a place.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know we ran into cellars," she said, faintly; but nobody +heeded her, or cared for the anxious and now timid-looking woman, who +grew more and more anxious, until suddenly remembering the card, she +drew it from her pocket, and the next time the conductor appeared handed +it to him, watching him while he read that "Lieutenant Robert Reynolds +would consider it as a personal favor if he would see the bearer into +the Fourth Avenue cars."</p> + +<p>Surely there is a Providence which watches over all; and Lieutenant +Reynolds' thoughtfulness was not a mere chance, but the answer to the +simple trust Aunt Betsy had that God would take her safely to New York, +never doubting until she reached it that she had been heard. And even +then she did not doubt it long, for the conductor knew Lieutenant Bob, +and attended as faithfully to his wishes as if it had been a born +princess instead of Aunt Betsy Barlow whom he led to a street car, +ascertaining the number on the Bowery where she wished to stop, and +reporting to that conductor, who bowed in acquiescence, after glancing +at the woman, and knowing intuitively that she was from the country. +Could she have divested herself wholly of the fear that the conductor +would forget to put her off at the right place, Aunt Betsy would have +enjoyed that ride very much; and as it was, she looked around with +interest, thinking New York a mightily cluttered-up place, and wondering +if all the folks were in the streets. "They must be a gadding set," she +thought; and then, as a lady in flaunting robes took a seat beside her, +crowding her into a narrow space, the good old dame thought to show that +she did not resent it, by an attempt at sociability, asking if she knew +"Mrs. Peter Tubbs, whose husband kept a store on the Bowery?"</p> + +<p>"I have not that honor," was the haughty reply, the lady drawing up +her costly shawl and moving a little away from her interlocutor, who +continued: "I thought like enough you might have seen 'Tilda, or Mattie +she calls herself now. She is a right nice girl, and Tom is a very +forrard boy."</p> + +<p>To this there was no reply; and as the lady soon left the car, Aunt +Betsy did not make another attempt at conversation, except to ask once +how far they were from the Bowery, adding, as she received a civil +answer, "You don't know Mr. Peter Tubbs?"</p> + +<p>The worthy man was evidently a stranger to the occupants of that car, +and so Aunt Betsy employed her time in wondering if they kept up a sight +of style. She presumed they did from what 'Tilda had written to one of +Captain Perry's girls about their front parlor, and back parlor, and +library; but she did so hope their boarders were not the stuck up kind. +In Mrs. Peter Tubbs herself she had the utmost confidence, knowing her +to be a kind, friendly woman; and so her heart did not beat quite as +fast as it would otherwise have done when the car stopped at last upon +a crossing, and the conductor pointed back a few doors to the right, +telling her that was her number.</p> + +<p>"I should s'pose he might have driv right up, instead of leaving me +here," she said, looking wistfully at the retreating car, which now +seemed almost like home. "Coats, and trousers, and jackets! I wonder if +there is nothing else to be seen here," she continued, as her eye caught +the long line of clothing so conspicuously displayed in that part of the +Bowery. "'Tain't no great shakes," was the feeling struggling into Aunt +Betsy's mind, as with Tom's outline map in hand she peered at the +numbers of the doors, finding the right one at last, and ringing the +bell with a force which brought Mattie at once to the rescue.</p> + +<p>If Mattie was not glad to see her guest, she seemed to be, which +answered every purpose for the tired woman, who followed her into the +dark, narrow hall, filled with the sickly odor of the kitchen, and up +the narrow stairs, through a still darker hall, and into the front +parlor, which looked out upon the Bowery. This was comparatively +comfortable, for there was a fire in the stove, and the carpet the same +which Aunt Betsy remembered to have seen in Mrs. Tubbs' best room at +Silverton. But the diminutive dimensions of the apartment struck her at +once, and she mentally decided that it must be the "libry." But, alas! +the so-called "library" was a large-sized closet, or single room, at the +other end of the hall, and now used as an _omnium gatherum_ for the +various articles Mrs. Tubbs found necessary for her "back parlor," or +dining-room, where the table was set cornerwise, its soiled linen and +dingy napkins presenting a striking contrast to the snowy cloth which +always covered the table at the farmhouse, while the dry, baker's bread, +and the frowsy butter were almost more than Aunt Betsy could swallow, +hungry as she was.</p> + +<p>But all this was half an hour after the time when Mrs. Tubbs came in to +meet her, expressing genuine pleasure at seeing her there, and feeling +what she said; for Mrs. Tubbs did not take kindly to city life, and the +sight of a familiar face, which brought the country with it, was very +welcome to her. Mattie, on the contrary, liked New York, and there was +scarcely a street where she had not been, with Tom for a protector; +while she was perfectly conversant with all the respectable places of +amusement—with their different prices and different grades of patrons. +She knew where Wilford Cameron's office was, and also his house, for she +had walked by the latter many times, admiring the elegant curtains and +feasting her eyes upon the glimpses of inside grandeur, which she +occasionally obtained as some one came out or went in. Once she had seen +Helen and Katy enter their carriage, which the colored coachman drove +away, but she had never ventured to accost them. Katy would not have +known her if she had, for the family had come to Silverton while she was +at Canandaigua, and as, after her return to Silverton, until her +marriage, Mattie had been in one of the Lawrence factories, they had +never met. With Helen, however, she had a speaking acquaintance; but she +had never presumed upon it in New York, though to some of her young +friends she had told how she once sat in the same pew with Mrs. Wilford +Cameron's sister when she went to the "Episcopal meeting," and the +consideration which this fact procured for her from those who had heard +of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, of Madison Square, awoke in her the ambition to +know more of that lady, and, if possible, gain an entrance to her +dwelling. To this end she favored Aunt Betsy's visit, hoping thus to +accomplish her object, for, of course, when Miss Barlow went to Mrs. +Cameron's, she was the proper person to go with her and point the way. +This was the secret of Mattie's letter to Aunt Betsy, and the warmth +with which she welcomed her to that tenement on the Bowery, over a +clothing store, and so small that it is not strange Aunt Betsy wondered +where they all slept, never dreaming of the many devices known to city +housekeepers, who can change a handsome parlor into a kitchen or +sleeping-room, and _vice versa_, with little or no trouble. But she +found it out at last, lifting her hands in speechless amazement, when, +as the hour for retiring came, what she imagined the parlor bookcase was +converted into a comfortable bed, on which her first night in New York +was passed in comfort if not in perfect quiet.</p> + +<p>The next day had been set apart by Mattie for showing their guest the +city and possibly calling on Mrs. Wilford; but the poor old lady, unused +to travel and excitement, was too tired to venture out, seeing from the +window more than she had seen in all her life before, and coming to the +conclusion that New York must contain "a sight of folks," judging from +the crowds who passed that way and the glimpses she caught of other +crowds in the streets beyond. Still in some things she was disappointed. +New York was not so grand as she had imagined it to be—not as grand as +Helen's letters would imply; and she "didn't suppose everybody lived +upstairs and kept men's clothes to sell." The boarders, too, troubled +her. They were well enough, it is true, but they were neither fine +ladies nor gentlemen, such as Wilford and Katy; and Aunt Betsy, while +receiving every attention which Mrs. Tubbs could give her, was guilty of +wishing herself back in the clean, bright kitchen at home, where the +windows looked out upon woods and fields instead of that never-ceasing +rush which made her dizzy and faint. On the whole she was as nearly +homesick as she well could be, and so when Mattie asked if she would +like to go out that evening, she caught eagerly at the idea, as it +involved a change, and again the opera came before her mind, in spite +of her attempts to thrust it away.</p> + +<p>"Did 'Tilda know if Katy went to the opera now? Did she s'pose she +would be there to-night? Was it far to the show house? What was the +price—and was it a very wicked place?"</p> + +<p>To all these queries Mattie answered readily. She presumed Katy would be +there, as it was a new opera. It was not so very far. Distance in the +city was nothing, and it was not a wicked place, but over the price +Mattie faltered. Tickets for Aunt Betsy, herself and Tom, who of course +must go with them, would cost more than her father had to give. The +theatre was preferable, as that came within their means, and she +suggested Laura Keene's; but from that Aunt Betsy recoiled as from +Pandemonium itself.</p> + +<p>Catch her at a theatre—her, a deacon's sister, looked up to for a +sample, and who run once for vice-president of the Sewing Society in +Silverton! It was too terrible to think of. But the opera seemed +different. Helen went there; it could not be very wrong, particularly as +the tickets were so high that bad folks could not go, and taking out her +purse Aunt Betsy counted its contents carefully, holding the bills +thoughtfully for a moment, while she seemed to be balancing between what +she knew was safe and what she feared might be wrong, at least in the +eyes of Silverton.</p> + +<p>"But Silverton will never know it," the tempter whispered, "and it is +worth something to see the girls in full dress."</p> + +<p>This decided it, and Aunt Betsy generously offered "to pay the fiddler," +as she termed it, "provided 'Tilda would never let it get to Silverton +that Betsy Barlow was seen inside a playhouse!" To Mrs. Tubbs it seemed +impossible that Aunt Betsy could be in earnest, but when she was, she +put no impediments in her way; and so, conspicuous among the crowd of +transient visitors who that night entered the Academy of Music was Aunt +Betsy Barlow, chaperoned by Miss Mattie Tubbs and protected by Tom, a +shrewd, well-grown youth of seventeen, who passed for some years older, +and consequently was a sufficient escort for the ladies under his +charge. It was not his first visit there and he managed to procure a +seat which commanded a good view of several private boxes, and among +them that of Wilford Cameron. This Mattie, who remembered where she had +seen both Helen and Katy, pointed out to the excited woman gazing about +her in a maze of bewilderment, and half doubting her own identity with +the Betsy Barlow who, six weeks before, if charged with such a sin as +she was now committing, would have exclaimed, "Is thy servant a dog to +do this thing?" Yet here she was, a deacon's sister, a candidate for the +vice-presidency of the Silverton Sewing Society, a woman who, for +sixty-three years and a-half, had led a blameless life, frowning upon +all worldly amusements and setting herself for a burning light to +others—here she was in her black silk dress, her best shawl pinned +across her chest, and her bonnet tied in a square bow which reached +nearly to her ears, which Mattie Tubbs, who tied it, had said was all +the style. Here she was, in that huge building, where the lights were so +blinding and the crowd so great that she shut her eyes involuntarily, +while she tried to realize what she could be doing.</p> + +<p>"I'm in for it now anyhow, and if it is wrong may the good Father +forgive me," she said softly to herself, just as the orchestra struck +up, thrilling her with its ravishing strains, and making her forget all +else in her rapturous delight.</p> + +<p>She was very fond of music and listened eagerly, beating time with both +her feet, and making her bonnet go up and down until the play commenced +and she saw stage dress and stage effect for the first time in her life. +This part she did not like: "they mumbled their words so nobody could +understand more than if they spoke a heathenish tongue," she thought, +and she was beginning to yawn when a nudge from Mattie and a whisper, +"There they come," roused her from her stupor, and looking up she saw +both Helen and Katy entering their box, and with them Mark Ray and +Wilford Cameron.</p> + +<p>Very rapidly Katy's eyes swept the house, running over the sea of heads +below but failing to see the figure which, half arising from its seat, +stood with clasped hands, gazing upon her, the tears running like rain +over the upturned face, and the lips murmuring: "Darling Katy! blessed +child! She's thinner than when I see her last, but oh! so beautiful and +grand! Precious lambkin! It isn't wicked now for me to be coming here, +where I can see her face again."</p> + +<p>It was all in vain that Mattie pulled her dress, bidding her sit down +as people were staring at her. Aunt Betsy did not hear, and if she had +she would scarcely have cared for those who did look at her, and who, +following her eyes, saw the beautiful young ladies, behind whom Wilford +and Mark were standing, but never dreamed of associating them with the +"crazy thing" who sank back at last into her seat, keeping her eyes +still upon the box where Helen and Katy sat, their heads uncovered and +their rich cloaks falling off just enough to show the astonished woman +that both their necks were uncovered, too, while Helen's arms, raised to +adjust her glass, were discovered to be in the same condition.</p> + +<p>"Ain't they splendid in full dress?" Mattie whispered, while Aunt Betsy +replied:</p> + +<p>"Call that full dress? I'd sooner say it was no dress at all! They'll +catch their death of cold. What would their mother say?"</p> + +<p>Then as the enormity of the act grew upon her, she continued more to +herself than to Mattie:</p> + +<p>"I mistrusted Catherine, but that Helen should come to this passes me."</p> + +<p>Still as she became more accustomed to it, and glanced at other +full-dressed ladies, the first shock passed away, and she could calmly +contemplate Katy's dress, wondering what it cost, and then letting her +eyes pass on to Helen, to whom Mark Ray seemed so loverlike that Aunt +Betsy remembered her impressions when he stopped at Silverton, her heart +swelling with pride as she thought of both the girls making out so well.</p> + +<p>"Who is that young man talking to Helen?" Mattie asked, between the +acts, and when told that it was "Mr. Ray, Wilford's partner," she drew +her breath eagerly, and turned again to watch him, envying the young +girl who did not seem as much gratified with the attentions as Mattie +fancied she should do were she in Helen's place.</p> + +<p>How could she, with Juno Cameron just opposite, watching her jealously, +while Madam Cameron fanned herself in dignity, refusing to look upon +what she so greatly disapproved.</p> + +<p>But Mark did not care who was watching him, and continued his attentions +until Helen wished herself away, and though a good deal surprised, was +not sorry when Wilford abruptly declared the opera a bore, and suggested +going home.</p> + +<p>They would order an ice, he said, and have a much pleasanter time in +their own private parlor.</p> + +<p>"Please don't go; I rather like the play to-night," Katy said; but on +Wilford's face there was that look which never consulted Katy's wishes, +and so the two ladies tied on their cloaks, and just as the curtain rose +in the last act, left their box, Juno wondering at the movement, and +hoping Mark would now come around to her, while Aunt Betsy looked +wistfully after them, but did not suspect she was the cause of their +exit, and of Wilford's evident perturbation.</p> + +<p>Running his eye over the house below, it had fallen upon the trio, Aunt +Betsy, Mattie and Tom, the first of whom was at that moment partly +standing, while she adjusted her heavy shawl, which the heat of the +building had compelled her to unfasten.</p> + +<p>There was a start, a rush of blood to the head and face, and then he +reflected how impossible it was that she should be there, in New York, +and at the opera, too.</p> + +<p>The shawl arranged, Aunt Betsy took her seat and turned her face fully +toward him, while Wilford seized Katy's glass and leveled it at her. He +was not mistaken. It was Aunt Betsy Barlow, and Wilford felt the +perspiration oozing out beneath his hair and about his lips, as he +remembered the letter he had burned, wishing now that he had answered +it, and so, perhaps, have kept her from his door. For she was coming +there, nay, possibly had come, since his departure from home, and +learning his whereabouts, had followed on to the Academy of Music, +leaving her baggage where he should stumble over it on entering the +hall.</p> + +<p>Such was the fearful picture conjured up by Wilford's imagination, as +he stood watching poor Aunt Betsy, a dark cloud on his brow and fierce +anger at his heart, that she should thus presume to worry and annoy him.</p> + +<p>"If she spies us she will be finding her way up here; there's no piece +of effrontery of which that class is not capable," he thought, wondering +next who the vulgar-looking girl and _gauche_ youth were who were with +her.</p> + +<p>"Country cousins, of whom I have never heard, no doubt," and he ground +his teeth together as with his next breath he suggested going home, +carrying out his suggestion and hurrying both Helen and Katy to the +carriage as if some horrible dragon had been on their track.</p> + +<p>There was no baggage in the hall, there had been no woman there, and +Wilford's fears for a time subsided, but growing strong again about the +time he knew the opera was out, while the sound of wheels coming toward +his door was sufficient to make his heart stop beating and every hair +prickle at its roots.</p> + +<p>But Aunt Betsy did not come except in Wilford's dreams, which she +haunted the entire night, so that the morning found him tired, moody, +and cross. That day they entertained a select dinner party, and as this +was something in which Katy rather excelled, while Helen's presence, +instead of detracting from, would add greatly to the _éclat_ of the +affair, Wilford had anticipated it with no small degree of complacency. +But now, alas! there was a phantom at his side—a skeleton of horror, +wearing Aunt Betsy's guise; and if it had been possible he would have +given the dinner up. But it was too late for that; the guests were +bidden, the arrangements made, and there was nothing now for him but +to abide the consequences.</p> + +<p>"She shall at least stay in her room, if I have to lock her in," he +thought, as he went down to his office without even kissing Katy or +bidding her good-by.</p> + +<p>But business that day had no interest for him, and in a listless, absent +way he sat watching the passers-by and glancing at his door as if he +expected the first assault to be made there. Then as the day wore on, +and he felt sure that what he so much dreaded had really come to pass, +that the baggage expected last night had certainly arrived by this time +and spread itself over his house, he could endure the suspense no +longer, and startled Mark with the announcement that he was going home, +and should not return again that day.</p> + +<p>"Going home, when Leavitt is to call at three!" Mark said, in much +surprise, and feeling that it would be a relief to unburden himself to +some one, the story came out how Wilford had seen Aunt Betsy at the +opera, and expected to find her at Madison Square.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had answered her letter about that confounded sheep pasture," +he said, "for I would rather give a thousand dollars—yes, ten +thousand—than have her with us to-day. I did not marry my wife's +relations," he continued, excitedly, adding, as Mark looked quickly up, +"Of course I don't mean Helen. She is right; and though she rasps me a +little, I'd rather have her than not. Neither do I mean that doctor, for +he is a gentleman. But this Barlow woman—oh! Mark, I am all of dripping +sweat just to think of it."</p> + +<p>He did not say what he intended doing, but with Mark Ray's ringing laugh +in his ears, passed into the street, and hailing a stage was driven +toward home, just as a downtown stage deposited on the walk in front of +his office "that Barlow woman" and Mattie Tubbs!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII" ></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>AUNT BETSY CONSULTS A LAWYER.</h3> + + +<p>Aunt Betsy did not rest well after her return from the opera. Novelty +and excitement always kept her awake, while her mind was not wholly at +ease with regard to what she had done. Not that she really felt she had +committed a sin, except so far as the example might be bad, but she +feared the result, should it ever reach the orthodox church at Silverton.</p> + +<p>"There's no telling what Deacon Bannister would do—send a subpoena +after me, for what I know," she thought, as she laid her tired head upon +her pillow and went off into that weary state halfway between sleep and +wakefulness, a state in which operas, play actors, Katy in full dress, +Helen and Mark Ray, choruses, music by the orchestra, to which she had +been guilty of beating her foot, Deacon Bannister and the whole offended +brotherhood, with constable and subpoenas, were pretty equally blended +together—the music which she liked, and the subpoena which she feared +taking the precedence of the others.</p> + +<p>But with the daylight her fears subsided, and at the breakfast table +she was hardly less enthusiastic over the opera than Mattie herself, +averring, however; that "once would do her and she had no wish to go +again."</p> + +<p>The sight of Katy looking so frail and delicate, but so beautiful +withal, had awakened all the olden intense love she had felt for her +darling, and she could not wait much longer without seeing her "in her +own home and hearing her blessed voice."</p> + +<p>"Hannah, and Lucy amongst 'em, advised me not to come," she said to Mrs. +Tubbs, "hinting that I might not be wanted up there; but now I'm here I +shall go if I don't stay more than an hour."</p> + +<p>"Of course I should," Mattie answered, herself anxious to stand beneath +Wilford Cameron's roof and see Mrs. Wilford at home. "She don't look as +proud as Helen, and you are her aunt, her blood kin, so why shouldn't +you go there if you like?"</p> + +<p>"I shall—I am going," Aunt Betsy replied, feeling that to take Mattie +with her was not quite the thing, and not exactly knowing how to manage, +for the girl must of course pilot the way. "I'll risk it and trust to +Providence," was her final decision, and so after an early lunch she +started out with Mattie as her escort, suggesting that they visit +Wilford's office first and get that affair out of her mind.</p> + +<p>At this point Aunt Betsy began to look upon herself as a most hardened +wretch, wondering at the depths of iniquity to which she had fallen. The +opera was the least of her offenses, for she was not harboring pride and +contriving how to be rid of 'Tilda Tubbs, as clever a girl as ever +lived, hoping that if she found Wilford he would see her home, and so +save 'Tilda the trouble? Playhouses, pride, vanity, subterfuge and +deceit—it was a long catalogue she would have to confess to Deacon +Bannister, if confess she did, and with a groan the conscience-smitten +woman followed her conductor along the street, and at last into the +stage which took them to Wilford's office.</p> + +<p>Broadway was literally jammed that day, and the aid of two policemen was +required to extricate the bewildered countrywoman from the mass of +vehicles and horses' heads, which took all her sense away. Trembling +like a leaf when Mattie explained that the "two nice men" who had +dragged her to the walk were police officers, and thinking again of the +subpoena, the frightened woman who had escaped such peril, followed up +the two flights of stairs and into Wilford's office, where she sank +breathless into a chair, while Mark, not in the least surprised, greeted +her cordially, and very soon succeeded in getting her quiet, bowing so +graciously to Mattie when introduced that the poor girl dreamed of him +for many a night, and by day built castles of what might have been had +she been rich, instead of only 'Tilda Tubbs, whose home was on the +Bowery. Why need Aunt Betsy in her introduction have mentioned that +fact? Mattie thought, her cheeks burning scarlet; or why need she +afterward speak of her as 'Tilda, who was kind enough to come with her +to the office where she hoped to find Wilford? Poor Mattie, she knew +some things very well, but she had never yet conceived of the +immeasurable distance between herself and Mark Ray, who cared but little +whether her home were on the Bowery or on Murray Hill, after the first +sight which told him what she was. He was very polite to her, however, +for it was not in his nature to be otherwise, while the fact that she +came with Helen's aunt gave her some claim upon him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cameron had just left the office and would not return that day," +he said to Aunt Betsy, asking if he could assist her in any way, and +assuring her of his willingness to do so.</p> + +<p>Aunt Betsy could talk with him better than with Wilford, and was about +to give him the story of the sheep pasture in detail, when, motioning to +a side door, he said, "Walk in here, please. You will not be liable to +so many interruptions."</p> + +<p>"Come, 'Tilda, it's no privacy," Aunt Betsy said; but Tilda felt +intuitively that she was not wanted, and rather haughtily declined, +amusing herself by the window, while Aunt Betsy in the private office +told her troubles to Mark Ray; and received in return the advice to let +the claimant go to law if he chose, he probably would make nothing by +it, and even if he did, she would not sustain a heavy loss, according to +her own statement of the value of the land.</p> + +<p>"If I could keep the sweet apple-tree, I wouldn't care," Aunt Betsy +said, "for, the rest ain't worth a lawsuit; though it's my property, and +I have thought of willing it to Helen, if she ever marries."</p> + +<p>Here was a temptation which Mark Ray could not resist. Ever since Mrs. +General Reynolds' party Helen's manner had puzzled him; but her shyness +only made him more in love than ever, while the rumor of her engagement +with Dr. Morris tormented him continually. Sometimes he believed it, and +sometimes he did not, wishing always that he knew for certain. Here then +was a chance for confirming his fears or for putting them at rest, and +blessing 'Tilda Tubbs for declining to enter his back office, he said in +reply to Aunt Betsy's "If she ever marries," "And of course she will. +She is engaged, I believe?"</p> + +<p>"Engaged? Who to? When? Strange she never writ, nor Katy neither," Aunt +Betsy exclaimed, while Mark, raised to an ecstatic state, replied, "I +refer to Dr. Grant. Haven't they been engaged for a long time past?"</p> + +<p>"Why—no—indeed," was the response, and Mark could have hugged the good +old lady, who continued in a confidential tone: "I used to think they'd +make a good match; but I've gin that up, and now I sometimes mistrust +'twas Katy, Morris wanted. Anyhow, he's mighty changed since she was +married, and he never speaks her name. I never heard anybody say so, and +maybe it's all a fancy, so you won't mention it."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," Mark replied, drawing nearer to her, and continuing in +a low tone, "Isn't it possible that after all Helen is engaged to her +cousin, and you do not know it?"</p> + +<p>"No," and Aunt Betsy grew very positive. "I am sure she ain't, for only +t'other day I said to Morris that I wouldn't wonder if Helen and another +chap had a hankerin' for one another; and he said he wished it might be +so, for you—no, that other chap, I mean—would make a splendid +husband," and Aunt Betsy turned very red at the blunder, which made Mark +Ray feel as if he walked on air, with no obstacle whatever in his path.</p> + +<p>Still he could not be satisfied without probing her a little deeper, and +so he said: "And that other chap? Does he live in Silverton?"</p> + +<p>Aunt Betsy's look was a sufficient answer; for the old lady knew he was +quizzing her, just as she felt that in some way she had removed a +stumbling block from his path. She had—a very large stumbling block, +and in the first flush of his joy and gratitude he could do most +anything. So when she spoke of going up to Katy's, he set himself +industriously at work to prevent it for that day at least. "They were to +have a large dinner party," he said, "and both Mrs. Cameron and Miss +Lennox would be wholly occupied. Would it not be better to wait until +to-morrow? Did she contemplate a long stay in New York?"</p> + +<p>"No, she might go back to-morrow—certainly the day after," Aunt Betsy +replied, her voice trembling at this fresh impediment thrown in the way +of her seeing Katy.</p> + +<p>The quaver in her voice touched Mark's sympathy. "She was old and +simple-hearted. She was Helen's aunt," and this, more than aught else, +helped him to a decision. "She must be homesick in the Bowery; he should +die if compelled to stay there long; he would take her to his mother's +and keep her until the morrow, and perhaps until she left for home; +telling Helen that night, of course, and then suffering her to act +accordingly."</p> + +<p>This he proposed to his client; assuring her of his mother's entire +willingness to receive her, and urging so many reasons why she should go +there, instead of "up to Katy's," where they were in such confusion that +Aunt Betsy was at last persuaded, and was soon riding uptown in a +Twenty-third Street stage, with Mark Ray her _vis-à-vis_ and Mattie at +her right. Why Mattie was there Mark could not conjecture; and perhaps +she did not know herself, unless it were that, disappointed in her call +on Mrs. Cameron, she vaguely hoped for some redress by calling on Mrs. +Banker. How then was she chagrined, when, as the stage left them at a +handsome brownstone front, near Fifth Avenue Hotel, Mark said to her, as +if she were not of course expected to go in, "Please tell your mother +that Miss Barlow is stopping with Mrs. Banker to-day. Has she baggage at +your house?—If so, we will send around for it at once. Your number, +please?"</p> + +<p>His manner was so offhand and yet so polite that Mattie could neither +resist him, nor yet be angry, though there was a sad feeling of +disappointment at her heart as she gave the required number, and then +shook Aunt Betsy's hand, whispering in a choked voice:</p> + +<p>"You'll come to us again before you go home?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I shall," Aunt Betsy answered, feeling that something was +wrong, and wondering if she herself were in fault.</p> + +<p>With a good-by to Mark, whose bow atoned for a great deal, Mattie walked +slowly away, leaving Mark greatly relieved. Aunt Betsy was as much as he +cared to have on his hands at once, and as he led her up the steps, he +began to wonder more and more what his mother would say to his bringing +that stranger into her house, unbidden and unsought.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell her just the truth," was his rapid decision, and assuming +a manner which warned the servant who answered his ring neither to be +curious nor impertinent, he conducted his charge into the parlor, and +bringing her a chair before the grate, went in quest of his mother, who +he found was out.</p> + +<p>"Kindle a fire then in the front guest chamber," he said, "and see that +it is made comfortable as soon as possible."</p> + +<p>The servant bowed in acquiescence, wondering who had come, and feeling +not a little surprised at the description given by John of the woman he +had let into the house, and who now in the parlor was looking around her +in astonishment and delight, thinking she had found New York at last, +and condemning herself for the feeling of homesickness with which she +remembered the Bowery, contrasting her "cluttered quarters" there with +the elegance around her. "Was Katy's house as fine as this?" she asked +herself, feeling intuitively that such as she might be out of place in +it, just as she began to fear she was out of her place here, bemoaning +the fact that she had forgotten her capbox, with its contents, and so +could not remove her bonnet, as she had nothing with which to cover her +gray head.</p> + +<p>"What shall I do?" she was asking herself, when Mark appeared, explaining +that his mother was absent, but would be at home in a short time.</p> + +<p>"Your room will soon be ready," he continued, "and meantime you might +lay aside your wrappings here if you find them too warm."</p> + +<p>There was something about Mark Ray which inspired confidence, and in her +extremity Aunt Betsy gasped, "I can't take off my bunnet till I get my +caps down to Mrs. Tubbs'. Oh, what a trouble I be."</p> + +<p>Not exactly comprehending the nature of the difficulty, Mark suggested +that she go without a cap until he could send for them; but Aunt Betsy's +assertion that "she was grayer than a rat," enlightened him with regard +to her dilemma, and full permission was given for her "to sit in her +bonnet" until such time as a messenger could go to the Bowery and back. +In this condition she had better be in her own room, and as it was in +readiness, Mark himself conducted her to it, the stern gravity of his +face putting down the laugh which sprang to the waiting maid's eyes at +the old lady's ejaculations of surprise and amazement that anything +could be so fine as the house where she so unexpectedly found herself a +guest.</p> + +<p>"She is unaccustomed to the city, but a particular friend of mine; so +see that you treat her with respect," was all the explanation he +vouchsafed to the curious girl.</p> + +<p>But that was enough. A friend of Mr. Ray's must be somebody, even if she +sat with two bonnets on instead of one, and appeared ten times more +rustic than Aunt Betsy, who breathed freer when she found herself alone +upstairs, and knew her baggage would soon be there.</p> + +<p>In some little trepidation Mark paced up and down the parlor waiting +for his mother, who came ere long, expressing her surprise to find him +there, and asking if anything had happened that he seemed so agitated.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm in a deuced scrape," he answered, coming up to her with the +saucy, winning smile she could never resist, and continuing, "To be in +at the foundation, you know how much I am in love with Helen Lennox?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," was the reply, as Mrs. Banker removed her fur with the +most provoking coolness. "How should I know when you have never told me?"</p> + +<p>"Haven't you eyes? Can't you see? Don't you like her yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, very much."</p> + +<p>"And are you willing she should be your daughter?"</p> + +<p>Mark had his arm around his mother's neck, and bending his face to hers, +kissed her playfully as he asked her the last question.</p> + +<p>"Say, mother, are you willing I should marry Helen Lennox?"</p> + +<p>There was a struggle in Mrs. Banker's heart, and for a moment she felt +jealous of the girl whom she had guessed was dearer to her son than ever +his mother could be again, but she was a sensible woman. She knew that +it was natural for another and a stronger love to come between her and +her boy. She liked Helen Lennox. She was willing to take her as a +daughter, and she said so at last, and listened half amazed and half +amused to the story which had in it so much of Aunt Betsy Barlow, who +had cleared away his doubts, and who at that very moment was an occupant +of their best guest chamber, sitting with her bonnet on, and waiting for +her cap from the Bowery.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it was wrong to bring her home," he added, "but I did it to +spare Helen. I knew just what a savage Wilford would be if he found her +there, where she would be in the way. Say, mother, was I wrong?"</p> + +<p>He was not often wrong in his mother's estimation, and certainly he was +not now, when he kissed her so often, begging her to say he had done +right.</p> + +<p>Certainly he had. Mrs. Banker was very glad to find him so thoughtful; +few young men would do as much, she said, and from feeling a little +doubtful, Mark came to look upon himself as a very nice young man, who +had done a most unselfish act, for of course he had not been influenced +by any desire to keep Aunt Betsy from the people who would be present at +the dinner, neither had Helen been at all mixed up in the affair.</p> + +<p>It was all himself, and he began to whistle "Annie Laurie" very +complacently, thinking the while what a clever fellow he was, and +meditating other dangerous acts toward the old lady overhead, standing +by the window, and wondering what the huge building could be gleaming +so white in the fading light.</p> + +<p>"Looks as if it was made of stone cheena," she thought, just as Mrs. +Banker appeared, her kind, friendly manner making Aunt Betsy feel wholly +at ease, as she answered the lady's questions or volunteered remarks of +her own.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Banker had lived in the country, and had seen just such women as +Aunt Betsy Barlow, understanding her intrinsic worth, and knowing how +Helen Lennox, though her niece, could still be refined and cultivated. +She could also understand how one educated as Wilford Cameron had been +would shrink from coming in contact with her, and possibly be rude if +she thrust herself upon him. Mark did well to bring her here, she +thought, as she left the room to order the tea which the tired woman so +much needed. The satchel, umbrella and capbox, with a note from Mattie, +had by this time arrived, and in her Sunday cap, with the purple bows, +Aunt Betsy felt much better, and enjoyed the tempting little supper, +served on silver and Sèvres china, the attendant waiting in the hall +instead of in her room, where her presence might embarrass one +unaccustomed to such usages. They were thoughtful, very kind, and had +Mark been her own son she could not have been more deferential than he +appeared when just before starting for the dinner he went up to see her, +asking what message he should take to Helen. Mrs. Banker, too, came in, +her dress eliciting many compliments from her guest, who ventured to ask +the price of the diamond pin which fastened the point lace collar. Five +hundred dollars seemed an enormous sum, but Aunt Betsy was learning fast +not to say all she thought, and merely remarked that Katy had some +diamonds, too, which she presumed cost full as much as that.</p> + +<p>"She should do very well alone," she said, "she could read her Bible, +and if she got too tired, go to bed, though she guessed she should stay +up till they came home, so as to hear about the doin's," and with a +good-by she sent them away, after saying to Mrs. Banker, "Maybe you +ain't the kissin' kind, but if you be, I wish you would kiss Katy once +for me."</p> + +<p>There was a merry twinkle in Mark's eyes as he asked:</p> + +<p>"And Helen, too?"</p> + +<p>"I meant your marm, not you," Aunt Betsy answered; while Mrs. Banker +raised her hand to her mischievous son, who ran lightly down the stairs, +carrying a happier heart than he had known since Helen Lennox had first +come to New York, and he had met her at the depot.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX" ></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h3>THE DINNER PARTY.</h3> + + +<p>It was a very select party which Wilford Cameron entertained that +evening; and as the carriages rolled to his door and deposited the +guests, the cloud which had been lifting ever since he came home and +found "no Barlow woman" there, disappeared entirely, leaving him the +blandest, most urbane of hosts, pleased with everybody—himself, his +guests, his sister-in-law, and his wife, who had never looked better +than she did to-night, in pearls and light blue silk, which harmonized +so perfectly with her waxlike complexion. Like some little fairy she +flitted through the rooms, receiving, with a sweet childlike grace the +kiss which Mrs. Banker gave her, but never dreaming from whom it came. +Aunt Betsy's proximity was wholly unsuspected, both by her and Helen, +who was very handsome to-night, in crimson and black, with lilies in her +hair. Nothing could please Mark better than his seat at table, where he +could look into her eyes, which dropped so shyly whenever they met his +ardent gaze. Helen was beginning to doubt the story of his engagement +with Juno, or at least to think that it might possibly have been broken +off. Certainly she could not mistake the nature of the attentions he +paid to her, especially to-night, when he hovered continually near her, +totally ignoring Juno's presence, and conscious apparently of only one +form, one face, and that the face and form of Helen Lennox.</p> + +<p>There was another, too, who felt the influence of Helen's beauty, and +that was Lieutenant Bob, who, after dinner, attached himself to her +side, while around them gathered quite a group, all listening with peals +of laughter as Bob, who was something of a mimic, related his adventure +of two days before, with "the most rustic and charming old lady it was +ever his fortune to meet." Told by Bob the story lost nothing of its +freshness; for every particular, except indeed the kindness he had shown +her, was related, even to the sheep pasture, about which she was going +to New York to consult a lawyer.</p> + +<p>"I thought once of referring her to you, Mr. Cameron," Bob said; "but +couldn't find it in my heart to quiz her, she was so wholly unsuspicious. +You have not seen her, have you?"</p> + +<p>"No," came faintly from the lips which tried to smile; for Wilford knew +who was the heroine of that story; wondering more and more where she +was, and feeling a sensation of uneasiness as he thought, "Can any +accident have befallen her?"</p> + +<p>It was hardly probable; but Wilford felt very uncomfortable after +hearing the story, which had brought a pang of doubt and fear to another +mind than his. From the very first Helen feared that Aunt Betsy was the +"odd woman" who had gotten upon the train at some station which Bob +could not remember; while, as the story progressed, she was sure of it, +for she had heard of the sheep-pasture trouble, and of Aunt Betsy's +projected visit to New York, privately writing to her mother not to +suffer it, as Wilford would be so greatly vexed. "Yes, it must be Aunt +Betsy," she thought, and she turned so white that Mark, who was watching +both her and Wilford, came as soon as possible to her side, and adroitly +separating from the group around, said softly: "You look tired, Miss +Lennox. Come with me a moment. I have something to tell you."</p> + +<p>Alone with her in the hall, he continued, "I have the sequel of Bob +Reynolds' story. That woman—"</p> + +<p>"Was Aunt Betsy," Helen gasped. "But where is she now? That was two days +ago. Tell me if you know. Mr. Ray, you do know," and in her agony of +fear lest something dreadful had happened, she laid her hand on Mark's, +beseeching him to tell her if he knew where Aunt Betsy was.</p> + +<p>It was worth torturing her for a moment to see the pleading look in her +eyes, and feel the soft touch of the hand which he took between both his +own, holding it there while he answered her: "Aunt Betsy is at my house; +kidnapped by me for safe keeping, until I could consult with you. Was +that right?" he asked as a flush came to Helen's cheek, and an +expression to her eye which told that his meaning was understood.</p> + +<p>"Is she there willingly? How did it happen?" was Helen's reply, her +hand still in those of Mark, who thus circumstanced grew very warm and +eloquent with the sequel to Bob's story, making it as long as possible, +telling what he knew, and also what he had done.</p> + +<p>He had not implicated Wilford in any way; but Helen read it all, saying +more to herself than him: "And she was at the opera. Wilford must have +seen her, and that is why he left so suddenly, and why he has appeared +so absent and nervous to-day, as if expecting something. Excuse me," she +suddenly added, drawing her hand away and stepping back a little, "I +forgot that I was talking as if you knew."</p> + +<p>"I do know more than you suppose—that is, I know human nature—and I +know Will better than I did that morning when I first met you," Mark +said, glancing at the freed hand he wished so much to take again.</p> + +<p>But Helen kept her hands to herself, and answered him.</p> + +<p>"You did right under the circumstances. It would have been unpleasant +for us all had she happened here to-night. I thank you, Mr. Ray—you and +your mother, too—more than I can express. I will see her early to-morrow +morning. Tell her so, please, and again I thank you."</p> + +<p>There were tears in Helen's soft brown eyes, and they glittered like +diamonds as she looked even more than spoke her thanks to the young man, +who, for another look like that, would have driven Aunt Betsy amid the +gayest crowd that ever frequented the Park, and sworn she was his blood +relation! A few words from Mrs. Banker confirmed what Mark had said, and +it was not strange if that night Miss Lennox, usually so entertaining, +was a little absent, for her thoughts were up in that chamber on +Twenty-third Street, where Aunt Betsy sat alone, but not lonely, for +her mind was very busy with all she had been through since leaving +Silverton, while something kept suggesting to her that it would have +been wiser and better to have stayed at home than to have ventured where +she was so sadly out of place. This last came gradually to Aunt Betsy +as she thought the matter over, and remembered Wilford as he had +appeared each time he came to Silverton.</p> + +<p>"I ain't like him; I ain't like this Miss Banker; I ain't like anybody," +she whispered. "I'm nothin' but a homely, old-fashioned woman, without +larnin', without nothin'. I might know I wasn't wanted," and a rain of +tears fell over the wrinkled face as she uttered this tirade against +herself, standing before the long mirror and inspecting the image it +gave back of a plain, unpolished countrywoman, not much resembling Mrs. +Banker, it must be confessed, nor much resembling the gay young ladies +she had seen at the opera the previous night. "I won't go near Katy," +she continued; "it will only mortify her, and I don't want to make her +trouble. The poor thing's face looked as if she had it now, and I won't +add to it. I'll start for home to-morrow. There's Miss Smith, in +Springfield, will keep me overnight, and Katy shan't be bothered."</p> + +<p>When this decision was reached Aunt Betsy felt a great deal better, and +taking the Bible from the table, she sat down again before the fire, +opening, as by a special Providence, to the chapter where hewers of wood +and drawers of water are mentioned as being necessary to mankind, each +filling his appointed place.</p> + +<p>"That's me—that's Betsy Barlow," she whispered, taking off her glasses +to wipe away the moisture gathering so fast upon them. Then resuming +them, she continued: "I'm a hewer of wood—a drawer of water. God made +me so, and shall the clay find fault with the potter for making it into +a homely jug? No, indeed; and I was a very foolish old jug to think of +sticking myself in with the chinaware. But I've larnt a lesson," and the +philosophic woman read on, feeling comforted to know that though a +vessel of the rudest make, a paltry jug, as she called herself, the +promises were still for her as much as for the finer wares—ay, that +there was more hope of her entering at last where "the walls are all of +precious stones and the streets are paved with gold," than of those +whose good things are given so abundantly during their lifetime.</p> + +<p>Assured, comforted, and encouraged, she fell asleep at last, and when +Mrs. Banker returned she found her slumbering quietly in her chair, the +Bible open on her lap, and her finger upon the passage referring to the +hewers of wood and drawers of water, as if that was the last thing read.</p> + +<p>Next morning, at a comparatively early hour, Helen stood ringing the +bell of Mrs. Banker's house. She had passed a restless, but not +altogether wretched night, for the remembrance of Mark's kindness in +keeping Aunt Betsy away, and his manner while telling her of it would +not permit of her being more than anxious as she lay awake, wondering +why Mark was so kind, and if it could be possible that he was free from +Juno and cared for her. It made her happy to think so, and her face, as +she stood upon the steps, looked bright and fresh, instead of pale and +tired, as it usually did after a night of wakefulness. She had said to +Katy that she was going out and could not tell just when she might +return, and as Katy never questioned her acts, while Wilford was too +intent upon his own miserable thoughts as to "where Aunt Betsy could be +or what had befallen her," to heed any one else, no inquiries were made +and no obstacles put in the way of her going to Mrs. Banker's, where +Mark met her himself, holding her cold hand until he led her to the fire +and placed her in a chair. He knew she would rather meet her aunt alone, +and so when he heard her step in the hall he left the room, holding the +door for Aunt Betsy, who wept like a little child at the sight of Helen, +accusing herself of being a fool, an old fool, who ought to be shut up +in the insane asylum, but persisting in saying she was going home that +very day without seeing Katy at all. "If she was here I'd like it, but I +shan't go there, for I know Wilford don't want me. Say, Helen, don't you +think he'll be ashamed of me and wish I was in Guinea?" she asked as her +desire to see Katy grew stronger, but was met and combated with her +dread of Wilford!</p> + +<p>Helen could not tell her he would be ashamed, but Aunt Betsy knew she +meant it, and with a fresh gush of tears she gave the project up +entirely, telling Helen all she did not already know of her trip to New +York, her visit to the opera, her staying with the Tubbses and her +meeting with Mark, the best young chap she ever saw, not even excepting +Morris. "If he was my own son, he couldn't be kinder," she added, "and I +mistrust he hopes to be my nephew. You can't do better, and if he +offers, take him."</p> + +<p>Helen's cheeks were crimson as she waived this part of the conversation +and wished aloud that she had come around in the carriage, as she could +thus have taken Aunt Betsy over the city before the train would leave.</p> + +<p>"Mark spoke of that when he heard I was going to-day," Aunt Betsy said; +"I'll warrant you he'll tend to it."</p> + +<p>Aunt Betsy was right, for when Mark and his mother joined their guests +and learned that Aunt Betsy's intention was unchanged, he suggested the +ride and offered the use of their carriage. Helen did not decline the +offer, and ere half an hour had passed, Aunt Betsy, with her satchel, +umbrella and capbox, was comfortably adjusted in Mrs. Banker's carriage +with Helen beside her, while Mark bade his coachman drive wherever Miss +Lennox wished to go, taking care to reach the train in time.</p> + +<p>They were tearful thanks which Aunt Betsy gave to her kind friends as +she was driven away, going first to the Bowery to say good-by and leave +the packages of fruits and herbs, lest the Tubbses should "think her +suddenly stuck up."</p> + +<p>"Would you mind taking 'Tilda in? It would please her mightily," Aunt +Betsy whispered, as they were alighting in front of Mr. Peter Tubbs'; +and as the result of this suggestion the carriage, when again it emerged +into Broadway, held Mattie Tubbs, happier, prouder than she had been in +all her life before, while the gratified mother at home felt amply +repaid for all the trouble her visitor had made her.</p> + +<p>And Helen enjoyed it, too, finding Mattie a little insipid and tiresome, +it is true, but feeling happy in the consciousness that she was making +others happy. It was a long drive they took, and Aunt Betsy saw so much +that her brain grew giddy and she was glad when they started for the +depot, taking Madison Square on the way and passing Katy's house.</p> + +<p>"I dare say it is all grand and smart," Aunt Betsy said, leaning out to +look at it, "but I feel best at hum where they are used to me."</p> + +<p>And her face did bear a brighter look, when finally seated in the cars, +than it had before since she left Silverton.</p> + +<p>"You'll be home in April, and maybe Katy'll come, too," she whispered as +she kissed Helen good-by and shook hands with Mattie Tubbs, thanking her +for her kindness in seein' to an old woman, and charging her again never +to let the folks in Silverton know that "Betsy Barlow had once been seen +at a playhouse."</p> + +<p>Slowly the cars moved away and Helen was driven home, leaving Mattie +alone in her glory as she rolled down the Bowery, enjoying greatly the +_éclat_ of her position, but feeling a little chagrined at not meeting a +single acquaintance by whom to be envied and admired. Only Tom saw her +alight, giving vent to a whistle, and asking if she didn't feel big, as +he tried to hold out his pantaloons in imitation of her dress and walk +as she disappeared through the door where the dry goods were swinging.</p> + +<p>Katy did not ask where Helen had been, for she was wholly absorbed in +Marian Hazelton's letter, telling how fast the baby improved, how pretty +it was growing, and how fond both she and Mrs. Hubbell were of it, +loving it almost as well as if it were their own.</p> + +<p>"I know now it was best for it to go, but it was hard at first," Katy +said, putting the letter away, and sighing wearily as she missed the +clasp of the little arms and touch of the baby lips.</p> + +<p>Several times Helen was tempted to tell her of Aunt Betsy's visit, but +decided finally not to do so as it might distress her to know that +strangers rendered the hospitalities it was her duty to give, and so +Katy never guessed the truth, nor knew what it was which for many days +made Wilford so nervous and uneasy, starting quickly at every sudden +ring, going often to the window, and looking out into the street as if +expecting some one who never came, while he grew strangely anxious for +news from Silverton, asking when Katy had heard from home, and why she +did not write. One there was, however, who knew and who enjoyed it +vastly, watching Wilford closely, and guessing just how his anxiety +grew as day after day went by; and she neither came nor was heard from +in any way, for Helen did not show the letter apprising her of Aunt +Betsy's safe arrival home, and so all in Wilford's mind was left a vague +conjecture.</p> + +<p>He had seen her, she had been in New York, as was proven by Bob +Reynolds, but where was she now, and who were those people with her? Had +they entrapped her into some snare, and possibly murdered her? It might +be. Such things were not of rare occurrence, and Wilford actually grew +poor with the uncertainty which hung over the fate of one whom in his +present state of mind he would have warmly welcomed to his fireside, had +there been a dozen dinner parties in progress. At last, as he sat one +day in his office, with the same worried look on his face, Mark, who had +also been watching him, said:</p> + +<p>"By the way, Will, how did that sheep pasture come out, or didn't the +client appear?"</p> + +<p>"Mark," and Wilford's voice was husky with emotion; "you've stumbled +upon the very thing which is tormenting my life out of me. Aunt Betsy +has never turned up or been heard from since that night. For aught I +know she was murdered, or spirited away, and I am half distracted. I'd +give a thousand dollars to know what has become of her."</p> + +<p>"Put down half that pile and I'll tell you," was Mark's nonchalant +reply, while Wilford, seizing his shoulder and compelling him to look +up, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"You know, then? Tell me—you do know? Where is she?"</p> + +<p>"Safe in Silverton, I presume," was the reply, and then Mark told his +story, to which Wilford listened, half incredulous, half indignant, and +a good deal relieved.</p> + +<p>"You are a splendid fellow, Mark, though I must say you meddled, but I +know you did not do it unselfishly. Yes, on the whole, I thank you and +Helen, too, for saving me that mortification. I feel like a new man, +knowing the old lady is safe at home, where I trust she will remain. And +that Tom, who called here yesterday, asking to be our clerk, is the +youth I saw at the opera. I thought his face was familiar. Let him come +of course. In my gratitude I feel like patronizing the entire Tubbs +family."</p> + +<p>And so it was this flash of gratitude for a peril escaped which procured +for young Tom Tubbs the situation of clerk in the office of Cameron and +Ray, the application for such situation having been urged by the +ambitious Mattie, who felt her dignity considerably increased when she +could speak of Brother Tom in company with Messrs. Cameron & Ray. And it +was also a part of the same gratitude which suggested the huge package +of merino and gingham, calico and linen, together with the handsome silk +shawl and black lace veil, which a few days later was left by the +express boy at the door of the farmhouse for Miss Betsy Barlow, who in +a long letter overwhelmed Katy with her thanks, and nearly let out her +visit to New York, as yet a secret to Mrs. Wilford.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX" ></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h3>THE SEVENTH REGIMENT.</h3> + + +<p>Does the reader remember the pleasant spring days of four years ago, +when the thunder of Fort Sumter's bombardment came echoing up to the +Northern hills and across the Western prairies, stopping for a moment +the pulses of the nation, but quickening them again with a mighty power +as from Maine to California man after man arose to smite the maddened +foe trailing our honored flag in the dust? Nowhere, perhaps, was the +excitement so great or the feeling so strong as in New York, when the +Seventh Regiment was ordered on to Washington, its members, who so often +had trodden the streets with a proud step, never faltering or holding +back, but with a nerving of the will and a putting aside of self, +prepared to do their duty. Conspicuous among them was Mark Ray, who, +laughing at his mother's fears, kissed her livid cheek, and then with +a pang remembered Helen—dearer even than his mother—wondering how she +would feel, and thinking the path to danger would be so much easier if +he knew her love was his, that her prayers, her wishes would go with +him, shielding him from harm and bringing him back again to the +sunshine of her presence.</p> + +<p>And before he went Mark must know this for certain, chiding himself for +having put it off so long. True she had been sick and confined to her +room for a long while after Aunt Betsy's memorable visit; and when she +was able to go out, Lent had put a stop to her mingling in festive +scenes, so that he had seen but little of her, and had never met her +alone. But he would write that very day. She knew, of course, that he +was going, bidding him Godspeed he was sure, for her whole heart was +with the gallant men who had stood so nobly against the enemy, +surrendering only because they must. She would say that he did well to +go; and she would answer "yes" to the question he would ask her. Mark +felt sure of that; but still the letter he wrote was eloquent with his +pleadings for her love, while he confessed his own, and asked that she +would be his wife—would give him the right to carry her in his +heart—to think of her as his affianced bride—to know she waited for +his return, and would crown it at last with the full fruition of her +priceless love.</p> + +<p>"I meet a few of my particular friends at Mrs. Grandon's to-night," he +added, in conclusion. "Can I hope to see you there, taking your presence +as a token that I may speak and tell you in words what I have so poorly +written?"</p> + +<p>"She surely will be there, as it is the last, perhaps, she'll ever see +of some of us poor wretches," Mark said, his hand trembling a little as +he sealed the note, which he would not trust to the post.</p> + +<p>He would deliver it himself, avoiding the possibility of a mistake, he +said, and half an hour later he rang the bell at No. ——, asking "If +Miss Lennox was at home."</p> + +<p>She was; and handing the girl the note, Mark ran down the steps, while +the servant carried the missive to the library, where upon the table lay +other letters received that morning by the penny post, and as yet +unopened; for Katy was very busy, and Helen was dressing to go out with +Juno Cameron, who had graciously asked her to drive with her that +morning and look at a picture she had set her heart on having.</p> + +<p>Juno had not yet appeared; but Mark was scarcely out of sight when she +came in with the familiarity of a sister and entered the library to +wait. Carelessly turning over the books upon the table, she stumbled +over Mark's letter, which, through some defect in the envelope, had +become unsealed, and lay with its edge lifted so that to peer at its +contents was a very easy matter had she been so disposed. But Juno, +though indignant and jealous—for she knew the handwriting—could not at +first bring herself even to touch what was intended for her rival. But +as she gazed the longing grew, until at last she took it in her hand, +turning it to the light, and tracing distinctly the words "My dear +Helen," while a storm of pain and passion swept over her, mingled with +a feeling of shame that she had let herself down so far.</p> + +<p>"It does not matter now," the tempter whispered. "You may as well read +it and know the worst. Nobody will suspect it," and so, led on step by +step, she was about to take the folded letter from the envelope, +intending fully to replace it after it was read, when a rapid step +warned her some one was coming, and hastily thrusting the letter in her +pocket, she dropped her veil to cover her confusion, and then confronted +Helen Lennox, ready for the drive, and all unconscious of the wrong +which could not then be righted.</p> + +<p>Juno was unusually kind and familiar that morning, delicately +complimenting Helen's taste with regard to pictures, and trying in +various ways to forget the letter which lay upon her conscience like +a leaden weight, driving all other thoughts from her mind, and leaving +only the torturing one, "How can I return it without detection?" Juno +did not mean to keep the letter, and all that morning she was devising +measures for making restitution, even thinking once to confess the +whole, but shrinking from that as more than she could do. As they were +driving home they met Mark Ray; but Helen, who chanced to be looking in +an opposite direction, did not see the earnest look of scrutiny he gave +her, scarcely heeding Juno, whose face was all ablaze with guilt as she +returned his bow, and whose voice trembled as she spoke of him to Helen +and his intended departure. Helen observed the tremor in her voice, and +pitied the girl whose agitation she fancied arose from the fact that her +lover was so soon to go where danger and possibly death were waiting. +In Helen's heart, too, there was a cutting pang whenever she remembered +Mark, and what had so recently passed between them, raising hopes which +now were wholly blasted. For he was Juno's, she believed, and the grief +at his projected departure was the cause of that young lady's softened +and even humbled demeanor, as she insisted on Helen's stopping at her +house for lunch before going home.</p> + +<p>To this Helen consented—Juno still revolving in her mind how to return +the letter, which grew more and more a horror to her. It was in her +pocket yet, she knew, for she had felt it there when, after lunch, she +went to her room for a fresh handkerchief. She would accompany Helen +home, would manage to slip into the library alone, and put it partly +under a book, so that it would appear to be hidden, and thus account for +it not having been seen before; or better yet, she would catch it up +playfully and banter Helen on her carelessness in leaving her love +letters so exposed. This last seemed a very clever plan, and with her +spirits quite elated, Juno drove around with Helen, finding no one in +the parlor below, and felicitating herself upon the fact that Helen left +her alone while she ran up to Katy.</p> + +<p>"Now is my time," she thought, stealing noiselessly into the library and +feeling for the letter.</p> + +<p>But it was not there. It was missing, gone, and no amount of search, no +shaking of handkerchief, or turning of pocket inside out could avail to +find it. The letter was lost, and in the utmost consternation Juno +returned to the parlor, still hunting for the letter, and appearing so +abstracted as scarcely to be civil when Katy came down to see her; +asking if she was going that night to Sybil Grandon's, and talking of +the dreadful war, which she hoped would not be a war after all. Juno was +too wretched to talk, and after a few moments she started for home, +hunting in her own room and through the halls, but failing in her +search, and finally giving it up, with the consoling reflection that +were it found in the street, as seemed quite probable, no suspicion +could fasten on her; and as fear of detection, rather than contrition +for the sin, had been the cause of her distress, she grew comparatively +calm, save when her conscience made itself heard and admonished +confession as the only reparation which was now in her power. But Juno +could not confess, and all that day she was absent-minded and silent, +while her mother watched her closely, wondering what connection, if any, +there was between her burning cheeks and the letter she had found upon +the floor in her daughter's room just after she had left it; the letter, +at whose contents she had glanced, shutting her lips firmly together as +she saw that her plans had failed, and finally putting the document away +where there was less hope of its ever finding its rightful owner than if +it had remained with Juno. Had Mrs. Cameron supposed that Helen had +already seen it, she would have returned it at once; but of this she had +her doubts, after learning that "Miss Lennox did not go upstairs at +all." Juno, then, must have been the delinquent; and though the mother +shrank from the act as unladylike, if nothing more, she resolved to keep +the letter till some inquiry was made for it at least. And so Helen, +sitting by her window, and looking dreamily out into the street, with a +feeling of sad foreboding as she thought of the dark cloud which had +burst so suddenly upon the nation's horizon, enveloping Mark Ray in its +dark fold, and bearing him away, possibly never to return again, had no +suspicion of the truth, and did not guess how anxiously the young man +was anticipating the interview at Sybil Grandon's, scarcely doubting +that she would be there, and fancying just the expression of her eyes +when they first met his. Alas for Mark, also for Helen, that both should +be so cruelly deceived. Had the latter known of the loving words sent +from the true heart which longed for some word of hers to lighten the +long march and beguile the tedious days of absence, she would not have +said to Katy, when asked if going to Mrs. Grandon's, "Oh, no; please +don't urge me. I would so much rather stay at home."</p> + +<p>Katy would not insist and so went alone with Wilford to the +entertainment given to a few young men who seemed as heroes then, when +the full meaning of that word had not been exemplified, as it has been +since in the life so cheerfully laid down and the heart's blood poured +so freely, by the tens of thousands who have won a martyr's and a hero's +name. Curiously, eagerly Mark Ray scanned each new arrival, feeling his +lips grow white and his pulses faint when he at last caught sight of +Wilford's tall figure, and looked for what might be beside it. But only +Katy was there. Helen had not come, and with a feeling of chill despair +Mark listened while Katy explained to Mrs. Grandon that her sister had +fully intended coming in the morning, but had suddenly changed her mind +and begged to be excused.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," Sybil said, "and so I am sure is Mr. Ray," turning lightly +to Mark, whose white face froze the gay laugh on her lips and made her +try to shield him from observation until he had time to recover himself +and appear as usual.</p> + +<p>How Mark blessed Sybil Grandon for that kindness, and how wildly the +blood throbbed through his veins as he thought "She would not come. She +does not care. I have deceived myself in hoping that she did, and now +welcome war, welcome anything which shall help me to forget."</p> + +<p>Mark was very wretched, and his wretchedness showed itself upon his +face, making more than one rally him for what they termed fear, while +they tried to reassure him that to the Seventh there could be no danger +after Baltimore was safely passed. This was more than Mark could bear, +and at an early hour he left the house, bidding Katy good-by in the +hall, and telling her he probably should not see her again, as he would +not have time to call.</p> + +<p>"Not call to say good-by to Helen," Katy exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Helen will not care," was Mark's reply as he hurried away into the +darkness of the night, more welcome in his present state of mind than +the gay scene he had left.</p> + +<p>And this was all Katy had to carry to Helen, who beat the window pane +nervously, fighting back the tears wrung out by her disappointment, for +she had expected to see Mark once more, to bless him as a sister might +bless a brother, speaking to him words of cheer and bidding him go on to +where duty led. But he was not coming and she only saw him from the +carriage window, as with proud step and head erect he passed with his +regiment through the densely crowded streets, where the wailing cries +and the loud hurrahs of the multitude, which no man could number, rent +the air and told how terribly in earnest the great city was, and how +its heart was with that gallant band, their pet, their pride, sent forth +on a mission such as it had never had before. But Mark did not see +Helen, and only his mother's white face as it looked when it said "God +bless my boy" was clear before his eyes as he moved on through Broadway +and down Cortlandt Street, until the ferryboat received him, and the +crowd began to disperse.</p> + +<p>There was more than one pillow wet with tears that night as mothers, +wives and sisters wept for the loved ones gone, but nowhere were sadder, +bitterer tears shed than in the silent chamber where Helen Lennox prayed +that God would guard that regiment and bring it back again as full of +life and vigor as it had gone away. For them all she prayed, in a +general kind of way, but there was one whose image was in her heart, +whose name was ever on her lip, breaking the silence of the room, which +echoed the name of Mark, who, could he have heard that prayer, would +have cast aside the heavy pain, so hard to bear during those first days +when his cruel disappointment was fresh and the soldier duty new.</p> + +<p>Now that Mark was gone, Mrs. Banker turned intuitively to Helen, finding +greater comfort in her quiet sympathy than in the more wordy condolence +offered by Juno, who as she heard nothing from the letter, began to lose +her fears of detection and even suffer her friends to rally her upon the +absence of Mark Ray and the anxiety she must feel on his account. +Moments there were, however, when thoughts of the stolen letter brought +a pang, while Helen's face was a continual reproach, and she was glad +when toward the first of May her rival left New York for Silverton, +where, as the spring and summer work came on, her services were needed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI" ></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<h3>KATY GOES TO SILVERTON.</h3> + + +<p>A summer day in Silverton—a soft, bright August day, when the early +rareripes by the well were turning their red cheeks to the sun, and the +flowers in the garden were lifting their heads proudly and nodding to +each other as if they knew the secret which made that day so bright +above all others. Old Whitey, by the hitching post, was munching at his +oats and glancing occasionally at the covered buggy standing on the +greensward, fresh and clean as water from the pond could make it; the +harness, new, not mended, lying upon a rock, where Katy used to feed the +sheep with salt, and the whip standing upright in its socket, all +waiting for the deacon, donning his best suit of clothes, even to a +stiff shirt collar which almost cut his ears, his face shining with +anticipations which he knew would be realized. Katy was really coming +home, and in proof thereof there were behind the house and barn piles of +rubbish, lath and plaster, moldy paper and broken bricks, the tokens and +remains of the repairing process, which for so long a time had made the +farmhouse a scene of dire confusion, driving its inmates nearly +distracted, except when they remembered for whose sake they endured so +much, inhaling clouds of lime, stepping over heaps of mortar, tearing +their dress skirts on sundry nails projecting from every conceivable +quarter, and wondering the while if the masons ever would finish or the +carpenters be gone.</p> + +<p>As a condition on which Katy might be permitted to come home, Wilford +had stipulated an improvement in the interior arrangement of the house, +offering to bear the expense even to the furnishing of the rooms. To +this the family demurred at first, not liking Wilford's dictatorial +manner, nor his insinuation that their home was not good enough for +his wife, Mrs. Katy Cameron. But Helen turned the tide, appreciating +Wilford's feelings better than the others could do, and urging a +compliance with his request.</p> + +<p>"Anything to get Katy home," she said, and so the chimney was torn away, +a window was put here and an addition made there, until the house was +really improved with its pleasant, modern parlor and the large airy +bedroom, with bathing-room attached, the whole the idea of Wilford, who +graciously deigned to come out once or twice from New London, where he +was spending a few weeks, to superintend the work and suggest how it +should be done.</p> + +<p>The furniture, too, which he sent on from New York, was perfect in its +kind, not elegant like Katy's, but well adapted to the rooms it was to +adorn, and suitable in every respect. Helen enjoyed the settling very +much, and when it was finished it was hard telling which was the more +pleased, she or good Aunt Betsy, who, having confessed in a general kind +of way at a sewing society that she did go to a playhouse, and was not +so very sorry either, except as the example might do harm, had nothing +on her conscience now, nothing to fear from New York, and was +proportionately happy. At least she would have been if Morris had not +seemed so off, as she expressed it, and evincing no pleasure at Katy's +expected visit. He had been polite to Wilford, had kept him at Linwood, +taking him to and from the depot, but even Wilford had thought him +changed, telling Katy how very sober and grave he had become, rarely +smiling, and not seeming to care to talk unless it were about his +profession or on some religious topic. And Morris was greatly changed. +The wound which in most hearts would have healed by this time had grown +deeper with each succeeding year, while from all he heard he felt sure +that Katy's marriage was a sad mistake, wishing sometimes that he had +spoken, and so perhaps have saved her from the life in which she could +not be wholly free. "She would be happier with me," he had said, with a +sad smile to Helen, when once she told him of some things which she had +not mentioned elsewhere, and there were great tears in Morris' eyes, +tears of which he was not ashamed when Helen spoke of Katy's distress, +and the look which crept into her face when baby was taken away. When +Morris first heard of the baby he had hoped he might love Katy less; +that she would seem to him as more a wife and less a girl, but she did +not, and there were times when the silent doctor, living alone at +Linwood, felt that his grief was too great to bear. But the deep, dark +waters were always forded safely, and Morris' faith in God prevailed, so +that only a dull, heavy pain remained, with the consciousness that it +was no sin to remember Katy as she was remembered now. Oh, how he had +longed to see her, and yet how he had dreaded it, lest poor weak human +flesh should prove inadequate to the sight. But she was coming home; +Providence had ordered that and he accepted it, looking eagerly for the +time when he should see her again, but repressing his eagerness, so that +not even Helen suspected how impatient he was for the day of her return. +Four weeks she had been at the Pequot House in New London, occupying a +little cottage and luxuriating in the joy of having her child with her +almost every day. Country air and country nursing had wrought wonders in +the baby, which had grown so beautiful and bright that it was no longer +in Wilford's way save as it took too much of Katy's time, and made her +careless for the gay crowd at the hotel.</p> + +<p>Marian was working at her trade, and never came to the hotel except one +day when Wilford was in New York, but that day sufficed for Katy to know +that after herself it was Marian whom baby loved the best—Marian, who +cared for it even more than Mrs. Hubbell. And Katy was glad to have it +so, especially after Wilford and his mother decided that she must leave +the child in New London while she made the visit to Silverton.</p> + +<p>Wilford did not like her taking so much care of it as she was inclined +to do. It had grown too heavy for her to lift; it was better with Mrs. +Hubbell, he said, and so to the inmates of the farmhouse Katy wrote that +baby was not coming.</p> + +<p>They were bitterly disappointed, for Katy's baby had been anticipated +quite as much as Katy herself, Aunt Betsy bringing from the woodshed +chamber a cradle which nearly forty years before had rocked the deacon's +only child, the little boy, who died just as he had learned to lisp his +mother's name. As a momento of those days the cradle had been kept, Katy +using it sometimes for her kittens and her dolls, until she grew too old +for that, when it was put away beneath the eaves whence Aunt Betsy +dragged it, scouring it with soap and sand, until it was white as snow. +But it would not be needed, and with a sigh the old lady carried it +back, thinking "things had come to a pretty pass when a woman who could +dance and carouse till twelve o'clock at night was too weakly to take +care of her child," and feeling a very little awe of Katy who must have +grown so fine a lady.</p> + +<p>But all this passed away as the time drew near when Katy was to come, +and no one seemed happier than Aunt Betsy on the morning when Whitey was +eating his oats, and the carriage stood on the greensward. The sky above +and the earth beneath were much as they were that other day when they +were expecting Katy, but Helen's face was not as bright, or her steps as +buoyant. She could not forget who was there one year ago, and all the +morning painful memories had been tugging at her heart as she remembered +the past, and wondered at the gloomy silence which Mark Ray had +maintained toward her ever since the day when the Seventh Regiment left +New York, followed by so many prayers and tears. He had returned, she +knew, but neither from his mother nor himself had there ever come a word +or message for her, while Bell Cameron, who wrote to her occasionally, +had spoken of his attentions to Juno as becoming more pointed than ever.</p> + +<p>"I have strong hopes that in time Juno will be quite a woman," Bell +added. "She is not so proud and sarcastic as she used to be, and all the +while Mark was gone she seemed very much depressed, so that I began to +believe she really liked him. You would hardly recognize her in her new +phase, she acts so humble like, as if she were constantly asking +forgiveness; and this, you know, is something novel for her."</p> + +<p>After this letter Helen sat herself resolutely at work to forget all +that had ever passed between herself and Mark, succeeding so well that +Silverton and its duties ceased to be very irksome, until the +anniversary of the morning when he had twined the lily in her hair, and +looked such fancies in her heart. It was well for her that too many +things were claiming her attention to allow of solitary regrets.</p> + +<p>Katy's room was to be arranged, Katy's "box bed," as Aunt Betsy called +it, to be fixed, flowers to be gathered for the parlor and vegetables +for the dinner, so that her hands were full, up to the moment when Uncle +Ephraim drove away from the door, setting old Whitey into a canter, +which, by the time the "race" was reached, had become a rapid trot, the +old man holding up his reins and looking proudly at the oat-fed animal, +speeding along so fast.</p> + +<p>He did not have long to wait this time, for the train came rolling +across the meadow, and while his head was turned toward the car where he +fancied she might be, a pair of arms were thrown impetuously around his +neck, and a little figure, standing on tiptoe, almost pulled him down in +its attempts to kiss him.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Eph! oh, Uncle Eph, I've come! I'm here," a young voice cried; +but the words the deacon would have spoken were smothered by the kisses +which pressed upon his lips, kisses which only came to an end when a +voice said, rather reprovingly: "There, Katy, that will do. You have +almost strangled him."</p> + +<p>Wilford had not been expected, and the expression of the deacon's face +was not a very cordial greeting to the young man who hastened to explain +that he should only stop till the next train, and then go on to Boston. +In his presence the deacon was not quite natural, but he lifted in his +arms his "little Katy-did," looking straight into her face, where there +were as yet no real lines of care, only shadows, which told that in some +respects she was not the same Katy he had parted with two years before. +There was a good deal of the city about her dress and style, and the +deacon felt a little overawed at first; but this wore off as on their +way to the farmhouse, she, sitting partly in his lap and partly in her +husband's, kept one hand upon his neck, her snowy fingers occasionally +playing with his silvery hair, while she looked at him with her loving +old smile, and asked questions about the people he supposed she had +forgotten, nodding to everybody she met, whether she knew them or not, +and at last, as the old house came in sight, hiding her face in a gush +of happy tears upon his neck, not Wilford's. That gentleman was watching +her in silence, wishing she were less impulsive, and wondering at the +strong home-love he could not understand. To him there was nothing +pleasant in that low, humble farmhouse, or in the rocks and hills which +overshadowed it; while, with the exception of Helen, the women gathered +at the door as they came up were very distasteful to him. But with Katy +it was different. They were her rocks, her hills, her woods, and more +than all, they were her folks into whose arms she threw herself with an +impetuous rush, scarcely waiting for old Whitey to stop, but with one +leap clearing the wheel and springing first to the embrace of her +mother. It was a joyful meeting, and when the first excitement was over +Katy inspected the improvements, approving all, and thanking Wilford for +having done so much for her comfort.</p> + +<p>"I shall sleep so nicely here," she said, tossing her hat into Helen's +lap, and lying down at once upon the bed it had taken so long to make. +"Yes, I shall rest so nicely, knowing I can wear my wrapper all day +long. Don't look so horrified, Wilford," she added, as she caught his +eye. "I shall dress me sometimes; but you don't know what a luxury it +is to feel that I need not unless I like."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you rest at New London?" Helen asked, when Wilford had left the +room.</p> + +<p>"Yes, some," Katy replied; "but there were dances every night, or sails +upon the bay, and I had to go, for many of our friends were there, and +Wilford was not willing for me to be quiet."</p> + +<p>This, then, was the reason why Katy came home so weary and pale, and +craving so much the rest she had not had in more than two years. But she +would get it now, and before the first dinner was eaten some of her old +color came stealing back to her cheeks, and her eyes began to dance just +as they used to do, while her merry voice rang out in silvery peals at +Aunt Betsy's quaint remarks, which struck her so forcibly from not +having heard them for so long a tune. A hit of a lecture Wilford deemed +it his duty to give her when after dinner they sat together alone for +half an hour. "She must restrain herself. Surely she was old enough +to be more womanly, and she would tire herself out with her nervous +restlessness, besides giving the people a bad opinion of Mrs. Wilford +Cameron."</p> + +<p>To this Katy listened quietly, breathing freer when it was over, and +breathing freer still when Wilford was gone, even though her tears did +fall as she watched him out of sight, and knew it would be at least four +weeks before she saw him again. To the entire family his departure +brought relief; but they were not prepared for the change it produced in +Katy; who, freed from all restraint, came back so soon to what she was +when a young, careless girl she sat upon the doorsteps and curled the +dandelion stalks. She did not do this now, for there were none to curl; +but she strung upon a thread the delicate petals of the phlox growing by +the door, and then bound it as a crown about the head of her mother, who +could not yet quite recognize her Katy in the elegant Mrs. Wilford +Cameron, with rustling silk, and diamonds flashing on her hands every +time they moved. But when she saw her racing with the old brown goat and +its little kid out in the apple orchard, her head uncovered, and her +bright curls blowing about her face, the feeling disappeared, and she +felt that Katy had indeed come back again.</p> + +<p>And where all the while was Morris? Were his patients so numerous that +he could not find time to call upon his cousin? Katy had inquired for +him immediately after her arrival, but in her excitement she had +forgotten him again, until Wilford was gone and tea was over, when, just +as she had done on the day of her return from Canandaigua, she took her +hat and started on the well-worn path toward Linwood. She was not going +there, she said, she only wanted to try the road and see if it had +changed since she used to go that way to gather butternuts in the autumn +or berries in the summer. Airily she tripped along, her light plaid silk +gleaming through the deep green of the trees and revealing her coming to +the tired man sitting upon a little rustic seat, beneath a chestnut +tree, where he once had sat with Katy, and extracted a cruel sliver from +her hand, kissing the place to make it well as she told him to. She was +a child then, a little girl of twelve, and he was twenty, but the sight +of her pure face lifted confidingly to his had stirred his heart as no +other face had stirred it since, making him look forward to a time when +the hand he kissed would be his own, and his the fairy form he watched +so carefully as it expanded day by day into the perfect woman. He was +thinking of that time now, and how different it had all turned out, when +he heard the bounding step and saw her coming toward him, swinging her +hat in childish abandon, and warbling a song she had learned from him.</p> + +<p>"Morris, oh, Morris!" she cried, as she ran eagerly forward; "I am so +glad to see you. It seems so nice to be with you once more here in the +dear old woods. Don't get up—please don't get up," she continued, as he +started to rise.</p> + +<p>She was standing before him, a hand on either side of his face, into +which she was looking quite as wistfully as he was regarding her. +Something she missed in his manner, something which troubled her; and +thinking she knew what it was, she said to him: "Why don't you kiss me, +Morris? You used to. Ain't you glad to see me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, very glad," he answered, and drawing her down to the bench beside +him, he kissed her twice, but so gravely, so quietly, that Katy was not +satisfied at all, and tears gathered in her eyes as she tried to think +what it was ailed Morris.</p> + +<p>He was very thin, and there were a few white hairs about his temples, so +that, though four years younger than her husband, he seemed to her much +older, quite grandfatherly in fact, and this accounted for the liberties +she took, asking what was the matter, and trying to make him like her +again, by assuring him that she was not as vain and foolish as he must +suppose from what Helen had probably told him of her life since leaving +Silverton.</p> + +<p>"I do not like it at all," she said. "I am in it, and must conform; but, +oh Morris! you don't know how much happier I should be if Wilford were +just like you, and lived at Linwood instead of New York. I should be so +happy here with baby all the time."</p> + +<p>It was well she spoke that name, for Morris, listening to her as she +charged him with indifference, could not have borne much more; but the +mention of her child had a strange power over him, of quieting him at +once, so that he could calmly tell her that she was the same to him that +she had always been, while with his next breath he asked: "Where is your +baby, Katy?" adding with a smile: "I can remember when you were a baby, +and I held you in my arms."</p> + +<p>"Can you really?" Katy said; and as if that remembrance made him older +than the hills, she nestled her curly head against his shoulder, while +she told him of her bright-eyed darling, and as she talked the +mother-love which spread itself over her girlish face made it more +beautiful than anything Morris had ever seen.</p> + +<p>"Surely an angel's countenance cannot be fairer, purer than hers," he +thought, listening while she talked of the only thing which had a power +to separate her from him, making her seem as a friend, or at most as a +beloved sister.</p> + +<p>A long time they talked together, and the sun was setting ere Morris +rose, suggesting that she go home, as the night dew would soon be +falling.</p> + +<p>"And you are not as strong as you once were," he added, pulling her +shawl around her shoulders with careful solicitude, and thinking how +slender she had become.</p> + +<p>From the back parlor Helen saw them coming up the path, detecting the +changed expression of Morris' face, and feeling a pang of fear when as +he left them after nine o'clock she heard her mother say that he had not +appeared so natural since Katy went away as he had done that night. +Knowing what she did, Helen trembled for Morris, with this terrible +temptation before him, and Morris trembled for himself as he went back +the lonely path, and stopped again beneath the chestnut tree where he +had so lately sat with Katy. There was a great fear at his heart, and it +found utterance in words as kneeling by the rustic bench with only the +lonely night around him and the green boughs overhead, he asked that he +might be kept from sin, both in thought and deed, and be to Katy Cameron +just what she took him for, her friend and elder brother. And God, who +knew the sincerity of the heart thus pleading before him, heard and +answered the prayer, so that after that first night of trial Morris +could look on Katy without a wish that she were otherwise than Wilford +Cameron's wife and the mother of his child. He was happier because of +her being at the farmhouse, though he did not go there one-half as often +as she came to him. She seemed to prefer Linwood to the farmhouse, +staying there hours, both when he was at home and when he was away, +strolling through his garden, or sitting quietly in the pleasant +summer-house which looked out upon the pond.</p> + +<p>Those September days were happy ones to Katy, who, freed from all +restraint, became a child again—a petted, spoiled child, whom every one +caressed and suffered to have her way. To Uncle Ephraim it was as if +some bright angel had suddenly dropped into his path, flooding it with +sunshine, and making him so glad to have back his "Katy-did," who went +with him to the fields, waiting patiently till his work was done, and +telling him of all the wondrous things she saw abroad, but speaking +little of her city life. That was something she did not care to talk +about, and but for Wilford's letters, and the frequent mention of baby, +the deacon could easily have imagined that Katy had never left him. But +these were barriers between the old life and the present, these were the +insignia of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, who was watched and envied by the +curious Silvertonians, and pronounced charming by them all. Still there +was one drawback to Katy's happiness. She missed her child, mourning for +it so much that her family, quite as anxious as herself to see it, +suggested her sending for it. It would surely take no harm with them, +and Marian would come with it. To this plan Katy listened more willingly +from the fact that Wilford had gone West, and the greater the distance +between them the more she dared to do. And so Marian Hazelton was one +day startled at the sudden appearance at the cottage of Katy, who had +come to take her and baby to Silverton.</p> + +<p>There was no resisting the vehemence of Katy's arguments, and before the +next day's sunsetting, the farmhouse, usually so quiet and orderly, had +been turned into one general nursery, where Baby Cameron reigned +supreme, screaming with delight at the tinware which Aunt Betsy brought +out from the cake cutter to the dipper, the little creature beating a +noisy tattoo upon the latter with an iron spoon, and then for diversion +burying its fat dimpled hands in Uncle Ephraim's long white hair, for +the old man went down upon all fours to do his great-grand niece homage.</p> + +<p>That night Morris came up, stopping suddenly as a loud baby laugh +reached him, even across the orchard, and leaning for a moment against +the wall, while he tried to prepare himself for the shock it would be to +see Katy's child, and hold it in his arms, as he knew he must, or the +mother be aggrieved.</p> + +<p>He had supposed it was pretty, but he was not prepared for the beautiful +little cherub which in its short white dress, with its soft curls of +golden brown clustering about its head, stood holding to a chair, +pushing it occasionally, and venturing now and then to take a step, +while its infantile laugh mingled with the screams of its delighted +auditors, watching it with so much interest.</p> + +<p>There was one great, bitter, burning pang, a blur before his eyes, and +then, folding his arms composedly upon the window sill, Dr. Grant stood +looking in upon the occupants of the room, whistling at last to baby, as +he was accustomed to whistle to the children of his patients.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Morris," Katy cried, "baby can almost walk, Marian has taken so +much pains, and she can say 'papa.' Isn't she a beauty?"</p> + +<p>Baby had turned her head by this time, her ear caught by the whistle and +her eye arrested by something in Morris which fascinated her gaze. +Perhaps she thought of Wilford, of whom she had been very fond, for she +pushed her chair toward him and then held up her fat, creasy arms for +him to take her. Morris was fond of children and took the infant at +once, strained it to his bosom with a passionate caress, which seemed to +have in it something of the love he bore the mother, who went off into +ecstasies of joy when baby, attacking Morris' hair and patting softly +his cheek, tried to kiss him as it had been taught by Marian. Never was +mother prouder, happier than Katy during the first few days succeeding +baby's arrival, while the family seemed to tread on air, so swiftly the +time went by with that active little life in their midst, stirring them +up so constantly, putting to rout all their rules of order and keeping +their house in a state of delightful confusion.</p> + +<p>It was wonderful how rapidly the child improved with so many teachers, +learning to lisp its mother's name and taught by her attempting to say +"Doctor." From the very first the child took to Morris, crying after him +whenever he went away, and hailing his arrival with a crow of joy and an +eager attempt to reach him.</p> + +<p>"It was altogether too forward for this world," Aunt Betsy often said, +shaking her head ominously, but not really meaning what she predicted, +even when for a few days it did not seem as bright as usual, but lay +quietly in Katy's lap, a blue look about the mouth and a flush upon its +cheeks, which neither Morris nor Marian liked.</p> + +<p>More accustomed to children than the other members of the family, they +both watched it closely, Morris coming over twice one day, and the last +time he came regarding Katy with a look as if he would fain ward off +from her some evil-which he feared.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Morris?" she asked. "Is baby going to be very sick?" and a +great crushing fear came upon her as she waited for his answer.</p> + +<p>"I hope not," he said; "I cannot tell as yet; the symptoms are like +cholera infantum, of which I have several cases, but if taken in time +I apprehend no danger."</p> + +<p>There was a low shriek and baby opened its heavy lids and moaned, while +Helen came at once to Katy, holding her hand upon her heart as if the +pain had entered there. To Marian it was no news, for ever since the +early morning she had suspected the nature of the disease stealing over +the little child, so suddenly stricken down, and looking by the +lamplight so pale and sick. All night the light burned in the farmhouse, +where there were anxious, troubled faces, Katy bending constantly over +her darling, and even amid her terrible anxiety dreading Wilford's +displeasure when he should hear what she had done and its possible +result. She did not believe as yet that her child would die; but she +suffered acutely, watching for the early dawn when Morris had said he +would be there, and when at last he came, begging of him to stay, to +leave his other patients and care only for baby.</p> + +<p>"Would that be right?" Morris asked, and Katy blushed for her +selfishness when she heard how many were sick and dying around them. "I +will spend every leisure moment here," he said, leaving his directions +with Marian and then hurrying away without a word of hope for the child, +growing worse so fast that when the night shut down again it lay upon a +pillow, its blue eyes closed and its head thrown back, while its sad +moanings could only be hushed by carrying it in one's arms about the +room, a task which Katy could not do.</p> + +<p>She had tried it once, refusing all their offers with the reply: "Baby +is mine and shall I not carry her?"</p> + +<p>But the feeble strength gave out, the limbs began to totter, and +staggering backward she cried: "Somebody must take her."</p> + +<p>It was Marian who went forward, Marian, whose face was a puzzle as she +took the infant in her stronger arms, her stony eyes, which had not wept +as yet, fastening themselves upon the face of Wilford Cameron's child +with a look which seemed to say: "Retribution, retribution."</p> + +<p>But only when she remembered the father, now so proud of his daughter, +was that word in her heart. She could not harbor it when she glanced at +the mother, and her lips moved in earnest prayer that, if possible, God +would not leave her so desolate. An hour later and Morris came, +relieving Marian of her burden which he carried in his own arms, while +he strove to comfort Katy, who, crouching by the empty crib, was sitting +motionless in a kind of dumb despair, all hope crushed out by his answer +to her entreaties that he would tell her the truth, keeping nothing +back.</p> + +<p>"I think your baby will die," he had said to her very gently, pausing a +moment in awe of the white face, whose expression terrified and shocked +him, it was so full of agony.</p> + +<p>Bowing her head upon her hands, poor Katy whispered sadly: "God must not +take my baby. Oh, Morris, please pray that he will not. He will hear and +answer you, while I have been so bad I cannot pray. But I'm not going to +be bad again. If he will let me keep my darling I will begin a new life. +I will try to serve him. Dear Lord, hear and answer, and not let baby +die."</p> + +<p>She was praying herself now, and Morris' broad chest heaved as he +glanced at her kneeling figure, and then at the death-like face upon +the pillow, with the pinched look about the nose and lips, which to his +practiced eye was a harbinger of death.</p> + +<p>"Its father should be here," he thought, and when Katy lifted up her +head again he asked if she was sure her husband had not yet returned +from Minnesota.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sure—that is, I think he has not," was Katy's answer, a chill +creeping over her at the thought of meeting Wilford, and giving him his +daughter dead.</p> + +<p>"I shall telegraph in the morning at all events," Morris continued, +"and if he is not in New York, it will be forwarded."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that will be best," was the reply, spoken so mournfully that +Morris stopped in front of Katy, trying to reason with her.</p> + +<p>But Katy would not listen, only answering to him that he did not know, +he could not feel, he never had been tried.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," Morris said; "but Heaven is my witness, Katy, that if I +could save you this pain by giving up my life for baby's, I would do it +willingly; but God does not give us our choice. He knoweth what is best, +and baby is better with Him than us."</p> + +<p>For a moment Katy was silent, then, as a new idea took possession of her +mind, she sprang to Morris' side and seizing his arm, demanded: "Can an +unbaptized child be saved?"</p> + +<p>"We nowhere read that baptism is a saving ordinance," was Morris' +answer; while Katy continued: "But do you believe they will be saved?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," was the decided response, which, however, did not ease +Katy's mind, and she moaned on: "A child of heathen parents may, but I +knew better, I knew it was my duty to give the child to God, and for a +foolish fancy withheld the gift until it is too late, and God will take +it without the mark upon its forehead, the water on its brow. Oh, baby, +baby, if she should be lost—no name, no mark, no baptismal sign."</p> + +<p>"Not water, but the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin," Morris said, +"and as sure as he died so sure this little one is safe. Besides that, +there may be time for the baptism yet—that is, to-morrow. Baby will not +die to-night, and if you like, it still shall have a name."</p> + +<p>Eagerly Katy seized upon that idea, thinking more of the sign, the +water, than the name, which scarcely occupied her thoughts at all. It +did not matter what the child was called, so that it became one of the +little ones in glory, and with a calmer, quieter demeanor than she had +shown that day she saw Morris depart at a late hour; and then turning to +the child which Uncle Ephraim now was holding, kissed it lovingly, +whispering as she did so: "Baby shall be baptized—baby shall have the +sign."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII" ></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<h3>LITTLE GENEVRA.</h3> + + +<p>Morris had telegraphed to New York, receiving in reply that Wilford was +hourly expected home, and would at once hasten on to Silverton. The +clergyman, Mr. Kelly, had also been seen, but owing to a funeral which +would take him out of town, he could not be at the farmhouse until five +in the afternoon, when, if the child still lived, he would be glad to +officiate as requested. All this Morris had communicated to Katy, who +listened in a kind of stupor, gasping for breath, when she heard that +Wilford would so soon be there, and moaning "that will be too late," +when told that the baptism could not take place till night. Then, +kneeling by the crib where the child was lying, she fastened her great, +sad blue eyes upon the pallid face with an earnestness as if thus she +would hold till nightfall the life flickering so faintly and seeming so +nearly finished. The wailings had ceased, and they no longer carried it +within their arms, but had placed it in its crib, where it lay perfectly +still, save as its eyes occasionally unclosed and turned wistfully +toward the cups, where it knew was something which quenched its raging +thirst. Once, indeed, as the hours crept on to noon and Katy bent over +it so that her curls swept its face, it seemed to know her, and the +little wasted hand was for a moment uplifted and rested on her cheek +with the same caressing motion it had been wont to use in health. Then +hope whispered that it might live, and with a great cry of joy Katy +sobbed: "She knows me, Morris—mother, see; she knows me. Maybe she will +live."</p> + +<p>But the dull stupor which succeeded to that act swept all hope away, and +again Katy resumed her post, watching first her dying child, and then +the long hands of the clock which crept on so slowly, pointing to only +two when she thought it must be five. Would that hour never come, or +coming, would it find baby there? None could answer that last +question—they could only wait and pray, and as they waited thus the +warm September sun neared the western sky till its yellow beams came +stealing through the window and across the floor to where Katy sat +watching its onward progress and looking sometimes out upon the hills +where the purplish autumnal haze was lying just as she once loved to see +it; but she did not heed it now, or care how bright the day with the +flitting shadows dancing on the grass, the tall flowers growing by the +door and old Whitey standing by the gate, his head stretched toward the +house in a kind of dreamy, listening attitude, as if he, too, knew of +the great sorrow hastening on so fast. The others saw all this, and it +made their hearts ache more as they thought of the beautiful little +child, so much fairer than sky or day or flowers could be, going from +their midst when they wished so much to keep her. But Katy had only one +idea, and that was of the child growing very restless now and throwing +up its arms as if in pain. It is striking five, and with each stroke the +dying baby moans, while Katy strains her ear to catch another sound, the +sound of horses' hoofs hurrying up the road. The clergyman has come and +anon the inmates of the house gather around in silence, while he makes +ready to receive the child into Christ's flock, where it so soon will +really be.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lennox had questioned Helen about the name and Helen had answered: +"Katy knows, I presume. It does not matter," but no one had spoken +directly to Katy, who had scarcely given it a thought, caring more for +the rite she had deferred so long.</p> + +<p>"He must hasten," she said to Morris, her eyes fixed upon the panting +child she had lifted to her own lap, and thus abjured the clergyman +failed to make the usual inquiry concerning the name he was to give.</p> + +<p>Calm and white as a marble statue, Marian Hazelton glided to the back of +Katy's chair, pressing both her hands upon it, and leaning over Katy so +that her eyes too were fixed upon the little face, from which they never +turned but once, and that when the clergyman's voice was heard asking +for a name. There was an instant's silence, and Katy's lips began to +move, when one of Marian's hands was laid upon her head, while the other +took in its own the limp, while baby fingers, and Marian's voice was +very steady in its tone as it said: "Genevra."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Genevra," Katy whispered, and then the solemn words were heard: +"Genevra, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Ghost."</p> + +<p>Softly the baptismal waters fell upon the pale forehead, and at their +touch the little Genevra's eyes unclosed, the waxen fingers withdrew +themselves from Marian's grasp, and again sought the mother's cheek, +resting there for an instant; while a smile broke around the baby lips, +which tried to say "Mam-ma." Then the hand fell back, down upon +Marian's, the soft eyes closed, the limbs grew rigid, the shadow of +death grew deeper, and while the prayer was said, and Marian's tears +fell with Katy's upon the brow where the baptismal waters were not +dried, the angel came, and when the prayer was ended, Morris, who knew +what the rest did not, took the lifeless form from Katy's lap, and +whispered to her gently: "Katy, your baby is dead!"</p> + +<p>An hour later, and the sweet little creature, which had been a sunbeam +in that house for a few happy days, lay upon the bed where Katy said it +must be laid; its form shrouded in the christening robe which Grandma +Cameron had bought, flowers upon its pillow, flowers upon its bosom, +flowers in its hands, which Marian had put there; for Marian's was the +mind which thought of everything concerning the dead child; and Helen, +as she watched her, wondered at the mighty love which showed itself in +every lineament of her face, the blue veins swelling in her forehead, +her eyes bloodshot, and her lips shut firmly together, as if it were by +mere strength of will that she kept back the scalding tears as she +dressed the little Genevra. They spoke of that name in the kitchen when +the first great shock was over, and Helen explained why it had been +Katy's choice. Poor stricken Katy, it was Morris' task to comfort +her—Morris, who sat by her holding the hot, feverish hand she had +placed in his, and telling her of the blessed Savior who loved the +little children while here on earth, and to whom her darling had surely +gone.</p> + +<p>"Safe in His arms it would not come back if it could," he said, "and +neither would you have it."</p> + +<p>But Katy was the mother, and human love could not so soon submit, but +went out after the lost one with a piteous agonizing wail, which hurt +Morris cruelly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I want my baby back. I know she is safe, but I want her back. She +was my life—all I had to love," Katy moaned, rocking to and fro in this +first hour of her bereavement.</p> + +<p>"You forget your husband," Morris said. "You have him left, and +husbands, I supposed, were dearer than one's children."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Katy answered, "I have Wilford, and am glad of that; but he will +blame me so much for bringing baby here to die. He will say it was my +fault; and that I can't bear. I know it was, know I killed my baby; but +I did not mean to. I would give my life for hers, if like her I was +ready," and into Katy's face there came a look of fear which Morris +failed to understand, not knowing Wilford as well as Katy knew him.</p> + +<p>Surely no man could reproach the half-crazed creature, who all that +night sat by the bedside of her dead child, sleeping a little in her +chair, but obtaining no real rest, so that by the morning her face was +like some white rose on which a fierce storm has beaten, breaking off +its petals and crushing out its life. At nine o'clock there came to her +a telegram. Wilford had reached New York and would be in Silverton that +afternoon, accompanied by Bell. At this last Marian Hazelton caught +eagerly as an excuse for what she intended doing. She could not remain +there after Wilford came, nor was it necessary. Her task was done, or +would be when she had finished the wreath and cross of flowers she was +making for the coffin. Laying them on baby's pillow, Marian went in +quest of Helen, to whom she explained that as Bell Cameron was coming, +and the house would be full, she had decided upon going to West +Silverton, especially as she wished to see the lady with whom she once +boarded, and who had been so kind to her.</p> + +<p>"I might stay," she added, as Helen began to protest, "but you do not +need me. I have done all I can, and would rather go where I can be quiet +for a little."</p> + +<p>To this last argument there could be no demur, and so the same carriage +which at ten o'clock went for Wilford Cameron carried Marian Hazelton +to the village where she preferred being left.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In much anxiety and distress Wilford Cameron read the telegram +announcing baby's illness.</p> + +<p>"At Silverton!" he said. "How can that be when the child was at New +London?" and he glanced at the words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Your child is dying at Silverton. Come at once.<br /> +M. GRANT.</p></div> + +<p>There could be no mistake, and Wilford's face grew dark, for he guessed +the truth, censuring Katy much, but censuring her family more. They, of +course, had encouraged her in the plan of taking her child from New +London, where it was doing so well, and this was the result. Wilford was +proud of his daughter now, and during the few weeks he had been with it +the little thing had found a strong place in his love. Many times he had +thought of it during his journey West, indulging in bright anticipations +of the coming winter, when he would have it home again. It would not be +in his way now. On the contrary, it would add much to his luxurious +home, and the young father's heart bounded as Wilford Cameron had never +believed his heart could bound, with thoughts of the beautiful baby as +he had last seen it in Katy's arms, crowing its good-by to him and +trying to lisp his name, its sweet voice haunting him for weeks, and +making him a softer, better man, who did not frown impatiently as he +used to do upon the children in the cars, but who took notice of them +all, even laying his hand once on a little curly head which reminded him +of baby's.</p> + +<p>Alas for him, he little dreamed of the great shock in store for him. The +child was undoubtedly very sick, he said, but that it could die was not +possible; and so, though he made ready to hasten to it, he did withhold +his opinion of the rashness, as he termed it, which had brought it to +such peril.</p> + +<p>"Had Katy obeyed me it would not have happened," he said, pacing up and +down the parlor and preparing to say more, when Bell came to Katy's aid, +and lighting furiously upon him, asked what he meant by blaming his +wife so much.</p> + +<p>"For my part," she said, "I think there has been too much fault-finding +and dictation from the very day of the child's birth till now, and if +God takes it, as he may, I shall think it a judgment upon you. First you +were half vexed with Katy because it was not a boy, as if she were to +blame; then you did not like it because it was not more promising and +fair; next it was in your way, and so you sent it off, never considering +Katy any more than if she were a mere automaton, to turn which way you +said. Then you must needs forbid her taking it home to her own family, +as if they had no right, no interest in it. I tell you, Will, it is not +all Cameron—there is some Barlow blood in its veins—Aunt Betsy +Barlow's, too, and you cannot wash it out. Katy had a right to take her +own child where she pleased, and you are not a man if you censure her +for it, as I see in your eyes you mean to do. Suppose it had stayed in +New London and been struck with lightning—you would have been to blame, +of course, according to your own view of things."</p> + +<p>There was too much truth in Bell's remarks for Wilford to retort, even +had he been disposed, and he contented himself with a haughty toss of +his head as she left the room to get herself in readiness for the +journey she insisted upon taking. Wilford was glad she was going, as her +presence at Silverton would relieve him of the awkward embarrassment he +always felt when there; and magnanimously forgiving her for the +plainness of her speech, he was the most attentive of brothers until +Silverton was reached and he found Dr. Grant waiting for him. Something +in his face, as he came forward to meet them, startled both Wilford and +Bell, the latter of whom asked quickly:</p> + +<p>"Is the baby better?"</p> + +<p>"Baby is dead," was the brief reply, and Wilford staggered back against +the doorpost, where he leaned a moment for support in that first great +shock for which he was not prepared.</p> + +<p>"Dead," he repeated, "our baby dead," and Morris was glad that he said +our, as it indicated a thought of Katy as a mutual sharer in the loss.</p> + +<p>Upon the doorstep Bell sat down, crying quietly, for she had loved the +little child, and she listened anxiously while Morris repeated the +particulars of its illness and then spoke of Katy's reproaching herself +so bitterly for having brought it from New London. "She seems entirely +crushed," he continued, when they were driving toward the farmhouse. +"For a few hours I trembled for her reason, while the fear that you +might reproach her added much to the poignancy of her grief."</p> + +<p>Morris said this very calmly, as if it were not what he had all the +while intended saying, and his eye turned toward Wilford, whose lips +were compressed with the emotion he was evidently trying to control. It +was Bell who spoke first. Bell who said impulsively; "Poor Katy, I knew +she would feel so, but it is unnecessary, for none but a savage would +reproach her now, even if she were in fault."</p> + +<p>Morris blessed Bell Cameron in his heart, knowing how much influence her +words would have upon her brother, who brushed away the first tear he +had shed, and tried to say that "of course she was not to blame."</p> + +<p>They were in sight of the farmhouse now, and Bell, with her city ideas, +was looking curiously at it, mentally pronouncing it a nicer, pleasanter +place than she had supposed, inasmuch as it reminded her of the +description she had read of the Virginia farmhouse, where a young +officer was encamped for a few days, an officer who wore a lieutenant's +uniform and who signed himself as Bob. It was very quiet about the +house, and old Whitey's neigh as Morris' span of bays came up was the +only sound which greeted them. In the woodshed door Uncle Ephraim sat +smoking his clay pipe and likening the feathery waves which curled above +his head to the little soul so recently gone upward, while by his side, +upon a log of wood, holding a pan of the luscious peaches she was +slicing up for tea, sat a woman whom Bell knew at once for Aunt Betsy +Barlow, thinking more of the peaches than of the old lady who, pan in +hand, came forward to met her, curtseying very low when introduced by +Morris, and asking to be excused from shaking hands, inasmuch as hers +were not fit to be touched. Bell's quick eye took her in at a glance, +from her clean spotted gown to her plain muslin cap tied with a black +ribbon, put on that day with a view to mourning, and then darted off to +Uncle Ephraim, who won her heart at once when she heard how his voice +trembled as he took Wilford's hand and said so pityingly, so +father-like: "Young man, this is a sad day for you and you have my +sympathy, for I remember well how my heart ached when, on just such a +day as this, my only child lay dead as yours is lying."</p> + +<p>Every muscle of Wilford's face quivered then, but he was too proud to +show all that he felt, and he was glad when Helen appeared in the door, +as that diverted his mind somewhat, and he greeted her most cordially, +even stooping down and kissing her smooth forehead, a thing he had never +done before. But sorrow is a great softener and Wilford was very sorry, +feeling his loss more here where everything was so quiet, so suggestive +of death.</p> + +<p>"Where is Katy?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"She is sleeping for the first time since the baby died. She is in here +with the child. She will stay nowhere else," Helen said, opening softly +the door of the bedroom and motioning Wilford in.</p> + +<p>With hushed breath and a beating heart, Wilford stepped across the +threshold and Helen closed the door, leaving him alone with the living +and the dead. Pure and beautiful as some fair blossom, the dead child +lay upon the bed, the curls of golden hair clustering about its head, +and on its lips the smile which had settled there when it tried to say +"mamma"—its dimpled hands folded upon its breast, where lay the cross +of flowers which Marian Hazelton had made—flowers upon its pillow, +flowers around its head, flowers upon its shroud, flowers everywhere, +and itself the fairest flower of all, Wilford thought as he stood gazing +at it and then let his eye move on to where poor, tired, worn-out Katy +had crept up so close beside it that her breath touched the marble cheek +and her own disordered hair rested upon the pillow of her child. Even in +her sleep her tears kept dropping from the long eyelashes, and the pale +lips quivered in a grieved, touching way. Hard indeed would Wilford have +been had he cherished one bitter thought against the wife so wounded. He +could not when he saw her, but no one ever knew just what passed through +his mind during the half hour he sat there beside her, scarcely +stirring and not daring to kiss his child lest he should awaken her. He +could hear the ticking of his watch and the beating of his heart as he +waited for the first sound which should herald Katy's waking.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a low, gasping moan, and Katy's eyes unclosed and +rested on her husband. He was bending over her in an instant, and her +arms were around his neck, while she said to him so sadly:</p> + +<p>"Our baby is dead—you've nobody left but me; and oh! Wilford, you will +not blame me bringing baby here? I did not think she would die. I'd give +my life for hers if that would bring her back. Say, Wilford, would you +rather it was me lying as baby lies, and she here in your arms?"</p> + +<p>"No, Katy," Wilford answered, and by his voice Katy knew that she was +wholly forgiven, crying on his neck in a plaintive, piteous way, while +Wilford soothed and pitied and caressed, feeling subdued and humbled, +and we must confess it, feeling too how very good and generous he was to +be thus forbearing, when but for Katy's act of disobedience they might +not now be childless!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>With a great gust of tears Bell Cameron bent over the little form, and +then enfolded Katy in a more loving embrace than he had ever given her +before; but whatever she might have said was prevented by the arrival of +the coffin and the confusion which followed.</p> + +<p>Much Wilford regretted that New York was so far away, for a city coffin +was more suitable, he thought, for a child of his, than the one which +Dr. Grant had ordered. But that was really of less consequence than the +question where should the child be buried? A costly monument at +Greenwood was in accordance with his ideas, but all things indicated +a contemplated burial there in the country churchyard, and sorely +perplexed he called on Bell as the only Cameron at hand, to know what +he should do.</p> + +<p>"Do just as Katy prefers," was Bell's reply, as she led him to the +coffin and pointed to the name: "Little Genevra Cameron, aged nine +months and twenty days."</p> + +<p>"What is it, Wilford—what is the matter?" she asked, as her brother +turned whiter than his child, and struck his hand upon his head as if +a blow had fallen there.</p> + +<p>Had "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," met his eye, he could not have +been more startled than he was; but soon rallying, he said to Morris, +who came near:</p> + +<p>"The child was baptized then?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, baptized Genevra. That was Katy's choice, I understand," Morris +replied, and Wilford bowed his head, wishing the Genevra across the sea +might know that his child bore her name.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she does," he thought, and his heart grew warm with the fancy +that possibly in that other world, whose existence he never really +doubted, the Genevra he had wronged would care for his child, if +children there need care. "She will know it is mine at least," he said, +and with a thoughtful face he went in quest of Katy, whom he found +sobbing by the side of the mourning garments just sent in for her +inspection.</p> + +<p>Wilford was averse to black. It would not become Katy, he feared, and it +would be an unanswerable reason for her remaining closely home for the +entire winter.</p> + +<p>"What's this?" he asked, lifting the crape veil and dropping it again +with an impatient gesture as Helen replied: "It is Katy's mourning +veil."</p> + +<p>Contrary to his expectations, black was becoming to Katy, who looked +like a pure white lily, as, leaning on Wilford's arm next day, she stood +by the grave where they were burying her child.</p> + +<p>Wilford had spoken to her of Greenwood, but she had begged so hard that +he had given up that idea, suggesting next, as more in accordance with +city custom, that she remain at home while he only followed to the +grave; but from this Katy recoiled in such distress that he gave up too, +and bore, magnanimously, as he thought, the sight of all the Barlows +standing around that grave, alike mourners with himself, and all a right +to be there. Wilford felt his loss deeply, and his heart ached to its +very core as he heard the gravel rattling down upon the coffin lid which +covered the beautiful child he had loved so much. But amid it all he +never for a moment forgot that he was Wilford Cameron, and infinitely +superior to the crowd around him—except, indeed, his wife, his sister, +Dr. Grant, and Helen. He could bear to see them sorry, and feel that by +their sorrow they honored the memory of his child. But for the rest—the +village herd, with the Barlows in their train—he had no affinity, and +his manner was as haughty and distant as ever as he passed through their +midst back to the carriage, which took him again to the farmhouse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII" ></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + +<h3>AFTER THE FUNERAL.</h3> + + +<p>Had there been a train back to New York that afternoon Wilford would +most certainly have suggested going, but as there was none he passed the +time as well as he could, finding Bell a great help to him, but +wondering that she could assimilate so readily with such people, +declaring herself in love with the farmhouse, and saying she should like +to remain there for weeks, if the days were all as sunny as this, the +dahlias as gorgeously bright, and the peaches by the well as delicious +and ripe. To these the city girl took readily, visiting them the last +thing before retiring, while Wilford found her there when he arose next +morning, her dress and slippers nearly spoiled with the heavy dew, and +her hands full of the fresh fruit which Aunt Betsy knocked from the tree +with a quilting rod; her dress pinned around her waist, and disclosing a +petticoat scrupulously clean, but patched and mended with so many +different patterns and colors that the original ground was lost, and +none could tell whether it had been red or black, buff or blue. Between +Aunt Betsy and Bell the most amicable feeling had existed ever since the +older lady had told the younger how all the summer long she had been +drying fruit, "thimble-berries, blue-berries and huckleberries" for the +soldiers, and how she was now drying peaches for Willard Buxton—once +their hired man. These she should tie up in a salt bag, and put in the +next box sent by the society of which she seemed to be head and front, +"kind of fust directress," she said, and Bell was interested at once, +for among the soldiers down by the Potomac was one who carried with him +the whole of Bell Cameron's heart; and who for a few days had tarried at +just such a dwelling as the farmhouse, writing back to her such pleasant +descriptions of it, with its fresh grass and shadowy trees, that she had +longed to be there too. So it was through this page of romance and love +that Bell looked at the farmhouse and its occupants, preferring good +Aunt Betsy because she seemed the most interested in the soldiers, +working as soon as breakfast was over upon the peaches, and kindly +furnishing her best check apron, together with pan and knife for Bell, +who offered her assistance, notwithstanding Wilford's warning that the +fruit would stain her hands, and his advice that she had better be +putting up her things for going home.</p> + +<p>"She was not going that day," she said, point-blank, and as Katy too +had asked to stay a little longer, Wilford was compelled to yield, and +taking his hat sauntered off toward Linwood; while Katy went listlessly +into the kitchen, where Bell Cameron sat, her tongue moving much faster +than her hands, which pared so slowly and cut away so much of the juicy +pulp, besides making so frequent journeys to her mouth, that Aunt Betsy +looked in alarm at the rapidly disappearing fruit, wishing to herself +that "Miss Cameron had not listed."</p> + +<p>But Miss Cameron had enlisted, and so had Bob, or rather he had gone to +do his duty, and as she worked, she repeated to Helen the particulars of +his going, telling how, when the war first broke out, and Sumter was +bombarded, Rob, who, from long association with Southern men at West +Point, had imbibed many of their ideas, was very sympathetic with the +rebelling States, gaining the cognomen of a secessionist, and once +actually thinking of casting in his lot with that side rather than the +other. But the remembrance of a little incident saved him, she said. The +remembrance of a queer old lady whom he met in the cars, and who, at +parting, held her wrinkled hand above his head in benediction, charging +him not to go against the flag, and promising her prayers for his safety +if found on the side of the Union.</p> + +<p>"I wish you could hear Bob tell the story, the funny part, I mean," +she continued, narrating, as well as she could, the particulars of +Lieutenant Bob's meeting with Aunt Betsy, who, as the story progressed +and she recognized herself in the queer old Yankee woman, who shook +hands with the conductor and was going to law about a sheep pasture, +dropped her head lower and lower over her pan of peaches, while a +scarlet flush spread itself all over her thin face, but changed into a +grayish white as Bell concluded with "Bob says the memory of that hand +lifted above his head haunted him day and night, during the period of +his uncertainty, and was at last the means of saving him from treachery +to his country."</p> + +<p>"Thank God!" came involuntarily from Aunt Betsy's quivering lips, and, +looking up, Bell saw the great tears running down her cheeks, tears +which she wiped away with her arm, while she said faintly: "That old +woman, who made a fool of herself in the cars, was me!"</p> + +<p>"You, Miss Barlow, you!" Bell exclaimed, forgetting in her astonishment +to carry to her mouth the luscious half peach she had intended for that +purpose, and dropping it untasted into the pan, while Katy, who had been +listening with some considerable interest, came quickly forward, saying: +"You, Aunt Betsy! When were you in New York, and why did I never know +it?"</p> + +<p>It could not be kept back, and, unmindful of Bell, Helen explained to +Katy as well as she could the circumstances of Aunt Betsy's visit to New +York the previous winter.</p> + +<p>"And she never let me know it, or come to see me, because—because—" +Katy hesitated, and looked at Bell, who said, pertly: "Because Will is +so abominably proud, and would have made such a fuss. Don't spoil a +story for relations' sake, I beg," and the young lady laughed good +humoredly, restoring peace to all save Katy, whose face wore a troubled +look, and who soon stole away to her mother, whom she questioned further +with regard to a circumstance which seemed so mysterious to her.</p> + +<p>"Miss Barlow," Bell said, when Katy was gone, "you will forgive one for +repeating that story as I did. Of course I had no idea it was you of +whom I was talking."</p> + +<p>Bell was very earnest, and her eyes looked pleadingly upon Aunt Betsy, +who answered her back: "There's nothing to forgive. You only told the +truth. I did make an old fool of myself, but if I helped that boy to a +right decision, my journey did some good, and I ain't sorry now if I +did go to the playhouse. I confessed that to the sewing circle, and Mrs. +Deacon Bannister ain't seemed the same toward me since, but I don't +care. I beat her on the election to first directress of the Soldiers' +Aid. She didn't run half as well as me. That chap you call Bob, is he +anything to you? Is he your beau?"</p> + +<p>It was Bell's turn now to blush and then grow white, while Helen +lightly touching the superb diamond on her first finger, said: "That +indicates as much. When did it happen, Bell?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron had said they were not a family to bruit their affairs +abroad, and if so, Bell was not like her family, for she answered +frankly: "Just before he went away. It's a splendid diamond, isn't it?" +and she held it up for Helen to inspect.</p> + +<p>The basket was empty by this time, and as Aunt Betsy went to fill it +from the trees, Bell and Helen were left alone, the former continuing in +a low, sad tone: "I've been so sorry sometimes that I did not tell Bob I +loved him, when he wished me to so much."</p> + +<p>"Not tell him you loved him! How then could you tell him yes, as it +appears you did?" Helen asked, and Bell answered: "I could not well help +that; it came so sudden and he begged so hard, saying my promise would +make him a better man, a better soldier and all that. It was the very +night before he went, and so I said that out of pity and patriotism I +would give the promise, and I did, but it seemed too much for a woman to +tell a man all at once that she loved him, and I wouldn't do it, but +I've been sorry since; oh, so sorry, during the two days when we heard +nothing from him after that dreadful battle at Bull Run. We knew he was +in it, and I thought I should die until his telegram came saying he was +safe. I did sit down then and commence a letter, confessing all I felt, +but I tore it up, and he don't know now just how I feel."</p> + +<p>"And do you really love him?" Helen asked, puzzled by this strange girl, +who laughingly held up her soft, white hand, stained and blackened with +the juice of the fruit she had been paring, and said: "Do you suppose I +would spoil my hands like that and incur _ma chère-mamma's_ displeasure, +if Bob were not in the army and I did not care for him? And now that I +have confessed so much, allow me to catechise you. Did Mark Ray ever +propose and you refuse him?"</p> + +<p>"Never!" and Helen's face grew crimson, while Bell continued: "That is +funny. Half our circle think so, though how the impression was first +given I do not know. Mother told me, but would not tell where she +received her information. I heard of it again in a few days, and have +reason to believe that Mrs. Banker knows it too and feels a little +uncomfortable that her son should be refused when she considers him +worthy of the empress herself."</p> + +<p>Helen was very white, and her limbs shook as she asked: "And how with +Mark and Juno?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, off and on," Bell replied; "that is, Juno is always on, while Mark +is more uncertain, and Juno really has improved in some respects. As I +wrote you once, she is very docile when with Mark, and acts as if trying +to atone for something—her old badness, I guess. You are certain you +never cared for Mark Ray?"</p> + +<p>This was so abrupt and Bell's eyes were so searching that Helen grew +giddy for a moment and grasped the back of the chair, as she replied: "I +did not say I never cared for him. I said he never proposed; and that is +true; he never did."</p> + +<p>"And if he had?" Bell continued, never taking her eyes from Helen, who, +had she been less agitated, would have denied Bell's right to question +her so closely. Now, however, she answered blindly: "I do not know. I +cannot tell. I thought him engaged to Juno."</p> + +<p>"Well, if that is not the rarest case of cross-purposes that I ever +knew," Bell said, wiping her hands upon Aunt Betsy's apron, and +preparing to attack the piled up basket just brought in.</p> + +<p>Further conversation was impossible, and, with her mind in a perfect +tempest of thought, Helen went away, trying to decide what it was best +for her to do. Some one had spread the report that she had refused Mark +Ray, telling of the refusal, of course, or how else could it have been +known? and this accounted for Mrs. Banker's long-continued silence. +Since Helen's return to Silverton Mrs. Banker had written two or thee +kind, friendly letters, which did her so much good; but these had +suddenly ceased, and Helen's last remained as yet unanswered. She saw +the reason now, every nerve quivering with pain as she imagined what +Mrs. Banker must think of one who could make a refusal public, or what +was tenfold worse, pretend to an offer she never received. "She must +despise me, and Mark Ray, too, if he has heard of it," she said, +resolving one moment to ask Bell to explain to Mrs. Banker, and then +changing her mind and concluding to let matters take their course, +inasmuch as interference from her might be construed by the mother into +undue interest in the son. "Perhaps Bell will do it without my asking," +she thought, and this hope did much toward keeping her spirits up on +that last day of Katy's stay at home, for she was going back in the +morning. Wilford would not leave her, though she begged to stay. He did +not like the sad expression of her face, and he must take her where she +would have more excitement, hoping thus to win her from her grief, and +perhaps induce her to lay aside her black, which would be so serious a +hindrance to his enjoyment. But Katy clung to that as to a strict, +religious duty, saying to Helen, as in the twilight they sat together +up in their old room, talking of the ensuing winter, which would be so +different from the last:</p> + +<p>"If anything besides the feeling that she is so much happier, could +reconcile me to baby's loss, it is the knowing that my mourning will +keep me from the society in which I could not mingle so soon," and her +tears dropped upon the somber robes, which had transformed her so +suddenly from the gay, airy creature of fashion into the sober, quiet +woman who seemed older, soberer than even Helen herself.</p> + +<p>They did not see Marian Hazelton again, and Katy wondered at it, +deciding that in some things Marian was very peculiar, while Wilford and +Bell were slightly disappointed, as both had a desire to meet and +converse with one who had been so like a second mother to the little +dead Genevra. Wilford spoke of his child now as Genevra, but to Katy it +was baby still; and, with choking sobs and passionate tears, she bade +good-by to the little mound underneath which it was lying, and then went +back to her city home.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV" ></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST WIFE.</h3> + + +<p>Softly and swiftly the hazy September days glided into dun October, who +shook down leafy showers of crimson and of gold upon the withered grass, +and then gave place to the dark November rains, which made the city seem +doubly desolate to Katy, who, like the ghost of her former self, moved +listlessly about her handsome home, starting quickly as a fancied baby +cry fell on her ear, and then weeping bitterly as she remembered the sad +past and thought of the still sadder present. Katy was very unhappy, and +the world, as she looked upon it, seemed utterly cheerless. For much of +this unhappiness Wilford was himself to blame. After the first few days, +during which he was all kindness and devotion, he did not try to comfort +her, but seemed irritated that she should mourn so deeply for the child +which, but for her indiscretion, might have been living still. Her +seclusion from gay society troubled him. He did not like staying at +home, and their evenings, when they were alone, passed in gloomy +silence. At last Mrs. Cameron, annoyed at what annoyed her son, brought +her influence to bear upon her daughter-in-law, trying to rouse her to +something like her olden interest in the world; but all to no effect, +and matters grew constantly worse, as Wilford thought Katy unreasonable +and selfish, while Katy tried hard not to think him harsh in his +judgment of her, and exacting in his requirements. "Perhaps she was +the one most in fault; it could not be pleasant for him to see her so +entirely changed from what she used to be," she thought, one morning +late in November, when her husband had just left her with an angry frown +upon his face and reproachful words upon his lips.</p> + +<p>Father Cameron and his daughters were out of town, and Mrs. Cameron, +feeling lonely in their absence, had asked Wilford and Katy to dine with +her. But Katy did not wish to go, and so Wilford had left her in anger, +saying "she could suit herself, but he should go at all events."</p> + +<p>Left alone, Katy began to feel that she had done wrong in declining the +invitation. Surely she could go there, and the echo of the bang with +which Wilford had closed the street door was still vibrating in her ear, +when her resolution began to give way, and while Wilford was riding +moodily downtown, thinking harsh things against her, she was meditating +what she thought might be an agreeable surprise. She would go around and +meet him at dinner, trying to appear as much like her old self as she +could, and so atone for anything which had hitherto been wrong in her +demeanor.</p> + +<p>It was strange how much better Katy felt when this decision was reached, +and Esther, below stairs, raised her finger warningly for the cook to +listen as her mistress trilled a few notes of a song. It was the first +time since her return from Silverton that a sound like that had been +heard within the house, and it seemed the precursor of better days. At +lunch, too, Katy's face was very bright, and Esther was surprised when, +later in the day, she was sent for to arrange her mistress' hair, as she +had not arranged it since baby died. Greatly annoyed, Wilford had been +by the smooth bands combed so plainly back, and at the blackness of the +dress; but now there was a change, and graceful curls fell about the +face, giving it the girlish expression which Wilford liked. The +somberness of the dark dress was relieved by simple folds of white crape +at the throat and wrists, while the handsome jet ornaments, the gift of +Wilford's father, added to the style and beauty of the childish figure, +which had seldom looked lovelier than when ready and waiting for the +carriage. At the door there was a ring, and Esther brought a note to +Katy, who, recognizing her husband's handwriting, tore it quickly open +and read as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>DEAR KATY: I have been suddenly called to leave the city on business, +which will probably detain me for three days or more, and as I must go on +the night train, I wish Esther to have my portmanteau ready with whatever +I may need for the journey. As I proposed this morning, I shall dine with +mother, but come home immediately after dinner. W. CAMERON.</p></div> + +<p>Katy was glad now that she had decided to meet him at his mother's, as +the knowing she had pleased him would make the time of his absence more +endurable, and after seeing that everything was ready for him she +stepped with a comparatively light heart into her carriage, and was +driven to No. —— Fifth Avenue.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron was out, the servant said, but was expected every minute +with Mr. Wilford.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," Katy answered; "I want to surprise them, so please don't +tell them I am here when you let them in," and going into the library +she sat down before the grate, waiting rather impatiently until the door +bell rang and she heard both Wilford's and Mrs. Cameron's voice in the +hall.</p> + +<p>Contrary to her expectations, they did not come into the library, but +went instead into the parlor, the door of which was partially ajar, so +that every word they said could be distinctly heard where Katy sat. It +would seem that they were continuing a conversation which had been +interrupted by their arriving home, for Mrs. Cameron said, with the tone +she always assumed when sympathizing with her son: "I am truly sorry for +you. Is she never more cheerful than when I have seen her?"</p> + +<p>"Never," and Katy could feel just how Wilford's lips shut over his +teeth as he said it; "never more cheerful, but worse if anything. Why, +positively the house seems so like a funeral that I hate to leave the +office and go back to it at night, knowing how mopish and gloomy Katy +will be."</p> + +<p>"My poor boy, it is worse than I feared," Mrs. Cameron said, with a +little sigh, while Katy, with a great gasping sob, tried to rise and go +to them, to tell them she was there—the mopish Katy, who made her home +so like a funeral to her husband.</p> + +<p>But her limbs refused to move, and she sank back powerless in her chair, +compelled to listen to things which no true husband should ever say to a +mother of his wife, especially when that wife's error consisted +principally in mourning too much for the child "which but for her +imprudence might have been living then." These were Wilford's very +words, and though Katy had once expected him to say them, they came upon +her now with a dreadful shock, making her view herself as the murderer +of her child, and thus blunting the pain she might otherwise have felt +as he went on to speak of Silverton and its inhabitants, just as he +would not have spoken had he known she was so near. Then, encouraged by +his mother, he talked again of her, not against her, but in a way which +made her poor aching heart throb as she whispered, sadly: "He is +disappointed in me. I do not come up to all that he expected. I do very +well, considering my low origin, but I am not what his wife should be."</p> + +<p>Wilford had not said all this, but Katy inferred it, and every nerve +quivered with anguish as the wild wish came over her that she had died +on that day when she sat in the summer grass at home watching the +shadows come and go and waiting for Wilford Cameron. Poor Katy! she +thought her cup of sorrow full, when, alas! only a drop had as yet been +poured into it. But it was filling fast, and Mrs. Cameron's words: "It +might have been better with Genevra," was the first outpouring of the +overwhelming torrent which for a moment bore her life and sense away. +She thought they meant her baby—the little Genevra sleeping under the +snow in Silverton—and her white lips answered: "Yes, it would be +better," before Wilford's voice was heard, saying, as he always said: +"No, I have never wished Genevra in Katy's place, though I have +sometimes wondered what the result would have been had I learned +in season how much I wronged her."</p> + +<p>Was heaven and earth coming together, or what made Katy's brain so dizzy +and the room so dark, as, with head bent forward and lips apart, she +strained her ear to catch every word of the conversation which followed, +and in which she saw glimpses of that leaf offered her once to read, and +from which she had promised not to shrink should it ever be thrust upon +her? But she did shrink, oh! so shudderingly, holding up her hands and +striking them through the empty air as if she would thrust aside the +terrible scepter risen so suddenly before her. She had heard all that +she cared to hear then. Another word and she should surely die where she +was, within hearing of the voices still talking of Genevra. Stopping her +ears to shut out the dreadful sound, she tried to think what she should +do. To gain the door and reach the street was her desire, and throwing +on her wrappings she went noiselessly into the hall, and carefully +turning the lock closed the door behind her, finding herself alone in +the street in the dusk of a November night. But Katy was not afraid, and +drawing her hood closely over her face she sped on until her own house +was reached, alarming Esther with her frightened face, but explaining +that she had been taken suddenly ill and returned before dinner.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cameron will be here soon," she said. "I do not need anything +to-night, so you can leave me alone and go where you like—to the +theatre, if you choose. I heard you say you wished to go. Here is the +money for you and Phillips," and handing a bill to the slightly puzzled +Esther, she dismissed her from the room.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, at the elder Cameron's, no one had a suspicion of Katy's +recent presence, for the girl who had admitted her had gone to visit a +sick sister, with whom she was to spend the night. Thus Katy's secret +was safe, and Wilford, when at last he bade his mother good-by and +started for home, was not prepared for the livid face, the bloodshot +eyes, and the strange, unnatural look which met him at the threshold.</p> + +<p>Katy was waiting for him, and answered his ring herself, her hands +grasping his almost fiercely and dragging him up the stairs to her own +room, where, more like a maniac than Katy Cameron, she confronted him +with the startling question:</p> + +<p>"Who is Genevra Lambert? It is time I knew before committing greater +sin. Tell me, Wilford, who is she?"</p> + +<p>She was standing before him, her slight figure seeming to expand into a +greater height, the features glowing with strong excitement, and her hot +breath coming hurriedly through her dilated nostrils, but never opening +the pale lips set so firmly together. There was something terrible in +her look and attitude, and it startled Wilford, who recoiled a moment +from her, scarcely able to recognize the Katy hitherto so gentle and +quiet. She had learned his secret, but the facts must have been +distorted, he knew, or she had never been so agitated. From beneath his +hair the great sweat drops came pouring, as he tried to approach her and +take the uplifted hands, motioning him aside with the words: "Not touch +me; no, not touch me till you have told me who is Genevra Lambert."</p> + +<p>She repeated the question twice, and rallying all his strength Wilford +answered her at last: "Genevra Lambert was my wife!"</p> + +<p>"I thought so," and the next moment Katy lay in Wilford's arms, dead, as +he feared, for there was no motion about the eyelids, no motion that he +could perceive about the pulse or heart, as he laid the rigid form upon +the bed and then bent every energy to restore her, even though he feared +that it was hopeless.</p> + +<p>"I must do what I can," he said, thinking once to send for a physician +and laying his hand upon the bell rope for the purpose of ringing up a +servant; but a faint, gasping sound met his ear, assuring him there yet +was life and that Katy was not dead.</p> + +<p>If possible he would prefer that no one should intrude upon them now, +and he chafed her icy hands and bathed her face until the eyes unclosed +again, but with a shudder turned away as they met his. Then as she grew +stronger and remembered the past she started up, exclaiming: "If Genevra +Lambert is your wife, what then am I? Oh, Wilford, how could you make me +not a wife, when I trusted and loved you so much?"</p> + +<p>He knew now that she was laboring under a mistake, and he did not wonder +at the violence of her emotions if she believed he had wronged her so +cruelly, and coming nearer to her he said: "You mistake me; Genevra +Lambert was my wife once, but is not now, for she is dead. Do you hear +me, Katy? Genevra died years ago, when you were a little girl playing in +the fields at home."</p> + +<p>By mentioning Silverton he hoped to bring back something of her olden +look, in place of the expression which troubled and frightened him. The +experiment was successful and great tears gathered in Katy's eyes, +washing out the wild, unnatural gleam, while the lips whispered: "And it +was her picture Juno saw. She told me the night I came and I tried to +question you. You remember?"</p> + +<p>Wilford did remember it and he replied: "Yes, but I did not suppose you +knew I had a picture. You have been a good wife, Katy, never to mention +it since then;" and he tried to kiss her forehead, but she covered it +with her hands, saying, sadly: "Not yet, Wilford, I cannot bear it now. +I must know the whole about Genevra. Why didn't you tell me before? Why +have you deceived me so?"</p> + +<p>"Katy," and Wilford grew very earnest in his attempts to defend himself, +"do you remember that day we sat under the buttonwood tree and you +promised to be mine? Try and recall the incidents of that hour and see +if I did not hint at some things past which I wished had been +otherwise—did not offer to show you the blackest page of my whole life +and you would not see it. Was that so, Katy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, and he continued: "You said you were satisfied +to take me as I was. You would not hear evil against me and so I +acquiesced, bidding you not shrink back if ever the time should come +when you must read that page. I was to blame, I know, but there were +many extenuating circumstances, much to excuse me for withholding what +you would not hear."</p> + +<p>Wilford did not like to be censured, neither did he like to censure +himself, and now that Katy was out of danger and comparatively calm, he +began to build about himself a fortress of excuses for having kept from +her the secret of his life.</p> + +<p>"Would not most any man have done just as I did?" he continued. "Can you +mention one who would not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Cousin Morris," Katy answered; "he would never have deceived me +thus."</p> + +<p>A little vexed at the mention of Dr. Grant, Wilford replied: "I do not +pretend to be a saint, and I believe your cousin does; but I doubt +whether even he, with all his goodness, would do very differently from +what I have done; but tell me how, where did you hear of Genevra?"</p> + +<p>Amid sobs and tears Katy told him how she had repented of her decision +not to join him at his mother's, coming to the conclusion that she was +doing wrong to seclude herself so much and trying her best to look well +again in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I meant to surprise you," she said, "and when I heard your mother was +out I went into the library to wait, thinking you would come there, but +you did not, and I started to go to you when my feet were stopped, for +you were talking of me, Wilford, not bad, perhaps, but as you would not +have talked had you known that I was there where I heard the words which +burned like coals of fire, so that I could have screamed in my +distress."</p> + +<p>Katy was not weeping now and her face was like that of some accusing +angel as she continued: "I thought my heart was broken when I heard you +talk so of me and Silverton, but that was nothing compared with what +came next, when your mother spoke of Genevra. I thought it was my baby +she meant at first, and the tightness around my heart was giving way, +for if you did complain of me to your mother, I could forgive that +because you were baby's father; but Genevra Lambert! oh, Wilford, I died +a thousand deaths in one when I first heard of her and understood why +you objected to the name our baby finally bore. You did not wish to be +so constantly reminded of the other wife. I could not sit there longer, +the room around me grew so black, so I struggled to my feet and reached +the door, going into the street and thinking once I would end my +wretched life in the distant river; but something turned my steps toward +home and I came, thinking it all over and suffering such agony. Oh, +Wilford, why did you keep it from me? What was there about it wrong and +where is she buried?"</p> + +<p>"In Alnwick, at St. Mary's," Wilford answered, determining now to hold +nothing back, and by his abruptness wounding Katy afresh.</p> + +<p>"In Alnwick, at St. Mary's" Katy cried. "Then I have seen her grave, and +that is why you were so anxious to get there, so unwilling to go away. +Oh, if I were lying there instead of Genevra, it would be so much +better, so much better."</p> + +<p>There was sobbing now, in a moaning, plaintive way which touched Wilford +tenderly, and smoothing her tangled hair, he said: "I would not exchange +my Katy for all the Genevras in the world. She was never as dear to me +as you. I was but a boy, and did not know my mind when I met her. Shall +I tell you about her now? Can you bear to hear the story of Genevra?"</p> + +<p>There was a nod of assent, and Katy turned her face to the wall, +clasping her hands tightly together, while Wilford drew his chair to her +side and began to read the page he should have read to her long before.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV" ></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<h3>WHAT THE PAGE DISCLOSED.</h3> + + +<p>"I was little more than nineteen years of age when I left Harvard +College and went abroad with my only brother, the John or Jack of whom +you have so often heard. Both himself and wife were in delicate health, +and it was hoped a voyage across the sea would do them good. For nearly +a year we were in various parts of England, stopping for two months at +Brighton, where, among the visitors, was a widow from the vicinity of +Alnwick, and with her an orphan niece whom I often met, and whose +dazzling beauty attracted my youthful fancy. She was not happy with her +aunt, upon whom she was wholly dependent, and my sympathies were all +enlisted, when, with the tears shining in her lustrous eyes, she one day +accidentally stumbled upon her trouble and told me how wretched she was, +asking if in America there was not something for her to do.</p> + +<p>"It was at this time that Jamie was born and Mary, the girl who went out +with us, was married to an Englishman, making it necessary for Hatty to +find some one to take her place. Hearing of this, Genevra came one day, +and to my secret delight offered herself as half companion, half +waiting-maid to Hatty. Anything was preferable to the life she led, she +said, pleading so hard that Hatty, after an interview with the old +aunt—a purse-proud, vulgar woman, who seemed glad to be rid of her +charge—consented to receive her, and Genevra became one of our family, +an equal rather than a menial, whom Hatty treated with as much +consideration as if she had been a sister. I wish I could tell you how +beautiful Genevra Lambert was at that period of her life. I have her +picture, which I will show you by and by, but it will not convey an +adequate idea of her as she was then, with her brilliant English +complexion, her eyes so full of poetry and passion, her perfect +features, and, more than all, the wondrous smile, which would have made +a plain face handsome. She was full of life and spirits, with enough of +coquetry about her to fascinate and turn older heads than mine.</p> + +<p>"Of course I came to love her, and loved her all the more for the +opposition I knew my family would throw in the way of my marrying the +daughter of an English apothecary, and one who was voluntarily filling a +servant's place. But with my mother across the sea, I could do anything; +and when Genevra told me of a base fellow, as she termed him, who, since +she was a child, had sought her for his wife, and still pursued her with +his letters, my passions all were roused, and I offered myself at once. +I do not think she anticipated this when she told me of the letters, as +it might seem to you. She was neither designing nor artful, but, on the +contrary, wholly open-hearted and truthful, telling me the contents of +the letter because I found her weeping over it and insisted upon knowing +the cause. Her answer to my offer was a decided refusal. She knew her +position, she said, and she knew mine, just as she knew the nature of +the feeling which prompted me to act thus toward her. Although just my +age, she was older in judgment and experience, and she seemed to +understand the difference between our relative positions. I was not +indifferent to her, she said, and were she my equal her answer might be +otherwise than the decided no.</p> + +<p>"Of course this only made me more eager, particularly as during the next +two weeks she avoided me as much as possible, never stopping alone with +me for a moment or giving me a chance to say a word in private. Madly in +love, and fancying I could not live without her, I besieged her with +letters, some of which she returned unopened, while on the others she +wrote a few hurried lines, calling me a boy, who did not know my own +mind, and asking what my friends would say.</p> + +<p>"I cared little for friends, urging my suit the more vehemently, as we +were about going into Scotland, where our marriage could be celebrated +in private at any time. I say in private, for I did not contemplate +making the affair public at once. That would take from the interest and +romance, while, unknown to myself, there was at heart a fear of my +family.</p> + +<p>"But not to dwell too long upon those days, which seem to me now so like +a dream, we went to Scotland and were married privately, for I won her +to this at last. And now comes the part where Jamie is concerned. On the +night of our marriage, Genevra, who had obtained permission to be absent +on a plea of visiting a friend, had procured some one to take charge of +Jamie, a red-faced girl from Edinburgh, who, unused to children, perched +the child upon her shoulder, and while in this condition let him fall, +injuring his spine and making him a cripple for life. Genevra never +forgave herself for that sad accident, which would not have happened had +she remained at her post, while to me Jamie has ever since been a sacred +thing, his helplessness which he bears so meekly a constant reproach, +reminding me of what I would had never been."</p> + +<p>"Then you are sorry you married Genevra?" Katy exclaimed, turning partly +toward him, and giving the first token she as yet had given that she was +listening to the story.</p> + +<p>Sometimes Wilford was sorry and sometimes he was not, for there was a +world of pleasurable excitement connected with those months of secrecy, +those private interviews, those stolen kisses, and little acts of +endearment, which so intoxicated and bewildered him that the talking of +them now brought something of the olden thrill he had experienced, when +for a moment he held Genevra's hand in his or wound his arm around her +waist, knowing he had a perfect right to do so. But it was better not to +confess this to Katy, and so he evaded the question, and continued:</p> + +<p>"My brother's failing health, as well as Hatty's, prevented them from +suspecting what was going on, and when at last we went to Italy they had +no idea that Genevra was my wife. At Rome her beautiful face attracted +much attention from tourists and residents, among whom were a few young +men, who, looking upon her as Jamie's nurse, or at most a companion for +his mother, made no attempt to disguise their admiration. For this I had +no redress except in an open avowal of the relation in which I stood to +her, and this I could not then do, for the longer it was deferred the +harder I found it to acknowledge her my wife. I loved her devotedly, and +that perhaps was one great cause of the jealousy which began to spring +up and embitter my life.</p> + +<p>"I do not believe that Genevra was at heart a coquette. She was very +fond of admiration, but when she saw how much I was disturbed she +made an effort to avoid those who flattered her, but her manner was +unfortunate, while her voice—the sweetest I ever heard—was calculated +to invite rather than repel attention. As the empress of the world, she +would have won and kept the homage of mankind, from the humblest beggar +in the street to the king upon the throne, and had I been older I should +have been proud of what then was my greatest annoyance. But I was +young—a mere boy—and so I watched her jealously, until a new element +of disquiet was presented to me in the shape of a ruffianly looking +fellow, who was frequently seen about the premises, and with whom I once +found Genevra in close converse, starting and blushing guiltily when I +came upon her, while her companion went swiftly from my sight.</p> + +<p>"'It was an old English acquaintance, who was poor and asking charity,' +she said, when questioned, but her manner led me to think there was +something wrong, particularly as I saw her with him again, and thought +she held his hand.</p> + +<p>"It was evident that my brother would never see America again, and at +his request my mother came to us, in company with a family from Boston, +reaching us two weeks before he died. From the first, she disliked +Genevra, suspecting the liking between us, but never dreaming of the +truth until a week after Jack's death, when in a fit of anger at Genevra +for listening to an English artist, who had asked to paint her picture, +the story of the marriage came out, and like a child dependent on its +mother for advice, I asked, 'What shall I do?'</p> + +<p>"You know mother, Katy—that is, you know her pride—and can in part +understand how she would scorn a girl who, though born to better things, +was still found in the capacity of a waiting maid. I never saw her so +moved as she was for a time, after learning that her only living son, +from whom she expected so much, had thrown himself away, as she +expressed it. Sister Hatty, who loved Genevra, did all she could to heal +the growing difference between us, but I trusted mother most. I believed +that what she said was right, and so matters grew worse, until one +night, the last we spent in Rome, I missed Genevra from our rooms, and +starting in quest of her, found her in a little flower garden back of +our dwelling. There, under the deep shadow of a tree, and partly +concealed from view, she stood with her arm around the neck of the same +rough-looking man who had been there before. She did not see me as I +stood and watched her while she parted with him, suffering him to kiss +her hand and forehead as he said, 'Good-by, my darling.'</p> + +<p>"In a tremor of anger and excitement I quitted the spot, my mind wholly +made up with regard to my future. That there was something wrong about +Genevra I did not doubt, and I would not give her a chance to explain by +telling her what I had seen, but sent her back to England, giving her +ample means for defraying the expenses of her journey and for living in +comfort after her arrival there. From Rome we went to Naples, and then +to Switzerland, where Hatty died, leaving us alone with little Jamie. It +was here at Berne that I received an anonymous letter from England, the +writer stating that Genevra was with her aunt, that the whole had ended +as he thought it would, that he could readily guess at the nature of the +trouble, and hinting that if a divorce was desirable on my return to +England, all necessary proof could be obtained by applying to such a +number in London, the writer announcing himself a brother of the man who +had once sought Genevra, and saying he had always opposed the match, +knowing Genevra's family.</p> + +<p>"This was the first time the idea of a divorce had entered my mind. +Instead of that the hope that Genevra might in some way be restored to +me unspotted, had unconsciously been the daystar of my existence, and I +shrank from a final separation. But mother felt differently. It was not +a new thought to her, knowing as she did that the validity of a Scotch +marriage, such as ours, was frequently contested in the English courts. +Once free from Genevra the world this side the water would never know of +that mistake, and she set herself steadily to accomplish her purpose. To +tell you all that followed our return to England and the steps by which +I was brought to sue for a divorce would make my story too long, and so +I will only state that, chiefly by the testimony of the anonymous letter +writer, whose acquaintance we made, a divorce was at last obtained, +Genevra putting in no defense, but as I heard afterward, settling down +to an apathy from which nothing had power to rouse her until the news of +her freedom from me was carried to her, when, amid a paroxysm of tears +and sobs she wrote me a few lines, assuring me of her innocence, +refusing to send back her wedding ring, and saying God would not forgive +me for the great wrong I had done her. I saw her once after that by +appointment and her face haunted me for years. Indeed, I sometimes see +it in my dreams as it confronted me then, with a look which I now know +was a look of deeply injured innocence, for, Katy, Genevra was innocent, +as I found after the time was past when reparation could be made."</p> + +<p>Wilford's voice trembled now, and for a moment there was silence in the +room while he composed himself to go on with the story:</p> + +<p>"She would not live with me again if she could, she said, denouncing +bitterly the Cameron pride and saying she was happier to be free. I +remember I tried to excuse myself, remember saying that if there had +been children or a child I should have paused before taking the decisive +step, and there we parted, but not until she had told me that her +traducer was the old discarded suitor who had sworn to have revenge, and +who, since the divorce, had dared seek her again. A vague suspicion of +this had crossed my mind once before, but the die was cast, and even if +the man were false, what I saw myself in Rome still stood against her +and so my conscience was quieted, while mother was more than glad to be +rid of a daughter-in-law of whose family I knew nothing. Rumors I did +hear of a cousin whose character was not the best, and of the father +who for some crime had fled the country, dying in a foreign land, but as +that was nothing to me now, I passed it by, feeling it was best to be +relieved from one of so doubtful antecedents.</p> + +<p>"In the spring of 185- we came back to New York, where no one had ever +heard of the affair, so quietly and well had it been managed. I was a +young man still, no one except my mother sharing in the secret. With her +I often talked of Genevra, wishing sometimes that I could hear from her, +a wish which was finally gratified. One day I received a note requesting +an interview at a downtown hotel, the writer signing himself as Thomas +Lambert, and adding that I need have no fears as he came to perform an +act of justice, not of retribution. Three hours later I was locked in a +room with Genevra's father, the same man whom I had seen in Rome. +Detected in forgery years before, he had fled from England and had +hidden himself in Rome, where he accidentally met his daughter, and so +that stain was removed. He had heard of the divorce by a letter which +Genevra managed to send him, and braving all difficulties and dangers he +had come back to England and found his child, hearing from her the story +of her wrongs, and as well as he was able setting himself to discover +the author of the calumny. He was not long in tracing it to Le Roy, whom +he found in a dying condition, and who with his last breath confessed +the falsehood which was imposed upon me, he said, partly from motives of +revenge and partly with a hope that free from me Genevra would at the +last turn to him. As proof that Mr. Lambert told me the truth, he +brought the dying man's confession, written in a cramped, trembling +hand, which I recognized at once. The confession ended with the solemn +assertion: 'For aught I know or believe, Genevra Lambert is as pure and +true as any woman living.'</p> + +<p>"I cannot describe the effect this had upon me. I did not love Genevra +then. I had outlived that affection, but I felt remorse and pity for +having wronged her so, and asked how I could make amends.</p> + +<p>"'You cannot,' the old man said, 'except in one way, and that she does +not desire. I did not come here with any wish for you to take her for +your wife again. It was an unequal match which never should have been; +but if you believe her innocent, she will be satisfied. She wanted you +to know it, I wanted you to know it, and so I crossed the sea to find +you.'</p> + +<p>"I sent a letter by him assuring her she stood acquitted in my mind of +all I had suspected her, and asked her pardon for the great wrong I had +done her. The next I heard of her was in the columns of an English +newspaper, which told me she was dead, while in another place a pencil +mark was lightly turned around a paragraph, which said that 'a forger, +Thomas Lambert, who escaped years ago and was supposed to be dead, had +recently reappeared in England, where he was recognized, but not +arrested, for the illness proved fatal.' He was attended, the paper said, +by his daughter, 'a beautiful young girl whose modest mien and gentle +manner had done much toward keeping the officers of justice from her +dying father, no one being able to withstand her pleadings that her +father might die in peace.'</p> + +<p>"I was grateful for this tribute, to Genevra, and I felt that it was +deserved; turning again to the notice of her death, which must have +occurred within a short time of her father's, and was probably induced +by past troubles and recent anxiety for him.</p> + +<p>"'Genevra Lambert died at Alnwick, aged twenty-two.' There could be no +mistake, and with a tear to the memory of the dead whom I had loved and +injured, I burned the paper, feeling that now there was no clew to the +secret I was as anxious to preserve as was my mother.</p> + +<p>"And so the years wore on till I met and married you, withholding from +you that yours was not the first love which had stirred my heart, nor +yours the first head which had slept upon my arm. I meant to tell you, +Katy, but I could not for the great fear of losing you if you knew all. +And then an error concealed so long is hard to be confessed. I took you +across the sea to Brighton, where I first met Genevra, and then to +Alnwick, seeking out the grave which made assurance doubly sure. It was +that one in the far corner of St. Mary's where I went so often and where +once you came, sitting upon the very mound whose headstone bore +Genevra's name. I drew my breath quickly as if the dead were thus +dishonored, but I knew you meant no harm, and as soon as possible I +hurried you away. It was natural that I should make some inquiries +concerning her last days, but lest it should all come out kept me back, +so that I only questioned the old sexton who once was at work nearby. +Calling his attention to the name, I said it was an uncommon one and +asked if he knew the girl.</p> + +<p>"'Not by sight, no,' he said. 'She was only here a few days before she +died. I've heard she was very winsome and that there was a scandal of +some kind mixed up with her.'</p> + +<p>"I would not ask him any more; and without any wrong to you, my wife, I +confess that my tears dropped upon the turf under which I knew Genevra +lay."</p> + +<p>"I am glad they did; I should hate you if you had not cried," Katie +exclaimed, her voice more natural than it had been since the great shock +came, and her own tears falling fast to the memory of Genevra, whose +grave she had sat upon with Wilford standing near.</p> + +<p>A buried wife was not so dreadful to contemplate as a wife divorced but +living still, and Katy's heart did not beat with quite so heavy throbs +of fear and shame as it had at first. But it was very sore with the +feeling that to her almost as great a wrong had been done as to Genevra, +for had he not deceived her from the very first, he and his mother, who +had been the terror of Genevra's life as she was the bane of Katy's.</p> + +<p>"Do you forgive me, Katy? Do you love me as well as ever?" Wilford +asked, stooping down to kiss her, but Katy drew her face away and did +not answer then.</p> + +<p>She did not know herself just how she felt toward him. He did not seem +just like the husband she had trusted in so blindly. It would take a +long time to forget that another head than hers had lain upon his bosom, +and it would take longer yet to blot out the memory of the complaining +words uttered to his mother. She had never thought he could do that, +never dreamed of such a thing, knowing that she would sooner have parted +with her right hand than have complained of him. Her idol had fallen in +more respects than one, and the heart it had bruised in the fall refused +at once to gather the shattered pieces up and call them good as new. She +was not obstinate, she was not sulky, as Wilford began to fancy. She +was only stunned and could not rally at his bidding. He had confessed +the whole, keeping nothing back, and he felt that Katy was unjust not to +acknowledge his magnanimity and restore him to her favor. Again he asked +forgiveness, again bent down to kiss her, but Katy answered: "Not yet, +Wilford, not till I feel all right toward you. A wife's kiss should be +sincere."</p> + +<p>"As you like," trembled on Wilford's lips, but he beat back the words +and walked up and down the room, knowing now that his journey must be +deferred till morning, and wondering if Katy would hold out till then.</p> + +<p>It was long past midnight, but to retire was impossible, and so for one +whole hour he paced through the room, while Katy lay with her eyes +closed and her lips moving occasionally in the words of prayer she tried +to say, asking God to help her, and praying that she might in future lay +her treasures up where they could not so suddenly be swept away. Wearily +the hours passed, and the gray dawn was stealing into the room when +Wilford again approached his wife and said, "You know I was to have left +home last night on business. As I did not go then, it is necessary that +I leave this morning. Are you able to stay alone for three days or more? +Are you willing?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—oh, yes," Katy replied, feeling that to have him gone while she +battled with the pain lying so heavy at her heart would be a great +relief.</p> + +<p>Perhaps he suspected this feeling in part, for he bit his lip +impatiently, and without another word called up the servant whose duty +it was to prepare his early breakfast. Cold and cheerless seemed the +dining-room, to which an hour later he repaired, and tasteless was the +breakfast without Katy there to share it. She had been absent many times +before, but never just as now, with this wide gulf between them, and as +he broke his egg and tried to drink his coffee, Wilford felt like one +from whom every support had been swept away, leaving him tottering and +giddy. He did not like the look of Katy's face or the sound of her +voice, and as he thought upon them, self began to whisper again that she +had no right to stand out so long when he had confessed everything, and +by the time his breakfast was finished Wilford Cameron was, in his own +estimation, an abused an injured man, so that it was with an air of +defiance rather than humility that he went again to Katy. She, too, had +been thinking, and as the result of her thoughts she lifted up her head +as he came in and said, "I can kiss you now, Wilford."</p> + +<p>It was human nature, we suppose—at least it was Wilford's nature—which +for an instant tempted him to decline the kiss proffered so lovingly; +but Katy's face was more than he could withstand, and when again he left +that room the kiss of pardon was upon his lips and comparative quiet was +in his heart.</p> + +<p>"The picture, Wilford—you have forgotten that," Katy called after him, +as he was running down the stairs.</p> + +<p>Wilford would rather have been with her when she first looked upon +Genevra, but there was not time for that, and hastily unlocking his +private drawer he carried the case to Katy's room, laying it upon the +bureau and saying to her: "I would not mind it now, until it is fully +light. Try and sleep a while. You need the rest so much."</p> + +<p>Katy knew she had the whole day before her in which to investigate the +face of one who once had filled her place, and so she nestled down among +her pillows, and soon fell into a quiet sleep, from which Esther, who +looked in upon her several times, at last awakened her, asking if she +should bring her breakfast to her room.</p> + +<p>"Yes, do," Katy replied, adjusting her dress and trying to arrange the +matted curls, which were finally confined in a net until Esther's more +practiced hands were ready to attack them.</p> + +<p>And all this while the picture lay upon the bureau—the square, +old-fashioned daguerreotype, which Katy shrank from opening.</p> + +<p>"I'll wait till after breakfast," she said; then as the thought came +over her that if the face proved as beautiful as Wilford had described, +she in her present forlorn condition would feel the contrast deeply, she +said, "I'll wait till Esther has fixed my hair; then I will look at +Genevra."</p> + +<p>Breakfasting did not occupy her long, and Esther soon was busy with her +toilet, combing out and looping-back her curls, and bringing a plain +dress of rich bombazine, with fresh bands of white crape, as had been +worn the previous day. Katy's toilet was complete at last, and as Esther +closed the door behind her, Katy, with a trembling hand, took from the +drawer, where she had hid it from Esther's eyes, the picture of Genevra +Lambert.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI" ></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<h3>THE EFFECT.</h3> + + +<p>With a shiver Katy held it a moment in her lap, noticing how old and +worn it looked—noticing, too, the foreign mark upon it, and that one +hinge was broken, wondering if all this wear had come from frequent use. +Had Wilford looked often at that picture?—and if so, what were his +feelings as he looked? Was he sorry that Genevra died? Did he sometimes +wish her there, instead of Katy Lennox, of Barlow origin? Did he +contrast their faces one with the other, giving the preference to +Genevra, or was Katy's liked the best? All these questions Katy asked +herself, while her fingers fluttered about the clasp, which she half +dreaded to unfasten.</p> + +<p>Cautiously, very cautiously, at last the lid was opened, and a lock of +soft brown hair fell out, clinging to Katy's hand as if it had been a +living thing, and making her shudder with fear as she shook off the +silken tress and remembered that the head it once adorned was lying in +St. Mary's churchyard, where the English daisies grew.</p> + +<p>"She had pretty hair," she thought; "darker, richer than mine," and into +Katy's heart there crept a feeling akin to jealousy, lest Genevra had +been fairer than herself, as well as better loved. "I won't be foolish +any longer," she said, and turning resolutely to the light she opened +the lid again and saw Genevra Lambert, starting quickly, then looking +again more closely—then, with a gasp, panting for breath, while like +lightning flashes the past came rushing over her, as, with her eyes +fixed upon that picture, she tried to whisper, "It is—it is!"</p> + +<p>She could not then say whom, for if she were right in her belief, +Genevra was not dead. There were no daisies growing on her grave, for +she still walked the earth a living woman, whom Katy knew so +well—Marian Hazelton. That was the name Katy could not speak, as, with +the blood curdling in her veins and freezing about her heart, she sat +comparing the face she remembered so well with the one before her. In +some points they were unlike, for thirteen years had slightly marred the +youthful contour of the face she knew—had sharpened the features and +thinned the abundant hair; but still there could be no mistake. The +eyes, the brow, the smile, the nose, all were the same, and with a pang +bitterer than she yet had felt, poor Katy fell upon her face and asked +that she might die. In her utter ignorance of law, she fancied that if +Genevra were alive, she had no right to Wilford's name—no right to be +his wife—especially as the sin for which Genevra was divorced had by +her never been committed, and burning tears of bitter shame ran down her +cheeks as she whispered, "'What God hath joined together let no man put +asunder.' Those are God's words, and how dare the world act otherwise? +She is his wife, and I—oh! I don't know what I am!" and on the carpet +where she was kneeling Katy writhed in agony as she tried to think what +she must do. Not stay there—she could not do that now—not, at least, +until she knew for sure that she was Wilford's wife, in spite of +Genevra's living. Maybe she was; there was a Mrs. Grainier in the city +divorced from her first husband and living with her second; but then the +man was a profligate, a most abandoned wretch, who had not been proved +innocent, as Genevra had, and that must make a difference. "Oh, if there +was only some one to advise me—some one who knew and would tell me what +was right," Katy moaned, feeling herself inadequate to meet the dark +hour alone.</p> + +<p>But to whom should she go? To Father Cameron? No, nor to his mother. +They might counsel wrong for the sake of secrecy. Would Mark Ray or Mrs. +Banker know? Perhaps; but they were strangers—her trouble must not be +told to them, and then with a great bound her heart turned at last to +Morris. He knew everything. He would not sanction a wrong. He would tell +her just what was right, and she could trust him fully in everything. +There was no other person whom she could believe just as she could him. +Uncle Ephraim was equally as good and conscientious, but he did not know +as much as Morris—he did not understand everything. Morris was her +refuge, and to him she would go that very day, leaving a note for +Wilford in case she never came back, as possibly she might not. And +then, like an imprisoned bird, which sees its cage door opened at last, +but dreads the freedom offered, Katy drew her bleeding wings close to +her side and shrank from the cold world which lay outside that home of +luxury. But when she remembered that possibly she had no right to stay +there, she grew strong again, and, seizing her pen, dashed off a wild, +impassioned letter, which, if her husband did not find her there on his +return, would tell him where she was and why she had gone. This she left +in a drawer appropriated to Wilford's use, and where he could not fail +to find it; but the picture she put in her own pocket, not caring to +part with that. Had Marian been in the city she would have gone to her +at once, but Marian was where long rows of cots are ranged against the +hospital walls, each holding a maimed and suffering soldier, to whom she +ministered so tenderly, the brightness of her smile and the beauty of +her face deluding the delirious ones into the belief that the journey of +life for them was ended and heaven reached at last, where an angel in +woman's garb attended upon them. Marian was impossible, and Dr. Grant +was the only alternative left.</p> + +<p>Summoning Esther, Katy told her, in as calm a voice as she could +command, that, feeling very lonely, she was going out to spend the day, +and probably the night. At all events the servants were not to expect +her until she came.</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am—going to Mr. Cameron's, I suppose?" Esther said, and as +Katy made no answer the impression in Esther's mind was that she would +spend the day and night at the elder Cameron's, as she had done once +before when Wilford was away.</p> + +<p>And this was the intelligence carried to the servants, who wondered that +their mistress did not order the carriage, but started off on foot, her +face looking ghastly white beneath the folds of her crape veil as she +closed the door behind and looked back at the home she might be leaving +forever. The carriage, she knew, would lead to detection, and as it was +not far to the New Haven depot, she kept on her way until the train was +reached, and she in a seat by herself was looking with eyes which could +not weep over the city she was so fast leaving behind. Had she for one +moment suspected Morris's love, all her womanly instincts would have +kept her from seeking him then, but she had no such suspicion. Morris +was her elder brother, and like a stricken sister she was going to him +with her grief, sure of sympathy and sure of counsel for the right.</p> + +<p>The afternoon was cold and stormy, so that it was late in the evening +when the long train reached West Silverton, where Katy was to stop. +Owing to the storm but few were at the depot, and among them none who +recognized Katy Cameron beneath the heavy veil she kept so closely over +her face, even while asking for a conveyance out to Linwood. It was a +comparative boy who volunteered his services, and as he had recently +come to Silverton he knew nothing of Katy or of Dr. Grant, so that she +was saved from all embarrassment upon that point; her driver never +addressing her except to ask the way, which was not wholly familiar to +him.</p> + +<p>"Turn here. Yes, that is right," she said, when they reached the road +which led to Linwood, and a feeling like guilt crept over her as through +the leafless trees and across the meadow land she spied the farmhouse +light shining through the drifting snow as if beckoning her to come. +"Not yet—not now. I must see Morris first," she answered mentally to +that silent invitation, and drawing the buffalo skin around her with a +shiver. She did not look again toward the farmhouse, but onward to where +the lights of Linwood shone through the wintry darkness. "This is the +place," she said, and in a moment she stood upon the broad stone steps, +shaking the snow from her cloak, while the boy waited a moment, hoping +to be invited to share the warmth he felt there was within that handsome +building.</p> + +<p>Katy would rather he should not stop, but when she saw how cold he was +she began to relent, and telling him where to shelter his horse, pointed +to the basement bidding him go in there. Then, with a hesitating step +on she began to wonder what Morris would say, she crossed the wide +piazza and softly turning the door knob, stood in the hall at Linwood.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII" ></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> + +<h3>THE INTERVIEW.</h3> + + +<p>Dr. Morris was very tired, for his labors that day had been unusually +severe, and it was with a feeling of comfort and relief that he had +turned his steps homeward just as the night was closing in, finding a +bright fire waiting for him in the library, where his supper was soon +brought by the housekeeper, Mrs. Hull, the other servants having gone to +an adjoining town to attend the wedding party of a former associate. It +was very pleasant in that cozy library of oak and green, with the bright +fire on the hearth, the heavy curtains shutting out all traces of the +storm, and the smoking supper set so temptingly before him. And Morris +felt the comfort of his home, thanking the God who had given him all +this, and chiding his wayward heart that it had ever dared to repine. He +was not repining to-night; he had not repined for many a day, though he +never sat down at home after his day's labor in slippers and +dressing-gown, with a new book beside him on the table, that there was +not a sense of something wanting, a glancing at the empty chair across +the hearth, a thought perhaps of Katy, who could squeeze the whole of +her slight form into that chair. But he was not thinking of her now, as +with his hands crossed upon his head he sat looking into the fire and +watching the bits of glowing anthracite dropping into the pan. He was +thinking of the sickbed which he had visited last, and how a faith in +Jesus can make the humblest room like the gate of heaven; thinking how +the woman's eyes had sparkled when she told him of the other world, +where she would never know pain, or hunger, or cold again, and how +quickly their luster was dimmed when she spoke of her absent husband, +the soldier to whom the news of her death with the child he had never +seen would be a crushing blow.</p> + +<p>"They who have neither wife nor child are the happier perhaps," he said, +and then the thought of Katy and her great sorrow when baby died, +wondering if to spare herself that pain she would rather baby had never +been. "No—oh, no," he answered to his own inquiry. "She would not lose +the memory which comes from that little grave for all the world +contains. It is better once to love and lose than not to love at all. In +heaven we shall see and know why these things were permitted, and marvel +at the poor human nature which rebelled against them."</p> + +<p>Just at this point of his soliloquy the door opened, so softly that he +did not hear it turn upon its hinges, nor hear the light footstep on the +carpet as Katy came in. But when she coughed he started up in wonder at +the apparition standing so still before him.</p> + +<p>"Morris, oh, Morris," Katy cried, throwing back her veil and revealing a +face which Morris could not believe was hers for the lines of suffering +and distress stamped so legibly upon it.</p> + +<p>But it was Katy, as the voice implied, and, seizing her cold hands, +Morris asked: "Katy, why are you here to-night, and why are you alone? +Has anything happened? Tell me! your looks frighten me!"</p> + +<p>"I am so wretched—so full of pain. I have heard of something dreadful," +she replied—"something which took my life away. I could not stay there +after that, and so I come to you. I am not Wilford's wife, for he had +another, before me—a wife in Italy—who is not dead! And I—oh! Morris, +what am I? Untie my bonnet, do! It is choking me to death! I am—yes—I +am—going—to faint!"</p> + +<p>It was the first time Katy had put the great horror in words addressed +to another, and the act of doing so made it more appalling, while the +excitement and fatigue she had endured, together with the action of the +heat upon her chilled system, took her strength away, and into the chair +where Morris had so often seen her in fancy, she sank a crumpled heap of +cloaks and furs and bonnet, which Morris tried to remove so as to reach +the limp, fainting creature which had said: "I am not Wilford's wife, +for he had another before me—a wife in Italy—who is not dead."</p> + +<p>Dr. Morris was thoroughly a man, and though much of his sinful nature +had been subdued, there was enough left to make his heart rise and fall +with great throbs of joy as he thought of Katy free, even though that +freedom were bought at the expense of dire disgrace to others and of +misery to her. But only for a moment did he feel thus, only till the +bonnet was removed and the gaslight fell upon the pallid face with the +dark rings beneath the eyes, and the faint, quivering motion around the +lips, which told that she was not wholly unconscious.</p> + +<p>"My poor little wounded bird," he said, as pityingly as if he had been +her father, while, much as a father might kiss his suffering child, he +kissed the forehead and the eyelids where the tears began to gather.</p> + +<p>Katy was not insensible, and the name by which he called her, with the +kisses that he gave, thawed the ice around her heart and brought a flood +of tears which Morris wiped away, removing her heavy fur and lifting her +gently up, while he took away the cloak and left her unencumbered. With +a sigh she sank back into the chair, and, leaning her head upon its +cushioned arm, moaned like a weary child.</p> + +<p>"It is so pleasant to be here, and it rests me so. I wish I might never +go away. May I stay here, Morris, as your housekeeper, instead of Mrs. +Hull?—that is, if I am not his wife. The world might despise me, but +you would know I was not to blame. I should go nowhere but to the +farmhouse, to church, and baby's grave. Poor baby! I am glad God gave +her to me, even if I am not Wilford's wife; and I am glad now that she +died."</p> + +<p>She was talking to herself rather than to Morris, who, smoothing back +her hair and chafing her cold hands, said:</p> + +<p>"My poor child, you have passed through some agitating scene. Are you +able now to tell me all about it, and what you mean by another wife?"</p> + +<p>He saw she was greatly exhausted, and he brought her a glass of wine, +hoping she would rally. She had no supper, she said, except a cracker +bought in Springfield, but the moment he turned to the bellrope she +begged him not to ring. She was not hungry—she could not eat. She +should never eat again.</p> + +<p>Wishing himself to know something definite ere going to Mrs. Hull, +Morris yielded to her entreaties, and sitting down in front of her, said +again: "Now tell me what brought you here without your husband's +knowledge."</p> + +<p>There was a shiver, and the white lips grew still whiter as Katy began +her story, going back to St. Mary's churchyard, and then coming to her +first night in New York, when Juno had told her of a picture and asked +her whose it was. Then she told of Wilford's admission of an earlier +love, who, he said, was dead; of the trouble about the baby's name, and +his aversion to Genevra; of his frequent abstracted moods, which she +remembered now, never suspecting at the time their cause, and not +knowing now for certain that Genevra was the subject of his thoughts. +But it was safe to believe almost anything of one who had deceived her +so cruelly, and Katy's blue eyes flashed resentfully as she uttered the +first bitter words she had ever breathed against her husband. But when +she approached the dinner at the elder Cameron's, her lip quivered in a +grieved kind of way as she remembered what Wilford had said of her to +his mother, but she would not tell this to Morris, it was not necessary +to her story, and so she said: "They were talking of what I ought never +to have heard, and it seemed as if the walls were closing me in so that +I could not move to let them know I was there. I said to myself, 'I +shall go mad after this,' and I thought of you all coming to see me in +the madhouse, your kind face, Morris, coming up distinctly before me, +just as it would look at me if I were really crazed. But all this was +swept away like a hurricane when I heard the rest, the part about +Genevra, Wilford's other wife."</p> + +<p>Katy was panting for breath and Morris brought the wine again, after +which she went on with the story, which made Morris clinch his hands as +he comprehended the deceit which had been practiced so long. Of course +he did not look at it as Katy did, for he knew that according to all +civil law she was as really Wilford's wife as if no other had existed, +and he told her so, but Katy shook her head: "He can't have two wives +living, and I tell you I knew the picture—Genevra is not dead. I have +seen her; I have talked with her—Genevra is not dead."</p> + +<p>"Granted that she is not," Morris answered, "the divorce remains the +same."</p> + +<p>"I do not believe in divorces. 'Whom God hath joined together let no man +put asunder,'" Katy said with an air which implied that from this +argument there could be no appeal.</p> + +<p>"That is the Scripture I know," Morris replied, "but you must remember +that for one sin our Savior permitted a man to put away his wife, thus +making it perfectly right."</p> + +<p>"But in Genevra's case the sin did not exist. She was as innocent as I +am, and that must make a difference."</p> + +<p>She was very earnest in her attempts to prove that Genevra was still a +lawful wife, so earnest that a dark suspicion entered Morris's mind, +finding vent in the question, "Katy, don't you love your husband, that +you try so hard to prove he is not yours?"</p> + +<p>There were red spots all over Katy's face and neck as she saw the +meaning put upon her actions, and covering her face with her hands she +sobbed violently as she replied: "I do, oh, yes, I do. I never loved any +one else. I would have died for him once. Maybe I would die for him now; +but, Morris, I fear he is disappointed in me. Our tastes are not alike, +and we made a great mistake, or Wilford did when he took me for his +wife. I was better suited to most anybody else, and I have been so +wicked since, forgetting all the good I ever knew, forgetting prayer +save as I went through the form from old habit's sake, forgetting God, +who has overtaken me at last and punished me so sorely that every nerve +smarts with the stinging blows."</p> + +<p>Oh, how lovingly, how earnestly Morris talked to Katy then, telling her +of Him who smites but to heal, who chastens not in anger, but who would +lead the lost one back into the quiet fold where there was perfect +peace.</p> + +<p>And Katy, listening eagerly, with her great blue eyes fixed upon his +face, felt that to be like him, to experience that of which he talked, +was worth more than all the world beside. Gradually; too, there stole +over her the rest she always felt with him—the indescribable feeling +which prompted her to care for nothing except to do just what he bade +her do, knowing it was right. So when he said at last, "You must go back +to New York; this is no place for you," she offered no remonstrance; but +when he continued, "And you must go to-night; that is, you must take the +early morning train, so as to reach the city before any one has had a +chance to read the letter," she demurred at once. "She must see mother; +she must see Helen; she must tell Helen who Genevra was. She wanted her +to know it, but no one else. She must visit baby's grave; she could not +go back without it."</p> + +<p>"Not if it is right?" Morris asked, and Katy began to waver when he told +her how much better it would be for her family not to know of this visit +to him, as it would trouble them. She could tell Wilford, if she liked, +but he must not be permitted to find the letter, as he would if he +returned while she was gone. "I will go with you. It is not safe for you +to go alone," he continued, feeling her rapid pulse and noticing the +alternate flushing and paling of her cheek.</p> + +<p>A fever was coming on, he feared, and it must not be there with him, for +more reasons than one. She must return to New York, or, failing to do +that, he must take her across the fields to the farmhouse before the +coming dawn.</p> + +<p>"Are you sick, Katy?" he asked, as she appeared to be growing stupid.</p> + +<p>"Not sick, no; only so tired, so sleepy," and the heavy lids closed over +the dull eyes, while Katy's head still lay upon the cushioned arm of the +large chair.</p> + +<p>Her position was not an easy one, and wheeling the lounge to the fire +Morris brought a pillow from his sleeping room adjoining, and taking +Katy in his arms laid her where she would at least be more comfortable +than in the chair. Wrapping his shawl about her and turning down the gas +so as to shield her eyes, he left her alone, while he went to Mrs. Hull, +puzzling her brain to know who the lady was, brought there that stormy +night, and talking so long and earnestly with the doctor. The driver boy +was gone, and thinking it possible that their visitor might be wanting +supper, the thoughtful woman had put the kettle on the stove, where it +was sending forth volumes of steam just as Morris appeared. If he went +to New York with Katy he must trust Mrs. Hull with his reasons for +going, and as from past experience he believed she could be trusted, he +frankly told her that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was in the library; that +circumstances rendered it desirable for her to return to New York as +soon as possible; that as she could not go alone he must of course go +with her, and he expected Mrs. Hull not only to help him off, but also +to keep the fact of Katy's having been there a secret from every one.</p> + +<p>"Some trouble with that high-headed husband of hers; I always mistrusted +him," was Mrs. Hull's mental conclusion, as she nodded assent to what +Morris had said, asking if he proposed taking the early morning train +which passed at four o'clock, and who did he expect would drive his +cutter back, as the boys would not be home before broad daylight.</p> + +<p>Here was a dilemma of which Morris had not thought, but Mrs. Hull's +woman's wits came to his aid, suggesting that he "leave his horse at the +tavern in West Silverton and she would send John after it as soon as he +returned."</p> + +<p>This arranged, Mrs. Hull next asked if Katy would not have some supper +before her long ride.</p> + +<p>"A cup of tea and a slice of toast was all she would require," Morris +said, and he felt many doubts about her touching that.</p> + +<p>She was sleeping when he returned to her, but when the tea was ready, +she roused up enough to say she did not want it.</p> + +<p>"Make her drink it if you ever expect to get her to New York," Mrs. Hull +suggested, alarmed at the redness of Katy's face, and the brightness of +her eyes.</p> + +<p>"You must drink it," Morris said. "It will make you stronger for the +ride. We are going very soon, you know—going to New York," and he shook +her shoulder gently as he tried to make her comprehend.</p> + +<p>When he said she must, Katy lifted up her head, doing whatever he bade +her do, and seeming more natural for the exertion and the food she took.</p> + +<p>"Let me rest now for a little while," she said, and lying back upon her +pillow she slept for an hour, while Morris knelt beside her, counting +her rapid pulse, marking the progress of the fever and praying +earnestly that she might be able to reach New York, and that no serious +consequences would result from his taking her there that night.</p> + +<p>To others it might seem a crazy project, but Morris felt that it was +right, and he nerved himself to his part of the toil, harnessing his own +horse and leading him around to the door, where he left him while he +went to get Katy ready. She was not sleeping now, for the powerful +stimulant given just before leaving her had taken effect, and she seemed +a great deal better, fastening her cloak herself and tying her own +bonnet, while Morris put an extra shawl around her, and Mrs. Hull +brought the hot soapstone prepared for her feet. Then, when all was +ready, Morris carried her to the covered sleigh, wrapping robes and furs +around her so that it seemed impossible she should take cold.</p> + +<p>The storm had now abated, and the moon shone brightly upon the cold, +frosty snow, as they sped along, Morris' bells tinkling in the clear +cutting air, and occasionally waking some light sleeper, who knew those +musical bells, and said: "That is the doctor," wondering who was sick, +and as they nestled down again in their warm bed, feeling glad that they +were not obliged to be abroad in a wintry night like this. There was no +one at the West Silverton depot except the man who always stayed there, +and he was too nearly asleep to notice whether it was one or twenty +ladies whom Morris accompanied into the sitting-room, going next to +provide for his horse at the hotel nearby.</p> + +<p>This done he came back to Katy, staying by her until the early train +came swiftly in, pausing only for a moment, and when next it moved +forward, bearing him and Katy on the strange journey to New York.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" ></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>GETTING HOME.</h3> + + +<p>Springfield was left behind just as the gray daylight came stealing +through the frost-bound windows, rousing the sleepy passengers, and +making Morris pull his wide collar a little closer about his face as if +to avoid observation. He was not afraid of daylight except as it might +disclose some old acquaintance who would perhaps wonder to see him at +that hour between Springfield and Hartford, and wonder more whose was +the head resting so confidentially upon his shoulder, for after the +change at Springfield, Katy, who could no longer keep awake, had leaned +against his arm as readily as if he had been her brother.</p> + +<p>A secret of any kind makes its possessor suspicious, and Morris felt +anxious whenever any one glanced that way, but he would not waken Katy, +who slept upon his arm until New York was reached, when with a +frightened, startled feeling, she sat up, and pushing her veil from her +face, looked about her, nodding half unconsciously to Thomas Tubbs, whom +she knew from having seen him in her husband's office, and who since +leaving Hartford had been a passenger on board that train, sitting just +behind Dr. Morris, and wondering when he saw who his companion was, "if +Mrs. Wilford had been to Silverton." Mattie wondered, too, when he told +her, as she poured his half-cold coffee, and then it passed from his +mind, until the following morning when he heard Mark Ray saying to a +client who had asked when Mr. Cameron would probably return:</p> + +<p>"If he does not come to-day, we shall telegraph for him, as his wife is +very sick."</p> + +<p>Then Tom remembered how white and haggard Katy's face had looked, and +many times that day his mind recurred to Katy Cameron, whom in his +boyish way he had admired as something supernaturally beautiful, and +who, in her own room at home, lay burning with fever, and talking of +Silverton, of Linwood, of baby, of Genevra, and of Wilford.</p> + +<p>Morris had seen her safely to her own door, and then thinking she would +do best alone for a time, he left her on the steps, after having rung +the bell and seen that the ring was answered.</p> + +<p>It was Esther who met her, expressing much concern at her appearance, +and asking why she did not stay at Father Cameron's instead of coming +home this cold raw day.</p> + +<p>Hardly knowing what she did, Katy motioned Esther to her after reaching +her room, and whispered:</p> + +<p>"I have not been to Father Cameron's. I had business somewhere else, but +you must not tell. I am in trouble, Esther, or rather, I have been. I +guess it's over now. You are a good girl, and I can trust you. There's +a letter in that drawer, please bring it to me."</p> + +<p>Either complied, and Katy held in her hand the letter left for Wilford. +It had not been opened. It must never be opened now, and holding it +until a fire was kindled in the grate, she tossed it into the flames, +watching it as it crispened and blackened upon the glowing coals.</p> + +<p>The quick-witted Esther saw that something was wrong, and traced it +readily to Wilford, whose exacting nature she thoroughly understood. She +had not been blind during the two years and a half she had been Katy's +maid, and no impatient word of Wilford's, or frown upon his face, had +escaped her when occurring in her presence, while Katy's uniform +sweetness and entire submission to his will had been noted as well, so +that in Esther's opinion Wilford was a domestic tyrant, and Katy was an +angel. There was no danger then of Esther's repeating anything +forbidden. She had, of course, her own private speculation on the +subject, and when she learned that the tall, handsome man who came +within an hour after Katy's arrival was Dr. Grant, about whom she had +heard both her young mistress and Mrs. Cameron talk so much, her woman's +wits came to her aid again, and to herself she said:</p> + +<p>"It's to Silverton Mrs. Cameron went, though how she could get there and +back so soon is a mystery to me, or why she went at all."</p> + +<p>Then as she remembered all the circumstances which followed the dinner +for which Katy had dressed with so much care, and the burning of the +letter, a wild conjecture passed through her mind as to the nature of +the trouble which had taken Katy to Silverton in her husband's absence, +leaving a letter for him, and then burning it up when she came back, +accompanied by Dr. Grant. For that he did come with her Esther was sure, +as she saw him on the steps when she answered Katy's ring, and knew the +man who now sat in the parlor waiting for her to take his name to Katy +was the same.</p> + +<p>"There is something in the wind," she thought, as she carried Morris' +name to Katy, who did not seem to hear, or if she did, she paid no heed, +but talked of the blinding snow, and the grave in St. Mary's churchyard, +which was no grave at all.</p> + +<p>Her manner, more than her looks, frightened the girl, who retreated down +the stairs, meeting Morris in the hall, and saying as she grasped his +arm:</p> + +<p>"You are a doctor, Dr. Grant. Come, then, to Mrs. Cameron. She is taken +out of her head, and talks so queer and raving."</p> + +<p>Morris had expected this, but he was not prepared to find the fever so +high, or the symptoms so alarming.</p> + +<p>"Shall I send for Mrs. Cameron and another doctor, please?" Esther +asked.</p> + +<p>Morris had faith in himself, and he would rather no other hand should +minister to Katy; but he knew he could not stay there long, for there +were those at home who needed his services. Added to this, her family +physician might know her constitution now better than he knew it, and so +he answered that it would be well to send for both the doctor and Mrs. +Cameron.</p> + +<p>It was growing dark now in the city, and the shadows were stealing into +the room where Morris sat down to wait for other counsel and the arrival +of Mrs. Cameron. To the servants in the kitchen Esther stated, with a +very matter-of-course air, that her mistress had come home, feeling +sick, and that as she seemed getting worse, she was to send to Madam +Cameron, adding that it was a piece of great good luck that Dr. Grant, +from Silverton, who was her cousin, happened to be in the city, and had +called just when he was needed the most.</p> + +<p>"He was the doctor whom Jamie talked so much about," she said; "the +doctor whom the family met in Paris," dwelling so long on Dr. Grant and +discussing him so volubly that Phillips and the other servants lost +sight entirely of what had struck them a little oddly, to wit: that Mrs. +Wilford should leave Father Cameron's if she was so very sick.</p> + +<p>It was Esther who met Mrs. Cameron in the hall, conducting her into the +parlor and adopting a different style of argument with her from that +used in the basement. "Mrs. Wilford was not well when her husband went +away; but of course he thought nothing of it, neither did +she—Esther—until to-day, when she came in from the street, looking +very badly, and going directly to her bed, where she had been growing +worse ever since."</p> + +<p>"Yes," and Mrs. Cameron beat her foot thoughtfully. "I wish I had called +yesterday. I did speak of it, fearing she would be lonely."</p> + +<p>"I dare say she was," Esther replied, never changing color in the least, +although somewhat afraid she was being driven to the wall. "She seemed +downcast all the morning, but went about noon. I thought maybe she would +call on you."</p> + +<p>"I wish she had," Mrs. Cameron replied, and then Esther told her how +providential it was that a Dr. Grant from Silverton happened to come to +New York that very day. Of course he called upon his cousin, first +sending up his card, and then going himself when told that Mrs. Cameron +was out of her head and did not understand who was waiting to see her.</p> + +<p>Completely befogged with regard to a part of the play enacting before +her eyes, Mrs. Cameron exclaimed: "Dr. Grant, of Silverton! I have the +utmost confidence in his skill. Still, it may be well for Dr. Craig to +see her. I think that is his ring."</p> + +<p>The city and country physicians agreed exactly with regard to Katy's +illness, or rather the city physician bowed in acquiescence when Morris +said to him that the fever raging so high had perhaps been induced by +natural causes, but was greatly aggravated by some sudden shock to the +nervous system. This was before Mrs. Cameron came up, but it was +repeated in her presence by Dr. Craig, who thus left the impression that +the idea had originated with himself rather than with Dr. Grant, as +perhaps he thought it had. He was at first inclined to patronize the +country doctor, but soon found that he had reckoned without his host. +Morris knew more of Katy and quite as much of medicine as he did +himself, and when Mrs. Cameron begged him to stay longer he answered +that her son's wife was as safe in his brother physician's hands as she +could be in his.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, she's safer," he added, "for Dr. Grant can watch her every +moment, and I leave her in his care, calling again of course in the +morning."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron was very glad that Dr. Grant was there, she said. It was +surely Providence who sent him to New York on that particular day, and +Morris shivered as he wondered if it were wrong not to explain the whole +to her.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is best she should not know of Katy's journey to Silverton," +he thought, and merely bowing to her remarks, he turned to Katy, who was +growing very restless and moaning as if in pain.</p> + +<p>"It hurts," she said, turning her head from side to side; "I am lying on +Genevra."</p> + +<p>With a sudden start Mrs. Cameron drew nearer, but when she remembered +the little grave at Silverton, she said: "It's the baby she's talking +about."</p> + +<p>Morris knew better, and as Katy still continued to move her head as if +something were really hurting her, he passed his hand under her pillow +and drew out the picture which she had held as long as her consciousness +remained. He knew it was Genevra's picture, and was about to lay it away +when the cover dropped from his hand and his eye fell upon a face which +was not new to him, while an involuntary exclamation of surprise broke +from his lips as Katy's assertion that Genevra was living was thus fully +confirmed. Marian had not changed past recognition since her early +girlhood, and Morris knew the likeness at once, pitying Katy more than +he had pitied her yet, as he remembered how closely Marian Hazelton had +been interwoven with her married life and the life of the little child +which had borne her name.</p> + +<p>"What is that?" Mrs. Cameron asked, and Morris passed the case to her, +saying: "A picture was under Katy's pillow."</p> + +<p>Morris did not look at Mrs. Cameron, but tried to busy himself with the +medicines upon the stand, while she, too, recognized Genevra Lambert, +wondering how it came in Katy's possession, and how much she knew of +Wilford's secret.</p> + +<p>"She most have been rummaging," she thought, and then, as she +remembered what Esther had said about her mistress appearing sick and +unhappy when her husband left, she repaired to the parlor and summoning +Esther to her presence, asked her again: "When she first observed traces +of indisposition in Mrs. Cameron."</p> + +<p>Considerably flurried and anxious to prove true to Katy, Esther replied, +at random: "When she came home from that dinner at your house. She was +just as pale as death, and her teeth fairly chattered as I took off her +things."</p> + +<p>"Dinner? What dinner?" Mrs. Cameron asked, and Esther replied: "Why, the +night Mr. Wilford went away or was to go. She changed her mind about +meeting him at your house and said she meant to surprise him. But she +came home before Mr. Cameron, looking like a ghost and saying she was +sick. It's my opinion something she ate at dinner hurt her."</p> + +<p>"Very likely; yes. You can go now," Mrs. Cameron said, and Esther +departed, never dreaming how much light she had inadvertently thrown +upon the mystery.</p> + +<p>"She must have been in the library and heard all we said," Mrs. Cameron +thought, as she nervously twisted the fringe of her breakfast shawl. "I +remember we talked of Genevra, and I remember, too, that we both heard a +strange sound from some quarter, but thought it came from the kitchen. +That was Katy. She was there all the time and let herself quietly out of +the house. I wonder does Wilford know," and then there came over her an +intense desire for Wilford to come home, a desire which was not lessened +when she returned to Katy's room and heard her talking of Genevra and +the grave at St. Mary's "where nobody was buried."</p> + +<p>In a tremor of distress, lest she should betray something which Morris +must not know, Mrs. Cameron tried to hush her, talking as if it was the +baby she meant, the Genevra who died at Silverton; but Katy answered +promptly: "I'm not to be hoodwinked any longer. It's Genevra Lambert I +mean, Wilford's other wife; the one across the sea, whom you and he +browbeat. She was innocent, too—as innocent as I, whom you both +deceived."</p> + +<p>Here was a phase of affairs for which Mrs. Cameron was not prepared, +and excessively mortified that Morris should hear Katy's ravings, she +tried again to quiet her, consoling herself with the reflection that as +Morris was Katy's cousin, he would not repeat what he heard, and feeling +gratified now that Dr. Craig was absent, as she could not be so sure of +him. If Katy's delirium continued, no one must be admitted to the room +except those who could be trusted, and as there had been already several +rings, she said to Esther that as the fever was probably malignant and +contagious, no one must be admitted to the house with the expectation of +seeing the patient, while the servants were advised to stay in their own +quarters, except as their services might be needed elsewhere. And so it +was that by the morrow the news had spread of some infectious disease at +No. —— on Madison Square, which was shunned as carefully as if the +smallpox itself had been raging there instead of the brain fever, which +increased so fast that Morris suggested to Mrs. Cameron that she +telegraph for Wilford.</p> + +<p>"They might find him, and they might not," Mark Ray said, when the +message came down to the office. "They could try, at all events," and in +a few moments the telegraphic wires were carrying the news of Katy's +illness, both to the West, where Wilford had gone, and to the East, +where Helen read with a blanched cheek that Katy perhaps was dying, and +she was needed again.</p> + +<p>This was Mrs. Cameron's suggestion, wrung out by the knowing that some +woman besides herself was needed in the sickroom, and by the feeling +that Helen could be trusted with the story of the first marriage, which +Katy talked of constantly, telling it so accurately that only a fool +would fail of being convinced that there was much of truth in those +delirious ravings.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX" ></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> + +<h3>THE FEVER AND ITS RESULTS.</h3> + + +<p>On every business paper Wilford wrote or signed, and in every object he +met in his journey, one face had been prominent, and that the face of +Katy as it looked in the gray dawn when it lifted itself up to kiss him, +while the white lips tried to speak his pardon. Sometimes Wilford was +very sorry and full of remorse, knowing how Katy was suffering for his +sin; and then, when he remembered her long refusal to pardon him, +notwithstanding that he sued for it so earnestly, his self-importance +was touched, and he felt she had no right to be so obstinate. He did not +deserve it. He was a very kind, indulgent husband, who had raised her +from the humblest position to the very highest, and she ought not to +feel so indignant because he had kept from her an act which, after all, +did not affect her materially. If Genevra was living, and on this side +of the water, he could understand how it might be unpleasant for Katy +and for him, too, knowing, as they both did, that she was innocent of +the charges alleged against her.</p> + +<p>"I should not myself like to run the risk of meeting a divorced wife at +any time," he thought; "but Genevra is dead, and Katy ought to be more +reasonable. I did not suppose there was so much spirit in her."</p> + +<p>But reason as he might, Wilford could not forget Katy's face, so full of +reproach. It followed him continually, and was the magnet which turned +his steps homeward before his business was quite done, and before the +telegram found him. Thus it was with no knowledge of existing +circumstances that he reached New York just at the close of the day +after Katy's return, and ordering a carriage, was driven rapidly toward +home. All the shutters in the front part of the house were closed and +not a ray of light was to be seen in the parlors as he entered the hall, +where the gas was burning dimly.</p> + +<p>"Katy is at home," he said, as he went into the library, where a shawl +was thrown across a chair, as if some one had lately been there.</p> + +<p>It was his mother's shawl, and Wilford was wondering if she was there, +when down the stairs came a man's rapid step, and the next moment Dr. +Grant stepped into the room, starting when he saw Wilford, who felt +intuitively that something was wrong.</p> + +<p>"Is Katy sick?" was his first question, which Morris answered in the +affirmative, holding him back as he was starting for her room, and +saying to him: "Let me send your mother to you first." What passed +between Wilford and his mother was never known exactly, but at the close +of the interview Mrs. Cameron was very pale, while Wilford's face looked +dark and anxious, as he said: "You think he understands it, then?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in part. Of course he cannot make a very connected story out of +her ravings; but that he believes you had a wife before Katy, I am sure, +just as I am that the world will be none the wiser for his knowledge. I +knew Dr. Grant before you did, and there are few men living whom I +respect as much, and no one whom I would trust as soon."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron had paid a high compliment to Morris Grant, and Wilford +bowed in assent, asking next how she managed Dr. Craig.</p> + +<p>"That was easy, inasmuch as he believed it an insane freak of Katy's to +have no other physician than her cousin. It was quite natural, he said, +adding that she was as safe with Dr. Grant as any one. So that is +settled, and I was glad, for I could not have a stranger know of that +affair. If I thought it would save her life to retain him, I should feel +differently, of course."</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly," Wilford rejoined, while at his heart there was the +germ of a feeling which, if in the slightest degree encouraged, would +almost have given Katy's life to save his darling self-love and honor in +the eyes of the world.</p> + +<p>Few men are as thoroughly selfish as Wilford Cameron, and though he was +very much concerned for Katy, he thought more of preserving a secret +which, if known at this late day, would subject him to much censure and +reproach, than he did of her. So when his mother told him next that +Helen had been sent for, his morbid fears took alarm.</p> + +<p>"Why was it necessary to bring another here?" he asked, so indignantly +that tears sprang to his mother's eyes as she pleaded her own weariness +and inability to remain always in the sickroom, and charged him with +ingratitude for all she had done in his behalf.</p> + +<p>Wilford could not afford to quarrel with his mother, and he quieted her +as soon as possible, admitting that if she must have an assistant he +would rather it were Helen than Bell or Juno, or even Esther, who, in +spite of the alarm about malignant fever, would willingly have +administered to her young mistress, had she been allowed to do so.</p> + +<p>"You will go up now," Mrs. Cameron said to her son, when peace was fully +restored, and a moment after Wilford stood in the dimly-lighted room, +where Katy was talking of going to the hospitals, and of Marian +Hazelton, and was only kept upon her pillow by the strong arm of Morris, +who stood over her when Wilford entered, telling her to "wait until +to-morrow—it would be better then, and she had not seen her husband +yet."</p> + +<p>"I have no husband," she replied, her lip curling with scorn, and her +eyes just then falling upon Wilford, who stood appalled at the fearful +change which had passed over her since he left her three days before.</p> + +<p>She knew him, and writhing herself away from Morris' arms, she raised up +in bed and said to him:</p> + +<p>"I've been at the bottom of things, and Genevra is not in that grave at +St. Mary's. Nobody is there; consequently, she is living, and you are +not my husband. So if you please you can leave the house at once. Morris +will do very well. He will settle the estate, and no bill shall be sent +in for your board and lodging."</p> + +<p>In some moods Wilford would have smiled at being thus summarily +dismissed from his own house and assured that no bill should be sent +after him for board and lodging; but he was too sore now, too sensitive +to smile, and his voice was rather severe as he laid his hand on Katy's, +and said:</p> + +<p>"Don't be foolish, Katy. Don't you know me? I am Wilford, your husband."</p> + +<p>"That was, you mean," Katy rejoined, drawing her hand quickly away. "Go +find your first love, where bullets fall like hail, and where there is +pain, and blood, and carnage. Genevra is there."</p> + +<p>She would not let Wilford come near her, and grew so excited by his +presence that he was forced either to leave the room or sit where she +could not see him. He chose the latter, and from his seat by the door +watched with a half-jealous, half-angry heart, Morris Grant doing for +his wife what he should have done.</p> + +<p>With Morris Katy was gentle as a little child, talking still of +Genevra, but talking quietly, and in a way which did not wear her out +as fast as her excitement did.</p> + +<p>"What God hath joined together let not man put asunder," was the text +from which she preached several short sermons as the night wore on, but +just as the morning dawned she fell into the first quiet sleep she had +had during the last twenty-four hours. And while she slept Wilford +ventured near enough to see the sunken cheeks and hollow eyes which +wrung a groan from him as he turned to Morris, asking what he supposed +was the immediate cause of her sudden illness?</p> + +<p>"A terrible shock, the nature of which I understand, but you have +nothing to fear from me," Morris replied. "I accuse you to no man, but +leave you to settle it with your conscience whether you did right to +deceive her so long."</p> + +<p>Morris spoke as one having authority, and Wilford simply bowed his head, +feeling then no resentment toward one who had ventured to reprove him. +Afterward he might remember it differently, but now he was too anxious +to keep Morris there to quarrel with him, and so he made no reply, but +sat watching Katy as she slept, wondering if she would die, and feeling +how terrible life would be without her. Suddenly Genevra's warning words +rang in his ear:</p> + +<p>"God will not forgive you for the wrong you have done me."</p> + +<p>Was Genevra right? Had God remembered all this time, and overtaken him +at last? It might be, and with a groan Wilford hid his face in his +hands, believing that he repented of his sin, and not knowing that his +fancied repentance arose merely from the fact that he had been detected. +Could the last few days be blotted out, and Katy stand just where she +did, with no suspicion of him, he would have cast his remorse to the +winds, and as it is not such repentance God accepts, Wilford had only +begun to sip the cup of retribution presented to his lips.</p> + +<p>Worn out with watching and waiting, Mrs. Cameron, who would suffer +neither Juno nor Bell to come near the house, waited uneasily for the +arrival of the New Haven train, which she hoped would bring Helen to her +aid. Under ordinary circumstances she would rather not have met her, +for her presence would keep the letter so constantly in her mind, but +now anybody who could be trusted was welcome, and when at last there +came a cautious ring she went herself to the hall, starting back with +undisguised vexation when she saw the timid-looking woman following +close behind Helen, and whom the latter presented as "My mother, Mrs. +Lennox."</p> + +<p>Convinced that Morris' sudden journey to New York had something to do +with Katy's illness, and almost distracted with fears for her daughter's +life, Mrs. Lennox could not remain at home and wait for the tardy mail +or careless telegraph. She must go to her child, and casting off her +dread of Wilford's displeasure, she had come with Helen, and was bowing +meekly to Mrs. Cameron, who neither offered her hand nor gave any token +of greeting except a distant bow and a simple "Good-morning, madam."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Lennox was too timid, too bewildered, and too anxious to notice +the lady's haughty manner as she led them to the library and then went +for her son. Wilford was not glad to see his mother-in-law, but he tried +to be polite, answering her questions civilly, and when she asked if it +was true that he had sent for Morris, assuring her that it was not—"Dr. +Grant happened here very providentially, and I hope to keep him until +the crisis is past, although he has just told me he must go back +to-morrow," Wilford said, mentally hoping Mrs. Lennox might think it +best to go with him, or if she did not, wondering how long she did +intend to stay. It hurt his pride that she, whom he considered greatly +his inferior, should learn his secret; but it could not now be helped, +and within an hour after her arrival she was looking curiously at him +for an explanation of the strange things she heard from Katy's lips.</p> + +<p>"Was you a widower when you married my daughter?" she said to him, when +at last Helen left the room, and she was alone with him.</p> + +<p>"Yes, madam," he replied, "some would call me so, though I was divorced +from my wife. As this was a matter which did not in any way concern your +daughter, I deemed it best not to tell her. Latterly she has found it +out, and it is having a very extraordinary effect upon her."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lennox was too much afraid of the man addressing her so haughtily +to make him any reply, and so she only wept softly as she bent to kiss +her child, still talking of Genevra and the empty grave at St. Mary's, +where she once sat down.</p> + +<p>And this was all Mrs. Lennox knew until alone with Helen, who had heard +from Morris all he knew of the sad story except the part relating to +Marian Hazelton. His sudden journey to New York was thus accounted for, +and Helen explained it to her mother as well as she could, advising her +to say nothing of it either to Wilford or Mrs. Cameron, as it was quite +as well for them not to know it yet. Many messages Helen brought to her +cousin from his patients, and Morris felt it was his duty to go to them +for a day or so at least.</p> + +<p>"You have other physicians here," he said to Wilford, who objected to +his leaving. "Dr. Craig will do as well as I."</p> + +<p>Wilford admitted that he might; but it was with a sinking heart that he +saw Morris depart, and then went to Katy, who began to grow very +restless and uneasy, bidding him go away and send Dr. Morris back. It +was in vain that they administered the medicine just as Morris had +directed. Katy grew constantly worse, until Mrs. Lennox asked that +another doctor be called. But to this Wilford did not listen. Fear of +exposure and censure were stronger than his fear for Katy's life, which +seemed balancing upon a thread as that long night and the next day went +by. Three times Wilford telegraphed for Morris, and it was with +unfeigned joy that he welcomed him back at last, and heard that he had +so arranged his business now as to stay with Katy while the danger +lasted.</p> + +<p>With a monotonous sameness the days now came and went, people still +shunning the house as if the plague was there. Once Bell Cameron came +around to call on Helen, holding her breath as she passed through the +hall, and never asking to go near Katy's room. Two or three times, too, +Mrs. Banker's carriage stood at the door, and Mrs. Banker herself came +in, seeming surprised when she met Helen and appearing so cool and +distant that the latter could scarcely keep back her tears as she +guessed the cause. Mark never came, but from the window Helen saw him +riding by with Juno, who kept her face turned toward him, as if in close +and confidential chat.</p> + +<p>"They were engaged," Esther said, adding that "he was about joining the +army as first lieutenant in a company composed of the finest young men +in the city."</p> + +<p>Helen doubted if this were true, until one day, when driving with her +mother, she met him arrayed in his new uniform, looking so handsome and +proud. He, too, was driving with a brother officer, and as he passed he +lifted his cap in token of recognition; but the olden look which Helen +remembered so well, and which had been wont to make her pulses thrill +with a most exquisite delight, was gone, and Helen felt more than ever +the wide gulf some hand had built between them. The next she heard was +from Mrs. Banker, whose face looked pale and worn as she incidentally +remarked: "I shall be very lonely now that Mark is gone. He left me +to-day for Washington."</p> + +<p>There were tears on the mother's face, and her lip quivered as she tried +to keep them back, looking from the window into the street instead of at +her companion, who, overcome with the rush of feeling which swept over +her, laid her face on the sofa arm and sobbed aloud.</p> + +<p>"Why, Helen! Miss Lennox, I am surprised! I had supposed—I was not +aware—I did not think you would care," Mrs. Banker exclaimed, coming +closer to Helen, who stammered out: "I beg you will excuse me, I cannot +help it. I care for all our soldiers. It seems so terrible."</p> + +<p>At the words "I care for all the soldiers," a shadow of disappointment +flitted over Mrs. Banker's face. She knew her son had offered himself +and been refused, as she supposed, and she believed, too, that Helen had +given publicity to the affair, feeling justly indignant at this breach +of confidence and lack of delicacy in one whom she had liked so much and +whom she still liked in spite of the wounded pride which had prompted +her to seem so cold and distant.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is all a mistake," she thought, as she continued standing by +Helen, whose tears did not cease, "or it may be she has relented," and +for a moment she felt tempted to ask why her boy had been refused.</p> + +<p>But Mark would not be pleased with her interference, she knew, and so +the golden moment fled, and when she left the house the misunderstanding +between herself and Helen was just as wide as ever. Wearily after that +the days passed with Helen until all thoughts of herself were forgotten +in the terrible fear that death was really brooding over the pillow +where Katy lay, insensible to all that was passing around her. The lips +were silent now, and Wilford had nothing to fear from the tongue +hitherto so busy. Juno, Bell and Father Cameron all came to see her, +dropping tears upon the face looking so old and worn with suffering, but +yet so sweet and pure, and treading softly as they left the room and +went out into the sunshine where Katy might never go again. In the +kitchen there was mourning, too; Phillips weeping for her mistress, +while Esther, with her apron over her head, sobbed passionately, wishing +she, too, might die if Katy did. Mrs. Cameron also was very sorry, very +sad, but managed to find some consolation in mentally arranging a grand +funeral, which would do honor to her son, and wondering if "those +Barlows in Silverton would think they must attend." And while she thus +arranged, the mother who had given birth to Katy wrestled in earnest +prayer that God would spare her child, or at least grant some space in +which she might be told of the world to which she was hastening. What +Wilford suffered none could guess. His face was very white and his +expression almost stern as he sat watching the young wife who had been +his for little more than two brief years, and who but for his sin might +not have been lying there unconscious of the love and grief around her. +Like some marble statue Morris seemed as with lip compressed and brows +firmly knit together he, too, sat watching Katy, feeling for the pulse +and bending his ear to catch the faintest breath which came from her +parted lips, while in his heart there was an earnest prayer for the +safety of the soul hovering so evenly between this world and the next. +He did not ask that she might live, for if all were well hereafter he +knew it was far better for her to die in her young womanhood than to +live till the heart now so sad and bleeding had grown calloused with +sorrow. And yet it was terrible to think of Katy dead; to know that +never again would her little feet dance on the grass, or her bird-like +voice break the silence of his home; terrible to think of that face and +form laid away beneath the turf of Greenwood, where those who loved her +best could seldom go to weep.</p> + +<p>And as they sat thus the night shadows stole into the room and the hours +crept on till from a city tower a clock struck ten, and Morris, +motioning Helen to his side, bade her go with her mother to rest. "We do +not need you here," he said, "your presence can do no good. Should a +change occur you shall be told at once."</p> + +<p>Thus importuned Helen and her mother withdrew and only Morris and +Wilford remained to watch that heavy slumber so nearly resembling death.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL" ></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2> + +<h3>MORRIS' CONFESSION.</h3> + + +<p>Gradually the noise in the streets died away; the tread of feet, the +rumbling wheels and the tinkle of the car bells ceased, and not a sound +was heard, save as the distant fire bells pealed forth their warning +voices, or some watchman went hurrying by. The great city was asleep, +and to Morris the silence brooding over the countless throng was deeper, +more solemn than the silence of the country where nature gives out her +own mysterious notes and lullabies for her sleeping children. Slowly the +minutes went by, and Morris became at last aware that Wilford's eyes, +instead of resting on the pallid face which seemed to grow each moment +more pallid and ghastly, were fixed on him with an expression which made +him drop the pale hand he held between his own, pooring it occasionally +as a mother might poor and pity the hand of her dying baby.</p> + +<p>Before his marriage a jealous thought of Morris Grant had found a +lodgment in Wilford's breast; but remembering the past he had tried to +drive it out, and fancied that he had succeeded, experiencing a sudden +shock when he felt it lifting its green head, and poisoning his mind +against the man doing for Katy only what a brother might do, or rather, +against the motives which prompted this man's devotion. He forgot that +it was his own entreaties which had kept Morris there, refusing to let +him go even for a day to the other patients missing him so much, and +complaining of his absence. Jealous men never reason clearly, and in +this case Wilford did not reason at all, but jumped readily at his +conclusion, calling to his aid as proof all that he had ever seen pass +between Katy and her cousin. That Morris Grant loved Katy was, after a +few moment's reflection, as fixed a fact in his mind as that she lay +there between them, her eyelids quivering, and her lips moaning feebly +as if about to speak. Years before, when Genevra was the wife, jealousy +had made Wilford almost a madman, and it now held him again in its +powerful grasp, whispering suggestions he would have spurned in a calm +frame of mind. There was a clinching of his fist, a knitting of his +brows, and a gathering blackness in his eyes as he listened while Katy, +rousing partially from her lethargy, talked of the days when she was a +little girl, and Morris had built the playhouse for her by the brook, +where the thorn apples grew and the waters fell over the smooth, white +rocks.</p> + +<p>"Take me back there," she said, "and let me lie on the grass again. It +is so long since I was there, and I've suffered so much since then. +Wilford meant to be kind, but he did not try to understand or know how I +loved the country with its birds and flowers and springing grass by the +well, where the shadows come and go. I used to wonder where they were +going, and one day when I watched them I was waiting for Wilford, and +wishing he would come. Would it have been better if he had never come?"</p> + +<p>Wilford's body shook with strong emotion as he bent forward to hear +Katy's answer to her question.</p> + +<p>"Were there no Genevra," she said, "no verse 'what God hath joined +together let no man put asunder,' I should not think so; but there is +such a verse, and now I don't know what I think, only I must go. Come, +Morris, we will go together, you and I."</p> + +<p>She turned partly toward Morris, who made her no reply. He could not, +with those fiery eyes fixed upon him, and he sat erect in his chair, +while Katy talked of Silverton, and the days gone by until her voice +grew very faint, ceasing at last as she fell into a second sleep, +heavier, more death-like, than the first. Something in her face alarmed +Morris, and in spite of the eyes watching him he bent every energy to +retain the feeble pulse, and the breath which grew shorter with each +respiration.</p> + +<p>"Do you think her dying?" Wilford asked, and Morris replied: "Not yet; +but the look about the mouth and nose is like the look which so often +precedes death."</p> + +<p>And that was all they said until another hour went by, when Morris' hand +was laid upon the forehead and moved up under the golden hair where +there were drops of perspiration.</p> + +<p>"She is saved, thank God, Mr. Cameron, Katy is saved," was his joyful +exclamation, and burying his head in his hands, he wept for a moment +like a child, for Katy was restored again.</p> + +<p>On Wilford's face there was no trace of tears. On the contrary, he +seemed hardening into stone, and in his heart fierce passions were +contending for the mastery, and urging him on to an act from which, in +his right mind, he would have shrunk. Rising slowly at last, he came +around to Morris' side, and grasping his shoulder, said:</p> + +<p>"Morris Grant, you love Katy Cameron."</p> + +<p>Like the peal of a bell on the frosty air the words rang through the +room, starting Morris from his bowed attitude, and for an instant +curdling his blood in his veins, for he understood now the meaning of +the look which had so puzzled him. In Morris' heart there was a moment's +hesitancy to know just what to answer, an ejaculatory prayer for +guidance, and then lifting up his head, his calm blue eyes met the eyes +of black unflinchingly, as he replied:</p> + +<p>"I have loved her always."</p> + +<p>A blaze like sheet lightning shot from beneath Wilford's eyelashes, and +a taunting sneer curled his lip, as he said:</p> + +<p>"You, a saint, confess to this?"</p> + +<p>It was quite natural, and in keeping with human nature for Wilford to +thrust Morris' religion in his face, forgetting that never on this side +the eternal world can man cease wholly to sin, that so long as flesh and +blood remain, there will be temptation, error and wrong, even among +God's children. Morris felt the sneer keenly; but the consciousness of +peace with his Maker sustained him in the shock and, with the same tone +he had at first assumed, he said:</p> + +<p>"Should my being what you call a saint prevent my confessing what I +did?"</p> + +<p>"No, not the confession, but the fact," Wilford answered, savagely. "How +do you reconcile your acknowledged love for Katy with the injunctions of +the Bible whose doctrines you indorse?"</p> + +<p>"A man cannot always control his feelings, but he can strive to overcome +them and put the temptation aside. One does not sin in being tempted, +but in listening to the temptation."</p> + +<p>"Then according to your own reasoning you have sinned, for you not only +have teen tempted, but have yielded to the temptation," Wilford +retorted, with a sinister look of exultation in his black eyes.</p> + +<p>For a moment Morris was silent, while a struggle of some kind seemed +going on in his mind, and then he said:</p> + +<p>"I never thought to lay open to you a secret which, after myself, is, I +believe, known to only one living being."</p> + +<p>"And that one—is—you will not tell me that is Katy?" Wilford +exclaimed, his voice hoarse with passion, and his eyes flashing with +fire.</p> + +<p>"No, not Katy. She has no suspicion of the pain which, since I saw her +made another's, has eaten into my heart, making me grow old so fast, and +blighting my early manhood."</p> + +<p>Something in Morris' tone and manner inspired Wilford with awe, making +him relax his grasp upon the arm, and sending him back to his chair +while Morris continued:</p> + +<p>"Most men would shrink from talking to a husband of the love they bore +his wife, and an hour ago I should have shrunk from it, too, but you +have forced me to it, and now you must listen while I tell you of my +love for Katy. It began longer ago than she can remember—began when she +was my baby sister, and I hushed her in my arms to sleep, kneeling by +her cradle and watching her with a feeling I have never been able to +define. She was in all my thoughts, her face upon the printed page of +every book I studied, and her voice in every strain of music I ever +heard. Then, when she grew older, I used to watch the frolicsome child +by the hour, building castles even then of the future, when she would be +a woman and I a man, with a man's right to win her. I know that she +shielded me from many a snare into which young men are apt to fall, for +when the temptation was greatest, and I was at its verge, a thought of +her was sufficient to lead me back to virtue. I carried her in my heart +across the sea, and said when I go back I will ask her to be mine. I +went back, but at my first meeting with Katy after her return from +Canandaigua she told me of you, and I knew then that hope for me was +gone, praying for strength to bear my loss and hide my love from her. +God grant that you nor she may never experience what I experienced on +that day which made her your wife, and I saw her go away. It seemed +almost as if God had forgotten me as the night after the bridal I sat +alone at home, and met that dark hour of sorrow. In the midst of it +Helen came, discovering my secret, and sympathizing with me until the +pain at my heart grew less, and I could pray that God would grant me a +feeling for Katy which should not be sinful. And He did at last, so I +could think of her without a wish that she was mine. Times there were +when the old love would burst forth with fearful power, and then I +wished that I might die. These were my moments of temptation which I +struggled to overcome. Sometimes a song, a strain of music, or a ray of +moonlight on the floor would bring the past to me so vividly that I +would stagger beneath the burden, feeling that it was greater than I +could bear. But God was very merciful and sent me work which took up all +my time, leaving little leisure for regrets, and driving me away from my +own pain to soothe the pain of others. When Katy came to us last summer +there was an hour of trial, when faith in God grew weak, and I was +tempted to question the justice of His dealing with me. But that, too, +passed, and in my love for your child I forgot the mother in part, +looking upon her as a sister rather than the Katy I had loved so well. I +would have given my life to have saved that child for her, even though +it was a bar between us, a something which separated her from me more +than the words she spoke at the altar. Though dead, that baby is still +a bar, and Katy is not the same to me she was before that little life +came into being. It is not wrong to love her as I do now. I feel no pang +of conscience save when something unexpected carries me back to the old +ground where I have fought so many battles."</p> + +<p>Morris paused a moment, thinking of the time when Katy came to him with +her story of Genevra, and wondering if it were best to repeat the +incidents of that night. It was not, he finally concluded. It would be +better for Katy to tell it herself, and so he added at last: "What I +have borne has told upon me terribly. My people say I work too hard, but +they look only on the surface—they have never seen that inner chamber +of my heart, where only you have been fully admitted. Even Helen knows +not half what's there, but I felt that it was due to you, and so have +told you all, asking that no shadow of censure shall fall on Katy, who +would be greatly shocked to know what you know now."</p> + +<p>Morris' manner was that of a man who spoke with perfect sincerity, and +it carried conviction to Wilford's heart, disarming him for a time of +the fierce anger and resentment he had felt while listening to Morris' +story. Acting upon the good impulse of the moment, he arose, and +offering his hand to Morris, he said:</p> + +<p>"You have done nobly, Dr. Grant, I believe in your religion now. Forgive +me that I ever doubted it. I exonerate you from blame."</p> + +<p>And thus they pledged their faith, Wilford meaning then all he said, and +feeling only respect for the man who had confessed his love for Katy. +After what had passed, Morris felt that it would be pleasanter for +Wilford if he were gone, and after a time he suggested returning to +Silverton at once, inasmuch as the crisis was past and Katy out of +danger. There was a struggle in Wilford's mind as to the answer he +should make to this suggestion. It would not be pleasant to see Morris +there now, for though he had said he forgave him, there was a feeling of +disquiet at his heart, and he at last signified his willingness for him +to leave when he thought best.</p> + +<p>It was broad day when Katy awoke, so weak as to be unable to turn her +head upon the pillow, but in her eyes the light of reason was shining, +and she glanced wonderingly, first at Helen, at her mother, and then at +Wilford, as if trying to comprehend what had happened.</p> + +<p>"Have I been sick?" she asked in a whisper, and Wilford, bending over +her, replied: "Yes, darling, very sick for nearly two whole weeks—ever +since I left home that morning, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes," and Katy shivered a little. "Yes, I know. But where is Morris? He +was here the last I can remember."</p> + +<p>Wilford's face grew dark at once, and stepping back as Morris came in, +he said: "She asks for you." Then with a rising feeling of resentment he +watched them, while Morris spoke to Katy, telling her she was better, +but must keep very quiet, and not allow herself in any way to be +excited.</p> + +<p>"Have I been crazy? Have I talked much?" she asked, and when Morris +replied in the affirmative there came a startled look into her eye, as +she said: "Of what or whom have I talked most?"</p> + +<p>"Of Genevra," was the answer, and Katy continued: "Did I mention no one +else?"</p> + +<p>Morris guessed of whom she was thinking, and answered, indifferently: +"You spoke of Miss Hazelton in connection with baby, but that was all."</p> + +<p>Katy was satisfied, and closing her eyes fell away to sleep again, while +Morris made his preparations for leaving. It hardly seemed right for him +to go just then, but the only one who could have kept him maintained a +frigid silence with regard to a longer stay, and so the first train +which left New York for Springfield carried Dr. Grant, and Katy was +without a physician.</p> + +<p>Wilford had hoped that Mrs. Lennox, too, would see the propriety of +accompanying Morris; but she would not leave Katy, and Wilford was fain +to submit to what he could not help. No explanation whatever had he +given to Mrs. Lennox or Helen with regard to Genevra. He was too proud +for that, but his mother had deemed it wise to smooth the matter over as +much as possible, enjoining upon them both the necessity of secrecy.</p> + +<p>"When I tell you that neither my husband or daughters know it, you will +understand that I am greatly in earnest in wishing it kept," she said. +"It was a most unfortunate affair, and though the divorce is, of +course, to be lamented, it is better that she died. We never could have +received her as our equal."</p> + +<p>"Was anything the matter, except that she was poor?" Mrs. Lennox asked, +with as much dignity as was in her nature to assume.</p> + +<p>"Well, no. She had a good education, I believe, and was very pretty; but +it makes trouble always where there is a great inequality between a +husband's family and that of his wife."</p> + +<p>Poor Mrs. Lennox understood this perfectly, but she was too much afraid +of the great lady to venture a reply, and a tear rolled down her burning +cheek as she wet the napkin for Katy's head, wishing that she had back +again the daughter, whose family she knew the Camerons despised. The +atmosphere of Madison Square did not suit Mrs. Lennox, especially when, +as the days went by and Katy began to mend, troops of gay ladies called, +mistaking her for the nurse, and all staring a little curiously when +told that she was Mrs. Cameron's mother. Of course, Wilford chafed and +fretted at what he could not help, seldom addressing his mother-in-law +on any subject, and making himself so generally disagreeable that Helen +at last suggested returning home, inasmuch as Katy was so much better. +There was then a faint remonstrance on his part, but Helen did not waver +in her decision, though she pitied Katy, who, when the day of her +departure came and they were for a few moments alone, took her hand +between her own and kissing it fondly, said: "You don't know how I dread +your going or how wretched I shall be without you. Everything which once +made me happy has been removed or changed. Baby is dead, and +Wilford—oh, Helen, I sometimes wish I had not heard of Genevra, for I +am afraid it can never be with us as it was once; that is, I have not +quite the same trust in him, and he seems so changed. Have you noticed +how silent and moody he has grown?"</p> + +<p>Helen had noticed it, but she would not say so, and she tried to comfort +her sister, telling her she would be very happy yet; "but, Katy +darling," she continued, "you have a duty to perform as well as Wilford. +Your heart is very sore now because of the deception, but you must not +let that soreness appear in your manner. You must be to Wilford just +what you always were, unless you wish to wean him from you. He, too, has +had a terrible shock; his pride and self-love have been wounded, and men +like him do not like being humbled as he has been. You must soothe him, +Katy, and smooth his ruffled feathers, proving to him that you can and +do forgive the past. And, Katy, remember you have a Friend always near +to whom you can carry your burdens, sure that He will listen and heal +the smarting pain. Go to Him often and make Him yours indeed. He has +come very near to you within the last year, and such visitations have a +meaning in them. Listen, then, lest He should come again and visit you +with greater sufferings."</p> + +<p>"Purified by Suffering." The words came floating back to Katy, just as +Uncle Ephraim had spoken them in the pleasant meadowland, and just as +they had sometimes haunted her since, but never having so deep a meaning +as now, when Helen's words suggested them again. She was suffering, oh, +so terribly, but was she purifying, too? She feared not, and after the +sad parting with her mother and sister was over she turned her face to +her pillow, trying so hard to pray that God would make her His own, and +by the suffering He sent purify her for heaven.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI" ></a>CHAPTER XLI.</h2> + +<h3>DOMESTIC TROUBLES.</h3> + + +<p>From the bathroom, which adjoined Katy's sickroom, Wilford had heard all +that passed between the sisters, and his face grew dark as he thought of +having his "ruffled feathers smoothed" even by the little thin white +hand, which, the first time it had a chance laid itself upon his face +with a caressing motion, from which he involuntarily drew back, thinking +the affection thus timidly expressed was all put on with a view to being +good, as he termed it.</p> + +<p>Wilford was in a most unhappy frame of mind. He was not pleased that +Katy had heard of Genevra, and imparted his secret to others. He did not +like being humbled as he had been, even Mrs. Lennox taking it upon +herself to lecture him for his misdemeanors, sobbing as she lectured, +and asking "how he could treat Katy so?" He did not like, either, to +lose Helen's good opinion, as he was sure he had, while, worse than all +the rest, was the galling fact that Morris Grant loved his wife, and was +undoubtedly more worthy of her than himself. He had said that he forgave +Morris, and at the time he said it he fancied he did, but as the days +went by, and thought was all the busier from the moody silence he +maintained, there gradually came to life a feeling of dislike, if not of +hatred, for the man, whose name he could not hear without a frown, +telling Katy very sharply once that he wished she would not talk so much +of Cousin Morris, as if there were no other physician in the world! Dr. +Craig would have done quite as well, and for his part he wished they had +employed him.</p> + +<p>Wilford knew he did not mean what he said, but he was in a very +unamiable frame of mind, and watched Katy close, to detect, if possible, +some sign by which he should know that Morris' love was reciprocated. +But Katy was innocence itself, and as the weeks of convalescence went by +she tried so hard to do her duty as a wife, going often to the Friend of +whom Helen had told her, and finding there the grace which helped her +bear what otherwise she could not have borne and lived. The entire +history of her life during that wretched winter was never told save as +it was written on her face, which was a volume in itself of meek and +patient suffering.</p> + +<p>Wilford had never mentioned Genevra to her since the day of his return, +and Katy sometimes felt that it would be well to talk that matter over. +It might lead to a more perfect understanding than existed between them +now, and dissipate the cloud which hung so darkly on their domestic +horizon. But Wilford repulsed all her advances upon that subject, and +Genevra was a dead name in their household, save as it was on Katy's +lips when she prayed, asking that she might feel only perfect kindness +toward the Genevra who had so darkened her life.</p> + +<p>Wilford's home was not pleasant to him now, but the fault was with +himself. Katy did well her part, meeting him always with a smile, and +trying to win him from the dark mood she could not fathom. Times there +were when for an entire day he would appear like his former self, +caressing her with unwonted tenderness, calling her his "poor crushed +dove," but never asking her forgiveness for all he had made her endure. +He was too proud to do that now, and his tenderness always passed away +when he remembered Morris Grant and Katy's remark to Helen: "I am afraid +it can never be with us as it was once. I have not the same trust in +him."</p> + +<p>"She had no right to complain of me to Helen," he thought, forgetting +the time when he had been guilty of a similar offense in a more +aggravated form.</p> + +<p>He could not reason upon anything naturally, and matters grew daily +worse, while Katy's face grew whiter and her voice sadder in its tone.</p> + +<p>Sometimes Wilford would spend the entire evening away from home, +tarrying till the clock struck twelve before he came, and Katy would +afterward hear that he had been at the house of some friend, or with +Sybil Grandon, whose influence over him increased in proportion as her +own was lessened.</p> + +<p>When the Lenten days came on, oh, how Katy longed to be in Silverton, to +kneel again in its quiet church, and offer up her penitential prayers +with the loved ones at home. At last she ventured to ask Wilford if she +might go, her spirits rising when he did not refuse her request at once, +but asked:</p> + +<p>"Whom do you wish to see the most?"</p> + +<p>His black eyes seemed reading her through, and something in their +expression brought to her face the blush which he construed according to +his jealousy, and when she answered:</p> + +<p>"I wish to see them all," he retorted:</p> + +<p>"Say, rather, you wish to see that doctor, who has loved you so long, +and who but for me would have asked you to be his wife!"</p> + +<p>"What doctor, Wilford? Whom do you mean?" and Wilford replied:</p> + +<p>"Dr. Grant, of course. Did you never suspect it?"</p> + +<p>"Never," and Katy's face grew very white, as she asked how Wilford knew +what he had asserted.</p> + +<p>"I had it from his own lips; he sitting on one side of you and I upon +the other. I so far forgot myself as to charge him with loving you, and +he did not deny it, but confessed as pretty a piece of romance as I ever +read, except that, according to his story, it was a one-sided affair, +confined wholly to himself. You never dreamed of it, he said."</p> + +<p>"Never, no, never," Katy said, panting for her breath, and remembering +suddenly many things which confirmed what she had heard.</p> + +<p>"Poor Morris, how my thoughtlessness must have wounded him," she +murmured, and then all the pent up passion in Wilford's heart burst out +in an impetuous storm.</p> + +<p>He did not charge his wife directly with returning Morris' love, but he +said he was sorry she had not known it earlier; asking her pointedly if +it were not so, and pressing her for an answer until the bewildered +creature cried out:</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. I never thought of it before."</p> + +<p>"But you can think of it now," Wilford continued, his cold, icy tone +making Katy shiver, as more to herself than him she said:</p> + +<p>"A life at Linwood would be perfect rest, compared to this."</p> + +<p>Wilford had wrung from her all he cared to know, and believing himself +the most injured man in existence, he left the house, and Katy heard his +step as it went furiously down the walk. For a time she seemed stunned +with what she had heard, and then there came stealing into her heart a +glad feeling that Morris deemed her worthy of his love when she had so +often feared the contrary. It was not a wicked emotion, nor one +faithless to Wilford. She could pray with just as pure a heart as +before, and she did pray, thanking God for the love of this good man, +and asking that long ere this he might have learned to be content +without her. Never once did the thought "It might have been," intrude +itself upon her, nor did she picture to herself the life which she had +missed. She seemed to rise above all that, and Wilford, had he read her +heart, would have found no evil there.</p> + +<p>"Poor Morris," she kept repeating, while little throbs of pleasure went +dancing through her veins, and the world was not one-half so dreary for +knowing he had loved her. Toward Wilford, too, her heart went out in a +fresh gush of tenderness, for she knew how one of his jealous nature +must have suffered.</p> + +<p>"I'll drive down to the office for him this afternoon," she said. "That +will surely please him; and to prove still further that I never dreamed +of Morris' love, I'll tell him coming home how in the great sorrow about +Genevra I went to him for counsel, and how he sent, or rather, brought +me back."</p> + +<p>But this confession would necessitate her telling that Genevra was not +dead, and it was better for them both, she thought, that he should not +know this until the relations between herself and him were more as they +used to be; so she decided finally to withhold the fact for a time at +least. But she would go for him, as she had at first intended, and she +counted the hours impatiently, thinking once her watch had stopped, and +seeming brighter and happier than she had been since her illness, when +at last she stepped into her carriage, and was driven down Broadway.</p> + +<p>Business had gone wrong with Wilford that day, and Tom Tubbs had +mentally pronounced his master "crosser than a bear," and sighing +secretly for the always cheerful Mark, he had taken up his book, and was +quietly reading by the office window when Katy came in, her white face +seeming whiter from contrast with her black dress, and her eyes looking +unnaturally large and bright as she darted across the room to Wilford, +who, surprised to see her there, and a good deal displeased withal, +inasmuch as he had often said that the office was no place for his wife, +never smiled or spoke, but with pent up brows waited for her to open the +conversation. Katy saw she was not welcome, and with a tremulous voice +she began:</p> + +<p>"The day is so fine I thought I would come in the carriage for you. It +is early yet, and if you like, we can have a little drive. It might do +you good. You look tired," she continued, and unmindful of Tom, trying +to smooth his hair.</p> + +<p>With an impatient gesture, Wilford drew his hand away from the pale +fingers which sought their fellows in a nervous clasp as Katy tried not +to think Wilford cross, even after he replied:</p> + +<p>"You need not have come for me, as I always prefer a stage; besides +that, I can't go home just yet, I am not ready."</p> + +<p>Katy stood a moment in silence, a flush on her cheek and a pallor about +her lips, which Tom Tubbs saw, secretly shaking his fist and thinking +how he would like to knock down the man who could speak so to a wife as +beautiful and sweet as Katy seemed.</p> + +<p>"I have not been here before since my illness, and I wanted to come once +more," she said at last, apologetically, while Wilford, still looking +over papers, replied: "A sweet place to come to. I sometimes hate it +myself. By the way, I have something to tell you," and his face began to +brighten. "Mrs. Mills, from Yonkers, was in town to-day, and as she had +not time to see you, she found me and insisted upon your keeping the +promise you made last summer of spending some days with her. The +Beverleys are there and the Lincolns—quite a nice party—so I ventured +to say that you should go out to-morrow and I would come out Saturday +afternoon to spend Sunday."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Wilford, I can't," and Katy's lip began to quiver at the very +thought of meeting people like the Beverleys and Lincolns in her present +state of mind.</p> + +<p>"You can't! Why not?" Wilford asked, and Katy replied: "I've never been +in so much company as I shall meet there since baby died, and then—did +you forget that it was Lent?"</p> + +<p>"You are getting very good to think a few days' visit in the country +will harm you," Wilford replied; "besides that, neither Mrs. Mills, nor +the Beverleys, nor Lincolns, are church people, and cannot, of course, +sympathize in this superstitious fancy."</p> + +<p>Katy looked up in astonishment, for never before had she heard Wilford +speak thus of the Fast which his whole family honored. But Wilford was +growing hard, and with a sigh Katy turned away, knowing how useless it +was to reason with him then. Driving home alone, she gave vent to a +passionate flood of tears as she wondered how it all would end. For some +reason Wilford had set his heart upon the visit to Mrs. Mills, a +pleasant, fascinating woman, who liked Katy very much and had +anticipated the promised visit with a great deal of pleasure, making all +her plans with a direct reference to Mrs. Cameron, whose absence would +have been a great disappointment. Wilford knew this and resolved that +Katy should go, and as opposition to his will was always useless, the +close of the next day found Katy at Mrs. Mills' handsome dwelling +overlooking the broad river and the blue mountains beyond. Wilford was +with her; he had come out to spend the night, returning to the city in +the morning. Now that he had accomplished his purpose he was in the best +of spirits, treating Katy with unwonted kindness and wondering why he +hated so to leave her, while she, too, clung to him, wishing he could +stay. Their parting was only for two days, for this was Thursday, and he +was to return on Saturday, but in the hearts of both there was that dark +foreboding which is so often a sure precursor of evil. Twice Wilford +turned back to kiss his wife, feeling tempted once to tell her he was +sorry for his jealousy and distrust, but such confession was hard for +him and so he left it unsaid, looking back to the window against which +Katy's face was pressed as she watched him going from her, but little +guessing what would be ere she looked on him again.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Tom Tubbs sat reading Chitty as usual when Mr. Cameron came in from his +trip up the river. Since Katy's last call at the office Tom had been +haunted with her face as it looked when Wilford's cold greeting fell on +her ear, and after a private conference with Mattie, who listened +eagerly to every item of information with regard to Katy, he had come to +the conclusion that his employer was a brute, and that his wife was not +as happy as it was his duty to make her.</p> + +<p>"It's mean in him to speak so hateful to her," he was thinking just as +Wilford came in, appearing so very amiable and good-humored that the boy +ventured to inquire for Mrs. Cameron. "She looked so pale and sick, the +other day," he said, "almost as bad in fact as she did that night in the +cars with Dr. Grant, just before she was so dangerously ill."</p> + +<p>"What's that? What did you say?" Wilford asked quickly, and Tom, +thinking he had not been understood, repeated his words, while in a +voice which Tom scarcely knew, it was so low and husky, Wilford asked: +"What night was Mrs. Cameron in the cars with Dr. Grant? When was it, +and where?"</p> + +<p>As suspicion is an intense magnifier, so the absence of it will blind +one completely, and Tom was thus blindfolded as he stated in detail how +two months or more ago, while Mr. Cameron was absent, he had been sent +by Mr. Ray to Hartford, returning in the early train, that just before +him, in the car, a gentleman sat with a lady who seemed to be sick, at +all events her head lay on his shoulder and he occasionally bent over +her to see if she wanted anything.</p> + +<p>"I did not mind much about them," Tom said, "till it got to broad +daylight, when I saw the man was Dr. Grant, and when we reached New York +the lady threw back her veil and I saw it was Mrs. Cameron."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" and Wilford grasped Tom's arm with an energy which made +the boy wince, while there came over him a suspicion that he had talked +too much.</p> + +<p>But it could not now be helped, and to Wilford's question he answered:</p> + +<p>"Yes, for she bowed to me and smiled."</p> + +<p>"Where did they go?" was the next question, put in thunder tones, for +Wilford was remembering things Katy said in her delirium, and which were +now explained, if Tom's statement was true.</p> + +<p>"They went off in a carriage toward your house, and that night I heard +she was sick," Tom said, going back to his book, while Wilford seized +his hat and started up Broadway. It was not his intention when he left +the office to question the servants with regard to his wife, for every +feeling and principle of his nature shrank from such an act, but by the +time his home could be reached it could scarcely be said that he was in +his right mind, and meeting Phillips in the hall, he demanded of her "if +she remembered the day when Mrs. Cameron was first taken ill."</p> + +<p>Yes. Phillips remembered how sick Esther said she looked when she came +home from his father's, where she spent the night.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; she stayed at my father's then. It was very proper she +should," Wilford replied, recollecting himself, and trying to appear +natural, so that Phillips would not suspect him of any special purpose +in questioning her.</p> + +<p>If Katy spent the night at his father's then Tom's statement was not +true, and dismissing Phillips he hastened to his mother, to whom he put +the question:</p> + +<p>"Did Katy stay here a night while I was gone, the night but one after +that dinner when she heard of Genevra, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no," Mrs. Cameron replied, in some surprise. "Katy has not stayed +here since last October, just after she came from Silverton, and you +were in Detroit. Why do you ask? What is the matter? What do you fear?"</p> + +<p>Wilford would not tell his mother what he feared, but waived her +question by bidding her repeat what she could remember of the day when +she was first summoned to Katy, and to tell him also who was there.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Grant was there, and Dr. Craig," she said. "The former, as I +understood from Esther, had just come to the city and called on Katy, +finding her so ill that he sent for me immediately."</p> + +<p>"And you do not know that Katy was away from home at all?" was Wilford's +next inquiry, to which his mother replied:</p> + +<p>"Esther spoke of her looking very sick when she came in, from which I +inferred she had been driving or shopping, but she was not here, sure."</p> + +<p>Esther, it would seem, was the only one who could throw light upon the +mystery, and as by this time the jealous man did not care whom he +questioned, he left his mother without a word of explanation, and +hurried home, where he found Esther, and in a voice which made her +tremble, bade her answer his questions truthfully, without the slightest +attempt at evasion.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," Esther replied, and Wilford continued:</p> + +<p>"Where was your mistress the night before Dr. Grant came here, and she +was so very sick?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir. I had the impression that she at your mother's. +Wasn't she there?" and Esther looked very innocent, while Wilford +replied:</p> + +<p>"It is your business to answer questions, not to ask them. Tell me then +the particulars of her going away, and what she said."</p> + +<p>As nearly as she could remember Esther repeated what had passed between +herself and Katy that morning, but her manner was such as to convince +Wilford she was keeping back something, and in a paroxysm of excitement +he seized her arm, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"You know more than you admit. Tell me then the truth. Who came home +with Mrs. Cameron, and when?"</p> + +<p>Esther was afraid of Wilford, and at last between tears and sobs +confessed that Mrs. Wilford said she had been out of town, but asked her +not to tell, that she guessed it was Silverton where she had been, and +also that when she opened the door to her, Dr. Morris was going down the +steps; "not in a hurry—not like making off as if there was something +wrong," she added, in her eagerness to exonerate her mistress.</p> + +<p>"Who hinted there was anything wrong?" Wilford exclaimed, in tones which +made poor Esther tremble, for now that he had heard all he cared to +hear, he began to be ashamed of having gained his information in the way +he had.</p> + +<p>"Nobody hinted," Esther sobbed, with her face hidden in her apron; "and +if they did it's false. There never was a truer, sweeter lady."</p> + +<p>"See that you stick to that whatever may occur, and, mind you, let there +be no repeating this conversation in the kitchen or elsewhere," Wilford +hurled at her savagely, going next to a telegraph office, and sending +over the wires the following:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>NEW YORK, March —, 1862.<br /> +To MR. EPHRAIM BARLOW, Silverton, Mass.<br /> +Has Mrs. Wilford Cameron been in Silverton since last September?<br /> +W. CAMERON.</p></div> + +<p>To this he was prompted by Esther's having suggested Silverton, as the +place where her mistress had possibly been, and taking warning by his +past experience with Genevra, he resolved to give Katy the benefit of +every doubt, to investigate closely, before taking the decisive step, +which even while Tom Tubbs was talking to him had flashed into his mind. +Perhaps Katy had been to Silverton in her excited state, and if so the +case was not so bad, though he blamed her much for concealing it from +him. At first he thought of telegraphing to Morris, but pride kept him +from that, and Uncle Ephraim was made the recipient of the telegram, +which startled him greatly, being the first of the kind sent directly to +him.</p> + +<p>As it chanced the deacon was in town that day, and at the store just +across the street from the telegraph office. This the agent knew by old +Whitey, who was standing meekly at the hitching-post, covered with his +blanket, a faded woolen bedspread, which years before Aunt Betsy had +spun and woven herself.</p> + +<p>"A letter for me!" Uncle Ephraim said, when the message was put into his +hands. "Who writ it?" and he turned it to the light trying to recognize +the handwriting.</p> + +<p>"I think it wants an answer," the boy said, as Uncle Ephraim thrust it +into his pocket, and taking up his molasses jug and codfish started for +the door.</p> + +<p>"May be it does. I'll look again," and depositing his fish and jug +safely under the wagon box, the old man adjusted his spectacles, and +with the aid of the boy deciphered the dispatch.</p> + +<p>"What does it mean?" he asked, but the boy volunteered no ideas, and the +simple-hearted deacon asked next: "What shall I tell him?"</p> + +<p>"Why, tell him whether she has been here or not since last September. +Write on the envelope what you want sent, so I can take it back; and +come, hurry up your cakes, I can't wait all day," and young America, +having thus asserted its superiority over old, began to kick the melting +snow, while Uncle Ephraim, greatly bewildered and perplexed, bent +himself to the tremendous task of writing the four words:</p> + +<p>"Not to my knowledge." To this he appended: "Yours, with regret, Ephraim +Barlow," and handing it to the waiting boy, unhitched old Whitey, and +stepping into his wagon, drove home as rapidly as the half-frozen March +mud would allow.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what he sent me that word for?" he kept repeating to himself. +"We had a letter from Katy yesterday, and there can't be nothing wrong. +I won't tell the folks yet a while anyway till I see what comes of it, +Lucy is so fidgety."</p> + +<p>It was this resolution, whether wise or unwise, which kept from Morris +and the deacon's family a knowledge of the telegram, the answer to which +was read by Wilford within half an hour after the deacon's arrival home.</p> + +<p>"She has not been to Silverton," Wilford said. "The case then is very +clear."</p> + +<p>Indeed, it had been growing clear to the suspicious man ever since Tom +Tubbs' unfortunate remark. There are no glasses as perfect as those +which jealousy wears, no magnifying lens as powerful, and Wilford was +"fully convinced." Had he been asked of what he was convinced he could +hardly have told unless it were that in some way he had been deceived, +that Morris had spoken falsely when he said his love for Katy was not +returned or even suspected, that Katy had acted the hypocrite, and that +both had been guilty of a great indiscretion, at least, by being seen as +they were in the New Haven train, and then keeping the occurrences of +that night a secret from him. Wilford did not believe Katy had fallen, +but she had surely stepped upon forbidden ground, and it was not in his +nature to forgive the error—at least, not then, when he was so sore +with past remembrances which had come so fast upon him. First, the +baby's death, just when he was learning to love it so much, then the +Genevra affair about which Katy had acted so foolishly, then the talk +with Dr. Grant, and then his last offense, so much worse than all the +rest.</p> + +<p>It was a sad catalogue of grievances, and Wilford made it sadder by +brooding over and magnifying it until he reached a point from which he +would not swerve.</p> + +<p>"I shall do it," he said, and his lips were pressed firmly together, as +before his lonely fire he sat that chill March night, revolving the past +and then turning to the future opening so darkly before him, and making +him shudder as he thought of what it might bring. "I will spare Katy as +much as possible," he said, "for hers is a different nature from +Genevra's. She cannot bear as well," and a bitter groan broke the +silence of the room as Katy came up before him just as she had looked +that very morning standing by the window, with tears in her eyes, and a +wistful, sorry look on her white face.</p> + +<p>Could she be false to him and wear that look? The question staggered +Wilford for a moment, but when he remembered the proof, he steeled his +heart against her and prepared to act.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII" ></a>CHAPTER XLII.</h2> + +<h3>DISAPPEARED.</h3> + + +<p>All the next day Wilford was very busy arranging his affairs, and a +casual looker-on would have seen nothing unusual in the face always so +grave and cold. But to Tom Tubbs, casting furtive glances over his book +and wondering at his employer's sudden activity, it was terrible in its +dark, hard, unrelenting expression, while even his mother, upon whom he +called that evening, looked at him anxiously, asking what was the +matter, but not mentioning the conversation held with her the previous +day respecting Katy.</p> + +<p>She was still at Yonkers, Wilford said, and his voice was very natural +as he added: "I am expected to go out there to-morrow night with +Beverley and Lincoln, whose wives are also at Mrs. Mills'; quite a gay +party we shall make," and he tried to smile, but it was a sickly effort +and made his face look still more ghastly and strange.</p> + +<p>"What ails you, Wilford?" his mother asked, but he answered pettishly: +"Nothing, so pray don't look at me so curiously as if I was hiding some +terrible secret."</p> + +<p>He was hiding a secret, and it almost betrayed itself, when at last he +said good-by to his mother, who followed him to the door and stood +looking after him in the darkness until the sound of his footsteps died +away upon the pavement. There was a fire in his room and Wilford sat +down to write the brief note he would leave, for when the night shut +down again he would not be there. He could not feel that the parting +from Katy would be final, because he did not believe she had sinned as +he counted sin, but she certainly preferred another to himself; she had +deceived him and played the successful hypocrite. This was Wilford's +accusation against his wife; this for what she must be punished, until +such time as his royal clemency saw fit to forgive and take her back as +he meant to. He had no fear of her going to Morris, or to the farmhouse +either, for much as she was attached to her family, he believed she +would shrink from a return to poverty, choosing rather the luxuries of +her city home. And he would put no impediment in the way of her staying +there as long as she liked; he would arrange that for her, feeling +himself very magnanimous as he thought of giving her permission to +invite her mother to New York as a kind of protection against scandalous +remarks. Mrs. Lennox and Helen too should come. That certainly was +generous, and lest his goodness should abate he seized his pen and +wrote:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>DEAR KATY: Your own conscience will tell you whether you are worthy of +being addressed as 'Dear,' but I have called you thus so often that I +cannot bring myself to any other form. Do my words startle you, and will +you be sorry when you read this and find that I am gone, that you are +free from the husband you do not love, the husband whom perhaps you +never loved, though I thought you did? I trusted you once, and now I do +not blame you as much as I ought, for you are young. You are easily +influenced. You are very susceptible to flattery, as was proven by your +career at Saratoga and Newport. I had no suspicion of you then, but now +that I know you better, I see that it was not all childish simplicity +which made you smile so graciously upon those who sought your favor. You +are a coquette, Katy, and the greater one because of that semblance of +artlessness which is the perfection of art. This, however, I might +forgive, were it not for one flagrant act, which, if it is not a proof +of faithlessness, certainly borders upon it. You know to what I refer, +or if you do not, ask your smooth-tongued saint, your companion in the +New Haven train; he will enlighten you; he will not wonder at my going, +and perhaps he will offer you comfort, both religious and otherwise; but +if you ever wish me to return, avoid him as you would shun a deadly +poison. Until I countermand the order I wish you to remain here in this +house, which I bought for you. Helen and your mother both may live with +you, while father will have a general oversight of your affairs; I shall +send him a line to that effect. And now, good-by. I am very calm as I +write this, because I know you have deceived me. Not as I did you with +regard to Genevra, but in a deeper sense, which touches a tenderer point +and makes me willing to brave the talk my sudden departure will create. +No one knows I am going, no one will know until you have waited and +looked in vain for me with the gay young men who to-morrow night-will +join their wives as I hoped yesterday morning to join mine. But that is +over now. I cannot come to you. I am going away, where—it matters not +to you. So farewell.</p> + +<p>Your deceived and disappointed husband.</p></div> + +<p>Had Wilford read this letter over, he might not have left it, but he did +not read it, and in recalling its contents he gave himself great credit +for his forbearance when speaking of Morris, whom he hated so cordially. +Sealing the letter, and laying it in Katy's drawer just above where she +had left his, he tried to sleep; but the morning found him haggard and +tired, and Esther, as she poured his coffee, asked if he was sick.</p> + +<p>"No," he answered, and then as he pushed back his chair, he said: "I +shall not be home again to-day, as Mrs. Cameron expects me to spend +Sunday at Yonkers."</p> + +<p>And so all that day and the next, the doors were locked, the shutters +closed, the curtains dropped, while an ominous silence reigned +throughout the house; but when Monday came, and was halfway gone there +were inquiries made for Mr. Cameron by young Beverley and Lincoln, whose +faces looked anxious and disturbed at Esther's answer:</p> + +<p>"He went to Yonkers, Saturday. I have not seen him since."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Out at Yonkers on Saturday night, three young wives had waited for their +husbands, and none more eagerly than Katy, who, fair as a lily, in her +dark dress, with her soft hair curling about her face, sat by the window +watching for the carriage from the station, hers the first ear to catch +the sound of wheels, and here the first form upon the piazza.</p> + +<p>"Where's Wilford?" she asked, as only two alighted, and neither of them +her husband.</p> + +<p>But no one could answer that question. The gentlemen had looked for him +at Chambers Street, expecting him every moment to join them. Perhaps he +was detained, he might come yet at twelve, they said, trying to comfort +Katy, who, with a sad foreboding, went back into the parlor, and tried +to join in the laugh and jest which seemed almost like mockery. +Something had happened to Wilford she was sure when the night train did +not bring him; and all the next day, while the Sunday bells pealed their +music in her ears, and the sounds of thoughtless mirth came up from the +room below, where the elaborate dinner was in progress, she lay upon her +pillow, her head almost bursting with pain, and her heart aching so +sadly as she tried to pray that no harm had befallen her husband. She +never dreamed of his desertion, even when about noon of the next day a +telegram came from Father Cameron, bidding her hasten to the city. +Wilford was sick or dead, probably the latter, was the feeling uppermost +in her mind, as she was borne rapidly to New York, where Mr. Cameron met +her, his face confirming her fears, but not preparing her for the great +shock awaiting her.</p> + +<p>"Wilford is not dead," he said, when at last she was in the carriage. +"It is worse than that, I fear. We have traced him to the Philadelphia +train, which he took on Saturday. His manner all that day and the +previous one was very strange, while from some words he dropped my wife +is led to suppose there was trouble between you two. Was there?" and +Father Cameron's gray eyes rested earnestly on the white, frightened +face which looked up so quickly as Katy gasped:</p> + +<p>"No, oh, no; he never was kinder to me than when we parted last Friday +morning at Mrs. Mills'. There is some mistake. He would not leave me, +though he has not been quite the same since—"</p> + +<p>Katy was interrupted by the carriage stopping before her home; but when +they had been admitted to the parlor where a fire was lighted, Father +Cameron said:</p> + +<p>"Go on now. Wilford has not been the same since when?"</p> + +<p>Thus importuned Katy continued:</p> + +<p>"Since baby died. I think he blamed me as the cause of its death."</p> + +<p>"Don't babies die every day?" Father Cameron growled, kicking at the +hearth rug, while Katy, without considering that he had never heard of +Genevra, continued:</p> + +<p>"And then it was worse after I found out about Genevra, his first wife."</p> + +<p>"Genevra! Genevra, Wilford's first wife! Thunder and lightning! what are +you talking about?" and Father Cameron bent down to look in Katy's face, +thinking she was going mad.</p> + +<p>But Katy was not mad, and knowing it was now too late to retract, she +told the story of Genevra Lambert to the old man, who, utterly +confounded, stalked up and down the room, kicking away chairs and +footstools, and whatever came in his way, and swearing promiscuously at +his wife and Wilford, whom he pronounced a precious pair of fools, with +a dreadful adjective appended to the fools, and an emphasis in his voice +which showed he meant what he said.</p> + +<p>"It's all accounted for now," he said, "the piles of money that boy had +abroad, his privacy with his mother, and all the other tomfoolery I +could not understand. Katy," and pausing in his walk, Mr. Cameron came +close to his daughter-in-law, who was lying with her face upon the sofa. +"Katy, be glad your baby died. Had it lived it might have proved a curse +just as mine have done—not all, for Bell, though fiery as a pepper-pod, +has some heart, some sense—and there was Jack, my oldest boy, a little +fast, it's true; but when he died over the sea, I forgave all that, +forgetting the chair he broke over a tutor's head, and the scrapes for +which I paid as high as a thousand at one time. He sowed his wild oats, +and died before he could reap them, died a good man, I believe, and went +to heaven. Juno you know, and you can judge whether she is such as would +delight a parent's heart; while Wilford, my only boy, to deceive me so; +though I knew he was a fool in some things, I did trust Wilford."</p> + +<p>The old man's voice shook now, and Katy felt his tears dropping on her +hair as he stooped down over her. Checking them, however, he said:</p> + +<p>"And he was cross because you found him out. Was there no other reason?"</p> + +<p>Katy thought of Dr. Morris, but she could not tell of that, and so she +answered:</p> + +<p>"There was—but please don't ask me now. I can't tell, only I was not to +blame. Believe me, father, I was not to blame."</p> + +<p>"I'll swear to that," was the reply, as Father Cameron commenced his +walking again. "He may have left some word, some line," he said. +"Suppose you look. It would probably be upstairs."</p> + +<p>Katy had not thought of this, but it seemed reasonable that it should be +so, and going to her room, followed by Father Cameron, she went, as by +some instinct, to the very drawer where the letter lay.</p> + +<p>There was perfect silence while she read it through, Mr. Cameron never +taking his eyes from the face which turned first white, then red, then +spotted, and finally took a leaden hue as Katy ran over the lines, +comprehending the truth as she read, and when the letter was finished, +lifting her dry, tearless eyes to Father Cameron, and whispering to +herself:</p> + +<p>"Deserted!"</p> + +<p>She let him read the letter, and when he had finished explained the +parts he did not understand, telling him now what Morris had confessed, +telling him too that in her first sorrow, when life and sense seemed +reeling, she had gone to Dr. Grant, who had brought her back, as a +brother might have done, and this was the result.</p> + +<p>"Why did you say you went to him—that is, what was the special reason?" +Mr. Cameron asked, and after a moment's hesitancy, Katy told him her +belief that Genevra was living—that it was she who made the bridal +trousseau for Wilford's second wife, who nursed his child until it died, +giving to it her own name, arraying it for the grave, and then leaving, +as she always did, before the father came.</p> + +<p>"I never told Wilford," Katy said. "I felt as if I would rather he +should not know it yet. Perhaps I was wrong, but if so, I have been +terribly punished."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cameron could not look upon the woman who stood before him, so +helpless and stricken in her desolation, and believe her wrong in +anything. The guilt lay in another direction, and when as the terrible +reality that she was indeed a deserted wife came rushing over Katy, she +tottered toward him for help, he stretched his arms out for her, and +taking the sinking figure in them, laid it upon the sofa as gently, as +kindly as Wilford had ever touched it in his most loving days.</p> + +<p>Katy did not faint nor weep. She was past all that, but her face was +like a piece of marble, and her eyes were like those of the hunted fawn +when the chase is at its height and escape impossible.</p> + +<p>"Wilford would come back if he knew just how it was," the father said, +"but the trouble is where to find him. He speaks of writing to me, as I +presume he will in a day or so, and perhaps it will be as well to wait +till then. What the plague—who is ringing that bell enough to break the +wire?" he added, as a sharp, rapid ring echoed through the house and was +answered by Esther. "It's my wife," he continued, as he caught the sound +of her voice asking if Mrs. Cameron had returned. "You stay here while I +meet her first alone. I'll give it to her for cheating me so long and +raising thunder generally!"</p> + +<p>Katy tried to protest, but he was halfway down the stairs, and in a +moment more was with his wife, who had come around armed and equipped to +censure Katy as the cause of Wilford's disappearance, and to demand of +her where she was the night she pretended to spend at No. —— Fifth +Avenue. But the lady who came in so haughty and indignant was a very +different personage from the lady who, after listening for fifteen +minutes to a fearful storm of oaths and reproaches, mingled with +startling truths and bitter denunciations against herself and her boy, +sank into a chair, pale and trembling, and overwhelmed with the harvest +she was reaping.</p> + +<p>But her husband was not through with her yet. He had reserved the +bitterest drop for the last, and coming close to her he said:</p> + +<p>"And who think you the woman is—this Genevra, Wilford's and your +divorced wife? You were too proud to acknowledge an apothecary's +daughter! See if you like better a dressmaker, a nurse to Katy's baby, +Marian Hazelton!"</p> + +<p>He whispered the last name, and with a shriek the lady fainted. Mr. +Cameron would not summon a servant, and as there was no water in the +room, he walked to the window, and lifting the sash scraped from the +sill a handful of the light spring snow which had been falling since +noon. With this he brought his wife back to consciousness, and then +marked out her future course.</p> + +<p>"I know what is in your mind," he said. "You would like to have all the +blame rest on Katy; but, madam, hear me—just so sure as through your +means one breath of suspicion falls on her. I'll _bla at_ out the whole +story of Genevra. Then see who is censured. On the other hand, if you +hold your tongue, and make Juno hold hers, and stick to Katy through +thick and thin, acting as if you would like to swallow her whole, I'll +say nothing of this Genevra. Is it a bargain?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," came faintly from the sofa cushions, where Mrs. Cameron had +buried her face, sobbing in a confused, frightened way, and after a +moment finding voice to say: "What will you do with Phillips and Esther? +He must have questioned them."</p> + +<p>"The deuce he did! I'll see to that I'll throttle them if they venture +to speak!" and summoning both the females to his presence, Mr. Cameron +demanded if either had reported what Wilford had said to them.</p> + +<p>Except to each other they had not, though Phillips confessed to a great +desire to do so when a cousin was in the previous night.</p> + +<p>"Hang the cousin, and you, too, if you do!" Mr. Cameron replied, and +giving them some very strong advice, couched in very strong language, he +dismissed the servants to the kitchen, satisfied that so far Katy was +safe. "But who is the villain who first informed? If I had him by the +neck!" the enraged man continued, just as there came a second ring—a +timid, hesitating ring, as if the new arrival were half afraid to +present himself and his errand.</p> + +<p>"Speak of angels and you hear the rustle of their wings," is a proverb +as true and much pleasanter of thought than its opposite, and whether +Tom Tubbs were an angel or not, it was he who stood twirling his cap in +the hall, asking for Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"She can't see you, but I'll take the message. Is it about my son?" +Father Cameron said, striding up to the boy, who began to wish himself +away.</p> + +<p>Ever since inquiries had been made at the office for Wilford's +whereabouts, Tom had been uneasy, for he could not forget the savage +look in Wilford's face when he first told him of Katy and Dr. Grant; and +when he heard that instead of going to Yonkers Wilford had taken the +cars for Philadelphia, he was certain something was wrong, and longed to +confess to Katy what he knew of the matter. He had no idea of meddling, +but came with the kindest intentions, thinking he should feel better +when the load was off his mind. He was then poorly prepared for his +fierce reception from Mr. Cameron, who asked so energetically what he +had to say.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't much," Tom began. "I only wanted to tell her maybe I was to +blame for repeating what I saw."</p> + +<p>"What did you see?" and Mr. Cameron laid his hand on Tom's coat collar +as if to shake the information out of him.</p> + +<p>But there was no need of this, for the frightened youth told quickly +what he had come to tell, seeming so sorry and appearing so hurt withal +that the elder Cameron grew very gracious, and dismissed him with the +conviction that Katy had nothing to fear from Tom Tubbs. Mrs. Cameron +was with her now, giving her kisses and words of sympathy, telling her +Wilford would come back, and adding that in any event no one could or +should blame her.</p> + +<p>"I have heard the whole from husband; it was a misunderstanding, that is +all. Wilford was wrong to deceive you about Genevra. I was wrong to let +him; but we will have no more concealments. You think she is living +still—that she is Marian Hazelton?" and Mrs. Cameron smoothed Katy's +hair as she talked, trying to be motherly and kind, while her heart beat +more painfully at thoughts of a Genevra living than it ever had on +thoughts of a Genevra dead.</p> + +<p>She did not doubt the story, although it seemed so strange, and it made +her faint as she wondered if the world would ever know and what it would +say if it did. That her husband would tell if she failed in a single +point she was sure, but she should not fail; she would swear Katy was +innocent of everything, if necessary, while Juno and Bell should swear +too. Of course they must know and she should tell them that very night, +she said to herself, and hence it was that in the gossip which followed +Wilford's disappearance not a word was breathed against Katy, whose +cause the family espoused so warmly. Bell and the father because they +really loved and pitied her, and Mrs. Cameron and Juno because it saved +them from the disgrace which would have fallen on Wilford had the +fashionable world known then of Genevra.</p> + +<p>The sudden disappearance of a man like Wilford Cameron could not fail +even in New York to cause some excitement, especially in his own +immediate circle of acquaintances, and for several days the matter was +discussed in all its phases, and every possible opinion and conjecture +offered as to the cause of his strange conduct. Insanity! how many sins +it is made to cover, and how often is it pleaded for an excuse when no +other can be found. This is especially true in the higher walks of life, +and so in Wilford's case it was put forward, cautiously at first by Mrs. +Cameron herself, who wondered at the avidity with which the suggestion +was seized and handed from one to another, some remembering little +things which tended to confirm the belief, others slyly shrugging their +shoulders as they responded: "Very probable," but all tacitly allowing +the understanding to prevail that insanity had made Wilford Cameron a +voluntary wanderer from home. They could not believe in domestic +troubles when they saw how his family clung to and defended Katy from +the least approach of censure, Juno taking up her abode with her +"afflicted sister" until such time as Wilford could be heard from or +more definite arrangements be made; Mrs. Cameron driving around each day +to see her; Bell always speaking of her with genuine affection, while +the father clung to her like a hero, the quartet forming a barrier +across which the shafts of scandal could not reach.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII" ></a>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2> + +<h3>WHAT FOLLOWED.</h3> + + +<p>And where the while was Wilford? Fortunate, indeed, is it for the +disappointed, desperate men of the present day that when their horizon +is blackest and life seems not worth preserving, they can leave the past +behind and find a refuge in the army. To Wilford it presented itself at +once as the place of all others. Anything which could divert his mind +was welcome, and ere the close of that first day of Katy's return from +Yonkers, his name was enrolled in the service of his country. He had +gone directly to Washington, stumbling accidentally upon an old college +acquaintance who was getting up a company, and whose first lieutenant +had disappointed him. Learning Wilford's wishes he offered him the post, +which was readily accepted, and ere four days were gone Lieutenant +Wilford Cameron, with no regret as yet for the past, marched away to +swell the ranks of men who, led by General McClellan, were pressing on, +as they believed, to Richmond and victory. A week of terrible suspense +went by and then there came a note to Mr. Cameron from his son, +requesting him to care for Katy, but asking no forgiveness for himself.</p> + +<p>"I have disgraced you all," he wrote, "and I know just how you feel, but +I am not sorry for the step I've taken. When I am I shall probably come +back, provided that day finds me alive."</p> + +<p>And that was all the proud man wrote. Not one word was there for Katy, +whose eyes, which had not wept since she knew she was deserted, moved +slowly over the short letter, weighing every word, and then were lifted +sadly to her father's face as she said: "I will write and tell him all +the truth, and on his answer will depend my future course."</p> + +<p>This she said referring to the question she had raised as to whether in +case Wilford did not come back she should remain in New York or go to +Silverton, where as yet they were ignorant of her affliction, for Uncle +Ephraim had not told of the telegram, and Katy would not alarm them +until she knew something definite.</p> + +<p>And so the days went by, while Katy's letter was sent to Wilford, +together with another from his father, who confirmed all Katy had +protested of her innocence and ended by calling his son a "confounded +fool" and telling him to throw up his shoulder straps, which "only honest +men had a right to wear, and come home where he belonged."</p> + +<p>To this there came an angry, indignant answer, bidding the father attend +to his own business, and allow the son to attend to his. To Katy, +however, Wilford wrote in a different strain, showing here and there +marks of tenderness and relenting, but saying what he had done could not +now be helped—he was in for a soldier's life of two years, and should +abide his choice. At the idea of Genevra's being alive he scoffed; he +knew better than that, and even if she were why need Katy have gone with +it to Morris. Surely she should have had the discretion to keep +something to herself.</p> + +<p>This was the purport of Wilford's letter to Katy, who when she had +finished reading said, sorrowfully:</p> + +<p>"Wilford never loved me. It was a mere fancy, a great mistake, and I +cannot stay in his home, knowing that I am not trusted and respected as +a wife should be. I will go to Silverton. There is room for me there. I +shall write to Helen to-day."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile at Silverton, Uncle Ephraim, still keeping the telegram a +secret, grew more and more anxious as there came no news of Katy. What +did the silence mean? Uncle Ephraim pondered the matter all day long, +holding conversations with himself upon the subject, and finally making +up his mind to the herculean task of going to New York to see what was +the matter. To the family, who asked the reason of his sudden journey, +he said: He had a notion that something ailed Katy, and he was going +to see.</p> + +<p>No one ever thought of opposing Uncle Ephraim, and the following day +found him ready for the journey Aunt Betsy had taken before him.</p> + +<p>Presuming upon her experience as a traveler, that good dame had +proffered sundry pieces of advice with reference to what it was best for +him to do on the road, telling him which side of the car to sit, where +to get out, and above all things not to shake hands with the conductor +when asked for his ticket.</p> + +<p>Uncle Ephraim heard her good-humoredly, and stuffing into his pocket the +paper of ginger-snaps, fried cakes and cheese, which Aunt Hannah had +prepared for his lunch, he started for the cars, and was soon on his way +to New York.</p> + +<p>In his case there was no Bob Reynolds to offer aid and comfort, and the +old man was nearly torn in pieces by the burly hackman, who, the moment +he appeared to view, pounced upon him as lawful prey, each claiming the +honor of taking him wherever he wished to go, and raising such a din +about his ears that he finally turned away thoroughly disgusted, telling +them:</p> + +<p>"He had feet and legs, and common sense, and he guessed he could find +his way without 'em. 'Bleeged to you, gentlemen, but I don't need you," +and with a profound bow the honest-looking old deacon walked away, +asking the first man he met the way to Madison Square, and succeeded in +finding the number without difficulty.</p> + +<p>"This is it," he said, stopping in front of the tall building, and +examining it closely from the roof to the basement.</p> + +<p>Now that he was really there, a misgiving as to the propriety of the act +assailed him for the first time, and he began to wish he had not come.</p> + +<p>"I won't pull that nub," he said, glancing at the silver knob. "I'll go +down to the kitchen door, as like enough they've company."</p> + +<p>Accordingly Esther, who chanced to be in the basement, was startled by a +heavy knock, and was startled still more at the tall, white-haired man +who addressed her as "Sis," and asked if "Miss Cameron was to hum."</p> + +<p>"A man in the kitchen asking for me!" Katy exclaimed, when Esther +reported the message, and with her mind full of possible news from +Wilford, she ran hastily down the basement stairs, and with a loud +scream of joy threw herself into Uncle Ephraim's arms, an act which so +astonished Phillips that she dropped the dish of soup she was preparing +for the dinner table, the greasy liquid bespattering Katy's dress, and +bringing her to a sense of where she was, and that she should not be +there.</p> + +<p>"Come upstairs," she said, holding Uncle Ephraim's hand, and leading him +to the parlor, while the first tears she had shed since she knew she was +deserted rained in torrents over her face.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Katy-did? I mistrusted something was wrong. What has +happened?" Uncle Ephraim asked, and with his arm thrown protectingly +around her, Katy told him what had happened, and then asking what she +should do.</p> + +<p>"Do?" the old man repeated. "Go home with me to your own folks until he +comes from the wars. He is your husband, and I shall say nothing agin' +him, but if it was to do over I would forbid the banns. That chap has +misused you the wust way. You need not deny it, for it's writ all over +your face," he continued, as Katy tried to stop him, for sore as was her +heart with the great injustice done her, she would not have Wilford +blamed.</p> + +<p>He was her husband still, and she had loved him so fondly that, whether +worthy or not of her love, she could not turn from him so soon.</p> + +<p>"I wrote to Helen yesterday, so they will be prepared for me," she said, +anxious to change the conversation, and feeling glad when dinner was +announced.</p> + +<p>Leading him to the table, she presented him to Juno, whose cold nod +and haughty stare were lost on the old man presiding with so much +patriarchal dignity at the table, and bowing his white head so +reverently as he asked the first blessing which had ever been said at +that table, except as Helen or Morris had breathed a prayer of thanks +for the bounty provided.</p> + +<p>It had not been a house of prayer—no altar had been erected for the +morning and evening sacrifice. God had almost been forgotten, and now He +was pouring His wrath upon the handsome dwelling, making it so +distasteful that Katy was anxious to leave it, and expressed her +willingness to accompany Uncle Ephraim to Silverton as soon as the +necessary arrangements could be made.</p> + +<p>"I don't take it she comes for good," Uncle Ephraim said that evening, +when Mr. Cameron, to whom she referred the matter, opposed her going, +"for when the two years are gone, and her man wants her back, as he +will, she must come, of course. But she grows poor here in the city. It +don't agree with her like the scent of the clover and the breeze from +the hills. So, shet up the house for a spell, and let the child come +with me."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cameron knew that Katy would be happier at Silverton, and though he +disliked to part with her, he finally consented to her going, and placed +at her disposal a sum which seemed to the deacon a little fortune in +itself.</p> + +<p>In the kitchen there were sad faces when the servants heard of the +arrangement which was to deprive them not only of a pleasant home, but +of a mistress whom they both respected and loved. Esther pleaded hard to +go with Katy, and only the latter's promise that possibly she might come +by and by was of any avail to stay the tears which dropped so fast as +she put up her mistress' dresses, designed for Silverton, and laid away +the gayer, richer ones, which would be so sadly out of place upon her +now.</p> + +<p>To Mrs. Cameron and Juno it was a relief to have Katy taken from their +hands, and though they made a show of opposition, they were easily +quieted, and helped her off with alacrity, the mother promising to see +that the horse was promptly called for, and Juno offering to send the +latest fashion which might be suitable, as soon as it appeared. Bell was +heartily sorry to part with the young sister who seemed going from her +forever.</p> + +<p>"I know you will never come back. Something tells me so," she said as +she stood with her arms around Katy's waist, and her lips occasionally +touching Katy's forehead. "But I shall see you," she continued; "I am +coming to the farmhouse in the summer, to stay ever so long; and you may +say to Aunt Betsy that I like her ever so much, and"—here Bell glanced +behind her, to see that no one was listening, and then continued—"tell +her a certain officer was sick a few days in a hospital last winter, and +one of his men brought to him a dish of the most delicious dried +peaches he ever ate. That man was from Silverton, and the fruit was sent +to him, he said, in a salt bag, by a nice old lady, for whose brother he +used to work. Just to think, that the peaches I helped to pare, coloring +my hands so that the stain did not come off in a month, should have gone +so straight to Bob," and Bell's fine features shone with a light which +would have told Bob Reynolds he was beloved, even if the lips did not +refuse to confess it.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell her," Katy said, and then bidding them all good-by, and +putting her hand on Uncle Ephraim's arm she went with him from the home +where she had lived but two short years, and those the saddest, most +eventful ones of her short life.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV" ></a>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2> + +<h3>MARK AND HELEN.</h3> + + +<p>There was much talk and wonder in Silverton when it was known that Katy +had come home to stay until her husband returned from the war, and at +first the people were inclined to gossip and hint at some mystery or +possible estrangement; but this was brought to an end when the +postmaster's wife told of a letter which had come to Mrs. Wilford +Cameron from the Army of the Potomac, and of the answer returned within +three days to Lieutenant Wilford Cameron, Co., —th Regt., N. Y. V., +etc. It must be all right, the gossips said, after that, but they +watched Katy curiously as she came among them again, so quiet, so +subdued, so unlike the Katy of old that they would hardly have +recognized her but for the beauty of her face and the sunny smile she +gave to all, but which rested oftenest on the poor and suffering, who +blessed her as the angel of their humble homes, praying that God would +remember her for all she was to them. The gold was purified at last, the +dross removed, and Katy, in her beautiful consistent life, seemed indeed +like some bright angel straying among the haunts of men, rather than the +weak and ofttimes sorely tempted mortal, which she knew herself to be.</p> + +<p>Wilford's letters, though not unkind, were never very satisfactory, and +always brought on a racking headache, from which she suffered intently. +He had censured her at first for going back to Silverton, when he +preferred she should stay in New York, hinting darkly at the reason of +her choice, and saying to her once, when she told him how the Sunday +before her twenty-first birthday she had knelt before the altar and +taken upon herself the vows of confirmation: "Your saintly cousin is, +of course, delighted, and that I suppose is sufficient, without my +congratulations."</p> + +<p>Perhaps he did not mean it, but he seemed to take delight in teasing +her, and Katy sometimes felt she should be happier without his letters +than with them. He had never said he was sorry he had left her so +suddenly—indeed he seldom referred to the past in any way; or if he did +it was in a manner which showed that he thought himself the injured +party, if either. Once, indeed, he did admit that, in calmly reviewing +the whole thing, he saw no reason now to believe that in the matter of +Dr. Grant she had been to blame, except in going to him with her trouble +and so bringing about the present unfortunate state of affairs. This was +the nearest to a concession on his part of anything he made; but it did +Katy a world of good, brightening up her face, and making her even dare +to meet Morris alone and speak to him naturally. Ever since her return +to Silverton she had studiously avoided him, and a stranger might have +said they were wholly indifferent to each other; but that stranger would +not have known of Morris' daily self-discipline or of the one little +spot in Katy's heart kept warm and sunny by the knowing that Morris +Grant had loved her, even if the love had died, as she hoped it had. It +would be better for them all, and so, lest by word or deed she should +keep the germ alive, she seldom addressed him directly, and never went +to Linwood unless some one was with her to prevent her being left with +him alone. A life like this could not be pleasant for Morris, and as +there seemed to be a lack of competent physicians in the army, he, after +prayerful deliberation, accepted a situation offered him as surgeon in a +Georgetown hospital, and early in June left Silverton for his new field +of labor.</p> + +<p>True to her promise, Bell came at the last of July to Silverton, +proving herself a dreadful romp as she climbed over the rocks in Aunt +Betsy's famous sheep pasture, or raked the hay in the meadow, and +proving herself, too, a genuine woman, as with blanced cheek and anxious +heart she waited for tidings from the battles before Richmond, where the +tide of success seemed to turn, and the North, hitherto so jubilant and +hopeful, wore weeds of mourning from Maine to Oregon. Lieutenant Bob was +there, and Wilford, too; and so was Captain Ray, digging in the marshy +swamps, where death floated up in poisonous exhalations—plodding on the +weary march, and fighting all through the seven days, where the sun +poured down its burning heat and the night brought little rest. No +wonder, then, that the three faces at the farmhouse grew white with +anxiety, or that three pairs of eyes grew dim with watching the daily +papers. But the names of neither Wilford, Mark, nor Bob were ever found +among the wounded, dead, or missing, and with the fall of the first +autumn leaf Bell returned to the city, more puzzled, more perplexed than +ever with regard to Helen Lennox's real feelings toward Captain Ray.</p> + +<p>Rapidly autumn went by, bringing at last the week before Christmas, when +Mark came home for a few days, looking ruddy and bronzed from exposure +and hardship, but wearing the disappointed, listless look which Bell was +quick to detect, connecting it in some way with Helen Lennox. Only once +did he call at Mr. Cameron's, and then as Juno was not present Bell had +him all to herself, talking a great deal of Silverton, of Helen and +Katy, in the latter of whom he seemed far more interested than in her +sister. Many questions he asked concerning Katy, expressing his regret +that Wilford had ever left her, and saying he believed Wilford was +sorry, too. He was in the hospital now, with a severe cold and a touch +of the rheumatism, he said; but as Bell knew this already she did not +dwell long upon that subject, choosing rather to talk of Helen—"as much +interested in the soldiers," she said, "as if she had a brother or a +lover in the army," and her bright eyes glanced meaningly at Mark, who +answered carelessly:</p> + +<p>"Dr. Grant is there, you know, and that may account for her interest."</p> + +<p>Mark knew he must say something to ward off Bell's attacks, and so he +continued talking of Dr. Grant and how much he was liked by the poor +wretches who needed some one as kind and gentle as he to keep them from +dying of homesickness if nothing else. Once, too, he spoke of a nurse, a +second Nightingale, whose shadow on the wall the soldiers had not kissed +perhaps, but who was worshiped by the pale, sick men to whom she +ministered so tenderly.</p> + +<p>"She is very beautiful," he added, "and every man of us would willingly +try a hospital cot for the sake of being nursed by her."</p> + +<p>Bell thought at once of Marian, but as Mark knew nothing of their +private affairs she would not question him, and after a few bantering +words concerning Lieutenant Bob and the picture he carried into every +battle, buttoned closely over his heart. Mark Ray took his leave, while +Bell, softened by thoughts of Cob, ran upstairs to cry, going to her +mother's room, as a seamstress was occupying her own. Mrs. Cameron was +out that afternoon, and that she had dressed in a hurry was indicated by +the unusual confusion of her room. Drawers were left open and various +articles scattered about, while on the floor just as it had fallen from +a glove box lay a letter which Bell picked up, intending to replace it.</p> + +<p>"Miss Helen Lennox," she read in astonishment. "How came Helen Lennox's +letter here in mother's room, and from Mark Ray, too," she continued, +still more amazed as she took the neatly folded note from the envelope +and glanced at the name. "Foul play somewhere. Can it be mother?" she +asked, as she read enough to know that she held in her hand Mark's offer +of marriage which had in some mysterious manner found its way to her +mother's room. "I don't understand it at all," she said, racking her +brain for a solution of the mystery. "But the letter at least is safe +with me. I'll send it to Helen this very day and to-morrow I'll tell +Mark Ray."</p> + +<p>Procrastination was not one of Bell Cameron's faults, and for full half +an hour before her mother and Juno came home, the stolen letter had been +lying in the mail box where Bell herself deposited it, together with a +few hurriedly written lines, telling how it came into her hands, but +offering no explanation of any kind.</p> + +<p>"Mark is home now on a leave of absence which expires day after +to-morrow," she wrote, "but I am going around to see him, and if you +do not hear from him in person I am greatly mistaken."</p> + +<p>Very closely Bell watched her mother when she came from her room, but +the letter had not been missed, and in blissful ignorance Mrs. Cameron +displayed her purchases and then talked of Wilford, wondering how he was +and if it were advisable for any of them to go to him.</p> + +<p>The next day a series of hindrances kept Bell from making her call as +early as she had intended doing, so that Mrs. Banker and Mark were just +rising from dinner when told she was in the parlor.</p> + +<p>"I meant to have come before," she said, seating herself by Mark, "but +I could not get away. I have brought you some good news. I think—that +is—yes, I know there has been some mistake, some wrong somewhere, +whether intended or not. Mark Ray," and the impetuous girl faced +directly toward him, "if you could have any wish you might name what +would it be? Come now, imagine yourself a Cinderella and I the fairy +godmother. What will you have?"</p> + +<p>Mark knew she was in earnest and her manner puzzled him greatly, but he +answered, laughingly: "As a true patriot I should wish for peace on +strictly honorable terms."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw!"</p> + +<p>The word dropped very prettily from Bell's lips as with a shrug she +continued:</p> + +<p>"You men are very patriotic, I know, especially if you wear shoulder +straps, but isn't there something dearer than peace? Suppose, for +instance, Union between the North and South on strictly honorable terms, +as you say, was laid upon one scale and union between yourself and Helen +Lennox was laid upon the other, which would you take?"</p> + +<p>Mark's lips were very white now, but he tried to laugh as he replied: "I +should say the Union, of course."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but which union?" Bell rejoined, and then as she saw that Mrs. +Banker was beginning to frown upon her she continued: "But to come +directly to the point. Yesterday afternoon I found—no matter where or +how—a letter intended for Helen Lennox, which I am positive she never +saw or heard of; at least her denial to me that a certain Mark Ray had +ever offered himself is a proof that she never saw what was an offer +made just before you went away. I read enough to know that, and then I +took the letter and—"</p> + +<p>She hesitated, while Mark's eyes turned dark with excitement, and even +Mrs. Banker, scarcely less interested, leaned eagerly forward, saying:</p> + +<p>"And what? Go on, Miss Cameron. What did you do with that letter?"</p> + +<p>"I sent it to its rightful owner, Helen Lennox. I posted it myself, so +it's sure this time. But why don't you thank me, Captain Ray?" she +asked, as Mark's face was overshadowed with anxiety.</p> + +<p>"I was wondering whether it were well to send it—wondering how it might +be received," he said, and Bell replied:</p> + +<p>"She will not answer no. As one woman knows another I know Helen Lennox. +I have sounded her on that point. I told her of the rumor there was +afloat, and she denied it, seeming greatly distressed, but showing +plainly that had such offer been received she would not have refused it. +You should have seen her last summer, Captain Ray, when we waited so +anxiously for news from the Potomac. Her face was a study as her eyes +ran over the list of casualties, searching not for her amiable +brother-in-law, nor yet for Willard Braxton, their hired man. It was +plain to me as daylight, and all you have to do is to follow up that +letter with another, or go yourself, if you have time." Bell said, as +she arose to go, leaving Mark in a state of bewilderment as to what he +had heard.</p> + +<p>Who withheld that letter? and why? were questions which troubled him +greatly, nor did his mother's assurance that it did not matter so long +as it all came right at last, tend wholly to reassure him. One thing, +however, was certain. He would see Helen before he returned to his +regiment—he would hear from her own lips what her answer would have +been had she received the letter. He would telegraph in the morning to +Washington, and then run the risk of being a day behind the time +appointed for his return to duty. Never since the day of Aunt Betsy's +revelations had Mark felt as light and happy as he did that night, +scarcely closing his eyes in sleep, but still not feeling tired when +next morning he met his mother at the breakfast table and disclosed in +part his plans. He would not tell her all there was in his mind lest it +should not be fulfilled, but when at parting with her he did say:</p> + +<p>"Suppose you have three children when I return instead of two, is there +room in your heart for the third?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, always room for Helen," was the reply, as with a kiss of +benediction Mrs. Banker sent her boy away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV" ></a>CHAPTER XLV.</h2> + +<h3>CHRISTMAS EVE AT SILVERTON.</h3> + + +<p>There was to be a Christmas tree at St. John's, and all the week the +church had been the scene of much confusion. But all the work was over +now; the church was swept and dusted, the tree with its gay adornings +was in its place, the little ones, who, trying to help, had hindered and +vexed so much, were gone, as were their mothers, and only tarried with +the organ boy to play the Christmas carol, which Katy was to sing alone, +the children joining in the chorus as they had been trained to do. It +was very quiet there, and very pleasant too, with the fading sunlight +streaming through the chancel window, lighting up the cross above it, +and falling softly on the wall where the evergreens were hung with the +sacred words: "Peace on earth and good will toward men." And Helen felt +the peace stealing over her as by the register she sat down for a moment +ere going to the organ loft where the boy was waiting for her. Not even +the remembrance of the dark war cloud hanging over the land disturbed +her then, as her thoughts went backward eighteen hundred years to +Bethlehem's manger and the little child whose birth the angels sang. And +as she thought, that Child seemed to be with her, a living presence to +which she prayed, leaning her head upon the railing of the pew in front +and asking Him to keep her in the perfect peace she felt around her now. +She had given Mark Ray up, and giving up had made a cruel wound, but she +did not feel it now, although she thought of him in that quiet hour, +asking God to keep him in safety wherever he might be, whether in the +lonely watch or kneeling as she hoped he might in some house of God, +where the Christmas carols would be sung and the Christmas story told.</p> + +<p>A movement of her hand as she lifted up her head struck against the +pocket of her dress, where lay the letter brought to her an hour or so +ago—Bell's letter—which, after glancing at the superscription, she had +put aside until a more convenient season for reading it.</p> + +<p>Taking it out, she tore open the envelope, starting suddenly as another +letter, soiled and unsealed, met her eye. She read Bell's first, and +then, with a throbbing heart, which as yet would not believe, she took +up Mark's, and understanding now much that was before mysterious to her. +Juno's call, too, came to her mind, and though she was unwilling to +charge so foul a wrong upon that young lady, she could find no other +solution to the mystery. There was a glow of indignation—Helen had +scarcely been mortal without it; but that passed away in pity for the +misguided girl and in joy at the happiness opening so broadly before +her. That Mark would come to Silverton she had no hope, but he would +surely write—his letter, perhaps, was even then on the way; and kissing +the one she held she hid it in her bosom and went up to where the organ +boy had for several minutes been kicking at stools and books, and +whistling "Old John Brown" by way of attracting attention. The boy was +in a hurry, and asked in so forlorn a tone: "Is we going to play?" that +Helen answered good-humoredly: "Just a few minutes, Billy. I want to try +the carol and the opening, which I've hardly played at all."</p> + +<p>With an air of submission Bill took his post and Helen began to play, +but she could only see before her: "I have loved you ever since that +morning when I put the lilies in your hair," and she played so out of +time and tune that Billy asked: "What makes 'em go so bad?"</p> + +<p>"I can't play now; I'm not in the mood," she said at last. "I shall +feel better by and by. You can go home if you like."</p> + +<p>Billy needed no second bidding, but catching up his cap ran down the +stairs and out into the porch, just as up the step a young man came +hurriedly, the horse he had hitched to a tree smoking from exercise and +himself looking eager and excited.</p> + +<p>"Hello, boy," he cried, grasping the collar of Bill's roundabout and +holding him fast, "who's in the church?"</p> + +<p>"Darn yer, old Jim Sykes, you let me be, or I'll—" the boy began, but +when he saw his captor was not Jim Sykes, but a tall, fine-looking man, +wearing a soldier's uniform, he changed his tone, and standing still, +answered civilly: "I thought you was Jim Sykes, the biggest bully in +town, who is allus hectorin' us boys. Nobody is there but she—Miss +Lennox—up where the organ is," and having given the desired +information, Bill ran off, wondering first if it wasn't Miss Helen's +beau, and wondering next, in case she should some time get married in +church, if he wouldn't fee the organ boy as well as the sexton. "He +orto," Bill soliloquized, "for I've about blowed my gizzard out +sometimes, when she and Mrs. Cameron sings the 'Te Deum.'"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Mark Ray, who had driven first to the farmhouse in quest of +Helen, entered the church, glancing in upon the festooned walls, and +then as he heard a sound in the loft, stealing noiselessly up the stairs +to where Helen sat in the dim light, reading again the precious letter +withheld from her so long. She had moved her stool near to the window, +and her back was toward the door, so that she neither saw nor heard, nor +suspected anything, until Mark, bending over her so as to see what she +had in her hand, as well as the tear she had dropped upon it, clasped +both his arms about her neck, and drawing her face over back, kissed her +fondly, calling her his darling, and saying to her as she tried to +struggle from him:</p> + +<p>"I know I have a right to call you darling by that tear on my letter and +the look upon your face. Dear Helen, we have found each other at last."</p> + +<p>It was so unexpected that Helen could not speak, but she let her head +rest on his bosom, where he had laid it, and her hot, trembling hand +crept into his, so that he was answered, and for a moment he only kissed +and caressed the fair girl he knew now was his own. They could not talk +together there very long, for Helen must go home; but he made good use +of the time he had, telling her many things, and then asking her a +question which made her start away from him as she replied: "No, no, oh! +no, not to-night—not so soon as that!"</p> + +<p>"And why not, Helen?" he asked, with the manner of one who is not to be +denied. "Why not to-night, so there need be no more misunderstanding? +I'd rather leave you as my wife than my betrothed. Mother will like it +better. I hinted it to her and she said there was room for you in her +love. It will make me a better man, a better soldier, if I can say 'my +wife,' as other soldiers do. You don't know what a charm there is in +that word, Helen—keeping a man from sin, and if I should die I would +rather you should bear my name and share in my fortune. Will you, Helen, +when the ceremonies are closed, will you go up to that altar and pledge +your vows to me? I cannot wait till to-morrow; my leave of absence +expired to-day. I must go back to-night, but you must first be mine."</p> + +<p>Helen was shaking as with a chill, but she made him no reply, and +wrapping her cloak and furs about her, Mark led her down to the sleigh, +and taking his seat beside her, drove back to the farmhouse, where the +supper waited for her. Katy, to whom Mark first communicated his desire, +warmly espoused his cause, and that went far toward reassuring Helen, +who, for some time past had been learning to look up to Katy as to an +older sister, so sober, so earnest, so womanly had Katy grown since +Wilford went away.</p> + +<p>"It is so sudden, and people will talk," Helen said, knowing while she +said it how little she cared for people and smiling at Katy's reply:</p> + +<p>"They may as well talk about you a while as me. It is not so bad when +once you are used to it."</p> + +<p>After Katy, Aunt Betsy was Mark's best advocate. It is true this was not +just what she had expected when Helen was married. The "infair" which +Wilford had declined was still in Aunt Betsy's mind; but that, she +reflected might be yet. If Mark went back on the next train there could +be no proper wedding party until his return, when the loaves of frosted +cake, and the baked fowls she had seen in imagination should be there in +real, tangible form, and as she expressed it they would have a "high." +Accordingly she threw herself into the scale beginning to balance in +favor of Mark, and when at last old Whitey stood at the door ready to +take the family to the church, Helen sat upon the lounge listening half +bewildered, while Katy assured her that she could play the voluntary, +even if she had not looked at it, that she could lead the children +without the organ, and in short do everything Helen was expected to do +except go to the altar with Mark.</p> + +<p>"That I leave for you," and she playfully kissed Helen's forehead, as +she tripped from the room, looking back when she reached the door, and +charging the lovers not to forget to come, in their absorption of each +other.</p> + +<p>St. John's was crowded that night, just as churches always are on such +occasions, the children occupying the front seats, with looks of +expectancy upon their faces, as they studied the heavily laden tree, the +boys wondering if that ball, or whistle, or wheelbarrow was for them, +and the girls appropriating the tastefully dressed dolls, showing so +conspicuously among the dark-green foliage. The Barlows were rather +late, for upon Uncle Ephraim devolved the duty of seeing to the license, +and as he had no seat in that house, his arrival was only known by Aunt +Betsy's elbowing her way to the front, and near to the Christmas tree +which she had helped to dress, just as she had helped to trim the +church. She did not believe in such "flummmeries" it is true, and she +classed them with the "quirks," but rather than "see the gals slave +themselves to death," she had this year lent a helping hand. Donning two +shawls, a camlet cloak, a knit scarf for her head, and a hood to keep +from catching cold, she had worked early and late, fashioning the most +wonderfully shaped wreaths, tying up festoons, and even trying her hand +at a triangle; but turning her back resolutely upon crosses, which were +more than her Puritanism could endure. The cross was a "quirk," with +which she'd have nothing to do, though once, when Katy seemed more than +usually bothered and wished somebody would hand her tacks. Aunt Betsy +relented so far as to bring the hoop she was winding close to Katy, +holding the little nails in her mouth, and giving them out as they were +wanted; but with each one given out, conscientiously turning her head +away, lest her eyes should fall upon what she conceived the symbol of +the Romish Church. But when the whole was done, none were louder in +their praises than the good Aunt Betsy, who was guilty of asking Mrs. +Deacon Bannister when she came in to inspect, "why the orthodox couldn't +get up some such doin's for their Sunday school. It pleased the children +mightily."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Deacon Bannister answered with some severity:</p> + +<p>"We don't believe in shows and plays, you know," thus giving a double +thrust, and showing that the opera had never been quite forgotten. +"Here's a pair of skates, though, and a smellin' bottle. I'd like to +have put on for John and Sylvia," she added, handing her package to Aunt +Betsy, who, while seeing the skates and smelling bottle suspended from a +bough, was guilty of wondering if "the partaker wasn't most as bad as +the thief."</p> + +<p>This was in the afternoon and was all forgotten now, when with her +Sunday clothes she never would have worn in that jam but for the great +occasion, Aunt Betsy elbowed her way up the middle aisle, her face +wearing a very important and knowing look, especially when Uncle +Ephraim's tall figure bent for a moment under the hemlock boughs, and +then disappeared in the little vestry room where he held a private +consultation with the rector. That she knew something her neighbors +didn't was evident. But she kept it to herself, turning her head +occasionally to look up at the organ where Katy was presiding. Others, +too, there were who turned their heads as the soft liquid music began to +fill the church, and the heavy bass rolled up the aisles, making the +floor tremble beneath their feet and sending a thrill through every +vein. It was a skillful hand which swept the keys that night, for Katy's +forte was music, and she played with her whole soul, not the voluntary +there before her in printed form, nor any one thing she had ever heard, +but taking parts of many things, and mingling them with strains of her +own improvising, she filled the house as it had never been filled +before, playing a soft, sweet refrain when she thought of Helen, then +bursting into louder, fuller tones, when she remembered Bethlehem's +child and the song the angels sang, and then as she recalled her own +sacrifice since she knelt at the altar a happy bride, the organ notes +seemed much like human sobs, now rising to a stormy pitch of passion, +wild and uncontrolled, and then dying out as dies the summer wind after +a fearful storm. Awed and wonderstruck the organ boy looked at Katy as +she played, almost forgetting his part of the performance in his +amazement, and saying to himself when she had finished:</p> + +<p>"Guy, though, ain't she a brick," and whispering to her: "Didn't we go +that strong?"</p> + +<p>Katy knew she had made an impression, and her cheeks were very red as +she went down to the body of the church, joining the children with whom +she was to sing, but she soon forgot herself in the happiness of the +little ones, who could scarcely be controlled until the short service +was over and the gifts about to be distributed. Much the people had +wondered where Helen was, as, without the aid of music, Katy led the +children in their carols, and this wonder increased when as time passed +on it was whispered around that "Miss Lennox had come and was standing +with a man back by the register."</p> + +<p>After this Aunt Betsy grew very calm. She knew Helen was there and could +now enjoy the distributing of the gifts, going up herself two or three +times, and wondering why anybody should think of her, a good-for-nothing +old woman. The skates and the smelling bottles both went safely to +Sylvia and John, while Mrs. Deacon Bannister looked radiant when her +name was called and she was made the recipient of a jar of butternut +pickles, such as only Aunt Betsy Barlow could make.</p> + +<p>"Miss Helen Lennox. A soldier in uniform, from one of her Sunday school +scholars."</p> + +<p>The words rang out loud and clear, the rector holding up the sugar toy +before the amused audience, who turned to look at Helen, blushing so +painfully, and trying to hold back the real man in soldier's dress who +went quietly up the aisle, receiving the gift with a bow and smile +which turned the heads of half the ladies near him, and then went back +to Helen, over whom he bent, whispering something which made her cheeks +grow brighter than they were before, while she dropped her eyes +modestly.</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" a woman asked, touching Aunt Betsy's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Captain Ray, from New York," was the answer, as Aunt Betsy gave to her +dress a little broader sweep and smoothed the bow she had tried to tie +beneath her chin just as Mattie Tubbs had tied it on the memorable opera +night.</p> + +<p>"Miss Helen Lennox. A sugar heart, from one of her scholars," the rector +called again, the titters of the audience almost breaking into cheers as +they began to suspect the relation sustained to Helen by the handsome +young officer, going up the aisle after Helen's heart and stopping to +speak to good Aunt Betsy, who pulled his coat skirt as he passed her.</p> + +<p>The tree by this time was nearly empty. Every child had been remembered, +save one, and that Billy, the organ boy, who, separated from his +companions, stood near Helen, watching the tree wistfully, while shadows +of hope and disappointment passed alternately over his face as one after +another the presents were distributed and nothing came to him.</p> + +<p>"There ain't a darned thing on it for me," he exclaimed at last, when +boy nature could endure no longer, and Mark turned toward him just in +time to see the gathering mist which but for the most heroic efforts +would have merged into tears.</p> + +<p>"Poor Billy," Helen said, as she too heard his comment, "I fear he has +been forgotten. His teacher is absent and he so faithful at the organ +too."</p> + +<p>Mark knew now who the boy was and after a hurried consultation with +Helen, who knowing Billy well, suggested that money would probably be +more acceptable than even skates or jackknives, neither of which were +possible now, folded something in a bit of paper, on which he wrote a +name and then sent it to the rector.</p> + +<p>"Billy Brown, our faithful organ boy," sounded through the church, and +with a brightened face Billy went up the aisle and received the little +package, ascertaining before he reached his standpoint near the door +that he was the owner of a five-dollar bill, and mentally deciding to +add both peanuts and molasses candy to the stock of apples he daily +carried into the cars.</p> + +<p>"You gin me this," he said, nodding to Mark, "and you," turning to +Helen, "poked him up to it."</p> + +<p>"Well then, if I did," Mark replied, laying his hand on the boy's coarse +hair, "if I did, you must take good care of Miss Lennox when I am gone. +I leave her in your charge. She is to be my wife."</p> + +<p>"Gorry, I thought so," and Bill's cap went toward the plastering just as +the last string of popcorn was given from the tree, and the exercises +were about to close.</p> + +<p>It was not in Aunt Betsy's nature to keep her secret till this time, and +simultaneously with Billy's going up for his gift she whispered it to +her neighbor, who whispered it to hers, until nearly all the audience +knew of it, and kept their seats after the benediction was pronounced.</p> + +<p>At a sign from the rector, Katy went with her mother to the altar, +followed by Uncle Ephraim, his wife, and Aunt Betsy, while Helen, +throwing off the cloud she had worn upon her head, and giving it, with +her cloak and fur, into Billy's charge, took Mark's offered arm, and +with beating heart and burning cheeks passed between the sea of eyes +fixed so curiously upon her, up to where Katy once had stood on the June +morning when she had been the bride. Not now, as then, were aching +hearts present at that bridal. No Marian Hazelton fainted by the door; +no Morris felt the world grow dark and desolate as the marriage vows +were spoken; and no sister doubted if it were all right and would end in +happiness. Only Katy seemed sad as she recalled the past, praying that +Helen's life might not be like hers.</p> + +<p>The ceremony lasted but a few moments, and then the astonished audience +pressed around the bride, offering their kindly congratulations, and +proving to Mark Ray that the bride he had won was dear to others as well +as to himself. Lovingly he drew her hand beneath his arm, fondly he +looked down upon her as he led her back to her chair by the register, +making her sit down while he tied on her cloak and adjusted the fur +about her neck.</p> + +<p>"Handy and gentle as a woman," was the verdict pronounced upon him by +the female portion of the congregation as they passed out into the +street, talking of the ceremony, and contrasting Helen's husband with +the haughty Wilford, who was not a favorite with them.</p> + +<p>It was Billy Brown who brought Mark's cutter around, holding the reins +while Mark helped Helen, and then tucking the buffalo robes about her +with the remark: "It's all-fired cold, Miss Ray. Shall you play in +church to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>Assured that she would, Billy walked away, and Mark was alone with his +bride, slowly following the deacon's sleigh, which reached the farmhouse +a long time before the little cutter, so that a fire was already kindled +in the parlor when Helen arrived, and also in the kitchen stove, where +the teakettle was placed, for Aunt Betsy said "the chap should have some +supper before he went back to York."</p> + +<p>Four hours he had to stay, and they were well spent in talking of +himself, of Wilford, and of Morris, and in planning Helen's future. Of +course she would spend a portion of her time at the farmhouse, he said, +but his mother had a claim upon her, and it was his wish that she should +be in New York as much as possible.</p> + +<p>"Now that you have Mrs. Cameron, you do not need my wife," he said to +Mrs. Lennox, with an emphasis upon the last word, which he seemed very +fond of using.</p> + +<p>Much he wished to stay with the wife so lately his, but as that could +not be, he asked at last that she go with him to Washington. It might be +some days before his regiment was ordered to the front, and in that time +they could enjoy so much. But Helen knew it would not be best, and so +she declined, promising, however, to come to him whenever he should need +her.</p> + +<p>Swiftly now the last moments went by, and a "Merry Christmas" was said +by one and another as they took their seats at the plentiful repast Aunt +Betsy had provided, Mark feasting more on Helen's face than on the +viands spread before him. It was hard for him to leave her, hard for her +to let him go, but the duty was imperative, and so when at last the +frosty air grew keener as the small hours of night crept on, he stood +with his arms about her, nor thought it unworthy of a soldier that his +own tears mingled with hers as he bade her good-by, kissing her again +and again, and calling her his precious wife, whose memory would make +his camp-life brighter and shorten the days of absence. There was no one +with them when at last Mark's horse dashed from the yard over the +creaking snow, leaving Helen alone upon the doorstep, with the +glittering stars shining above her head and her husband's farewell kiss +wet upon her lips.</p> + +<p>"When shall we meet again?" she sobbed, gazing up at the clear blue sky, +as if to find the answer there.</p> + +<p>But only the December wind sweeping down from the steep hillside, and +blowing across her forehead, made reply to that questioning, as she +waited till the last faint sound of Mark Ray's bells died away in the +distance, and then shivering with cold re-entered the farmhouse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI" ></a>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2> + +<h3>AFTER CHRISTMAS EVE.</h3> + + +<p>Merrily rang the bells next day, the sexton deeming it his duty to send +forth a merry peal in honor of the bride whose husband had remembered +his boy so liberally. But Helen's heart was very sad as she met the +smiling faces of her friends, and Mark had never been prayed for more +earnestly than on that Christmas morning, when Helen knelt at the altar +rail and received the sacred symbols of a Savior's dying love, asking +that God would keep the soldier husband, hastening on to New York, and +from thence to Washington. Much the Silvertonians discussed the wedding, +nor were these discussions likely to be shortened by the arrival of +Mattie Tubbs and Tom, who came by the express from New York, both +surprised at what they heard, and both loud in their praises of Captain +Ray, "the best and kindest man that ever lived," Tom said, while Mattie +told fabulous stories of his wealth. Had Helen been the queen she could +hardly have been stared at more curiously than she was that Christmas +day, when late in the afternoon she drove through the town with Katy, +the villagers looking admiringly after her, noting the tie of her +bonnet, the arrangement of her face trimmings, and discovering in both a +style and fitness they had never discovered before. As the wife of Mark +Ray Helen became suddenly a heroine, in whose presence poor Katy +subsided completely, nor was the interest at all diminished when two +days later Mrs. Banker came to Silverton and was met at the depot by +Helen, whom she hugged affectionately, calling her "my dear daughter," +and holding her hand all the way to the covered sleigh waiting there for +her. Further than that the curious ones could not follow, and so they +did not know how on the road to the farmhouse Mrs. Banker expressed her +approbation of what her boy had done, acknowledged her own unjust +suspicions, asking pardon for them, and receiving it in the warm kiss +Helen pressed upon her offered hand. Mrs. Banker was very fond of Helen, +and not even the sight of the farmhouse, with its unpolished inmates, +awakened a feeling of regret that her only son had not looked higher for +a wife. She was satisfied with her new daughter, and insisted upon +taking her back to New York.</p> + +<p>"I am very lonely now, lonelier than you can possibly be," she said +to Mrs. Lennox, "and you will not refuse her to me for a few weeks at +least. It will do us both good, and make the time of Mark's absence so +much shorter."</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother, let Helen go. I will try to fill her place," Katy said, +though while she said it her heart throbbed with pain and dread as she +thought how desolate she should be without her sister.</p> + +<p>But it was right, and Katy urged Helen's going, thinking how the tables +were turned since the day when she had been the happy bride to whom +good-bys were said, instead of the wounded, sore-hearted sister left +behind, bearing up bravely so long as Helen was in sight, but shedding +bitter tears when at last she was gone, tears which were only stayed by +kind old Uncle Ephraim offering to take her to the little grave, where, +from experience, he knew she always found rest and peace. The winter +snows were on it now, but Katy, looking at it from the sleigh in which +she sat, knew just where the daisies were, and the blue violets which +with the spring would bloom again, feeling comforted as she thought of +that eternal spring in the bright world above, where her child had +gone. And so that night, when they gathered again around the fire in the +pleasant little parlor, the mother and the old people did not miss Helen +half so much as they should, for Katy sang her sweetest songs and wore +her sunniest smile, while she told them of Helen's new home, and then +talked of whatever else she thought would interest and please them.</p> + +<p>"Little Sunbeam," Uncle Ephraim called her now, instead of "Katy-did," +and in his prayer that first night of Helen's absence he asked, in his +touching way, "that God would bless his little Sunbeam, and not let her +grow tired of living there alone with folks so odd and old."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>MARRIED—On Christmas Eve, at St. John's Church, Silverton, Mass., by +Rev. Mr. Kelly, Captain MARK RAY, of the —th Regiment, N.Y.S.V., to +Miss HELEN LENNOX, of Silverton.</p></div> + +<p>Such was the announcement which appeared in several of the New York +papers two days after Christmas, and such the announcement which Bell +Cameron read at the breakfast table on the morning of the day when Mrs. +Banker started for Silverton.</p> + +<p>"Here is something which will perhaps interest you," she said, passing +the paper to Juno who had come down late, and was looking cross and +jaded from the effects of last night's dissipation.</p> + +<p>Taking the paper from her sister's hand, Juno glanced carelessly at +the paragraph indicated by Bell; then, as she caught Mark's name, she +glanced again with a startled, incredulous look, her cheeks and lips +turning white as she read that Mark Ray was lost to her forever, and +that in spite of the stolen letter Helen Lennox was his wife.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Juno?" Mrs. Cameron asked, noticing her daughter's +agitation.</p> + +<p>Juno told her what it was, handing her the paper and letting her read it +for herself.</p> + +<p>"Impossible! there is some mistake! How was it brought about?" she +continued, darting a curious glance at Bell, whose face betrayed nothing +as she leisurely sipped her coffee, and remarked: "I always thought it +would come to this, for I knew he liked her. It is a splendid match."</p> + +<p>Whatever Juno thought she kept it to herself, just as she kept her room +the entire day, suffering from a racking headache, and ordering the +curtains to be dropped, as the light hurt her eyes, she said to Bell, +who, really pitying her now, never suggested that the darkened room was +more to hide her tears than to save her eyes, and who sent away all +callers with the message that Juno was sick—all but Sybil Grandon, who +insisted so hard upon seeing her dear friend that she was admitted to +Juno's room, talking at once of the wedding, and making every one of +Juno's nerves quiver with pain as she descanted upon the splendid match +it was for Helen, or indeed for any girl.</p> + +<p>"I had given you to him," she said, "but I see I was mistaken. It was +Helen he preferred, unless you jilted him, as perhaps you did."</p> + +<p>Here was a temptation Juno could not resist, and she replied, haughtily:</p> + +<p>"I am not one to boast of conquests, but ask Captain Ray himself if you +wish to know why I did not marry him."</p> + +<p>Sybil Grandon was not deceived, but she good-naturedly suffered that +young lady to hope she was, and answered, laughingly: "I can't say I +honor your judgment in refusing him, but you know best. However, I trust +that will not prevent your friendly advances toward his bride. Mrs. +Banker has gone after her, I understand, and I want you to call with me +as soon as convenient. Mrs. Mark Ray will be the belle of the season, +depend upon it," and gathering up her furs Mrs. Grandon kissed Juno +affectionately and then swept from the room.</p> + +<p>That Mrs. Cameron had hunted for and failed to find the stolen letter, +and that she associated its disappearance with Mark Ray's sudden +marriage, Bell was very sure, from the dark, anxious look upon her face +when she came from her room, whither she had repaired immediately after +breakfast, but whatever her suspicions were they did not find form in +words. Mark was lost. It was too late to help that now, and as a politic +woman of the world, Mrs. Cameron decided to let the matter rest, and by +patronizing the young bride prove that she had never thought of Mark +Ray for her son-in-law. Hence it was that the Cameron carriage and the +Grandon carriage stood together before Mrs. Banker's door, while the +ladies who had come in the carriages paid their respects to Mrs. Ray, +rallying her upon the march she had stolen upon them, telling her how +delighted they were to have her back again, and hoping they should see a +great deal of each other during the coming winter.</p> + +<p>"You know we are related," Juno said, holding Helen's hand a long time +at parting, ostensibly to show how very friendly she felt, but really to +examine and calculate the probable value of the superb diamond which +shone on Helen's finger, Mark's first gift, left for her with his +mother, who had presented it for him.</p> + +<p>"As diamonds are now, that never cost less than four or five hundred +dollars," Juno said, as she was discussing the matter with Bell, and +telling her that Helen had the ring they had admired so much at +Tiffany's the last time they were there, and then her spiteful, envious +nature found vent in the remark: "I wonder at Mark's taste when only +shoddy buy diamonds now."</p> + +<p>"Why, then, did you torment father into buying that little pin for you +the other day?" Bell asked, and Juno replied:</p> + +<p>"I have always been accustomed to diamonds and that is a very different +thing from Helen Lennox putting them on. Did you notice how red and fat +her fingers were, and rough, too? Positively her hand felt like a nutmeg +grater."</p> + +<p>"You know the fable of the fox and the grapes," Bell said, her gray eyes +flashing indignantly upon her sister, who, wisely forbore further +remarks upon Helen's hands and contented herself with wondering if +people generally would take up Mrs. Ray and honor her as they once did +Katy.</p> + +<p>"Of course they will," she said. "It's like heaps of them to do it," and +in this conclusion she was not wrong, for those who had liked Helen +Lennox did not find her less desirable now that she was Helen Ray, and +numberless were the attentions bestowed upon her and the invitations she +received.</p> + +<p>But with few exceptions Helen declined the latter, feeling that, +circumstanced as she was, with her husband in so much danger, it was +better not to mingle much in gay society. She was very happy with Mrs. +Banker, who petted and caressed and loved her almost as much as if she +had been an own daughter. Mark's letters, too, which came nearly every +day, were bright sun spots in her existence, so full were they of tender +love and kind thoughtfulness for her. He was very happy, he wrote, in +knowing that at home there was a dear little brown-haired wife, waiting +and praying for him, and but for the separation from her was well +content now with a soldier's life. Once when he was stationed for a +longer time than usual at some point Helen thought seriously of going to +him for a week or more, but the project was prevented by the sudden +arrival in New York of Katy, who came one night to Mrs. Banker's, her +face as white as ashes, and a strange, wild expression in her eyes as +she said to Helen:</p> + +<p>"I am going to Wilford. He is dying. He has sent for me. I ought to go +on to-night, but cannot, my head aches so," and pressing both her hands +upon her head Katy sank fainting into Helen's arms.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII" ></a>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<h3>GEORGETOWN HOSPITAL.</h3> + + +<p>GEORGETOWN, February —, 1862.<br /> +MRS. WILFORD CAMERON:<br /> +Your husband cannot live long. Come immediately.<br /> +M. HAZELTON.</p></div> + +<p>So read the telegram received by Katy one winter morning, when her eyes +were swollen with weeping over Morris' letter, which had come the +previous night, telling her how circumstances which seemed providential +had led him to the hospital where her husband was, and where, too, was +Marian Hazelton.</p> + +<p>"I did not think it advisable to visit your husband at first," he wrote, +"while Miss Hazelton, who had recently been transferred to this +hospital, also kept out of the way. Nor was it necessary that either of +us should minister to him there, for he was not thought very ill. 'Only +a slight touch of rheumatism, and a low, nervous fever,' said the +attending physician, of whom I inquired. Latterly, however, the fever +has increased to a fearful extent, seating itself upon the brain, so +that he knows neither myself nor Miss Hazelton, both of whom are with +him. She, because she would be here where she heard of danger, and I +because his case was given into my charge. So I am with him now, writing +by his side, while he lies sleeping quietly, and Miss Hazelton bends +over him, bathing his burning head. He does not know her, but he talks +of Katy, who he says is dead and buried across the sea. Will you come to +him, Katy? Your presence may save his life. Telegraph when you leave New +York, and I will meet you at the depot."</p> + +<p>It is not strange that this letter, followed so soon by the telegram +from Marian, should crush one as delicate as Katy, or that for a few +minutes she should have been stunned with the shock, so as neither to +feel nor think. But the reaction came soon enough, bringing with it only +the remembrance of Wilford's love. All the wrong, the harshness, was +forgotten, and only the desire remained to fly at once to Wilford, +talking of her in his delirium. Bravely she kept up until New York was +reached, but once where Helen was, the tension of her nerves gave way, +and she fainted, so we have seen.</p> + +<p>At Father Cameron's that night there were troubled, anxious faces, for +they, too, had heard of Wilford's danger. But the mother could not go to +him. A lung difficulty, to which she was subject, had confined her to +the house for many days, and so it was the father and Bell who made +their hasty preparations for the hurried journey to Georgetown. They +heard of Katy's arrival and Bell came at once to see her.</p> + +<p>"She will not be able to join us to-morrow," was the report Bell carried +home, for she saw more than mere exhaustion from fatigue and fainting in +the white face lying so motionless on Helen's pillow, with the dark +rings about the eyes, and the quiver of the muscles about the mouth.</p> + +<p>The morrow found that Bell was right, for Katy could not rise, but lay +like some crushed flower still on Helen's bed, moaning softly:</p> + +<p>"It is very hard, but God knows best."</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling, God knows best," Helen answered, smoothing the bright +hair, and thinking sadly of the young officer sitting by his camp-fire, +and waiting so eagerly for the bride who could not go to him now. "God +knows what is best, and does all for the best."</p> + +<p>Katy said it many times that long, long week, during which she stayed an +invalid in Helen's room, living from day to day upon the letters sent by +Bell, who had gone on to Georgetown with her father, and who gave but +little hope that Wilford would recover. Not a word did she say of +Marian, and only twice did she mention Morris, so that when at last Katy +was strong enough to venture on the journey, she had but little idea of +what had transpired in Wilford's sickroom.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Those were sad, weary days which Wilford first passed upon his hospital +cot, and as he was not sick but crippled, he had ample time for +reviewing the past, which came up before his mind as vividly as if he +had been living again the scenes of bygone days. Of Katy he thought +continually, blaming himself much, but so strong was his pride and +selfishness, blaming her more for the trouble which had come upon them. +Why need she have taken the Genevra matter so to heart, going with it to +Morris and so bringing him into his present disagreeable situation. He +did not mean to be unjust or unkind toward Katy, but he looked upon her +as the direct cause of his being where he was. Had she never been seen +in the cars with Morris, he should not have left home as he did, and +might anticipate going back without a flush of shame and a dread of +meeting old friends, who would think less of him than they used to do. A +thousand times Wilford had repented of his rashness, but never by a word +had he admitted such repentance to any living being, and when on the +dark, rainy afternoon which first saw him in the hospital, he turned his +face to the wall and wept, he replied to one who said to him soothingly:</p> + +<p>"Don't feel badly, my young friend. We will take as good care of you +here as if you were at home."</p> + +<p>"It's the pain which brings the tears. I'd as soon be here as at home."</p> + +<p>Gradually, however, there came a change, and Wilford grew softer in his +feelings, longing for home, or for the sight of a familiar face, and +half resolving more than once to send for Katy, who had offered to come, +and to whom he had replied: "It is not necessary." But as often as he +resolved his evil genius whispered: "She does not care to come here," +and so the message was never sent, while the longing for home faces +brought on a nervous fever, which made him so irritable that his +attendants sometimes turned from him in disgust, thinking him the most +unreasonable man they had ever met. Once he dreamed Genevra was +there—that she came to him just as she was in her beautiful +girlhood—that her fingers threaded his hair as they used to do in their +happy days at Brighton—that her hand was on his brow, her breath upon +his face, and with a start he awoke just as the rustle of female +garments died away in the hall.</p> + +<p>"The new nurse in the second ward has been in here," a comrade said. +"She seemed specially interested in you, and if she had not been a +stranger I should have said she was crying over you."</p> + +<p>With a quick, sudden movement Wilford put his hand to his cheek, where +there was a tear, either his own or that of the "new nurse," who had so +recently bent over him. Retaining the same proud reserve which had +characterized his whole life, he asked no questions, but listened +intently to what his sick companions were saying of the beauty and +tenderness of the young girl, they called her, who had glided for a few +moments into their presence, winning their hearts in that short space of +time, and making them wish she would come back again. Wilford wished so +too, conjuring up all sorts of conjectures about the unknown nurse, and +once going so far as to fancy it was Katy herself. But this idea was +soon dismissed. Katy would hardly venture there as a nurse, and if she +did she would not keep aloof from him. It was not Katy, and if not, who +was it that twice when he was sleeping came and looked at him, his +comrades said, rallying him upon the conquest he had made, and so +exciting his imagination that the fever which at first was hardly +observable began to increase, and the blood throbbed hotly through his +veins, while his brows were knit together with thoughts of the +mysterious stranger. Then with a great shock it occurred to him that +Katy had affirmed:</p> + +<p>"Genevra is alive, I have seen her. I recognized the picture at once."</p> + +<p>What if it were so, and this nurse was Genevra? The very thought fired +Wilford's brain, and when next his physician came he looked with some +alarm upon the great change for the worse exhibited by his patient. That +surgeon's forte was more in dressing ghastly wounds than in subduing +fever, and as he held Wilford's hand, he said:</p> + +<p>"You have a fever, my friend, and it is increasing fast. Perhaps you +would like to see our new physician, Dr. Grant. He is great on fevers."</p> + +<p>"Dr. Grant—Dr. Morris Grant?" Wilford exclaimed, starting up in bed +with a fierce energy which surprised the surgeon.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Dr. Morris Grant, from Massachusetts," the latter replied, his +surprise increasing when Wilford rejoined:</p> + +<p>"Send Satan himself sooner than he. I hate him."</p> + +<p>The words dropped hissingly from the firmly set teeth, and Wilford fell +back upon his pillow, exhausted with excitement and anger that Morris +Grant should be there in the same building and offered as his physician.</p> + +<p>"Never while my reason lasts," he whispered to himself, with hatred of +Morris growing more intense with every beat of his wiry pulse.</p> + +<p>Wilford was very sick, and when next the surgeon came around he knew by +the bright, restless eyes that reason was tottering.</p> + +<p>"Shall I send for your friends?" he asked, and Wilford answered, +savagely:</p> + +<p>"I have no friends—none, at least, but what will be glad to know I'm +dead."</p> + +<p>And that was the last, except the wild words of a maniac, which came +from Wilford's lips for many a day and night. When they said he was +dangerous, Marian Hazelton the "new nurse," sought and obtained +permission to attend him, and again the eyes of the other occupants of +the room were turned wonderingly toward her as she bent over the sick +man, parting his matted hair, smoothing his tumbled pillow, and holding +the cooling draught to the parched lips which muttered strange things in +her ear, talking of Brighton, of Alnwick and Rome—of the heather on the +Scottish moors, and the daisies on Genevra's grave, where Katy once sat +down.</p> + +<p>"She did not know Genevra was there," he said. "She never guessed there +was a Genevra; but I knew, and I felt almost as if the dead were wronged +by that act of Katy's. Do you know Katy?" and his black eyes fastened +upon Marian, who, with the strange power she possessed over her +patients, soothed him into quiet, while she told him she knew Katy, and +talked to him of her, telling of her graceful beauty, her loving heart, +and the sorrow she would feel when she heard how sick he was.</p> + +<p>"Shall I send for her?" she asked, but Wilford answered:</p> + +<p>"No, I am satisfied with you," and holding her hand he fell away to +sleep.</p> + +<p>This was the first day of her being with him, but there were other days +when he was not so quiet, when all her strength and that of Morris, who, +at her earnest solicitation, came to her aid, was required to keep him +on his bed. He was going home, he said, going back to Katy's; he had +punished her long enough, and like a giant he writhed under a force +superior to his own, and which held him down and controlled him, while +his loud outcries filled the buildings, and sent a shudder to the hearts +of those who heard them. As the two men, who at first had occupied the +room with him, were well enough to leave for home, Marian and Morris +both begged that unless absolutely necessary no other one should he sent +to that small apartment, where all the air was needed for the patient in +their charge. And thus the room was left alone for Wilford, who grew +worse so fast that Morris wrote to Katy, while Marian followed the +letter with a telegram, bidding her come at once.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Slowly the wintry night was passing, the fifth since Morris' letter was +sent to Katy, and Morris sat by Wilford's cot, wondering if the morning +would bring her to him, when suddenly he met Wilford's eyes fixed upon +him with a look of recognition he could not mistake.</p> + +<p>"Do you know me?" he asked, so kindly and with so much of genuine +sympathy in his voice that the heavy eyelids quivered for an instant, as +Wilford nodded his head, and whispered:</p> + +<p>"Dr. Grant."</p> + +<p>There had been a momentary flash of resentment when he saw who was the +watcher beside him, but Wilford was too weak, too helpless to cherish +that feeling long, and besides there were floating through his still +bewildered mind visions of some friendly hand, which had ministered to +him daily, of a voice and form, distinct from the one he thought an +angel's, and which was not there now with him. That voice, that form, he +felt sure belonged to Morris Grant, and remembering his past harshness +toward him, a chord of gratitude was touched, and when Morris took his +hand he did not at once withdraw it, but let his long, white fingers +cling around the warm, vigorous ones, which seemed to impart new life +and strength.</p> + +<p>"You have been very sick," Morris said, anticipating the question +Wilford would ask, "You are very sick still, and at the request of your +nurse I came to attend you."</p> + +<p>A pressure of the hand was Wilford's reply, and then there was silence +between them, while Wilford mastered all his pride, and with quivering +lips whispered:</p> + +<p>"Katy."</p> + +<p>"We have sent for her. We expect her every train," Morris replied, and +Wilford asked:</p> + +<p>"Who is we? Who has been with me—the nurse, I mean? Who is she?"</p> + +<p>Morris hesitated a moment, and then said:</p> + +<p>"Marian Hazelton—she who took care of baby."</p> + +<p>"I know—yes," Wilford said, having no suspicion as to who was the woman +standing now just outside his door, and listening, with a throbbing +heart, to his rational questions.</p> + +<p>In all their vigils held together no sign had ever passed from Dr. +Grant to Marian that he knew her, but he had waited anxiously for this +moment, knowing well that in his present state Wilford must not be +shocked, as a sight of Marian would shock him. He knew she was outside +the door, and as Wilford turned his head upon the pillow, he went to +her, and leading her to a safe distance, said softly:</p> + +<p>"His reason has returned."</p> + +<p>"And my services, then, are ended," Marian rejoined, looking him +steadily in the face, but not in the least prepared for his affirmative +question:</p> + +<p>"You are Genevra Lambert?"</p> + +<p>There was a low, gasping sound, and Marian staggered forward a step or +two, then steadying herself, she said:</p> + +<p>"And if I am, it surely is not best for him to see me. You would not +advise it?"</p> + +<p>She looked wistfully at Morris, the great desire to be recognized, to be +spoken to kindly by the man who once had been her husband overmastering +for a moment all her prudence.</p> + +<p>"It would not be best, both for his sake and Katy's," Morris said, +reading her thoughts aright, and with a moan like the dying out of her +last hope, Marian turned away, her eyes dim with tears and her heart +heavy with a sense of something lost, as in the gray dawn of the morning +she went back to her former patients, who hailed her coming with +childish joy, one fair young boy from the Granite hills kissing the hand +which bandaged his poor crushed arm so tenderly, and thanking her that +she had returned to him again.</p> + +<p>She had not asked Dr. Grant how much he knew of her story, or where he +had learned it. She was satisfied that he did know it, and she left her +case in his hands, wondering if at any time Wilford had been conscious +of her presence as a nurse, and if he would miss her any. He did miss +her, but he made no comment, and when, as the morning advanced, another +nurse appeared, he said to himself:</p> + +<p>"Surely this cannot be Miss Hazelton," but asked no questions of any +kind, and Marian's heart grew heavier when in answer to her inquiry, +Morris said: "He has not mentioned you."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Mr. J. Cameron, Miss Bell Cameron," were the names on the cards sent to +Dr. Grant late that afternoon, and in a few moments he was with the +father and sister asking so anxiously for Wilford and explaining why +Katy was not with them.</p> + +<p>Wilford was sleeping when they entered his room, his face looking so +worn and thin, and his hands folded so helplessly upon his breast, that +with a gush of tears Bell knelt beside him and laying her warm cheek +against his bony one, woke him with her sobs. For a moment he seemed +bewildered, then recognising her, he raised his feeble arm and winding +it about her neck, kissed her more tenderly than he had ever done +before. He had not been demonstrative of his affection for his sisters. +But Bell was his favorite, and he held her close to him while his eyes +moved past his father, whom he did not see, on to the door as if in +quest of some one. It was Katy, and, guessing his thoughts, Bell said:</p> + +<p>"She is not here. She could not come now. She is sick in New York, but +will join us in a few days."</p> + +<p>There was a look of intense disappointment in Wilford's face, which even +his father's warm greeting could not dissipate, and Morris saw the great +tears as they dropped upon the pillow, the proud man trying hard to +repress them, and asking no questions concerning any one at home. He was +too weak to talk, but he held Bell's hand firmly in his as if afraid +that she would leave him, while his eyes rested alternately upon her +face and that of his father, who, wholly unmanned at the fearful change +in his son, laid his head upon the bed and cried aloud.</p> + +<p>Next morning Bell was very white and her voice trembled as she sought +her brother's side and asked how he had rested. She had come from a +conference with Dr. Morris, who had told her that her brother would die.</p> + +<p>"He may live a week and he may not," he said, adding solemnly: "As his +sister you will tell him of his danger while there is time to seek the +refuge without which death is terrible."</p> + +<p>"Oh, if I could only pray with and for him," Bell thought, as she went +next to her brother, mourning her misspent days, and feeling her courage +giving way when at last she stood in his presence and met his kindly +smile.</p> + +<p>"I dreamed it was all a dream," he said, "and that you were not here +after all. I am so glad to find it real. How long before I can go home, +do you suppose?"</p> + +<p>He had stumbled upon the very thing Bell was there to talk about, his +question indicating that he had no suspicion of the truth. Nor had he, +and it came like a thunderbolt, when Bell, forgetting all her prudence, +said impetuously:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Wilford, maybe you'll never go home. Maybe you'll—"</p> + +<p>"Not die!" Wilford exclaimed, clasping his hands with sudden emotion. +"Not die, you don't mean that. Who told you so? Who said I was near to +death?"</p> + +<p>"Dr. Grant," was Bell's reply, which brought a fierce frown to Wilford's +face, and awoke all the angry passions of his heart.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Grant," he repeated. "He says so because he wishes it. He would +like me removed from his path, but it shall not be. I will not die. Tell +him that. I will not die," and Wilford's voice was hoarse with passion +as he raised his clinched fists in the air.</p> + +<p>He was terribly excited, and in her fright Bell ran for Dr. Grant. But +Wilford motioned him back, hurling after him words which kept him from +the room the entire day, while the sick man rolled, and tossed, and +raved in the delirium, which had returned, and which wore him out so +fast. No one had the least influence over him except Marian Hazelton, +who, without a glance at Mr. Cameron or Bell, glided to his side, and +with her presence and gentle words soothed him into comparative quiet, +so that the bitter denunciations against the saint who wanted him to +die, ceased, and he fell into a troubled sleep.</p> + +<p>Smoothing his pillow, and arranging the bedclothes tidily about him, +Marian turned to meet the eyes of both Mr. Cameron and Bell fixed +curiously upon her. With a strange feeling of interest they had watched +her, both feeling an aversion to addressing her, and both wondering if +she were indeed Genevra, as Katy had affirmed. They would not ask her, +and both breathed more freely when, with a bow in acknowledgment of Mr. +Cameron's compliment to her skill in quieting his son, she left the +room.</p> + +<p>Neither said what they thought of her, nor was her name once mentioned, +but she was not for a moment absent from their minds as they from choice +sat that night with Wilford, who slept off his delirium, and lay with +his face turned from them, so that they could not guess by its +expression what was passing in his mind.</p> + +<p>All the next day he maintained the most frigid silence, answering only +in monosyllables, while Bell kept wiping away the great drops of sweat +constantly oozing out upon his forehead and about the pallid lips.</p> + +<p>Just at nightfall he startled Bell by asking that Dr. Grant be sent for.</p> + +<p>"Please leave me alone with him," he said, when Dr. Morris came; then +turning to Morris, as the door closed upon his father and his sister, he +said, abruptly:</p> + +<p>"Pray for me, if you can pray for one who yesterday hated you so for +saying he must die."</p> + +<p>Earnestly, fervently, Morris prayed, as for a dear brother, and when he +finished Wilford's faint "amen" sounded through the room.</p> + +<p>"I am not right yet," the pale lips whispered, as Morris sat down beside +him. "Not right with God, I mean. I've sometimes said there was no God, +but I did not believe it, and now I know there is. He has been moving +upon me all the day, driving out my bitterness toward you, and causing +me to send for you at last. Do you think there is hope for me? I have +much to be forgiven."</p> + +<p>"Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow," Morris +replied; and then, oh, how earnestly he tried to point that erring man +to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, convincing +him that there was hope even for him, and leaving him with the +conviction that God would surely finish the good work begun, nor suffer +this soul to be lost which had turned to Him even at the eleventh hour.</p> + +<p>Wilford knew his days were numbered, and he talked freely of it to his +father and sister the next morning when they came to him. He did not say +that he was ready or willing to die, only that he must, and he asked +them to forget, when he was gone, all that had ever been amiss in him as +a son and brother.</p> + +<p>"I was too proud, too selfish, to make others happy," he said. "I +thought it all over yesterday, and the past came back again so vividly, +especially the part connected with Katy. Oh, Katy, I did abuse her!" and +a bitter sob attested the genuineness of Wilford's grief for his +treatment of Katy. "I thought because I took her from a lower walk of +life than mine, that she was bound by every tie of gratitude to do just +what I said, and I set myself at work to crush her every feeling and +impulse which savored of her early home. I despised her family, I +treated them with contempt. I broke Katy's heart, and now I must die +without telling her I am sorry. But you'll tell her, father, and you, +too, Bell, how, dying, I tried to pray, but could not for thought of my +sin to her. She will not be glad that I am dead. I know her better than +to think that; and I believe she loves me. But, after I am gone, and the +duties of the world have closed up the gap I shall leave, I see a +brighter future for her than her past has been; and you may tell her I +am—" He could not then say "I am willing."</p> + +<p>Few husbands could have done so then, and he was not an exception.</p> + +<p>Wholly exhausted he lay quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again it +was of Genevra. Even here he did not try to screen himself. He was the +one to blame, he said. Genevra was true, was innocent, as he ascertained +too late.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to see her if she were living?" came to Bell's lips, but +the fear that it would be too great a shock prevented their utterance.</p> + +<p>He had no suspicion of her presence, and it was best he should not. Katy +was the one uppermost in his mind, and in the letter Bell sent to her +the next day, he tried to write: "Good-by, my darling," but the words +were scarcely legible, and his nerveless hand fell helpless at his side +as he said:</p> + +<p>"She will never know the effort it cost me, nor hear me say that I hope +I am forgiven. It came to me last night, the peace for which I've sought +so long, and Dr. Grant has prayed, and now the way is not so dark, but +Katy will not know."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII" ></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2> + +<h3>LAST HOURS.</h3> + + +<p>Katy would know, for she was coming to him on the morrow, as a brief +telegram announced, and Wilford's face grew brighter with thoughts of +seeing her. He knew when the train was due, and with nervous +restlessness he asked repeatedly what time it was, reducing the hours to +minutes, and counting his own pulses to see if he would last so long.</p> + +<p>"Save me, doctor," he whispered to Morris. "Keep me alive till Katy +comes. I must see Katy again."</p> + +<p>And Morris, tenderer than a brother, did all he could to keep the feeble +breath from going out ere Katy came.</p> + +<p>"I must have clean linen on my bed and on my person, too," Wilford said, +"for Katy is coming, and I must not look repulsive."</p> + +<p>The clean white linen was brought, and when it was arranged a smile of +childish satisfaction crept around the lips, as Wilford said:</p> + +<p>"Katy can kiss me now. She is not accustomed to hospital fare, you +know."</p> + +<p>His mind seemed slightly to wander; but when the hour came for the +arrival of the train he knew it, asking, eagerly:</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose she's come?" and straining his ear to catch the sound of +the distant whistle. Dr, Morris had gone to meet her, and the time fled +on apace until at last his step was heard, and Wilford, lifting up his +head, listened for that other step, which, alas! was not there.</p> + +<p>"The train is behind time several hours," was Morris' report, and with +a moan Wilford turned away and wept, thinking by some strange chance of +that day when at the farmhouse others had waited for Katy as he was +doing, and waited, too, in vain.</p> + +<p>Truly, they of the farmhouse were avenged, for never had they felt so +bitter a pang as Wilford did when he knew Katy had not come.</p> + +<p>"It's right," he said, when he could trust himself to speak; "but I did +want to see her. Tell her I am willing."</p> + +<p>The last seemed wrung from him almost against his will, and drops of +sweat stood thickly upon his brow. Only Bell and her father guessed what +he meant by being willing. Morris had no idea, but he wiped the +death-sweat away, and said, soothingly:</p> + +<p>"Be quiet, and you may see her yet. She will surely come by and by."</p> + +<p>Thus reassured, Wilford grew calm and fell asleep, while the watchers by +his side waited anxiously for the first sound which should herald the +arrival of the train.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was dark in the hospital, and from every window a light was shining, +when Morris carried rather than led a quivering figure up the stairs and +through the hall, where, in a corner, Marian Hazelton's white face +looked out upon him, her hands clasped over her heart, and working +nervously as she watched Katy going where she must not go—going to the +room where the Camerons were, the father standing at the foot of +Wilford's bed, and Bell bending over his pillow, administering the +stimulants which kept her brother alive. When Katy came in, she moved +away, as did her father, while Morris, too, stepped back into the hall, +and thus the husband and wife were left alone in this their first +meeting since the parting at Yonkers nearly one year ago.</p> + +<p>"Katy, precious Katy, you have forgiven me?" he whispered, and the rain +of tears and kisses on his face was Katy's answer as she hung over him.</p> + +<p>She had forgiven him like a true, faithful wife, and she told him so, +when she found voice to talk, wondering to find him so changed from the +proud, exacting, self-worshiping man, to the humble, repentant and +self-accusing person, who took all blame of the past to himself, and +exonerated her from every fault. But when he drew her close to him, and +whispered something in her ear, she knew whence came the change, and a +reverent "Thank the Good Father," dropped from her lips.</p> + +<p>"The way was dark and thorny," Wilford said, making her sit down where +he could see her as he talked, "and only for God's goodness I should +have lost the path. But he sent one Morris Grant to point the road, and +I trust I am in it now. I wanted to see you before I died, to tell you +with my own lips how sorry I am for what I have made you suffer; but +sorriest of all for sending Baby away. Oh, Katy, you do not know how +that rested upon my conscience, or how often in my sleep upon the tented +plain or hillside I have felt again the touch of Baby's arms and Baby's +cheek against my own as I felt it that day when I came home and took her +from you. Forgive me, Katy, that I robbed you of your child."</p> + +<p>He was growing very weak, and he looked so white and ghastly that Katy +called for Bell, who came at once, as did her father, and the three +stood together around the bedside of the dying, Katy with his cold hand +in hers, and occasionally bending down to hear his whispered words of +love and deep contrition.</p> + +<p>"You will remember me, Katy," he said, "but you cannot mourn for me +always, and some time in the future you will cease to be my widow, and, +Katy, I am willing. I wanted to tell you this so that no thought of me +should keep you from a life where you will be happier than I have made +you."</p> + +<p>Wholly bewildered, Katy made no reply, and Wilford was silent a few +moments, in which he seemed partially asleep. Then rousing up, he said:</p> + +<p>"You wrote me once that Genevra was not dead. Did you mean it, Katy?"</p> + +<p>Frightened and bewildered, Katy turned appealingly to her father-in-law, +who answered for her; "She meant it—Genevra is not dead," while a +blood-red flush stained Wilford's face, and his thin fingers beat the +bedspread thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I fancied once that she was here—that she was the nurse the boys +praise so much. But that was a delusion," he said, and without a thought +of the result, Katy asked, impetuously: "If she were here would you care +to see her?"</p> + +<p>There was a startled look on Wilford's face, and he grasped Katy's hand +nervously, his frame trembling with a dread of the great shock which he +felt impending over him.</p> + +<p>"Is she here? Was the nurse Genevra?" he asked, then as his mind went +back to the past, he answered his own question by asserting: "Marian +Hazelton is Genevra."</p> + +<p>They did not contradict him, nor did he ask to see her. With Katy there, +he felt he had better not, but after a moment he continued: "It is all +so strange; I do not comprehend how it can be. She has been kind to me. +Tell her I thank her for it. I was unjust to her. I have much to answer +for."</p> + +<p>Between each word he uttered now there was a gasp for breath, and Father +Cameron opened the window wide to admit the cool night air. But nothing +had power to revive him. He was going very fast, Morris said, as he took +his stand by the bedside and watched the approach of death. There were +no convulsive struggles, only heavy breathings, which grew farther and +farther apart, until at last Wilford drew Katy close to him, and winding +his arm around her neck, whispered:</p> + +<p>"I am almost home, my darling, and all is well. Be kind to Genevra for +my sake. I loved her once, but not as I love you."</p> + +<p>He never spoke again, and a few minutes later Morris led Katy from the +room, and then went out to give his orders for the embalming of the +body.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the little room she called her own, Marian Hazelton sat, her +beautiful hair disordered, and her eyes dim with the tears she had shed. +She knew that Wilford was dead, for Morris had told her so, and as if +his dying had brought back all her olden love, she wept bitterly for the +man who had so darkened her life. She did not know that at the last he +knew she was so near. She had not expected to see him with Katy present; +but now that it was over, she might go to him. There could be no harm in +that. No one but Morris would know who she was, she thought, and she was +making up her mind to go, when there came a timid knock upon the door, +and Katy entered, her face very pale, her manner very calm, as she came +to Marian, and kneeling down beside her, laid her head in her lap with +the air of a weary child who has sought its mother for rest.</p> + +<p>"Poor little Katy!" Marian said, caressing her golden hair. "Your +husband, they tell me, is dead."</p> + +<p>"Yes," and Katy lifted up her head, and fixing her eves earnestly upon +Marian, continued: "Wilford is dead, but before he died he left a +message for Genevra Lambert. Will she hear it now?"</p> + +<p>With a sudden start, Marian sprang to her feet, and holding Katy from +her, demanded: "Who told you of Genevra Lambert, and when?"</p> + +<p>"Wilford told me months ago, showing me her picture, which I readily +recognized," was Katy's answer, and a flush of fear and shame came to +Marian's cheek as she continued:</p> + +<p>"Did he tell you all? And do you hate me as a vile, polluted creature?"</p> + +<p>"Hate you, Marian? No. I have pitied you so much, knowing you were +innocent. Wilford told me all, but he thought you were dead," Katy said, +flinching a little before Marian's burning gaze, which fascinated even, +while it startled her.</p> + +<p>It is not often two women meet bearing to each other the relations +these two bore, and it is not strange that both felt constrained and +embarrassed as they stood looking at each other. As Marian's was the +stronger nature, so she was the first to rally, and with the tears +swimming in her eyes she drew Katy closely to her, and said:</p> + +<p>"Now that he is gone I am glad you know it. Mine has been a sad, sad +life, but God has helped me bear it. You say he believed me dead. Some +time I will tell you how that came about; but now, his message—he left +one, you say?"</p> + +<p>Carefully Katy repeated every word Wilford had said, and with a gasping +cry Marian wound her arms around her neck, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"And you will love me, not because he did once, but because I have +suffered so much? You will let me call you Katy when we are alone? It +brings you nearer to me."</p> + +<p>Marian was now the weaker of the two, and it was Katy's task to comfort +her, as, sinking back in her chair, she sobbed:</p> + +<p>"He did love me once. He acknowledged it at the last, before them all, +his wife, his father and his sister. Do they know?" she suddenly asked, +and when assured that they did, she relapsed into a silent mood, while +Katy stole quietly out and left her there alone.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later a female form passed hurriedly through the hall and +across the threshold into the chamber where the dead man lay. There was +no one with him now, and Marian was free to weep out the pent-up sorrow +of her life, which she did with choking sobs and passionate words poured +into the ear deaf now to every human sound. A step upon the floor +startled her, and turning around she stood face to face with Wilford's +father, who was regarding her with a look which she mistook for one of +reproof and displeasure that she should be there thus.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," she said, wringing her hands together. "I know how you +despise me, but he was my husband once, and surely now that he is dead +you will not begrudge me a few last moments with him for the sake of the +days when he loved me."</p> + +<p>There were many tender chords in the heart of Father Cameron, and +offering Marian his hand, he said:</p> + +<p>"Far be it from me to refuse you this privilege. I pity you, Genevra, +for I believe he dealt unjustly by you—but I will not censure him now +that he is gone. He was my only boy. Oh, Wilford, Wilford. You have left +me very lonely."</p> + +<p>He released her hand, and Marian fled away, meeting next with Bell, who +felt that she must speak to her, but was puzzled what to say. Bell could +not define her feelings toward Marian, or why she shrank from +approaching her. It was not pride, but rather a feeling of prejudice, as +if Marian were in some way to blame for all the trouble which had come +to them, while her peculiar position as the divorced wife of her brother +made it the more embarrassing. But she could not resist the mute +pleading of the eyes lifted so tearfully to her, as if asking for +a nod of recognition, and stopping before her she said, softly:</p> + +<p>"Genevra."</p> + +<p>That was all, but it made Genevra's tears flow in torrents, and she +involuntarily held her hand out to Bell, who took it, and holding it +between her own, said:</p> + +<p>"You were very kind to my brother. I thank you for it, and will tell my +mother, who will feel so grateful to you."</p> + +<p>This was a good deal for Bell to say, and after it was said, she +hastened away, while Marian went on her daily round of duties, speaking +softer, if possible, to her patients that day, and causing them to +wonder what had come over that sweet face to make it so white and +tear-stained. That night in Marian's room Katy sat and listened to what +she did not before know of the strange story kept from her so long. +Candidly Marian confirmed all Wilford had told, breathing no word of +blame against him now that he was dead, only stating facts, and leaving +Katy to draw her own conclusions. Herself she censured much for +fostering that fondness for admiration so irritating to a jealous man +like Wilford.</p> + +<p>"I knew that I was handsome," she said, "and I liked to test my power; +but for that weakness I have been sorely punished. I had not at first +any intention of making him believe that I was dead, and when I sent the +paper containing the announcement of father's death I was not aware that +it also contained the death of my cousin, a beautiful girl just my age, +who bore our grandmother's name of Genevra, and about whom and a young +English lord, who had hunted one season in her father's neighborhood, +there were some scandalous reports. Afterward it occurred to me that +Wilford would see that notice and naturally think it referred to me, +inasmuch as he knew nothing of my Cousin Genevra, she having spent much +of her time in the northern part of Scotland, and he never inquired +particularly about my relatives.</p> + +<p>"It was just as well, I said, I was dead to him, and I took a strange +satisfaction in wondering if he would care. Incidentally I heard that +the postmaster at Alnwick had been written to by an American gentleman, +who asked if such a person as Genevra Lambert was buried at St. Mary's; +and then I knew he believed me dead, even though the name appended to +the letter was not Wilford Cameron, nor was the writing his, for, as the +cousin of the dead Genevra. I asked to see the letter, and my request +was granted. It was Mrs. Cameron who wrote it, I am sure, at the +instigation, probably, of her son, signing a feigned name and bidding +the postmaster answer to that address. He did so, assuring the inquirer +that Genevra Lambert was buried there, and wondering to me if the young +American who seemed interested in her could have been a lover of the +unfortunate girl.</p> + +<p>"I was now alone in the world, for the aunt with whom my childhood was +passed died soon after my father, and so I went at last to learn a trade +on the Isle of Wight, emigrating from thence to New York, with the +determination in my rebellious heart that some time, when it would cut +the deepest, I would show myself to the proud Camerons, whom I so +cordially hated. This was before God had found me, or rather before I +had listened to the still, small voice which took the hard, vindictive +feelings away, and made me feel kindly toward the mother and sisters +when I saw them, as I often used to do, driving gayly by. Wilford was +sometimes with them, and the sight of him always sent the hot blood +surging through my heart. But the greatest shock I ever had came to me +when I heard from your sister of his approaching marriage with you. +Those were terrible days that I passed at the farmhouse, working on your +bridal _trousseau_; and sometimes I thought it more than I could bear. +Had you been other than the little, loving, confiding, trustful girl you +were, I must at some time have disclosed the whole, and told that you +would not be the first who had stood at the altar with Wilford. But pity +for you, whom I knew loved him so much, kept me silent, and you became +his wife.</p> + +<p>"Of what has happened since you know—except, indeed, how hard it was +sometimes for poor, weak human nature to see you as happy as you were at +first, and then contrast my lot with yours. I loved your baby almost as +much as if it had been my own, and when it died there was nothing to +bind me to the North, and so I came here, where I hope I have done some +good; at least, I was here to care for Wilford, and that is a sufficient +reward for all the toil which falls to the lot of a hospital nurse. I +shall stay until the war is ended, and then go I know not where. It will +not be best for us to meet very often, for though we may and do respect +each other, neither can forget the past, or that one was the lawful, +the other the divorced, wife of the same man. I have loved you, Katy +Cameron, for your uniform kindness shown to the poor dressmaker. I shall +always love you, but our paths lie widely apart. Your future I can +predict, but mine God only knows."</p> + +<p>Marian had said all she meant to say, and all Katy came to hear. The +latter was to leave in the morning, and when they would meet again +neither could tell. Few were the parting words they spoke, for the great +common sorrow welling up from their hearts; but when at last they said +good-by, the bond of friendship between them was more strongly cemented +than ever, and Katy long remembered Marian's parting words:</p> + +<p>"God bless you, Katy Cameron! You have been a bright sun spot in my +existence since I first knew you, even though you have stirred some of +the worst impulses of my nature. I am a better woman for having known +you. God bless you, Katy Cameron!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIX" id="CHAPTER_XLIX" ></a>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2> + +<h3>MOURNING.</h3> + + +<p>The grand funeral which Mrs. Cameron once had planned for Katy was a +reality at last, but the breathless form lying so cold and still in the +darkened rooms at No. —— Fifth Avenue was not Katy's, but that of a +soldier embalmed—an only son brought back to his father's house amid +sadness and tears. They had taken him there rather than to his own +house, because it was the wish of his mother, who, however hard and +selfish she might be to others, had loved and idolized her son, mourning +for him truly, and forgetting in her grief to care how grand the funeral +was, and feeling only a passing twinge when told that Mrs. Lennox had +come from Silverton to pay the last tribute of respect to her late +son-in-law. Some little comfort it was to have her boy lauded as a +faithful soldier and to hear the commendations lavished upon him during +the time he lay in state, with his uniform around him; but when the +whole was over, and in the gray of the wintry afternoon her husband +returned from burying his son, there came over her a feeling of such +desolation as she had never known—a feeling which drove her at last to +the little room upstairs, where sat a lonely man, his head bowed upon +his hands, and his tears dropping silently upon the hearthstone as he, +too, thought of the vacant parlor below and the new-made grave at +Greenwood.</p> + +<p>"Oh, husband, comfort me, for our only boy is dead," fell from her lips +as she tottered to her husband, who opened his arms to receive her, +forgetting all the years which had made her the cold, proud woman, who +needed no sympathy, and remembering only that bright, green summer when +she was first his bride, and came to him for comfort in every little +grievance, just as now she came in this great, crushing sorrow.</p> + +<p>He did not tell her she was reaping what she had sown, that but for her +pride and deception concerning Genevra, Wilford might never have gone to +the war, or they been without a son. He did not reproach her at all, but +soothed her tenderly, calling her even by her maiden name, and awkwardly +smoothing her hair, silvered now with gray, feeling for a moment that +Wilford had not died in vain, if by his dying he gave back to his father +the wife so lost during the many years since fashion and folly had been +the idols she worshiped. But the habits of years could not be lightly +broken, and Mrs. Cameron's mind soon became absorbed in the richness of +her mourning, and the strict etiquette of her mourning days. To Katy she +was very kind, caressing her with unwonted affection, and scarcely +suffering her to leave her sight, much less to stay even for a day at +Mrs. Banker's, where Katy secretly preferred to be. Of Genevra, too, she +talked with Katy, and at her instigation wrote a friendly letter, +thanking Miss Lambert for all her kindness to her son, expressing her +sorrow that she had ever been so unjust to her, and sending her a +handsome locket, containing on one side a lock of Wilford's hair, and on +the other his picture, taken from a large-sized photograph. Mrs. Cameron +felt herself a very good woman after she had done all this, together +with receiving Mrs. Lennox at her own house, and entertaining her for +one whole day; but at heart there was no real change, and as time passed +on she gradually fell back into her old ways of thinking, and went no +more for comfort to her husband as she had on that first night after the +burial.</p> + +<p>With Mr. Cameron the blow struck deeper, and his Wall Street friends +talked together of the old man he had grown since Wilford died, while +Katy often found him bending over his long-neglected Bible, as he sat +alone in his room at night. And when at last she ventured to speak to +him upon the all-important subject, like a little child, he put his hand +in hers, and bade her teach him the narrow way which she had found, and +wherein Wilford, too, had walked at the very last, they hoped.</p> + +<p>For many weeks Katy lingered in New York, and the June roses were +blooming when she went back to Silverton, a widow and the rightful owner +of all Wilford's ample fortune. They had found among his papers a will, +drawn up and executed not long before his illness, and in which Katy was +made his heiress, without condition or stipulation. All was hers to do +with as she pleased, and the bitterest tears she ever shed were those +which fell like rain when she heard how generous Wilford had been. Then, +as she thought of Marian, and the life of poverty before her, she crept +to Father Cameron's side, and said to him, pleadingly:</p> + +<p>"Let Genevra share it with me. She needs it quite as much."</p> + +<p>Father Cameron would not permit Katy to divide equally with Marian. It +was not just, he said; but he did not object to a few thousand going to +her, and before Katy left New York for Silverton, she wrote a long, kind +letter to Marian, presenting her with ten thousand dollars, which she +begged her to accept, not so much as a gift, but as her rightful due. +There was a moment's hesitancy on the part of Marian when she read the +letter, a feeling that she could not take so much from Katy; but when +she looked at the pale sufferers around her, and remembered how many +wretched hearts that money would help to cheer, she said:</p> + +<p>"I will keep it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_L" id="CHAPTER_L" ></a>CHAPTER L.</h2> + +<h3>PRISONERS OF WAR.</h3> + + +<p>The heat, the smoke, the thunder of the battle were over, and the fields +of Gettysburg, where the terrible three days' fight had been, were +drenched with human blood and covered with the dead and dying. The +contest had been fearful, and its results carried sorrow and anguish to +many a heart waiting for tidings from the war, and looking so anxiously +for the names of the loved ones who, on the anniversary of the day which +saw our nation's independence, lay upon the hills and plains of +Gettysburg, their white faces upturned to the summer sky, and wet with +the raindrops which like tears for the noble dead the pitying clouds had +shed upon them. And nowhere, perhaps, was there a whiter face or a more +anxious heart than at the farmhouse, where both Helen and her +mother-in-law were spending the hot July days. Since the Christmas Eve +when Helen had watched her husband going from her across the wintry +snow, he had not been back, though several times he had made +arrangements to do so. Something, however, had always happened to +prevent. Once it was sickness which kept him in bed for a week or more; +again his regiment was ordered to advance, and the third time it was +sent on with others to repel the invaders from Pennsylvania soil. +Bravely through each disappointment Helen bore herself, but her cheek +always grew paler and her eye darker in its hue when the evening papers +came, and she read what progress our soldiers had made, feeling that a +battle was inevitable, and praying so earnestly that Mark Ray might be +spared. Then when the battle was over, and up the Northern hills came +the dreadful story of thousands and thousands slain, there was a fearful +look in her eyes, and her features were rigid as marble, while the +quivering lips could scarcely pray for the great fear tugging at her +heart. Mark Ray was not with his men when they came from that terrific +onslaught. A dozen had seen him fall, struck down by a rebel ball, and +that was all she heard for more than a week, when there came another +relay of news.</p> + +<p>Captain Mark Ray was a prisoner of war, with several of his own company. +An inmate of Libby Prison and a sharer from choice of the apartment +where his men were confined. As an officer, he was entitled to better +quarters than the filthy pen where the poor privates were, but Mark Ray +had a large, warm heart, and he would not desert those who had been so +faithful to him, and so he took their fare, and by his genial humor and +unwavering cheerfulness kept many a heart from fainting and made the +prisoners' life more bearable than it could have been without him. To +young Tom Tubbs, who had enlisted six months before, he was a +ministering angel, and many times the poor, homesick boy crept to the +side of his captain, and laying his burning head in his lap, wept +himself to sleep and dreamed he was at home again. The horrors of that +prison life have never been told, but Mark bore up manfully, suffering +less in mind, perhaps, than did the friends at home, who lived, as it +were, a thousand years in that one brief summer while he languished in +that horrid den whose very name had a power to send a thrill of fear to +every heart.</p> + +<p>At last, as the frosty days of October came on, they began to hope he +might be exchanged, and Helen's face grew bright again, until one day +there came a soiled, half-worn letter, in Mark's own handwriting. It was +the first word received from him since his capture in July, and with a +cry of joy Helen snatched it from Uncle Ephraim, for she was still at +the farmhouse, and sitting down upon the doorstep just where she had +been standing, read the words which Mark had sent to her. He said +nothing of the treatment he received, for he wanted the letter to reach +her, and he knew well that if he complained the chances were small for +the missive ever to leave the capital of the "chivalry." He was very +well, he said, and had been all the time, but he pined for home, longing +for the dear girl-wife never so dear as now, when separated by so many +miles, with prison walls on every side, and an enemy's line between +them.</p> + +<p>"But be of good cheer, darling," he wrote. "I shall come back to you +some time, and life will he all the brighter for what you suffer now. I +am so glad my darling consented to be my wife, even though I could stay +with her but a moment. The knowing you are really mine makes me happy +even here, for I think of you by day, and in my dreams I always hold you +in my arms and press you to my heart."</p> + +<p>Far different from this cheerful letter was the one which Tom inclosed +in it for his family—a wild, homesick outburst, containing so much of +truth that it was strange it was ever permitted to leave the city. Of +this letter Helen heard by way of Mattie Tubbs, and hope died within +her, especially as Tom spoke of their being sent further South as a +probable event.</p> + +<p>"If Mark goes I shall never see him again," Helen said, despairingly; +and when at last the message came that Mark had been removed, and that, +too, just at the time when an exchange was constantly expected, she gave +him up as lost, feeling almost as much widowed as Katy in her weeds.</p> + +<p>Slowly the winter passed away, and the country was rife with stories of +the inhuman treatment of our men, daily dying by hundreds, while those +who survived the cruelties were reduced to maniacs and imbeciles. And +Helen, as she listened, grew nearly frantic with the sickening suspense. +She did not know now where her husband was. He had made several attempts +to escape, and with each failure had been removed to safer quarters, so +that the chances now of his being exchanged seemed very far away. Week +after week, month after month, passed on, until came the memorable +battle of the Wilderness, when Lieutenant Bob, as yet unharmed, stood +bravely in the thickest of the fight, his tall figure towering above the +rest, and his soldier's uniform buttoned over a dark tress of hair, and +a face like Bell Cameron's, Lieutenant Bob had taken two or three +furloughs, but the one which had left the sweetest, pleasantest memory +in his heart was that of the autumn before, when the crimson leaves of +the maple and the golden tints of the beech were burning themselves out +on the hills of Silverton, where his furlough was mostly passed, and +where, with Bell Cameron, he scoured the length and breadth of Uncle +Ephraim's farm, now stopping by the shore of Fairy Pond and again +sitting for hours on a ledge of rocks far up the hill, where, beneath +the softly-whispering pines nodding above their heads, Bell gathered the +light brown cones, and said to him the words he had so thirsted to hear:</p> + +<p>"I love you, Robert Reynolds."</p> + +<p>Much of Bell's time was passed with Katy at the farmhouse, and here +Lieutenant Reynolds found her, accepting readily of Uncle Ephraim's +hearty invitation to remain; and spending his entire vacation there, +with the exception of three days given to his family. Perfectly charmed +with quaint Aunt Betsy, whom he remembered so well, he flattered and +courted her almost as much as he did Bell, but did not take her with him +in his long rambles over the hills, or sit with her at night alone in +the parlor until the clock struck twelve—a habit which Aunt Betsy +greatly disapproved, but overlooked for this once, seeing, as she said, +that:</p> + +<p>"The young leftenant was none of her kin, and Isabel only a little."</p> + +<p>Those were halcyon days which Robert passed at Silverton, but one stood +out prominently before him, whether sitting by his camp-fire or plunging +into the battle, and that the one when, casting aside all pride and +foolish theories, Bell Cameron freely acknowledged her love for the man +to whom she had been so long engaged, and paid him back the kisses she +had before refused to give.</p> + +<p>"I shall be a better soldier for this," Robert had said, as he guided +her down the steep of rocks, and with her hand in his, walked slowly +back to the farmhouse, which, on the morrow, he left to take again his +place in the army.</p> + +<p>There were no more furloughs for him after that, and the winter passed +away, bringing the spring again, when came that battle in the +Wilderness, and like a hero he fought until, becoming separated from his +comrades, he fell into the enemy's hands, and two days after there sped +along the telegraphic wires to New York:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"Lieutenant Robert Reynolds captured the first day of the battle."</p> +</div> + +<p>Afterward there came news that Andersonville was his destination, +together with many others made prisoners that day.</p> + +<p>"It is better than being shot, and a great deal better than being +burned, as some of the poor wretches were," Juno said, trying to comfort +Bell, who doubted a little her sister's word.</p> + +<p>True, there was now the shadow of a hope that he might survive the +horrors, the mere recital of which made the strongest heart shiver with +dread; but the probabilities were all against it, and Bell's face grew +almost as white as Helen's, while her eyes acquired that restless, +watchful, anxious look which has crept into the eyes of so many +sorrowing women, looking away to the southward, where the dear ones were +languishing in the filthy rebel holes, unworthy the name of prison.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LI" id="CHAPTER_LI" ></a>CHAPTER LI.</h2> + +<h3>DR. GRANT.</h3> + + +<p>Morris had served out his time as surgeon in the army, had added to it +an extra six months, and by his humanity, his skill and Christian +kindness, made for himself a name which would be long remembered by the +living to whom he had ministered so carefully, while many a dying +soldier had blessed him for pointing out the way which leadeth to the +life everlasting, and in many a mourning family his name was a household +word for the good he had done to a dying son and brother. But Morris' +hospital work was over. He had gone a little too far, incurring too much +risk, until his own strength had failed from long-continued toil, and +now in the month of June, when Linwood was bright with the early summer +blossoms, he was coming back, with health greatly impaired and a dark +cloud before his vision, so that he could not see how beautiful his home +was looking, or gaze into the faces of those who waited so anxiously to +welcome again their beloved physician. Blind, some said he was, but the +few lines sent to Helen announcing the day of his arrival contradicted +that report. His eyes were very much diseased, his amanuensis wrote, but +he trusted that the pure air of his native hills and the influence of +old scenes and associations would soon effect a cure. If not too much +trouble, he added, please see that the house is made comfortable, and +have John meet me on Friday at the station.</p> + +<p>Helen had just returned from New York, where she could not remain any +longer, for the scenes of gayety in which she was sometimes compelled to +mingle were utterly distasteful to her, and she longed for the seclusion +of the farmhouse and the quiet there is among the hills. She was glad +Morris was coming home, for he always did her good; he could comfort her +better than any other, unless it were Katy, whose loving, gentle words +of hope were very soothing to her.</p> + +<p>"Poor Morris!" she sighed, as she finished his letter, and then took it +to the family sitting upon the pleasant piazza, which, at Katy's expense +and her own, had been added to the house, overlooking Fairy Pond and the +pleasant hills beyond.</p> + +<p>"Morris is coming home," she said, as Aunt Betsy asked: "What news?" "He +will be here on Friday, and he wishes us to see that all things are in +order at Linwood for his reception. His eyes are badly diseased, but he +is not blind, and he hopes that coming back to us will cure him," she +added, glancing aside at Katy, who sat upon a step of the piazza, her +hands folded together upon her lap and her blue eyes looking far off +into the fading sunset, just as Evangeline sits looking down the +Mississippi River.</p> + +<p>When she heard Morris' name she turned her head a little, so that the +ripple of her golden hair was more distinctly visible beneath the silken +net she wore, and a deep tinge of red dyed her cheeks; but she made no +comment or showed by any sign that she heard what they were saying. Katy +was very lovely and consistent in her young widowhood, and not a whisper +of gossip had the Silvertonians coupled with her name since she came to +them, leaving her husband in Greenwood. There had been no parading of +her grief before the public or assumption of greater sorrow than many +others had known; but the soberness of her demeanor, and the calm, +subdued expression of her face, attested to what she had suffered. +Sixteen months had passed since Wilford died, and she still wore her +deep mourning weeds, except the widow's cap, which, at her mother's and +Aunt Betsy's earnest solicitations, she had laid aside, substituting in +its place a simple net, which confined her waving hair and kept it from +breaking out in flowing curls, as it was disposed to do. Against this +fashion Aunt Betsy also inveighed.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't a body curl their hair when nater intended it to curl, and +mourn a-plenty, too?" For her part, she believed it people's duty to +look as well as they could, mournin' or not mournin', and Katy couldn't +look much wus' than she did, with her hair shoved back under that net, +unless it was when she wore that heathenish cap, which made her look so +like a grandmother.</p> + +<p>This was Aunt Betsy's opinion, but to others there was something +singularly sweet and beautiful in the childish face, from which the +golden hair was brushed back so plainly, waving softly about the +forehead, and occasionally escaping from its confinement in a graceful +curl, which Katy suffered to remain for Aunt Betsy's sake. Katy had +never been prettier than she was now, in her mature womanhood, and to +the poor and sorrowful, whose homes she cheered so often, she was an +angel of goodness.</p> + +<p>Truly she had been purified by suffering; the dross had been burned out, +and only the gold remained, shedding its brightness on all with which it +came in contact.</p> + +<p>They would miss her at the farmhouse now far more than they did when she +first went away, for she made the sunshine of their home, filling +Helen's place when she was in New York, and when she came back proving +to her a stay and comforter. Indeed, but for Katy's presence, Helen +often felt that she could not endure the sickening suspense and doubt +which hung so darkly over her husband's fate.</p> + +<p>"He is alive; he will come back," Katy always said, and from her perfect +faith, Helen, too, caught a glimpse of hope.</p> + +<p>Could they have forgotten Mark they would have been happy at the +farmhouse now, for with the budding spring and blossoming summer, Katy's +spirits had returned, and her old, musical laugh rang often through the +house just as it used to do in the happy days of girlhood, while the +same silvery voice which led the chair in the brick church, and sang +with the little children their Sunday hymns, often broke forth into +snatches of songs, which made even the robins listen, as they built +their nests in the trees; while Uncle Ephraim, far from condemning this +lightness of spirits, thanked God, who had brought his darling safely +through the cloud to where the sun was shining.</p> + +<p>If Katy thought of Morris she never spoke of him when she could help it. +It was a morbid fancy to which she clung; that duty to Wilford's memory +required her to forget, or, at least, avoid the man who had so +innocently come between them; and when she heard he was coming home she +felt more pain than sorrow. She liked going up to Linwood, as she often +did. Its quiet seclusion, and the beauty of its grounds suited her +taste, and she often passed hours in the pleasant summer house, or on +the broad piazza, dreaming sometimes of the past, and sometimes, it must +be confessed, dreaming of a future, and wondering what it would bring +her when Mark came back, as come he would, and Helen was gone for good. +She would be very lonely with people so much older than herself, and who +did not understand the different tastes and ways of thinking which she +had acquired. She was very happy at the farmhouse, it is true, and loved +its inmates with a deep, unselfish love, but Helen's frequent absences +from home showed her that even the farmhouse could be dreary with no +congenial spirit to sympathize with her as Helen did.</p> + +<p>Matters were in this state when news came of Morris' intended return, +and Katy, sitting on the piazza step, and gazing dreamily into the +crimson clouds piled against the western sky, seemed not to hear what +her sister was saying. She did hear, however, and the blood leaped more +swiftly through her veins for a moment, as she thought of Morris at +Linwood just as he used to be. But when she remembered Wilford's words, +"He confessed to me that he loved you," she felt only a nervous dread of +Morris' coming, and forthwith set to work to fortify herself at every +point with a stricture of reserve which she was far from feeling.</p> + +<p>The day of his return was balmy and beautiful as the days of June are +apt to be, and at an early hour Helen went over to Linwood to see that +everything was in order for his arrival.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Hull will have dinner waiting for him, and I shall stay," she +said to Katy, adding: "I wish you would come over, too. Morris will feel +grateful, I know."</p> + +<p>Katy did not reply, but struck softly the chords of the piano and +thought how foolish she was to feel as she did. Suppose Morris had loved +her once, he probably did not now, and even if he did, it could do no +good, for she was the same as dead to all that kind of thing. She had +tried matrimony, and found it—she did not say what. She never allowed +herself to think an unkind thing of Wilford if she could help it, but a +tear dropped upon the piano keys as she unconsciously hummed a part of +the song commencing "I would not, no, I would not, recall the past +again, for mingled with the pleasure was too much grief and pain."</p> + +<p>Katy's tears were falling fast by the time the song was ended, but she +dashed them away and sprang from the stool, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Crying because Morris is coming home, poor, worn-out, half-blind +Morris, who has done so much for the soldiers, I will go up and welcome +him. I will not be so silly as to imagine he still retains a fancy for +an old woman of twenty-three, even if he had one for the girl of +seventeen."</p> + +<p>Katy felt very old just then, and walking to the glass, was almost vexed +at the smooth, round face which met her view.</p> + +<p>"I ought to look older at twenty-three," she said. "Morris will think +I have not mourned a bit, nor cared for Wilford," and another tear +glistened on her eyelashes as she thought of being accused of +forgetfulness of the dead.</p> + +<p>Katy did look very young for twenty-three. Her health was perfect now, +and save as the change in her character showed itself upon her face, she +had scarcely changed at all since the day when she came home from +Canandaigua with her heart and head so full of him who now lay sleeping +in Greenwood.</p> + +<p>"I know what's the matter. It's the net," she said, frowning +disapprovingly upon the silken meshes which confined her hair. "Yes, +it's nothing but this net which makes me look so young. Every schoolgirl +wears one, and I have followed the fashion, letting it hang down my +back in a way very unbecoming to a widow of my age. I'll take it off, or +at all events I won't wear it to Linwood," and tossing aside the +offending net, Katy bound her luxuriant hair in bands which she coiled +around the back of her head and then put on the widow's cap, discarded +so many months, and from which she shrank a little as she surveyed +herself in the glass.</p> + +<p>It was not exactly unbecoming; nothing could be unbecoming to that fair, +open face, which, surrounded by the white border, looked much like a +sweet baby's face, except that it was older; but it was now so long +since Katy had seen anything of the kind, and as habit is everything, +she was not quite as well pleased with her headgear as in New York, +where such things were common. Nevertheless, she would wear it to +Linwood, and she went for her round straw hat, but, alas, the sun hat +which made her look so frightfully young was not made for the widow's +cap, and casting it aside, Katy threw a thick black veil over her head, +and then stepping to the door of the room where her mother and Aunt +Betsy were busy at work, she said:</p> + +<p>"I am going to Linwood, and shall stay there to dinner."</p> + +<p>"In the name of the people, what has the child rigged herself out in +that shape for?" Aunt Betsy exclaimed, letting fall the knife with which +she was chopping cheese curd, and staring in astonishment. "I'd enough +sight rather you'd frizzle your hair over rats, as Helen does, making +herself look like some horned critter, than wear that heathenish thing. +Why do you do it, Catherine?"</p> + +<p>Catherine could not tell her, and laughing merrily at her aunt's +animadversions against her own and Helen's style of hairdressing, she +hurried away across the fields to Linwood. Aunt Betsy's surprise was in +a measure shared by Helen, who, understanding Katy better, made no +comments on her appearance, but smiled quietly at the air of matronly +dignity which Katy had assumed, and which really sat so prettily upon +her as she went from room to room to see what had been done, lingering +longest in Morris' own apartment, opening from the library, where she +made some alterations in the arrangement of the furniture, putting one +chair a little more to the right, and pushing a stand or table to the +left, just as her artistic eye dictated. By some oversight, no flowers +had been put in there, but Katy gathered an exquisite bouquet and left +it on the mantel, just where she remembered to have seen flowers when +Morris was at home.</p> + +<p>"He will he tired," she said. "He will lie down after dinner," and she +laid a few sweet English violets upon the pillow, thinking their perfume +might be grateful to him after the pent-up air of the hospital and cars. +"He will think Helen put them there, or Mrs. Hull," she thought, as she +stole softly out and shut the door behind her, glancing next at the +clock, and feeling a little impatient that a whole hour must elapse +before they could expect him.</p> + +<p>Poor Morris! he did not dream how anxiously he was waited for at home, +nor yet of the crowd assembled at the depot to welcome back the loved +physician, whom they had missed so much, and whose name they had so +often heard coupled with praise as a true hero, even though his post was +not in the front of the battle. Thousands had been cared for by him, +their gaping wounds dressed skillfully, their aching heads soothed +tenderly, and their last moments made happier by the words he spoke to +them of the world to which they were going, where there is no more war +or shedding of man's blood. In the churchyard at Silverton there were +three soldiers' graves, whose pale occupants had each died with Dr. +Grant's hand held tightly in his, as if afraid that he would leave them +before the dark river was crossed, while in more than one Silverton home +there was a wasted form on which the soldier coat hung loosely, who +never tired of telling Dr. Morris' praise and dwelling on his goodness. +But Dr. Morris was not thinking of this as, faint and sick, with the +green shade before his eyes, he leaned against the pile of shawls his +companion had placed for his back and wondered if they were almost +there.</p> + +<p>"I smell the pond lilies; we must he near Silverton," he said, and a +sigh escaped his lips as he thought of coming home and not being able to +see it or the woods and fields around it. "Thy will be done," he had +said many times since the fear first crept into his heart that for him +the light had faded.</p> + +<p>But now, when home was almost reached, and he began to breathe the air +from the New England hills and the perfume of the New England lilies, +the flesh rebelled again, and he cried out within himself: "Oh, I cannot +be blind! God will not deal thus by me!" while keen as the cut of a +sharpened knife was the pang with which he thought of Katy, and wondered +would she care if he were blind.</p> + +<p>Just then the long train stopped at Silverton, and, led by his +attendant, he stepped feebly into the crowd, which sent up deafening +cheers for Dr. Grant come home again. At the sight of his helplessness, +however, a feeling of awe fell upon them, and whispering to each other, +"I did not suppose he was so bad," they pressed around him, offering +their hands and inquiring anxiously how he was.</p> + +<p>"I have been sick, but I shall get better now. The very sound of your +friendly voices does me good, even though I cannot see you distinctly," +he said, as he went slowly to his carriage, led now by Uncle Ephraim, +who could not keep back his tears as he saw how weak Morris was, panting +for breath as he leaned back among the cushions.</p> + +<p>It was very pleasant that afternoon, and Morris enjoyed the drive so +much, assuring Uncle Ephraim that he was growing better every moment. He +did seem stronger when at last the carriage stopped at Linwood, and his +step was more rapid as he went up the steps where Helen, Katy and Mrs. +Hull were waiting for him. He could not see them sufficiently to +distinguish one from the other, but even without the aid of her voice he +would have known when Katy's hand was put in his, it was so small, so +soft, and trembled so as he held it. Her cap had been worn for nothing, +nor did she think of it in her sorrow at finding him so helpless. Pity +was the strongest feeling of which she was conscious, and it manifested +itself in various ways.</p> + +<p>"Let me lead you, Cousin Morris," she said, as she saw him groping his +way to his room, and without waiting for his reply, she held his hand +again in hers and led him to his room, where the sweet English violets +were.</p> + +<p>"I used to lead you, Katy," Morris said, as he took his seat by the +window, "and I little thought then that you would one day return the +compliment. It is very hard to be blind."</p> + +<p>The tone of his voice was inexpressibly sad, but his smile was as +cheerful as ever as his face turned toward Katy, who could not answer +for her tears. It seemed so terrible to see a strong man so stricken, +and that strong man Morris—terrible to watch him in his helplessness, +trying to appear as of old, so as to cast on others no part of the +shadow resting so darkly on himself. When dinner was over and the sun +began to decline, many of his former friends came in, but he looked so +pale and weary that they did not tarry long, and when the last one was +gone, Morris was led back to his room, which he did not leave again +until the summer was over and the luscious fruits of September were +ripening upon the trees.</p> + +<p>Toward the middle of July, Helen, whose health was suffering from her +restless anxiety concerning Mark, was taken by Mrs. Banker to Nahant, +where Mark's sister, Mrs. Ernst, was spending the summer, and thus on +Katy alone fell the duty of paying to Morris those little acts of +sisterly attentions such as no other member of the family knew how to +pay. In the room where he lay so helpless Katy was not afraid of him, +nor did she deem herself faithless to Wilford's memory, because each day +found her at Linwood, sometimes bathing Morris' inflamed eyes, sometimes +bringing him the cooling drink, and again reading to him by the hour, +until, soothed by the music of her voice, he would fall away to sleep +and dream it was an angel there with him.</p> + +<p>"My eyes are getting better," he said to her one day toward the latter +part of August, when she came as usual to his room. "I knew last night +that Mrs. Hull's dress was blue, and I saw the sun shine through the +shutters. Soon, very soon, I hope to see you, Katy, and know if you have +changed."</p> + +<p>She was standing close by him, and as he talked he raised his hand as if +to rest it on her head, but, with a sudden movement, Katy eluded the +touch, and stepped a little farther from him.</p> + +<p>She did not go to Linwood the next day, nor the next; and when she went +again there was in her manner a shade more of dignity, which had both +amused and interested Morris. He did not know for certain that Wilford +had told Katy of the confession made that memorable night when her +recovery seemed so doubtful, but he more than half suspected it from the +shyness of her manner and from the various excuses she now made for not +coming to Linwood every day, as she had heretofore done.</p> + +<p>"You do not need me as much as you did," she said to him one morning in +September, when he complained of his loneliness, and told how he had +waited for her the previous day until night shut down, and he knew she +would not come. "You can see better than you did. You are able to sit up +all day, and walk about a little, so if I come I am not needed," and +seating herself at a respectful distance from him, Katy folded her white +hands demurely over her black dress, after having first adjusted the cap +worn constantly since the time when she learned that Morris' sight was +improving.</p> + +<p>"I sometimes think I need you more than I did then, and if you must stay +away now, I am ungrateful enough to wish you had not come at all," +Morris replied, and Katy's cheeks burned crimson as she felt that the +dim eyes, seen through the green shades, were trying to study her as +they had not studied her before. "What is that on your head?" Morris +asked, rather abruptly. "I have tried to make it out, wondering if it +were a handkerchief, and why it was worn."</p> + +<p>"It is my cap—the widow's cap—worn for Wilford's sake," was the reply, +which silenced Morris for that time, making him feel that between Katy +Lennox, the girl, and Katy Cameron, the widow, there was a vast +difference, and awakening in his heart a fear lest Wilford Cameron dead +should prove as strong a rival as Wilford living had been.</p> + +<p>In his great pity for Katy when she was first a widow, Morris had +scarcely remembered that she was free, or if it did flash upon his mind, +he thrust the thought aside as injustice to the dead; but as the months +and the year went by, and he heard constantly from Helen of Katy's +increasing cheerfulness, it was not in his nature never to think of what +might be, and more than once he had prayed that, if consistent with his +Father's will, that the woman he had loved so well should be his yet. If +not, he could go his way alone, just as he had always done, knowing +that it was right.</p> + +<p>Such was the state of Morris' mind when he returned from Washington, but +now it was somewhat different. The weary weeks of sickness, during which +Katy had ministered to him so kindly, had not been without their effect, +and if Morris had loved the frolicsome, childlike Katy Lennox much, he +loved far more the gentle, beautiful woman whose character had been so +wonderfully developed by suffering, and who was now far more worthy of +his love than in her early girlhood.</p> + +<p>"I cannot lose her now," was the thought constantly in Morris' mind, as +he experienced more and more how desolate were the days which did not +bring her to him. "It is twenty months, just, since Wilford died; and +George Washington asked Martha Custis for her hand within less time than +that after her husband's death," he said to himself one wet October +afternoon, when he sat listening dreamily to the patter of the rain +falling upon the windows, and looking occasionally across the fields to +the farmhouse, in the vain hope of spying in the distance the little +airy form, which, in its waterproof and cloud, had braved worse storms +than this at the time he was so ill.</p> + +<p>But no such figure appeared. He hardly expected it would, but he watched +the pathway just the same, and the smoke wreaths rising so high above +the farmhouse. The deacon burned out his chimney that day, and Morris, +whose sight had greatly improved of late, knew it by the dense, black +volume of smoke, mingled with rings of fire, which rose above the roof, +remembering so well another rainy day, twenty years ago, when the +deacon's chimney was cleaned, and a little, toddling girl, in scarlet +gown and white pinafore, had amused herself with throwing into the +blazing fire upon the hearth a straw at a time, almost upsetting herself +with standing so far back and making such efforts to reach the flames. A +great deal had passed since then. The little girl in the pinafore had +been both wife and mother. She was a widow now, and Morris glanced +across his hearth toward the empty chair he had never seen in +imagination filled by any but herself.</p> + +<p>Surely, she would some day be his own, and leaning his head upon the +cane he carried, he prayed earnestly for the good he coveted, keeping +his head down so long that, until it had left the strip of woods and +emerged into the open fields, he did not see the figure, wrapped in +waterproof and hood, with a huge umbrella over its head and a basket +upon its arm, which came picking its way daintily toward the house, +stopping occasionally, and lifting up the little, high-heeled Balmoral, +which the mud was ruining so completely. Katy was coming to Linwood. It +had been baking day at the farmhouse, and remembering how much Morris +used to love her custards, Aunt Betsy had prepared him some, which she +warranted to "melt in his mouth," and then asked Katy to take them over, +so he could have them for tea.</p> + +<p>"The rain won't hurt you an atom," she said, as Katy began to demur and +glance at the lowering sky. "You can wear your waterproof boots and my +shaker, if you like, and I do so want Morris to have them to-night."</p> + +<p>Thus importuned, Katy consented to go, but declined the loan of Aunt +Betsy's shaker, which being large of the kind, and capeless, too, was +not the most becoming headgear a woman could wear. With the basket of +custards, and cup of jelly she made herself, Katy finally started forth, +Aunt Betsy saying to her, as in the door she stopped to take up her +dress: "It must he dretful lonesome for Morris to-day. S'posin' you stay +to supper with him, and when it's growin' dark I'll come over for you. +You'll find the custards fust-rate."</p> + +<p>Katy did not think it very probable that she should stay to tea with +Morris, but she made no reply, and walked away, while Aunt Betsy went +back to the coat she was patching for her brother, saying to herself:</p> + +<p>"I'm bound to fetch that 'round. It's a shame for two young folks, just +fitted to each other, to live apart when they might be so happy, with +Hannah, and Lucy, and me, close by, to see to 'em, and allus make their +soap, and see to the butcherin', besides savin' peneryle and catnip for +the children, if there was any."</p> + +<p>Aunt Betsy had turned matchmaker in her old age, and day and night she +planned how to bring about the match between Morris and Katy. That they +were made for each other she had no doubt. From something which Helen +inadvertantly let fall she had guessed that Morris wanted Katy prior to +her marriage with Wilford. She had suspected as much before, she was +sure of it now, and straightway put her wits at work "to make it go," as +she expressed it. But Katy was too shy to suit her, and since Morris' +convalescence had stayed too much from Linwood. To-day, however, Aunt +Betsy "felt it in her bones" that, if properly managed, something would +happen, and the custards were but the means to the desired end. With no +suspicion whatever of the good dame's intentions, Katy picked her way to +Linwood, and leaving her damp garments in the hall, lest Morris should +take cold, went at once into the library, where he was sitting near to a +large chair kept sacred for her, his face looking unusually cheerful, +and the room unusually pleasant, with the bright wood fire on the +hearth. She knew he was glad she had come, that he thought more of her +being there than of the custards she brought him.</p> + +<p>"I have been so lonely, with no company but the rain," he said, pushing +the chair a little toward her, and bidding her sit near the fire, where +she could dry her feet.</p> + +<p>Katy obeyed, and sat down so near to him that had he chose he might have +touched her head, which this day was minus cap, or even net, the golden +hair combed back and fastened in heavy coils low down on her neck, +giving to her a very girlish appearance, as Morris thought, for he could +see her now, and while she dried her feet he looked at her eagerly, +wondering that the fierce storm she had encountered had left so few +traces upon her face. Just about the mouth there was a deep-cut line, +but this was all; the remainder of the face was fair and smooth as in +her early girlhood, and far more beautiful, just as her character was +lovelier, and more to be admired.</p> + +<p>Morris had done well to wait if he could win her now. Perhaps he thought +so, too, and this was why his spirits became so gay as he kept talking +to her, suggesting at last that she should stay to tea. The rain was +falling in torrents when he made the proposition. She could not go then, +even had she wished it, and though it was earlier than his usual tea +time, Morris at once rang for Mrs. Hull, and ordered that tea be served +in there as soon as possible.</p> + +<p>"I ought not to stay. It is not proper, and my cap at home, too," Katy +kept thinking as she fidgeted in her chair, and watched the girl +setting the table so cosily for two, and occasionally deferring some +debatable point to her as if she were mistress there.</p> + +<p>"Shall we have some thin slices of cold chicken to go with the jelly?" +she asked, looking at Katy, who answered in the affirmative, wishing she +was at home, and deploring again the absence of her cap.</p> + +<p>"You can go now, Reekie," Morris said, when the boiling water was poured +into the silver kettle, and tea was on the table. "If we need you we +will ring."</p> + +<p>With a vague wonder as to who would toast the doctor's bread and butter +it, Reekie departed, and the two were left together. It was Katy who +toasted the bread, kneeling upon the marble hearth, nearly blistering +her hands, burning her face and scorching the bread in her nervousness +at the novel position in which she so unexpectedly found herself. It was +Katy, too, who prepared Morris' tea, and tried to eat, but could not. +She was not hungry, she said, and the custard was the only thing she +tasted, besides the tea, which she sipped at frequent intervals, so as +to make Morris think she was eating more than she was. But Morris was +not deceived, nor yet disheartened. Possibly she suspected his +intention, and if so, the sooner he reached the point the better. So +when the tea equipage was put away, and she began again to speak of +going home, he said:</p> + +<p>"No, Katy, you can't go yet till I have said what's in my mind to say," +and laying his hand upon her shoulder he made her sit down beside him +and listen while he told her the love he had borne for her long before +she knew the meaning of that word as she knew it now—of the struggle to +keep that love in bounds after its indulgence was a sin, of his +temptations and victories, of his sincere regret for Wilford, and of his +deep respect for her grief, which made her for a time as a sister to +him. But that time had passed. She was not his sister now, nor ever +could be again. She was Katy, dearer, more precious, more desired even +than before another called her wife, and he asked her to be his, to come +up there to Linwood and live with him, making the rainy days brighter, +balmier, than the sunniest had ever been, and helping him in his work of +caring for the poor and sick around them.</p> + +<p>"Will Katy come? Will she be the wife of Cousin Morris?"</p> + +<p>There was a world of pathos and pleading in the voice which asked this +question, just as there was a world of tenderness in the manner in which +Morris smoothed and caressed and fondled the bowed head resting on the +chair arm. And Katy felt it all, understanding what it was to be offered +such a love as Morris offered, but only comprehending in part what it +would be to refuse that love. For, alas! her blinded judgment said she +must refuse it. Had there been no sad memories springing from that grave +in Greenwood, no bitter reminiscences connected with her married +life—had Wilford never heard of Morris' love and taunted her with it so +often, she might perhaps consent, for she craved the rest there would be +with Morris to lean upon. But the happiness was too great for her to +accept. It would seem too much like faithlessness to Wilford, too much +as if he had been right when he charged her with preferring Morris to +himself.</p> + +<p>"It cannot be—oh, Morris, it cannot be," she sobbed, when he pressed +her for answer. "Don't ask me why—don't ever mention it again, for I +tell you it cannot be. My answer is final; it cannot be. I am sorry for +you, so sorry. I wish you had never loved me, for it cannot be."</p> + +<p>She writhed herself from the arms which tried to detain her, and rising +to her feet left the room suddenly, and throwing on her wrappings, +quitted the house without another word, leaving basket and umbrella +behind, and never knowing she had left them, or how the rain was pouring +down upon her unsheltered person until, as she entered the narrow strip +of woodland, she was met by Aunt Betsy, who exclaimed at seeing her, and +asked:</p> + +<p>"What has become of your umberell? Your silk one, too. It's hopeful you +haven't lost it. What has happened you?" and coming closer to Katy, Aunt +Betsy looked searchingly in her face. It was not so dark that she could +not see the traces of recent tears, and instinctively suspecting their +nature, she continued: "Catherine, have you gin Morris the mitten?"</p> + +<p>"Aunt Betsy, is it possible that you and Morris contrived this plan?" +Katy asked, half indignantly, as she began in part to understand her +aunt's great anxiety for her to visit Linwood that afternoon.</p> + +<p>"Morris had nothing to do with it," Aunt Betsy replied. "It was my +doin's wholly, and this is the thanks I git. You quarrel with him and +git mad at me, who thought only of your good. Catherine, you know you +like Morris Grant, and if he asked you to have him why don't you?"</p> + +<p>"I can't, Aunt Betsy. I can't, after all that has passed. It would be +unjust to Wilford."</p> + +<p>"Unjust to Wilford—fiddlesticks!" was Aunt Betsy's expressive reply, as +she started on toward Linwood, saying she was going after the umberell +before it got lost, with nobody there to tend to things as they should +be tended to. "Have you any word to send?" she asked, hoping Katy had +relented.</p> + +<p>But Katy had not; and with a toss of her head, which shook the raindrops +from her capeless shaker, Aunt Betsy went on her way, and was soon +confronting Morris, sitting just where Katy had left him, and looking +very pale and sad.</p> + +<p>He was not glad to see Aunt Betsy. He would rather be alone until such +time as he could control himself and still his throbbing heart. But with +his usual affability, he bade Aunt Betsy sit down, shivering a little +when he saw her in the chair where Katy had sat, her thin, angular body +presenting a striking contrast to the graceful, girlish figure which had +sat there an hour since, and the huge India rubbers she held up to the +fire as unlike as possible to the boot of fairy dimensions he had +admired so much when it was drying on the hearth.</p> + +<p>"I met Catherine," Aunt Betsy began, "and mistrusted at once that +something was to pay, for a girl don't leave her umberell in such a rain +and go cryin' home for nothin'."</p> + +<p>Morris colored, resenting for an instant this interference by a third +party; but Aunt Betsy was so honest and simple-hearted that he could not +be angry long, and listened calmly while she continued:</p> + +<p>"I have not lived sixty-odd years for nothing, and I know the signs +pretty well. I've been through the mill myself."</p> + +<p>Here Aunt Betsy's voice grew lower in its tone, and Morris looked up +with real interest, while she went on:</p> + +<p>"There's Joel Upham—you know Joel—keeps a tin shop now, and seats the +folks in meetin'. He asked me once for my company, and to be smart I +told him 'no,' when all the time I meant 'yes,' thinkin' he would ask +ag'in, but he didn't, and the next I knew he was keepin' company with +Patty Adams, now his wife. I remember I sniveled a little at being taken +at my word, but it served me right for saying one thing when I meant +another. However, it don't matter now. Joel is as clever as the day is +long, but he is a shiftless critter, never splits his kindlin's till +jest bedtime, and Patty is pestered to death for wood, while his snorin' +nights, she says, is awful, and that I never could abide; so, on the +whole, I'm better off than Patty."</p> + +<p>Morris laughed a loud, hearty laugh, which did him good, and emboldened +his visitor to say more than she had intended saying:</p> + +<p>"You just ask her ag'in. Once ain't nothing at all, and she'll come to. +She likes you; 'tain't that which made her say no. It's some foolish +idea about faithfulness to Wilford, as if he deserved that she should be +faithful. They never orto have had one another—never; and now that he +is well in heaven, as I do suppose he is, it ain't I who hanker for him +to come back. Neither does Katy, and all she needs is a little urging to +tell you yes. So ask her again, will you?"</p> + +<p>"I think it very doubtful. Katy knew what she was doing, and meant what +she said," Morris replied; and with the consoling remark that if young +folks would be fools it was none of her business to bother with them, +Aunt Betsy pinned her shawl across her chest, and hunting up both basket +and umbrella, bade Morris good-night, and went back across the fields to +the farmhouse, hearing from Mrs. Lennox that Katy had gone to bed with a +racking headache.</p> + +<p>"Just the way I felt when I heard about Joel and Patty," Aunt Betsy said +to herself, and as she remembered what had helped her then, so, fifteen +minutes later, she appeared at Katy's bedside, with a cup of strong sage +tea which she bade Katy swallow, telling her it was good for her +complaint.</p> + +<p>To prevent being urged and annoyed, Katy drank the tea, and then without +a question concerning Aunt Betsy's call at Linwood, lay down upon her +pillow, asking to be left alone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LII" id="CHAPTER_LII" ></a>CHAPTER LII.</h2> + +<h3>KATY.</h3> + + +<p>"Are you of the same mind still?" Helen asked, when, three weeks later, +she returned from New York, and at the hour for retiring sat in her +chamber watching Katy as she brushed her wavy hair, occasionally curling +a tress around her fingers and letting it fall upon her snowy +nightdress.</p> + +<p>They had been talking of Morris, whom Katy had only seen once since that +rainy night, and that at church, where he had come the previous Sunday. +Katy had written an account of the transaction to her sister, who had +chosen to reply by word of mouth rather than by letter, and so the first +moment they were alone she seized the opportunity to ask if Katy was of +the same mind still as when she refused the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Yes; why shouldn't I be?" Katy replied. "You better than any one else +knew what passed between Wilford and me concerning Morris, and you +can—"</p> + +<p>"Do you love Morris?" Helen asked, abruptly, without waiting for Katy to +finish her sentence.</p> + +<p>For an instant the hands stopped in their work, and Katy's eyes filled +with tears, which dropped into her lap as she replied:</p> + +<p>"More than I wish I did, seeing I must always tell him no. It's strange, +too, how the love for him keeps coming in spite of all I can do. I have +not been there since, nor spoken with him until last Sunday, but though +I did not know he was coming, I knew the moment he entered the church, +and when in the first chant I heard his voice, my fingers trembled so +that I could scarcely play, while all the time my heart goes out after +the rest I always find with him. But it cannot be."</p> + +<p>"Suppose Morris had asked you first, what then?" was Helen's next +straightforward question, and Katy, who had no secrets from her sister, +answered:</p> + +<p>"It might have been, perhaps, though I never thought of it then. Oh, +Helen, I wish Wilford had never known that Morris loved me."</p> + +<p>She was sobbing now, with her head in Helen's lap, and Helen, smoothing +her bright hair, said, gently:</p> + +<p>"You have taken a morbid fancy, Katy. You do not reason correctly. It is +right for you to answer Morris yes, and Wilford would say so, too. When +I received your letter apprising me of the refusal, I read it to Bell, +who said she was so sorry, and then told what Wilford said before he +died. You must have forgotten it, darling. He referred to a time when +you would cease to be his widow, and he said he was willing, said so to +her, and you. Do you remember it, Katy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do now, but I had forgotten. I was so stunned then, so +bewildered, that it made no impression. I did not think he meant Morris. +Helen, do you believe he meant Morris?" and lifting up her face, Katy +looked at her sister with a wistfulness which told how anxiously she +waited for the answer.</p> + +<p>"I know that he meant Morris," Helen replied. "Bell thinks so, too. So +does her father, and both bade me tell you to revoke your decision, to +marry Dr. Grant, with whom you will be so happy."</p> + +<p>"I cannot. It is too late. I told him no, and, Helen, I told him a +falsehood, too, which I wish I might take back," she added. "I said I +was sorry he ever loved me, when I was not, for the knowing that he had +made me very happy. My conscience has smitten me cruelly since for that +falsehood told, not intentionally, for I did not consider what I said."</p> + +<p>Here was an idea at which Helen caught at once. She knew just how +conscientious Katy was, and by working upon this principle she hoped to +persuade her into going over to Linwood and telling Morris that when she +said she was sorry he loved her she did not mean it. But this Katy would +not do. Helen could tell him, if she liked, but she must not encourage +him to hope for a recantation of all she had said to him. She meant the +rest. She could not be his wife.</p> + +<p>Early the next morning Helen went to Linwood, and the same afternoon +Morris returned her call. He had been there two or three times since his +return from Washington, but not since Katy's refusal, and her cheeks +were scarlet as he met him in the parlor and tried to be natural. He did +not look unhappy. He was not taking his rejection very hard, after all, +she thought, and the little lady felt a very little piqued to find him +so cheerful, and even gay, when she had scarcely known a moment's quiet +since the day she carried him the custards, and forgot to bring away her +umbrella. As it had rained that day, so it did now, a decided, energetic +rain, which set in after Morris came, and precluded the possibility of +his going home that night.</p> + +<p>"He would catch his death of cold," Aunt Betsy said, while Helen, too, +joined her entreaties until Morris consented, and the carriage which +came around for him at dark returned to Linwood, with the message that +the doctor would pass the night at Deacon Barlow's. A misty, rainy +night, who does not enjoy it when sitting by a cheerful fire, they +listen dreamily to the falling rain sifting softly through the leafless +trees, and answering to the faint sighing of the autumn wind. Morris +enjoyed it very much, and but for the green glasses he still wore would +have looked and appeared like his former self as he sat in his armchair, +now holding the skein of yarn which Aunt Betsy wound, now talking with +the deacon of the probable exchange of all the prisoners, a theme which +quickened Helen's pulse and sent the blood to her pale cheeks, and again +standing by Katy as she played his favorite airs, his rich bass voice +mingling with hers and Helen's, the three making finer music, Aunt Betsy +said, than that for which she paid two dollars at the playhouse.</p> + +<p>He did not often address Katy directly, but he knew each time she moved, +and watched every varying expression of her face, feeling a kind of pity +for her, when without appearing to do so intentionally, the family, one +by one, stole from the room—Uncle Ephraim and Aunt Hannah without any +excuse; Aunt Betsy to raise the cakes for breakfast; Mrs. Lennox to +wind the clock, and Helen to find a book for which Morris had asked.</p> + +<p>Katy might not have thought strange of their departure were it not that +neither one came back again, and after the lapse of ten minutes or more +she felt convinced that she had purposely been left alone with Morris.</p> + +<p>The weather and the family had conspired against her, but after one +throb of fear she resolved to brave the difficulty and meet whatever +might happen as became a woman of twenty-three, and a widow, too. She +knew Morris was regarding her intently as she fashioned into shape the +coarse wool sock, intended for some soldier, and she could almost hear +her heart beat in the silence which fell between them ere Morris said to +her, in a tone which reassured her at once:</p> + +<p>"And so you told me a falsehood the other day, and your conscience has +troubled you ever since?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Morris," and Katy dropped her stitch as she replied. "Yes; that +is, I told you I was sorry that you ever loved me, which was not exactly +true, for, after I knew you did, I was happier than before."</p> + +<p>Her words implied a knowledge of his love previous to that night at +Linwood when he had himself confessed it, and he said to her, +inquiringly:</p> + +<p>"You knew it then before I told you?"</p> + +<p>"From Wilford—yes," Katy faltered, a tear dropping on her cheek as she +recalled the circumstances of Wilford's telling her.</p> + +<p>"I understand now why you have been so shy of me," Morris said. "It was +only natural you should be until you knew what my intentions were; but, +Katy, must this shyness continue always? Think now, and say if you did +not tell more than one falsehood the other night, as you count +falsehoods."</p> + +<p>Katy looked wonderingly at him, and he continued;</p> + +<p>"You said you could not be my wife. Was that true? Can't you take it +back, and give me a different answer?"</p> + +<p>Katy's checks were scarlet, and her hands had ceased to flutter about +the knitting which lay upon her lap.</p> + +<p>"I meant what I said," she whispered; "for knowing, as I do, how Wilford +felt, it would not be right for me to be so happy."</p> + +<p>"Then it's nothing personal? If there were no harrowing memories of +Wilford, you could be happy with me. Is that it, Katy?" Morris asked, +coming close to her now, and imprisoning her hands, which she did not +try to take away, but let them lie in his as he continued: "Wilford was +willing at the last. Have you forgotten that?"</p> + +<p>"I had, until Helen reminded me." Katy replied. "But, Morris, the +talking of this thing brings Wilford's death back so vividly, making it +seem but yesterday since I held his dying head."</p> + +<p>She was beginning to relent, Morris knew, and bending nearer to her, he +said:</p> + +<p>"It was not yesterday. It will be two years in February; and this, you +know, is November. I need you, Katy. I want you so much. I have wanted +you all your life. Before it was wrong to do so I used each day to pray +that God would give you to me, and now I feel just as sure that he has +opened the way for you to come to me as I am sure that Wilford is in +heaven. He is happy there, and shall a morbid fancy keep you from being +happy here? Tell me then, Katy, will you be my wife?"</p> + +<p>He was kissing her cold hands, and as he did so he felt her tears +dropping on his hair.</p> + +<p>"If I say yes, Morris, you will not think that I never loved Wilford, +for I did, oh yes, I did. Not exactly as I supposed I might, even then, +have loved you, had you asked me first, but I loved him, and I was happy +with him, or if there were little clouds, his dying swept them all +away."</p> + +<p>Katy was proving herself a true woman, who remembered only the good +there was in Wilford, and Morris did not love her less for it. She was +all the dearer to him, all the more desirable. Once he told her so, +winding his arms about her, and resting her head upon his shoulder, +where it lay just as it had never lain before, for with the first kiss +Morris gave her, calling her "My own little Katy," she felt stealing +over her the same indescribable peace she had always felt with him, +intensified now, and sweeter from the knowing it would remain if she +should will it so. And she did will it so, kissing Morris back when he +asked her to, and thus sealing the compact of her second betrothal. It +was not exactly like the first. There was no tumultuous emotions, or +ecstatic joys, but Katy felt in her inmost heart that she was happier +now than then, that between herself and Morris there was more affinity +than there had been between herself and Wilford, and as she looked back +over the road she had come, and remembered all Morris had been to her, +she wondered at her blindness in not recognizing and responding to the +love in which she had now found shelter.</p> + +<p>It was very late that night when Katy crept up to bed, and Helen, who +was not asleep, knew by the face on which the lamplight fell, as Katy +sat for a moment in thoughtful mood, looking out into the darkness, that +Morris had not sued in vain. Aunt Betsy knew it, too, next morning, by +the same look on Katy's face, when she came downstairs, but this did not +prevent her saying, abruptly, as Katy stood by the sink:</p> + +<p>"Be you two engaged?"</p> + +<p>"We are," was Katy's frank reply, which brought back all Aunt Betsy's +visions of roasted fowls and frosted cake, and maybe a dance in the +kitchen, to say nothing of the feather bed which she had not dared to +offer Katy Cameron, but which she thought would come in play for "Miss +Dr. Grant."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIII" id="CHAPTER_LIII" ></a>CHAPTER LIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE PRISONERS.</h3> + + +<p>Many of the captives were coming home. Prison after prison had given up +its starving, vermin-eaten inmates, while all along the Northern lines +loving hearts were waiting, and friendly hands outstretched to welcome +them back to "God's land," as the poor, suffering creatures termed the +soil over which waved the Stars and Stripes, for which they had fought +so bravely. Wistfully, thousands of eyes ran over the long columns of +names of those returned, each eye seeking for its own, and growing dim +with tears as it failed to find it, or lighting up with untold joy when +it was found.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant Robert Reynolds" and "Thomas Tubbs," Helen read among the +list of those just arrived at Annapolis, but "Captain Mark Ray" was not +there, and with a sickening feeling of disappointment she passed the +paper to her mother-in-law, and hastened away, to weep and pray that +what she so greatly feared might not come upon her.</p> + +<p>It was after Katy's betrothal, and she was in New York, happy to hear +news from Mark, and perhaps to see him ere long, for, as nearly as she +could trace him from reports of others, he was last at Andersonville. +But there was no mention made of him, no sign by which she could tell +whether he still lived, or had long since been relieved from suffering.</p> + +<p>Early the next day she heard that Mattie Tubbs had received a telegram +from Tom, who would soon be at home, while later in the day Bell Cameron +came around to say that Bob was living, but had lost his right arm, and +was otherwise badly crippled. It never occurred to Helen to ask if this +would make a difference. She only kissed Bell fondly, rejoicing at her +good fortune, and then sent her back to the home where there were hot +discussions regarding the propriety of receiving into the family a +maimed and crippled member.</p> + +<p>"It was preposterous to suppose Bob would expect it," Juno said, while +the mother admitted that it was a most unfortunate affair, as indeed the +whole war had proved. For her part, she sometimes wished the North had +let the South go quietly when they wanted to, and so saved thousands of +lives, and prevented the country from being flooded with cripples, and +negroes, and calls for more men and money. On the whole, she rather +doubted the propriety of re-electing Lincoln, and prolonging the war; +and she certainly doubted the propriety of giving her daughter to a +cripple. There was Arthur Grey, who had lately been so attentive; he was +a wealthier man than Lieutenant Bob, and if Bell had any discretion she +would take him in preference to a disfigured soldier.</p> + +<p>Such was the purport of Mrs. Cameron's remarks, to which her husband +listened, his eyes blazing with passion, which, the moment she finished, +burst forth in a storm of oaths and invectives against what, with his +pet adjective, he called her "Copperhead principles," denouncing her as +a traitor, reproaching her for the cruelty which would separate her +daughter from Robert Reynolds because he had lost an arm in the service +of his country, and then turning fiercely to Bell with the words:</p> + +<p>"But it isn't for you to say whether he shall or shall not have Bell. +She is of age. Let her speak for herself."</p> + +<p>And she did speak, the noble, heroic girl, who had listened, with bitter +scorn, to what her mother and sister said, and who now, with elevated +nostrils and voice hoarse with emotion, answered slowly and +impressively:</p> + +<p>"I would marry Lieutenant Reynolds if he had only his ears left to hear +me tell him how much I love and honor him! Arthur Grey! Don't talk to me +of him! the craven coward, who will neither volunteer nor give a cent +for our poor, suffering soldiers, but turns people off with: 'Government +provides,' or 'the stores do not reach them,' and all those subterfuges +to which mean men resort to keep from giving, and to avoid the draft +swore he was forty-five, when we all know better. Don't insult Robert +with such a comparison, or think I will break my faith with him."</p> + +<p>After this no more was said to Bell, who waited anxiously for further +news from Bob, and who, the moment she heard he was at home, went to his +father's house, and asked to see him.</p> + +<p>He was sleeping when she entered his room, and pushing back the heavy +curtain, so that the light would fall more directly upon him, Mrs. +Reynolds went out and left her there alone.</p> + +<p>With a beating heart, she stood looking at his hollow eyes, his sunken +cheek, his short, dry hair, and thick, gray skin—all marks of the +brutal treatment he had received. She did not think of his arm until she +glanced at the wall where hung a large-sized photograph, taken in full +uniform the last time he was at home, and in which his full, +well-developed figure showed to good advantage. Could it be that the +wreck before her had ever been as full of life and vigor as the picture +would indicate, and was that arm which held the sword severed from the +body, and left a token of the murderous war?</p> + +<p>"Poor Bob! how much he must have suffered," she whispered, and kneeling +down beside him, she hid her face in her hands, weeping bitter tears +for her armless hero.</p> + +<p>The motion awakened Robert, who gazed for a moment in surprise at the +kneeling, sobbing maiden; then, when sure it was she, he raised himself +in bed, and ere Bell could look up, two arms, one quite as strong as the +other, were wound around her neck, and her head was pillowed upon the +breast, which heaved with strong emotions as the soldier said:</p> + +<p>"My darling Bell, my promised wife, you don't know how much good this +meeting does me!"</p> + +<p>He kissed her many times, and Bell did not prevent it, but gave him kiss +after kiss, then, still doubting the evidence of her eyes, she unclasped +his clinging arms, and holding both his poor hands in hers, gave vent to +a second gush of tears as she said:</p> + +<p>"I am so glad—oh, so glad!"</p> + +<p>Then, as it occurred to her that he might perhaps misjudge her, and put +a wrong construction upon her joy, she added:</p> + +<p>"I did not care for myself, Robert. Don't think I cared for myself, or +was ever sorry a bit on my own account."</p> + +<p>Bob looked a little bewildered as he replied: "Never were sorry and +never cared! I can scarcely credit that, for surely your tears and +present emotions belie your words."</p> + +<p>Bell knew he had not understood her, and she said:</p> + +<p>"Your arm, Robert, your arm. We heard it was cut off, and that you were +otherwise mutilated."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's it, then!" and something like his old, mischievous smile +glimmered about Bob's mouth as he added: "They spared my arms, but, +Bell"—and he tried to look very solemn—"suppose I tell you that they +hacked off both my legs, and if you marry me, as you seem to think you +will, you must walk all your life by the side of wooden pins and +crutches?"</p> + +<p>Bell knew by the curl of his lip that he was teasing her, and she +answered, laughingly:</p> + +<p>"Wooden pins and crutches will be all the fashion when the war is over; +badges of honor of which any woman might be proud."</p> + +<p>"Well, Bell," he replied, "I am afraid there is no such honor in store +for my wife, for if I ever get back my strength and the flesh upon my +bones, she must take me with legs and arms included. Not even a scratch +or wound of any kind with which to awaken sympathy."</p> + +<p>He appeared very bright and cheerful, but when, after a moment, Bell +asked for Mark Ray, there came a shadow over his face, and with +quivering lips he told a tale which blanched Bell's cheek, and made her +shiver with pain and dread as she thought of Helen, the wife who had +never known the sweets of matrimony, and who would never taste them now, +for Mark was dead—shot down as he attempted to escape from the train +which took them from one place of torment to another. He was always +devising means of escape, succeeding several times, but was immediately +captured and brought back, or sent to some closer quarters, Robert said; +but his courage never deserted him, and in the muddy, filthy place where +they were herded like so many cattle, without shelter of any kind, he +was the life of them all, and by his presence kept many a poor fellow +from dying of homesickness and despair. But he was dead; there could be +no mistake, for Robert saw him when he jumped, heard the ball which went +whizzing after him, saw him as he fell on the open field, saw a man from +a rude dwelling nearby go hurriedly toward him, firing his own revolver, +as if to make the death deed doubly sure. Then, as the train slacked its +speed, with the view, perhaps, to take the body on board, he heard the +man who had reached Mark and was bending over him, call out: "Go on; +I'll tend to him. He is dead as a stone; bullet went right through +here," and he turned the dead man's face toward the train, so all could +see the blood pouring from the temple which the finger of the rebel +ruffian touched.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Helen! poor Helen! How can I tell her, when she loved him so much!" +Bell sobbed, while Bob repeated many things to prove how strong was the +love the unfortunate Mark Ray had borne for his young wife.</p> + +<p>"He used to make pictures of her," he said, "with a pencil which he had, +and once he whittled out her face with a lily in the hair. It was a good +likeness, too, and I saw Mark kiss it more than once when he thought he +was not seen. He had her photograph, it seems, but a brutal keeper took +it away, for no earthly purpose except to distress him. I never saw Mark +cast down till then, when for two whole days he scarcely spoke, but +would stand for hours with his face turned toward the North, and a +quivering motion around his lips, as if his heart were broken."</p> + +<p>Bell could hear no more, but motioned him to stop.</p> + +<p>"It's too terrible even to think about," she said. "Oh, how can I tell +Helen!"</p> + +<p>"You will do it better than any one else," Bob said. "You will be very +tender with her; and, Bell, tell her, as some consolation, that he did +not break with the treatment, as most of us wretches did; he kept up +wonderfully—said he was perfectly well—and, indeed, he looked so. Tom +Tubbs, who was his shadow, clinging to him with wonderful fidelity, will +corroborate what I have said. He was with us, he saw him, and only +animal force prevented him from leaping from the car and going to him +where he fell. I shall never forget his shriek of agony at the sight of +that blood-stained face turned an instant toward us."</p> + +<p>"Don't, don't!" Bell cried again; "I can't endure it!" and as Mrs. +Reynolds then came in, she left her lover, and with a foreboding heart, +started for Mrs. Banker's, meeting on the steps Tom Tubbs himself, who +had come on an errand similar to her own.</p> + +<p>"Sit here in the hall a moment," she said to him, as the servant +admitted them both. "I must see Mrs. Ray first."</p> + +<p>Helen was reading to her mother-in-law, but she laid down her book and +came to welcome Bell, detecting at once the agitation in her manner and +asking if she had had bad news from Robert.</p> + +<p>"No, Robert is at home; I have just come from there, and he told me—oh! +Helen, can you bear it?—Mark is dead—shot twice as he jumped from the +train taking him to another prison, Robert saw it, and knew that he was +dead."</p> + +<p>Bell could get no further, for Helen, who had never fainted in her life, +did so now, lying senseless so long that the physician began to think it +would be a mercy if she never came back to life, for her reason, he +fancied, had fled. But Helen did come back to life with reason +unimpaired, and insisted upon hearing every detail of the dreadful +story, both from Bell and Tom. The latter confirmed all Lieutenant +Reynolds had said, besides adding many items of his own. Mark was dead, +there could be no doubt of it; but with the tenacity of a strong, +hopeful nature, the mother clung to the illusion that possibly the ball +stunned, instead of killing—that he would yet come back; and many a +time, as the days went by, that mother started at a step upon the walk +or ring of the bell, which she fancied might be his, hearing him +sometimes calling in the night storm for her to let him in, and hurrying +down to the door only to be disappointed, and go back to her lonely room +to weep the dark night through.</p> + +<p>With Helen there were no such illusions. After talking calmly and +rationally with both Robert and Tom, she knew her husband was dead, and +never watched and waited for him as his mother did. She had heard from +Mark's companions in suffering all they had to tell, of his captivity, +and his love for her which manifested itself in so many different ways. +Passionately she had wept over the tress of faded hair which Tom Tubbs +brought to her, saying: "He cut it from his head just before we left the +prison, and told me if he never got home and I did, to give the lock to +you, and say that all was well between him and God—that your prayers +had saved him. He wanted you to know that, because, he said, it would +comfort you most of all."</p> + +<p>And it did comfort her, so that she could almost say with a full heart: +"Thy will be done," when she looked up at the clear, wintry heavens and +thought that her lost one was there. It was her first real trial, and it +crushed her with its magnitude so that she could not submit at once, and +many a cry of desolate agony broke the silence of her room, where the +whole night through she sat musing of the past, and raining kisses upon +the little lock of hair which from the Southern prison had come to her, +sole relic of the husband so dearly loved and truly mourned. How faded +it was from the rich brown she remembered so well, and Helen gazing at +it could realize in part the suffering and want which had worn so many +precious lives away. It was strange she never dreamed of him. She often +prayed that she might, so as to drive from her mind, if possible, the +picture of the prostrate form upon the low, damp field, and the +blood-stained face turned in its mortal agony toward the Southern sky +and the pitiless foe above it. So she always saw him, shuddering as she +wondered if the foe had buried him decently or left his bones to bleach +upon the open plain.</p> + +<p>Poor Helen, she was widowed indeed, and it needed not the badge of +mourning to tell how terribly she was bereaved. But the badge was there, +too, for in spite of the hope which said "he is not dead," Mrs. Banker +yielded to Helen's importunities, and clothed herself and +daughter-in-law in the habiliments of woe, still waiting, still +watching, still listening for the step she should recognize so quickly, +still looking down the street; but looking, alas! in vain. The winter +passed away. Captive after captive came home, heart after heart was +cheered by the returning loved one, but for the inmates of No. —— the +heavy cloud grew blacker, for the empty chair by the hearth remained +unoccupied, and the aching hearts uncheered. Mark Ray did not come back.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIV" id="CHAPTER_LIV" ></a>CHAPTER LIV.</h2> + +<h3>THE DAY OF THE WEDDING.</h3> + + +<p>Those first warm days of March, 1865, when spring and summer seemed to +kiss each other and join hands for a brief space of time, how balmy, how +still, how pleasant they were, and how bright the farmhouse looked, +where preparations for Katy's second bridal were going rapidly forward. +Aunt Betsy, as chief directress, was in her element, for now had come +the reality of the vision she had seen so long, of house turned upside +down in one grand onslaught of suds and sand, then righted again by +magic power, and smelling very sweet and clean from its recent +ablutions—of turkeys dying in the barn, of chickens in the shed, of +ovens heating in the kitchen, of loaves of frosted cake, with cards and +cards of snowy biscuit piled upon the pantry shelf—of jellies, tarts +and chicken salad—of home-made wine and home-brewed beer, with tea and +coffee, portioned out and ready for the pots, the latter mixed with +fresh-laid eggs, and smelling strongly of old Java, and the former as +fragrant as two and one-half dollars per pound could buy.</p> + +<p>Aunt Betsy was very happy, for this, the brightest, balmiest day of all, +was Katy's wedding day, and in the dining-room the table was already set +with the new chinaware and silver, a joint Christmas gift from Helen and +Katy to their good Aunt Hannah, as real mistress of the house.</p> + +<p>"Not plated-ware, but the gen-oo-ine article," Aunt Betsy had explained +at least twenty times to those who came to see the silver, and she +handled it proudly now as she took it from the flannel bags where Mrs. +Deacon Bannister said it must be kept, and placed it on a side table.</p> + +<p>The coffee-urn was Katy's, so was the teakettle and the massive pitcher, +but the rest was "ours," Aunt Betsy complacently reflected as she +contemplated the glittering array, end then hurried off to see what was +burning on the stove, or "spell" Uncle Ephraim, working industriously at +the ice-cream, out on the back stoop, stumbling over Morris as she went, +and telling him he had come too soon—it was not fittin' for him to be +there under foot until he was wanted.</p> + +<p>Morris probably thought he was wanted, by one member of the family at +least, and without replying directly to Aunt Betsy, he knocked with a +vast amount of assurance at a side door, which opened directly, and +Katy's glowing face looked out, and Katy's voice was heard, not telling +him he was not wanted, but saying, joyfully:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Morris, it's you. I'm so glad you've come, for I wanted—"</p> + +<p>But what she wanted was drowned by a succession of certain mysterious +sounds, such as are only produced by a collision of lips, and which made +Aunt Betsy mutter to herself:</p> + +<p>"It's all right, I know, but so much kissin' as I've seen the last +fortni't is enough to turn a body's stomach. I guess old bachelders and +widders is commonly wus than fresh hands at it."</p> + +<p>And having thus expressed her thoughts, Aunt Betsy seized the handle of +the ice-cream freezer and turned it vigorously, thinking, perhaps, of +Joel Upham, and what might have been but for a freak of hers. Meanwhile +Morris and Katy sat alone in the little sewing-room, where latterly they +had passed so many quiet hours together, and where lay the bridal dress, +with its chaste and simple decorations. Katy had clung tenaciously to +her mourning robes, asking, half tearfully, if she might wear black, as +ladies sometimes did. But Morris had promptly answered no. His bride, if +she came to him willingly, must not come clad in widow's weeds, for when +she became his wife she would cease to be a widow.</p> + +<p>And so the black was laid aside, and Katy, in soft tinted colors, with +her bright hair curling in her neck, looked as girlish and beautiful as +if in Greenwood there were no pretentious monument, with Wilford's name +upon it, nor any little grave in Silverton where Baby Cameron slept. She +had been both wife and mother, but she was quite as dear to Morris as if +she had never borne other name than Katy Lennox, and as he held her for +a moment closely to his heart, he thanked God, who had at last given to +him the idol of his boyhood and the love of his later years. Across +their pathway no shadow was lying, except when they remembered Helen, on +whom the mantle of widowhood had so darkly fallen just as Katy was +throwing it off.</p> + +<p>Poor Helen, the tears always crept to Katy's eyes when, she thought of +her, and now as she saw her steal across the road and strike into the +winding path which led to the pasture where the pines and hemlock grew, +she nestled closer to Morris, and whispered:</p> + +<p>"Sometimes I think it wrong to be so happy when Helen is so sad. I pity +her so much to-day."</p> + +<p>And Helen was to be pitied, for her heart was aching to its very core. +She had tried to keep up through the preparations for Katy's bridal, +tried to seem interested, and even cheerful, while all the time a hidden +agony was tugging at her heart, and life seemed a heavier burden than +she could bear.</p> + +<p>All her portion of the work was finished now, and in the balmy +brightness of that warm April afternoon she went into the fields where +she could be alone beneath the soft, summer-like sky, and pour out her +pent-up anguish into the ear of Him who had so often soothed and +comforted her when other aids had failed. Last night, for the first time +since she heard the dreadful news, she had dreamed of Mark, and when she +awoke she still felt the pressure of his lips upon her brow, the touch +of his arm upon her waist, and the thrilling clasp of his warm hand as +it pressed and held her own. But that was a dream, a cruel delusion, and +its memory made the day more dark and dreary as she went more slowly up +the beaten path, pausing once beneath a chestnut tree and leaning her +throbbing head against the shaggy bark as she heard in the distance the +shrill whistle of the downward train from Albany, and thought, as she +always did when she heard that whistle, "Oh, if that heralded Mark's +return, how happy I should be." But many a sound like that had echoed +across the Silverton hills, bringing no hope to her, and now, as it +again died away in the Cedar Swamp, she pursued her way up the path till +she reached the long, white ledge of rocks where with Katy she used to +play, and where Bell Cameron had come with Lieutenant Bob, while Morris, +too, had more than once led Katy there since the weather was so fine.</p> + +<p>"The Lovers' Rock," some called it, for village boys and maidens knew +the place, repairing to it often, whispering their vows beneath the +overhanging pines, which whispered back again, and told the winds the +story which, though so old, is always new to her who listens to him who +tells.</p> + +<p>Just underneath the spreading pine there was a large, flat stone, and +there Helen sat down, gazing sadly upon the valley below, and the clear +waters of Fairy Pond gleaming in the April sunshine, which lay so warmly +on the grassy hills and flashed so brightly from the cupola at Linwood, +where the national flag was flying. For a time Helen watched the banner +as it shook its folds to the breeze, then, as she remembered with what a +fearful price that flag had been saved from foul dishonor, she hid her +face in her hands and sobbed bitterly:</p> + +<p>"God help me not to begrudge the price or think I paid too dearly for my +country's rights. Oh, Mark, my murdered husband, I may be wrong, but you +were dearer to me than many, many countries, and it is hard to give you +up—hard to know that the notes of peace which even now float up to us +from the South will not waken you in that grave which I can never see. +Oh, Mark, my darling, my darling, I loved you so much, I miss you so +much, I want you so much. God help me to bear. God help me to say, 'Thy +will be done.'"</p> + +<p>She was rocking to and fro in her grief, with her hands pressed over her +face, as she thus moaned out a prayer that God would help her to feel, +as well as to say, "Thy will be done," and for a long time she sat there +thus, while the sun crept on further toward the west, and the freshened +breeze shook the tasseled pine above her head and kissed the bands of +rich brown hair, from which her hat had fallen. She did not heed the +lapse of time in the earnest prayer she breathed for entire submission +to God's will, nor did she hear the footstep coming up the pathway to +the ledge where she was sitting, the footstep which paused at intervals, +as if the comer were weary, or else in quest of some one, but which at +last came on with rapid bounds as an opening among the trees showed +where Helen sat. It was a tall young man who came, a young man sunburned +and scarred, with uniform soiled and worn, but with the fire in his +brown eyes unquenched, the love in his true heart unchanged, save as it +was deeper, more intense for the years of separation, and the long, +cruel suspense which was all over now. The grave had given up its dead, +the captive was released, and through incredible suffering and danger +had reached his Northern home, had sought and found his girl-wife of a +few hours, for it was Mark Ray speeding up the path, and holding back +his breath as he came close to the bowed form on the rock, feeling a +strange throb of awe when he saw the mourning dress, and knew it was +worn for him. A moment more, and she lay in his arms, white and +insensible, for with the sudden winding of his arms around her neck, the +pressure of his lips upon her cheek, the calling of her name, and the +knowing it was really her husband, she had uttered a wild, impassioned +cry, half of terror, half of joy, and fainted entirely away, just as she +did when told that he was dead! There was no water near, but with loving +words and soft caresses, Mark brought her back to life, raining both +tears and kisses upon the dear face which had grown so white and thin +since the Christmas Eve when the wintry starlight had looked down upon +their parting. For several moments neither could speak for the great +choking joy which wholly precluded the utterance of a word. Helen was +the first to rally, and lying in Mark's lap, with her head pillowed on +Mark's arm, she whispered:</p> + +<p>"Let us thank God together. You, too, have learned to pray."</p> + +<p>Reverently Mark bent his face to hers, and the pine boughs overhead +heard, instead of mourning notes, a prayer of praise, as the reunited +wife and husband fervently thanked God, who had brought them together +again.</p> + +<p>Not until nearly half an hour was gone, and Helen had begun to realize +that the arm which held her so tightly was genuine flesh and blood, and +not a mere delusion, did she look up into the face, glowing with so much +of happiness and love. Upon the forehead, and just beneath the hair, +there was a savage scar, and the flesh about it was red and angry still, +showing how sore and painful it must have been, and making Helen shudder +as she touched it with her lips, and said:</p> + +<p>"Poor, darling Mark! that's where the cruel ball entered; but where is +the other scar—the one made by the man who went to you in the fields, +and who also fired, they said. I have tried so hard to hate him for +firing at a fallen foe."</p> + +<p>"Rather, pray for him, darling. Bless him as the savior of your +husband's life, the noble fellow but for whom I should not have been +here now, for he was a Unionist, as true to the old flag as Abraham +himself," Mark Ray replied; and then, as Helen looked wonderingly at +him, he laid her head in an easier position upon his shoulder, and told +her a story so strange in its details that but for the frequent +occurrence of similar incidents it would be pronounced wholly unreal and +false.</p> + +<p>Of what he suffered in the Southern prisons he did not speak, either +then or ever after, but began with the day when, with a courage born of +desperation, he jumped from the moving train, and was shot down by the +guard. Partially stunned, he still, retained sense enough to know when +a tall form bent over him, and to hear the rough but kindly voice which +said:</p> + +<p>"Play 'possum, Yank. Make b'lieve you're dead, and throw them hellhounds +off the scent."</p> + +<p>This was the last he knew for many weeks, and when again he awoke to +consciousness he found himself on the upper floor of a dilapidated hut, +which stood in the center of a little wood, his bed a pile of straw, +over which was spread a clean patchwork quilt, while seated at his side, +and watching him intently, was the same man who had bent over him in the +field, and shouted to the rebels that he was dead.</p> + +<p>"I shall never forget my sensations then," Mark said, "for, with the +exception of this present hour, when I hold you, my darling, in my arms, +and know the danger is over, I never experienced a moment of greater +happiness and rest than when, up in that squalid garret, where the +rafters, festooned with cobwebs and dust, could be touched by stretching +out my hand, and where the sunlight only found an entrance through an +aperture in the roof, which admitted the rain as well, I came back to +life again, the pain in my head all gone, and nothing left save a +delicious feeling of languor, which prompted me to lie quietly for +several minutes, examining my surroundings, and speculating upon the +chance which brought me there. That I was a prisoner I did not doubt, +until the man at my side said to me, cheerily: 'Well, old chap, you've +come through it like a major, though I was mighty dubious a spell about +that pesky ball. But old Aunt Bab and me fished it out, and since then +you've begun to mend.'</p> + +<p>"'Where am I? Who are you?' I asked, and he replied: 'Who be I? Why, I'm +Jack Jennin's, the rarinest, red-hottest secesh thar is in these yere +parts, so the rebs thinks; but 'twixt you and me, boy, I'm the tallest +kind of a Union—got a piece of the old flag sewed inside of my boots, +and every night before sleepin' I prays Lord gin Abe the victory,' and +raise Cain generally in t'other camp, and forgive Jack Jennin's for +tellin' so many lies, and makin' b'leeve he's one thing, when you know +and he knows he's t'other. If I've spared one Union chap, I'll bet I +have a hundred, me and old Bab, a black woman who lives here and tends +to the cases I fotch her, till we contrive to git 'em inter Tennessee, +whar they hev to shift for themselves.'</p> + +<p>"I could only press his bony hand in token of my gratitude, while he +went on to say: 'Them was beans I fired at you that day, but they sarved +every purpose, and them scalliwags on the train s'pose you were put +under ground weeks ago, if, indeed, you wasn't left to rot in the sun, +as heaps and heaps on 'em is. Nobody knows you are here but Bab and me, +and nobody must know if you want to git off with a whole hide. I could +git a hundred dollars by givin' you up, but you don't s'pose Jack +Jennin's is agwine to do that ar infernal trick? No, sir,' and he +brought his brawny fist down upon his knee with a force which made me +tremble, while I tried to express my thanks for his great kindness. He +was a noble man, Helen, while Aunt Bab, the colored woman, who nursed me +so tenderly, and whose black, bony hands I kissed at parting, was as +true a woman as any with a fairer skin and more beautiful exterior.</p> + +<p>"For three weeks longer I stayed up in that loft, and in that time three +more escaped prisoners were brought there, and one Union refugee from +North Carolina. We left in company one wild, rainy night, when the storm +and darkness must have been sent for our special protection, and Jack +Jennings cried like a little child when he bade me good-by, promising, +if he survived the war, to find his way to the North and visit me in New +York. I should be prouder, Helen, to welcome him to our home than to +entertain the Emperor of France, while Bab should have a seat at my own +table, and I be honored by it. There are many such noble spirits there, +and when I remember them, I wish to spare a land which I once hoped +might be burned with fire until no trace was left. We found them +everywhere, and especially among the mountains of Tennessee, where, but +for their timely aid, we had surely been recaptured. The negroes, too, +were powerful helps, and in no single case has a black man proved +treacherous to his suffering white brother, I was not an Abolitionist +when the war broke out, but I am one now, and to see the negro free I +would almost spill my last drop of blood. They are a patient, +all-enduring, faithful race, and without them the bones of many a poor +wretch who now sits by his own fireside and recounts the perils he has +escaped, would whiten in the Southern swamps or on the Southern +mountains. Three times were we chased by bloodhounds, and in every case +the negroes were the means of saving us from certain death. For weeks we +were hidden in a cave, hunted by the Confederates by day, and fed at +night by negroes, who told us when and where to go. With blistered feet +and bruised limbs, we reached the lines at last, when fever attacked me +for the second time and brought me near to death. Somebody wrote to you, +but you never received it, and when I grew better I would not let them +write again, as I wanted to surprise you. As soon as I was able I +started North, my thoughts full of the joyful meeting in store—a +meeting which I dreaded, too, for I knew you must think me dead, and I +felt so sorry for you, my darling, knowing, as I did, you would mourn +for your soldier husband. That my darling has mourned is written on her +face, and needs no words to tell it; but that is over now," Mark said, +folding his wife closer to him, and kissing the pale lips which +whispered:</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have been so sorry, Mark—so tired, so sad, and life was such a +burden, I would gladly have laid it down."</p> + +<p>"The burden is now removed," Mark said, and then he told her how, +arrived at Albany, he had telegraphed to his mother, asking where Helen +was.</p> + +<p>"In Silverton," was the reply, and so he came on in the morning train, +meeting his mother in Springfield, as he had half expected to do, +knowing that she could leave New York in time to join him there.</p> + +<p>"No words of mine," he said, "are adequate to describe the thrill of joy +with which I looked again upon the hills and rocks so identified with +you that I loved them for your sake, hailing them as old, familiar +friends, and actually growing sick and faint with excitement when, +through the leafless woods, I caught the gleam of Fairy Pond, where I +gathered the lilies for you. Does my darling remember it?"</p> + +<p>He knew she did by the clasp of her hand, and he continued:</p> + +<p>"Had a dead body risen from its grave, and walked into the farmhouse, +carrying its coffin with it, it could not have created greater +consternation, or made worse havoc with the people's wits than did my +sudden appearance in their midst. Good Aunt Betsy, I am sorry to say, +fell the entire length of the cellar stairs, spraining her ankle, +bruising her elbow shockingly, and, direst calamity of all, in her +estimation, breaking the dish of charlotte russe she was holding in her +hand. There is a wedding in progress, I learned from mother, and it +seems very meet that I should come at this time, making, in reality, a +double wedding, when I can truly claim my bride," and Mark kissed Helen +passionately, laughing to see how the blushes broke over her white face, +and burned upon her neck.</p> + +<p>Those were happy moments which they passed together upon that ledge of +rocks, happy enough to atone for all the dreadful past, and when at last +they arose and slowly retraced their steps to the farmhouse, it seemed +to Mark that Helen's cheeks were rounder, fuller, than when he found +her, while Helen knew that the arm on which she leaned was stronger than +when it first inclosed her an hour or two ago.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LV" id="CHAPTER_LV" ></a>CHAPTER LV.</h2> + +<h3>THE WEDDING.</h3> + + +<p>Many times Aunt Betsy had hobbled to the door, and shading her eyes with +her hand, had looked wistfully up the hill in quest of Mark and Helen, +wondering why they stayed out so long, when they must know the sun was +nearly down, and wondering next if Morris would never go home about his +business and give Katy a chance to dress.</p> + +<p>Poor, worried, unfortunate Aunt Betsy! her foot was very lame, and her +arm was badly bruised; but she bandaged it up in camphor and sugar, +wincing at the terrible smart when the wash was at first applied, but +saying to Morris, who asked if it did not hurt cruelly: "Yes, it hurts +some, but nothin' to what the poor soldiers is hurt; and I wouldn't mind +it an atom if I hadn't broke the dish with the heathenish name."</p> + +<p>And, indeed, the loss of the charlotte russe did weigh heavily on Aunt +Betsy's mind, proving the straw too many, and only Bell Cameron, who, +with Lieutenant Bob, had come on the same train with Mark and Mrs. +Banker, had power to reassure her by telling her that charlotte russe +was not essential at all; that, for her part, she was glad to have it +out of sight, as it was her especial detestation. This comforted Aunt +Betsy, who had made many of her preparations for the wedding with a +direct reference to the "city folks" so confidently expected. The +substantials were for the neighbors—those who would have no supper at +home, but reserve their appetites for the wedding viands; while the +delicacies, the knickknacks, were designed exclusively for "them +stuck-up critters, the Camerons," not one of whom, it now seemed, would +be present except Bell. Father Cameron was not able to come; he would +gladly have done so if he could, and he sent his blessing to Katy, with +the wish that she might be very happy in her second married life. This +message Bell gave to Katy, and then tried to form some reasonable excuse +for her mother's and Juno's absence, for she could not tell how +haughtily both had declined the invitation, Juno finding fault because +Katy had not waited longer than two years, and Mrs. Cameron blaming her +for being so very vulgar as to be married at home, instead of in church, +where she ought to be. On this point Katy herself had been a little +disquieted, feeling how much more appropriate it was that she be married +in the church, but shrinking from standing again a bride at the same +altar where she had once before been made a wife. She could not do it, +she finally decided; there would be too many harrowing memories crowding +upon her mind, and as Morris did not particularly care where the +ceremony was performed, provided he got Katy at the last, it was settled +that it should be at the house, even though Mrs. Deacon Bannister did +say that she had supposed Dr. Grant too High Church to do anything as +Presbyterianny as that.</p> + +<p>Bell's arrival at the farmhouse was timely, for the unexpected +appearance in their midst of one whom they looked upon as surely dead +had stunned and bewildered the family to such an extent that it needed +the presence of just such a matter-of-fact, self-possessed woman as +Bell to bring things back to their original shape. It was wonderful how +the city girl fitted into the vacant niches, seeing to everything which +needed seeing to, and still finding time to steal away alone with +Lieutenant Bob, who kept her in a painful state of blushing by +constantly wishing it was his bridal night as well as Dr. Grant's, and +by inveighing against the weeks which must still intervene ere the day +appointed for the grand ceremony to take place in Grace Church, and +which was to make Bell his wife.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Ain't Morris ever goin' home? He won't be dressed in time, as sure as +the world, if he stays here much longer," Aunt Betsy said a dozen times, +until at last her patience was exhausted, and going boldly in where he +was, she bade him start in at once, or he would not have time to put on +his best coat and jacket, let alone Katy's changin' her clothes.</p> + +<p>Thus importuned, Morris quitted the house, just as Mark and Helen came +slowly up, their faces happier, if possible, than his own, and telling +of the great joy which had succeeded their dark night of sorrow.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Come in here, Helen, I have something to show you," Mrs. Banker said, +after she had again embraced and wept over her long-lost son, whose +return was not quite real yet, and leading her daughter-in-law to her +bedroom, she showed her the elegant white silk which had been made for +her just after her marriage, two years before, and which with careful +forethought she had brought with her, as more suitable now for the +wedding than Helen's mourning weeds.</p> + +<p>"I made the most of my time last night after receiving Mark's telegram, +and had it modernized somewhat," she said. "And I brought your pearls, +for you know you will be most as much a bride as Katy, and I have a +pride in seeing my son's wife appropriately dressed."</p> + +<p>Far different were Helen's feelings now, as she donned the elegant +dress, from what they had been the first and only time she wore it. Then +the bridegroom was where danger and death lay thickly around his +pathway, but now he was at her side, kissing her cheek where the roses +were burning so brightly, and calling still deeper blushes to her face +by his teasing observations and humorous ridicule of his own personal +appearance. Would she not feel ashamed of him, in his soiled, faded +uniform? And would she not cast longing glances at her handsome +brother-in-law and the stylish Lieutenant Bob? But Helen was proud of +her husband's uniform, as a badge of what he had suffered, and when the +folds of her rich dress swept against it, she did not draw them away, +but nestled closer to him, leaning upon his shoulder, and when no one +was near, winding her soft arms about his neck, whispering: "My darling +Mark, I cannot make it real yet."</p> + +<p>Softly the night shadows fell around the farmhouse, and in the rooms +below a rather mixed group was assembled—all the _élite_ of the town, +with many of Aunt Betsy's neighbors, and the doctor's patients, who had +come to see their loved physician married, rejoicing in his happiness, +and glad that the mistress of Linwood was not to be a stranger, but the +young girl who had grown up in their midst, and who, by suffering and +sorrow, had been molded into a noble woman, worthy of Dr. Grant. She was +ready now for her second bridal, and she looked like some pure waxen +figure in her dress of white, with no vestige of color in her face, and +her great blue eyes shining with a brilliancy which made them almost +black. Occasionally, as her thoughts leaped backward over a period of +almost six years, a tear trembled on her long eyelashes, but Morris, as +often as he saw it, kissed it away, asking if she were sorry.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, not sorry that I am to be your wife," she answered; "but it is +not possible that I should forget entirely the roughness of the road +which has led me to you."</p> + +<p>"They are waiting for you," was said several times ere the parties +waited for were quite ready to go; but everything was done at last, and +slowly down the stairs passed Mark Ray and Helen, Lieutenant Bob and +Bell, with Dr. Grant and Katy, whose face, as she stood again before the +clergyman and spoke her marriage vows, shone with a strange, peaceful +light, which made it seem to those who gazed upon her like the face of +some pure angel.</p> + +<p>There was no thought then of that deathbed in Georgetown—no thought of +Greenwood, or the little grave in Silverton, where the crocuses and +hyacinths were blossoming—no thought of anything save the man at her +side, whose voice was so full and earnest, as it made the responses, and +who gently pressed the little hand as he fitted the wedding ring. It was +over at last, and Katy was Morris' wife, blushing now as they called her +Mrs. Grant, and putting up her rosebud lips to be kissed by all who +claimed that privilege. Helen, too, came in for her share of attention, +and the opinion of the guests as to the beauty of the respective brides, +as they were termed, was pretty equally divided; both were beautiful, +and both bore traces of the suffering and suspense which had purified +and made them better.</p> + +<p>In heavy, rustling silk, which actually trailed an inch, and cap of real +lace, Aunt Betsy hobbled among the crowd, her face aglow with the +satisfaction she felt at seeing her nieces so much admired and +appreciated, and her heart so full of good will and toleration that +after the supper was over, and she fancied a few of the younger ones +were beginning to feel tired, she suggested to Bell that she might start +a dance if she had a mind to, either in the kitchen or parlor, it did +not matter where, and "Ephraim would not care an atom," a remark which +brought from Mrs. Deacon Bannister a most withering look of reproach, +and slightly endangered Aunt Betsy's standing in the church. Perhaps +Bell Cameron suspected as much, for she replied that they were having a +splendid time as it was, and as Dr. Grant did not dance, they might as +well dispense with it altogether. And so it happened that there was no +dancing at Katy's wedding, and Uncle Ephraim escaped the reproof which +his brother deacon would have felt called upon to give him had he +permitted so grievous a sin, while Mrs. Deacon Bannister, who, at the +first trip of the toe, would have felt it her duty to depart, lest her +eyes should look upon the evil thing, was thus permitted to remain until +"it was out," and the guests retired _en masse_ to their respective +homes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The carriage from Linwood stood at the farmhouse door, and Katy, +wrapped in shawls and hood, was ready to go with her husband to the home +where she knew so much of rest and quiet awaited her. There were no +tears shed at this parting, for their darling was not going far away; +her new home was just across the fields, and through the soft moonlight +they could see its chimney tops, and trace for some little distance the +road over which the carriage went, bearing her swiftly on, her hands +fast locked in Morris', her head upon his arm, and the hearts of both +too full of bliss for either to speak a word until Linwood was reached, +when, folding Katy to his bosom in a passionate embrace, Morris said to +her:</p> + +<p>"We are home at last—your home and mine, my precious, precious wife."</p> + +<p>The village clock was striking one, and the sound echoed across the +waters of Fairy Pond, awakening, in his marshy bed, a sleeping frog, who +sent forth upon the warm, still air a musical, plaintive note as Morris +bore his bride over the threshold and into the library, where on the +hearth a cheerful fire was blazing. He had ordered it kindled there, for +he had a fancy ere he slept to see fulfilled the dream he had dreamed so +often, of Katy sitting in the chair across the hearth, where he placed +her now, himself removing her shawl and hood, then kneeling down before +her, with his arm around her waist and his head upon her shoulder, he +prayed aloud to the God who had brought her there, asking His blessing +upon their future life, and dedicating himself and all he had to his +Master's service. It is such prayer which God delights to answer; and a +peace, deeper than they had yet known, fell upon that newly-married pair +at Linwood.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVI" id="CHAPTER_LVI" ></a>CHAPTER LVI.</h2> + +<h3>CONCLUSION.</h3> + + +<p>The scene shifts now to New York, where, one week after that wedding in +Silverton, Mark and Helen were, and where, too, were Morris and Katy. +But not on Madison Square. That house had been sold, and Katy had seen +it but once, her tears falling fast as driving slowly by with Morris +she gazed at the closed doors and windows of what was once her home, and +around which lingered no pleasant memories save that it was the +birthplace of Baby Cameron. Once Lieutenant Reynolds had thought to buy +it, but Bell said: "No, it would not be quite pleasant for Katy to visit +me there, and I mean to have her with me as much as possible," so the +house went to strangers, and a less pretentious, but quite as +comfortable, one was bought for Bell, so far uptown that Mrs. Cameron +pronounced it quite in the country, while Juno wondered how her sister +would manage to exist so far from everything, intimating that her visits +would be far between, a threat which Lieutenant Bob took quite +heroically; indeed, it rather enhanced the value of his pleasant home +than otherwise, for Juno was not a favorite, and his equanimity was not +likely to be disturbed if she never crossed his threshold. She was +throwing bait to Arthur Grey, the man who swore he was forty-five to +escape the draft, and who, now that the danger was over, would gladly +take back his oath and be forty, as he really was. With the most +freezing kiss imaginable, Juno had greeted Katy, calling her "Mrs. +Grant," and treating Morris as if he were an entire stranger, instead of +the man whom to get she would once have moved both earth and heaven. +Mrs. Cameron, too, though glad in her heart that Katy was married, and +fully approving of her choice, threw into her manner so much reserve +that Katy's intercourse with her was anything but agreeable, and she +turned with alacrity to Father Cameron, who had received her with open +arms, calling her his daughter, and welcoming Morris as his son, taken +in Wilford's stead. "My boy," he frequently called him, showing by his +manner how willingly he accepted him as the husband of one whom he +really loved as his child. Greatly he wished that they should stay with +him while they remained in New York, but Katy preferred going with Helen +to Mrs. Banker's, where she would be more quiet, and avoid the bustle +and confusion attending the preparations for Bell's wedding. It was to +be a grand church affair, and to take place during Easter week, after +which the bridal pair were going on to Washington, Fortress Monroe, and, +if possible, to Richmond, where Bob had been a prisoner. Everything +seemed conspiring to make the occasion a joyful one, for all through +the North, from Maine to California, the air was rife with the jubilee +songs of victory, and the notes of approaching peace. But, alas! He who +holds our country's destiny in His hand changed that song of gladness +into a wail of woe, which, echoing through the land, rose up to Heaven +in one mighty sob of anguish, as the whole nation bemoaned its loss. Our +President was dead!—foully, cruelly murdered!—and New York was in +mourning, so black, so profound, that with a shudder Bell Cameron tossed +aside the orange wreath and said to her lover: "We will be married at +home. I cannot now go to the church, when everything seems so like one +great funeral."</p> + +<p>And so in Mrs. Cameron's drawing-room there was a quiet wedding one +pleasant April morning, and Bell's plain traveling dress was far more +in keeping with the gloom which hung over the great city than her gala +robes would have been, with a long array of carriages and merry wedding +chimes. Westward they went, instead of South, and when our late lamented +President was borne back to the prairie of Illinois, they were there to +greet the noble dead, and mingle their tears with those who knew and +loved him long before the world appreciated his worth.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Softly the May rain falls on Linwood, where the fresh green grass is +springing and the early spring flowers blooming, and where Katy, fairest +flower of all, stands for a moment in the deep bay window of the +library, listening dreamily to the patter on the tin roof overhead, and +gazing wistfully down the road, as if watching for some one, then +turning, she enters the dining-room and inspects the supper table, +shining with silver, and laid for six, for her mother, Aunt Hannah and +Aunt Betsy are visiting her this rainy afternoon, while Morris, on his +return from North Silverton, where he has gone to see a patient, is to +call for Uncle Ephraim, who, in clean linen, checked gingham neck +handkerchief and the swallow-tailed coat which has served him for so +many years, sits waiting at home, with one kitten in his lap and +another on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>Linwood is a nice place to visit, and the old ladies enjoy it vastly, +especially Aunt Betsy, who never tires of telling what they have "over +to Katy's," and whose capeless shaker hangs often on the hall stand, +just as it hangs now, while she, good soul, sits in the pleasant parlor, +near the blazing fire, and darns the socks for Morris, taking as much +pains as if it were a network of fine lace she was weaving, instead of a +shocking rent in some luckless heel or toe. Upstairs there is a pleasant +room which Katy calls Aunt Betsy's, and in it is the feather bed on +which Wilford Cameron once slept, a part of Katy's "setting out," which +never found its way to Madison Square. Morris himself did not think much +of feathers, but he made no objection when Aunt Betsy insisted on +sending over the bed kept for so many years, and only smiled a droll +kind of smile when he one morning met it coming up the walk in the +wheelbarrow which Uncle Ephraim trundled.</p> + +<p>Morris and his young wife were very happy together, and Katy found the +hours of his absence very long, especially when she was left alone. Even +to-day, with her aunts and mother, the time drags heavily, and she looks +more than once from the bay window, until at last Brownie's head is seen +over the hill, and a few moments after Morris' arm is around her +shoulders, and her lips are upturned for the kiss he gives as he leads +her into the house out of the chill, damp air, chiding her gently for +exposing herself to the rain, and placing in her hand three letters, +which she does not open until the cozy tea is over and her family +friends have gone. Then, while her husband looks over his evening paper, +she breaks the seals, one by one, reading first the letter from "Mrs. +Bob Reynolds," who has returned from the West, and who is in the full +glory of her bridal calls.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"I was never so happy in my life as I am now," she wrote. "Indeed, I did +not know that a married woman could be so happy; but then every woman +has not a Bob for her husband, which makes a vast difference. You ought +to see Juno. I know she envies me, though she affects the utmost +contempt for matrimony, and reminds me forcibly of the fox and the +grapes. You see, Arthur Grey is a failure, so far as Juno is concerned, +he having withdrawn from the field and laid himself, with his forty-five +years, at the feet of Sybil Grandon, who will be Mrs. Grey, and a bride +at Saratoga the coming summer. Juno, I believe, intends going, too, as +the bridesmaid of the party; but every year her chances lessen, and I +have very little hope that father will ever call other than Bob his son, +always excepting Morris, of course, whom he really has adopted in place +of Wilford. You don't know, Katy, how much father thinks of you, +blessing the day which brought you to us, and saying that if he is ever +saved, he shall in a great measure owe it to your sweet influence and +consistent life after the great trouble came upon you."</p> + +<p>There were tears in Katy's eyes as she read this letter from Bell, and +with a mental prayer of thanksgiving that she had been of any use in +guiding even one to the Shepherd's fold, she took next the letter whose +superscription made her tremble for a moment and turn faint, it brought +back so vividly to her mind the daisy-covered grave in Alnwick, whose +headstone bore Genevra Lambert's name. Marian, who was now at Annapolis, +caring for the returned prisoners, did not write often, and her letters +were prized the more by Katy, who read with a heating heart the kind +congratulations upon her recent marriage, sent by Marian Hazelton.</p> + +<p>"I knew how it would end, even when you were in Georgetown," she wrote, +"and I am glad that it is so, praying daily that you may be as happy +with Dr. Grant as to remember the sad past only as some dream from which +you have awakened. I thank you for your invitation to visit Linwood, and +when my work is over I may come for a few weeks and rest in your bird's +nest of a home. Thank God the war is ended; but my boys need me yet, and +until the last crutch has left the hospital, and the last worn figure +gone, I shall stay where duty lies. What my life will henceforth be I do +not know, but I have sometimes thought that with the ample funds you so +generously bestowed upon me, I shall open a school for orphan children, +taking charge myself, and so doing some good. Will you be the lady +patroness, and occasionally enliven us with the light of your +countenance? I have left the hospital but once since you were here, and +then I went to Wilford's grave. Forgive me, Katy, if I did wrong in +wishing to kneel once upon the sod which covered him. I prayed for you +while there, remembering only that you had been his wife. In a little +box where no eyes but mine ever look, there is a bunch of flowers +plucked from Wilford's grave. They are faded now and withered, but +something of their sweet perfume lingers still; and I prize them as my +greatest treasure, for, except the lock of raven hair severed from his +head, they are all that is remaining to me of the past, which now seems +so far away. It is time to make my nightly round of visits, so I must +bid you good-by. The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you, +and be with you forever.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"MARIAN HAZELTON."</p> +</div> + +<p>For a long time Katy held this letter in her hand, wondering if the +sorrowful woman whose life was once so strangely blended with that of +Marian Hazelton and the pale occupant of that grave at Greenwood, whence +the flowers came, could be the Katy Grant who sat by the evening fire at +Linwood, with no shadow on her brow, and only the sunshine of perfect +happiness resting on her heart. "Truly, He doeth all things well to +those who wait upon Him," she thought, as she laid down Marian's letter +and took up the third and last, Helen's letter, dated at Fortress +Monroe, whither with Mark Ray she had gone just after Bell Cameron's +bridal.</p> + +<p>"You cannot imagine," she wrote, "the feelings of awe and even terror +which steal over me the nearer I get to the seat of war, and the more I +realize the bloody strife we have been engaged in, and which, thank God, +has now so nearly ceased. You have heard of John Jennings, the noble man +who saved my dear husband's life, and of Aunt Bab, who helped in the +good work? Both are here. It seems that suspicion was aroused against +them at last, and Bab was cruelly whipped to make her confess where a +Union prisoner was hidden; but, though the blows cut deep into her back, +bringing the blood at every stroke, she never uttered a word; and with +her wounds all smarting as they were, she helped the poor boy off, and +then with her master, John Jennings, started for the North. I never saw +Mark more pleased than when seized around the neck by two long, brawny +arms, while a cheery voice called out: 'Hello, old chap, has you done +forgot John Jennin's?' I verily believe Mark cried, and I know I did, +especially when old Bab came up and shook 'young misses' hand.' I kissed +her, Katy—all black, and rough, and uncouth as she was. I kissed her +more than once, and felt honored in doing so. Poor Bab! her back is +still a piteous sight, and I dress it every day, shuddering at the +sight, and thanking God that slavery, with all its horrors, is at an +end. I wish you could see how grateful the old creature is for every act +of kindness. She says 'the very feel of misses' soft, white hands makes +her old back better,' and she praises me continually to Mark, who is +just foolish enough to believe all she says. When we come home again, +both John and Bab will come with us, though what we shall do with John +is more than I can tell. Mark says he shall employ him about the office, +and this I know will delight Tom Tubbs, who has again made friends with +Chitty, and who will almost worship John as having saved Mark's life. +Aunt Bab shall have an honored seat by the kitchen fire, and a pleasant +room all to herself, working only when she likes, and doing as she +pleases.</p> + +<p>"Did I tell you that Mattie Tubbs was to be my seamstress? I am getting +together a curious household, you will say; but I like to have those +about me to whom I can do the greatest amount of good, and as I happen +to know how much Mattie admires 'the Lennox girls,' I did not hesitate +to take her, even though Mark did ask if I intended bringing her into +the parlor to help entertain my company. Mark is a saucy, teasing +fellow, and I see more and more how he kept up that dreadful +Andersonville while so many of his comrades died. Dear Mark! can I ever +be grateful enough to God for bringing him home?</p> + +<p>"We stopped at Annapolis on our way here, and I shall never forget the +pale, worn faces, or the great, sunken eyes which looked at me so +wistfully as I went from cot to cot, speaking words of cheer to the +sufferers, some of whom were Mark's companions in prison, their dim eyes +lighting up with joy as they recognized him and heard of his escape. +There are several nurses here, but no words of mine can tell what one of +them is to the poor fellows, or how eagerly they watch for her coming, +following her with so greedy glances as he moves about the room, and +holding her hand with a clasp, as if they would keep her with them +always. Indeed, more than one heart, as I am told, has confessed its +allegiance to her; but she answers all the same: 'I have no love to +give. It died out long ago, and cannot be recalled.' Yon can guess who +she is, Katy. The soldiers call her an angel, but we know her as +Marian."</p> + +<p>There were great tear-blots upon that letter as Katy put it aside, and +nestling close to Morris, laid her head upon his knee, where his hand +could smooth her golden curls, while she gazed long and earnestly into +the fire, musing upon Helen's closing words, and thinking how much they +expressed, and how just a tribute they were to the noble woman whose +life had been one constant sacrifice of self for another's good—"The +soldiers call her an angel, but we know her as Marian."</p> + + +<p>THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Family Pride, by Mary J. Holmes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILY PRIDE *** + +***** This file should be named 15607-h.htm or 15607-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/0/15607/ + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Mary Meehan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/15607.txt b/15607.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..60ccc22 --- /dev/null +++ b/15607.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19031 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Family Pride, by Mary J. Holmes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Family Pride + Or, Purified by Suffering + +Author: Mary J. Holmes + +Release Date: April 12, 2005 [EBook #15607] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILY PRIDE *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Mary Meehan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + FAMILY PRIDE + + OR + + Purified by Suffering + + BY MARY J. HOLMES + +Author of "Dora Deane," "The English Orphans," "Homestead on the +Hillside," "Tempest and Sunshine," "Lena Rivers," "Meadowbrook," "Cousin +Maude," etc., etc. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE FARMHOUSE AT SILVERTON. + + +Uncle Ephraim Barlow, deacon of the orthodox church in Silverton, +Massachusetts, was an old-fashioned man, clinging to the old-time +customs of his fathers, and looking with but little toleration upon what +he termed the "new-fangled notions" of the present generation. Born and +reared amid the rocks and hills of the Bay State, his nature partook +largely of the nature of his surroundings, and he grew into manhood with +many a rough point adhering to his character, which, nevertheless, taken +as a whole, was, like the wild New England scenery, beautiful and grand. +None knew Uncle Ephraim Barlow but to respect him, and at the church +where he was a worshiper few would have been missed more than the tall, +muscular man, with the long, white hair, who Sunday after Sunday walked +slowly up the middle aisle to his accustomed seat before the altar, and +who regularly passed the contribution box, bowing involuntarily in token +of approbation when a neighbor's gift was larger than its wont, and +gravely dropping in his own ten cents--never more, never less--always +ten cents--his weekly offering, which he knew amounted in a year to just +five dollars and twenty cents. And still Uncle Ephraim was not stingy, +as the Silverton poor could testify, for many a load of wood and bag of +meal found entrance to the doors where cold and hunger would have +otherwise been, while to his minister he was literally a holder up of +the weary hands, and a comforter in the time of trouble. + +His helpmeet, Aunt Hannah, like that virtuous woman mentioned in the +Bible, was one "who seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with +her hands, who riseth while yet it is night, and giveth meat to her +household." Indeed, for this last stirring trait Aunt Hannah was rather +famous, especially on Monday mornings, when her washing was invariably +swinging on the line ready to greet the rising sun. + +Miss Betsy Barlow, too, the deacon's maiden sister, was a character in +her way, and was surely not one of those vain, frivolous females to whom +the Apostle Paul had reference when he condemned the plaiting of hair +and the wearing of gold and jewels. Quaint, queer and simple-hearted, +she had but little idea of any world this side of heaven, except the one +bounded by the "huckleberry" hills and the crystal waters of Fairy Pond, +which from the back door of the farmhouse were plainly seen, both in the +summer sunshine and when the intervening fields were covered with the +winter snow. + +The home of such a trio was, like themselves, ancient and unpretentious, +nearly one hundred years having elapsed since the solid foundation was +laid to a portion of the building. Unquestionably, it was the oldest +house in Silverton, for on the heavy, oaken door of what was called the +back room was still to be seen the mark of a bullet, left there by some +marauders who, during the Revolution, had encamped in that neighborhood. +George Washington, too, it was said, had once spent a night beneath its +roof, the deacon's mother pouring for him her Bohea tea and breaking her +home-made bread. Since that time several attempts had been made to +modernize the house. Lath and plaster had been put upon the rafters and +paper upon the walls, wooden latches had given place to iron, while in +the parlor, where Washington had slept, there was the extravagance of a +knob, a genuine porcelain knob, such, as Uncle Ephraim said, was only +fit for the gentry who could afford to be grand. For himself, he was +content to live as his father did; but young folks, he supposed, must in +some things have their way, and so when his pretty niece, who had lived +with him from childhood to the day of her marriage, came back to him a +widow, bringing her two fatherless children and a host of new ideas, he +good-humoredly suffered her to tear down some of his household idols +and replace them with her own. And thus it was that the farmhouse +gradually changed its appearance both outwardly and in, for young +womanhood which had but one glimpse of the outer world will not settle +down quietly amid fashions a century old. And Lucy Lennox, when she +returned to the farmhouse, was not quite the same as when she went away. +Indeed, Aunt Betsy in her guileless heart feared that she had actually +fallen from grace, imputing the fall wholly to Lucy's predilection for +a certain little book on whose back was written "Common Prayer," and at +which Aunt Betsy scarcely dared to look, lest she should be guilty of +the enormities practiced by the Romanists themselves. Clearer headed +than his sister, the deacon read the black-bound book, finding therein +much that was good, but wondering why, when folks promised to renounce +the pomps and vanities, they did not do so, instead of acting more stuck +up than ever. Inconsistency was the underlying strata of the whole +Episcopal Church, he said, and as Lucy, without taking any public step, +had still declared her preference for that church, he, too, in a +measure, charged her propensity for repairs to the same source with Aunt +Betsy; but, as he could really see no sin in what she did, he suffered +her in most things to have her way. But when she contemplated an attack +upon the huge chimney occupying the center of the building, he +interfered; for there was nothing he liked better than the bright fire +on the hearth when the evenings grew chilly and long, and the autumn +rain was falling upon the roof. The chimney should stand, he said; and +as no amount of coaxing could prevail on him to revoke his decision, the +chimney stood, and with it the three fireplaces, where, in the fall and +spring, were burned the twisted knots too bulky for the kitchen stove. +This was fourteen years ago, and in that lapse of time Lucy Lennox had +gradually fallen in with the family ways of living, and ceased to talk +of her cottage in Western New York, where her husband had died and where +were born her daughters, one of whom she was expecting home on the warm +July day when our story opens. + +Kate, or Katy Lennox, our heroine, had been for a year an inmate of +Canandaigua Seminary, whither she was sent at the expense of a distant +relative to whom her father had been guardian, and who, during her +infancy, had also had a home with Uncle Ephraim, her mother having +brought her with her when, after her husband's death, she returned to +Silverton. Dr. Morris Grant he was now, and he had just come home from a +three years' sojourn in Paris, and was living in his own handsome +dwelling across the fields toward Silverton village, and half a mile or +more from Uncle Ephraim's farmhouse. He had written from Paris, offering +to send his cousins, Helen and Kate, to any school their mother might +select, and as Canandaigua was her choice, they had both gone thither a +year ago, Helen, the eldest, falling sick within the first three months, +and returning home to Silverton, satisfied that the New England schools +were good enough for her. This was Helen; but Katy was different. Katy +was more susceptible of polish and refinement--so the mother thought; +and as she arranged and rearranged the little parlor, lingering longest +by the piano, Dr. Morris' gift, she drew bright pictures of her favorite +child, wondering how the plain farmhouse and its inmates would seem to +her after Canandaigua and all she must have seen during her weeks of +travel since the close of the summer term. And then she wondered next +why Cousin Morris was so much annoyed when told that Katy had accepted +an invitation to accompany Mrs. Woodhull and her party on a trip to +Montreal and Lake George, taking Boston on her homeward route. Surely +Katy's movements were nothing to him, unless--and the little, ambitious +mother struck at random a few notes of the soft-toned piano as she +thought how possible it was that the interest always manifested by the +staid, quiet Morris Grant for her light-hearted Kate was more than a +brotherly interest, such as he would naturally feel for the daughter of +one who had been to him a second father. But Katy was so much a child +when he went away to Paris that it could not be. She would sooner think +of the dark-haired Helen, who was older and more like him. + +"It's Helen, if anybody," she said aloud, just as a voice at the window +called out: "Please, Cousin Lucy, relieve me of these flowers. I brought +them over in honor of Katy's return." + +Blushing guiltily, Mrs. Lennox advanced to meet a tall, dark-looking +man, with a grave, pleasant face, which, when he smiled, was strangely +attractive, from the sudden lighting up of the hazel eyes and the +glitter of the white, even teeth disclosed so fully to view. + +"Oh, thank you, Morris! Kitty will like them, I am sure," Mrs. Lennox +said, taking from his hand a bouquet of the choice flowers which grew +only in the hothouse at Linwood. "Come in for a moment, please." + +"No, thank you," the doctor replied. "There is a case of rheumatism just +over the hill, and I must not be idle if I would retain the practice +given to me. Not that I make anything but good will as yet, for only the +Silverton poor dare trust their lives in my inexperienced hands. But I +can afford to wait," and with another flash of the hazel eyes Morris +walked away a pace or two, but, as if struck with some sudden thought, +turned back, and fanning his heated face with his leghorn hat, said, +hesitatingly: "By the way, Uncle Ephraim's last payment on the old mill +falls due to-morrow. Tell him, if he says anything in your presence, not +to mind unless it is perfectly convenient. He must be somewhat +straitened just now, as Katy's trip cannot have cost him a small sum." + +The clear, penetrating eyes were looking full at Mrs. Lennox, who for +a moment felt slightly piqued that Morris Grant should take so much +oversight of her uncle's affairs. It was natural, too, that he should, +she knew, for, widely different as were their tastes and positions in +life, there was a strong liking between the old man and the young, who, +from having lived nine years in the family, took a kindly interest in +everything pertaining to them. + +"Uncle Ephraim did not pay the bills," Mrs. Lennox faltered at last, +feeling intuitively how Morris' delicate sense of propriety would shrink +from her next communication. "Mrs. Woodhull wrote that the expense +should be nothing to me, and as she is fully able, and makes so much of +Katy, I did not think it wrong." + +"Lucy Lennox! I am astonished!" was all Morris could say, as the tinge +of wounded pride dyed his cheek. + +Kate was a connection--distant, it is true; but his blood was in her +veins, and his inborn pride shrank from receiving so much from +strangers, while he wondered at her mother, feeling more and more +convinced that what he had so long suspected was literally true. Mrs. +Lennox was weak, Mrs. Lennox was ambitious, and for the sake of +associating her daughter with people whom the world had placed above +her she would stoop to accept that upon which she had no claim. + +"Mrs. Woodhull was so urgent and so fond of Katy; and then, I thought it +well to give her the advantage of being with such people as compose that +party, the very first in Canandaigua, besides some from New York," Mrs. +Lennox began in self-defense, but Morris did not stop to hear more, and +hurried off a second time, while Mrs. Lennox looked after him, wondering +at the feeling which she called pride, and which she could not +understand. "If Katy can go with the Woodhulls and their set, I +certainly shall not prevent it," she thought, as she continued her +arrangement of the parlor, wishing so much that it was more like what +she remembered Mrs. Woodhull's to have been, fifteen years ago. + +Of course that lady had kept up with the times, and if her old house was +finer than anything Mrs. Lennox had ever seen, what must her new one be, +with all the modern improvements? and, leaning her head upon the mantel, +Mrs. Lennox thought how proud she would be could she live to see her +daughter in similar circumstances to the envied Mrs. Woodhull, at that +moment in the crowded car between Boston and Silverton, tired, hot, and +dusty, worn out, and as nearly cross as a fashionable lady can be. + +A call from Uncle Ephraim aroused her, and going out into the square +entry she tied his gingham cravat, and then handing him the big +umbrella, an appendage he took with him in sunshine and in storm, she +watched him as he stepped into his one-horse wagon and drove briskly +away in the direction of the depot, where he was to meet his niece. + +"I wish Cousin Morris had offered his carriage," she thought, as the +corn-colored and white wagon disappeared from view. "The train stops +five minutes at West Silverton, and some of those grand people will be +likely to see the turnout," and with a sigh as she doubted whether it +were not a disgrace as well as an inconvenience to be poor, she repaired +to the kitchen, where sundry savory smells betokened a plentiful dinner. + +Bending over the sink, with her cap strings tucked back, her sleeves +rolled up, and her short, purple calico shielded from harm by her broad, +motherly check apron, Aunt Betsy stood cleaning the silvery onions, and +occasionally wiping her dim old eyes as the odor proved too strong for +her. At another table stood Aunt Hannah, deep in the mysteries of the +light, white crust which was to cover the tender chicken boiling in the +pot, while in the oven bubbled and baked the custard pie, remembered +as Katy's favorite, and prepared for her coming by Helen +herself--plain-spoken, blue-eyed Helen--now out in the strawberry beds, +picking the few luscious berries which almost by a miracle had been +coaxed to wait for Katy, who loved them so dearly. Like her mother, +Helen had wondered how the change would impress her bright little +sister, for she remembered well that even to her obtuse perceptions +there had come a pang when, after only three months abiding in a place +where the etiquette of life was rigidly enforced, she had returned to +their homely ways, and felt that it was worse than vain to try to effect +a change. But Helen's strong sense, with the help of two or three good +cries, had carried her safely through, and her humble home amid the +hills was very dear to her now. But she was Helen, as the mother had +said; she was different from Katy, who might be lonely and homesick, +sobbing herself to sleep in her patient sister's arms, as she did on +that first night in Canandaigua, which Helen remembered so well. + +"It's better, too, now, than when I came home," Helen thought, as with +her rich, scarlet fruit she went slowly to the house. "Morris is here, +and the new church, and if she likes she can teach in Sunday school, +though maybe she will prefer going with Uncle Ephraim. He will be +pleased if she does," and, pausing by the door, Helen looked across +Fairy Pond in the direction of Silverton village, where the top of a +slender spire was just visible--the spire of St. John's, built within +the year, and mostly, as it was whispered, at the expense of Dr. Morris +Grant, who, a zealous churchman himself, had labored successfully to +instill into Helen's mind some of his own peculiar views, as well as to +awaken in Mrs. Lennox's heart the professions which had lain dormant for +as long a time as the little black-bound book had lain on the cupboard +shelf, forgotten and unread. + +How the doctor's views were regarded by the deacon's family we shall +see, perhaps, by and by. At present our story has to do with Helen, +holding her bowl of berries by the rear door and looking across the +distant fields. With one last glance at the object of her thoughts she +re-entered the house, where her mother was arranging the square table +for dinner, bringing out the white stone china instead of the mulberry +set kept for everyday use. + +"We ought to have had some silver forks before Katy came home," she +said, despondingly, as she laid by each plate the three-lined forks of +steel, to pay for which Helen and Katy had picked huckleberries on the +hills and dried apples from the orchard. + +"Never mind, mother," Helen answered, cheerily; "if Katy is as she used +to be, she will care more for us than for silver forks, and I guess she +is, for I imagine it would take a great deal to make her anything but a +warmhearted, merry little creature." + +This was sensible Helen's tribute of affection to the little, gay, +chattering butterfly, at that moment an occupant of Uncle Ephraim's +corn-colored wagon, and riding with that worthy toward home, throwing +kisses to every barefoot boy and girl she met, and screaming with +delight as the old familiar waymarks met her view. + +"There are the oxen, the darling oxen, and that's Aunt Betsy, with her +dress pinned up as usual," she cried, when at last the wagon stopped +before the door; and the four women stepped hurriedly out to meet her, +almost smothering her with caresses, and then holding her off to see if +she had changed. + +She was very stylish in her pretty traveling dress of gray, made under +Mrs. Woodhull's supervision, and nothing could be more becoming than her +jaunty hat, tied with ribbons of blue, while the dainty kids, bought to +match the dress, fitted her fat hands charmingly, and the little +high-heeled boots of soft prunella were faultless in their style. She +was very attractive in her personal appearance, and the mental verdict +of the four females regarding her intently was something as follows: +Mrs. Lennox detected unmistakable marks of the grand society she had +been mingling in, and was pleased accordingly; Aunt Hannah pronounced +her "the prettiest creeter she had ever seen;" Aunt Betsy decided that +her hoops were too big and her clothes too fine for a Barlow; while +Helen, who looked beyond dress, or style, or manner, straight into her +sister's soft, blue eyes, brimming with love and tears, decided that +Katy was not changed for the worse. Nor was she. Truthful, loving, +simple-hearted and full of playful life she had gone from home, and she +came back the same--never once thinking of the difference between the +farmhouse and Mrs. Woodhull's palace, or if she did, giving the +preference to the former. + +"It was perfectly splendid to get home," she said, handing her gloves +to Helen, her sunshade to her mother, her satchel to Aunt Hannah, and +tossing her bonnet in the vicinity of the water pail--from which it was +saved by Aunt Betsy, who, remembering the ways of her favorite child, +put it carefully in the press, examining it closely first and wondering +how much it cost. + +Deciding that "it was a good thumpin' price," she returned to the +kitchen, where Katy, dancing and curveting in circles, scarcely stood +still long enough for them to see that in spite of boarding school fare, +of which she had complained so bitterly, her cheeks were rounded, her +eyes brighter, and her lithe little figure fuller than of old. She had +improved in looks, but she did not appear to know it, or to guess how +beautiful she was in the fresh bloom of seventeen, with her golden hair +waving around her childish forehead, and her deep, blue eyes laughing so +expressively with each change of her constantly varying face. Everything +animate and inanimate pertaining to the old house was noticed by her. +She kissed the kitten, squeezed the cat, hugged the dog, and hugged the +little goat, tied to his post in the clover yard and trying so hard to +get free. The horse, to whom she fed handfuls of grass, had been already +hugged. She did that the first thing after strangling Uncle Ephraim as +she alighted from the train, and some from the car window saw it, too, +smiling at what they termed the charming simplicity of an enthusiastic +schoolgirl. Blessed youth! blessed early girlhood, surrounded by a halo +of rare beauty! It was Katy's shield and buckler, warding off many a +cold criticism which might otherwise have been passed upon her. + +They were sitting down to dinner now, and the deacon's voice trembled +as, with the blessing invoked, he thanked God for bringing back to them +the little girl, whose head was for a moment bent reverently, but +quickly lifted itself up as its owner, in the same breath with that in +which the deacon uttered his amen, declared how hungry she was, and went +into rhapsodies over the nicely cooked viands which loaded the table. +The best bits were hers that day, and she refused nothing until it came +to Aunt Betsy's onions, once her special delight, but now declined, +greatly to the distress of the old lady, who, having been on the watch +for "quirks," as she styled any departure from long-established customs, +now knew she had found one, and with an injured expression withdrew the +offered bowl, saying sadly: "You used to eat 'em raw, Catherine; what's +got into you?" + +It was the first time Aunt Betsy had called a name so obnoxious to Kate, +especially when, as in the present case, great emphasis was laid upon +the "rine," and from past experience Katy knew that her good aunt was +displeased. Her first impulse was to accept the dish refused; but when +she remembered her reason for refusing, she said, laughingly: "Excuse +me, Aunt Betsy, I love them still, but--but--well, the fact is, I am +going by and by to run over and see Cousin Morris, inasmuch as he was +not polite enough to come here, and you know it might not be so +pleasant." + +"The land!" and Aunt Betsy brightened. "If that's all, eat 'em. 'Tain't +noways likely you'll get near enough to him to make any difference--only +turn your head when you shake hands." + +But Katy remained incorrigible, while Helen, who guessed that her +impulsive sister was contemplating a warmer greeting of the doctor than +a mere shaking of his hands, kindly turned the conversation by telling +how Morris was improved by his tour abroad, and how much the poor people +thought of him. + +"He is very fine looking, too," she said, whereupon Katy involuntarily +exclaimed: "I wonder if he is as handsome as Wilford Cameron? Oh, I +never wrote about him, did I?" and the little maiden began to blush as +she stirred her tea industriously. + +"Who is Wilford Cameron?" asked Mrs. Lennox. + +"Oh, he's Wilford Cameron, that's all; lives on Fifth Avenue--is a +lawyer--is very rich--a friend of Mrs. Woodhull, and was with us in +our travels," Katy answered, rapidly, the red burning on her cheeks so +brightly that Aunt Betsy innocently passed her a big feather fan, saying +she looked mighty hot. + +And Katy was warm, but whether from talking of Wilford Cameron or not +none could tell. She said no more of him, but went on to speak of +Morris, asking if it were true, as she had heard, that he built the +new church in Silverton. + +"Yes, and runs it, too," Aunt Betsy answered, energetically, proceeding +to tell what goin's-on they had, with the minister shiftin' his clothes +every now and ag'in, and the folks all talkin' together. "Morris got me +in once," she said, "and I thought meetin' was left out half a dozen +times, so much histin' round as there was. I'd as soon go to a show, if +it was a good one, and I told Morris so. He laughed and said I'd feel +different when I knew 'em better; but needn't tell me that prayers made +up is as good as them as isn't, though Morris, I do believe, will get to +heaven a long ways ahead of me, if he is a 'Piscopal." + +To this there was no response, and being launched on her favorite topic, +Aunt Betsy continued: + +"If you'll believe it, Helen here is one of 'em, and has got a sight +of 'Piscopal quirks into her head. Why, she and Morris sing that +talkin'-like singin' Sundays when the folks git up and Helen plays the +accordeon." + +"Melodeon, aunty, melodeon," and Helen laughed merrily at her aunt's +mistake, turning the conversation again, and this time to Canandaigua, +where she had some acquaintances. + +But Katy was so much afraid of Canandaigua, and what talking of it might +lead to, that she kept to Cousin Morris, asking innumerable questions +about him, his house and grounds, and whether there were as many +flowers there now as there used to be in the days when she and Helen +went to say their lessons at Linwood, as they had done before Morris +sailed for Europe. + +"I think it right mean in him not to be here to see me," she said, +poutingly, "and I am going over as quick as I eat my dinner." + +But against this all exclaimed at once. She was too tired, the mother +said. She must lie down and rest, while Helen suggested that she had not +yet told them about her trip, and Uncle Ephraim remarked that she would +not find Morris home, as he was going that afternoon to Spencer. This +last settled it. Katy must stay at home; but instead of lying down or +talking much about her journey, she explored every nook and crevice of +the old house and barn, finding the nest Aunt Betsy had so long looked +for in vain, and proving to the anxious dame that she was right when she +insisted that the speckled hen had stolen her nest and was in the act of +setting. Later in the day, and a neighbor passing by spied the little +maiden riding in the cart off into the meadow, where she sported like a +child among the mounds of fragrant hay, playing her jokes upon the sober +deacon, who smiled fondly upon her, feeling how much lighter the labor +seemed because she was there with him, a hindrance instead of a help, in +spite of her efforts to handle the rake skillfully. + +"Are you glad to have me home again, Uncle Eph?" she asked, when once +she caught him regarding her with a peculiar look. + +"Yes, Katy-did, very glad," he answered. "I've missed you every day, +though you do nothing much but bother me." + +"Why did you look funny at me just now?" Katy continued, and the deacon +replied: "I was thinking how hard it would be for such a highty-tighty +thing as you to meet the crosses and disappointments which lie all along +the road which you must travel. I should hate to see your young life +crushed out of you, as young lives sometimes are." + +"Oh, never fear for me. I am going to be happy all my life long. Wilford +Cameron said I ought to be," and Katy tossed into the air a wisp of the +new-made hay. + +"I don't know who Wilford Cameron is, but there's no ought about it," +the deacon rejoined. "God marks out the path for us to walk in, and when +he says it's best, we know it is, though some are straight and pleasant +and others crooked and hard." + +"I'll choose the straight and pleasant, then--why shouldn't I?" Kate +asked, laughingly, as she seated herself upon a rock near which the hay +cart had stopped. + +"Can't tell what path you'll take," the deacon answered. "God knows +whether you'll go easy through the world, or whether he'll send you +suffering to purify and make you better." + +"Purified by suffering," Kate said aloud, while a shadow involuntarily +crept for an instant over her gay spirits. + +She could not believe she was to be purified by suffering. She had never +done anything very bad, and humming a part of a song learned from +Wilford Cameron, she followed after the loaded cart, returning slowly to +the house, thinking to herself that there must be something great and +good in the suffering which should purify at last, but hoping she was +not the one to whom this great good should come. + +It was supper time ere long, and after that was over Kate announced her +intention of going now to Linwood, Morris' home, whether he were there +or not. + +"I can see the housekeeper and the birds and flowers, and maybe he will +come pretty soon," she said, as she swung her straw hat by the string +and started from the door. + +"Ain't Helen going with you?" Aunt Hannah asked, while Helen herself +looked a little surprised. + +But Katy would rather go alone. She had a heap to tell Cousin Morris, +and Helen could go next time. + +"Just as you like;" Helen answered, good-naturedly; but there was a +half-dissatisfied, wistful look on her face as she watched her young +sister tripping across the fields to call on Morris Grant. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LINWOOD. + + +Morris had returned from Spencer, and in his dressing-gown and slippers +was sitting by the window of his cheerful library, looking out upon the +purple sunshine flooding the western sky, and thinking of the little +girl coming so rapidly up the grassy lane in the rear of the house. He +was going over to see her by and by, he said, and he pictured to himself +how she must look by this time, hoping that he should not find her +greatly changed, for Morris Grant's memories were very precious of the +playful child who, in that very room where he was sitting, used to tease +and worry him so much with her lessons poorly learned, and the +never-ending jokes played off upon her teacher. He had thought of her so +often when across the sea, and, knowing her love of the beautiful, he +had never looked upon a painting or scene of rare beauty that he did not +wish her by his side sharing in the pleasure. He had brought her from +that far-off land many little trophies which he thought she would prize, +and which he was going to take with him when he went to the farmhouse. +He never dreamed of her coming there to-night. She would, of course, +wait for him. Helen had, even when it was more her place to call upon +him first. How, then, was he amazed when, just as the sun was going down +and he was watching its last rays lingering on the brow of the hill +across the pond, the library door was opened wide and the room seemed +suddenly filled with life and joy, as a graceful figure, with reddish, +golden hair, bounded across the floor, and winding its arms around his +neck gave him the hearty kiss which Katy had in her mind when she +declined Aunt Betsy's favorite vegetable. + +Morris Grant was not averse to being kissed, and yet the fact that Katy +Lennox had kissed him in such a way awoke a chill of disappointment, for +it said that to her he was the teacher still, the elder brother, whom, +as a child, she had in her pretty way loaded with caresses. + +"Oh, Cousin Morris!" she exclaimed, and, still holding his hand: "Why +didn't you come over at noon, you naughty, naughty boy? But what a +splendid-looking man you've got to be, though! and what do you think of +me?" she added, blushing for the first time, as he held her off from him +and looked into the sunny face. + +"I think you wholly unchanged," he answered, so gravely that Katy began +to pout as she said: "And you are sorry, I know. Pray, what did you +expect of me, and what would you have me be?" + +"Nothing but what you are--the same Kitty as of old," he answered, his +own bright smile breaking all over his sober face. + +He saw that his manner repelled her, and he tried to be natural, +succeeding so well that Katy forgot her first disappointment, and making +him sit by her on the sofa, where she could see him distinctly, she +poured forth a volley of talk, telling him, among other things, how much +afraid of him some of his letters made her--they were so serious and so +like a sermon. + +"You wrote me once that you thought of being a minister," she added. +"Why did you change your mind? It must be splendid, I think, to be a +young clergyman--invited to so many tea-drinkings, and having all the +girls in the parish after you, as they always are after unmarried +ministers." + +Into Morris Grant's eyes there stole a troubled light as he thought how +little Katy realized what it was to be a minister of God--to point the +people heavenward and teach them the right way. There was a moment's +pause, and then he tried to explain to her that he hoped he had not been +influenced either by thought of tea-drinking or having the parish girls +after him, but rather by an honest desire to choose the sphere in which +he could accomplish the most good. + +"I did not decide rashly," he said, "but after weeks of anxious thought +and prayer for guidance I came to the conclusion that in the practice of +medicine I could find perhaps as broad a field for good as in the +church, and so I decided to go on with my profession--to be a physician +of the poor and suffering, speaking to them of Him who came to save, and +in this way I shall not labor in vain. Many would seek another place +than Silverton and its vicinity, but something told me that my work was +here, and so I am content to stay, feeling thankful that my means admit +of my waiting for patients, if need be, and at the same time ministering +to the wants of those who are needy." + +Gradually, as he talked, there came into his face a light, born only +from the peace which passeth understanding, and the awe-struck Katy +crept closer to his side, and, grasping his hand in hers, said, softly: +"Dear cousin, what a good man you are, and how silly I must seem to you, +thinking you cared for tea-drinkings, or even girls, when, of course, +you do not." + +"Perhaps I do," the doctor replied, slightly pressing the warm, fat hand +holding his so fast. "A minister's or a doctor's life would be dreary +indeed if there was no one to share it, and I have had my dreams of the +girls, or girl, who was some day to brighten up my home." + +He looked fully at Katy now, but she was thinking of something else, and +her next remark was to ask him, rather abruptly, how old he was. + +"Twenty-six last May," he answered, while Katy continued: "You are not +old enough to be married yet. Wilford Cameron is thirty." + +"Where did you meet Wilford Cameron?" Morris asked, in some surprise, +and then the story which Katy had not told, even to her sister, came out +in full, and Morris tried to listen patiently while Katy explained how, +on the very first day of the examination, Mrs. Woodhull had come in, and +with her the grandest, proudest-looking man, who the girls some of them +said was Mr. Wilford Cameron, from New York, a very fastidious bachelor, +whose family were noted for their wealth and exclusiveness, keeping six +servants, and living in the finest style; that Mrs. Woodhull, who all +through the year had been very kind to Katy, came to her after school +and invited her home to tea; that she had gone, and met Mr. Cameron; +that she was very much afraid of him at first, and was not sure that she +was quite over it now, although he was so polite to her all through the +journey, taking so much pains to have her see the finest sights, and +laughing at her enthusiasm. + +"Wilford Cameron with you on your trip?" Morris asked, a new idea, +dawning on his mind. + +"Yes; let me tell you," and Katy spoke rapidly. "I saw him that night, +and then Mrs. Woodhull took me to ride with him in the carriage, and +then--well, I rode alone with him once down by the lake, and he talked +to me just as if he was not a grand man and I a little schoolgirl. And +when the term closed I stayed at Mrs. Woodhull's, and he was there. He +liked my playing and liked my singing, and I guess he liked me--that is, +you know--yes, he liked me some," and Katy twisted the fringe of her +shawl, while Morris, in spite of the pain tugging at his heart-strings, +laughed aloud as he rejoined: "I have no doubt he did; but go on--what +next?" + +"He said more about my joining that party than anybody, and I am very +sure he paid the bills." + +"Oh, Katy," and Morris started as if he had been stung. "I would rather +have given Linwood than have you thus indebted to Wilford Cameron or any +other man." + +"I could not well help it. I did not mean any harm," Katy said, timidly, +for at first she had shrunk from the proposition, but Mrs. Woodhull +seemed to think it right, urging it on until she had consented, and so +she said to Morris, explaining how kind Mr. Cameron was, and how careful +not to remind her of her indebtedness to him, attending to and +anticipating every want as if she had been his sister. + +"You would like Mr. Cameron, Cousin Morris. He made me think of you a +little, only he is prouder," and Katy's hand moved up Morris' coat +sleeve till it rested on his shoulder. + +"Perhaps so," Morris answered, feeling a growing resentment toward one +who, it seemed to him, had done him some great wrong. + +But Wilford was not to blame, he reflected. He could not well help +liking the bright little Katy--some; and so, conquering all ungenerous +feelings, he turned to her at last and said: + +"Did my little Cousin Kitty like Wilford Cameron?" + +Something in Morris' voice startled Katy strangely; her hand came down +from his shoulder, and for an instant there swept over her an emotion +similar to what she had felt when with Wilford Cameron she rambled +along the shores of Lake George, or sat alone with him on the deck of +the steamer which carried them down Lake Champlain. But Morris had +always been her brother, and she did not guess how hard it was for him +to keep from telling her then that she was more to him than a sister. +Had he told her, this story, perhaps, had not been written; but he kept +silence, and so it is ours to record how Katy answered frankly at last: +"I guess I did like him a little. I could not help it, Morris. You could +not, either, or any one. I believe Mrs. Woodhull was more than half in +love with him, and she is an old woman compared with me. By the way, +what did she mean by introducing me to him as the daughter of Judge +Lennox? I meant to have asked her, but forgot it afterward. Was father +ever a judge?" + +"Not properly," Morris replied. "He was justice of the peace in +Bloomfield, where you were born, and for one year held the office of +side or associate judge, that's all. Few ever gave him that title, and +I wonder at Mrs. Woodhull. Possibly she fancied Mr. Cameron would think +better of you if he supposed you the daughter of a judge." + +"That may be, though I do not believe he would, do you?" + +Morris did not say what he thought, but quietly remarked, instead: "I +know those Camerons." + +"What! Wilford! You don't know Wilford?" Katy almost screamed, and +Morris replied: "Not Wilford, no; but the mother and the sisters were +last year in Paris, and I met them many times." + +"What were they doing in Paris?" Katy asked, and Morris replied that he +believed the immediate object of their being there was to obtain the +best medical advice for a little orphan grandchild, a bright, beautiful +boy, to whom some terrible accident had happened in infancy, preventing +his walking entirely, and making him nearly helpless. His name was +Jamie, Morris said, and as he saw that Katy was interested, he told her +how sweet-tempered the little fellow was, how patient under suffering, +and how eagerly he listened when Morris, who at one time attended him, +told him of the Savior and His love for little children. + +"Did he get well?" Katy asked, her eyes filling with tears at the +picture Morris drew of Jamie Cameron, sitting all day long in his wheel +chair, and trying to comfort his grandmother's distress when the +torturing instruments for straightening his poor back were applied. + +"No, he will always be a cripple, till God takes him to Himself," Morris +said, and then Katy asked about the mother and sisters--were they proud, +and did he like them much? + +"They were very proud," Morris said; "but they were always civil to me," +and Katy, had she been watching, might have seen a slight flush on his +cheek as he told her of the stately woman, Wilford's mother, of the +haughty Juno, a beauty and a belle, and lastly of Arabella, whom the +family nicknamed Bluebell, from her excessive fondness for books, a +fondness which made her affect a contempt for the fashionable life her +mother and sister led. + +It was very evident that neither of the young ladies were wholly to +Morris' taste, but of the two he preferred the Bluebell, for though very +imperious and self-willed, she really had some heart, some principle, +while Juno had none. This was Morris' opinion, and it disturbed the +little Katy, as was very perceptible from the nervous tapping of her +foot upon the carpet and the working of her hands. + +"How would I appear by the side of those ladies?" she suddenly asked, +her countenance changing as Morris replied that it was almost impossible +to think of her as associated with the Camerons, she was so wholly +unlike them in every respect. + +"I don't believe I shocked Wilford so very much," Katy rejoined, +reproachfully, while again a heavy pain shot through Morris' heart, for +he saw more and more how Wilford Cameron was mingled with every thought +of the young girl, who continued: "And if he was satisfied, I guess his +mother and sisters will be. Anyway, I don't want you to make me feel how +different I am from them." + +There were tears now on Katy's face, and casting aside all selfishness, +Morris wound his arm around her, and smoothed her golden hair, just as +he used to do when she was a child and came to him to be soothed. He +said, very gently: + +"My poor Kitty, you do like Wilford Cameron; tell me honestly--is it +not so?" + +"Yes, I guess I do," and Katy's voice was a half sob. "I could not help +it, either, he was so kind, so--I don't know what, only I could not help +doing what he bade me. Why, if he had said: 'Jump overboard, Katy +Lennox,' I should have done it, I know--that is, if his eyes had been +upon me, they controlled me so absolutely. Can you imagine what I mean?" + +"Yes, I understand. There was the same look in Bell Cameron's eye, a +kind of mesmeric influence which commanded obedience. They idolize this +Wilford, and I dare say he is worthy of their idolatry. One thing, at +least, is in his favor--the crippled Jamie, for whose opinion I would +give more than all the rest, seemed to worship his Uncle Will, talking +of him continually, and telling how kind he was, sometimes staying up +all night to carry him in his arms when the pain in his back was more +than usually severe. So there must be a good, kind heart in Wilford +Cameron, and if my Cousin Kitty likes him, as she says she does, and he +likes her as I believe he must, why, I hope--" + +Morris Grant could not finish the sentence; for he did not hope that +Wilford Cameron would win the gem he had so long coveted as his own. + +He might give Kitty up because she loved another best. He was generous +enough to do that, but if he did it, she must never know how much it +cost him, and lest he should betray himself he could not to-night talk +with her longer of Wilford Cameron, whom he believed to be his rival. It +was time now for Katy to go home, but she did not seem to remember it +until Morris suggested to her that her mother might be uneasy if she +stayed away much longer, and so they went together across the fields, +the shadow all gone from Katy's heart, but lying so dark and heavy +around Morris Grant, who was glad when he could leave Katy at the +farmhouse door and go back alone to the quiet library, where only God +could witness the mighty struggle it was for him to say: "Thy will be +done." And while he prayed, not that Katy should be his, but that he +might have strength to bear it if she were destined for another, Katy, +up in her humble bedroom, with her head nestled close to Helen's neck, +was telling her of Wilford Cameron, who, when they went down the rapids +and she had cried with fear, had put his arm around her, trying to quiet +her, and who once again, on the mountain overlooking Lake George, had +held her hand a moment, while he pointed out a splendid view seen +through the opening trees. And Helen, listening, knew just as Morris +Grant had done that Katy's heart was lost, and that for Wilford Cameron +to deceive her now would be a cruel thing. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WILFORD CAMERON. + + +The day succeeding Katy Lennox's return to Silverton was rainy and cold +for the season, the storm extending as far westward as the city of New +York, and making Wilford Cameron shiver as he stepped from the Hudson +River cars into the carriage waiting for him, first greeting pleasantly +the white-gloved driver, who, carefully closing the carriage door, +mounted to his seat and drove his handsome bays in the direction of +No. ---- Fifth Avenue. And Wilford, leaning back among the yielding +cushions, thought how pleasant it was to be going home again, feeling +glad, as he frequently did, that the home to which he was going was in +every particular unexceptionable. The Camerons he knew were an old and +highly respectable family, while it was his mother's pride that, go back +as far as one might on either side, there could not be found a single +blemish or a member of whom to be ashamed. On the Cameron side there were +millionaires, merchant princes, bankers and stockholders, professors and +scholars, while on hers, the Rossiter side, there were LL.D.'s and +D.D.'s, lawyers and clergymen, authors and artists, beauties and belles, +the whole forming an illustrious line of ancestry, admirably represented +and sustained by the present family of Camerons, occupying the +brownstone front, corner of ---- Street and Fifth Avenue, where the +handsome carriage stopped and a tall figure ran quickly up the marble +steps. There was a soft rustle of silk, an odor of delicate perfume, +and from the luxurious chair before the fire kindled in the grate an +elderly lady arose and advanced a step or two toward the parlor door. In +another moment she was kissing the young man bending over her and +saluting her as mother, kissing him quietly, properly, as the Camerons +always kissed. She was very glad to have Wilford home again, for he was +her favorite child, and brushing the raindrops from his coat she led him +to the fire, offering him her own easy-chair and starting herself in +quest of another. But Wilford held her back, and making her sit down, he +drew an ottoman beside her and then asked her first how she had been and +then how Jamie was, then where his sisters were, and if his father had +come home--for there was a father, the elder Cameron, a quiet, +unassuming man, who stayed all day in Wall Street, seldom coming home in +time to carve at his own dinner table, and when he was at home, asking +for nothing except to be left by his fashionable wife and daughters to +himself, free to smoke and doze over his evening paper in the seclusion +of his own reading-room. + +As Wilford's question concerning his sire had been the last one asked, +so it was the last one answered, his mother parting his dark hair with +her jeweled hand, and telling him first that with the exception of a +cold taken at the park on Saturday afternoon when she drove out to try +the new carriage, she was in usual health; second, that Jamie was very +well, but impatient for his uncle's return; third, that Juno was +spending a few days in Orange, and that Bell had gone to pass the night +with her particular friend, Mrs. Meredith, the bluest, most bookish +woman in New York. + +"Your father," the lady added, "has not yet returned, but as the dinner +is ready I think we will not wait." + +She touched a silver bell beside her, and ordering dinner to be sent up +at once, went on to ask her son concerning his journey, and the people +he had met. But Wilford, though intending to tell her all, for he kept +nothing from his mother, would wait till after dinner. So, offering her +his arm, he led her out to where the table was spread, widely different +from the table prepared for Katy Lennox away among the Silverton hills, +for where at the farmhouse there had been only the homely wares common +to the country, with Aunt Betsy's onions served in a bowl, there was +here the finest of damask, the choicest of china, the costliest of +cut-glass, and the heaviest of silver, with the well-trained waiter +gliding in and out, himself the very personification of strict table +etiquette, such as the Barlows had never dreamed about. There was no +fricasseed chicken here, or flaky crust, with pickled beans and apple +sauce; no custard pie with strawberries and rich, sweet cream, poured +from a blue earthen pitcher, but there were soups, and fish, and roasted +meats, and dishes with French names and taste, and desert elaborately +gotten up and served with the utmost precision, and wines, with fruit +and colored cloth, and handsome finger bowl; and Mrs. Cameron presiding +over all, with the ladylike decorum so much a part of herself, her soft, +glossy silk of brown, with her rich lace and diamond pin seeming in +keeping with herself and her surroundings. And opposite to her Wilford +sat, a tall, dark, handsome man of thirty or thereabouts--a man whose +polished manners betokened at once a perfect knowledge of the world, and +whose face to a close observer indicated how little satisfaction he had +as yet found in that world. He had tried its pleasures, drinking the cup +of freedom and happiness to its very dregs, and though he thought he +liked it, he often found himself dissatisfied and reaching after +something which should make life more real, more worth the living for. +He had traveled all over Europe twice, had visited every spot worth +visiting in his own country, had been a frequenter of every fashionable +resort in New York, from the skating pond to the theatres, had been +admitted as a lawyer, had opened an office on Broadway, acquiring some +reputation in his profession, had looked at more than twenty girls with +the view of making them his wife, and found them as he believed, alike +fickle, selfish, artificial and hollow-hearted. In short, while thinking +far more of family, and accomplishments, and style, than he ought, he +was yet heartily tired of the butterflies who flitted so constantly +around him, offering to be caught if he would but stretch out his hand +to catch them. This he would not do, and disgusted with the world as he +saw it in New York, he had gone to the Far West, roaming a while amid +the solitude of the broad prairies, and finding there much that was +soothing to him, but not discovering the fulfillment of the great want +he was craving, until, coming back to Canandaigua, he met with Katy +Lennox. He had smiled wearily when asked by Mrs. Woodhull to go with her +to the examination then in progress at the seminary. There was nothing +there to interest him, he thought, as Euclid and algebra, French and +rhetoric were bygone things, while young school misses in braided hair +and pantalets were shockingly insipid. Still, to be polite to Mrs. +Woodhull, a childless, fashionable woman, who patronized Canandaigua +generally, and Katy Lennox in particular, he consented to go, and soon +found himself in the crowded room, the cynosure of many eyes as the +whisper ran around that the fine-looking man with Mrs. Woodhull was the +Wilford Cameron from New York, and brother to the proud, dashing Juno +Cameron, who once spent a few weeks in town, Wilford knew they were +talking about him, but he did not care, and assuming as easy an attitude +as possible, he leaned hack in his chair, yawning indolently, and +wishing the time away, until the class in algebra was called and Katy +Lennox came tripping on to the stage, a pale blue ribbon in her golden +hair and her simple dress of white relieved by no ornament except the +cluster of wild flowers fastened in her belt and at her graceful throat. +But Katy needed no ornaments to make her more beautiful than she was at +the moment when, with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes, modestly cast +down for a moment as she took her place, and then as modestly uplifted +to her teacher's face, she first burst upon Wilford's vision, a creature +of rare, bewitching beauty, such as he had never dreamed about. + +Wilford had met his destiny, and he felt it in every throb of blood +which went rushing through his veins. + +"Who is she?" he asked of Mrs. Woodhull, and that lady knew at once whom +he meant, even though he had not designated her. + +An old acquaintance of Mrs. Lennox when she lived in East Bloomfield, +Mrs. Woodhull had petted Katy from the first day of her arrival in +Canandaigua with a letter of introduction to herself from the ambitious +mother, and being rather inclined to match-making, she had had Katy in +her mind when she urged Wilford to accompany her to the seminary. +Accordingly, she answered him at once: "That is Katy Lennox, daughter of +Judge Lennox, who died in East Bloomfield a few years ago." + +Lennox was a good name, while the title of judge increased its value. +Wilford would not have acknowledged that, perhaps, but it was +nevertheless the truth, and Mrs. Woodhull, who understood exactly the +claim which Mr. Lennox had to the title, knew it was true, and that was +why she spoke as she did. It was time Wilford Cameron was settled in +life, and with the exception of wealth and family position, he could not +find a better wife than Katy Lennox, and she would do what she could to +bring the marriage about. + +"Pretty, is she not?" was her question put to Wilford after answering +his inquiry, but Wilford did not hear, having neither eye nor ear for +anything save Kitty, acquitting herself with a good deal of credit as +she worked out a rather difficult problem, her dimpled white hand +showing to good advantage against the deep black of the board; and then +her voice, soft-toned and silvery as a lady's voice should be, thrilled +Wilford's ear, awaking a strange feeling of disquiet, as if the world +would never again be quite the same to him that it was before he met +that fair young girl now passing from the room. + +Mrs. Woodhull saw that he was interested, and mentally congratulating +herself upon the successful working of her plan, first gained the +preceptress' consent, and then asked Katy home with her to tea that +night. And this was how Wilford Cameron came to know little Katy Lennox, +the simple-hearted child, who blushed so prettily when first presented +to him, and blushed again when he praised her recitations, but who after +that forgot the difference in their social relations, laughing and +chatting as merrily in his presence as if she had been alone with Mrs. +Woodhull. This was the great charm to Wilford, Katy was so wholly +unconscious of himself or what he might think of her, that he could not +sit in judgment upon her, and he watched her eagerly as she sported, and +flashed, and sparkled, filling the room with sunshine, and putting to +rout the entire regiment of blues which had been for months harassing +the city-bred young man. + +If there was any one thing in which Katy excelled, it was music, both +vocal and instrumental, a taste for which had been developed very early, +and fostered by Morris Grant, who had seen that his cousin had every +advantage which Silverton could afford. Great pains, too, had been given +to her style of playing while at Canandaigua, so that as a performer +upon the piano she had few rivals in the seminary, while her bird-like +voice filled every nook and corner of the room, where, on the night +after her visit to Mrs. Woodhull, a select exhibition was held, Katy +shining as the one bright star, and winning golden laurels for beauty, +grace and perfect self-possession from others than Wilford Cameron, who +was one of the invited auditors. + +"Juno herself could not equal that," he thought, as Katy's fingers flew +over the keys, executing a brilliant and difficult piece without a +single mistake, and receiving the applause of the spectators easily, +naturally, as if it were an everyday occurrence. But when by request she +sang "Comin' through the Rye," Wilford's heart, if he had any before, +was wholly gone, and he dreamed of Katy Lennox that night, wondering +all the ensuing day how his haughty mother would receive that young +schoolgirl as her daughter, wife of the son whose bride she fancied must +be equal to the first lady in the land. And if Katy were not now equal +she could be made so, Wilford thought, wondering if Canandaigua were the +best place for her, and if she would consent to receive a year or two +years' tuition from him, provided her family were poor. He did not know +as they were, but he would ask, and he did, feeling a pang of regret +when he heard to some extent how Katy was circumstanced. Mrs. Woodhull +had never been to Silverton, and so she did not know of Uncle Ephraim, +with his old-fashioned spouse and his older-fashioned sister, but she +knew that they were poor--that some relation sent Katy to school; and +she frankly told Wilford so, adding, as she detected the shadow on his +face, that one could not expect everything, and that a girl like Katy +was not found every day. Wilford admitted all this, growing more and +more infatuated, until at last he consented to join the traveling +party, provided Katy joined it too, and when on the morning of their +departure for the Falls he seated himself beside her in the car, he +could not well have been happier, unless she had really been his wife, +as he so much wished she was. + +It was a most delightful trip, and Wilford was better satisfied with +himself than he had been before in years. His past life was not all free +from error, and there were many sad memories haunting him, but with Katy +at his side, seeing what he saw, admiring what he admired, and doing +what he bade her do, he gave the bygones to the wind, feeling only an +intense desire to clasp the young girl in his arms and bear her away to +some spot where with her pure fresh life all his own he could begin the +world anew, and retrieve the past which he had lost. This was when he +was with Katy. Away from her he could remember the difference in their +position, and prudential motives began to make themselves heard. Never +but once had he taken an important step without consulting his mother, +and then, alas! the trouble it brought him was not ended yet, and never +would be ended until death had set its seal upon the brow of one almost +as dear as Katy, though in a far different way. And this was why Katy +came back to Silverton unengaged, leaving her heart with Wilford +Cameron, who would first seek advice from his mother ere committing +himself by word. He had seen the white-haired man with his coarse, linen +coat and coarser pants, waiting eagerly for her when the train stopped +at Silverton, but standing there as he did, with his silvery locks +parted in the center, and shading his honest, open face, Uncle Ephraim +looked like some patriarch of old rather than a man to be despised, and +Wilford felt only a respect for him until he saw Katy's arms wound so +lovingly around his neck as she kissed and called him Uncle Eph. That +sight grated harshly, and Wilford, knowing this was the uncle of whom +Katy had often spoken, felt glad that he was not bound to her by any +pledge. Very curiously he looked after the couple, witnessing the +meeting between Katy and old Whitey, and guessing rightly that the +corn-colored vehicle was the one sent to transport Katy home. He was +very moody for the remainder of the route between Silverton and Albany, +where he parted with his Canandaigua friends, they going on to the +westward, while he stopped all night in Albany, where he had some +business to transact for his father. And this was why he did not reach +New York until late in the afternoon of the following day. + +He was intending to tell his mother everything, except indeed that he +paid Katy's bills. He would rather keep that to himself, as it might +shock his mother's sense of propriety and make her think less of Katy, +impulsive, confiding Katy, little dreaming as on that rainy afternoon +she sat in the kitchen at Silverton, with her feet in the stove-oven and +the cat asleep in her lap, of the conversation taking place between +Wilford Cameron and his mother. They had left the dinner table, and +lighting his cigar, which for that one time the mother permitted in the +parlor, Wilford opened the subject by asking her to guess what took him +off so suddenly with Mrs. Woodhull. + +The mother did not know--unless--and a strange light gleamed in her +eyes, as she asked if it were some girl. + +"Yea, mother, it was," and without any reservation Wilford frankly told +the story of his interest in Katy Lennox. + +He admitted that she was poor and unaccustomed to society, but he loved +her more than words could express. + +"Not as I loved Genevra," he said, as he saw his mother about to speak, +and there came a look of intense pain into his fine eyes as he +continued: "That was the passion of a boy of nineteen, simulated by +secrecy, but this is different--this is the love of a mature man of +thirty, who feels that he is capable of judging for himself." + +In Wilford's voice there was a tone warning the mother that opposition +would only feed the flame, and so she offered none directly, but heard +him patiently to the end, and then quietly questioned him of Katy and +her family, especially the last. What did he know of it? Was it one to +detract from the Cameron line kept untarnished so long? Were the +relatives such as he never need blush to own, even if they came there +into their drawing-room, as they would come if Katy did? + +Wilford thought of Uncle Ephraim as he had seen him upon the platform at +Silverton, and could scarcely repress a smile as he pictured to himself +his mother's consternation at beholding that man in her drawing-room, +but he did not mention the deacon, though he acknowledged that Katy's +family friends were not exactly the Cameron style. But Katy was young; +Katy could be easily molded, and once away from her old associates, his +mother and sisters could make of her what they pleased. + +"I understand, then, that if you marry her you do not marry the family," +and in the handsome, matronly face there was an expression from which +Katy would have shrunk; could she have seen it and understood its +meaning. + +"No, I do not marry the family," Wilford rejoined, emphatically, but the +expression of his face was different from his mother's, for where she +thought only of herself, not hesitating to trample on all Katy's love of +home and friends, Wilford remembered Katy, thinking how he would make +amends for separating her wholly from her home, as he surely meant to do +if he should win her. "Did I tell you," he continued, "that her father +was a judge? She must be well connected on that side, though I never +heard of a Judge Lennox in any of our courts." + +"It must have been when you were in Europe the first time," Mrs. Cameron +suggested, and as if the mention of Europe reminded him of something +else, Wilford rejoined: "Katy would be kind to Jamie, mother. In some +things she is almost as much a child as he, poor fellow," and again +there came into his eyes a look of pain, while his voice was sadder in +its tone, just as it always was when he spoke of little Jamie. "And now, +what shall I do?" he asked, playfully. "Shall I propose to Katy Lennox, +or shall I try to forget her?" + +"I should not do either," was Mrs. Cameron's reply for she well knew +that trying to forget her was the surest way of keeping her in mind, and +she dared not confess to him how wholly she was determined that Katy +Lennox should never be her daughter if she could prevent it. + +If she could not, then as a lady and a woman of policy, she should make +the most of it, receiving Katy kindly and doing her best to educate her +up to the Cameron ideas of style and manner. + +"Let matters take their course for a while," she said, "and see how you +feel after a little. We are going to Newport the first of August, Jamie +and all, and perhaps you may find somebody there infinitely superior to +this Katy Lennox. That's your father's ring. He is earlier than usual +to-night. I would not tell him yet till you are more decided," and the +lady went hastily out into the hall to meet her husband. + +A moment more and the elder Cameron appeared--a short, square-built man, +with a face seamed with lines of care and eyes much like Wilford's, save +that the shaggy eyebrows gave them a different expression. He was very +glad to see his son, though he merely shook his hand, asking what +nonsense took him off around the Lakes with Mrs. Woodhull, and wondering +if women were never happy unless they were chasing after fashion. The +elder Cameron was evidently not of his wife's way of thinking, but she +let him go on until he was through, and then, with the most unruffled +mien, suggested that his dinner would he cold. He was accustomed to +that, and so he did not mind, but he hurried through his lonely meal +to-night, for Wilford was home, and the father was always happier when +he knew his son was in the house. Contrary to his usual custom, he spent +the short summer evening in the parlor, talking with Wilford on various +items of business, and thus preventing any further conversation +concerning Katy Lennox, who just as their evening was commencing, was +bowing the knee reverently between her sister and her uncle, listening +while the good old man invoked the nightly blessing, without which he +never retired to sleep. But in that household on Fifth Avenue there was +no blessing asked of Heaven, no word of thanksgiving for the prosperity +so long vouchsafed, no prayer said except by the crippled Jamie, who, +remembering the Savior of whom Morris Grant had told him when across the +sea, whispered his childish prayer, thanking him most for bringing back +the uncle so dearly loved, the Wilford who, on his way to his own room, +had stopped as he always did to say good-night to Jamie, folding his +arms around him and kissing his sweet face with a fondness in which +there was something half regretful, half sad, as well as pleasing. + +It took but a short time for Wilford to fall back into his old way of +living, passing a few hours of each day in his office, driving with his +mother, reading to little Jamie, sparring with his imperious sister, +Juno, and teasing his blue sister, Bell, but never after that first +night breathing a word to any one of Katy Lennox. And still Katy was not +forgotten, as his mother sometimes believed. On the contrary, the very +silence he kept concerning her increased his passion, until he began +seriously to contemplate a trip to Silverton. The family's removal to +Newport, however, diverted his attention for a little, making him decide +to wait and see what Newport might have in store for him. But Newport +was dull this season, at least to him, though Juno and Bell both found +ample scope for their different powers of attraction, and his mother was +always happy when showing off her children and knowing that they were +appreciated. With Wilford it was different. Listless and taciturn, he +went through with the daily routine, wondering how he had ever found +happiness there, and finally, at the close of the season, casting all +policy and prudence aside, he wrote to Katy Lennox that he was coming +to Silverton on his way home, and that he presumed he should have no +difficulty in finding his way to the farmhouse. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +PREPARING FOR THE VISIT. + + +"Of course he will not, for I shall ask Dr. Morris to go after him in +his carriage," Katy said, as out in the orchard where she was gathering +the early harvest apples she read the letter brought her by Uncle +Ephraim, her face crimsoning all over with happy blushes as she saw +the dear affixed to her name. + +Katy had waited so anxiously for a letter, or some message which should +say that she was not forgotten by Wilford Cameron, but as the weeks went +by and it did not come, a shadow had fallen upon her spirits, and the +family missed something from her ringing laugh and frolicsome ways, +while she herself wondered why the household duties given to her should +be so utterly distasteful. She used to enjoy them so much, but now she +liked nothing except to go with Uncle Ephraim out into the fields where +she could sit alone while he worked nearby, or to ride with Morris as +she sometimes did when he made his round of calls. She was not as good +as she used to be, she thought, and with a view of making herself better +she took to teaching in Morris' and Helen's Sunday-school, greatly to +the distress of Aunt Betsy, who groaned bitterly when both her nieces +adopted the "Episcopal quirks," forsaking entirely the house where +Sunday after Sunday her old-fashioned leghorn with its faded ribbon of +green was seen, bending down in the humble worship which God so much +approves. But teaching in Sunday-school, taken by itself, could not make +Katy better, and the old restlessness remained until the morning when, +sitting on the grass beneath the apple tree, she read that Wilford +Cameron was coming. Then, as by magic, everything was changed, and Katy +never forgot the brightness of that day when the robins sang so merrily +above her head and all nature seemed to sympathize with her joy. +Afterward there came to her dark, wretched hours, when in her young +heart's agony she wished that day had never been, but there was no +shadow around her now, nothing but hopeful sunshine, and with a bounding +step she sought out Helen, to tell her the good news. Helen's first +remark, however, was a chill upon her spirits. + +"Wilford Cameron coming here? What will he think of us, we are so unlike +him?" + +This was the first time Katy had seriously considered the difference +between her surroundings and those of Wilford Cameron, or how it might +affect him. But Aunt Betsy, who had never dreamed of anything like +Wilford's home, and who thought her own quite as good as they would +average, comforted her, telling her how "if he was any kind of a chap he +wouldn't be looking round, and if he did, who cared; she guessed they +was as good as he, and as much thought of by the neighbors." + +Wilford's letter had been delayed so that the morrow was the day +appointed for his coming, and never sure was there a busier afternoon +at the farmhouse than the one which followed the receipt of the letter. +Everything that was not spotlessly clean before was made so now. Aunt +Betsy in her petticoat and short gown going down upon her knees to scrub +the door sill of the back room, as if the city guest were expected to +sit in there. On Aunt Hannah and Mrs. Lennox devolved the duty of +preparing for the wants of the inner man, while Helen and Katy bent +their energies to beautifying their humble home and making the most of +their plain furniture. + +"If Uncle Ephraim had only let me move the chimney, we could have had +a nice spare sleeping-room instead of this little tucked up hole," Mrs. +Lennox said, coming in with her hands covered with flour, and casting a +rueful look at the small room kept for company, and where Wilford was to +sleep. + +It was not very spacious, being only large enough to admit the high post +bed, a single chair, and the old-fashioned washstand with the hole in +the top for the bowl and a drawer beneath for towels, the whole +presenting a most striking contrast to those handsome chambers on Fifth +Avenue, or, indeed, to the one at the Ocean House where Wilford sat +smoking and wishing the time away, while Helen and Katy held a +consultation as to whether it would not be better to dispense with the +parlor altogether and give that room to their visitor. But this was +vetoed by Aunt Betsy, who, having finished the back door sill, had now +come around to the front, and, with her scrubbing brush in one hand and +her saucer of sand in the other, held forth upon the foolishness of the +girls. + +"Of course if they had a beau, they'd want a t'other room, else where +would they do their sparkin'." + +That settled it. The parlor should remain as it was, Katy said, and Aunt +Betsy went on with her scouring, while Helen and Katy consulted together +how to make the huge feather bed seem more like the mattresses such as +Morris had, and such as Mr. Cameron must be accustomed to. Helen's mind +being the most suggestive solved the problem first, and a large +comfortable was brought from the box in the garret and folded carefully +over the bed, which, thus hardened and flattened, "seemed like a +mattress," Katy said, for she tried it, pronouncing it good, and feeling +quite well satisfied with the room when it was finished. And certainly +it was not wholly uninviting with its snowy bed, whose covering almost +swept the floor, its strip of bright carpeting in front, its vase of +flowers upon the stand and its white fringed curtain sweeping back from +the narrow window. + +"I'd like to sleep here myself. It looks real nice," was Katy's comment, +while Helen offered no opinion, but followed her sister into the yard +where they were to sweep the grass and prune the early September +flowers. + +This afforded Aunt Betsy a chance to reconnoiter and criticise, which +last she did unsparingly. + +"What have they done to that bed to make it look so flat? Put on a +bed-quilt, as I'm alive! What children! It would break my back to lie +there, and this Cannon is none the youngest, accordin' to their +tell--nigh on to thirty, if not turned. It will make his bones ache, of +course. I am glad I know better than to treat visitors that way. The +comforter may stay, but I'll be bound I'll make it softer!" and stealing +up the stairs, Aunt Betsy brought down a second feather bed, much +lighter than the one already on, but still large enough to suggest the +thought of smothering. This she had made herself, intending it as a part +of Katy's "setting out," should she ever marry, and as things now seemed +tending that way, it was only right, she thought, that Mr. Cannon, as +she called him, should begin to have the benefit of it. Accordingly, the +handiwork of the girls was destroyed, and two beds, instead of one, were +placed beneath the comfortable, which Aunt Betsy permitted to remain. + +"I'm mighty feared they'll find me out," she said, stroking, and +patting, and coaxing the beds to lie down, taking great pains in the +making, and succeeding so well that when her task was done there was no +perceptible difference between Helen's bed and hers, except that the +latter was a few inches higher than the former, and more nearly +resembled a pincushion in shape. + +Carefully shutting the door, Aunt Betsy hurried away, feeling glad that +her nieces were too much engaged in training a vine over a frame to +afford them time for discovering what she had done. Katy, she knew, was +going to Linwood by and by, after various little things which Mrs. +Lennox thought indispensable to the entertaining of so great a man as +Wilford Cameron, and which the farmhouse did not possess, and as Helen +too would be busy, there was not much danger of detection. + +It was late when the last thing was accomplished, and the sun was quite +low ere Katy was free to start on her errand, carrying the market basket +in which she was to put the articles borrowed of Morris. + +He was sitting out on his piazza enjoying the fine prospect he had of +the sun shining across the pond, on the Silverton hill, and just gilding +the top of the little church nestled in the valley. At sight of Katy he +arose and greeted her with the kind, brotherly manner now habitual with +him, for since we last looked upon Morris Grant he had fought a fierce +battle with his selfishness, coming off conqueror, and learning to +listen quite calmly while Katy talked to him, as she often did, of +Wilford Cameron, never trying to conceal from him how anxious she was +for some word of remembrance, and often asking if he thought Mr. Cameron +would ever write to her. It was hard at first for Morris to listen, and +harder still to hold back the passionate words of love trembling on his +lips, to keep himself from telling her how improbable it was that one +like Mr. Cameron should cherish thoughts of her after mingling again +with the high-born city belles, and to beg of her to take him in +Cameron's stead--him who had loved her so long, ever since he first knew +what it was to love, and who would cherish her so tenderly, loving her +the more because of the childishness which some men might despise. But +Morris had kept silence, and, as weeks went by, there came insensibly +into his heart a hope, or rather conviction, that Cameron had forgotten +the little girl who might in time turn to him, gladdening his home just +as she did every spot where her fairy footsteps trod. Morris did not +fully know that he was hugging this fond dream, until he felt the keen +pang which cut like a dissector's knife as Katy, turning her bright, +eager face up to him, whispered softly: "He's coming to-morrow--he +surely is; I have his letter to tell me so." + +Morris did not see the sunshine then upon the distant hills, although it +lay there just as purple as before Katy came, bringing blackness and +pain when heretofore she had only brought him joy and gladness. There +was a moment of darkness, in which the hills, the pond, the sun +setting, and Katy seemed a great ways off to Morris, trying so hard to +be calm, and mentally asking for help to do so. But Katy's hat, which +she swung in her hand, had become entangled in the vines encircling one +of the pillars of the piazza, and so she did not notice him until all +traces of his agitation were past, and he could talk with her concerning +Wilford, and then playfully lifting her basket he asked what she had +come to get. + +This was not the first time the great house had rendered a like service +to the little house, and so Katy did not blush when she explained how +her mother wanted Morris' forks, and saltcellars, and spoons, and would +he be kind enough to bring the castor over himself, and come to dinner +to-morrow at two o'clock?--and would he go after Mr. Cameron? The forks, +and saltcellars, and spoons, and castor were cheerfully promised, while +Morris consented to go for the guest; and then Katy came to the rest of +her errand, the part distasteful to her, inasmuch as it might look like +throwing disrespect upon Uncle Ephraim--honest, unsophisticated Uncle +Ephraim--who would come to the table in his shirt sleeves. This was the +burden of her grief--the one thing she dreaded most, inasmuch as she +knew by experience how such an act was looked upon by Mr. Cameron, who, +never having lived in the country a day in his life, except as he was +either guest or traveler, could not make due allowance for these little +departures from refinement, so obnoxious to people of his training. + +"What is it, Katy?" Morris asked, as he saw how she hesitated, and +guessed her errand was not done. + +"I hope you will not think me foolish or wicked," Katy began, her eyes +filling with tears, as she felt that she might be doing Uncle Ephraim +a wrong by even admitting that in any way he could be improved. "I +certainly love Uncle Ephraim dearly, and I do not mind his ways, but Mr. +Cameron may--that is, oh, Cousin Morris! did you ever notice how Uncle +Ephraim will persist in coming to the table in his shirt sleeves." + +"Persist is hardly the word to use," Morris replied, smiling comically, +as he readily understood Katy's misgivings. "Persist would imply his +having been often remonstrated with for that breach of etiquette; +whereas I doubt much whether the idea that it was not in strict +accordance with politeness was ever suggested to him." + +"Maybe not," Katy answered. "It was never necessary till now, and I feel +so disturbed, for I want Mr. Cameron to like him, and if he does that I +am sure he won't." + +"Why do you think so?" Morris asked, and Katy replied: "He is so +particular, and was so very angry at a little hotel between Lakes +George and Champlain, where we took our dinner before going on the +boat. There was a man along--a real good-natured man, too, so kind to +everybody--and, as the day was warm, he carried his coat on his arm, and +sat down to the table that way, right opposite me. Mr. Cameron was so +indignant, and said such harsh things, which the man heard, I am sure, +for he put on his coat directly; and I saw him afterward on the boat, +sweating like rain, and looking sorry as if he had done something wrong. +I am sure, though, he had not?" + +This last was spoken interrogatively, and Morris replied: "There is +nothing wrong or wicked in going without one's coat. Everything depends +upon the circumstances under which it is done. For me to appear at table +in my shirt sleeves would be very impolite; but for an old man like +Uncle Ephraim, who has done it all his life and who never gave it a +thought, would, in my estimation, be a very different thing. Still, Mr. +Cameron may see from another standpoint. But I would not distress +myself. That love is not worth much which would think the less of you +for anything _outre_ which Uncle Ephraim may do. If Mr. Cameron cannot +stand the test of seeing your relatives as they are, he is not worth the +long face you are wearing," and Morris pinched her cheek playfully. + +"Yes, I know," Katy replied; "but if you only could manage Uncle Eph I +should be so glad." + +Morris had little hope of breaking a habit of years, but he promised to +try if an opportunity should occur, and as Mrs. Hull, the housekeeper, +had by this time gathered up the articles required for the morrow, +Morris himself took the basket in his own hands and went back with Katy +across the fields, which had never seemed so desolate as to-night, when +he felt how vain were all the hopes he had been cherishing. + +"God bless you, Katy, and may Mr. Cameron's visit bring you as much +happiness as you anticipate," he said as he set her basket upon the +doorstep and turned back without entering the house. + +Katy noticed the peculiar tone of his voice, and again there swept over +her the same thrill she had felt when Morris first said to her, "And did +Katy like this Mr. Cameron?" but so far was she from guessing the truth +that she only feared she might have displeased him by what she had said +of Uncle Ephraim; and as an unkind word breathed against a dear friend, +even to a mutual friend, always leaves a scar, so Katy, though saying +nothing ill, still felt that in some way she had wronged her uncle; and +the good old man, resting from his hard day's toil, in his accustomed +chair, with not only his coat, but his vest and boots cast aside, little +guessed what prompted the caresses which Katy bestowed upon him, sitting +in his lap and parting lovingly his snowy hair, as if thus she would +make amends for any injury done. Little Katy-did he called her, looking +fondly into her bright, pretty face, and thinking how terrible it would +be to see that face shadowed with pain and care. Somehow, of late, Uncle +Ephraim was always thinking of such a calamity as more than possible for +Katy, and when that night she knelt beside him, his voice was full of +pleading earnestness as he prayed that God would keep them all in +safety, and bring to none of them more grief, more suffering, than was +necessary to purify them for His own. "Purified by suffering" came +involuntarily into Katy's mind as she listened, and then remembered the +talk down in the meadow, when she sat on the rock beneath the butternut +tree. But Katy was far too thoughtless yet for anything serious to abide +with her long; and the world, while it held Wilford Cameron as he seemed +to her now, was too full of joy for her to be sad, and so she arose from +her knees, thinking only how long it would be before to-morrow noon, +wondering if Wilford would surely be there next time their evening +prayers were said, and if he would notice Uncle Ephraim's shocking +grammar! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WILFORD'S VISIT. + + +Much surprise was expressed by all the Cameron family, save the mother, +when told that instead of accompanying them to New York, Wilford would +take another route, and one directly out of his way; while, what was +stranger than all, he did not know when he should be home; it would +depend upon circumstances, he said, evincing so much annoyance at being +questioned with regard to his movements, that the quick-witted Juno +readily divined that there was some girl in the matter, teasing him +unmercifully to tell her who she was, and what the fair one was like. + +"Don't, for pity's sake, bring us a verdant specimen," she said, as she +at last bade him good-by, and turned her attention to Mark Ray, her +brother's partner, who had been with them at Newport, and whom she was +bending all her energies to captivate. + +With his sister's bantering words ringing in his ears, Wilford kept on +his way until the last change was made, and when he stopped again it +would be at Silverton. He did not expect any one to meet him, but as he +remembered the man whom he had seen greeting Katy, he thought it not +unlikely that he might be there now, laughing to himself as he pictured +Juno's horror, could she see him driving along in the corn-colored +vehicle which Uncle Ephraim drove. But that vehicle was safe at home +beneath the shed, while Uncle Ephraim was laying a stone wall upon the +huckleberry hill, and the handsome carriage waiting at Silverton depot +was certainly unexceptionable; while in the young man who, as the train +stopped and Wilford stepped out upon the platform, came to meet him, +bowing politely, and asking if he were Mr. Cameron, Wilford recognized +the true gentleman, and his spirits arose as Morris said to him: "I am +Miss Lennox's cousin, deputed by her to meet and take charge of you for +a time." + +Wilford had heard of Dr. Morris Grant, for his name was often on +Jamie's lips, while his proud Sister Juno, he suspected, had tried her +powers of fascination in vain upon the grave American, met in the +saloons of Paris; but he had no suspicion that his new acquaintance +was the one until they were driving toward the farmhouse and Morris +mentioned having met his family in France, inquiring after them all, and +especially for Jamie. Involuntarily then Wilford grasped again the hand +of Morris Grant, exclaiming: "And are you the doctor who was so kind to +Jamie? I did not expect this pleasure?" + +After that the ride seemed very short, and Wilford was surprised when as +they turned a corner in the sandy road, Morris pointed to the farmhouse, +saying: "We are almost there--that is the place." + +"That!" and Wilford's voice indicated his disappointment, for in all his +mental pictures of Katy Lennox's home he had never imagined anything +like this: + +Large, rambling and weird-like, with something lofty and imposing, just +because it was so ancient, was the house he had in his mind, and he +could not conceal his chagrin as his eye took in the small, low +building, with its high windows and tiny panes of glass, paintless and +blindless, standing there alone among the hills, Morris understood it +perfectly; but, without seeming to notice it, remarked: "It is the +oldest house probably in the country, and should be invaluable on that +account. I think we Americans are too fond of change and too much +inclined to throw aside all that reminds us of the past. Now I like +the farmhouse just because it is old and unpretentious." + +"Yes, certainly," Wilford answered, looking ruefully around him at the +old stone wall, half tumbled down, the tall well-sweep, and the patch of +sunflowers in the garden, with Aunt Betsy bending behind them, picking +tomatoes for dinner, and shading her eyes with her hand to look at him +as he drove up. + +It was all very rural, no doubt, and very charming to people who liked +it, but Wilford did not like it, and he was wishing himself safely in +New York when a golden head flashed for an instant before the window and +then disappeared as Katy emerged into view, waiting at the door to +receive him and looking so sweetly in her dress of white with the +scarlet geranium blossoms in her hair, that Wilford forgot the +homeliness of her surroundings, thinking only of her and how soft and +warm was the little hand he held as she led him into the parlor. He did +not know she was so beautiful, he said to himself, and he feasted his +eyes upon her, forgetful for a time of all else. But afterward when +Katy left him for a moment he noticed the well-worn carpet, the six +cane-seated chairs, the large stuffed rocking chair, the fall-leaf +table, with its plain wool spread, and, lastly, the really expensive +piano, the only handsome piece of furniture the room contained, and +which he rightly guessed must have come from Morris. + +"What would Juno or Mark say?" he kept repeating to himself, half +shuddering as he recalled the bantering proposition to accompany him +made by Mark Ray, the only young man whom he considered fully his equal +in New York. + +Wilford knew these feelings were unworthy of him and he tried to shake +them off, listlessly turning over the books upon the table, books which +betokened in some one both taste and talent of no low order. + +"Mark's favorite," he said, lifting up a volume of Schiller, and turning +to the fly-leaf he read, "Helen Lennox, from Cousin Morris," just as +Katy returned and with her Helen, whom she presented to the stranger. + +Helen was prepared to like him just because Katy did, and her first +thought was that he was splendid-looking, but when she met fully his +cold glance and knew how closely he was scrutinizing her, there arose +in her heart a feeling of dislike for Wilford Cameron, which she could +never wholly conquer. He was very polite to her, but something in his +manner annoyed and provoked her, it was so cool, so condescending, as +if he endured her merely because she was Katy's sister, nothing more. + +"Rather pretty, more character than Katy, but odd, and self-willed, with +no kind of style." + +This was Wilford's running comment on Helen as he took her in from the +plain arrangement of her dark hair to the fit of her French calico and +the cut of her linen Collar. + +Fashionable dress would improve her very much, he thought, turning from +her with a feeling of relief to Katy, whom nothing could disfigure, and +who was now watching the door eagerly for the entrance of her mother. +That lady had spent a good deal of time at her toilet, and she came in +at last, flurried, fidgety, and very red, both from exercise and the +bright-hued ribbons streaming from her cap and sadly at variance with +the color of her dress. Wilford noticed the discrepancy at once, and +noticed too how little style there was about the nervous woman greeting +him so deferentially and evidently regarding him as something infinitely +superior to herself. Wilford had looked with indifference upon Helen, +but it would take a stronger word to express his opinion of the mother. +Had he come accidentally upon her without ever having met with Katy, he +would have regarded her as a plain, common country woman, who meant well +if nothing more; but now, alas! with Katy in the foreground, he was +weighing her in a far different balance and finding her sadly wanting. +He had not seen Aunt Hannah, nor yet Aunt Betsy, for they were in the +kitchen, making the last preparations for the dinner to which Morris was +to remain. He was in the parlor now and in his presence Wilford felt +more at ease, more as if he had found an affinity. Uncle Ephraim was not +there, having eaten his bowl of milk and gone back to his stone wall, so +that upon Morris devolved the duties of host, and he courteously led the +way to the little dining-room, which Wilford confessed was not +uninviting, with its clean floor and walls, and the table so loaded with +the good things Aunt Hannah had prepared, burning and browning her +wrinkled face, which nevertheless smiled pleasantly upon the stranger +presented as Mr. Cameron. + +About Aunt Hannah there was something naturally ladylike, and Wilford +saw it; but when it came to Aunt Betsy, of whom he had never heard, he +felt for a moment as if by being there in such promiscuous company he +had somehow fallen from the Cameron's high estate. By way of pleasing +the girls and doing honor to their "beau," as she called Wilford, Aunt +Betsy had donned her very best attire, wearing the slate-colored pongee +dress, bought twenty years before, and actually sporting a set of +Helen's cast off hoops, which being quite too large for the dimensions +of her scanty skirt, gave her anything but the stylish appearance she +intended. + +"Oh, auntie!" was Katy's involuntary exclamation, while Helen bit her +lip with vexation, for the hoop had been an after thought to Aunt Betsy +just before going in to dinner. + +But the good old lady never dreamed of shocking any one with her +attempts at fashion; and curtseying very low to Mr. Cameron, she hoped +for a better acquaintance, and then took her seat at the table, just +where each movement could be distinctly seen by Wilford, scanning her so +intently as scarcely to hear the reverent words with which Morris asked +a blessing upon themselves and the food so abundantly prepared. They +could hardly have gotten through that first dinner without Morris, who +adroitly tried to divert Wilford's mind from what was passing around +him. But with all his vigilance he could not prevent his hearing Aunt +Betsy as, in an aside to Helen, she denounced the heavy fork she was +awkwardly trying to use, first expressing her surprise at finding it by +her plate instead of the smaller one to which she was accustomed. + +"The land! if you didn't borry Morris' forks! I'd as soon eat with the +toastin' iron," she said, in a tone of distress, but Helen's foot +touching hers warned her to keep silence, which she did after that, and +the dinner proceeded quietly, Wilford discovering ere its close that +Mrs. Lennox, now that she was more composed, had really some pretensions +to a lady, while Helen's dress and collar ceased to be obnoxious, as he +watched the play of her fine features and saw her eyes kindle as she +took a modest part in the conversation when it turned on books and +literature. + +Meanwhile Katy kept very still, her cheeks flushing and her eyes cast +down whenever she met Wilford's gaze; but when, after dinner was over +and Morris had gone, she went with him down to the shore of the pond, +her tongue was loosed, and Wilford found again the little fairy who had +so bewitched him a few weeks before. And yet there was a load upon his +mind--a shadow made by the actual knowledge that between Katy's family +and his there was a gulf which never could be crossed by either party. +He might bear Katy over, it was true, but would she not look longingly +back to the humble home, and might he not sometimes be greatly chagrined +by the sudden appearing of some one of this old-bred family who did not +seem to realize how ignorant they were, how far below him in the social +scale? Poor Wilford! he winced and shivered when he thought of Aunt +Betsy, in her antiquated pongee, and remembered that she was a near +relative of the little maiden sporting so playfully around him, stealing +his heart away in spite of family pride, and making him more deeply in +love than ever. It was very pleasant down by the pond, and Wilford, who +liked staying there better than at the house, kept Katy with him until +the sun was going down and they heard in the distance the tinkle of a +bell as the deacon's cows plodded slowly homeward. Supper was waiting +for them, and with his appetite sharpened by his walk, Wilford found no +cause of complaint against Aunt Hannah's viands, though he smiled +mentally as he accepted the piece of apple pie Aunt Betsy offered him, +saying by way of recommendation that "she made the crust but Catherine +peeled and sliced the apples." + +The deacon had not returned from his work, and so Wilford did not see +him until he came suddenly upon him, seated in the woodshed door, +washing his feet after the labor of the day. Ephraim Barlow was a man to +command respect, and to a certain extent Wilford recognized the true +worth embodied in that unpolished exterior. He did not, however, see +much of him that night, for, as the deacon said, apologetically: "The +cows is to milk and the chores all to do, for I never keep no boy," and +when at last the chores were done the clock pointed to half-past eight, +the hour for family worship. Unaccustomed as Wilford was to such things, +he felt the influence of the deacon's voice as he read from the Word of +God, and involuntarily found himself kneeling when Katy knelt, noticing +the deacon's grammar, it is true, but still listening patiently to the +rather lengthy prayer which included him as well as the rest of mankind. + +There was no chance of seeing Katy alone, and so full two hours before +his usual custom Wilford retired to the little room to which the deacon +conducted him, saying as he put down the lamp: "You'll find it pretty +snug quarters, I guess, for such a close, muggy night as this, but if +you can't stand it you must lie on the floor." + +And truly they were snug quarters, Wilford thought; but there was no +alternative, and a few moments found him in the center of two feather +beds, neither Helen nor Katy having discovered the addition made by Aunt +Betsy, and which came near being the death of the New York guest, who, +wholly unaccustomed to feathers, was almost smothered in them, besides +being nearly melted. To sleep was impossible, as the September night +was hot and sultry, and never for a moment did Wilford lose his +consciousness or forget to accuse himself of being an idiot for coming +into that heathenish neighborhood after a wife when at home there were +so many girls ready and waiting for him. + +"I'll go back to-morrow morning," he said, and, striking a match, he +read in his Railway Guide when the first train passed Silverton, feeling +comforted to think that only a few hours intervened between him and +freedom. + +But alas! for Wilford. He was but a man, subject to man's caprices, and +when next morning he met Katy Lennox, looking in her light muslin as +pure and fair as the white blossoms twined in her wavy hair, his +resolution began to waver. Perhaps there was a decent hotel in +Silverton; he would inquire of Dr. Grant; at all events he would not +take the first train as he had intended doing; and so he stayed, eating +fried apples and beefsteak, but forgetting to criticise, in his +appreciation of the rich thick cream poured into his coffee, and the +sweet, golden butter, which melted in soft waves upon the flakey rolls. +Again Uncle Ephraim was absent, having gone to the mill before Wilford +left his room, nor was he visible to the young man until after dinner, +for Wilford did not go home, but drove instead with Katy in the carriage +which Morris sent around, excusing himself from coming on the plea of +being too busy, but saying he would join them at tea, if possible. +Wilford's mind was not yet fully made up, so he concluded to remain +another day and see more of Katy's family. Accordingly, after dinner, he +bent his energies to read them all, from Helen down to Aunt Betsy, the +latter of whom proved the most transparent of the four. Arrayed again +in the pongee, but this time without the hoop, she came into the parlor, +bringing her calico patchwork, which she informed him was pieced in the +"herrin' bone pattern" and intended for Katy; telling him, further, that +the feather bed on which he slept was also a part of "Catherine's +setting out," and was made from feathers she picked herself, showing him +as proof a mark upon her arm, left there by the gray goose, which had +proved a little refractory when she tried to draw a stocking over its +head. + +Wilford groaned, and Katy's chance for being Mrs. Cameron was growing +constantly less and less as he saw more and more how vast was the +difference between the Barlows and himself. Helen, he acknowledged, was +passable, though she was not one whom he could ever introduce into New +York society; and he was wondering how Katy came to be so unlike the +rest, when Uncle Ephraim came up from the meadow, and announced himself +as ready now to visit, apologizing for his apparent neglect, and seeming +so absolutely to believe that his company was, of course, desirable, +that Wilford felt amused, wondering again what Juno, or even Mark Ray, +would think of the rough old man, sitting with his chair tipped back +against the wall, and going occasionally to the outside door to relieve +himself of his tobacco juice, for chewing was one of the deacon's +weaknesses. His pants were faultlessly clean, and his vest was buttoned +nearly up to his throat, but his coat was hanging on a nail out by the +kitchen door, and, to Katy's distress and Wilford's horror, he sat among +them in his shirt sleeves, all unconscious of harm or of the disquiet +awakened in the bosom of the young man, who on that point was foolishly +fastidious, and who showed by his face how much he was annoyed. Not even +the presence of Morris, who came in about tea time, was of any avail to +lift the cloud from his brow, and he seemed moody and silent until +supper was announced. This was the first opportunity Morris had had of +trying his powers of persuasion upon the deacon, and now, at a hint +from Katy, he said to him in an aside, as they were passing into the +dining-room: "Suppose, Uncle Ephraim, you put on your coat for once. It +is better than coming to the table so." + +"Pooh," was Uncle Ephraim's innocent rejoinder, spoken loudly enough +for Wilford to hear, "I don't need it an atom. I shan't catch cold, for +I am used to it; besides that, I never could stand the racket this hot +weather." + +In his simplicity he did not even suspect Morris' motive, but imputed it +wholly to his concern lest he should take cold. And so Wilford Cameron +found himself seated next to a man who willfully trampled upon all rules +of etiquette, shocking him in his most sensitive parts, and making him +thoroughly disgusted with the country and country people generally. All +but Morris and Katy--he did make an exception in their favor, leaning +most to Morris, whom he admired more and more as he became better +acquainted with him, wondering how he could content himself to settle +down quietly in Silverton, when he would surety die if compelled to live +there for a week. Something like this he said to Dr. Grant when that +evening they sat together in the handsome parlor at Linwood, for Morris +kindly invited him to spend the night with him: + +"I stay at Silverton, first, because I think I can do more good here +than elsewhere, and, secondly, because I really like the country and the +country people, for, strange and uncouth as they may seem to you, who +never lived among them, they have kinder, truer hearts beating beneath +their rough exteriors, than are often found in the city." + +This was Morris' reply, and in the conversation which ensued Wilford +Cameron caught glimpses of a nobler, higher phase of manhood than he had +thought existed, feeling an unbounded respect for one who, because he +believed it to be his duty, was, as it seemed to him, wasting his life +among people who could not appreciate his character, though they might +idolize the man. But this did not reconcile Wilford one whit the more to +Silverton. Uncle Ephraim had completed the work commenced by the two +feather beds, and at the breakfast, spread next morning in the coziest +of breakfast-rooms, he announced his intention of returning to New York +that day. To this Morris offered no objection, but asked to be +remembered to the mother, the sisters, and little Jamie, and then +invited Wilford to stop altogether at Linwood when he came again to +Silverton. + +"Thank you; but it is hardly probable that I shall be here very soon," +Wilford replied, adding, as he met the peculiar glance of Morris' eye: +"I found Miss Katy a delightful traveling acquaintance, and on my way +from Newport thought I would renew it and see a little of rustic life." + +Poor Katy! how her heart would have ached could she have heard those +words and understood their meaning, just as Morris did, feeling a rising +indignation for the man with whom he could not be absolutely angry, he +was so self-possessed, so pleasant and gentlemanly, while better than +all, was he not virtually giving Katy up? and if he did, might she not +turn at last to him? + +These were Morris' thoughts as he walked with Wilford across the fields +to the farmhouse, where Katy met them with her sunniest smile, singing +to them, at Wilford's request, her sweetest song, and making him half +wish he could revoke his hasty decision and tarry a little longer. But +it was now too late for that; the carriage which would take him to the +depot was already on its way from Linwood; and when the song was ended +he told her of his intentions to leave on the next train, feeling a pang +when he saw how the blood left her cheek and lip, and then came surging +back as she said timidly: "Why need you leave so soon?" + +"Oh, I have already outstayed my time. I thought of going yesterday, +and my partner, Mr. Ray, will be expecting me," Wilford replied, +involuntarily laying his hand upon Katy's shining hair, while Morris +and Helen stole quietly from the room. + +Thus left to himself, Wilford continued: + +"Maybe I'll come again some time. Would you like to have me?" + +"Yes," and Katy's blue eyes were lifted pleadingly to the young man, who +had never loved her so well as that very moment when resolving to cast +her off. + +And as for Katy, she mentally called herself a fool for suffering +Wilford Cameron to see what was in her heart; but she could not help it, +for she loved him with all the strength of her impulsive nature, and to +have him leave her so suddenly hurt her cruelly. + +For a moment Wilford was strongly tempted to throw all family pride +aside, and ask that young girl to be his; but thoughts of his mother, +of Juno and Bell, and more than all, thoughts of Uncle Ephraim and his +Sister Betsy, arose in time to prevent it, and so he only kissed her +forehead caressingly as he said good-by, telling her that he should not +soon forget his visit to Silverton, and then as the carriage drove up, +going out to where the remainder of the family were standing together +and commenting upon his sudden departure. + +It was not sudden, he said, trying to explain. He really had thought +seriously of going yesterday, and feeling that he had something to atone +for, he tried to be unusually gracious as he shook their hands, thanking +them for their kindness, but seeming wholly oblivious to Aunt Betsy's +remark that "she hoped to see him again, if not at Silverton, in New +York, where she wanted dreadfully to visit, but never had on account +of the 'bominable prices charged to the taverns, and she hadn't no +acquaintances there." + +This was Aunt Betsy's parting remark, and after Katy, simple-hearted +Aunt Betsy liked Wilford Cameron better than any one of the group which +watched him as he drove rapidly from their door. Aunt Hannah thought him +too much stuck up for farmer's folks, while Mrs. Lennox, whose ambition +would have accounted him a most desirable match for her daughter, could +not deny that his manner toward them, though polite in the extreme, was +that of a superior to people greatly beneath him; while Helen, who saw +clearer than the rest, read him tolerably aright, and detected the +struggle between his pride and his love for poor little Katy, whom she +found sitting on the floor, just where Wilford left her standing, her +head resting on the chair and her face hidden in her hands as she sobbed +quietly, hardly knowing why she cried or what to answer when Helen asked +what was the matter. + +"It was so queer in him to go so soon," she said; "just as if he were +offended about something." + +"Never mind, Katy," Helen said, soothingly. "If he's for you he will come +back again. He could not stay here always, of course; and I must say I +respect him for attending to his business, if he has any. He has been +gone from home for weeks, you know." + +This was Helen's reasoning; but it did not comfort Katy, whose face +looked white and sad, as she moved listlessly about the house, almost +crying again when she beard in the distance the whistle of the train +which was to carry Wilford Cameron away, and end his first visit to +Silverton. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +IN THE SPRING. + + +Katy Lennox had been very sick, and the bed where Wilford slept had +stood in the parlor during the long weeks while the obstinate fever ran +its course; but she was better now, and sat nearly all day before the +fire, sometimes trying to crochet a little, and again turning over the +books which Morris had brought to interest her--Morris, the kind +physician, who had attended her so faithfully, never leaving her while +the fever was at its height, unless it was necessary, but staying with +her day and night, watching her symptoms carefully, and praying so +earnestly that she might not die--not, at least, until some token had +been given that again in the better world he should find her, where +partings were unknown and where no Wilford Camerons could contest the +prize with him. Not that he was greatly afraid of Wilford now; that fear +had mostly died away just as the hope had died from Katy's heart that +she would ever meet him again. + +Since the September morning when he left her, she had not heard from him +except once, when in the winter Morris had been to New York, and having +a few hours' leisure on his hands had called at Wilford's office, +receiving a most cordial reception, and meeting with young Mark Ray, who +impressed him as a man quite as highly cultivated as Wilford; and +possessed of more character and principle. This call was not altogether +of Morris' seeking, but was made rather with a view to pleasing Katy, +who, when she learned that he was going to New York, had said +inadvertently: "Oh, I do so hope you'll meet with Mr. Cameron, for then +we shall know that he is neither sick nor dead, as I have sometimes +feared." + +And so, remembering this, Morris had sought out his rival, feeling more +than repaid for the mental effort it had cost him, when he saw how +really glad Wilford seemed to meet him. The first commonplaces over, +Wilford inquired for Katy. Was she well, and how was she occupying her +time this winter? + +"Both Helen and Katy are pupils of mine," Morris replied, "reciting +their lessons to me every day when the weather will admit of their +crossing the fields to Linwood. We have often wondered what had become +of you, that you did not even let us know of your safe arrival home," he +added, looking Wilford fully in the eye, and rather enjoying his +confusion as he tried to apologize. + +He had intended writing, but an unusual amount of business had occupied +his time. "Mark will tell you how busy I was," and he turned appealingly +to his partner, in whose expressive eyes Morris read that Silverton was +not unknown to him. + +But if Wilford had told him anything derogatory of the farmhouse or its +inmates, it did not appear in Mr. Ray's manner, as he replied that Mr. +Cameron had been very busy ever since his return from Silverton, adding: +"From what Cameron tells me of your neighborhood there must be some +splendid hunting and fishing there, and I had last fall half a mind to +try it." + +This time there was something comical in the eyes turned so +mischievously upon Wilford, who colored scarlet for an instant, but soon +recovered his composure, and invited Morris home with him to dinner. + +"I shall not take a refusal," he said, as Morris began to decline. +"Mother and the young ladies will be delighted to see you again, while +Jamie--well, Jamie, I believe, worships the memory of the physician who +was so kind to him in France. You did Jamie a world of good, Dr. Grant, +and you must see him. Mark will go with us, of course." + +There was something so hearty in Wilford's invitation that Morris did +not again object, and two hours later found him in the drawing-room at +No. ---- Fifth Avenue, receiving the friendly greetings of Mrs. Cameron +and her daughter, each of whom vied with the other in their polite +attentions to him, while little Jamie, to whose nursery he was admitted, +wound his arms around his neck and laying his curly head upon his +shoulder, cried quietly, whispering as he did so: "I am so glad, Dr. +Grant, so glad to see you again. I thought I never should, but I've not +forgotten the prayer you taught me, and I say it often when my back +aches so I cannot sleep and there's no one around to hear but Jesus. I +love Him now, if he did make me lame, and I know that He loves me." + +Surely the bread cast upon the waters had returned again after many +days, and Morris Grant did not regret the time spent with the poor +crippled boy, teaching him the way of life and sowing the seed which +now was bearing fruit. Nor did he regret having accepted Wilford's +invitation to dinner, as by this means he saw the home which had +well-nigh been little Katy Lennox's. She would be sadly out of place +here with these people, he thought, as he looked upon all their +formality and ceremony and then contrasted it with what Katy had been +accustomed to. Juno would kill her outright, was his next mental +comment, as he watched that haughty young lady, dressed in the extreme +of fashion and dividing her coquetries between himself and Mr. Ray, who, +being every way desirable both in point of family and wealth, was +evidently her favorite. She had colored scarlet when first presented to +Dr. Grant, and her voice had trembled as she took his offered hand, for +she remembered the time when her liking had not been concealed, and was +only withdrawn at the last because she found how useless it was to waste +her affections upon one who did not prize them. + +When Wilford first returned from Silverton he had, as a sore means of +forgetting Katy, told his mother and sisters something of the farmhouse +and its inmates; and Juno, while ridiculing both Helen and Katy, had +felt a fierce pang of jealousy in knowing they were cousins to Morris +Grant, who lived so near that he could, if he liked, see them every day. +In Paris Juno had suspected that somebody was standing between her and +Dr. Grant and how with the quick insight of a smart, bright woman, she +guessed that it was one of these same cousins, Katy most likely, her +brother having described Helen as very commonplace, and for a time she +had hated poor, innocent Katy most cordially for having come between her +and the only man for whom she had ever really cared. Gradually, however, +the feeling died away, but was revived again at sight of Morris Grant, +and at the table she could not forbear saying to him: + +"By the way, Dr. Grant, why did you never tell us of those charming +cousins, when you were in Paris? Why, Brother Will describes one of them +as a little water lily, she is so fair and pretty. Katy, I think is her +name. Wilford, isn't it Katy Lennox whom you think so beautiful, and +with whom you are more than half in love?" + +"Yes, it is Katy," and Wilford spoke sternly, for he did not like Juno's +bantering tone, but he could not stop her, and she went on: + +"Are they your cousins, Dr. Grant?" + +"No, they are removed from me two or three degrees, their father having +been only my second cousin." + +The fact that Katy Lennox was not nearly enough related to Dr. Grant to +prevent his marrying her if he liked, did not improve Juno's amiability, +and she continued to ask questions concerning both Katy and Helen, the +latter of whom she persisted in thinking was strong-minded, until Mark +Ray came to the rescue, diverting her attention by adroitly +complimenting her in some way, and so relieving Wilford and Morris, +both of whom were exceedingly annoyed. + +"When Will visits Silverton again I mean to go with him," she said to +Morris at parting, but he did not tell her that such an event would give +him the greatest pleasure. On the contrary, he merely replied: + +"If you do you will find plenty of room at Linwood for those four trunks +which I remember seeing in Paris, and your brother will tell you whether +I am a hospitable host or not." + +Biting her lip with chagrin, Juno went back to the drawing-room, while +Morris returned to his hotel, accompanied by Wilford, who passed the +entire evening with him, appearing somewhat constrained, as if there was +something on his mind which he wished to say; but it remained unspoken, +and there was no allusion to Silverton until as Wilford was leaving, he +said: + +"Remember me kindly to the Silverton friends, and say I have not +forgotten them." + +And this was all there was to carry back to the anxious Katy, who on the +afternoon of Morris' return from New York was over at Linwood waiting to +pour his tea and make his toast, she pretended, though the real reason +was shining all over her telltale face, which grew so bright and eager +when Morris said: + +"I dined at Mr. Cameron's, Kitty." + +But the brightness gradually faded as Morris described his call and then +repeated Wilford's message. + +"And that was all," Katy whispered sorrowfully as she beat the damask +cloth softly with her fingers, shutting her lips tightly together to +keep back her disappointment. + +When Morris glanced at her again there was a tear on her long eyelashes, +and it dropped upon her cheek, followed by another and another, but he +did not seem to see it, talking of New York and the fine sights in +Broadway until Katy was herself again, able to take part in the +conversation. + +"Please don't tell Helen that you saw Wilford," she said to Morris as he +walked home with her after tea, and that was the only allusion she made +to it, never after that mentioning Wilford's name or giving any token of +the wounded love still so strong within her heart, and waiting only for +some slight token to waken it again to life and vigor. + +This was in the winter, and Katy had been very sick since then--so sick +that even to her the thought had sometimes come: "What if I should die?" +but she was too weak, too nearly unconscious, to go further and reflect +upon the terrible reality death would bring if it found her unprepared. +She had only strength and sense enough to wonder if Wilford would care +when he heard that she was dead; and once, as she grew better, she +almost worked herself into a second fever with assisting at her own +obsequies, seeing only one mourner, and that one Wilford Cameron. Even +he was not there in time to see her in her coffin, but he wept over her +little grave and called her "darling Katy." So vividly had Katy pictured +all this scene, that Morris, when he called, found her flushed and hot, +with traces of tears on her face. + +In reply to his inquiries as to what was the matter, she had answered +laughingly: "Oh, nothing much--only I have been burying myself," and so +Morris never dreamed of the real nature of her reveries, or guessed that +Wilford Cameron was mingled with every thought. She had forgotten him, +he believed; and when, as she grew stronger, he saw how her eyes +sparkled at his coming, and how impatient she seemed if he was obliged +to hurry off, hope whispered that she would surely be his, and his +usually grave face wore a look of happiness which even his patients +noticed, feeling themselves better after one of his cheery visits. Poor +Morris! he was little prepared for the terrible blow in store for him, +when one day early in April he started, as usual, to visit Katy, saying +to himself: "If I find her alone, perhaps I'll tell her of my love, and +ask if she will come to Linwood this summer;" and Morris paused a moment +beneath a beechwood tree to still the throbbings of his heart, which +beat so fast as he thought of going home some day from his weary work +and finding Katy there, his little wife--his own--whom he might caress +and love all his affectionate nature would prompt him to. He knew that +in some points she was weak--a silly little thing she called herself +when comparing her mind with Helen's--but there was about her so much +of purity, innocence, and perfect beauty, that few men, however strong +their intellect, could withstand her, and Morris, though knowing her +weakness, felt that in possessing her he should have all he needed to +make this life desirable. She would improve as she grew older, and it +would be a most delightful task to train her into what she was capable +of becoming. Alas! for Dr. Morris! He was very near the farmhouse now, +and there were only a few minutes between him and the cloud which would +darken his horizon so completely. Katy was alone, sitting up in her +pretty dressing gown of blue, which was so becoming to her pure +complexion. Her hair, which had been all cut away during her long +sickness, was growing out again somewhat darker than before, and lay in +rings upon her head, making her look more childish than ever. But to +this Morris did not object. He liked to have her a child, and he +thought he had never seen her so wholly beautiful as she was this +morning, when, with glowing cheek and dancing eyes, she greeted him as +he came in. + +"Oh, Dr. Morris!" she began, holding up a letter she had in her hand, +"I am so glad you've come, for I wanted to tell you so badly Wilford has +not forgotten me, as I used to think, and as I guess you thought, too, +though you did not say so. He has written, and he is coming again, if I +will let him; and, oh, Morris! I am so glad! Ain't you? Seeing you knew +all about it, and never told Helen, I'll let you read the letter." + +And she held it toward the young man leaning against the mantel and +panting for the breath which came so heavily. + +Something he said apologetically about being snow blind, for there +was that day quite a fall of soft spring snow; and then with a mighty +effort, which made his heart quiver with pain, Morris was himself once +more, and took the letter in his hand. + +"Perhaps I had better not read it," he said, but Katy insisted that he +might, and thinking to himself: "It will cure me sooner perhaps," he +read the few lines Wilford Cameron had written to his "dear little +Katy." + +That was the way he addressed her, going on to say that circumstances +which he could not explain to her had kept him silent ever since he left +her the previous autumn; but through all he never for a moment had +forgotten her, thinking of her the more for the silence he had +maintained. "And now that I have risen above the circumstances," he +added, in conclusion, "I write to ask if I may come to Silverton again. +If I may, just drop me one word, 'come,' and in less than a week I shall +be there. Yours very truly, W. Cameron." + +Morris read the letter through, feeling that every word was separating +him further and further from Katy, to whom he said: "You will answer +this?" + +"Yes, oh yes; perhaps to-day." + +"And you will tell him to come?" + +"Why, yes--what else should I tell him?" and Katy's blue eyes looked +wonderingly at Morris, who hardly knew what he was doing, or why he said +to her next: "Listen to me, Katy. You know why Wilford Cameron comes +here a second time, and what he will probably ask you ere he goes away; +but, Katy, you are not strong enough yet to see him under so exciting +circumstances, and, as your physician, I desire that you tell him to +wait at least three weeks before he comes. Will you do so, Katy?" + +"That is just as Helen talked," Katy answered, mournfully. "She said I +was not able." + +"And will you heed us?" Morris asked again, while Katy after a moment +consented; and glad of this respite from what he knew to a certainty +would be, Morris dealt out her medicine, and for an instant felt her +rapid pulse, but did not retain her hand within his own, nor lay his +other upon her head, as he had sometimes done. + +He could not do that now, and so he hurried away, finding the world into +which he went far different from what it had seemed an hour ago. Then +all was bright and hopeful; but now, alas! a darker night was gathering +around him than any he had ever known, and the patients visited that day +marveled at the whiteness of his face, asking if he were ill? Yes, he +answered them truly, and for two days he was not seen again, but +remained at home alone, where none but his God was witness to what he +suffered; but when the third day came he went again among his sick, +grave, quiet and unchanged to outward appearance, unless it was that +his voice, always so kind, had now a kinder tone and his manner was +tenderer, more sympathizing. Inwardly, however, there was a change, for +Morris Grant had lain himself upon the sacrificial altar, willing to be +and to endure whatever God should appoint, knowing that all would +eventually be for his good. To the farmhouse he went every day, talking +most with Helen now, but never forgetting who it was sitting so demurely +in the armchair, or flitting about the room, for Katy was gaining +rapidly. Love perhaps had had nothing to do with her dangerous illness, +but it had much to do with her recovery, and those not in the secret +wondered to see how she improved, her cheeks growing round and full and +her eyes shining with returning health and happiness. + +At Helen's instigation Katy had deferred Wilford's visit four weeks +instead of three, but in that time there had come two letters from him, +letters so full of anxiety and sympathy for "his poor little Katy who +had been so sick," that even Helen began to think she had done injustice +to him, that he was not as proud and heartless as she supposed, and that +he did love her sister after all. + +"If I supposed he meant to deceive her I should wish I was a man to +cowhide him," she said to herself, with flashing eye, as she heard Katy +exulting that he was coming "to-morrow." + +This time he would stop at Linwood, for Katy had asked Morris if he +might, while Morris had told her "yes," feeling his heart wound throb +afresh, as he thought how hard it would be to entertain his rival. Of +himself Morris could do nothing, but with the help he never sought in +vain he could do all things, and so he gave orders that the best chamber +should be prepared for his guest, bidding Mrs. Hull, his housekeeper, +see that no pains were spared for his entertainment, and then with Katy +he waited for the day, the last one in April, which should bring Wilford +Cameron a second time to Silverton. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WILFORD'S SECOND VISIT. + + +Wilford Cameron had tried to forget Katy Lennox, while his mother and +sisters had done their best to help to forget, or at least sicken of +her; and as the three, Juno, Bell and the mother, were very differently +constituted, they had widely different ways of assisting him in his +dilemma, the mother complimenting his good sense in drawing back from +an alliance which could only bring him mortification; Bell, the blue +sister, ignoring the idea of Wilford's marrying that country girl as +something too preposterous to be contemplated for a moment, much less to +be talked about; while Juno spared neither ridicule nor sarcasm, using +the former weapon so effectually that her brother at one time nearly +went over to the enemy; and Katy's tears, shed so often when no one +could see her, were not without a reason. Wilford was trying to forget +her, both for his sake and her own, for he foresaw that she could not +be happy with his family, and he came to think it might be a wrong to +her, transplanting her into a soil so wholly unlike that in which her +habits and affections had taken root. + +His father once had abruptly asked him if there was any truth in the +report that he was about to marry and make a fool of himself, and when +Wilford had answered "No," he had replied with a significant: + +"Umph! Old enough, I should think, if you ever intend to marry. +Wilford," and the old man faced square about: "I know nothing of the +girl, except what I gathered from your mother and sisters. You have not +asked my advice. I don't suppose you want it, but if you do, here it is. +If you love the girl and she is respectable, marry her if she is poor as +poverty and the daughter of a tinker; but if you don't love her, and +she's rich as a nabob, for thunder's sake keep away from her." + +This was the elder Cameron's counsel, and Katy's cause arose fifty per +cent, in consequence. Still Wilford was sadly disquieted, so much so +that his partner, Mark Ray, could not fail to observe that something was +troubling him, and at last frankly asked what it was. Wilford knew he +could trust Mark, and he confessed the whole, telling him far more of +Silverton than he had told his mother, and then asking what his friend +would do were the case his own. + +Fond of fun and frolic, Mark laughed immoderately at Wilford's +description of Aunt Betsy bringing her "herrin' bone" patchwork into the +parlor, and telling him it was a part of Katy's "settin' out," but when +it came to her hint for an invitation to visit in New York, the amused +young man roared with laughter, wishing so much that he might live to +see the day when poor Aunt Betsy Barlow stood ringing for admittance at +No. ---- Fifth Avenue. + +"Wouldn't it be rich, though, the meeting between your Aunt Betsy and +Juno?" and the tears fairly poured down the young man's face. + +But Wilford was too serious for trifling, and after his merriment had +subsided, Mark talked with him candidly, sensibly, of Katy Lennox, whose +cause he warmly espoused, telling Wilford that he was far too sensitive +with regard to family and position. + +"You are a good fellow on the whole, but too outrageously proud," he +said. "Of course this Aunt Betsy in her pongee, whatever that may be, +and the uncle in his shirt sleeves, and this mother whom you describe as +weak and ambitious, are objections which you would rather should not +exist; but if you love the girl, take her, family and all. Not that you +are to transport the whole colony of Barlows to New York," he added, as +he saw Wilford's look of horror, "but make up your mind to endure what +cannot be helped, resting yourself upon the fact that your position is +such as cannot well be affected by any marriage you might make, provided +the wife were right." + +This was Mark Ray's advice, and it had great weight with Wilford, who +knew that Mark came, if possible, from a better line of ancestry than +himself, inasmuch as his maternal grandmother was a near relative of the +English Percys, and the daughter of a lord. And still Wilford hesitated, +waiting until the winter was over before he came to the decision which +when it was reached was firm as a granite rock. He had made up his mind +at last to marry Katy Lennox if she would accept him, and he told his +mother so in the presence of his sisters, when one evening they were all +kept at home by the rain. There was a sudden uplifting of Bell's +eyelashes, a contemptuous shrug of her shoulders, and then she went on +with the book she was reading, wondering if Katy was at all inclined to +literature, and thinking if she were that it might be easier to tolerate +her. Juno, who was expected to say the sharpest things, turned upon him +with the exclamation: + +"If you can stand those two feather beds, you can do more than I +supposed," and as one means of showing her disapproval, she quitted the +room, while Bell, who had taken to writing articles on the follies of +the age, soon followed her sister to elaborate an idea suggested to her +mind by her brother's contemplated marriage. + +Thus left alone with her son, Mrs. Cameron tried all her powers of +persuasion upon him in vain. But nothing she said influenced him in the +least, seeing which she suddenly confronted him with the question: +"Shall you tell her all? A husband should have no secrets of that kind +from his wife." + +Wilford's face was white as ashes, and his voice trembled as he replied: +"Yes, mother, I shall tell her all; but, oh! you do not know how hard it +has been for me to bring my mind to that, or how sorry I am that we ever +kept that secret--when Genevra died--" + +"Hush-h!" came warningly from the mother as Juno reappeared, the warning +indicating that Genevra, whoever she might be, was a personage never +mentioned, except by mother and son. + +As Juno remained the conversation was not resumed, and the next morning +Wilford wrote to Katy Lennox the letter which carried to her so much of +joy, and to Dr. Grant so much of grief. To wait four weeks, as Katy said +he must, was a terrible trial to Wilford, who counted every moment which +kept him from her side. It was all owing to Dr. Grant and that +perpendicular Helen, he knew, for Katy in her letter had admitted that +the waiting was wholly their suggestion; and Wilford's thoughts +concerning them were anything but complimentary, until a new idea was +suggested, which drove every other consideration from his mind. + +Wilford was naturally jealous, but that fault had once led him into so +deep a trouble that he had struggled hard to overcome it, and now, at +its first approach, after he thought it dead, he tried to shake it +off--tried not to believe that Morris cared especially for Katy. But +the mere possibility was unendurable, and in a most feverish state of +excitement he started again for Silverton. + +As before, Morris was waiting for him at the station, his cordial +greeting and friendly manner disarming him from all anxiety in that +quarter, and making him resolve anew to trample the demon jealousy under +his feet, where it could never rise again. Katy's life should not be +darkened by the green monster, he thought, and her future would have +been bright indeed had it proved all that he pictured it as he drove +along with Morris in the direction of the farmhouse, for he was to stop +there first and then at night go over to sleep at Linwood. + +Katy was waiting for him, and as he met her alone, he did not hesitate +to kiss her more than once as he kept her for a moment in his arms, and +then held her off to see if her illness had left any traces upon her. It +had not, except it were in the increased delicacy of her complexion and +the short hair now growing out in silky rings. She was very pretty in +her short hair, but Wilford felt a little impatient as he saw how +childish it made her look, and thought how long it would take for it to +attain its former length. He was already appropriating her to himself, +and devising ways of improving her. In New York, with Morris Grant +standing before his jealous gaze, he could see no fault in Katy, and +even now, with her beside him, and the ogre jealousy gone, he saw no +fault in her; it was only her dress, and that could be so easily +remedied. Otherwise she was perfect, and in his delight at meeting her +again he forgot to criticise the farmhouse and its occupants, as he had +done before. + +They were very civil to him--the mother overwhelmingly so--insomuch that +Wilford could not help detecting her anxiety that all should be settled +this time. Helen, on the contrary, was unusually cool, confirming him in +his opinion that she was strong-minded and self-willed, and making him +resolve to remove Katy as soon as possible from her strait-laced +influence. When talking with his mother he had said that if Katy had +told him "yes," he should probably place her at some fashionable school +for a year or two; but on the way to Silverton he had changed his mind. +He could not wait a year, and if he married Katy at all, it should he +immediately. He would then take her to Europe, where she could have the +best of teachers, besides the advantage of traveling; and it was a very +satisfactory picture he drew of the woman whom he should introduce into +New York society as his wife, Mrs. Wilford Cameron. It is true that Katy +had not yet said the all-important word, but she was going to say it, +and when late that afternoon they came up from the walk he had asked her +to take, she was his promised wife. + +They had sat together on the very rock where Katy sat that day when +Uncle Ephraim told her of the different paths there were through life, +some pleasant and free from care, some thorny and full of grief. Katy +had never forgotten the conversation, and, without knowing why, she had +always avoided that rock beneath the butternut as a place where there +had been revealed to her a glimpse of something sad; and so, when +Wilford proposed resting there, she at first objected, but yielded at +last, and, with his arm around her, listened to the story of his love. +It was what she had expected and thought herself prepared for, but when +it came it was so real, so earnest, that she could only clasp her hands +over her face, which she hid on Wilford's shoulder, weeping passionately +as she thought how strange it was for a man like Wilford Cameron to seek +her for his wife. Katy was no coquette; whatever she felt she expressed, +and when she could command herself she frankly confessed to Wilford her +love for him, telling him how the fear that he had forgotten her had +haunted her all the long, long winter; and then with her clear, truthful +blue eyes looking into his, asking him why he had not sent her some +message if, as he said, he loved her all the time. + +For a moment Wilford's lip was compressed and a flush overspread his +face, as, drawing her closer to him, he replied: "My little Katy will +remember that in my first note I spoke of certain circumstances which +had prevented my writing earlier. I do not know that I asked her not to +seek to know those circumstances; but I ask it now. Will Katy trust me +so far as to believe that all is right between us, and never allude to +these circumstances?" + +He was kissing her fondly, and his voice was so winning that Katy +promised all that was required; and then came the hardest, the trying to +tell her all, as he had said to his mother he would. Twice he essayed to +speak, and as often something sealed his lips, until at last he began: +"You must not think me perfect, Katy, for I have faults, and perhaps if +you knew my past life you would wish to revoke your recent decision and +render a different verdict to my suit. Suppose I unfold the blackest +leaf for your inspection?" + +"No, no, oh, no," and Katy playfully stopped his mouth with her hand. +"Of course you have some faults, but I would rather find them out +myself. I could not hear anything against you now. I am satisfied to +take you as you are." + +Wilford felt his heart throb wildly with the feeling that he was in some +way deceiving the young girl; but if she would not suffer him to tell +her, he was not to be censured if she remained in ignorance. And so the +golden moment fled, and when he spoke again he said: "If Katy will not +now read that leaf I offered to show her, she must not shrink back in +horror if ever it does meet her eye." + +"I don't, I promise," Katy answered, a vague feeling of fear creeping +over her as to what the reading of that mysterious page involved. But +this was soon forgotten, as Wilford, remembering his suspicions of Dr. +Grant, thought to probe a little by asking if she had ever loved any one +before himself? + +"No, never," she answered. "I never dreamed of such a thing until I saw +you, Mr. Cameron;" and Wilford believed the trusting girl, whose loving +nature shone in every lineament of her face, upturned to receive the +kisses he pressed upon it, resolving within himself to be to her what +he ought to be. + +"By the way," he continued, "don't call me Mr. Cameron again, as you did +just now. I would rather be your Wilford. It sounds more familiar. And +still," he added, "it may be better at present to reserve that name for +the time when we are alone. To your family I may as well remain Mr. +Cameron." + +This was an after thought, suggested by his knowing how he should shiver +to hear Aunt Betsy call him "Wilford," as she surely would if Katy did. +Then he told her of his projected tour to Europe, and Katy felt her +pulses quicken as she thought of London, Paris and Rome, as places which +her plain country eyes might yet look upon. But when it came to their +marriage, which Wilford said must be soon--within a few weeks--she +demurred, for this arrangement was not in accordance with her desires. +She should so much enjoy a long courtship with Wilford coming often to +Silverton, and such quantities of letters passing between them as should +make her the envy of all Silverton. This was Katy's idea, and she +opposed her lover with all her strength, telling him she was so young, +not eighteen till July, and she knew so little of housekeeping. He must +let her stay at home until she learned at least the art of making bread! + +Poor, ignorant Katy! Wilford could not forbear a smile as he thought how +different were her views from his, and tried to explain that the art of +bread-making, though very desirable in most wives, was not an essential +accomplishment for his. Servants would do that; besides he did not +intend to have a house of his own at once; he should take her first to +live with his mother, where she could learn what was necessary much +better than there in Silverton. + +Wilford Cameron expected to be obeyed in every important matter by the +happy person who should be his wife, and as he possessed the faculty of +enforcing perfect obedience without seeming to be severe, so he silenced +Katy's arguments, and when they left the shadow of the butternut tree +she knew that in all human probability six weeks' time would find her on +the broad ocean alone with Wilford Cameron. So perfect was Katy's faith +and love that she had no fear of Wilford now, but as his affianced wife +walked confidently by his side, feeling fully his equal, nor once +dreaming how great the disparity his city friends would discover between +the fastidious man of fashion and the unsophisticated country girl. And +Wilford did not seek to enlighten her, but suffered her to talk of the +delight it would be to live in New York, and how pleasant for mother and +Helen to visit her, especially the latter, who would thus have a chance +to see something of the world. + +"When I get a house of my own I mean she shall live with me all the +while," she said, stooping to gather a tuft of wild bluebells growing in +a marshy spot. + +Wilford winced a little, for in his estimation Helen Lennox formed no +part of that household to be established on Madison Square, but he would +not so soon tear down Katy's castles, and so he merely remarked as she +asked if it would not be nice to have Helen with them. + +"Yes, very nice, but do not speak of it to her yet, as it will probably +be some time before she will come to us, and she had better not have it +in anticipation." + +And so Helen never knew the honor in store for her as she stood in the +doorway anxiously waiting for her sister, who, she feared, would take +cold from being out so long. Something though in Katy's face made her +guess that to her was lost forever the bright little sister whom she +loved so dearly, and fleeing up the narrow stairway to her room she +wept bitterly as she thought of the coming time when she would share +that room alone, and know that never again would a little golden head +lie upon her neck just as it had lain, for there would be a new love, a +new interest between them, a love for the man whose voice she could hear +now talking to her mother in the peculiar tone he always assumed when +speaking to any one of them excepting Morris or Katy. + +"I wish it were not wrong to hate him," she exclaimed passionately; "it +would be such a relief; but if he is only kind to Katy, I do not care +how much he despises us," and bathing her face in water Helen sat down +by her window, gazing out upon the fresh green earth, where the young +grass was springing, wondering if Mr. Cameron took her sister, when it +would probably be. "Not this year or more," she said, "for Katy is so +young;" but on this point she was soon set right by Katy herself, who, +leaving her lover alone with her mother, stole up to tell her sister the +good news. + +"Yes, I know; I guessed as much when you came back from the meadows," +and Helen's voice was very unsteady in its tone as she smoothed back the +soft rings clustering around her sister's brow. + +"Crying. Helen! oh, don't. I shall love you just the same, and you are +coming to live with us in the new house on Madison Square," Katy said, +forgetting Wilford's instructions in her desire to comfort Helen, who +broke down again, while Katy's tears were mingled with her own. + +It was the first time Katy had thought what it would be to leave forever +the good, patient sister, who had been so true, so kind, treating her +like a petted kitten and standing between her and every hardship. + +"Don't cry, Nellie," she said, twining her arms around her neck; "New +York is not far away, and I shall come so often--that is, after we +return from Europe. Did I tell you we are going there first, and Wilford +will not wait, but says we must be married the tenth of June; that's his +birthday--thirty--and he is telling mother now." + +"So soon--oh, Katy! and you so young!" was all Helen could say, as with +quivering lip she kissed her sister's hand raised to wipe her tears +away. + +"Yes, it is soon, and I am young; but Wilford is in such a hurry; he +don't care," Katy replied, trying to comfort Helen, and begging of her +not to cry so hard. + +No, Wilford did not care, as it would seem, how much he wrung the hearts +of Katy's family by taking her from them at once, and by dictating to a +certain extent the way in which he would take her. There must be no +invited guests, he said; no lookers-on, except such as chose to go to +the church where the ceremony would, of course, be performed, and from +which place he should go directly to the Boston train. It was his wish, +too, that the matter should be kept as quiet as possible, and not be +generally discussed in the neighborhood, as he disliked being a subject +for gossip. And Mrs. Lennox, to whom this was said, promised compliance +with everything, or if she ventured to object she found herself borne +down by a stronger will than her own, and weakly yielded, her manner +fully testifying to her delight at the honor conferred upon her by this +high marriage of her child. Wilford knew just how pleased she was, and +her obsequious manner annoyed him far more than did Helen's blunt, +straightforwardness, when, after supper was over, she told him how +averse she was to his taking Katy so soon, adding still further that if +it must be, she saw no harm in inviting a few of their neighbors. It was +customary--it would be expected, she said, while Mrs. Lennox, emboldened +by Helen's boldness, chimed in, "at least your folks will come; I shall +be glad to meet your mother." + +Wilford was very polite to them both; very good-humored, but he kept to +his first position, and poor Mrs. Lennox saw fade into airy nothingness +all her visions of roasted fowls and frosted cake trimmed with myrtle +and flowers, with hosts of the Silverton people there to admire and +partake of the marriage feast. It was too bad, and so Aunt Betty said, +when, after Wilford had gone to Linwood, the family sat together around +the kitchen stove, talking the matter over. + +"Yes, it was too bad, when there was that white hen turkey she could fat +up so easy before June, and she knew how to make 'lection cake that +would melt in your mouth, and was enough sight better than the black +stuff they called weddin' cake. Vum! she meant to try what she could do +with Mr. Cameron." + +And next morning when he came again she did try, holding out as +inducements why he should be married the night before starting for +Boston, the "white hen, turkey, the 'lection cake, and the gay old times +the young folks would have playing snap-and-catchem; or if they had a +mind, they could dance a bit in the kitchen. She didn't believe in it, +to be sure--none of the orthodox did; but as Wilford was a 'Piscopal, +and that was a 'Piscopal quirk, it wouldn't harm for once." + +Wilford tried not to show his disgust, and only Helen suspected how hard +it was for him to keep down his utter contempt. She saw it in his eyes, +which resembled two smoldering volcanoes as they rested upon Aunt Betsy +during her harangue. + +"Thank you, madam, for your good intentions, but I think we will +dispense with the turkey and the cake," was all he said, though he did +smile at the old lady's definition of dancing, which for once she might +allow. + +Even Morris, when appealed to, decided with Wilford against Mrs. Lennox +and Aunt Betsy, knowing how unequal he was to the task which would +devolve on him in case of a bridal party at the farmhouse. In +comparative silence he had heard from Wilford of his engagement, +offering no objection when told how soon the marriage would take place, +but congratulating him so quietly that, if Wilford had retained a +feeling of jealousy, it would have disappeared; Morris was so seemingly +indifferent to everything except Katy's happiness. But Wilford did not +observe closely, and failed to detect the hopeless look in Morris' eyes, +or the whiteness which settled about his mouth as he fulfilled the +duties of host and sought to entertain his guest. Those were dark hours +for Morris Grant, and he was glad when at the end of the second day +Wilford's visit expired, and he saw him driven from Linwood around to +the farmhouse, where he would say his parting words to Katy and then go +back to New York. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +GETTING READY TO BE MARRIED. + + +"Miss Helen Lennox, Silverton, Mass." + +This was the superscription of a letter, postmarked New York, and +brought to Helen within a week after Wilford's departure. It was his +handwriting, too; and wondering what he could have written to her, Helen +broke the seal, starting as there dropped into her lap a check for five +hundred dollars. + +"What does it mean?" she said, her cheek flushing with anger and +insulted pride as she read the following brief lines: + +"NEW YORK, May 8th. + +"MISS HELEN LENNOX: Please pardon the liberty I take in inclosing the sum +of five hundred dollars, to be used by you in procuring whatever Katy may +need for present necessities. Presuming that the country seamstresses +have not the best facilities for obtaining the latest fashions, my mother +proposes sending out her own private dressmaker, Mrs. Ryan. You may look +for her the last of the week. + +"Yours truly, WILFORD CAMERON." + +It would be impossible to describe Helen's indignation as she read this +letter, which roused her to a pitch of anger such as Wilford Cameron had +never imagined when he wrote the offensive lines. He had really no +intention of insulting her. On the contrary, the gift of money was +kindly meant, for he knew very well that Uncle Ephraim was poor, while +the part referring to the dressmaker was wholly his mother's +proposition, to which he had acceded, knowing how much confidence Juno +had in her taste, and that whatever she might see at the farmhouse would +remain a secret with her, or at most be confined to the ears of his +mother and sisters. He wished Katy to look well, and foolishly fancying +that no country artiste could make her look so, he consented to Mrs. +Ryan's going, never suspecting the storm of anger it would rouse in +Helen, whose first impulse was to throw the check into the fire. Her +second, however, was soberer. She would not destroy it, nor tell any one +she had it but Morris--he should know the whole. Accordingly, without a +word to any one, she repaired to Linwood, finding Morris at home, and +startling him with the vehemence of her anger as she explained the +nature of her errand. + +"If I disliked Wilford Cameron before, I hate him now. Yes, hate him," +she said, stamping her little foot in fury. + +"Why, Helen!" Morris exclaimed, laying his hand reprovingly on her +shoulder. "Is this the right spirit for one who professes better things? +Stop a moment and think." + +"I know it is wrong," Helen answered, the tears glittering in her eyes; +"but somehow since he came after Katy, I have grown so hard, so wicked +toward Mr. Cameron. He seems so proud, so unapproachable. Say, Cousin +Morris, do you think him a good man--that is, good enough for Katy?" + +"Most people would call him too good for her," Morris replied. "And, in +a worldly point of view, she is doing well, while Mr. Cameron, I +believe, is better than three-fourths of the men who marry our girls. He +is very proud; but that results from his education and training. Looking +only from a New York standpoint he misjudges country people, but he will +appreciate you by and by. Do not begin by hating him so cordially." + +"Yes, but this money. Now, Morris, we do not want him to get Katy's +outfit. I would rather go without clothes my whole life. Shall I send it +back?" + +"I think that the best disposition to make of it," Morris replied. "As +your brother, I can and will supply Katy's needs." + +"I knew you would, Morris. What should we do without you?" and Helen +smiled gratefully upon the doctor, who in word and deed was to her like +a dear brother. "And I'll send it to-day, in time to keep that dreadful +Mrs. Ryan from coming; for, Morris, I won't have any of Wilford +Cameron's dressmakers in the house." + +Morris could not help smiling at Helen's energetic manner as she +hurried to his library and taking his pen wrote to Wilford Cameron as +follows: + +"SILVERTON, May 9th. + +"Mr. WILFORD CAMERON: I give you credit for the kindest of motives in +sending the check, which I now return to you, with my compliments. We are +not as poor as you suppose, and would almost deem it sacrilege to let +another than ourselves provide for Katy so long as she is ours. And +furthermore, that Mrs. Ryan's services will not be needed, so it is not +worth her while to make a journey here for nothing. Yours, + +"HELEN LENNOX." + +Helen felt better after this letter had gone, wondering often how it +would be received, and if Wilford would be angry. She hoped he would, +and his mother too. "The idea of sending that Ryan woman to us, as if we +did not know anything!" and Helen's lip curled scornfully as she thus +denounced the Ryan woman, whose trunk was all packed with paper patterns +and devices of various kinds when the letter arrived saying she was not +needed. Being a woman of few words, she quietly unpacked her patterns +and went back to the work she was engaged upon when Mrs. Cameron +proposed her going into the country. Juno, on the contrary, flew into a +violent passion to think their first friendly advances should be thus +received. Bell laughed immoderately, saying she rather liked Helen +Lennox's spirit, and almost wished her brother had chosen her instead of +the other, who, she presumed, was a milk and water thing, even if Mrs. +Woodhull did extol her so highly. Mrs. Cameron felt the rebuff keenly, +wincing under it, and saying "that Helen Lennox must be a very rude, +ill-bred girl," and hoping her son would draw the line of division +between his wife and her family so tightly that the sister could never +pass over it. She had received the news of her son's engagement without +opposition, for she knew the time for that was passed. Wilford would +marry Katy Lennox, and she must make the best of it, so she offered no +word of remonstrance, but, when they were alone, she said to him: "Did +you tell her? Does she know it all?" + +"No, mother," and the old look of pain came back into Wilford's face. +"I meant to do so, and I actually began, but she stopped me short, +saying she did not wish to hear my faults, she would rather find them +out herself. Away from her it is very easy to think what I will do, but +when the trial comes I find it hard, we have kept it so long; but I +shall tell her yet; not till after we are married though, and I have +made her love me even more than she does now. She will not mind it then. +I shall take her where I first met Genevra, and there I will tell her. +Is that right?" + +"Yes, if you think so," Mrs. Cameron replied. + +Whatever it was which Wilford had to tell Katy Lennox, it was very +evident that he and his mother looked at it differently, he regarding it +as a duty he owed to Katy not to conceal from her what might possibly +influence her decision, while his mother only wished the secret told in +hopes that it would prevent the marriage; but now that Wilford had +deferred it till after the marriage, she saw no reason why it need be +told at all. At least Wilford could do as he thought best, and she +changed the conversation from Genevra to Helen's letter, which had so +upset her plans. That her future daughter-in-law was handsome she did +not doubt, for Wilford said so, and Mrs. Woodhull said so in her letter +of congratulation; but she, of course, had no manner, no style, and as a +means of improving her in the latter respect, and making her presentable +at the altar and in Boston, she had proposed sending out Ryan, as she +was called in the family; but that project had failed, and Helen Lennox +did not stand very high in the Cameron family, though Wilford in his +heart felt an increased respect for her independent spirit, +notwithstanding that she had thwarted his designs. + +"I have another idea," Mrs. Cameron said to her daughters that +afternoon, when talking with them upon the subject. "Wilford tells me +Katy and Bell are about the same size and figure, and Ryan shall make up +a traveling suit proper for the occasion. Of course there will be no one +at the wedding for whom we care, but in Boston, at the Revere, it will +be different. Cousin Harvey boards there, and she is very stylish. I saw +some elegant gray poplins, of the finest luster, at Stewarts yesterday. +Suppose we drive down this afternoon." + +This was said to Juno as the more fashionable one of the sisters, but +Bell answered quickly: "Poplin, mother, on Katy? It will not become her +style, I am sure, though suitable for many. If I am to be fitted I shall +say a word about the fabric. Get a little checked silk, as expensive as +you like. It will suit her better than a heavy poplin." + +Perhaps Bell was right, Mrs. Cameron said; they would look at both, and +as the result of this looking, two dresses, one of the finest poplin, +and one of the softest, richest, plaided silk were given the next day +into Mrs. Ryan's hands, with injunctions to spare no pains or expense in +trimming and making both. And so the dressmaking for Katy's bridal was +proceeding in New York, in spite of Helen's letter; while down in +Silverton, at the farmhouse, there were numerous consultations as to +what was proper and what was not, Helen sometimes almost wishing she had +thrown off her pride and suffered Mrs. Ryan to come. Katy would look +well in anything, but Helen knew there were certain styles preferable to +others, and in a maze of perplexity she consulted with this and that +individual, until all Silverton knew what was projected, each one +offering the benefit of her advice until Helen and Katy both were nearly +distracted. Aunt Betsy suggested a blue delaine and round cape, offering +to get it herself, and actually purchasing the material with her own +funds, saved from drying apples. That would answer for one dress, Helen +said, but not for the wedding; and she was becoming more and more +undecided, when Morris came to the rescue, telling Katy of a young woman +who had for some time past been his patient, but who was now nearly well +and anxious to obtain work again. She had evidently seen better days, he +said; was very ladylike in her manner, and possessed of a great deal of +taste, he imagined; besides that, she had worked in one of the largest +shops in New York. "As I am going this afternoon over to North +Silverton," he added, in conclusion, "and shall pass Miss Hazelton's +house, you or Helen might accompany me and see for yourself." + +It was decided that Helen should go, and about four o'clock she found +herself ringing at the cottage over whose door hung the sign: "Miss M. +Hazelton, Fashionable Dressmaker." She was at home, so said the little +slipshod girl who answered the ring, and in a few moments Helen was +talking with Marian Hazelton, whose face showed signs of recent illness, +but, nevertheless, very attractive, from its peculiarly sad expression +and the soft liquid eyes of dark blue, which looked as if they were not +strangers to tears. At twenty she must have been strikingly beautiful; +and even now, at thirty, few ladies could have vied with her had she +possessed the means for gratifying her taste and studying her style. +About the mouth, so perfect in repose, there was when she spoke a +singularly sweet smile, which in a measure prepared one for the low, +silvery voice, which had a strange note of mournful music in its tone, +making Helen start as it asked: "Did you wish to see me?" + +"Yes; Dr. Grant told me you were--" Helen paused here, for though +Marian Hazelton's dress indicated poverty, the words "were wanting work" +seemed at variance with her whole being, and so she changed her form of +speech, and said instead: "Told me you could make dresses, and I drove +around with him to secure your services, if possible, for my sister, who +is soon to be married. We would like it so much if you could go to our +house instead of having Katy come here." + +Marian Hazelton was needing work, for there was due more than three +months' board, besides the doctor's bill, and so, though it was not +her custom to go from house to house, she would, in this instance, +accommodate Miss Lennox, especially as during her illness her customers +had many of them gone elsewhere, and her little shop was nearly broken +up. "Was it an elaborate trousseau she was expected to make?" and she +bent down to turn over some fashion plates lying upon the table. + +"Oh, no! we are plain country people. We cannot afford as much for Katy +as we would like; besides, I dare say Mr. Cameron will prefer selecting +most of her wardrobe himself, as he is very wealthy and fastidious," +Helen replied, repenting the next instant the part concerning Mr. +Cameron's wealth, as that might look like boasting to Miss Hazelton, +whose head was bent lower over the magazine as she said: "Did I +understand that the gentleman's name was Cameron?" + +"Yes, Wilford Cameron, from New York," Helen answered, holding up her +skirts and s-s-kt-ing at the kitten which came running toward her, +evidently intent upon springing into her lap. + +Fear of cats was Helen's weakness, if weakness it can be called, and in +her efforts to frighten her tormentor she did not look again at Miss +Hazelton until startled by a gasping cry and heavy fall. Marian had +fainted, and Helen was just raising her head from the floor to her lap +when Morris appeared, relieving her of her burden, of whom he took +charge until she showed signs of life. In her alarm Helen forgot +entirely what they were talking about when the faint came on, and her +first question put to Marian was: "Were you taken suddenly ill? Why did +you faint?" + +There was no answer at first, except tears, which quivered on the long +eyelashes, and then rolled down the cheeks; but when she did speak she +said: "I am still so weak that the least exertion affects me, and I was +bending over the table; it will soon pass off." + +If she was so weak, she was not able to work, Helen said, proposing that +the plan be for the present abandoned; but to this Marian would not +listen; her great eager eyes had in them so scared a look that Helen +said no more on that subject, but made arrangements for her coming to +them at once. Morris was to leave his patient some medicine, and while +he was preparing it Helen had time to notice her more carefully, +admiring her ladylike manners, and thinking her smile the sweetest she +had ever seen. Especially was this the case when it was given to Morris, +and Helen felt that in his presence Miss Hazelton was, if possible, +softer, sweeter, more gracious than before; and still there was nothing +immodest or unwomanly in her manner, nothing but that peculiar air which +attractive women sometimes put on before the other sex. She might not +have been conscious of it herself; and yet, when once she met Helen's +eyes as she was smiling gratefully upon Dr. Morris, there came a sudden +change into her face, and she bit her lip with evident vexation. Could +it be that she was fascinated by the young physician who had attended +her so long, and who, within the last few months, had grown so popular? +Helen asked herself this question several times on her way home, and +inquired of Morris what he knew of her. + +"Nothing, except that she came to North Silverton a year ago, opening +her shop, and by her faithfulness, and pleasant, obliging manners, +winning favor with all who employed her. Previous to her sickness she +had a few times attended St. Paul's at South Silverton, that being the +church of her choice. Had Helen never observed her?" + +No, Helen had not. And then she spoke of her fainting, telling how +sudden it was and wondering if she was subject to such turns. Marian +Hazelton had made a strong impression on Helen's mind, and she talked +of her so much that Katy waited her appearance at the farmhouse with +feverish anxiety. It was evening when she came, looking very white, and +seeming to Helen as if she had changed since she saw her first. In her +eyes there was a kind of hopeless, weary expression, while her smile +made one almost wish to cry, it was so sad, and yet so strangely sweet. +Katy felt its influence at once, growing very confidential with the +stranger, who, during the half hour in which they were accidentally left +alone, drew from her every particular concerning her intended marriage. +Very closely the dark blue eyes scrutinized little Katy, taking in first +the faultless beauty of her face, and then going away down into the +inmost depths of her character, as if to find out what was there. + +"Pure, loving, innocent, and unsuspecting," was Marian Hazelton's +verdict, and she followed wistfully every movement of the young girl as +she flitted around the room, chatting as familiarly with the dressmaker +as if she were a friend long known instead of an entire stranger. + +"You look very young to be married," said Miss Hazelton to her once, and +shaking back her short rings of hair Katy answered: "Eighteen next +Fourth of July; but Mr. Cameron is thirty." + +"Is he a widower?" was the next question, which Katy answered with a +merry laugh. "Mercy, no! I marry a widower! How funny! I don't believe +he ever cared a fig for anybody but me. I mean to ask him." + +"I would," and the pale lips shut tightly together, while a resentful +gleam shot for a moment across Marian's face; but it quickly passed +away, and her smile was as sweet as ever as she at last bade the family +good-night and repaired to the little room where Wilford Cameron once +had slept. + +A long time she stood before the glass, brushing her dark, abundant +hair, and intently regarding her own features, while in her eyes there +was a hard, terrible look, from which Katy Lennox would have shrunk +abashed. But that too passed, and the eyes grew soft with tears as she +turned away, and falling on her knees moaned sadly: "I never will--no, I +never will, God help me to keep the promise. Were it the other--Helen--I +might, for she could bear it; but Katy, that child---no, I never will," +and as the words died on her lips there came struggling up from her +heart a prayer for Katy Lennox's happiness, as fervent and sincere as +any which had ever been made for her since she was betrothed. + +They grew to liking each other rapidly, Marian and Katy, the latter of +whom thought her new friend greatly out of place as a dressmaker, +telling her she ought to marry some rich man, calling her Marian +altogether, and questioning her very closely of her previous life. But +Marian only told her that she was born in London; that she learned her +trade on the Isle of Wight, near to the Osborne House, where the royal +family sometimes came, and that she had often seen the present Queen, +thus trying to divert Katy's mind from asking what there was besides +that apprenticeship to the Misses True on the Isle of Wight. Once, +indeed, she went further, learning that Marian's friends were dead; that +she had come to America in hopes of doing better than she could at home; +that she had stayed in New York until her health began to fail, and then +had tried what country air would do, coming to North Silverton because +a young woman who worked in the same shop was acquainted there, and +recommended the place. This was all Katy could learn, and Marian's heart +history, if she had one, was guarded carefully. One day as they sat +together alone, when Helen had gone to the village to do some shopping +for Katy, Marian abruptly said: "I have lived in New York, you know, +and why do you not ask if I ever saw these Camerons?" + +"You! did you?--have you, really?--and what are they like?" Katy almost +screamed, skipping across the floor and seating herself by Marian, who +replied: "Much like other ladies of their stamp--proud and fashionable. +The father I never saw, but your Mr. Cameron I used to see in the street +driving his handsome bays." + +Anything relating to the pride and fashion of her future relations made +Katy uncomfortable, and she remained silent, cutting into bits a piece +of silk, until Marian continued: "Sometimes there was a child in the +Cameron carriage. Do you know who it was?" + +Delighted that she too could impart information, Katy hastened to say +that it was probably "little Jamie, the orphan grandchild, whose parents +died in Italy. Morris told me he met them in Paris, and he said Jamie's +father died of consumption, and the mother, too, either then or +afterward. At all events Jamie is an orphan and a cripple. He will never +walk, Morris says; and he told me so much about him--how patient he was +and how good." + +Katy did not see the tears which threatened to mar the silk on which +Marian Hazelton was working, for they were brushed away almost as +quickly as they came, while in her usual voice she asked: "What was the +cause of his lameness?" + +"I don't know just how it happened," Katy replied, "but believe it +resulted from the carelessness of a servant in leaving him alone, or +something." + +"A servant!" Marian repeated, a flush rising to her cheek and a strange +light flashing on her eye. + +She had heard all she cared to hear of the Camerons that day, and +she was glad when Helen returned from the village, as her appearance +diverted Katy's mind into another channel, and in examining the dress +trimmings which Helen had brought, she forgot to talk of Jamie Cameron. +The trimmings, fringe and buttons were for the wedding dress, the one in +which Katy was to be married, and which Helen reserved the right to make +to herself. Miss Hazelton must fit it, of course, but to her belonged +the privilege of making it, every stitch; Katy would think more of it if +she did it all, she said; but she did not confess how the bending over +that one dress, both early and late, was the escape valve for the +feeling which otherwise would have found vent in passionate tears. Helen +was very wretched during the pleasant May days she usually enjoyed so +much, but over which now a dark pall was spread, shutting out all the +brightness and leaving only the terrible certainty that Katy was lost to +her forever--bright, frolicsome Katy, who, without a shadow on her heart +sported amid the bridal finery, unmindful of the anguish tugging at the +hearts of both the patient women, Marian and Helen, who worked on so +silently, reserving their tears for the night time, when Katy lay +sweetly sleeping and dreaming of Wilford Cameron. Helen had ceased to +think that Hiss Hazelton had any designs on Dr. Grant, for her manner +toward Uncle Ephraim was just as soft and conciliating, and she +dismissed that subject from her mind with the reflection that it was the +nature of some girls to be very pretty to the gentlemen, without meaning +any harm. She liked Marian on the whole, regarding her as a quiet woman, +who knew her business and kept to it, but never guessing that her +feelings, too, were stirred to their very depths as the bridal +preparations progressed. She only knew how wretched she was herself, and +how hard it was to fight her tears back as she bent over the plaided +silk, weaving in with every stitch a part of the clinging love which +each day grew stronger for the only sister, who would soon be gone, +leaving her alone. Only once did she break entirely down, and that was +when the dress was done and Katy tried it on, admiring its effect, and +having a second glass brought that she might see it behind. + +"Isn't it lovely?" she exclaimed; "and the more valuable because you +made it, I shall think of you every time I wear it," and the impulsive +girl found her arms around Helen's neck, kissing her lovingly, while +Helen sank into a chair and sobbed aloud: "Oh, Katy, darling Katy! you +won't forget me when you are rich and admired and can have all you want? +You will remember us here at home, so sad and lonely? You don't know how +desolate it will be, knowing you are gone, never to come back again, +just as you go away." + +In an instant Katy was on her knees before Helen whom she tried to +comfort by telling her how she should come back, come often, too, +staying a long while; and that when she had a city home of her own +she should live with her for good, and they would be so happy. + +"I cannot quite give Wilford up to please you," she said, when that +gigantic sacrifice suggested itself as something which it was possible +Helen might require of her; "but I will do anything else, only please +don't cry, darling Nellie--please don't cry. It spoils all my pleasure," +and Katy's soft hands wiped away the tears running so fast over her +sister's face. + +After that Helen did not cry again in Katy's presence, but the latter +knew she wanted to and it made her rather sad, particularly when she saw +reflected in the faces of the other members of the family the grief she +had witnessed in Helen. Even Uncle Ephraim was not as cheerful as usual, +and once when Katy came upon him in the woodshed chamber, where he was +shelling corn, she found him resting from his work and looking from the +window far off across the hills, with a look which made her guess he was +thinking of her, and stealing up beside him she laid her hand upon his +wrinkled face, whispering softly: "Poor Uncle Eph, are you sorry, too?" + +He knew what she meant, and the aged chin quivered, while a big tear +dropped into the tub of corn, as he replied: "Yes, Katy-did--very +sorry." + +That was all he said, and Katy, after smoothing his cheek a moment +kissed his silvery hair and then stole away, wondering if every girl's +family felt so badly before she was married, and wondering next if the +love to which she was going was equal to the love of home, which, as the +days went by, grew stronger and stronger, enfolding her in a mighty +embrace, which could only be severed by bitter tears and fierce +heart-pangs, such as death itself sometimes brings. In that household +there was, after Katy, no one glad of that marriage except the mother, +and she was only glad because of the position it would bring to her +daughter. But among them all Morris suffered most, and suffered more +because he had to endure in secret, to cover up his sorrow so that no +one guessed the pain it was for him to go each day where Katy was, and +watch her as she sometimes donned a part of her finery for his benefit, +asking him once if he did not almost wish he were in Wilford's place, so +as to have as pretty a bride as she should make. Then Marian Hazelton +glanced up in time to see the expression of his face, a look whose +meaning she readily recognized, and when Dr. Grant left the farmhouse +that day, another than himself knew of his love for Katy, drawing her +breath hurriedly as she thought of taking back the words "I never will," +of revoking the decision and telling Katy what Wilford Cameron should +have told her long before. But the wild wish fled, and Wilford's secret +was safe, while Marian watched Morris Grant with a pitying interest as +he came among them, speaking always in the same kind, gentle tone, and +trying so hard to enter into Katy's joy. + +"His burden is greater than mine. God help us both," Marian said, as she +resumed her work. + +And so amid joy and gladness, silent tears and breaking hearts the +preparations went on until all was done, and only three days remained +before the eventful tenth. Marian Hazelton was going home, for she would +not stay at the farmhouse until all was over, notwithstanding Katy's +entreaties, joined to those of Helen. + +"Perhaps she would come to the church," she said, "though she could not +promise;" and her manner was so strange as she gathered up her things +that Katy wondered if in any way she could have been offended, and at +last said to her timidly, as she stood with her bonnet on waiting for +Uncle Ephraim: "You are not angry with me for anything, are you?" + +"Angry with you!" and Katy never forgot the glitter of the tearful eyes, +or their peculiar expression as they turned upon her. "No, oh, no; I +could not be angry with you, and yet, Katy Lennox, some in my position +would hate you, contrasting your prospects with their own; but I do not; +I love you; I bless you, and pray that you may be happy with your +husband; honor him, obey him if need be, and above all, never give him +the slightest cause to doubt you. You will have admirers, Katy Lennox. +In New York others than your husband will speak to you words of +flattery, but don't you listen. Remember what I tell you; and now, +again, God bless you." + +She touched her lips to Katy's forehead, and when they were withdrawn +there were great tears there which she had left! Marian's tears on +Katy's brow; and truly, it was very meet that just before her bridal day +Wilford Cameron's bride should receive such baptism from Marian +Hazelton. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +BEFORE THE MARRIAGE. + + +On the morning of the ninth day of June, 18--, Wilford Cameron stood in +his father's parlor, surrounded by the entire family, who, after their +usually early breakfast, had assembled to bid him good-by, for Wilford +was going for his bride, and it would be months, if not a year, ere he +returned to them again. They had given him up to his idol, asking only +that none of the idol's family should be permitted to cross their +threshold, and also that the idol should not often be allowed the +privilege of returning to the place from whence she came. These +restrictions had emanated from the female portion of the Cameron family, +the mother, Juno and Bell. The father, on the contrary, had sworn +roundly as he would sometimes swear at what he called the contemptible +pride of his wife and daughters. Katy was sure of a place in his heart +just because of the pride which was building up so high a wall between +her and her friends, and when at parting he held his son's hand in his, +he said: + +"I charge you, Will, be kind to that young girl, and don't, for Heaven's +sake, go to cramming her with airs and nonsense which she does not +understand. Tell her I'll be a father to her; her own, you say, is dead, +and give her this as my bridal present." + +He held out a small-sized box containing a most exquisite set of pearls, +such as he fancied would be becoming to the soft, girlish beauty Wilford +had described. Something in his father's manner touched Wilford closely, +making him resolve anew that if Kitty were not happy as Mrs. Cameron it +should not be his fault. His mother had said all she wished to say, +while his sisters had been gracious enough to send their love to the +bride, Bell hoping she would look as well in the poplin and little plaid +as she had done. Either was suitable for the wedding day, Mrs. Cameron +said, and she might take her choice, only Wilford must see that she did +not wear with the poplin the gloves and belt intended for the silk; +country people had so little taste, and she did want Katy to look well, +even if she were not there to see her. And with his brain a confused +medley of poplins and plaids, belts and gloves, pearls and Katy, Wilford +finally tore himself away, and at three o'clock that afternoon drove +through Silverton village, past the little church which the Silverton +maidens were decorating with flowers, pausing a moment in their work to +look at him as he went by. Among them was Marian Hazelton, but she did +not look up, she only bent lower over her work, thus hiding the tear +which dropped from the delicate buds she was fashioning into the words, +"Joy to the Bride," intending the whole as the center of the wreath to +be placed over the altar just where all could see it. + +"The handsomest man I ever saw," was the verdict of most of the girls as +they came hack to their work, while Wilford drove on to the farmhouse +where Katy had been so anxiously watching for him. + +When he came in sight, however, and she knew he was actually there, she +ran away to hide her blushes and the feeling of awe which had come +suddenly over her for the man who was to be her husband. But Helen bade +her go back, and so she went coyly in to Wilford, who met her with +loving caresses, and then put upon her finger the superb diamond which +he said he had thought to send as a pledge of their engagement, but had +finally concluded to wait and present himself. Katy had heard much of +diamonds, and seen some in Canandaigua; but the idea that she, plain +Katy Lennox, would ever wear them, had never once entered her mind; and +now as she looked at the brilliant gem sparkling upon her hand, she felt +a thrill of something more than joy at that good fortune which had +brought her to diamonds. Vanity, we suppose it was--such vanity as was +very natural in her case, and she thought she should never tire of +looking at the precious stone; but when Wilford showed her next the +plain broad band of gold, and tried it on her third finger, asking if +she knew what it meant, the true woman spoke within her, and she +answered, tearfully: + +"Yes, I know, and I will try to prove worthy of what I shall be to you +when I wear that ring for good." + +Katy was very quiet for a moment as she sat with her head nestled +against Wilford's bosom, but when he observed that she was looking +tired, and asked if she had been working hard, the quiet fit was broken, +and she told him of the dress "we had made," that "we" referring solely +to Helen and Marian, for Katy had hardly done a thing. But it did not +matter; she fancied she had, and she asked if he did not wish to see her +dresses. Wilford knew it would please Katy, and so, though he cared very +little about it, he followed her into the adjoining room where they were +still spread out upon the tables and chairs, with Helen in their midst, +ready to pack them away. Wilford thought of Mrs. Ryan and the check, but +he shook hands with Helen very civilly, saying to her, playfully: + +"I suppose that you are willing I should take your sister with me this +time." + +Helen could not answer, but turned away to hide her face, while Katy +showed to her lover one dress after another, until she came to the +little plaid, which, with a bright blush she told him "was the very +thing itself--the one intended for to-morrow, and asked if he did not +like it." + +Wilford could not help telling her yes, for he knew she wished him to do +so, but in his heart he was thinking bad thoughts against the wardrobe +of his bride-elect--thoughts which would have won for him the title of +hen-huzzy from Helen, could she have known them. And yet Wilford did not +deserve that name. Accustomed all his life to hearing dress discussed in +his mother's parlor, and in his sister's boudoir, it was natural he +should think more of it and notice it more than Morris Grant would do, +while for the last five weeks he had heard at home of little else than +the probably _tout ensemble_ of Katy's wardrobe, bought and made in the +country, his mother deciding finally to write to her cousin, Mrs. +Harvey, who boarded at the Revere, and have her see it before Katy left +the city. Under these circumstances, it was not strange that Wilford did +not enter into Katy's delight, even after she told him how Helen had +made every stitch of the dress herself, and that it would on that +account be very dear to her. This was a favorable time for getting the +poplin off his mind, and with a premonitory ahem, he said: "Yes, it is +very nice, no doubt; but," and here he turned to Helen, "after Mrs. +Ryan's services were declined, my mother determined to have two dresses +fitted to Sister Bell, who I think is just Katy's size and figure. I +need not say"--and his eyes still rested on Helen, who gave him back an +unflinching glance--"I need not say that no pains have been spared to +make these garments everything they should be in point of quality and +style. I have them in my trunk," and, tuning now to Katy, "it is my +mother's special request that one of them be worn to-morrow. You could +take your choice, she said--either was suitable. I will bring them for +your inspection." + +He left the room, while Helen's face resembled a dark thundercloud, +whose lightnings shone in her flashing eyes as she looked after him and +then back to where Katy stood, bewildered and wondering what was wrong. + +"Who is Mrs. Ryan?" she asked. "What does he mean?" but before Helen +could command her voice to explain, Wilford was with them again, +bringing the dresses, over which Katy nearly went wild. + +She had never seen anything as elegant as the rich heavy poplin or the +soft lustrous silk, while even Helen acknowledged that there was about +them a finish which threw Miss Hazelton's quite in the shade. + +"Beautiful!" Katy exclaimed; "and trimmed so exquisitely! I do so hope +they will fit!" + +"I dare say they will," Wilford replied, enjoying her appreciation of +his mother's gift. "At all events they will answer for to-morrow, and +any needful alterations can be made in Boston. Which will you wear?" + +"Oh, I don't know. I wish I could wear both. Helen, which shall I?" and +Katy appealed to her sister, who could endure no more, but hid her head +among the pillows of the bed and cried. + +Katy understood the whole, and dropping upon the floor the silk to +which she inclined the most, she flew to Helen's side, and whispered to +her: "Don't, Nellie, right before Wilford. I won't wear either of them. +I'll wear the one you made. It was mean and vain in me to think of doing +otherwise." + +During this scene Wilford had stolen from the room, and with him gone +Helen was herself, capable of judging candidly and sensibly. She knew +the city silk, which cost three dollars per yard, and was fastened with +buttons of gold, having Katy's initial upon their face, was handsomer +and better suited for Wilford Cameron's bride than the country plaid, +costing one dollar per yard, and trimmed with buttons at eighteen pence +per dozen, and so she said to Katy: "I would rather you should wear the +one they sent. It will become you better. Suppose you try it on," and in +seeking to gratify her sister Helen forgot in part her own cruel +disappointment, and that her work of days had been for naught. The dress +fitted well, though Katy pronounced it too tight and too long. A few +moments, however, accustomed her to the length, and then her mother, +Aunt Hannah, and Aunt Betsy came to see and admire, while Katy proposed +going out to Wilford, but Helen kept her back. Aunt Betsy remarking, +under her breath, that "she didn't see for the life on her how Catherine +could be so free and easy with that man when just the sight of him was +enough to take away a body's breath." + +"More free and easy than she will be by and by," was Helen's mental +comment as she proceeded quietly to pack the trunk which Morris had +brought for the voyage across the sea, dropping into it many a tear as +she folded away one article after another, and wondered under what +circumstances she should see them again if she saw them ever. + +Helen was a Christian girl, and many a time had she prayed in secret +that He who rules the deep would keep its waters calm and still while +her sister was upon them, and she prayed so now, constantly, burying her +face once in her hands, and asking that Katy might come back to them +unchanged, if possible, and asking next that God would remove from her +heart all bitterness toward the bridegroom, who was to be her brother, +and whom, after that short, earnest prayer, she found herself liking +better. He loved Katy, she was sure, and that was all she cared for, +though she did wish he would release her before twelve o'clock on that +night, the last she would spend with them for a long, long time. But +Wilford kept her with him in the parlor, kissing away the tears which +flowed so fast when she recalled the prayer said that night by Uncle +Ephraim, with her kneeling by him as she might never kneel again. He had +called her by her name and his voice was very sad as he commended her to +God, asking that he would "be with our little Katy wherever she might +go, keeping her in all the mewandering scenes of life, and bringing her +at last to his own heavenly home." + +Wilford himself was touched, and though he noticed the deacon's +pronunciation, he did not even smile, and his manner was very +respectful, when after the prayer over and they were alone, the +white-haired deacon felt it incumbent upon him to say a few words +concerning Katy. + +"She's a young, rattle-headed creature, not much like your own kin, I +guess; but, young man, she is as dear as the apple of our eyes, and I +charge you to treat her well. She has never had a crossways word spoke +to her all her life, and don't you be the first to speak it, nor let +your folks browbeat her." + +As they were alone, and it was easier for Wilford to be humble and +conciliatory, he promised all the old man required, and then went back +to Katy, going into raptures over the beautiful little Geneva watch +which Morris had just sent over as her bridal gift from him. Even Mrs. +Cameron herself could have found no fault with this, and Wilford praised +it as much as Katy could desire, noticing the inscription: "Katy, from +Cousin Morris, June 10th, 18--," wishing that after the "Katy" had come +the name Cameron, and wondering if Morris had any design in omitting it. +Wilford had not yet presented his father's gift, but he did so now, and +Katy's tears dropped upon the pale, soft pearls as she whispered: "I +shall like your father. I never thought of having things like these." + +Nor had she, but she would grow to them very soon, while even the family +gathering around and sharing in her joy began to realize how great a +lady their Katy was to be. It was late that night ere anybody slept, if +sleep at all they did, which was doubtful, unless it were the bride, who +with Wilford's kisses warm upon her lips, crept up to bed just as the +clock was striking twelve, nor woke until it was again chiming for six, +and over her Helen bent, a dark ring about her eyes and her face very +white as she whispered: "Wake, Katy darling, this is your wedding day." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MARRIAGE AT ST. JOHN'S. + + +There were more than a few lookers-on to see Katy Lennox married, and +the church was literally jammed for full three-quarters of an hour +before the appointed time. Back by the door, where she commanded a full +view of the middle aisle, Marian Hazelton sat, her face as white as +ashes, and her eyes gleaming strangely wild even from beneath the +thickly dotted veil she wore over her hat. Doubts as to her wisdom in +coming there were agitating her mind, but something kept her sitting +just as others sat waiting for the bride until the sexton, opening wide +the doors, and assuming an added air of consequence, told the anxious +spectators that the party had arrived--Uncle Ephraim and Katy, Wilford +and Mrs. Lennox, Dr. Morris and Helen, Aunt Hannah and Aunt Betsy--that +was all, and they came slowly up the aisle, while countless eyes were +turned upon them, every woman noticing Katy's dress sweeping the carpet +with so long a trail, and knowing by some queer female instinct that it +was city-made, and not the handiwork of Marian Hazelton, panting for +breath in that pew near the door, and trying to forget herself by +watching Dr. Grant. She could not have told what Katy wore; she would +not have sworn that Katy was there, for she saw only two, Wilford and +Morris Grant. She could have touched the former as he passed her by, and +she did breathe the odor of his garments while her hands clasped each +other tightly, and then she turned to Morris Grant, growing content with +her own pain, so much less than his as he stood before the altar with +Wilford Cameron between him and the bride which should have been his. +How pretty she was in her wedding garb, and how like a bird her voice +rang out as she responded to the solemn question: + +"Will you have this man to be thy wedded husband?" etc. + +Upon Uncle Ephraim devolved the duty of giving her away, a thing which +Aunt Betsy denounced as a "'Piscopal quirk," classing it in the same +category with dancing. Still if Ephraim had got it to do she wanted him +to do it well, and she had taken some pains to study that part of the +ceremony, so as to know when to nudge her brother in case he failed of +coming up to time. + +"Now, Ephraim, now; they've reached the quirk," she whispered, audibly, +almost before Katy's "I will" was heard, clear and distinct; but Ephraim +did not need her prompting, and his hand rested lovingly upon Katy's +shoulder as he signified his consent, and then fell back to his place +next to Hannah. But when Wilford's voice said: "I, Wilford, take thee +Katy to be my wedded wife," there was a slight confusion near the door, +and those sitting by said to those in front that some one had fainted. + +Looking around, the audience saw the sexton leading Marian Hazelton out +into the open air, where, at her request, he left her, and went hack to +see the closing of the ceremony which made Katy Lennox a wife. Morris' +carriage was at the door, and the newly married pair moved slowly out, +Katy smiling upon all, kissing her hand to some and whispering a good-by +to others, her diamond flashing in the light and her rich silk rustling +as she walked, while at her side was Wilford, proudly erect, and holding +his head so high as not to see one of the crowd around him, until +arrived at the vestibule he stopped a moment and was seized by a young +man with curling hair, saucy eyes, and that air of ease and assurance +which betokens high breeding and wealth. + +"Mark Ray!" was Wilford's astonished exclamation, while Mark Ray +replied: + +"You did not expect to see me here, neither did I expect to come until +last night, when I found myself in the little village where you know +Scranton lives. Then it occurred to me that as Silverton was only a few +miles distant I would drive over and surprise you, but I am too late for +the ceremony, I see," and Mark's eyes rested admiringly upon Katy, whose +graceful beauty was fully equal to what he had imagined. + +Very modestly she received his congratulatory greeting, blushing +prettily when he called her by the new name she had not heard before, +and then at a motion from Wilford, entered the carriage waiting for her. +Close behind her came Morris and Helen, the former quite as much +astonished at meeting Mark as Wilford had been. There was no time for +conversation, and hurriedly introducing Helen as Miss Lennox, Morris +followed her into the carriage with the bridal pair, and was driven to +the depot, where they were joined by Mark, whose pleasant, good-humored +sallies did much toward making the parting more cheerful than it would +otherwise have been. It was sad enough at the most, and Katy's eyes were +very red, while Wilford was beginning to look chagrined and impatient, +when at last the train swept around the corner and the very last good-by +was said. Many of the village people were there to see Katy off, and in +the crowd Mark had no means of distinguishing the Barlows from the +others except it were by the fond caresses given to the bride. Aunt +Betsy he had observed from all the rest, both from the hanging of her +pongee and the general quaintness of her attire, and thinking it just +possible that it might be the lady of herrin' bone memory, he touched +Wilford's arm as she passed them by, and said: + +"Tell me, Will, quick, who is that woman in the poke bonnet and short, +slim dress?" + +Wilford was just then too much occupied in his efforts to rescue Katy +from the crowd of plebeians who had seized upon her to hear his friend's +query, but Helen heard it, and with a cheek which crimsoned with anger, +she replied: + +"That, sir, is my aunt, Miss Betsy Barlow." + +"I beg your pardon, I really do, I was not aware--" Mark began, +lifting his hat involuntarily, and mentally cursing himself for his +stupidity in not observing who was near to him before asking personal +questions. + +With a toss of her head Helen turned away, forgetting her resentment +in the more absorbing thought that Katy was really leaving her. + +The bell had rung, the heavy machinery groaned and creaked, and the long +train was under way, while from an open window a little white hand was +thrust, waving its handkerchief until the husband quietly drew it in, +experiencing a feeling of relief that all was over, and that unless he +chose, his wife need never go back again to that vulgar crowd standing +upon the platform and looking with tearful eyes and aching hearts after +the fast receding train. + +For a moment Mark talked with Morris Grant, explaining how he came +there, and adding that on the morrow he, too, intended going on to +Boston, to remain for a few days before Wilford sailed; then, feeling +that he must in some way atone for his awkward speech regarding Aunt +Betsy, he sought out Helen, still standing like a statue and watching +the feathery line of smoke rising above the distant trees. Her bonnet +had partially fallen from her head, revealing her bands of rich brown +hair and the smooth, broad forehead, while her hands were locked +together, and a tear trembled on her dark eyelashes. Taken as a whole +she made a striking picture standing apart from the rest and totally +oblivious to them all, and Mark gazed at her a moment curiously; then as +her attitude changed and she drew her hat back to its place he advanced +toward her, and making some pleasant remark about the morning and the +appearance of the country generally. He knew he could not openly +apologize, but he made what amends he could by talking to her so +familiarly that Helen almost forgot how she hated him and all others who +like him lived in New York and resembled Wilford Cameron. It was Mark +who led her to the carriage which Morris said was waiting, Mark who +handed her in, smoothing down carefully the folds of her dress, and then +stood leaning against the door, chatting with Morris, who thought once +of asking him to enter and go back to Linwood. But when he remembered +how unequal he was to entertaining any one that day, he hesitated, +saying merely: + +"On your way from Boston call and see me. I shall be glad of your +company then." + +"Which means that you do not wish it now," Mark laughingly rejoined, as, +offering his hand to both Morris and Helen, he again touched his hat +politely and walked away. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +AFTER THE MARRIAGE. + + +"Why did you invite him to Linwood?" Helen began. "I am sure we have +had city guests enough. Oh, if Wilford Cameron had only never come, we +should have had Katy now," and the sister-love overcame every other +feeling, making Helen cry bitterly as they drove back to the farmhouse. + +Morris could not comfort her then, for he needed it the most, and so in +silence he left her and went on his way to Linwood, which seemed as if a +funeral train had left it, bearing away all Morris' life and love, and +leaving only a cheerless blank. It was well for him that there were many +sick ones on his list, for in attending to them he forgot himself in +part so that the day with him passed faster than at the farmhouse, where +life and its interests seemed suddenly to have stopped. Nothing had +power to rouse Helen, who never realized how much she loved her young +sister until now, when, with swelling heart she listlessly put to rights +the room which had been theirs so long, but which was now hers alone. It +was a sad task picking up that disordered chamber bearing so many traces +of Katy, and Helen's heart ached terribly as she hung away the little +pink calico dressing gown in which Katy had looked so pretty, and picked +up from the floor the pile of skirts lying just where they had been left +the previous night; but when it came to the little half-worn slippers +which had been thrown one here and another there as Katy danced out of +them, she could control herself no longer, and stopping in her work +sobbed bitterly: "Oh, Katy, Katy, how can I live without you?" But tears +could not bring Katy back, and knowing this, Helen dried her eyes ere +long and joined the family below, who like herself were spiritless and +sad. + +It was some little solace to them all that day to follow Katy in her +journey, saying, she is at Worcester, or Framingham, or Newtown, and +when at noon they sat down to their dinner in the tidy kitchen, they +said: "She is in Boston," and the saying so made the time which had +elapsed since the morning seem interminable. Slowly the hours dragged, +and at last, before the sunsetting, Helen, who could bear the loneliness +of home no longer, stole across the fields to Linwood, hoping in Morris' +companionship to forget her own grief in part. But Morris was a sorry +comforter then. If the day had been sad to Helen, it had been doubly so +to him. He had ministered as usual to his patients, listening to their +complaints and answering patiently their inquiries; but amid it all he +walked as in a maze, hearing nothing except the words: "I, Katy, take +thee, Wilford, to be my wedded husband," and seeing nothing but the airy +little figure which stood up on tiptoe for him to kiss its lips at +parting. His work for the day was over now, and he sat alone in his +library when Helen came hurriedly in, staring at sight of his face, and +asking if he was ill. + +"I have had a hard day's work," he said. "I am always tired at night," +and he tried to smile and appear natural. "Are you very lonely at the +farmhouse?" he asked, and then Helen broke out afresh, mourning +sometimes for Katy, and again denouncing Wilford as proud and heartless. + +"Positively, Cousin Morris," and Helen's eye flashed as she said it, "he +acted all the while he was in the church as if he were doing something +of which he was ashamed; and then did you notice how impatient he seemed +when the neighbors were shaking hands with Katy at the depot and bidding +her good-by? He looked as if he thought they had no right to touch her, +she was so much their superior, just because she had married him, and he +even hurried her away before Aunt Betsy had time to kiss her. And yet +the people think it such a splendid match for Katy, because he is so +rich and generous. Gave the clergyman fifty dollars and the sexton five, +so I heard; but that does not help him with me. I know it's wicked, +Morris, as well as you, but somehow I find myself taking real comfort +in hating Wilford Cameron." + +"That is wrong, Helen, all wrong," and Morris tried to reason with her; +but his arguments this time were not very strong, and he finally said to +her, inadvertently: "If I can forgive Wilford Cameron for marrying our +Katy, you surely ought to do so, for he has hurt me the most." + +"You, Morris! you, you!" Helen kept repeating, standing back still +further and further front him, while strange, overwhelming thoughts +passed like lightning through her mind as she marked the pallid face, +where was written since the morning more than one line of suffering, +and saw in the brown eyes a look such as they were not wont to wear. +"Morris, tell me--tell me truly--did you love my Sister Katy?" and with +an impetuous rush Helen knelt beside him, as, laying his head upon the +table he answered: + +"Yes, Helen. God forgive me if it were wrong. I did love your Sister +Katy, and love her yet, and that is the hardest to bear." + +All the tender, pitying woman was roused in Helen, and like a sister she +smoothed the locks of damp, dark hair, keeping a perfect silence as the +strong man, no longer able to bear up, wept like a very child. For a +time Helen felt as if bereft of reason, while earth and sky seemed +blended in one wild chaos as she thought: "Oh, why couldn't it have +been? Why didn't you tell her in time?" and at last she said to him; +"If Katy had known it! Oh, Morris, why didn't you tell her? She never +guessed it, never! If she had--if she had," Helen's breath came +chokingly: "I am very sure--yes, I know it might have been!" + +"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, +The saddest are these--it might have been." + +Morris involuntarily thought of these lines, but they only mocked his +sorrow as he answered Helen: "I doubt if you are right; I hope you are +not; hope that it might not have been, as it is not now. Katy loved me +as her brother, nothing more, I am confident. Had she waited till she +was older, God only knows what might have been, but now she is gone and +our Father will help me to bear, will help us both, if we ask him, as we +must." + +And then as only he could do, Morris talked with Helen until she felt +her hardness toward Wilford giving way, while she wondered how Morris +could speak thus kindly of one who was his rival. + +"Not of myself could I do it," Morris said; "but I trust in One who +says: 'As thy day shall thy strength be,' and He, you know, never +fails." + +There was a fresh bond of sympathy now between Morris and Helen, and the +latter needed no caution against repeating what she had discovered. The +secret was safe with her, and by dwelling on what "might have been" she +forgot to think so much of what was, and so the first days after Katy's +departure were more tolerable than she had thought it possible for them +to be. At the close of the fourth there came a short note from Katy, who +was still in Boston at the Revere, and perfectly happy, she said, going +into ecstasies over her husband, the best in the world, and certainty +the most generous and indulgent. "Such beautiful things as I am having +made," she wrote, "when I already had more than I needed, and so I told +him, but he only smiled a queer kind of smile as he said: 'Very true; +you do not need them.' I wonder then why he gets me more. Oh, I forgot +to tell you how much I liked his cousin, Mrs. Harvey, who boards at the +Revere, and whom Wilford consults about my dress. I am somewhat afraid +of her, too, she is so grand, but she pets me a great deal and laughs at +my speeches. Mr. Ray is here too, and I think him splendid. + +"By the way, Helen, I heard him tell Wilford that you had one of the +best shaped heads he ever saw, and that he thought you decidedly good +looking. I must tell you now of the only thing which troubles me in the +least, and I shall get used to that, I suppose. It is so strange Wilford +never told me a word until she came, my waiting maid. Think of that! +little Katy Lennox with a waiting maid, who jabbers French half the +time, for she speaks that language as well as her own, having been +abroad with the family once before. That is why they sent her to me; +they knew her services would be invaluable in Paris. Her name is Esther, +and she came the day after we did and brought me such a beautiful +mantilla from Wilford's mother, and the loveliest dress. Just the +pattern was fifty dollars, she said. + +"The steamer sails in three days, and I will write again before that +time, sending it by Mr. Ray, who is to stop over one train at Linwood. +Wilford has just come in and says I have written enough for now, but +I will tell you how he has bought me a diamond pin and earrings, which +Esther, who knows the value of everything, says never cost less than +five hundred dollars. + +"Yours, loving, KATY CAMERON." + +"Five hundred dollars!" and Aunt Betsy held up her hands in horror, +while Helen sat a long time with the letter in her hand, cogitating upon +its contents, and especially upon the part referring to herself, and +what Mark Ray said of her. + +Every human heart is susceptible of flattery, and Helen was not an +entire exception. Still with her ideas of city men she could not at once +think favorably of Mark Ray, just for a few complimentary words which +might or might not have been in earnest, and she found herself looking +forward with nervous dread to the time when he would stop at Linwood, +and of course call on her, as he would bring a letter from Katy. + +Very sadly to the inmates of the farmhouse rose the morning of the day +when Katy was to sail, and as if they could really see the tall masts of +the vessel which was to bear her away, the eyes of the whole family were +turned often to the eastward with a wistful, anxious gaze, while on +their lips and in their hearts were earnest prayers for the safety of +that ship and the precious freight it bore. But hours, however sad, will +wear themselves away, and so the day went on, succeeded by the night, +until that too had passed and another day had come, the second of Katy's +ocean life. At the farmhouse the work was all done up, and Helen in her +neat gingham dress, with her bands of brown hair bound about her head, +sat listlessly at her sewing, when she was startled by the sound of +wheels, and looking up saw the boy employed to carry packages from the +express office, driving to their door with a trunk, which he said had +come that morning from Boston. + +In some surprise Helen hastened to unlock it with the key which she +found appended to it. The trunk was full, and over the whole a linen +towel was folded, while on the top of that lay a letter in Katy's +handwriting, directed to Helen, who, sitting down upon the floor, broke +the seal and read aloud as follows: + +"BOSTON, June--, Revere House, + +"Nearly midnight. + +"MY DEAR SISTER HELEN: I have just come in from a little party given by +one of Mrs. Harvey's friends, and I am so tired, for you know I am not +accustomed to such late hours. Wilford says I will get accustomed to +them, that in New York they are seldom in bed before eleven or twelve, +but I never shall. It will kill me, I am sure, and yet I rather enjoy +the sitting up if I did not feel so wretchedly next day. The party was +very pleasant indeed, and everybody was so kind to me, especially Mr. +Ray, who stood by me all the time, and who somehow seemed to help me, so +that I knew just what to do, and was not awkward at all. I hope not, at +least for Wilford's sake. + +"You do not know how grand and dignified he is here in Boston among his +own set; he is so different from what he was in Silverton that I should +be afraid of him if I did not know how much he loves me. He shows that +in every action, and I am perfectly happy, except when I think that +to-morrow night at this time I shall be on the sea, going away from you +all. Here it does not seem far to Silverton, and I often look toward +home, wondering what you are doing, and if you miss me any. I wish I +could see you once before I go, just to tell you all how much I love +you--more than I ever did before, I am sure. + +"And now I come to the trunk. I know you will be surprised at its +contents, but you cannot be more so than I was when Wilford said I must +pack them up and send them back--all the dresses you and Marion made." + +"No, oh no," and Helen felt her strength leave her wrists in one sudden +throb as the letter dropped from her hand, while she tore off the linen +covering and saw for herself that Katy had written truly. + +She could not weep then, but her face was white as marble as she again +took up the letter and commenced at the point where she had broken off. + + * * * * * + +"It seems that people traveling in Europe do not need many things, but +what they have must be just right, and so Mrs. Cameron wrote for Mrs. +Harvey to see to my wardrobe, and if I had not exactly what was proper +she was to procure it. It is very funny that she did not find a single +proper garment among them all, when we thought them so nice. They were +not just the style, she said, and that was very desirable in Mrs. +Wilford Cameron. Somehow she tries to impress me with the idea that Mrs. +Wilford Cameron is a very different person from little Katy Lennox, but +I can see no difference except that I am a great deal happier and have +Wilford all the time. + +"Well, as I was telling you, I was measured and fitted, and my figure +praised, until my head was nearly turned, only I did not like the horrid +stays they put on me, squeezing me up and making me feel so stiff. Mrs. +Harvey says no lady does without them, expressing much surprise that I +had never worn them, and so I submit to the powers that be; but every +chance I get here in my room I take them off and throw them on the +floor, where Wilford has stumbled over them two or three times. + +"This afternoon the dresses came home, and they do look beautifully, +while every one has belt, and gloves, and ribbons, and sashes, and laces +or muslins to match--fashionable people are so particular about these +things. I have tried them on, and except that I think them too tight, +they fit admirably, and do give me a different air from what Miss +Hazelton's did. But I really believe I like the old ones best, because +you helped to make them; and when Wilford said I must send them home, I +went where he could not see me and cried, because--well, I hardly know +why I cried, unless I feared you might feel badly. Dearest Helen, don't, +will you? I love you just as much, and shall remember you the same as if +I wore the dresses. Dearest sister, I can fancy the look that will come +on your face, and I wish I could be present to kiss it away. Imagine me +there, will you? with my arms around your neck, and tell mother not to +mind. Tell her I never loved her so well as now, and that when I come +home from Europe I shall bring her ever so many things. There is a new +black silk for her in the trunk, and one for each of the aunties, while +for you there is a lovely brown, which Wilford said was just your style, +telling me to select as nice a silk as I pleased, and this he did I +think because he guessed I had been crying. He asked what made my eyes +so red, and when I would not tell him he took me with him to the silk +store and bade me get what I liked. Oh, he is the dearest, kindest +husband, and I love him all the more because I am the least bit afraid +of him. + +"And now I must stop, for Wilford says so. Dear Helen, dear all of you, +I can't help crying as I say good-by. Remember little Katy, and if she +ever did anything bad, don't lay it up against her. Kiss Morris and +Uncle Ephraim, and say how much I love them. Darling sister, darling +mother, good-by." + + * * * * * + +This was Katy's letter, and it brought a gush of tears from the four +women remembered so lovingly in it, the mother and the aunts stealing +away to weep in secret, without ever stopping to look at the new dresses +sent to them by Wilford Cameron. They were very soft, very handsome, +especially Helen's rich golden brown, and as she looked at it she felt a +thrill of satisfaction in knowing it was hers, but this quickly passed +as she took out one by one the garments she had folded with so much +care, wondering when Katy would wear each one and where she would be. + +"She will never wear them, never--they are not fine enough for her now!" +she exclaimed, and as she just then came upon the little plaid, she laid +her head upon the trunk lid, while her tears dropped like rain in among +the discarded articles condemned by Wilford Cameron. + +It seemed to her like Katy's grave, and she was still sobbing bitterly, +when a step sounded outside the window, and a voice called her name. It +was Morris, and lifting up her head Helen said, passionately: + +"Oh, Morris, look! he has sent back all Katy's clothes, which you bought +and I worked so hard to make. They were not good enough for his wife to +wear, and so he insulted us. Oh, Katy, I never fully realized till now +how wholly she is lost to us!" + +"Helen, Helen," Morris kept saying, trying to stop her, for close behind +him was Mark Ray, who heard her distinctly, and glancing in, saw her +kneeling before the trunk, her pale face stained with tears, and her +dark eyes shining with excitement. + +Mark Ray understood it at a glance, feeling indignant at Wilford for +thus unnecessarily wounding the sensitive girl, whose expression, as she +sat there upon the floor, with her face upturned to Morris, haunted him +for months. Mark was sorry for her--so sorry that his first impulse was +to go quietly away, and so spare her the mortification of knowing that +he had witnessed that little scene; but it was now too late. As she +finished speaking her eye fell on him, and coloring scarlet she +struggled to her feet, and covering her face with her hands wept still +more violently. Mark was in a dilemma, and whispered softly to Morris: +"I think I had better leave. You can tell her all I had to say;" but +Helen heard him, and mastering her agitation she said to him: + +"Please, Mr. Ray, don't go--not yet at least, not till I have asked you +of Katy. Did you see her off? Has she gone?" + +Thus importuned, Mark Ray came in, and sitting down where his boot +almost touched the new brown silk, he very politely began to answer her +rapid questions, putting her entirely at her ease by his pleasant, +affable manner, and making her forget the littered appearance of the +room as she listened to his praises of her sister, who, he said, seemed +so very happy, attracting universal admiration wherever she went. No +allusion whatever was made to the trunk during the time of Mark's stay, +which was not long. If he took the next train to New York, he had but an +hour more to spend, and feeling that Helen would rather he should spend +it at Linwood he soon arose to go. Offering his hand to Helen, there +passed from his eyes into hers a look which had over her a strangely +quieting influence, and prepared her for a remark which otherwise might +have seemed out of place. + +"I have known Wilford Cameron for years; he is my best friend, and I +respect him as a brother. In some things he may be peculiar, but he +will make your sister a kind husband. He loves her devotedly, I know, +choosing her from the throng of ladies who would gladly have taken her +place. I hope you will like him for my sake as well as Katy's." + +His warm hand unclasped from Helen's, and with another good-by he was +gone, without seeing either Mrs. Lennox, Aunt Hannah or Aunt Betsy. This +was not the time for extending his acquaintance, he knew, and he went +away with Morris, feeling that the farmhouse, so far as he could judge, +was not exactly what Wilford had pictured it. "But then he came for a +wife, and I did not," he thought, while Helen's face came before him +as it looked up to Morris, and he wondered, were he obliged to choose +between the sisters, which he should prefer. During the few days passed +in Boston he had become more than half in love with Katy himself, almost +envying his friend the pretty little creature he had won. She was very +beautiful and very fascinating in her simplicity, but there was +something in Helen's face more attractive than mere beauty, and Mark +said to Morris as they walked along: + +"Miss Lennox is not much like her sister." + +"Not much, no; but Helen is a splendid girl--more strength of character, +perhaps, than Katy, who is younger than her years even. She has always +been petted from babyhood; it will take time or some great sorrow to +show what she really is." + +This was Morris' reply, and the two then proceeded on in silence until +they reached the boundary line between Morris' farm and Uncle Ephraim's, +where they found the deacon mending a bit of broken fence, his coat +lying on a pile of stones, and his wide, blue cotton trousers hanging +loosely around him. When told who Mark was and that he brought news of +Katy, he greeted him cordially, and sitting down upon his fence listened +to all Mark had to say. Between the old and young man there seemed at +once a mutual liking, the former saying to himself as Mark went on, and +he resumed his work: + +"I most wish it was this chap with Katy on the sea. I like his looks the +best," while Mark's thoughts were: + +"Will need not be ashamed of that man, though I don't suppose I should +really want him coming suddenly in among a drawing-room full of guests." + +Morris did not feel much like entertaining Mark, but Mark was fully +competent to entertain himself, and thought the hour spent at Linwood a +very pleasant one, half wishing for some excuse to tarry longer; but +there was none, and so at the appointed time he bade Morris good-by and +went on his way to New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +FIRST MONTH OF MARRIED LIFE. + + +If Katy's letters, written, one on board the steamer and another from +London, were to be trusted, she was as nearly perfectly happy as a young +bride well can be, and the people at the farmhouse felt themselves more +and more kindly disposed toward Wilford Cameron with each letter +received. They were going soon into the northern part of England, and +from thence into Scotland, Katy wrote from London, and two weeks after +found them comfortably settled at the inn at Alnwick, near to Alnwick +Castle. Wilford had seemed very anxious to get there, leaving London +before Katy was quite ready to leave, and hurrying across the country +until Alnwick was reached. He had been there before, years ago, he said, +but no one seemed to recognize him, though all paid due respect to the +distinguished-looking American and his beautiful young wife. An entrance +into Alnwick Castle was easily obtained, and Katy felt that all her +girlish dreams of grandeur and magnificence were more than realized +here in this home of the Percys, where ancient and modern styles of +architecture and furnishing were so blended together. She would never +tire of that place, she thought, but Wilford's taste led him elsewhere, +and he took more delight, it would appear, in wandering around St. +Mary's Church, which stood upon a hill commanding a view of the castle +and of the surrounding country for miles away. Here Katy also came, +rambling with him through the village graveyard where slept the dust of +centuries, the gray, mossy tombstones bearing date backward for more +than a hundred years, their quaint inscriptions both puzzling and +amusing Katy, who studied them by the hour. + +One quiet summer morning, however, when the heat was unusually great, +she felt too listless to wander about, and so sat upon the grass, +listening to the birds as they sang above her head, while Wilford, at +some distance from her, stood leaning against a tree and thinking sad, +regretful thoughts, as his eye rested upon the rough headstone at his +feet. + +"Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," was the lettering upon it, and as he +read it a feeling of reproach was in his heart, while he said: "I hope I +am not glad to know that she is dead." + +He had come to Alnwick for the sole purpose of finding that humble +grave, of assuring himself that after life's fitful fever, Genevra +Lambert slept quietly, forgetful of the wrong once done to her by him. +It is true he had not doubted her death before, but as seeing was +believing, so now he felt sure of it, and plucking from the turf above +her a little flower growing there, he went back to Katy and sitting down +beside her with his arm around her waist, tried to devise some way of +telling her what he had promised himself he would tell her there in that +very yard, where Genevra was buried. But the task was harder now than +before. Katy was so happy with him, trusting his love so fully that he +dared not lift the veil and read to her that page hinted at once before +in Silverton, when they sat beneath the butternut tree, with the fresh +young grass springing around them. Then, she was not his wife, and the +fear that she would not be if he told her all had kept him silent, but +now she was his alone; nothing could undo that, and there, in the shadow +of the gray old church through whose aisles Genevra had been borne out +to where the rude headstone was gleaming in the English sunlight, it +seemed meet that he should tell her sad story. And Katy would have +forgiven him then, for not a shadow of regret had darkened her life +since it was linked with his, and in her perfect love she could have +pardoned much. But Wilford did not tell. It was not needful; he made +himself believe--not necessary for her ever to know that once he met a +maiden called Genevra, almost as beautiful as she, but never so beloved. +No, never. Wilford said that truly, when that night he bent over his +sleeping Katy, comparing her face with Genevra's, and his love for her +with his love for Genevra. + +"That was a boyish fancy, this love of mature years," and Wilford +pressed a kiss upon Katy's pure forehead, showing so white in the +moonlight. + +Wilford was very fond of his girlish wife and very proud of her, too, +when strangers paused, as they often did, to look back after her. Thus +far nothing had arisen to mar the happiness of his first weeks of +married life; nothing except the letters from Silverton, over which Katy +always cried, until he sometimes wished that the family could not write. +But they could and they did; even Aunt Betsy inclosed in Helen's letter +a note, wonderful both in orthography and composition, and concluding +with the remark that she would be glad when Catherine returned and was +settled in a home of her own, as she would then have a new place to +visit. + +There was a dark frown on Wilford's face, and for a moment he felt +tempted to withhold the note from Katy, but this he could not do then, +so he gave it into her hands, watching her as with burning cheeks, she +read it through, and asking her at its close why she looked so red. + +"Oh, Wilford," and she crept closely to him, "Aunt Betsy spells so +queerly, that I was wishing you would not always open my letters first. +Do all husbands do so?" + +It was the only time Katy had ventured to question a single act of his, +submitting without a word to whatever was his will. Wilford knew that +his father would never have presumed to break a seal belonging to his +mother, but he had broken Katy's and he should continue breaking them, +so he answered, laughingly; + +"Why, yes, I guess they do. My little wife has surely no secrets to hide +from me?" + +"No secrets," Katy answered, "only I did not want you to see Aunt +Betsy's letter, that's all." + +"I did not marry Aunt Betsy--I married you," was Wilford's reply; which +meant far more than Katy guessed. + +With three thousand miles between him and his wife's relatives, Wilford +could endure to think of them; but whenever letters came to Katy bearing +the Silverton postmark, he was conscious of a far different sensation +from what he experienced when the postmark was New York and the +handwriting that of his own family. But not in any way did this feeling +manifest itself to Katy, who, as she always wrote to Helen, was very, +very happy, and never more so, perhaps, than while they were at Alnwick, +where, as if he had something for which to atone, he was unusually kind +and indulgent, caressing her with unwonted tenderness, and making her +ask him once if he loved her a great deal more now than when they were +first married. + +"Yes, darling, a great deal more," was Wilford's answer, as he kissed +her upturned face, and then went for the last time to Genevra's grave; +for on the morrow they were to leave the neighborhood of Alnwick for the +heather blooms of Scotland. + +There was a trip to Edinburgh, a stormy passage across the Straits of +Dover, a two months' sojourn in Paris, and then they went to Rome, where +Wilford intended to pass the winter, journeying in the spring through +different parts of Europe. He was in no haste to return to America; he +would rather stay where he could have Katy all to himself, away from her +family and his own. But it was not so to be, and not very long after his +arrival at Rome there came a letter from his mother apprising him of his +father's dangerous illness, and asking him to come home at once. The +elder Cameron had not been well since Wilford left the country, and the +physician was fearful that the disease had assumed a consumptive form, +Mrs. Cameron wrote, adding that her husband's only anxiety was to see +his son again. To this there was no demur, and about the first of +December, six months from the time he had sailed, Wilford arrived in +Boston, having taken a steamer for that city. His first act was to +telegraph for news of his father, receiving a reply that he was better; +the alarming symptoms had disappeared, and there was now great hope of +his recovery. + +"We might have stayed longer in Europe," Katy said, feeling a little +chill of disappointment--not that her father-in-law was better, but at +being called home for nothing, when her life abroad was so happy and +free from care. + +Somehow the atmosphere of America seemed different from what it used +to be. It was colder, bluer, the little lady said, tapping her foot +uneasily and looking from her windows at the Revere out upon the snowy +streets, through which the wintry wind was blowing in heavy gales. + +"Yes, it is a heap colder," she sighed, as she returned to the large +chair which Esther had drawn for her before the cheerful fire, charging +her disquiet to the weather once, never dreaming of imputing it to her +husband, who was far more its cause than was the December cold. + +He, too, though glad of his father's improvement, was sorry to have been +recalled for nothing to a country which brought his old life back again, +with all its forms and ceremonies, reviving his dread lest Katy should +not acquit herself as was becoming Mrs. Wilford Cameron. In his +selfishness he had kept her almost wholly to himself, so that the polish +she was to acquire from her travels abroad was not as perceptible as, +now that he looked at her with his family's eyes, he could desire. Katy +was Katy still, in spite of London, Paris, or Rome. To be sure there +was about her a little more maturity and self-assurance, but in all +essential points she was the same; and Wilford winced as he thought how +the free, impulsive manner which, among the Scottish hills, where there +was no one to criticise, had been so charming to him, would shock his +lady mother and Sister Juno. And this it was which made him moody and +silent, replying hastily to Katy when she said to him: "Please, Wilford, +telegraph to Helen to be with mother at the West depot when we pass +there to-morrow. The train stops five minutes, you know, and I want to +see them so much. Will you, Wilford?" + +She had come up to him now, and was standing behind him, with her hands +upon his shoulder; so she did not see the expression of his face as he +answered quickly; + +"Yes, yes." + +A moment after he quitted the room, and it was then that Katy, standing +before the window, charged the day with what was strictly Wilford's +fault. Returning at last to her chair she went off into a reverie as to +the new home to which she was going and the new friends she was to meet, +wondering much what they would think of her, and wondering most if they +would like her. Once she had said to Wilford: + +"Which of your sisters shall I like best?" + +And Wilford had answered her by asking: + +"Which do you like best, books or going to parties in full dress?" + +"Oh, parties and dress," Katy had said, and Wilford had then rejoined: + +"You will like Juno best, for she is all fashion and gayety, while +Bluebell prefers her books and the quiet of her own room." + +Katy felt afraid of Bell, and in fact, now that they were so near, she +felt afraid of them all, notwithstanding Esther's assurances that they +could not help loving her. During the six months they had been together +Esther had learned to feel for her young lady that strong affection +which sometimes exists between mistress and servant. Everything which +she could do for her she did, smoothing as much as possible the meeting +which she also dreaded, for though the Camerons were too proud to +express before her their opinion of Wilford's choice, she had guessed it +readily, and pitied the young wife brought up with ideas so different +from those of her husband's family. More accustomed to Wilford's moods +than Katy, she saw that something was the matter, and it prompted her to +unusual attentions, stirring the fire into a still more cheerful blaze +and bringing a stool for Katy, who in blissful ignorance of her +husband's real feelings, sat waiting his return from the telegraph +office, whither she supposed he had gone, and building pleasant pictures +of to-morrow's meeting with her mother and Helen, and possibly Dr. +Morris, if not Uncle Ephraim himself. + +The voyage home had been long and wearisome, and Katy, who had suffered +from seasickness, was feeling jaded and tired, wishing, as she told +Esther, that instead of going to New York direct she could go straight +to the farmhouse and "rest on mother's bed," that receptacle for all her +childish ills. + +"I mean to ask Wilford if I may," she said to herself, and her cheeks +grew brighter as she thought of really going home to mother and Helen +and the kind old people who would pet and love her so much. + +So absorbed was she in her reverie as not to hear Wilford's step as he +came in, but when he stood behind her and took her head playfully +between his hands, she started up, feeling that the weather had changed; +it was not as cold and dreary in Boston as she imagined, neither did +mother's bed seem as desirable a place to rest upon as the shoulder +where she laid her head, playing with Wilford's buttons, and saying to +him at last: + +"You went out to telegraph, didn't you?" + +He had gone out with the intention of telegraphing as she desired, but +in the hall below he had met with an old acquaintance who talked with +him so long that he entirely forgot his errand until Katy recalled it to +his mind, making him feel very uncomfortable as he frankly told her of +his forgetfulness. + +"It is too late now," he added; "besides you could only see them for a +moment, just long enough to make you cry--a thing I do not greatly +desire, inasmuch as I wish my wife to look her best when I present her +to my family, and with red eyes she couldn't, you know." + +Katy knew it was settled, and choking back her tears she tried to +listen, while Wilford, having fairly broken the ice with regard to his +family, told her how anxious he was that she should make a good first +impression upon his mother. Did Katy remember that Mrs. Morey whom they +met at Paris, and could she not throw a little of her air into her +manner--that is, could she not drop her girlishness when in the presence +of others and be a little more dignified? When alone with him he liked +to have her just what she was, a loving, affectionate little wife, but +the world looked on such things differently. Would Katy try? + +Wilford, when he commenced, had no definite idea as to what he should +say, and without meaning it he made Katy moan piteously: + +"I don't know what you mean. I would do anything if I knew how. Tell me, +how shall I be dignified?" + +She was crying so hard that Wilford, while mentally calling himself a +fool and a brute, could only try to comfort her, telling her she need +not be anything but what she was--that his mother and sisters would love +her just as he did--and that daily association with them would teach her +all that was necessary. + +Katy's tears were stopped at last; but the frightened, anxious look did +not leave her face, even though Wilford tried his best to divert her +mind. A nervous terror of her new relations had gained possession of her +heart, and nearly the entire night she lay awake, pondering in her mind +what Wilford had said, and thinking how terrible it would be if he +should be disappointed in her after all. The consequence of this was +that a very white, tired face sat opposite Wilford next morning at the +breakfast served in their private parlor; nor did it look much fresher +even after they were in the cars and rolling out of Boston. But when +Worcester was reached, and the old home waymarks began to grow familiar, +the color came stealing back, until the cheeks burned with an unnatural +red, and the blue eyes fairly danced as they rested on the hills of +Silverton. + +"Only three miles from mother and Helen! Oh, if I could go there!" Katy +thought, working her fingers nervously; but the express train did not +pause there, and it went so swiftly by the depot that Katy could hardly +discover who was standing there, whether friend or stranger. + +But when at last they came to West Silverton, and the long train slowly +stopped, the first object she saw was Dr. Morris, driving down from the +village. He had no intention of going to the depot, and only checked his +horse a moment, lest it should prove restive if too near the engine; but +when a clear young voice called from the window: "Morris! oh, Cousin +Morris! I've come!" his heart gave a great heavy throb, for he knew +whose voice that was and whose the little hand beckoning to him. He had +supposed her far away beneath Italian skies, for at the farmhouse no +intelligence had been received of her intended return, and in much +surprise he reined up to the rear door, and throwing his lines to a boy, +went forward to where Katy stood, her face glowing with delight as she +flew into his arms, wholly forgetful of the last night's lecture on +dignity, also forgetful of Wilford, standing close beside her. He had +not tried to hold her back when, at the sight of Morris, she sprang away +from him; but he followed after, biting his lip, and wishing she had a +little more discretion. Surely it was not necessary to half strangle Dr. +Grant as she was doing, kissing his hand even after she had kissed his +face a full half dozen times, and all the people looking on. But Katy +did not care for people. She only knew that Morris was there--the Morris +whom, in her great happiness abroad, she had perhaps slighted by not +writing directly to him but once. In Wilford's sheltering care she had +not felt the need of this good cousin, as she used to do; but she was so +glad to see him, wondering why he looked so thin and sad. Was he sick? +she asked, gazing up into his face with a pitying look, which made him +shiver as he answered: + +"No, not sick, though tired, perhaps, as I have at present an unusual +amount of work to do." + +And this was true--he was usually busy. But that was not the cause of +the thin face, which others than Katy remarked. Helen's words: "It might +have been," spoken to him on the night of Katy's bridal, had never left +his mind, much as he had tried to dislodge them. Some men can love a +dozen times; but it was not so with Morris. He could overcome his love +so that it should not be a sin, but no other could ever fill the place +where Katy had been; and as he looked along the road through life he +felt that he must travel it alone. Truly, if Katy were not yet passing +through the fire, he was, and it had left its mark upon him, purifying +as it burned, and bringing his every act into closer submission to his +God. Only Helen and Marian Hazelton interpreted aright that look upon +his face, and knew it came from the hunger of his heart, but they kept +silence; while others said that he was working far too hard, urging him +to abate his unwearied labors, for they would not lose their young +physician yet. But Morris smiled his patient, kindly smile on all their +fears and went his way, doing his work as one who knew he must render +strict account for the popularity he was daily gaining, both in his own +town and those around. He could think of Katy now without a sin, but he +was not thinking of her when she came so unexpectedly upon him, and for +an instant she almost bore his breath away in her vehement joy. + +Quick to note a change in those he knew, he saw that her form was not +quite so full, nor her cheeks so round; but she was weary with the +voyage, she said, and knowing how seasickness will wear upon one's +strength, Morris imputed it wholly to that, and believed she was, as +she professed to be, perfectly happy. + +"Come, Katy, we must go now," Wilford said, as the bell rang its first +alarm, and the passengers, some with sandwiches and some with fried +cakes in their hands, ran back to find their seats. + +"Yes, I know, but I have not asked half I meant to. Oh, how I want to go +home with you, Morris," Katy exclaimed, again throwing her arms around +the doctor's neck as she bade him good-by, and sent fresh messages of +love to the friends at home, who, had they known she was to be there at +that time, would have walked the entire distance for the sake of looking +once more into her dear face. + +"I intended to have brought them heaps of things," she said, "but we +came home so suddenly I had no time. Here, take Helen this. Tell her +it is real," and the impulsive creature drew from her finger a small +diamond set in black enamel, which Wilford had bought in Paris. "She did +not need it; she had two more, and she was sure Wilford would not mind," +she said, turning to him for his approbation. + +But Wilford did mind, and his face indicated as much, although he tried +to be natural as he replied: "Certainly, send it if you like." + +In her excitement Katy did not observe it, but Morris did, and he at +first declined taking it, saying Helen had no use for it and would be +better pleased with something not half as valuable. Katy, however, +insisted, appealing to Wilford, who, ashamed of his first emotion, now +seemed quite as anxious as Katy herself, until Morris placed the ring +in his purse, and then bade Katy hasten or she would certainly be left. +One more wave of the hand, one more kiss thrown from the window, and the +train moved on, Katy feeling like a different creature for having seen +some one from home. + +"I am so glad I saw him--so glad I sent the ring, for now they will know +I am the same Katy Lennox, and I think Helen sometimes feared I might +get proud with you," she said, while Wilford pulled her rich fur around +her, smiling to see how bright and pretty she was looking since that +meeting with Dr. Grant. "It was better than medicine," Katy said, when +beyond Springfield he referred to it a second time, and leaning her head +upon his shoulder she fell into a refreshing sleep, from which she did +not waken until New York was reached, and Wilford, lifting her gently +up, whispered to her: "Come, darling, we are home at last." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +KATY'S FIRST EVENING IN NEW YORK. + + +The elder Cameron was really better, and more than once he had regretted +recalling his son, who he knew had contemplated a longer stay abroad. +But that could not now be helped; Wilford had arrived in Boston, as +his telegram of yesterday announced--he would be at home to-day; and +No ---- Fifth Avenue was all the morning and a portion of the afternoon +the scene of unusual excitement, for both Mrs. Cameron and her daughters +wished to give the six months' wife a good impression of her new home. +At first they thought of inviting company to dinner, but to this the +father objected. "Katy should not be troubled the first day," he said; +"it was bad enough for her to meet them all; they could ask Mark if they +chose, but no one else." + +And so only Mark Ray was invited to the dinner, gotten up as elaborately +as if a princess had been expected instead of little Katy, trembling in +every joint, when, about four P.M., Wilford awoke her at the depot and +whispered: "Come, darling, we are home at last." + +"Why do you shiver so?" he asked, wrapping her cloak around her, and +almost lifting her from the car. + +"I don't--know. I guess--I'm cold," and Katy drew a long breath as she +thought of Silverton and the farmhouse, wishing so much that she was +going into its low-walled kitchen, where the cook-stove was, and where +the chairs were all splint-bottomed, instead of into the handsome +carriage, where the cushions were so soft and yielding, and the whole +effect so grand. + +She knew it was the Cameron carriage, for Wilford had said it would meet +them; but she had not expected it to be just what it was, and she bowed +humbly to the polite coachman greeting Wilford and herself so +respectfully. "What would our folks say?" she kept repeating to herself +as she drove along the streets, where they were beginning to light the +street lamps, for the December day was dark and cloudy. It seemed so +like a dream that she, who once had picked huckleberries on the +Silverton hills, and bound coarse, heavy shoes to buy herself a pink +gingham dress, should now be riding in her carriage toward the home +which she knew was magnificent; and Katy's tears fell like rain as, +nestling close to Wilford, who asked what was the matter, she whispered: +"I can hardly believe that it is I--it is so unreal." + +"Please don't cry," Wilford rejoined, brushing her tears away. "You know +I don't like your eyes to be red." + +With a great effort, Katy kept her tears back, and was very calm when +they reached the brownstone front, far enough uptown to save it from +the slightest approach to plebeianism from contact with its downtown +neighbors. In the hall the chandelier was burning, and as the carriage +stopped a flame of light seemed suddenly to burst from every window as +the gas heads were turned up, so that Katy caught glimpses of rich +silken curtains and costly lace as she went up the steps, clinging to +Wilford and looking ruefully around for Esther, who had disappeared +through the basement door. Another moment and they stood within the +marbled hall, Katy conscious of nothing definite--nothing but a vague +consciousness of refined elegance, and that a handsome, richly-dressed +lady came out to meet them, kissing Wilford quietly, and calling him her +son--that the same lady later turned to her, saying, kindly: "And this +is my new daughter?" + +Then Katy came to life, and did that at the very thought of which she +shuddered when a few months' experience had taught her the temerity of +the act--she wound her arms impulsively around Mrs. Cameron's neck, +rumpling her point lace collar, and sadly displacing the coiffeur of the +astonished lady, who had seldom received so genuine a greeting as that +which Katy gave her, kissing her lips and whispering softly: "I love you +now, because you are Wilford's mother, but by and by because you are +mine. And you will love me some because I am his wife." + +Wilford was horrified, particularly when he saw how startled his mother +looked as she tried to release herself and adjust her tumbled headgear. +It was not what he had hoped, nor what his mother had expected, for she +was unaccustomed to such demonstrations; but under the circumstances +Katy could not have done better. There was a tender spot in Mrs. +Cameron's heart, and Katy touched it, making her feel a throb of +affection for the childish creature suing for her love. + +"Yes, darling, I love you now," she said, removing Katy's clinging arms +and taking care that they should not enfold her a second time. "You are +tired and cold," she continued; "you had better go at once to your +rooms. You will find them in order, and I will send Esther up. There is +plenty of time to dress for dinner," and with a wave of her hand she +dismissed Katy up the stairs, noticing as she went the exquisite +softness of her fur cloak; but thinking it too heavy a garment for her +slight figure, and noticing, too, the graceful ankle and foot which the +little high-heeled gaiter showed to good advantage. "I did not see her +face distinctly, but she has a well-turned instep and walks easily," was +the report she carried to her daughters, who in their own room, over +Katy's, were dressing for dinner. + +"She will undoubtedly make a good dancer, then, unless like Dr. Grant, +she is too blue for that," Juno said, while Bell shrugged her shoulders, +congratulating herself that she had a mind above such frivolous matters +as dancing and well-turned insteps, and wondering if Katy cared in the +least for books. + +"Couldn't you see her face at all, mother?" Juno asked. + +"Scarcely; but the glimpse I did get was satisfactory. I think she is +pretty." + +And this was all the sisters could ascertain until their toilets were +finished, and they went down into the library, where their brother +waited for them. He had seen his father and Jamie, and now he arose to +meet his sisters, kissing them both affectionately, and complimenting +them on their good looks. + +"I wish we could say the same of you," saucy Juno answered, playfully +pulling his mustache; "but, upon my word, Will, you are fast settling +down into an oldish married man, even turning gray," and she ran her +fingers through his dark hair, where there was now and then a thread of +silver. "Disappointed in your domestic relations, eh?" she continued, +looking him archly in the face. + +Wilford was rather proud of his good looks, and during his sojourn +abroad, Katy had not helped him any in overcoming this weakness, but, on +the contrary, had fed his vanity by constant flattery. And still he was +himself conscious of not looking quite as well as usual just now, for +the sea voyage had tired him as well as Katy, but he did not care to be +told of it, and Juno's ill-timed remarks aroused him at once, +particularly as they reflected somewhat on Katy. + +"I assure you I am not disappointed," he answered, "and the six months +of my married life have been the happiest I ever knew. Katy is more than +I expected her to be." + +Juno elevated her eyebrows slightly, but made no direct reply, while +Bell began to ask about Paris and the places he had visited. + +Meanwhile Katy had been ushered into her room, which was directly over +the library and separated from Mrs. Cameron's only by a range of closets +and presses, a portion of which were to be appropriated to her own use. +Great pains had been taken to make her rooms attractive, and as the +large bay window in the library below extended to the third story, it +was really the pleasantest chamber in the house. To Katy it was perfect, +and her first exclamation was one of delight. + +"Oh, how pleasant, how beautiful," she cried, skipping across the soft +carpet to the warm fire blazing in the grate. "A bay window, too, when I +like them so much, and such handsome curtains and furniture. I shall be +happy here." + +But happy as she was, Katy could not help feeling tired, and she sank +into one of the luxurious easy-chairs, wishing she could stay there all +the evening, instead of going down to that formidable dinner with her +new relations. How she dreaded it, especially when she remembered that +Mrs. Cameron had said there would be plenty of time to dress, a thing +which Katy hated, the process was so tiresome, particularly to-night. +Surely, her handsome traveling dress, made in Paris, was good enough, +and she was about settling in her own mind to venture upon wearing it, +when Esther demolished her castle at once. + +"Wear your traveling habit!" she exclaimed, "when the young ladies, +especially Miss Juno, are so particular about their dinner costume? +There would be no end to the scolding I should get for suffering it. So +there's no help, you see," and she began good-naturedly to remove her +mistress' collar and pin, while Katy, standing up, sighed as she said; +"I wish I was in Silverton to-night. I could wear anything there. What +must I put on? How I dread it!" and she began to shiver again. + +Fortunately for Katy, Esther had been in the family long enough to know +just what they regarded as proper, as by this means the dress selected, +a delicate pearl-colored silk was sure to please. It was very becoming +to Katy, and having been made in Paris, was not open to criticism. +Esther's taste was perfect, so that Katy was never over-dressed, and she +was very simple and pretty this night, with the rich, soft lace around +her neck and around her white, plump arms, where the golden bands were +shining. + +"Very pretty, indeed," was Mrs. Cameron's verdict when at half-past five +she knocked at the door and then came in to see her daughter, kissing +her cheek and stroking her head, wholly unadorned, except by the short, +silken curls which could not be coaxed to grow faster than they chose, +and which had sometimes annoyed Wilford. They made his wife seem so +young beside him. Mrs. Cameron was annoyed, too, for she had no idea +of a head, except as it was connected with a hairdresser, and her +annoyance showed itself as she asked: + +"Did you have your hair cut on purpose?" + +But when Katy explained, she answered, pleasantly: + +"Never mind; it is a fault which will mend every day, only it makes you +look like a child." + +"I am eighteen and a half," Katy said, feeling a lump rising in her +throat, for she guessed that her mother-in-law was not quite pleased +with her hair. + +For herself, she liked it; it was so easy to brush and fix. She should +go wild if she had to submit to all Esther had told her of hairdressing +and what it involved. + +Mrs. Cameron had asked if she would not like to see Mr. Cameron, the +elder, before going down to dinner, and Katy had answered that she +would; so as soon as Esther had smoothed a refractory fold and brought +her handkerchief, she followed to the room where Wilford's father was +sitting. He might not have felt complimented could he have known that +something in his appearance reminded Katy of Uncle Ephraim. He was not +nearly as old or as tall, nor was his hair as white, but the +resemblance, if there were any, lay in the smile with which he greeted +Katy, calling her his youngest child, and drawing her closely to him. + +It was remarked of Mr. Cameron that since their babyhood he had never +kissed one of his own children; but when Katy, who looked upon such a +salutation as a matter of course, put up her rosy lips, making the first +advance, he could not resist them, and he kissed her twice. Hearty, +honest kisses they were, for the man was strongly drawn toward the young +girl, who said to him, timidly: + +"I am glad to have a father--mine died before I could remember him. May +I call you so?" + +"Yes, yes; God bless you, my child," and Mr. Cameron's voice shook as he +said it, for neither Bell nor Juno were wont to address him just as Katy +did--Katy, standing close to him, with her hand upon his shoulder and +her kiss yet fresh upon his lips. + +She had already crept a long way into his heart, and he took her hand +from his shoulder and holding it between his own, said to her: + +"I did not think you were so small or young. You are my little +daughter, my baby, instead of my son's wife. How do you ever expect +to fulfill the duties of Mrs. Wilford Cameron?" + +"It's my short hair, sir. I am not so young," Katy answered, her eyes +filling with tears as she began to wish back the heavy braids which +Helen cut away when the fever was at its height. + +"Never mind, child," Mr. Cameron rejoined, playfully. "Youth is no +reproach; there's many a one would give their right hand to be young +like you. Juno, for instance, who is--" + +"Hus-band!" came reprovingly from Mrs. Cameron, spoken as only she could +speak it, with a prolonged buzzing sound on the first syllable, and +warning the husband that he was venturing too far. + +"It is time to go down if Mrs. Cameron sees the young ladies before +dinner," she said, a little stiffly; whereupon her better half startled +Katy with the exclamation: + +"Mrs. Cameron! Thunder and lightning, wife, call her Katy, and don't go +into any nonsense of that kind." + +The lady reddened, but said nothing until she reached the hall, when she +whispered to Katy, apologetically: + +"Don't mind it. He is rather irritable since his illness, and sometimes +makes use of coarse language." + +Katy had been a little frightened at the outburst, but she liked Mr. +Cameron, notwithstanding, and her heart was lighter as she went down to +the library, where Wilford met her at the door, and taking her on his +arm led her in to his sisters, holding her back as he presented her, +lest she should assault them as she had his mother. But Katy felt no +desire to hug the tall, queenly girl whom Wilford introduced as Juno, +and whose large, black eyes seemed to read her through as she offered +her hand and very daintily kissed her forehead, murmuring something +about a welcome to New York. Bell came next, broad-faced, +plainer-looking Bell, who yet had many pretentions to beauty, but whose +manner, if possible, was frostier, cooler, than her sister's. Of the +two, Katy liked Juno best, for there was about her a flash and sparkle +very fascinating to one who had never seen anything of the kind and did +not know that much of this vivacity was the result of patient study and +practice. Katy would have known they were high-bred, as the world +defines high breeding, and something in their manner reminded her of the +ladies she had seen abroad, ladies in whose veins lordly blood was +flowing. She could not help feeling uncomfortable in their presence, +especially as she felt that Juno's black eyes were on her constantly. +Not that she could ever meet them looking at her, for they darted away +the instant hers were raised, but she knew just when they returned to +her again, and how closely they were scanning her. + +"Your wife looks tired, Will. Let her sit down," Bell said, herself +wheeling the easy-chair nearer to the fire, while Wilford placed Katy in +it; then, thinking she would get on better if he were not there, he left +the room, and Katy was alone with her new sisters. + +Juno had examined her dress and found no fault with it, simply because +it was Parisian make; while Bell had examined her head, deciding that +there might be something in it, though she doubted it, but that, at all +events, short hair was very becoming to it, showing all its fine +proportions, and half deciding to have her own locks cut away. Juno had +a similar thought, wondering if it were the Paris fashion, and if she +would look as young in proportion as Katy did were her hair worn on her +neck. + +With their brother's departure, the tongues of both the girls were +loosened, and standing near to Katy, they began to question her of what +she had seen, Juno asking if she did not hate to leave Italy, and did +not wish herself back again. Wholly truthful, Katy answered: "Oh, yes, +I was very sorry, I would rather be there than here." + +"Complimentary to us, very," Bell murmured audibly in French, blushing +as Katy's eyes were lifted quickly to hers, and she knew she was +understood. + +If there was anything which Katy liked more than another in the way of +study, it was French. She had excelled in it at Canandaigua, and while +abroad had taken great pains to acquire a pure pronunciation, so that +she spoke it with a good deal of fluency, and readily comprehended Bell. + +"I did not mean to be rude," she said, earnestly. "I liked Italy so +much, and we expected to stay longer; but that does not hinder my liking +to be here. I hope I did not offend you." + +"Certainly not; you are an honest little puss," Bell replied, placing +her hand caressingly upon the curly head laying back so wearily on the +chair. "Here in New York we have a bad way of not telling the whole +truth, but you will soon be used to it." + +"Used to not telling the truth! Oh, I hope not!" and this time the blue +eyes lifted so wonderingly to Bell's face had in them a startled look. + +"Simpleton," was Juno's comment, while Bell's was: "I rather like the +child," as she continued to smooth the golden curls and wound them +around her finger, wondering if Katy had a taste for metaphysics, that +being the last branch of science which she had taken up. + +"I suppose you will find Will a pattern husband," Juno said, after a +moment's pause, and Katy replied: "There never could be a better, I am +sure, and I have been very happy." + +"Has he never said one cross word to you in all these six months?" was +Juno's next question, to which Katy answered, truthfully: "Never." + +"And lets you do as you please?" + +"Yes, just as I please," Katy replied, while Juno continued: "He must +have changed greatly, then, from what he used to be; but marriage has +probably improved him. He tells you all his secrets, too, I presume?" + +Anxious that Wilford should appear well in every light, Katy replied at +random: "Yes, if he has any." + +"Well, then," and in Juno's black eyes there was a wicked look, "perhaps +you will tell me who was or is the original of that picture he guards so +carefully?" + +"What picture?" and Katy looked up inquiringly, while Juno, with a +little sarcastic laugh, continued: "Oh, he has not told you, then. I +thought he would not, he seemed so angry and annoyed when he saw me with +it once three or four years ago. I found it in his room, where he had +accidentally left it, and was looking at it when he came in. It was the +picture of a young girl, who must have been very beautiful, and I did +not blame Will for loving her, if he ever did, but he need not have been +so indignant at me for wishing to know who it was. I never saw him so +angry or so much disturbed. I hope you will ferret the secret out and +tell me, for I have a great deal of curiosity, fancying that picture +had something to do with his remaining so long a bachelor. I do not mean +that he does not love you," she added, as she saw how white Katy grew. +"It is not to be expected that a man can live to be thirty without +loving more than one. There was Sybil Grey, a famous belle, whom I +thought at one time he would marry; but when Judge Grandon offered she +accepted, and Will was left in the lurch. I do not really believe he +cared, though, for Sybil was too much of a flirt to suit his jealous +lordship, and I will do him the justice to say that, however many +fancies he may have had, he likes you best of all," and this Juno felt +constrained to say because of the look in Katy's face, a look which +warned her that in her thoughtlessness she had gone too far and pierced +the young wife's heart with a pang as cruel as it was unnecessary. + +Bell had tried to stop her, but she had rattled on until now it was too +late, and she could not recall her words, however much she might wish to +do so. "Don't tell Will," she was about to say, when Will himself +appeared, to take Katy out to dinner. Very beautiful and sad were the +blue eyes which looked up at him so wistfully, and nothing but the +remembrance of Juno's words, "He likes you best of all," kept Katy from +crying outright, when he took her hand, passing it between his own and +asking if she was tired. + +"Let us try what dinner will do for you," he said, and in silence Katy +went with him to the pleasant dining-room, where the glare and the +ceremony bewildered her, bringing a homesick feeling as she thought of +Silverton, contrasting the elegance around her with the plain tea table, +graced with the mulberry set instead of the costly china before her. + +Never had Katy felt so embarrassed in her life as she did this night, +when seated for the first time at dinner in her husband's home, with all +those criticising eyes upon her, as she knew they were. She had been +very hungry, but her appetite was gone, and she almost loathed the rich +food offered her, feeling so glad when the dinner was ended, and Wilford +asked if she would go then to Jamie's room. He was sitting in his +wheel-chair when they went in, and his eyes turned eagerly toward them, +lighting up with pleasure when Wilford said: "This is your Aunt Katy. +You will love each other, I am sure." + +That they would love each other was very apparent from the kisses Katy +pressed upon his lips, and the way in which his arms clung around her +neck as he said: "I am glad you have come, Aunt Katy, and you will tell +me of the good doctor. He is your cousin, Uncle Wilford says." + +With Jamie Katy was perfectly at her ease. There was some affinity +between him and herself, and she was glad when Wilford left them alone, +as he wisely did, going back to where his mother and sisters were freely +discussing his bride, his mother calling her a mere child, who would +improve, and Juno saying she had neither manner nor style, while Bell +offered no opinion, except that she was pretty. A part of these +criticisms Wilford heard, and they made his blood tingle, for he had +great faith in their opinions, even though he sometimes savagely +combated them, and into his heart there crept a slight feeling of +dissatisfaction toward Katy, now kneeling on the floor by Jamie's side, +and with her head almost in his lap, talking to him of Morris Grant, +whose very name had a strange power to soothe her. + +"You don't seem like an aunt," Jamie said at last, smoothing her short +hair; "you look so like a girl. I wonder, must I call you so? I guess +I must, though, for Uncle Will told me to, and we all mind him, grandma +and all! Do you?" and the child looked curiously at her. + +Had Jamie's question been put to her two weeks ago, she would have +hesitated in her answer, and even now she had not waked to the fact that +in all essential points her husband's wish was the law she could not +help obey, but she replied, laughingly: "Yes, I mind him," while Jamie +continued: "I love him so much, and he loves us and you. I heard him +tell grandma so, and by his voice I knew he was in earnest. He never +loved any one half so well before, he said, not even--somebody--I forget +who--a funny name it was." + +Katy felt almost as if she were doing wrong, but remembering what Juno +had said of Sybil Grey, she faintly asked: + +"Was Sybil the name?" + +Jamie hardly thought it was. It seemed more like some town; still, it +might have been, he said, and Katy's heart grew lighter, for Juno's idle +words had troubled her, and Sybil Grey most of all; but if her husband +now loved her best, she did not care so much; and when Wilford came for +her to join them in the parlor, he found her like herself both in looks +and spirits. Mark Ray had been obliged to decline Mr. Cameron's +invitation to dinner, but he was now in the library, Wilford said, and +Katy was glad, for she remembered how he had helped her during that week +of gayety in Boston, when society was so new to her. As he had been +then, so he was now, and his friendly, respectful manner put Katy as +much at her ease as it was possible for her to be in the presence of +Wilford's mother and sisters, who watched her so narrowly. + +"I suppose you have not seen your Sister Helen? You know I called there, +of course?" Mark said to Katy; but before she could reply, a pair of +black eyes shot a keen glance at the luckless Mark, and Juno's sharp +voice said, quickly: "Called on her! When, pray? I did not know you had +the honor of Miss Lennox's acquaintance." + +Mark was in a dilemma. He had kept his call at Silverton to himself, as +he did not care to be questioned about Katy's family; and now, when it +accidentally came out, he tried to make some evasive reply, pretending +that he had spoken of it, and Juno had forgotten. But Juno knew better, +and from that night dated a strong feeling of dislike, almost hatred, +for Helen Lennox, whom she affected to despise, even though she could be +jealous of her. Wisely changing the conversation, Mark asked Katy next +to play, and as she seldom refused, she went at once to the piano, +astonishing both Mrs. Cameron and her daughters with the brilliancy of +her performance. Even Juno complimented her, saying she must have taken +lessons very young. + +"When I was ten," Katy answered. "Cousin Morris gave me my first +exercises himself. He plays sometimes." + +"Yes, I knew that," Juno replied. "Does your sister play as well as +you?" + +Katy knew that Helen did not, and she answered frankly: "Morris thinks +she does not. She is not as fond of it as I am." Then feeling that she +must in some way make amends for Helen, she added: "But she knows a +great deal more than I do about books. Helen is very smart." + +There was a smile on every lip at this ingenuous remark, but only Mark +and Bell liked Katy the better for it. Wilford did not care to have her +talking of her friends, and he kept her at the piano until she said her +fingers were tired, and begged leave to stop. + +It was late ere Mark bade them good-night; so late that Katy began to +wonder if he would never go, yawning once so perceptibly that Wilford +gave her a reproving glance, which sent the hot blood to her face and +drove from her every feeling of drowsiness. Even after he had gone the +family were in no haste to retire, but sat chatting with Wilford until +the city clock struck twelve and Katy was actually nodding in her chair. + +"Poor child, she is very tired," Wilford said, apologetically, gently +waking Katy, who, really mortified, begged them to excuse her, and +followed her husband to her room, where she was free to ask him what she +must ask before she could ever be quite as happy as she had been before. + +Notwithstanding what Jamie had said, Juno's words kept recurring to her +mind, and going up to the chair where Wilford was sitting before the +fire, and standing partly behind him, she said, timidly: "Will you +answer me one thing truly?" + +Alone with Katy, Wilford felt all his old tenderness returning, and +drawing her into his lap, he asked her what it was she wished to know. + +"Did you love anybody three or four years ago, or ever--that is, love +them well enough to wish to make them your wife?" + +Katy could feel how Wilford started, as he said: "What put that idea +into your head? Who has been talking to you?" + +"Juno," Katy answered. "She told me she believed that it was some other +love which kept you a bachelor so long. Was it, Wilford?" and Katy's +lips quivered in a grieved kind of way as she put the question. + +"Juno be--" + +Wilford did not say what, for he seldom swore, and never in a lady's +presence, even if the lady were his wife. So he said, instead: + +"It was very unkind in Juno to distress you thus with matters about +which she knew nothing." + +"But did you?" Katy asked again. "Was there not a Sybil Grey, or some +one of that name?" + +At mention of Sybil Grey, Wilford looked relieved, and answered her at +once: + +"Yes, there was a Sybil Grey, Mrs. Judge Grandon now, and a dashing +widow. Don't sigh so wearily," he continued, as Katy drew a gasping +breath. "Knowing she was a widow, I chose you, thus showing which I +preferred. Few men live to be thirty without more or less fancies, which +under some circumstances might ripen into something stronger, and I am +not an exception. I never loved Sybil Grey, nor wished to make her my +wife. I admired her very much. I admire her yet, and among all my +acquaintances there is not one upon whom I would care to have you make +so good an impression as upon her, nor one whose manner you could better +imitate." + +"Oh, will she call? Shall I see her?" Katy asked, beginning to feel +alarmed at the very thought of Sybil Grey, with all her polish and +manner. + +"She is spending the winter in New Orleans with her late husband's +relatives. She will not return till spring," Wilford replied. "But do +not look so distressed, for I tell you solemnly that I never loved +another as I love you, my wife. Do you believe me?" + +"Yes," and Katy's head drooped upon his shoulder. + +She was satisfied with regard to Sybil Grandon, only hoping she would +not have to meet her when she came home. But the picture. Whose was +that? Not Sybil's certainly, else Juno would have known. The picture +troubled her, but she dared not speak of it, Wilford had seemed so angry +at Juno. Still, she would probe him a little further, and so she +continued: + +"I do believe you, and if I ever see this Sybil I will try to imitate +her; but tell me, if, after her, there was among your friends one better +than the rest, one almost as dear as I am, one whom you sometimes +remember even now--is she living, or is she dead?" + +Wilford thought of that humble grave far off in St. Mary's churchyard, +the grave whose headstone bore the inscription: "Genevra Lambert, aged +22," and he answered quickly: + +"If there ever was such a one, she certainly is not living. Are you +satisfied?" + +Katy answered that she was, but perfect confidence in her husband's +affection had been terribly shaken by Juno's avowal and his partial +admission of an earlier love, and Katy's heart was too full to sleep, +even after she had retired. Visions of Sybil Grey, blended with visions +of another whom she called the "dead fancy," flitted before her mind, as +she lay awake, while hour after hour went by, until tired nature could +endure no longer, and just as the great city was waking up and the +rattle of wheels was beginning to be heard upon the distant pavements, +she fell away to sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +EXTRACTS FROM BELL CAMERON'S DIARY. + + +NEW YORK, December--. + +After German philosophy and Hamilton's metaphysics, it is a great relief +to have introduced into the family an entirely new element--a character +the dissection of which is at once a novelty and a recreation. It is +absolutely refreshing, and I find myself returning to my books with +increased vigor after an encounter with that simple-hearted, +unsophisticated, innocent-minded creature, our sister-in-law, Mrs. +Wilford Cameron. Such pictures as Juno and I used to draw of the stately +personage who was one day coming to us as Wilford's wife, and of whom +even mother was to stand in awe. Alas! how hath our idol fallen! Tell it +not in Gath, nor yet in Gotham! And still I rather like the little +creature, who, the very first night, nearly choked mother to death, +giving her lace streamers a most uncomfortable twitch, and actually +kissing father--a thing I have not done since I can remember. But, then, +with the exception of Will and Jamie, the Camerons are all a set of +icicles, encased in a refrigerator at that. If we were not, we should +thaw out, when Katy leans on us so affectionately and looks up at us so +wistfully, as if pleading for our love. Wilford does wonders; he used to +be so grave, so dignified and silent, that I never supposed he would +bear having a wife meet him at the door with cooing and kisses, and +climbing into his lap right before us all. Juno says it makes her sick, +while mother is dreadfully shocked; and even Will sometimes seems +annoyed, gently shoving her aside and telling her he is tired. + +After all, it is a query in my mind whether it is not better to be like +Katy than like Sybil Grandon, about whom Juno was mean enough to tell +her the first day of her arrival. On the whole, I would rather be Katy, +but better yet, would prefer remaining myself, Bell Cameron, the happy +medium between the two extremes, of art perfected and nature in its +primeval state, just as it existed among the Silverton hills. From my +own standpoint, I can look on and criticise, giving my journal the +benefit of my criticisms and conclusions. + +Very pretty, but shockingly insipid, is Juno's verdict upon Mrs. +Wilford, while mother says less, but looks a great deal more, especially +when she talks about "my folks," as she did to Mrs. General Reynolds the +very first time she called. Mother and Juno were so annoyed, while Will +looked like a thundercloud, particularly when she spoke of Uncle +Ephraim, saying so and so. He was better satisfied with Katy in Europe, +where he was not known, than he is here, where he sees her with other +people's eyes. One of his weaknesses is a too great reverence for the +world's opinion, as held and expounded by our very fashionable mother, +and as in a quiet kind of way she has arrayed herself against poor Katy, +while Juno is more open in her acts and sayings. I predict that it will +not be many months before he comes to the conclusion that he has made a +mesalliance, a thing of which no Cameron was ever guilty. + +I wonder if there is any truth in the rumor that Mrs. General Reynolds +once taught a district school, and if she did, how much would that +detract from the merits of her son, Lieutenant Bob. But what nonsense to +be writing about him. Let me go back to Katy, who has no more idea of +etiquette than Jamie in his wheel-chair. Still, there is something very +attractive about her, and Mrs. General Reynolds took to her at once, +petting her as she would a kitten, and laughing merrily at her naive +speeches, as she called them--speeches which made Will turn black in the +face, they betrayed so much of rustic life and breeding. I fancy that he +has given Katy a few hints, and that she is beginning to be somewhat +afraid of him, for she watches him constantly when she is talking, and +she does not now slip her hand into his as she used to when guests are +leaving and she stands at his side; neither is she quite so +demonstrative when he comes up from the office at night, and there is a +look upon her face which was not there when she came. They are taming +her down, mother and Juno, and to-morrow they are actually going to +commence a systematic course of training, preparatory to her _debut_ +into society, said _debut_ to occur on the night of the ----, when Mrs. +General Reynolds gives the party talked about so long. I was present +when they met in solemn conclave to talk it over, mother asking Will if +he had any objections to Juno's instructing his wife with regard to +certain things of which she was ignorant. Will's forehead knit itself +together at first, and I half hoped he would veto the whole proceedings, +but after a moment he replied: + +"No, providing Katy is willing. Her feelings must not be hurt." + +"Certainly not," mother said. "Katy is a dear little creature, and we +all love her very much, but that does not blind us to her deficiencies, +and as we are anxious that she should fill that place in society which +Mrs. Wilford Cameron ought to fill, it seems necessary to tone her down +a little before her first appearance at a party." + +To this Will assented, and then Juno went on to enumerate her +deficiencies, which, as nearly as I can remember, are these: She laughs +too much and too loud; is too enthusiastic over novelties, conducting as +if she never saw anything before; has too much to say about Silverton +and "my folks," quotes Uncle Ephraim and Sister Helen too often, and is +even guilty at times of mentioning a certain Aunt Betsy, who must have +floated with the Ark and snuffled the breezes of Ararat. She does not +know how to enter, or cross, or leave a room properly, or receive an +introduction; or, in short, do anything according to New York ideas as +understood by the Camerons, etc.; she is to be taught--toned down, +mother called it--dwelling upon her high spirits as something vulgar, if +not absolutely wicked. How father would have sworn, for he calls her his +little sunbeam, and says he never should have gained so fast if she had +not come with her sunny face and lively, merry laugh to cheer his +sickroom. Katy has a fast friend in him and Jamie. But mother and +Juno--well, I shall be glad if they do not annihilate her altogether, +and I am surprised that Will allows it. I wonder if Katy is really happy +with us? She says she is, and is evidently delighted with New York life, +clapping her hands when the invitation to Mrs. Reynolds' party was +received, and running with it to Wilford as soon as he came home. It is +her first big party, she says, she having never attended any except that +little sociable in Boston, and those insipid schoolgirl affairs at the +seminary. I may be conceited--Juno thinks I am--but really and truly, +Bell Cameron's private opinion of herself is that at heart she is better +than the rest of her family, and so I pity this little sister of ours, +while at the same time I am exceedingly anxious to be present whenever +Juno takes her in hand, for I like to see the fun. Were she at all +bookish, I should avow myself her champion, and openly defend her; but +she is not, and so I give her into the hands of the Philistines, hoping +they will at least spare her hair and not worry her life out on that +head. It is very becoming to her, and several young ladies have +whispered their intention of trying its effect upon themselves, so that +Katy may yet be a leader of the fashion. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +TONING DOWN. + + +_Bell's Diary Continued_. + +Such fun as it was to see mother and Juno training Katy, showing her how +to enter the parlor, how to arrange her dress, how to carry her hands +and feet, and how to sit in a chair--Juno going through with the +performance first, and then requesting Katy to imitate her, which I must +say she did to perfection, even excelling her teacher, inasmuch as she +is naturally very easy and graceful. Had I been Katy I should have +rebelled, but she is far too sweet-tempered and anxious to please, while +I half suspect that fear of my lord Wilford had something to do with it, +for when the drill was over, she asked so earnestly if we thought he +would be ashamed of her, and there were tears in her great blue eyes as +she said it. Hang Wilford! Hang the whole of them! I am not sure but I +shall espouse her cause myself, or else tell father, who will do it so +much better. + +Dec.--th.--Another drill, with Juno commanding officer, while the +poor little private seemed completely worried out. This time there were +open doors, but so absorbed were mother and Juno as not to hear the +bell, and just as Juno was saying, "Now, imagine me Mrs. General +Reynolds, to whom you are being presented," while Katy was bowing almost +to the floor, who should appear but Mark Ray, stumbling square upon that +ludicrous rehearsal, and of course bringing it to an end. No explanation +was made, nor was any needed, for Mark's face showed that he understood +it, and it was as much as he could do to keep from roaring with +merriment; I am sure he pitied Katy, for his manner toward her was very +affectionate and kind, and when once she left the room he complimented +her highly, repeating many things he had heard in her praise from those +who had seen her both in the street and here at home. Juno's face was +like a thundercloud, for she was as much in love with Mark Ray as she +was once with Dr. Grant, and is even jealous of his praise of Katy. Glad +am I that I never yet saw the man who could make me jealous, or for whom +I cared a pin. There's Bob Reynolds up at West Point. I suppose I do +think his epaulettes very becoming to him, but his hair is too light and +he cannot raise whiskers big enough to cast a shadow on the wall, while +I know he looks with contempt upon females who write, even though their +writings never see the light of day; thinks them strong-minded, +self-willed, and all that. He is expected to be present at the party, +but I shall not be. I had rather stay at home and finish that article +entitled "Women of the Present Century," and suggested to my mind by my +Sister Katy, who stands for the picture I am drawing of a pretty woman, +with more heart than brains, contrasting her with such a one as Juno, +her opposite extreme. + +January 10.--The last time I wrote in my journal was just before the +party, which is over now, the long-talked-of affair at which Katy was +the reigning belle. I don't know how it happened, but happen it did, and +Juno's glory faded before that of her rival, whose merry, ringing laugh +frequently penetrated to every room, and made more than one look up in +some surprise. But when Mrs. Humphreys said: "It's that charming little +Mrs. Cameron, the prettiest creature I ever saw, her laugh is so +refreshing and genuine," the point was settled, and Katy was free to +laugh as loudly as she pleased. + +She did look beautiful, in lace and pearls, with her short hair curling +on her neck. She would not allow us to put so much as a bud in her hair, +showing in this respect a willfulness we never expected; but as she was +perfectly irresistible, we suffered her to have her way, and when she +was dressed, sent her in to father, who had asked to see her. And now +comes the strangest thing in the world. + +"You are very beautiful, little daughter," father said. "I almost wish +I was going with you to see the sensation you are sure to create." + +Then straight into his lap climbed Katy--father's lap--where none of us +ever sat, I am sure, and began to coax him to go, telling him she should +appear better if he were there, and that she should need him when +Wilford left her, as of course he must a part of the time. And father +actually dressed himself and went. But Katy did not need him after the +people began to understand that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was the rage. Even +Sybil Grey, in her palmiest days, never received such homage as was paid +to the little Silverton girl, whose great charm was her perfect +enjoyment of everything, and her perfect faith in what people said to +her. Juno was nothing, and I worse than nothing, for I did go, wearing +a plain black silk, with high neck and long sleeves, looking, as Juno +said, like a Sister of Charity. But Bell Cameron can afford to dress +plainly if she chooses, and I am glad, as it saves a deal of trouble, +and somehow people seem to like me quite as well in my Quakerish dress +as they do the fashionable Juno in diamonds and flowers, with uncovered +neck and shoulders. + +Lieutenant Bob was there; his light hair lighter than ever, and his +chin as smooth as my hand. He likes to dance, and I do not, but somehow +he persisted in staying where I was, notwithstanding that I said my +sharpest things in hopes to get rid of him. He left me at last to +dance with Katy, who makes up in grace and airiness what she lacks in +knowledge. Once upon the floor, she did not lack for partners, but, I +verily believe, danced every set, growing prettier and fairer as she +danced, for hers is a complexion which does not get red and blowsy with +exercise. + +Mark Ray was there, too, and I saw him smile comically when Katy met the +people with that bow she was making at the time he came so suddenly upon +us. Mark is a good fellow, and I really think we have him to thank in a +measure for Katy's successful _debut_. He was the first to take her from +Wilford, walking with her up and down the hall by way of reassuring her, +and once as they passed me I heard her say: + +"I feel so timid here--so much afraid of doing something +wrong--something countrified." + +"Never mind," he answered. "Act yourself just as you would were you +at home in Silverton, where you are known. That is far better than +affecting a manner not natural to you." + +After that Katy brightened wonderfully. The stiffness which at first +was perceptible passed off, and she was Katy Lennox, queening it over +all the city belles, who, because she was married, would not be +jealous--drawing after her a host of gentlemen, and between the sets +holding a miniature court at one end of the room, where the more +desirable of the guests crowded around; flattering her until her little +head ought to have been turned if it was not. To do her justice, she +bore her honors well, and when we were in the carriage, and father +complimented her upon her success, she only said: + +"If I pleased you all I am glad." + +So many calls as we had the next day, and so many invitations as there +are now on our table for Mrs. Wilford Cameron, while our opera box +between the scenes is packed with beaus, until one would suppose Wilford +might be jealous; but Katy takes it all so quietly and modestly, seeming +only gratified for his sake, that I really believe he enjoys it more +than she does. At all events, he persists in her going, even when she +would rather stay at home, so if she is spoiled, the fault will rest +with him. + +February--th.--Poor Katy. Dissipation is beginning to wear upon her, +for she is not accustomed to our late hours, and sometimes falls asleep +while Esther is dressing her. But go she must, for Wilford wills it so, +and she is but an automaton to do his bidding. + +Why can't mother let her alone, when everybody seems so satisfied with +her? Somehow, she does not believe that people are as delighted as they +pretend, and so she keeps training and tormenting her until I do not +wonder that Katy sometimes hates to go out, lest she shall unconsciously +be guilty of an impropriety. I pitied her last night, when, after she +was ready for the opera, she came into my room, where I was indulging in +the luxury of a loose dressing gown, with my feet on the sofa. Latterly +she has taken to me, and now sitting down before the fire into which her +blue eyes looked with a steady stare, she said: + +"I wish I might stay here with you to-night. I have heard this opera +before, and it will be so tiresome. I get so sleepy while they are +singing, for I never care to watch the acting. I did at first, when it +was new, but now it seems insipid to see them make-believe, while the +theatre is worse yet," and she gave a weary yawn. + +In less than three months she has exhausted fashionable life, and I +looked at her in astonishment, asking what would please her if the opera +did not. What would she like? + +Turning her eyes full upon me, she exclaimed: + +"I do like it some, I suppose, only I get so tired. I like to ride, I +like to skate, I like to shop, and all that; but, oh, you don't know how +I want to go home to mother and Helen. I have not seen them for so long, +but I am going in the spring--going in May. How many days are there in +March and April? Sixty-one," she continued; "then I may safely say that +in eighty days I shall see mother, and all the dear old places. It is +not a grand home like this. You, Bell, might laugh at it. Juno would, I +am sure, but you do not know how dear it is to me, or how I long for a +sight of the huckleberry hills and the rocks where Helen and I used to +play, Helen is a darling sister, and I know you will like her." + +Just then Will called to say the carriage was waiting, and Katy was +driven away, while I sat thinking of her and the devoted love with which +she clings to her home and friends, wondering if it were the kindest +thing which could have been done, transplanting her to our atmosphere, +so different from her own. + +March 1st.--As it was in the winter, so it is now; Mrs. Wilford Cameron +is the rage--the bright star of society--which quotes and pets and +flatters, and even laughs at her by turns; and Wilford, though still +watchful, lest she should do something _outre_, is very proud of her, +insisting upon her accepting invitations, sometimes two for one evening, +until the child is absolutely worn out, and said to me once, when I told +her how well she was looking and how pretty her dress was: "Yes, pretty +enough, but I am so tired. If I could lie down on mother's bed, in a +shilling calico, just as I used to do!" + +Mother's bed seems at present to be the height of her ambition--the +thing she most desires; and as Juno fancied it must be the feathers she +is sighing for, she wickedly suggests that Wilford either buy a feather +bed for his wife, or else send to that Aunt Betsy for the one which was +to be Katy's setting out! They go to housekeeping in May, and on Madison +Square, too, I think Wilford would quite as soon remain with us, for he +does not fancy change; but Katy wants a home of her own, and I never saw +anything more absolutely beautiful than her face when father said to +Wilford that No. ---- Madison Square was for sale, advising him to +secure it. But when mother intimated that there was no necessity for the +two families to separate at present--that Katy was too young to have +charge of a house--there came into her eyes a look of such distress that +it went straight to father's heart, and calling her to him, he said: + +"Tell me, sunbeam, what is your choice--to stay with us, or have a home +of your own?" + +Katy was very white, and her voice trembled as she replied: + +"You have been kind to me here, and it is very pleasant; but I guess--I +think--I'm sure--I should like the housekeeping best. I am not so young, +either. Nineteen in July, and when I go home next month I can learn so +much of Aunt Betsy and Aunt Hannah." + +Mother looked at Wilford then; but he was looking into the fire, with an +expression anything but favorable to that visit home, fixed now for +April instead of May. But Katy has no discernment, and believes she is +actually going home to learn how to make apple dumplings and pumpkin +pies. In spite of mother, the house is bought, and now she is gone all +day, deciding how it shall be furnished, always leaving Katy out of the +question, as if she were a cipher, and only consulting Wilford's choice. +They will be happier alone, I know. Mrs. General Reynolds says that it +is the way for young people to live; that her son's wife shall never +come home to her, for of course their habits could not be alike; and +then she looked queerly at me, as if she knew I was thinking of +Lieutenant Bob and who his wife might be. + +Sybil Grandon is coming home in April or May, and Mrs. Reynolds wonders +will she flirt as she used to do. Just as if Bob would care for a widow. +There is more danger from Will, who thinks Mrs. Grandon a perfect +paragon, and who is very anxious that Katy may appear well before her, +saying nothing and doing nothing which shall in any way approximate to +Silverton and the shoes which Katy told Esther she used to bind when a +girl. Will need not be disturbed, for Sybil Grandon was never half as +pretty as Katy, or half as much admired. Neither need Mrs. General +Reynolds fret about Bob, as if he would care for her. Sybil Grandon, +indeed! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +KATY. + + +For nearly four months Katy had been in New York, drinking deep draughts +from the cup of folly and fashion held so constantly to her lips; but +she cloyed of it at last, and what at first had been so eagerly grasped, +began, from daily repetition, to grow insipid and dull. To be the belle +of every place, to know that her dress, her style, and even the fashion +of her hair, was copied and admired, was gratifying to her, because she +knew how much it pleased her husband, who was never happier or prouder +than when, with Katy on his arm, he entered some crowded parlor and +heard the buzz of admiration as it circled around, while Katy, +simple-hearted and guileless still, smiled and blushed like a little +child, wondering at the attentions lavished upon her, and attributing +them mostly to her husband, whose position she thoroughly understood, +marveling more and more that he should have chosen her to be his wife. +That he had so honored her made her love him with a strange kind of +grateful, clinging love, which as yet would acknowledge no fault in him, +no wrong, no error; and if ever a shadow did cloud her heart, she was +the one to blame, not Wilford; he was right--he the idol she +worshiped--he the one for whose sake she tried so hard to drop her +country ways and conform to the rules his mother and sister taught, +submitting with the utmost good-nature to what Bell in her journal had +called the drill, but it must be confessed not succeeding very well in +imitating Juno. Katy could hardly be other than her own easy, graceful +self, and though the drills had their effect, and taught her many +things, they could not divest her of that natural, playful, airy manner +which so charmed the city people and made her the reigning belle. As +Marian Hazleton had predicted, others than her husband had spoken words +of praise in Katy's ear; but such was her nature that the shafts of +flattery glanced aside, leaving her unharmed, so that her husband, +though sometimes startled and disquieted, had no cause for jealousy, +enjoying Katy's success far more than she did herself, urging her out +when she would rather have stayed at home, and evincing so much +annoyance if she ventured to remonstrate that she gave it up at last +and floated on with the tide. + +Mrs. Cameron had at first been greatly shocked at Katy's want of +propriety, looking on aghast when she wound her arms around Wilford's +neck, or sat upon his knee; but to the elder Cameron the sight was a +pleasant one, bringing back sunny memories of a summer time years ago, +when he was young, and a fair bride had for a few brief weeks made this +earth a paradise to him. But fashion had entered his Eden--that summer +time was gone, and only the dim leaves of autumn lay where the buds +which promised so much had been. The girlish bride was a stately matron +now, doing nothing amiss, but making all her acts conform to a +prescribed rule of etiquette, and frowning majestically upon the +frolicsome, impulsive Katy, who had crept so far into the heart of +the eccentric man that he always found the hours of her absence long, +listening intently for the sound of her bounding footsteps, and feeling +that her coming to his household had infused into his veins a better, +healthier life than he had known for years. Katy was very dear to him, +and he felt a thrill of pain, while a shadow lowered on his brow when +first the toning down process commenced. He had heard them talk about +it, and in his wrath he had hurled a cut-glass goblet upon the marble +hearth, breaking it in atoms, while he called them a pair of precious +fools, and Wilford a bigger one because he suffered it. So long as his +convalescence lasted, he was some restraint upon his wife, but when he +was well enough to resume his duties in his Wall Street office, there +was nothing in the way, and Katy's education progressed accordingly. For +Wilford's sake, Katy would do anything, and as from some things he had +dropped she guessed that her manner was not quite what suited him, she +submitted to much which would otherwise have been excessively annoying. +But she was growing tired now, and it told upon her face, which was +whiter than when she came to New York, while her figure was, if +possible, slighter and more airy; but this only enhanced her loveliness, +Wilford thought, and so he paid no heed to her complaints of weariness, +but kept her in the circle which welcomed her so warmly, and would have +missed her so much. + +Little by little it had come to Katy that she was not quite as +comfortable in her husband's family as she would be in a house of her +own. The constant watch kept over her by Mrs. Cameron and Juno irritated +and fretted her, making her wonder what was the matter, and why she +should so often feel lonely and desolate when surrounded by every luxury +which wealth could purchase. "It is his folks," she always said to +herself when cogitating upon the subject. "Alone with Wilford I shall +feel as light and happy as I used to do in Silverton." + +And so Katy caught eagerly at the prospect of a release from the +restraint of No. ----, seeming so anxious that Wilford, almost before he +was aware of it himself, became the owner of one of the most desirable +situations on Madison Square; and Katy was the envy of the belles, who +had copied and imitated her, even to the cutting off their hair, which +fashion may be fairly said to have originated from Katy herself, whose +short curls had ceased to be obnoxious to the fastidious Mrs. Cameron, +for Juno had tried the effect, looking, as Bell said, "like a fool," +while Juno would have given much to have again the long black tresses, +the cutting of which did not make her look like Katy. Of all the +household, after Katy, Juno was perhaps the only one glad of the new +house. It would be a change for herself, for she meant to spend much +of her time on Madison Square, where everything was to be on the most +magnificent scale. Fortunately for Katy, she knew nothing of Juno's +intentions and built many a castle of her new home, where mother could +come with Helen and Dr. Grant. Somehow she never saw Uncle Ephraim, nor +his wife, nor yet Aunt Betsy there. She knew how out of place they would +appear, and how they would annoy Wilford: but surely to her mother and +Helen there could be no objection, and when she first went over the +house, she designated mentally this room as mother's, and another one as +Helen's, thinking how each should be fitted up with direct reference to +their tastes, Helen's containing a great many books, while her mother's +should have easy-chairs and lounges, with a host of drawers for holding +things. And Wilford heard it all, making no reply, but considering how +he could manage best so as to have no scene, for he had not the +slightest intention of inviting either Mrs. Lennox or Helen to visit +him, much less to become a part of his household. That he did not marry +Katy's relatives was a fact as fixed as the laws of the Medes and +Persians, and Katy's anticipations were answering no other purpose than +to divert her mind for the time being, keeping her bright and cheerful. + +Very pleasant indeed were the pictures Katy drew of the new house where +Helen was to come, but pleasanter far were her pictures of that visit to +Silverton, to occur in April, and about which she thought so much, +dreaming of it many a night, and waking in the morning with the belief +that she had actually been where the young buds were swelling and the +fresh grass was springing by the door. Poor Katy, how much she thought +about that visit when she should see them all and go again with Uncle +Ephraim down into the meadows, making believe she was Katy Lennox +still--when she could climb the ladder in the barn after new-laid eggs, +or steal across the fields to Linwood, talking with Morris as she used +to talk in the days which seemed so long ago. Morris she feared was not +liking her as well as of old, thinking her very frivolous and silly, for +he had only written her one short note in reply to the letter she had +sent, telling him of the opera, the parties she attended, and the gay, +happy life she led, for to him she would not then confess that in her +cup of joy there was a single bitter dreg. All was bright and fair, she +said, and Morris had replied that he was glad. "But do not forget that +death can find you even there amid your splendor, or that after death +the judgment comes, and then what shall it profit you if you gain the +whole world and lose your own soul." + +These words had rung in Katy's ears for many a day, following her to +the dance and to the opera, where even the music was drowned by the +echo of the words, "lose your own soul." But the sting grew less and +less, till Katy no longer felt it, and now was only anxious to talk with +Morris and convince him that she was not as thoughtless as he might +suppose, that she still remembered his teachings, remembered the Sunday +school and the little church in the valley, preferring it to the +handsome, aristocratic house where she went with the Camerons once on +every Sunday, and would willingly go twice if Wilford would go with her. +But the Camerons were merely fashionable churchgoers, and so their +afternoons were spent at home, Katy enjoying them vastly because she +usually had Wilford all to herself in her own room, a thing which did +not often occur during the weekdays. + +There was a kind of peace to be made with Helen, too, Katy feared; for +Helen had sent back the diamond ring, saying it was not suitable for +her, but never hinting that she had drawn from Morris the inference that +Wilford was not well pleased at having his wife thus dispose of his +costly presents. Katy had cried when she received the ring, feeling that +something was wrong and longing so much for the time when she could make +it right. + +"One more week and then it is April," she said to Wilford one evening +after they had retired to their room, and she was talking of Silverton. +"I guess I had better go about the tenth. Shall you stay as long as I +do?" + +Wilford bit his lip, and after a moment replied: + +"I have been talking with mother, and we think April is not a good time +for you to be in the country; it is so wet and cold. You had better not +till summer, and then I want you here to help order our furniture." + +"Oh, Wilford," and Katy's voice trembled, for from past experience +she knew that for Wilford to object to her plans was equivalent to +a refusal, and her heart throbbed with disappointment as she tried +to listen while Wilford urged many reasons why she should not go, +convincing her at last that of all times for visiting Silverton spring +was the worst, that summer or autumn were better, and that it was her +duty to remain where she was until such time as he saw fit for her to +do otherwise. + +This was the meaning of what he said, and though his manner was guarded +and his words kind, they were very conclusive, and with one gasping sob +Katy gave up Silverton, charging it more to Mrs. Cameron than to +Wilford, and writing next day to Helen that she could not come just +then, but after she was settled they might surely expect her. + +With a bitter pang Helen read this letter to the three women who had so +much anticipated Katy's visit, and each of whom cried quietly over her +disappointment, while even Uncle Ephraim went back to his work that +afternoon with a sad, heavy heart, for now his labor was not lightened +by thoughts of Katy's being there so soon. + +"Please God she may come to us some time," he said, pausing beneath the +butternut in the meadow, and remembering just how Katy looked on that +first day of her return from Canandaigua, when she sat on the flat stone +while he piled up the hay and talked with her of different paths through +life, one of which she must surely tread. + +She had said, "I will choose the straight and pleasant," and some would +think she had; but Uncle Ephraim was not so sure, and leaning against a +tree, he asked silently that, whether he ever saw his darling again or +not, God would care for her and keep her unspotted from the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE NEW HOUSE. + + +It was a cruel thing for Wilford Cameron to try thus to separate Katy +from the hearts which loved her so much: and, as if he felt reproached, +there was an increased tenderness in his manner toward her, particularly +as he saw how sad she was for a few days after his decision. But Katy +could not be sorry long, and in the excitement of settling the new house +her spirits rallied, and her merry laugh thrilled like a bird through +the rooms where the workmen were so busy, and where Mrs. Cameron was the +real superintendent, though there was always a show of consulting Katy, +who nevertheless was a mere cipher in the matter. In everything the +mother had her way, until it came to the room designed for Helen, and +which Mrs. Cameron was for converting into a kind of smoking or lounging +room for Wilford and his associates. Katy must not expect him to be +always as devoted to her as he had been during the winter, she said. He +had a great many bachelor friends, and now that he had a house of his +own, it was natural that he should have some place where they could +spend an hour or so with him without the restraint of ladies' society, +and this was just the room--large, airy, quiet, and so far from the +parlors that the odor of the smoke could not reach them. + +"Oak and green will do nicely here," turning to Wilford, "but you must +have some very handsome cigar sets, and one or two boxes of chess. Shall +I see to that?" + +Katy had submitted to much without knowing that she was submitting; but +something Bell had dropped that morning had awakened a suspicion that +possibly she was being ignored, and the wicked part of Helen would have +enjoyed the look in her eye as she said, decidedly, not to Mrs. Cameron, +but to Wilford: "I have from the very first decided this chamber for +Helen, and I cannot give it up for a smoking room. You never had one +at home. Why did you not, if it is so necessary?" + +Wilford could not tell her that his mother would as soon have brought +into her house one of Barnum's shows as to have had a room set apart for +smoking, which she specially disliked; neither could he at once reply at +all, so astonished was he at this sudden flash of spirit. Mrs. Cameron +was the first to rally, and in her usual quiet tone she said: "Indeed, I +did not know that your sister was to form a part of your household. When +do you expect her?" and her cold gray eyes rested steadily upon Katy, +who never before so fully realized the distance there was between her +husband's friends and her own. But as the worm will turn when trampled +on, so Katy, though hitherto powerless to defend herself, aroused in +Helen's behalf, and in a tone as quiet and decided as that of her +mother-in-law, replied: "She will come whenever I write for her. It was +arranged from the first. Wasn't it, Wilford?" and she turned to her +husband, who, unwilling to decide between a wife he loved and a mother +whose judgment he considered infallible, affected not to hear her, and +stole from the room, followed soon by Mrs. Cameron, so that Katy was +left mistress of the field. + +After that no one interfered in her arrangement of Helen's room, which, +with far less expense than Mrs. Cameron would have done, she fitted up +so cosily that Wilford pronounced it the pleasantest room in the house, +while Bell went into ecstasies over it, and even Juno might have unbent +enough to praise it, were it not that Mark Ray, who from being tacitly +claimed by Juno was frequently admitted to their counsels, had asked +the privilege of contributing to Helen's room a handsome volume of +German poetry, such as he fancied she might enjoy. So long as Mark's +attentions were not bestowed in any other quarter Juno was comparatively +satisfied, but the moment he swerved a hair's breadth from the line she +had marked out, her anger was aroused; and now, remembering his +commendations of Helen Lennox, she hated her as cordially as one jealous +girl can hate another whom she has not seen, making Katy so +uncomfortable, without knowing what was the matter, that she hailed the +morning of her exit from No. ---- as the brightest since her marriage. + +It was a very happy day for Katy, and when she first sat down to dinner +in her own handsome home her face shone with a joy which even the +presence of her mother-in-law could not materially lessen. She would +rather have been alone with Wilford, it is true, but as her choice was +not consulted she submitted cheerfully, proudly taking her rightful +place at the table, and doing the honors so well that Mrs. Cameron, in +speaking of it to her daughters, acknowledged that Wilford had little to +fear if Katy always appeared as much at ease as she did that day. A +thought similar to this passed through the mind of Wilford, who was very +observant of such matters, and that night, after his mother was gone, he +warmly commended Katy, but spoiled the pleasure his commendation would +have given by telling her next, as if one thought suggested the other, +that Sybil Grandon had returned, that he saw her on Broadway, accepting +her invitation to a seat in her carriage which brought him to his door. +She had made many inquiries concerning Katy, he said, expressing a great +curiosity to see her, and saying that as she drove past the house that +morning, she was strongly tempted to waive all ceremony and run in, +knowing she should be pardoned for the sake of Auld Lang Syne, when she +was privileged to take liberties with the Camerons. All this Wilford +repeated to Katy, but he did not tell her how at the words Auld Lang +Syne, Sybil had turned her fine eyes upon him with an expression which +made him color, for he knew she was referring to the time when her name +and his were always coupled together. + +Wilford would not have exchanged Katy for a dozen Sybils, but there was +about the latter a flash and sparkle very fascinating to most men, and +Wilford felt himself so much exhilarated in her society that he half +regretted leaving it, wishing as he did so that in some things Katy was +more like the brilliant woman of the world, who, flashing upon him her +most bewitching smile, leaned back in her handsome carriage with a +careless, easy abandon, while he ran up the steps of his own dwelling, +where Katy waited for him. In this state of mind her achievement at the +dinner table was exceedingly gratifying. Sybil herself could not have +done better. But alas, there were many points where Katy fell far below +this standard; so after speaking of Sybil's inquiries for his wife, he +went on to talk of Sybil herself, telling how much she was admired and +how superior she was to the majority of ladies whom Katy had met, adding +that he felt more anxious that Katy should make a favorable impression +upon her than any one of his acquaintance, as she would be sure to note +the slightest departure from her code of etiquette. How Katy hated the +words etiquette, and style and manner, wishing they might be stricken +from the language, and how she dreaded this Sybil Grandon, who seemed to +her like some ogress, instead of the charming creature she was described +to be. Thoughts of the secret picture and the dread fancy did not +trouble her now, for she was sure of Wilford's love; but she had +sometimes dreaded the return of Sybil Grandon, and now that she had +come, she felt for a moment a chill at her heart and a terror at meeting +her which she tried to shake off, succeeding at last, for perfect faith +in Wilford was to her a strong shield of defense, and her only trouble +was a fear lest she should fall in the scale of comparison which might +be instituted between herself and Mrs. Grandon. + +Nestling close to Wilford, she said, half earnestly, half playfully: + +"I will try not to disgrace you when I meet this Mrs. Grandon." + +Then, anxious to change the conversation to something more agreeable to +herself, she began to talk of their house, thus diverting her own mind +from Sybil Grandon, who after a few days ceased to be a bugbear, Wilford +never mentioning her again, and Katy only hearing of her through Juno +and Bell, the first of whom went into raptures over her, while the +latter styled her a silly, coquettish widow, who would appear much +better to have worn her weeds a little longer, and not throw herself +quite so soon into the market. That she should of course meet her some +time, Katy knew, but she would not distress herself till the time +arrived, and so she dismissed her fears, or rather lost them in the +excitement of her new dignity as mistress of a house. + +In her girlhood Katy had evinced a taste for housekeeping, which now +developed so rapidly that she won the respect of all the servants, from +the man who answered the bell to the accomplished cook, hired by Mrs. +Cameron, and who, like most accomplished cooks, was sharp and cross and +opinionated, but who did not find it easy to scold the blithe little +woman who every morning came flitting into her dominions, not asking +what they would have for dinner, as she had been led to suppose she +would, but ordering it with a matter of course air, which amused the +usually overbearing Mrs. Phillips. But when the little lady, rolling her +sleeves above her dimpled elbows and donning the clean white apron which +Phillips was reserving for afternoon, announced her intention of +surprising Wilford, who was very particular about dessert, with a +pudding such as Aunt Betsy used to make, there were signs of rebellion, +Phillips telling her bluntly that she couldn't be bothered--that it was +not a lady's place in the kitchen under foot--that the other Mrs. +Cameron never did it, and would not like it in Mrs. Wilford. + +For a moment Katy paused and looked straight at Mrs. Phillips; then +without a word of reply to that worthy's remarks, said, quietly: "I have +only six eggs here--the receipt is ten. Bring me four more, please." + +There was something in the blue eyes which compelled obedience, and the +dessert progressed without another word of remonstrance. But when the +door bell rang, and word came down that there were ladies in the +parlor--Juno with some one else--Phillips would not tell her of the +flour on her hair; and as Katy, after casting aside her apron and +putting down her sleeves, only glanced hastily at herself in the hall +mirror as she passed it, she appeared in the parlor with this mark upon +her curls, and greatly to her astonishment was presented to "Mrs. Sybil +Grandon," Juno explaining, that as Sybil was very anxious to see her, +and they were passing the house, she had presumed upon her privilege as +a sister and brought her in. + +For a moment the room turned dark, and Katy felt that she was falling; +it was so sudden, so unexpected, and she so unprepared; but Sybil's +familiar manner soon quieted her, and she was able at last to look fully +at her visitor, finding her not as handsome as she expected, nor as +young but in all other points she had not perhaps been exaggerated. +Cultivated and self-possessed, she was still very pleasing in her +manner, making Katy feel wholly at ease by a few well-timed compliments, +which had the merit of seeming genuine, so perfect was she in the art of +deception, practicing it with so much skill that few saw through the +mask, and knew it was put on. + +To Katy she was very gracious, admiring her house, admiring herself, +admiring everything, until Katy wondered how she could ever have dreaded +to meet her, laughing and chatting as familiarly as if the fashionable +woman were not criticising every movement and every act and every +feature of her face, wondering most at the flour upon her hair! + +Juno wondered, too, but knowing Katy's domestic propensities, suspected +the truth, and feigning some errand with Phillips, she excused herself +for a moment and descended to the kitchen, where she was not long in +hearing about Katy's queer ways, coming where she was not needed, and +making country puddings after some heathenish aunt's rule. + +"Was it Aunt Betsy?" Juno asked, her face betokening its disgust when +told that she was right, and her manner on her return to the parlor very +frigid toward Katy, who had discovered the flour on her hair, and was +laughing merrily over it, telling Sybil how it happened--how cross +Phillips was--and lastly, how "our folks" often made the pudding, and +that was why she wished to surprise Wilford with it. + +There was a sarcastic smile upon Sybil's lip as she wished Mrs. Cameron +success and then departed, leaving Katy to finish the dessert, which, +when ready for the table, was certainly very inviting, and would have +tempted the appetite of any man who had not been listener to matters +not wholly conducive to his peace of mind. + +On his way home Wilford had stopped at his father's, finding Juno, who +had just come in, relating the particulars of her call upon his wife, +and as she did not think it necessary to stop for him, he heard of +Katy's misdoings, and her general appearance in the presence of Sybil +Grandon, whom she entertained with a description of "our folks'" +favorite dishes, together with Aunt Betsy's receipts. This was the straw +too many, and since his marriage Wilford had not been as angry as he was +while listening to Juno, who reported Sybil's verdict on his wife, "A +domestic little body and very pretty." + +Wilford did not care to have his wife domestic; he did not marry her +for that, and in a mood anything but favorable to the light, delicate +dessert Katy had prepared with so much care, he went to his luxurious +home, where Katy ran as usual to meet him, her face brimming with the +surprise she had in store for him, and herself so much excited that she +did not at first observe the cloud upon his brow, as he moodily answered +her rapid questions. But when the important moment arrived, and the +dessert was brought on, he promptly declined it, even after her +explanation that she made it herself, just to gratify and astonish him, +urging him to try it for the sake of pleasing her, if nothing more. But +Wilford was not hungry then, and even had he been, he would have chosen +anything before a pudding formed from a receipt of Betsy Barlow, so the +dessert was untasted even by Katy herself, who, knowing now that +something had gone wrong, sat fighting back her tears until the servant +left the room, when she timidly asked: "What is it, Wilford? What makes +you seem so--". She would not say cross, and substituted "queer," +while Wilford plunged at once into the matter by saying, "Juno tells me +she called here this afternoon with Mrs. Grandon." + +"Yes, I forgot to mention it," Katy answered, feeling puzzled to know +why that should annoy her husband; but his next remarks disclosed the +whole, and Katy's tears flowed fast as Wilford asked what he supposed +Mrs. Grandon thought, to see his wife looking as if fresh from the flour +barrel, and to hear her talk about Aunt Betsy's receipts and our folks. +"That is a bad habit of yours, Katy," he continued, "one of which I wish +you to break yourself, if possible. I have never spoken to you directly +on the subject before, but it annoys me exceedingly, inasmuch as it is +an indication of low breeding." + +There was no answer from Katy, whose heart was too full to speak, and +so Wilford went on: "Our servants were selected by mother with a direct +reference to your youth and inexperience, and it is not necessary for +you to frequent the kitchen, or, indeed, to go there oftener than once a +week. Let them come to you for orders, not you go to them. Neither need +you speak quite so familiarly to them, treating them almost as if they +were your equals. Try to remember your true position, that whatever you +may have been you are now Mrs. Wilford Cameron, equal to any lady in New +York." + +They were in the library now, and the soft May breeze came stealing +through the open window, stirring the fleecy curtain and blowing across +the tasteful bouquet which Katy had arranged; but Katy was too wretched +to care for her surroundings. It was the first time Wilford had ever +spoken to her just in this way, and his manner hurt her more than his +words, making her feel as if she were an ignorant, ill-bred creature, +whom he had raised to a position she did not know how to fill. It was +cruel thus to repay her attempts to please, and so, perhaps, Wilford +thought, as with folded arms he sat looking at her weeping so bitterly +upon the sofa; but he was too indignant to make any concession then, and +he suffered her to weep in silence until he remembered that his mother +had requested him to bring her around that evening, as they were +expecting a few of Juno's friends, and among them Sybil Grandon. If Katy +went he wished her to look her best, and he unbent so far as to try to +check her tears. But Katy could not stop, and she wept so passionately +that Wilford's anger subsided, leaving only tenderness and pity for the +wife he tried so hard to soothe, telling her he was sorry, and suing for +forgiveness, until the sobbing ceased, and Katy lay passively in his +arms, her face so white and the dark rings about her eyes showing so +distinctly that Wilford did not press her when she declined his mother's +invitation. He could go, she said, urging so many reasons why he +should, that, for the first time since their marriage, he left her +alone, and went to where Sybil Grandon smiled her sunniest smile, and +put forth her most persuasive powers to keep him at her side, expressing +so much regret that he did not bring his charming little wife, who +completely won her heart, she was so childlike and simple-hearted, +laughing so merrily when she discovered the flour on her hair, but not +seeming to mind it in the least. Really, she did not see how it happened +that he was fortunate enough to win such a domestic treasure. Where did +he find her? + +If Sybil Grandon meant this to be complimentary it was not received as +such, Wilford almost grating his teeth with vexation as he listened to +it, and feeling doubly mortified with Katy, whom he found waiting for +him, when at a late hour he left the society of Sybil Grandon and +repaired to his home. + +To Katy the time of his absence had seemed an age, for her thoughts had +been busy with the past, gathering up every incident connected with her +married life since she came to New York, and deducing from them the +conclusion that "Wilford's folks" were ashamed of her, and that Wilford +himself might perhaps become so, if he were not already. That would be +worse than death itself, and the darkest hours she had ever known were +those she spent alone that night, sobbing so violently as to bring on a +racking headache, which showed itself upon her face and touched Wilford +at once. + +Sybil Grandon was forgotten in those moments of contrition, when he +ministered so tenderly to his suffering wife, whom he felt that he had +wronged. But somehow he could not tell her so then. It was not natural +for him to confess his errors. There had already been a struggle between +his duty and his pride when he had done so, and now the latter +conquered, especially as Katy, grown more calm, began to take the +censure to herself, lamenting her shortcomings, and promising to do +better, even to the imitating of Sybil Grandon, if that would make him +forget the past and love her as before. + +Wilford could accord forgiveness far more graciously than he could ask +it, and so peace was restored again, and Katy's face next day looked +bright and happy when seen in her new carriage, which took her down +Broadway to Stewart's, where she encountered Sybil Grandon, and with her +Juno Cameron. + +From the latter Katy instinctively shrank, but she could not resist the +former, who greeted her so familiarly that Katy readily forgave her the +pain of which she had been the cause, and could even speak of her to +Wilford without a pang when he next came home to dinner. Still she could +not overcome her dread of meeting her, and she grew more and more averse +to mingling in society, where she might do many things to mortify her +husband or his family, and thus provoke a scene she hoped never again to +pass through. + +"Oh, if Helen were only here," she thought, as she began to experience a +sensation of loneliness she had never felt before. + +But Helen was not there, nor yet coming there at present. One word from +Wilford had settled that, convincing Katy that it was better to wait +until the autumn, inasmuch as they were going so soon to Saratoga and +Newport, which Katy had so much wished to visit, but from which she now +shrank, especially after she knew that Mrs. Cameron and Juno were to be +of the party, and probably Sybil Grandon. Katy did not dislike the +latter, but she was never quite easy in her presence, and was conscious +of appearing to disadvantage whenever they were together, while she +could not deny to herself that since Sybil's return Wilford had not been +quite the same as before. In company he was more attentive than ever, +but at home he was sometimes moody and silent, while Katy strove in vain +to ascertain the cause. + +They were not as happy in the new home as she had expected to be, but +the fault did not lie with Katy. She performed well her part, and more, +taking upon her young shoulders the whole of the burden which her +husband should have helped her bear. Housekeeping far more than boarding +brings out a husband's nature, for whereas in the latter case one +rightfully demands the services for which he pays, in the former he is +sometimes expected to do and think, and even wait upon himself. But this +was not Wilford's nature. The easy, indolent life he had led so long as +a petted son of a partial mother unfitted him for care, and he was as +much a boarder in his own home as he had ever been in the hotels in +Paris, thoughtlessly requiring of Katy more than he should have +required, so that Bell was not far from right when in her journal she +described her sister-in-law as "a little servant whose feet were never +supposed to be tired, and whose wishes were never consulted." It is true +Bell had put it rather strongly, but the spirit of what she said was +right, Wilford seldom considering Katy, or allowing her wishes to +interfere with his own plans, while accustomed to every possible +attention from his mother, he exacted the same from his wife, whose life +was not one of unmixed happiness, notwithstanding that every letter home +bore assurance to the contrary. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +MARIAN HAZELTON. + + +The last days of June had come, and Wilford was beginning to make +arrangements for removing Katy from the city before the warmer weather. +To this he had been urged by Mark Ray's remarking that Katy was not +looking as well as when he first saw her, one year ago, "She had grown +thin and pale," he said. "Had Wilford remarked it?" + +Wilford had not. She complained much of headache; but that was only +natural. Still he wrote to the Mountain House that afternoon to secure +rooms for himself and wife, and then at an earlier hour than usual went +home to tell her of the arrangement. Katy was out shopping, Esther said, +and had not yet returned, adding: "There is a note for her upstairs, +left by a woman who insisted on seeing the house, until I took her over +it, showing her every room." + +"A strange woman went over my house in Mrs. Cameron's absence! Who was +it?" Wilford asked, hastily, visions of Helen, or possibly Aunt Betsy, +rising before his mind. + +"She said she was a friend of Mrs. Cameron, and that she knew she would +allow the liberty," Esther replied, thus confirming Wilford in his +suspicions that some country acquaintance had thrust herself upon them, +and hastening up to Katy's room, where the note was lying, he took it up +and examined the superscription, examined it closely, holding it up to +the light full a minute, and forgetting to open it in his perplexity and +the train of thought it awakened. + +"They are singularly alike," he said, and still holding the note in his +hand he went downstairs to the library, and opening a drawer of his +writing desk, which was always kept locked, he took from it a picture +and a bit of soiled paper, on which was written: "I am not guilty, +Wilford, and God will never forgive the wrong you have done to me." + +There was no name or date, but Wilford needed neither, for he knew well +whose hand had penned those lines, and he sat looking at them, comparing +them at last with the "Mrs. Wilford Cameron" which the strange woman had +written. Then opening the note, he read that, having returned to New +York, and wishing employment either as seamstress or dressmaker, Marian +Hazelton had ventured to call upon Mrs. Cameron, remembering her promise +to give her work if she should desire it. The note concluded by saying: + +"I am sure you will pardon me for the liberty I took of going over the +house. It was a temptation I could not resist. You have a delightful +home. God grant you may be happy in it. You see I have also made bold +to write this in your library, for which I beg pardon, + +"Yours truly, MARIAN HAZELTON, + +"No. ---- Fourth St., 4th floor, N.Y." + +"Who is Marian Hazelton?" Wilford asked himself as he threw down the +missive. "Some of Katy's country friends, I dare say. Seems to me I have +heard that name. She certainly writes as Genevra did, except that this +Hazelton's is more decided and firm. Poor Genevra!" + +There was a pallor about Wilford's lips as he said this, and taking up +the picture he gazed for a long time upon the handsome, girlish face, +whose dark eyes seemed to look reproachfully upon him, just as they must +have looked when the words were penned: "God will never forgive the +wrong you have done to me." + +"Genevra was mistaken," he said. "At least, if God has not forgiven, he +has prospered me, which amounts to the same thing;" and without a single +throb of gratitude to Him who had thus prospered him, Wilford laid +Genevra's picture and Genevra's note back with the withered grass and +flowers plucked from Genevra's grave, and then went again upstairs, just +as Katy's ring was heard and Katy herself came in. + +As thoughts of Genevra always made Wilford kinder toward his wife, so +now he kissed her white cheek, noticing that, as Mark had said, it was +whiter than last year in June. But mountain air would bring back the +roses, he thought, as he handed her the note. + +"Oh, yes, from Marian Hazelton," Katy said, glancing first at the name +and then hastily reading it through. + +"Who is Marian Hazelton? Some intimate friend, I judge, from the liberty +she took." + +"Not very intimate, though I liked her so much, and thought her above +her position," Katy replied, repeating all she knew of Marian, and how +she chanced to know her at all. "Don't you remember Helen wrote that she +fainted at our wedding, and I was so sorry, fearing I might have +overworked her." + +Wilford did remember something about it, and satisfied that Marian +Hazelton had no idea of intruding herself upon them, except as she might +ask for work, he dismissed her from his mind and told Katy of his plan +for taking her to the Mountain House a few weeks before going to +Saratoga. + +"Would you not like it?" he asked, as she continued silent, with her +eyes fixed upon the window opposite. + +"Yes," and Katy drew a long and weary breath. "I shall like any place +where there are birds, and rocks, and trees, and real grass, such as +grows of itself in the country; but Wilford," and Katy crept close to +him now, "if I might go to Silverton, I should get strong so fast. You +don't know how I long to see home once more. I dream about it nights and +think about it days, knowing just how pleasant it is there, with the +roses in bloom and the meadows so fresh and green. May I go, Wilford? +May I go home to mother?" + +Had Katy asked for half his fortune, just as she asked to go home, +Wilford would have given it to her, but Silverton had a power to lock +all the softer avenues of his heart, and so he answered that the +Mountain House was preferable, that the rooms were engaged, and that as +he should enjoy it so much better he thought they would make no change. + +Katy did not cry, nor utter a word of remonstrance; she was fast +learning that quiet submission was better than useless opposition, and +so Silverton was again given up. But there was one consolation. Seeing +Marian Hazelton would be almost as good as going home, for had she not +recently come from that neighborhood, bringing with her the odor from +the hills and freshness from the woods. Perhaps, too, she had lately +seen Helen or Morris at church, and had heard the music of the organ +which Helen played, and the singing of the children just as it sometimes +came to Katy in her dreams, making her start in her sleep and murmur +snatches of the sacred songs which Dr. Morris taught. Yes, Marian could +tell her of all this, and very impatiently Katy waited for the morning +when she would drive around to Fourth Street with the piles of sewing +she was going to take to Marian. + +"Dear Marian, I wonder is she very poor?" Katy thought, as she next day +made her preparations for the call, and had Wilford been parsimoniously +inclined, he might have winced could he have seen the numerous stores +gathered up for Marian and packed away in the carriage with the bundle +of cambric and linen and lace, all destined for that fourth-story +chamber where Marian Hazelton sat that summer morning, looking drearily +out upon the dingy court and contrasting its sickly patch of grass, +embellished with rain water barrels, coal hods and ash pails, with the +country she had so lately left, the wooded hills and blooming gardens of +Silverton, which had been her home for nearly two years. + +It was a fault of Marian's not to remain long contented in any place, +and so tiring of the country she had returned to the great city, urged +on by a strange desire it may be to see Mrs. Wilford Cameron, to know +just how she lived, to judge if she were happy, and perhaps--some time +see Wilford Cameron, herself unknown, for not for the world would she +have met face to face the man who had so often stood by Genevra +Lambert's grave in the churchyard beyond the sea. Thinking she might +succeed better alone, she had hired a room far up the narrow stairway of +a high, somber-looking building, and then from her old acquaintances, of +whom she had several in the city, she had solicited work. More than once +she had passed the handsome house on Madison Square where Katy lived, +walking slowly and gazing with dim eyes which could not weep at Wilford +Cameron's luxurious home, and contrasting it with hers, that one room, +which yet was not wholly uninviting, for where Marian went there was +always an air of humble comfort; and Katy, as she crossed the threshold, +uttered an exclamation of delight at the cheerful, airy aspect of the +apartment, with its bright ingrain carpet, its simple shades of white, +its chintz-covered lounge, its one rocking-chair, its small parlor +stove, and its pots of flowers upon the broad window sill. + +"Oh, Marian," she exclaimed, tripping across the floor, and impulsively +throwing her arms around Miss Hazelton's neck, "I am so glad to meet +some one from home. It seems almost like Helen I am kissing," and her +lips again met those of Marian Hazelton, who amid her own joy at finding +Katy unchanged, wondered what the Camerons would say to see their Mrs. +Wilford kissing a poor seamstress whom they would have spurned. + +But Katy did not care for Camerons then, or even think of them, as in +her rich basquine and pretty hat, with emeralds and diamonds sparkling +on her fingers, she sat down by Marian, whose hands, though delicate and +small, showed marks of labor such as Katy had never known. + +"You must forgive me for going over your house," Marian said, after they +had talked together a moment, and Katy had told how sorry she was to +miss the call. "I could not resist the temptation, and it did me so much +good, although I must confess to a good cry when I came back and thought +of the difference between us." + +There was a quiver of her lip and a tone in her voice which touched +Katy's heart, and she tried to comfort her, forgetting entirely whether +what she said was proper or not, and impetuously letting out that even +in houses like hers there was trouble. Not that she was unhappy in the +least, for she was not; but, oh! the fuss it was to be fashionable and +keep from doing anything to shock his folks, who were so particular +about every little thing, even to the way she tied her bonnet and sat +in a chair. + +This was what Katy said, and Marian, looking straight into Katy's face, +felt that she would not exchange places with the young girl-wife whom so +many envied. + +"Tell me of Silverton," was Katy's next remark. "You don't know how +I want to go there; but Wilford does not think it best--that is, at +present. Next fall I am surely going. I picture to myself just how it +will look; Morris' garden, full of the autumnal flowers--the ripe +peaches in our orchard, the grapes ripening on the wall, and the long +shadows on the grass, just as I used to watch them, wondering what made +them move so fast, and where they could be going. Will it be unchanged, +Marian? Do places seem the same when once we have left them?" and Katy's +eager eyes looked wistfully at Marian, who replied: "Not always--not +often, in fact; but in your case they may. You have not been long away." + +"Only a year," Katy said. "I was as long as that in Canandaigua; but +this past year is different. I have seen so much, and lived so much, +that I feel ten years older than I did last spring, when you and Helen +made my wedding dress. Darling Helen! When did you see her last?" + +"I was there five weeks ago," Marian replied. "I saw them all, and told +them I was coming to New York." + +"Do they miss me any? Do they talk of me? Do they wish me back again?" +Katy asked, and Marian replied: "They talked of little else--that is, +your own family. Dr. Morris, I think, did not mention your name. He +has grown very silent and reserved," and Marian's eyes were fixed +inquiringly upon Katy, as if to ascertain how much she knew of the +cause for Morris' reserve. + +But Katy had no suspicion, and only replied: "Perhaps he is vexed that +I do not write to him oftener, but I can't. I think of him a great deal, +and sometimes have so wished I could sit in his public library, and +forget that there are such things as dinner parties, where you are in +constant terror lest you should do something wrong--evening parties, +where your dress and style are criticised--receptions or calls, and all +the things which make me so confused. Morris could always quiet me. It +rested me just to hear him talk, and I respect him more than any living +man, except, of course, Wilford; but when I try to write, something +comes in between me and what I wish to say, for I want to convince him +that I am not as frivolous as I fear he thinks I am. I have not +forgotten the Sunday school, nor the church service, which I so loved to +hear, especially when Morris read it, as he did in Mr. Browning's +absence; but in the city it is so hard to be good, particularly when one +is not, you know--that is, good like you and Helen and Morris--and the +service and music seem all for show, and I feel so hateful when I see +Juno and Wilford's mother making believe, and putting their heads down +on velvet cushions, knowing as I do that they both are thinking either +of their own bonnets or those just in front." + +"Are you not a little uncharitable?" Marian asked, laughing in spite of +herself at the picture Katy drew of fashion trying to imitate religion +in its humility. + +"Perhaps so," Katy answered. "I grow bad from looking behind the scenes, +and the worst is that I do not care. But tell me, do you think Morris +likes me less than formerly?" + +Marian did not, and assured on that point, Katy went back to the +farmhouse, asking numberless questions about its inmates, and at last +coming to the business which had brought her to Marian's room. + +There were perceptible spots on Marian's neck, and her lips were very +white, while her hands grasped the bundles tossed into her lap--the +yards and yards of lace and embroidery, linen, and cambric, which she +was expected to make for the wife of Wilford Cameron; and her voice was +husky as she asked directions or made suggestions of her own. + +"It's because she has no such joy in expectation. I should feel so, too, +if I were thirty and unmarried," Katy thought, as she noticed Marian's +agitation, and tried to divert her mind by telling her as delicately as +possible that she had brought with her sundry stores of which she had +such an abundance. + +"I knew you were not an object of charity," she said, as she saw the +flush on Marian's brow, "but when I have so much I like to share it with +others, and you seem like our folks." + +"Did Wilf--did Mr. Cameron know?" Marian asked, and Katy answered "No; +but it does not matter. He lets me do as I like in these matters, and +the greatest pleasure I have is giving. You are not offended?" she +continued, as she saw a tear drop from Marian's eyelids. + +"No--oh, no," and Marian quietly laid aside the packages which would +find their way to many an humble garret or cellar, where biting poverty +had its abode. + +It would choke her to eat whatever came from Wilford Cameron, but she +could not tell Katy so, though she did say: "I will keep these because +you brought them, but do not do so again. There are many far more needy. +I saved something in Silverton. I shall not suffer so long as my health +is spared." + +Then after a few more inquiries concerning the work, about which she +could now talk calmly, she asked where Katy went when she was abroad, +her blue eyes growing almost black as Katy talked of Rome, of Venice, of +Paris, and then of Alnwick, where they had stopped so long. + +"By the way, you were born in England? Were you ever at Alnwick?" Katy +asked, and Marian replied: "Once, yes. I've seen the castle and the +church. Did you go there--to St. Mary's, I mean?" + +"Oh, yes, and I was never tired of that old churchyard, Wilford liked +it, too, and we wandered by the hour among the sunken graves and quaint +headstones." + +"Do you remember any of the names upon the stones? Perhaps I may know +them?" Marian asked; but Katy did not remember any, or if she did, it +was not "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two." And so Marian asked her no +more questions concerning St. Mary's, at Alnwick, but talked instead of +London and other places, until three hours went by, and down in the +street the coachman chafed and fretted at the long delay, wandering what +kept his mistress in that neighborhood so long. Had she friends, or had +she come on some errand of mercy? The latter most likely, he concluded, +and so his face was not quite so cross when Katy at last appeared, +looking at her watch and exclaiming at the lateness of the hour. But +when, as they turned into the avenue, Katy called to him to stop, +bidding him drive back, as she had forgotten something, he showed +unmistakable signs of irritation, but nevertheless obeyed, and Katy was +soon mounting a second time to the fourth story of No. ----, where Marian +Hazelton knelt upon the floor, her head resting upon the costly fabrics +and her frame quivering with the anguish of the sobs which reached +Katy's ear even before she opened the unbolted door. + +"What is it, Marian?" she asked, in great distress, while Marian, +struggling to her feet, remained for a moment speechless. + +She had not expected Katy to return, else she had never given way as she +did, calling on her God to help her bear what she now knew she was not +prepared to bear. She had thought the heart struggle conquered, and that +she could calmly look upon Wilford Cameron's wife; but the sight of +Katy, together with the errand on which she came, had unnerved her, and +she wept bitterly in her desolation, until Katy's reappearance startled +her from her position on the floor, making her stammer out some excuse +about "homesickness and the seeing Katy bringing back the past." + +Very lovingly Katy tried to comfort her, putting into her manner just +enough of pretty patronage to amuse without annoying Marian, who soon +grew calm, and then listened while Katy told why she returned. She +feared she had talked too much of her own affairs--too much of his +folks, who, after all, were nice, kind people, and she came to take +it back, asking Marian never to speak of it, as it might get to them +indirectly, and Wilford would be angry. + +With a smile, as she thought how improbable it was that anything said to +her up in that humble room should reach to No. ---- Fifth Avenue, Marian +promised silence; and with a good-by kiss, given to convince Marian that +she was not proud, Katy again departed, and was soon driving toward +Madison Square. She was very happy that morning, for seeing Marian had +brought Silverton near to her, and airy as a bird she ran up the steps +of her own dwelling, where the door opened as by magic, and Wilford +himself confronted her, asking, with the tone which always made her +heart beat, where she had been, and he waiting for her two whole hours. +Surely it was not necessary to stop so long with a seamstress, he +continued when she tried to explain. Ten minutes would suffice for +directions, and he could not imagine what attractions there were in Miss +Hazelton to keep her there three hours, and then the real cause of his +vexation came out. He had come expressly for the carriage to take her +and Sybil Grandon to a picnic up the river, whither his mother, Juno and +Bell had already gone. Mrs. Grandon must wonder why he stayed so long, +and perhaps give up going. Could Katy be ready soon; and Wilford walked +rapidly up and down the parlor as he talked, with a restless motion of +his hands which always betokened impatience. Poor Katy, how the +brightness of the morning faded, and how averse she felt to joining that +picnic, which she knew had been in prospect for some time, and had +fancied she should enjoy. But not to-day, not with that cold, proud look +on Wilford's face, and the feeling that he was vexed. Still she could +think of no reasonable excuse, and so an hour later found her driving +into the country with Sybil Grandon, who received her apologies with as +much good-natured grace as if she had not worked herself into a passion +at the delay, for Sybil had been very cross and impatient; but all this +vanished when she met Wilford and saw that he, too, was disturbed and +irritated. Soft and sweet and smooth was she both in word and manner, so +that by the time the pleasant grove was reached Wilford's ruffled +spirits had been soothed, and he was himself again, ready to enjoy the +pleasures of the day as keenly as if no harsh word had been said to +Katy, who, silent and unhappy, listened to the graceful badinage between +Sybil and her husband, thinking how differently his voice had sounded +when addressing her only a little while before. + +"Pray put some animation into your face, or Mrs. Grandon will certainly +think we have been quarreling," Wilford whispered, as he lifted his wife +from the carriage, and with a great effort Katy tried to be gay and +natural. + +But all the while was she fighting back her tears and wishing she were +away. Even Marian's room, looking into the dingy court, was preferable +to that place, and she was glad when the long day came to an end, and +she with a fearful headache was riding back to the city. + +The next morning was dark and rainy; but in spite of the weather Katy +found her way to Marian's room, this time taking the ---- avenue cars, +which left her independent as regarded the length of her stay. About +Marian there was something more congenial than about her city friends, +and day after day found her there, watching while Marian fashioned into +shape the beautiful little garments, the sight of which had over Katy a +strangely quieting influence, sobering her down and maturing her more +than all the years of her life had done. Those were happy hours spent +with Marian Hazelton, the happiest of the entire day, and Katy felt it +keenly when Wilford at last interfered, telling her she was growing +quite too familiar with that sewing woman, and her calls had best be +discontinued, except, indeed, such as were necessary to the work in +progress. + +There was a grieved look on Katy's face, but she uttered no word of +remonstrance; while her husband went on to say, that of course he did +not wish to be unreasonable, nor interfere between her and her +acquaintances as a general thing, but when the acquaintance chosen was a +sewing woman, whose antecedents no one knew, and whose society could not +be improving, the case was different. + +After this there were no more mornings spent in Marian's room, no more +talks of Silverton and Morris Grant; talks which did Katy a world of +good, and kept her heart open to better influences, which might +otherwise have been wholly choked and destroyed by the life she saw +around her. With one great gush of tears, when there was no one to see +her, Katy gave Marian up, writing her a note, in which were sundry +directions for the work, which would go on even after she had left for +the Mountain House, as she intended doing the last of June. And Marian, +reading this note, guessed at more than Katy meant she should, and with +a bitter sigh laid it in her basket, and then resumed the work, which +seemed doubly monotonous now that there was no more listening for the +little feet tripping up the stairs, or for the bird-like voice which had +brought so much of music and sunshine to her lonely room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +SARATOGA AND NEWPORT. + + +For three weeks Katy had been at the Mountain House, growing stronger +every day, until now she was much like the Katy of one year ago, and +Wilford was very proud of her, as he saw how greatly she was admired by +those whose admiration he deemed worth having. But their stay among the +Catskills was ended, and on the morrow they were going to Saratoga, +where Mrs. Cameron and her daughter were, and where, too, was Sybil +Grandon, the reigning belle of the United States. So Bell had written to +her brother, bidding him hasten on with Katy, as she wished to see "that +chit of a widow in her proper place." And Katy had been weak enough for +a moment to feel a throb of satisfaction in knowing how effectually +Sybil's claims to belleship would be put aside when she was once in the +field; even glancing at herself in the mirror as she leaned on Wilford's +shoulder, and feeling glad that mountain air and mountain exercise had +brought the roses back to her white cheeks and the brightness to her +eyes. But Katy wept passionate tears of repentance for that weakness, +when an hour later she read the letter which Dr. Grant had sent in +answer to one she had written from the Mountain House, and in which she +had told him much of her life in New York, confessing her shortcomings, +and lamenting that the evils and excesses which shocked her once did not +startle her now. To this letter Morris had replied as a brother might +write to an only sister, first expressing his joy at her happiness, and +then coming to the subject which lay nearest his heart, warning her +against temptation, reminding her of that other life to which this is +only a preparation, and beseeching her so to use the good things of this +world, given her in such profusion, as not to lose the life eternal. + +This was the substance of Morris' letter, which Katy read with +streaming eyes, forgetting Saratoga as Morris' solemn words of warning +and admonition rang in her ears, and shuddering as she thought of losing +the life eternal of going where Morris would never come, nor any of +those she loved the best, unless it were Wilford, who might reproach her +with having dragged him there when she could have saved him. + +"Keep yourself unspotted from the world," Morris had said, and she +repeated it to herself, asking: "How shall I do that? How can one be +good and fashionable, too?" + +Then laying her hand upon the rock where she was sitting, Katy tried to +pray as she had not prayed in months, asking that God would teach her +what she ought to know, and keep her unspotted from the world. But at +the Mountain House it is easier to pray that one be kept from temptation +than it is at Saratoga, which this summer was crowded to overflowing, +its streets presenting a fitting picture of Vanity Fair, so full were +they of show and gala dress. At the United States, where Mrs. Cameron +stopped, two rooms, for which an enormous price was paid, had been +reserved for Mr. and Mrs. Wilford Cameron, and this of itself would have +given them a certain _eclat_, even if there had not been present many +who remembered the proud, fastidious bachelor, and were proportionately +anxious to see his wife. She came, she saw, she conquered; and within +three days after her arrival Katy Cameron was the acknowledged belle of +Saratoga, from the United States to the Clarendon. And Katy, alas! was +not quite the same who on the mountain ridge had sat with Morris' letter +in her hand, praying that its teachings might not be all forgotten. Nor +were they, but she did not heed them here where all was so bright and +gay, and where the people thought her so perfect. Saratoga seemed +different to her from New York, and she plunged into its gayeties, never +pausing, never tiring, and seldom giving herself time to think, much +less to pray, as Morris had bidden her do. And Wilford, though hardly +able to recognize the usually timid Katy in the brilliant woman who led +rather than followed, was sure of her faith to him, and so was only +proud and gratified to see her bear off the palm from every competitor, +while even Juno, though she quarreled with the shadow into which she +was so completely thrown, enjoyed the _eclat_ cast upon their party by +the presence of Mrs. Wilford, who had passed beyond her criticism. Sybil +Grandon, too, stood back in wonder that a simple country girl should win +and wear the laurels she had so long claimed as her own; but as there +was no help for it she contented herself as best she could with the +admiration she did receive, and whenever opportunity occurred, said +bitter things of Mrs. Wilford, whose parentage and low estate were +through her pretty generally known. But it did not matter there what +Katy had been; the people took her for what she was now, and Sybil's +glory faded like the early dawn in the coming of the full day. + +As it had been at Saratoga, so it was at Newport. Urged on by Mrs. +Cameron and Bell, who greatly enjoyed her notoriety, Katy plunged into +the mad excitement of dancing and driving and coquetting, until Wilford +himself became uneasy, locking her once in her room, where she was +sleeping after dinner, and conveniently forgetting to release her until +after the departure at evening of some young men from Cambridge, whose +attentions to the Ocean House belle had been more strongly marked than +was altogether agreeable to him. Of course it was a mistake--the locking +of the door--and a great oversight in him not to have remembered it +sooner, he said to Katy, by way of apology; and Katy, with no suspicion +of the truth, laughed merrily at the joke, repeating it downstairs to +the old dowagers, who shrugged their shoulders meaningly and whispered +to each other that it might be well if more young, handsome wives were +locked into their rooms and thus kept out of mischief. + +Though flattered, caressed and admired, Katy was not doing herself much +credit at Newport, but after Wilford there was no one to raise a warning +voice, until Mark Ray came down for a few days' respite from the heated +city, where he spent the entire summer, taking charge of the business +which belonged as much to Wilford as to himself. But Wilford had a wife; +it was more necessary that he should leave, Mark had argued; his time +would come by and by. And so he had remained at home until the last of +August, when he appeared suddenly at the Ocean House one night when +Katy, in her airy robes and childlike simplicity, was breaking hearts by +the score. Like others, Mark was charmed, and not a little proud, for +Katy's sake, to see her thus appreciated; but when one day's experience +had shown him more and given him a look behind the scenes, he trembled +for her, knowing how hard it would be for her to come out of that sea of +dissipation as pure and spotless as she went in. + +"If I were her brother I would warn her that her present career, though +very delightful now, is not one upon which she will look back with +pleasure when the excitement is over," he said to himself; "but if +Wilford is satisfied it is not for me to interfere. It is surely nothing +to me what Katy Cameron does," he kept repeating to himself; but as +often as he said it there came up before him a pale, anxious face, +shaded with Helen Lennox's bands of hair, and Helen Lennox's voice +whispered to him: "Save Katy, for my sake;" and so next day, when Mark +found himself alone with Katy, while most of the guests were at the +beach, he questioned her of her life at Saratoga and Newport, and +gradually, as he talked, there crept into Katy's heart a suspicion that +he was not altogether pleased with her account, or with what he had seen +of her since his arrival. + +For a moment Katy was indignant, but when he said to her kindly: "Would +Helen he pleased?" her tears started at once, and she attempted an +excuse for her weak folly, accusing Sybil Grandon as the first cause of +the ambition for which she hated herself. + +"She had been held up as my pattern," she said, half bitterly, and +forgetting to whom she was talking--"she the one whom I was to imitate; +and when I found that if I would I could go beyond her, I yielded to the +temptation, and exulted to see how far she was left behind. Besides +that," she continued, "is it no gratification, think you, to let +Wilford's proud mother and sister see the poor country girl, whom +ordinarily they would despise, stand where they cannot come, and even +dictate to them if she chooses so to do? I know it is wrong--I know it +is wicked--but I rather like the excitement, and so long as I am with +these people I shall never be any better. Mark Ray, you don't know what +it is to be surrounded by a set who care for nothing but fashion and +display, and how they may outdo each other. I hate New York society. +There is nothing there but husks." + +Katy's tears had ceased, and on her white face there was a new look of +womanhood, as if in that outburst she had changed, and would never again +be just what she was before. + +"Say," she continued, "do you like New York society?" + +"Not always--not wholly," Mark answered; "and still you misjudge it +greatly, for all are not like the people you describe. Your husband's +family represent one extreme, while there are others equally high in the +social scale who do not make fashion the rule of their lives--sensible, +cultivated, intellectual people, of whose acquaintance one might be +glad--people whom I fancy your Sister Helen would enjoy. I have only met +her twice, it is true, but my impression is that she would not find New +York utterly distasteful." + +Mark did not know why he had dragged Helen into that conversation, +unless it were that she seemed very near to him as he talked with Katy, +who replied: + +"Yes, Helen finds some good in all. She sees differently from what I do, +and I wish so much that she was here." + +"Why not send for her?" Mark asked, casting about in his mind whether in +case Helen came, he, too, could tarry for a week and leave that business +in Southbridge, which he must attend to ere returning to the city. + +It would be a study to watch Helen Lennox there at Newport, and in +imagination Mark was already her sworn knight, shielding her from +criticism, and commanding her respect from those who respected him, when +Katy tore his castle down by answering impulsively: + +"I doubt if Wilford would let me send for her here, nor does it matter, +as I shall not remain much longer. I do not need her now, since you have +showed me how foolish I have been. I was angry at first, but now I thank +you for it, and so would Helen. I shall tell her when I am in Silverton. +I am going there from here, and oh, I so wish it was to-day." + +The guests were beginning to return from the beach by this time, and as +Mark had said all he had intended saying, and even more, he left Katy +with Wilford, who had just come in and joined a merry party of +Bostonians only that day arrived. That night at the Ocean House the +guests missed something from their festivities; the dance was not so +exhilarating or the small-talk between them so lively, while more than +one white-kidded dandy swore mentally at the innocent Wilford, whose +wife declined to join in the gayeties, and in a plain white muslin, with +only a pond lily in her hair, kept by her husband's side, +notwithstanding that he more than once bade her leave him and accept +some of her numerous invitations to join the giddy dance. This sober +phase of Katy did not on the whole please Wilford as much as her gayer +ones had done. Perfectly sure of her devotion to himself, he liked to +watch her as she glided amid the throng which paid her so much homage. +All he had ever dreamed of the sensation his bride would create was more +than verified. Katy had fulfilled his highest expectations, reaching a +point from which, as she had said to Mark, she could even dictate to his +mother, if she chose, and he did not care to see her relinquish it. + +But Katy remained true to herself. Dropping her girlish playfulness she +assumed a quiet, gentle dignity, which became her even better than her +gayer mood had done, making her ten times more popular and more sought +after, until she begged to go away, persuading Wilford at last to name +the day for their departure, and then, never doubting for a moment that +her destination was Silverton, she wrote to Helen that she was coming on +such a day, and as they would come by way of Providence and Worcester, +they would probably reach West Silverton at ten o'clock, A.M. + +"Wilford," she added, in a postscript, "has gone down to bathe, and as +the mail is just closing, I shall send this letter without his seeing +it. Of course it can make no difference, for I have talked all summer of +coming, and he understands it." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +MARK RAY AT SILVERTON. + + +The last day of summer was dying out in a fierce storm of rain which +swept in sheets across the Silverton hills, hiding the pond from +view, and beating the windows of the farmhouse, whose inmates were +nevertheless unmindful of the storm save as they hoped the morrow would +prove bright and fair, such as the day should be which brought them back +their Katy. Nearly worn out with constant reference was her letter, the +mother catching it up from time to time to read the part referring to +herself, the place where Katy had told how blessed it would be "to rest +again on mother's bed," just as she had often wished to do, "and hear +mother's voice;" the deacon spelling out by his spluttering tallow +candle, with its long, smoky wick, what she had said of "darling old +Uncle Eph," and the rides into the fields which she should have with +him; Aunt Betsy, too, reading mostly from memory the words: "Good old +Aunt Betsy, with her skirts so limp and short, tell her she will look +handsomer to me than the fairest belle at Newport;" and as often as Aunt +Betsy read it she would ejaculate: "The land! what kind of company must +the child have kept?" wondering next if Helen had never written of the +hoop, for which she had paid a dollar, and which was carefully hung in +her closet, waiting for the event of to-morrow, while the hem of her +pongee had been let down and one breadth added to accommodate the hoop. +On the whole, Aunt Betsy expected to make a stylish appearance before +the little lady of whom she stood slightly in awe, always speaking of +her to the neighbors as "My niece, Miss Cameron, from New York," and +taking good care to report what she had heard of "Miss Cameron's" costly +dress and the grandeur of her house, where the furniture of the best +chamber cost over fifteen hundred dollars. + +"What could it be--gold?" Aunt Betsy had asked in her simplicity, +feeling an increased respect for Katy, and consenting the more readily +to the change in her pongee, as suggested to her by Helen. + +But that was for to-morrow when Katy came; to-night she only wore a +dotted brown, whose hem just reached the top of her "bootees," as she +stood by the window, wondering, first, if the rain would ever stop, and +wondering, secondly, where all them fish worms, squirming on the grass +by the back door, did come from. Needn't tell her they crawled out of +the ground; she knew better--they rained from the clouds, though she +should s'pose that somebody would sometime have catched one on their +bunnet or umberill. Dammed if she didn't mean to stand out o' doors some +day till she was wet to the skin, and see what would come, and having +thus settled a way by which to decide the only question, except that of +the "'Piscopal Church and its quirks," on which she was still obstinate, +Aunt Betsy went to strain the milk just brought by Uncle Ephraim, while +Helen took her position near the window, looking drearily out upon the +leaden clouds, and hoping it would brighten before the morrow. Like the +others, Helen had read Katy's letter many times, dwelling longest upon +the part which said: "I have been so bad, so frivolous and wicked here +at Newport, that it will be a relief to make you my confessor, +depending, as I do, upon your love to grant me absolution." + +From a family at Silverton, who had spent a few days at a private house +in Newport, Helen had heard something of her sister's life; the lady had +seen her once driving a tandem team, or as Aunt Betsy had it, "driving +tanterum," down the avenue, with Wilford at her side giving her +instructions. Since then there had been some anxiety felt for her at the +farmhouse, and more than Dr. Grant had prayed that she might be kept +unspotted from the world; but when her letter came, so full of love and +self-reproaches, the burden was lifted, and there was nothing to mar +the anticipations of the events for which they had made so many +preparations, Uncle Ephraim going to the expense of buying at auction a +half-worn, covered buggy, which he fancied would suit Katy better than +the corn-colored wagon in which Katy used to ride. To pay for this the +deacon had parted with the money set aside for the "greatcoat" he so +much needed for the coming winter, his old gray one having done him +service for fifteen years. But his comfort was nothing compared with +Katy's happiness, and so, with his wrinkled face beaming with delight, +he had brought home his buggy, which he designated a carriage, putting +it carefully in the barn, and saying no one should ride in it till +Katy came, the corn-color was good enough for them, but Katy was +different--Katy was Mrs. Cameron, and used to something better. With +untiring patience the old man mended up his harness, for what he had +heard of Katy's driving had impressed him strongly with her powers of +horsemanship, and, truth to tell, raised her somewhat in his respect. +Could he have afforded it Uncle Ephraim in his younger days would have +been a horse jockey, and even now he liked nothing better than to make +Old Whitey run when alone in the strip of woods between the house and +the head of the pond. + +"Katy inherits her love of horses from me," he said, complacently, and +with a view of improving Whitey's style and metal, he took to feeding +him on corn and oats, talking to him at times, and telling him who was +coming. + +Dear, simple-hearted Uncle Ephraim, the days which he must wait seemed +long to him as they did to the female portion of his family, to Mrs. +Lennox, Aunt Hannah and Aunt Betsy, who each did what she could to make +the house attractive. They were ready for Katy at last, or could be +early on the morrow, and with the shutting in of night the candles were +lighted in the sitting-room, and Helen sat down to her work, wishing it +was to-night that Katy was coming. As if in answer to her wish there was +the sound of wheels, which stopped before the house, and dropping her +work, Helen ran quickly to the door, just as from under the dripping +umbrella held by a driver boy, a tall young man, sprang upon the step, +nearly upsetting her, but passing an arm around her shoulders in time to +keep her from falling. + +"I beg pardon for this assault upon you," the stranger said; and then, +turning to the boy, he continued: "It's all right, you need not wait." + +With a chirrup and a blow the horse started forward, and the +mud-bespattered vehicle was rapidly moving down the road ere Helen had +recovered her surprise at recognizing Mark Ray, who shook the raindrops +from his hair, and offering her his hand said in reply to her +involuntary exclamation: "I thought it was Katy." "Shall I infer, +then, that I am the less welcome?" and his bright, saucy eyes looked +laughingly into hers. "Business had brought him to Southbridge," he +said, "and it was his intention to take the cars that afternoon for New +York, but having been detained longer than he expected, and not liking +the looks of the hotel arrangements, he had decided to presume upon his +acquaintance with Dr. Grant and spend the night at Linwood. But," and +again his eyes looked straight at Helen, "it rained so hard and the +light from your window was so inviting that I ventured to stop, so here +I am, claiming your hospitality until morning, if convenient; if not, I +will find my way to Linwood." + +There was something in this pleasant familiarity which won Uncle Ephraim +at once, and he bade the young man stay, as did Aunt Hannah and Mrs. +Lennox, who now for the first time were presented to Mark Ray. Always +capable of adapting himself to the circumstances around him, Mark did so +now with so much ease and courteousness as to astonish Helen, and partly +thaw the reserve she had assumed when she found the visitor was from the +hated city. + +"Are you expecting Mrs. Cameron?" he asked, adding as Helen explained +that she was coming to-morrow: "That is strange. Wilford wrote decidedly +that he should be in New York to-morrow. Possibly, though, he does not +intend himself to stop." + +"I presume not," Helen replied, a weight suddenly lifting from her heart +at the prospect of not having to entertain the formidable brother-in-law +who, if he stayed long, would spoil all her pleasure. + +Thus at her ease on this point, she grew more talkative, half wishing +that her dress was not a shilling calico, or her hair combed back quite +so straight, giving her that severe look which Morris had said was +unbecoming. It was very smooth and glossy, and even Sybil Grandon would +have given her best diamond to have had in her own natural right the +long heavy coil of hair bound so many times around the back of Helen's +head, ornamented with neither ribbon, comb, nor bow--only a single +geranium leaf, with a white and scarlet blossom, was fastened just +below the ear, and on the side where Mark could see it best, admiring +its effect and forgetting the arrangement of the hair in his admiration +of the well-shaped head, bending so industriously over the work which +Helen had resumed--not crocheting, nor yet embroidery, but the very +homely work of darning Uncle Ephraim's socks, a task which Helen always +did, and on that particular night. Helen knew it was not delicate +employment and there was a moment's hesitancy as she wondered what Mark +would think--then with a grim delight in letting him see that she did +not care, she resumed her darning needle, and as a kind of penance of +the flash of pride in which she had indulged, selected from the basket +the very coarsest, ugliest sock she could find, stretching out the huge +fracture at the heel to its utmost extent, and attacking it with a right +good will, while Mark, with a comical look on his face, sat watching +her. She knew he was looking at her, and her cheeks were growing very +red, while her hatred of him was increasing, when he said, abruptly: +"You follow my mother's custom, I see. She used to mend my socks on +Tuesday nights." + +"Your mother mend socks!" and Helen started so suddenly as to run the +point of her darning needle a long way into her thumb, the wound +bringing a stream of blood which she tried to wipe away with her +handkerchief. + +"Bind it tightly around. Let me show you, please," Mark said, and ere +she was aware of what she was doing Helen was quietly permitting the +young man to wind her handkerchief around her thumb which he held in his +hand, pressing it until the blood ceased flowing, and the sharp pain had +abated. + +Perhaps Mark Ray liked holding that small, warm hand, even though it +were not as white and soft as Juno's; at all events he did hold it until +Helen drew it from him with a quick, sudden motion, telling him it would +now do very well, and she would not trouble him. Mark did not look as if +he had been troubled, but went back to his seat and took up the +conversation just where the needle had stopped it. + +"My mother did not always mend herself, but she caused it to be done, +and sometimes helped. I remember she used to say a woman should know +how to do everything pertaining to a household, and she carried out her +theory in the education of my sister." + +"Have you a sister?" Helen asked, now really interested, and listening +intently while Mark told her of his only sister, Julia, now Mrs. Ernst, +whose home was in New Orleans, though she at present was in Paris, and +his mother was there with her. "After Julia's marriage, nine years ago, +mother went to live with her," he said, "but latterly, as the little +Ernsts increase so fast, she wishes for a more quiet home, and this +winter she is coming to New York to keep house for me." + +Helen thought she might like Mark's mother, who, he told her, had been +twice married, and was now Mrs. Banker, and a widow. She must be +different from Mrs. Cameron; and Helen let herself down to another +degree of toleration for the man whose mother taught her daughter to +mend the family socks. Still there was about her a chilling reserve, +which Mark wondered at, for it was not thus that ladies were accustomed +to receive his advances. He did not guess that Wilford Cameron stood +between him and Helen's good opinion; but when, after the family came +in, the conversation turned upon Katy and her life in New York, the +secret came out in the sharp, caustic mariner with which she spoke of +New York and its people. + +"It's Will and the Camerons," Mark thought, blaming Helen less than he +would have done, if he, too, had not known something of the Cameron +pride. + +It was a novel position in which Mark found himself that night; an +inmate of a humble farmhouse, where he could almost touch the ceiling +with his hand, and where his surroundings were so different from what he +had been accustomed to; but, unlike Wilford Cameron, he did not wish +himself away, nor feel indignant at Aunt Betsy's odd, old-fashioned +ways, or Uncle Ephraim's grammar. He noticed Aunt Betsy's oddities, it +is true, and noticed Uncle Ephraim's grammar, too; but the sight of +Helen sitting there, with so much dignity and self-respect, made him +look beyond all else, straight into her open face and clear brown eyes, +where there was nothing obnoxious or distasteful. Her grammar was +correct, her manner, saving a little stiffness, ladylike and refined; +and Mark rather enjoyed his situation as self-invited guest, making +himself so agreeable that Uncle Ephraim forgot his hour of retiring, nor +discovered his mistake until, with a loud yawn, Aunt Betsy told him that +it was half-past nine, and she was "desput sleepy." + +Owing to Helen's influence there had been a change of the olden customs, +and instead of the long chapter, through which Uncle Ephraim used to +plod so wearily, there was now read the Evening Psalms, Aunt Betsy +herself joining in the reading, which she mentally classed with the +"quirks," but confessed to herself that it "was most as good as the +Bible." + +As there were only Prayer Books enough for the family, Helen, in +distributing them, purposely passed Mark by, thinking he might not care +to join them. But he did, and when the verse came around to Helen he +quickly drew his chair near to hers, and taking one side of her book, +performed his part, while Helen's face grew red as the blossoms in her +hair, and her hand so near to Mark's trembled visibly. + +"A right nice chap, and not an atom stuck up," was Aunt Betsy's mental +comment, and then, as he often will do, Satan followed the saintly woman +even to her knees, making her wonder if "Mr. Ray hadn't some notion +after Helen." She hoped not, for she meant that Morris should have +Helen, "though if 'twas to be it was, and she should not go agin' it;" +and while Aunt Betsy thus settled the case, Uncle Ephraim's prayer +ended, and the conscience-smitten woman arose from her knees with the +conviction that "the evil one had got the better of her once," mentally +asking pardon for her wandering thoughts, and promising to do better. + +Mark was in no haste to retire, and when Uncle Ephraim offered to +conduct him to his room, he frankly answered that he was not sleepy, +adding, as he turned to Helen: "Please let me stay until Miss Lennox +finishes her socks. There are several pairs yet undarned. I will not +detain you, though," he continued, bowing to Uncle Ephraim, who, a +little uncertain what to do, finally departed, as did Aunt Hannah and +his sister, leaving Helen and her mother to entertain Mark Ray. It had +been Mrs. Lennox's first intention to retire also, but a look from +Helen detained her, and she sat down by that basket of socks, while Mark +wished her away. Still it was proper for her to remain, he knew, and he +respected Helen for keeping her, as he knew she did. A while they talked +of Katy and New York, Mark laboring to convince Helen that its people +were not all heartless and fickle, and at last citing his mother as an +instance. + +"You would like mother, Miss Lennox. I hope you will know her some +time," he said, and then they talked of books, Helen forgetting that +Mark was city bred in the interest with which she listened to him, while +Mark forgot that the girl who appreciated and understood his views +almost before they were expressed was country born, and sitting there +before him clad in homely garb, with no ornaments save those of her fine +mind and the sparkling face turned so fully toward him. + +"Mark Ray is not like Wilford Cameron," Helen said to herself, when as +the clock was striking eleven she bade him good-night and went up to her +room. "But of course in his heart he feels above us all," and opening +her window she leaned her hot cheek against the wet casement, and looked +out upon the night, now so beautiful and clear, for the rain was over, +and up in the heavens the bright stars were shining, each one bearing +some resemblance to Mark's eyes as they kindled and grew bright with his +excitement, resting always kindly on her--on Helen, who, leaning thus +from the window, felt stealing over her that feeling which, once born, +can never be quite forgotten. + +Helen did not recognize the feeling, for it was a strange one to her. +She was only conscious of a sensation half pleasurable, half sad, of +which Mark Ray had been the cause, and which she tried in vain to put +aside, wondering what he thought of them all, and if he did not secretly +despise them even while making himself so familiar. And then there swept +over her a feeling of desolation such as she had never experienced +before, a shrinking from living all her life in Silverton, as she fully +expected to do, and laying her head upon the little stand, she cried +passionately. + +"This is weak, this is folly," she suddenly exclaimed, as she became +conscious of acting as Helen Lennox was not wont to act, and with a +strong effort of the will she dried her tears and crept quietly to bed +just as Mark was falling into his first sleep, and dreaming of +smothering. + +Helen would not have acknowledged it, and yet it was a truth not to be +denied, that she stayed next morning a much longer time than usual +before her glass, arranging her hair, which was worn more becomingly +than on the previous night, softening the somewhat too intellectual +expression of her face, and making her seem more womanly and modest. +Once she thought to wear the light buff gown in which she looked so +well, but the thought was repudiated as soon as formed, and donning the +same dark calico she would have worn if Mark had not been there, she +finished her simple toilet and went downstairs, just as Mark came in at +the side door, his hands full of water lilies and his boots bearing +marks of what he had been through to get them. + +"Early country air is healthful," he said, "and as I do not often have a +chance to try it I thought I would improve the present opportunity! So I +have been down by the pond, and spying these lilies I persevered until I +reached them, in spite of mud and mire. There is no blossom I like so +well. Were I a young girl I would always wear one in my hair, just as +your sister did one night at Newport, and I never saw her look better. +Just let me try the effect on you;" and selecting a half-opened bud, +Mark placed it among Helen's braids as if hairdressing were one of his +accomplishments. "The effect is good," he continued, turning her +blushing face to the glass and asking if it were not. + +"Yes," Helen stammered, seeing more the saucy eyes looking over her head +than the lily in her hair. "Yes, good enough, but hardly in keeping with +this old dress," and vanity whispered the wish that the buff had really +been worn. + +"Your dress is suitable for morning, I am sure," Mark replied, turning +a little more to the right the lily and noticing as he did so how very +white and pretty was the neck and throat seen above the collar. + +Mark liked a pretty neck, and he was glad to know that Helen had one, +though why he should care was a puzzle. He could hardly have analyzed +his feelings then, or told what he did think of Helen. He only knew +that by her efforts to repel him she attracted him the more, she was so +different from any young ladies he had known; so different from Juno, +into whose hair he had never twined a water lily. It would not become +her as it did Helen, he thought, as he sat opposite her at the table, +admiring his handiwork, which even Aunt Betsy observed, remarking that +"Helen was mightily spruced up for morning," a compliment which Helen +acknowledged with a painful blush, while Mark began a disquisition upon +the nature of lilies generally, which lasted until breakfast was ended. + +It was arranged that Mark should ride to the cars with Uncle Ephraim +when he went for Katy, and as this gave him a good two hours of leisure, +he spoke of Dr. Grant, asking Helen if she did not suppose he would call +around. Helen thought it possible, and then remembering how many things +were to be done that morning, she excused herself from the parlor, and +repairing to the platform out by the back door, where it was shady and +cool, she tied on a broad check apron, and rolling her sleeves above her +elbows, was just bringing the churn-dasher to bear vigorously upon the +thick cream she was turning into butter, when, having finished his +cigar, Mark went out into the yard, and following the winding path came +suddenly upon her. Helen's first impulse was to stop, but with a strong +nerving of herself she kept on while Mark, coming as near as he dared, +said to her: "Why do you do that? Is there no one else?" + +"No," Helen answered; "that is, we keep no servant, and my young arms +are stronger than the others." + +"And mine are stronger still," Mark laughingly rejoined, as he put Helen +aside and plied the dasher himself, in spite of her protestations that +he would certainly ruin his clothes. + +"Tie that apron around me, then," he said, with the utmost nonchalance, +and Helen obeyed, tying her check apron around the young man's neck, who +felt her hands as they touched his hair and knew that they were brushing +queer fancies into his brain, fancies which made him wonder what his +mother would think of Helen, or what she would say if she knew just how +he was occupied that morning, absolutely churning cream until it turned +to butter, for Mark persisted until the task was done, standing by while +Helen gathered up the golden lumps, and admiring her plump, round arms +quite as much as he had done her neck. + +She would be a belle like her sister, though of a different stamp, he +thought, as he again bent down his head while she removed the apron and +disclosed more than one big spot upon his broadcloth. Mark assured her +that it did not matter; his coat was nearly worn out; and anyway he +never should regret that he had churned once in his life, or forget +it either; and then he asked if Helen would be in New York the coming +winter, talking of the pleasure it would be to meet her there until +Helen herself began to feel what she never before had felt, a desire to +visit Katy in her own home. + +"Remember if you come that I am your debtor for numerous hospitalities," +he said, when he at last bade her good-by, and sprang into the covered +buggy, which Uncle Ephraim had brought out in honor of Katy's arrival. + + * * * * * + +Old Whitey was hitched at a safe distance from all possible harm. Uncle +Ephraim had returned from the store nearby, laden with the six pounds +of crush sugar and the two pounds of real old Java, he had been +commissioned to purchase with a view to Katy's taste, and now upon the +platform at West Silverton, he stood with Mark Ray, waiting for the +arrival of the train just appearing in view across the level plain. + +"It's fifteen months since she went away," he said, and Mark saw that +the old man's form trembled with the excitement of meeting her again, +while his eyes scanned eagerly every window and door of the cars now +slowly stopping before him. "There, there," and he laid his hand +nervously on Mark's shoulder as a white, jaunty feather appeared in +view; but no, that was not Katy, and the dim eyes ran again along the +whole line of the cars, from which so many were alighting, for that was +an eating house. + +But Katy did not come, and with a long breath of wonder and +disappointment the deacon said: "Can it be she is asleep. Young +man, you are spryer than I. Go through the cars and find her." + +Mark knew there was plenty of time, and so he made the tour of the cars, +but found, alas! no Katy. + +"She's not there," was the report carried to the poor old man, who +tremblingly repeated his words: "Not there, not come," while over his +aged face there broke a look of touching sadness, which Mark never +forgot, remembering it always just as he remembered the big tear drops +which from his seat by the window he saw the old man wipe away with his +coat sleeve, whispering softly to Whitey of his disappointment as he +unhitched the horse and drove away alone. + +"Maybe she's writ. I'll go and see," he said, and driving to their +regular office he found a letter directed by Wilford Cameron, but +written by Katy. + +This last he knew, for he tore the envelope open; but he could not read +it then, and thrusting it into his pocket he went slowly back to the +home where the tempting dinner was prepared, and the family waiting +so eagerly for him. Even before he reached there they knew of the +disappointment, for from the garret window Helen had watched the road by +which he would come, and when the buggy appeared in sight she saw he was +alone. + +There was a mistake; Katy had missed the train, she said to her mother +and aunts, who hoped she might be right. But Katy had not missed the +train, as was indicated by the letter which Uncle Ephraim without a word +put into Helen's hand, leaning on old Whitey's neck while she read aloud +the attempt at an explanation which Katy had hurried written, a stain on +the paper where a tear had fallen attesting her distress at the bitter +disappointment. + +"Wilford did not know of the other letter," she said, "and had made +arrangements for her to go back with him to New York, inasmuch as the +house was already opened, and the servants there wanting ahead; besides +that, Wilford had been absent so long that he could not possibly stop at +Silverton himself, and as he would not think of living without her, even +for a few days, there was no alternative but for her to go with him on +the boat directly to New York. I am sorry, oh, so sorry, but indeed I +am not to blame," she added, in conclusion, and this was the nearest +approach there was to an admission that anybody was to blame for this +disappointment which cut so cruelly, making even Uncle Ephraim cry as +out in the barn he hung away the mended harness and covered the new +buggy, which had been bought for naught. + +"I might have had the overcoat, for Katy will never come home again, +never. God grant that it's the Cameron pride, not hers, that kept her +from us," the old man said, as on the hay he knelt down and prayed that +Katy had not learned to despise the home where she was so beloved. + +"Katy will never come to us again," seemed the prevailing opinion at +Silverton, where more than Uncle Ephraim felt a chilling doubt at times +as to whether she really wished to come or not. If she did, it seemed +easy of accomplishment to those who knew not how perfect and complete +were the fetters thrown around her, and how unbending the will which +governed hers. Could they have seen the look in Katy's face when she +first understood that she was not going to Silverton, their hearts would +have bled for the thwarted creature who fled up the stairs to her own +room, where Esther found her twenty minutes later, cold and fainting +upon the bed, her face as white as ashes, and her hands clinched so +tightly that the nails left marks upon the palms. + +"It was not strange that the poor child should faint--indeed, it was +only natural that nature should give way after so many weeks of gayety, +and she very far from being strong," Mrs. Cameron said to Wilford, who +was beginning to repent of his decision, and who but for that remark +perhaps might have revoked it. + +Indeed, he made an attempt to do so when, as consciousness came back, +Katy lay so pale and still before him; but Katy did not understand him +or guess that he wished her to meet him more than half the way, and so +the verdict was unchanged, and in a kind of bewilderment, Katy wrote the +hurried letter, feeling less actual pain than did its readers, for the +disappointment had stunned her for a time, and all she could remember of +the passage home on that same night when Mark Ray sat with Helen in the +sitting-room at Silverton, was that there was a fearful storm of rain +mingled with lightning flashes and thunder peals, which terrified the +other ladies, but brought to her no other sensation save that it would +not be so very hard to perish in the dark waters dashing so madly about +the vessel's side. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A NEW LIFE. + + +"NEW YORK, December 16th. +"To Miss HELEN LENNOX, Silverton, Mass.: + +"Your sister is very ill. Come as soon as possible. + +"W. CAMERON." + +This was the purport of a telegram received at the farmhouse toward the +close of a chill December day, and Helen's heart almost stopped its +beating as she read it aloud, and then looked in the white, scared faces +of those around her. Katy was very ill--dying, perhaps--or Wilford had +never telegraphed. What could it be? What was the matter? Had it been +somewhat later, they would have known; but now all was conjecture worse +than useless, and in a half-distracted state Helen made her hasty +preparations for the journey on the morrow, and then sent for Morris, +hoping he might offer some advice or suggestion for her to carry to that +sickroom in New York. + +"Perhaps you will go with me," Helen said. "You know Katy's +constitution. You might save her life." + +But Morris shook his head. If he was needed they might send and he would +come, but not without; and so next day he carried Helen to the cars, +saying to her, as they were waiting for the train: "I hope for the best, +but it may be Katy will die. If you think so, tell her. Oh, tell her! of +the better world, and ask if she is prepared. I cannot lose her in +heaven." + +And this was all the message Morris sent, though his heart and prayers +went after the rapid train which bore Helen safely onward, until +Hartford was reached, where there was a long detention, so that the +dark wintry night had closed over the city ere Helen had reached it, +timid, anxious, and wondering what she should do if Wilford was not +there to meet her. "He will be, of course," she kept repeating to +herself, looking around in dismay, as passenger after passenger left, +seeking in stages and street cars a swifter passage to their homes. + +"I shall soon be all alone," she said, feeling some relief as the car in +which she was seated began at last to move, and she knew she was being +taken whither the others had gone, wherever that might be. + +"Is Miss Helen Lennox here?" sounded cheerily in her ears as she stopped +before the depot, and Helen uttered a cry of joy, for she recognized the +voice of Mark Ray, who was soon grasping her hand, and trying to +reassure her, as he saw how she shrank from the noise and clamor of New +York, heard now for the first time. "Our carriage is here," he said, and +in a moment she found herself in a close-covered vehicle, with Mark +sitting opposite, tucking the warm blanket around her, asking if she +were cold, and paying those numberless little attentions so gratifying +to one always accustomed to act and think for herself. + +Helen could not see Mark's face distinctly; but full of fear for Katy, +she fancied there was a sad tone in his voice, as if he were keeping +something back, something he dreaded to tell her; and then, as it +suddenly occurred to her that Wilford should have met her, not Mark, her +great fear found utterance in words, and leaning forward so that her +face almost touched Mark's, she said: "Tell me, Mr. Ray, is Katy dead?" + +"Not dead, oh, no, nor yet very dangerous, my mother hopes; but she kept +asking for you, and so my--that is, Mr. Cameron, sent the telegram." + +There was an ejaculatory prayer of thankfulness, and then Helen +continued: "Is it long since she was taken sick?" + +"Her little daughter will be a week old to-morrow," Mark replied; while +Helen, with an exclamation of surprise she could not repress, sank back +into the corner, faint and giddy with the excitement of this fact, which +invested little Katy with a new dignity, but drew her, oh, so much +nearer to the sister who could scarcely wait for the carriage to stop, +so anxious was she to be where Katy was, to kiss her dear face once +more, and whisper the words of love she knew she must have longed to +hear. + +Awe-struck, bewildered and half terrified, Helen looked up at the huge +brown structure, which Mark designated as "the place." It was so lofty, +so high, so like the Camerons, and so unlike the farmhouse far away, +that Helen trembled as she followed Mark into the rooms flooded with +light, and seeming to her like fairyland. They were so different from +anything she had imagined, so much handsomer than even Katy's vivid +descriptions had implied, that for the moment the sight took her breath +away, and she sank passively into the chair Mark brought for her, +himself taking her muff and tippet, and noting, as he did so, that they +were not mink, nor yet Russian sable, but well-worn, well-kept fitch, +such as Juno would laugh at and criticise. But Helen's dress was a +matter of small moment to Mark, as he thought more of the look in her +dark eyes as she said to him: "You are very kind, Mr. Ray. I cannot +thank you enough," than of all the furs in Broadway. This remark had +been wrung from Helen by the feeling of homesickness and desolation +which swept over her, as she thought how really alone she should be +there, in her sister's house, on this first night of her arrival, if +it were not for Mark, thus virtually taking the place of the +brother-in-law, who should have been there to greet her. + +"He was with Mrs. Cameron," the servant said, and taking out a card Mark +wrote down a few words, and handing it to the servant who had been +looking curiously at Helen, he continued standing until a step was heard +on the stairs and Wilford came quietly in. + +It was not a very loving meeting, but Helen was civil and Wilford was +polite, offering her his hand and asking some questions about her +journey. + +"I was intending to meet you myself," he said, "but Mrs. Cameron does +not like me to leave her, and Mark kindly offered to take the trouble +off my hands." + +This was the most gracious thing he had said; this the nearest approach +to friendliness, and Helen felt herself hating him less than she had +supposed she should. He was looking very pale and anxious, while there +was on his face the light of a new joy, as if the little life begun so +short a time ago had brought an added good to him, softening his haughty +manner and making him even endurable to the prejudiced sister watching +him so closely! + +"Does Phillips know you are here?" he asked, answering his own query by +ringing the bell and bidding Esther, who appeared, tell Phillips that +Miss Lennox had arrived and wished for supper, explaining to Helen that +since Katy's illness they had dined at three, as that accommodated them +the best. + +This done and Helen's baggage ordered to her room, he seemed to think he +had discharged his duty as host, and as Mark had left he began to grow +fidgety, for a _tete-a-tete_ with Helen was not what he desired. He had +said to her all he could think to say, for it never once occurred to him +to inquire after the deacon's family. He had asked for Dr. Grant, but +his solicitude went no further, and the inmates of the farmhouse might +have been dead and buried for aught he knew to the contrary. The +omission was not made purposely, but because he really did not feel +enough of interest in people so widely different from himself even to +ask for them, much less to suspect how Helen's blood boiled as she +detected the omission and imputed it to intended slight, feeling so glad +when he at last excused himself, saying he must go back to Katy, but +would send his mother down to see her. His mother. Then she was there, +the one whom Helen dreaded most of all, whom she had invested with every +possible terror, hoping now that she would not be in haste to come down. +She might have spared herself anxiety on this point, as the lady in +question was not anxious to meet a person who, could she have had her +way, would not have been there at all. + +From the first moment of consciousness after the long hours of +suffering, Katy had asked for Helen, rather than her mother, feeling +that the former would be more welcome, and could more easily conform +to their customs. + +"Send for Helen; I am so tired, and she could always rest me," was her +reply, when asked by Wilford what he could do for her. "Send for Helen; +I want her so much," she had said to Mrs. Cameron, when she came, +repeating the wish until a consultation was held between the mother and +son, touching the propriety of sending for Helen. "She would be of no +use whatever, and might excite our Katy. Quiet is highly important just +now," Mrs. Cameron had said, thus veiling under pretended concern for +Katy her aversion to the girl whose independence in declining her +dressmaker had never been forgiven, and whom she had set down in her +mind as rude and ignorant. + +She was well suited with Katy now, petting and caressing and talking +constantly of her; but it did not follow that she must like the sister, +too, and so she checked the impulse which would have prompted Wilford to +send for her as Katy so much desired. + +"If her coming would do Katy harm she ought not to come," and so +Wilford's conscience was partially quieted, white Katy in her darkened +room moaned on. + +"Send for Sister Helen, please send for Sister Helen." + +At last on the fourth day came Mrs. Banker, Mark Ray's mother, to the +house, and in consideration of the strong liking she had evinced for +Katy ever since her arrival in New York, and the great respect felt for +her by Mrs. Cameron, she was admitted to the chamber and heard the +plaintive pleadings: "Send for Sister Helen," until her motherly heart +was touched, and as she sat with her son at dinner she spoke of the +young girl-mother moaning so for Helen. + +Whether it was Mark's great pity for Katy, or whether he was prompted +by some more selfish motive, we do not profess to say, but that he was +greatly excited was very evident from his manner, as he exclaimed: + +"Why not send for Helen, then? She is a splendid girl, and they idolize +each other. Talk of her injuring Katy, that's all a humbug. She is just +fitted for a nurse. Almost the sight of her would cure one of +nervousness, she is so calm and quiet." + +This was what Mark said, and again the next morning Mrs. Banker's +carriage stood at the door of No. ---- Madison Square, while Mrs. Banker +herself was talking to Wilford in the library, and urging that Helen be +sent for at once. + +"It may save her life. She is more feverish to-day than yesterday, and +this constant asking for her sister will wear her out so fast," she +added, and that last argument prevailed. + +Helen was sent for and now sat waiting in the parlor for the coming of +Mrs. Cameron. Wilford did not mean Katy to hear him as he whispered to +his mother that Helen was below; but she did, and her blue eyes flashed +brightly as she started from her pillow, exclaiming: + +"I am so glad, so glad. Kiss me, Wilford, because I am so glad. Does she +know? Have you told her? Wasn't she surprised, and will she come up +quick?" + +They could not quiet her at once, and only the assurance that unless she +were more composed Helen should not see her that night had any effect +upon her; but when they told her that, she lay back upon her pillow +submissively, and Wilford saw the great tears dropping from her hot +cheeks, while the pallid lips kept softly whispering "Helen." Then the +sister love took another channel, and she said: + +"She has not been to supper, and Phillips is always cross at extras. +Will somebody see to it? Send Esther to me, please. Esther knows and is +good-natured." + +"Mother will do all that is necessary. She is going down," Wilford said; +but Katy had quite as much fear of leaving Helen to "mother" as to +Phillips, and insisted upon Esther until the latter came, receiving +numerous injunctions as to the jam, the sweetmeats, the peaches and the +cold ham Helen must have, each one being remembered as her favorite. + +Wholly unselfish, Katy thought nothing of herself or the effort it cost +her thus to care for Helen, but when it was over and Esther had gone, +she seemed so utterly exhausted that Mrs. Cameron did not leave her, but +stayed at her bedside, ministering to her until the extreme paleness was +gone, and her eyes were more natural. Meanwhile the supper, which as +Katy feared had made Phillips cross, had been arranged by Esther, who +conducted Helen to the dining-room, herself standing by and waiting upon +her because the one whose duty it was had gone out for the evening, and +Phillips had declined the "honor," as she styled it. + +There was a homesick feeling tugging at Helen's heart, while she tried +to eat, and only the certainty that Katy was not far away kept her tears +back. To her the very grandeur of the house made it desolate, and she +was so glad it was Katy who lived there and not herself as she went up +the soft carpeted stairway, which gave back no sound, and through the +marble hall to the parlor, where by the table on which her cloak and +furs were still lying, a lady stood, as dignified and unconscious as +if she had not been inspecting the self-same fur which Mark Ray had +observed, but not like him thinking it did not matter, for it did matter +very materially with her, and a smile of contempt had curled her lip as +she turned over the tippet which even Phillips would not have worn. + +"I wonder how long she means to stay, and if Wilford will have to take +her out," she was thinking, just as Helen appeared in the door and +advanced into the room. + +By herself, it was easy to slight Helen Lennox, but in her presence Mrs. +Cameron found it very hard to appear as cold and distant as she had +meant to do, for there was something about Helen which commanded her +respect, and she went forward to meet her, offering her hand, and +saying, cordially: + +"Miss Lennox, I presume--my daughter Katy's sister?" + +Helen had not expected this, and the warm flush which came to her cheeks +made her very handsome, as she returned Mrs. Cameron's greeting, and +then asked more particularly for Katy than she had yet done. For a while +they talked together, Mrs. Cameron noting carefully every item of +Helen's attire, as well as the purity of her language and her perfect +repose of manner after the first stiffness had passed away. + +"Naturally a lady as well as Katy; there must be good blood somewhere, +probably on the Lennox side," was Mrs. Cameron's private opinion, while +Helen, after a few moments, began to feel far more at ease with Mrs. +Cameron than she had done in the dining-room with Esther, waiting on +her, and the cross Phillips stalking once through the room for no +ostensible purpose except to get a sight of her. + +Helen wondered at herself as much as Mrs. Cameron wondered at her, +trying to decide whether it were ignorance, conceit, obtuseness, or +what, which made her so self-possessed when she was expected to appear +so different. + +"Strong-minded," was her final decision, as she said at last: "We +promised Katy she should see you to-night. Will you go now?" + +Then the color left Helen's face and lips, and her limbs shook +perceptibly, for the knowing she was soon to meet her sister unnerved +her; but by the time the door of Katy's room was reached she was herself +again, and there was no need for Mrs. Cameron to whisper: "Pray do not +excite her." + +Katy heard her coming, and it required all Wilford's and the nurse's +efforts to keep her quiet, so great was her joy. + +"Helen, Helen, darling, darling sister," she cried, as she wound her +arms around Helen's neck, and laid her golden head on Helen's bosom, +sobbing in a low, mournful way which told Helen more how much she was +beloved and had been longed for than did the weak, childish voice which +whispered: "I've wanted you so much, oh, Helen; you don't know how much +I've missed you all the years I've been away. You will not leave me +now," and Katy clung closer to the dear sister who gently unclasped the +clinging arms and put back upon the pillow the quivering face, which she +kissed so tenderly, whispering in her own old half-soothing, +half-commanding way: "Be quiet now, Katy. It's best that you should. +No, I will not leave you." + +Next to Dr. Grant, Helen had more influence over Katy than any living +being, and it was very apparent now, for as if her presence had a power +to soothe, Katy grew very quiet, and utterly wearied out, slept for a +few moments with Helen's hand fast locked in hers. When she awoke the +tired look was gone, and turning to her sister, she said: "Have you seen +my baby?" while the young mother love which broke so beautifully over +her pale face, made it the face of an angel. + +"It seems so funny that it is Katy's baby," Helen said, taking the puny +little thing, which with its wrinkled face and red, clinched fists was +not very attractive to her, save as she looked at it with Katy's eyes. + +She did not even kiss it, but her tears dropped upon its head as she +thought how short the time since up in the old garret at home she had +dressed rag dolls for the Katy who was now a mother. And still in a +measure she was the same, hugging Helen fondly when she said good-night, +and welcoming her so joyfully in the morning when she came again, +telling her how just the sight of her sitting there by baby's crib +did her so much good. + +"I shall get well so fast," she said; and she was right, for Helen was +worth far more to her than all the physician's powders, and Wilford, +when he saw how she improved, was glad that Helen came, even if she did +sometimes shock him with her independent ways, upsetting all his plans +and theories with regard to Katy, and meeting him on other grounds with +an opposition as puzzling as it was new to him. + +To Mrs. Cameron, Helen was also a study, she seemed to care so little +for what others might think of her, evincing no hesitation, no timidity, +when told one day, the second day after her arrival, that Mrs. Banker +was in the parlor and had asked to see Miss Lennox. Mrs. Cameron did not +suspect how under that calm, unmoved exterior, Helen was hiding a heart +which beat most painfully as she went down to meet the mother of Mark +Ray, going first to her own room to make some little change in her +toilet, and wishing that her dress was more like the dress of those +around her--like Mrs. Cameron's, or even Esther's and the fashionable +nurse's. One glance she gave to the brown silk, Wilford's gift, but her +good sense told her that the plain merino she wore was far more suitable +to the sickroom, where she spent her time, and so with a fresh collar +and cuffs, and another brush of her rich hair, she went to Mrs. Banker, +forgetting herself in her pleasure at finding in the stranger a lady so +wholly congenial and familiar, whose mild, dark eyes, so like Mark +Ray's, rested so kindly on her, and whose pleasant voice had something +motherly in its tone, putting her wholly at her ease, and making her +appear at her very best. + +Mrs. Banker was pleased with Helen, while she felt a kind of pity for +the young girl thrown so suddenly among strangers, without even her +sister to aid and assist her. + +"Have you been out at all?" she asked, and upon Helen's replying that +she had not, she answered: "That is not right. Accustomed to the fresh +country air, you will suffer from too close confinement. Suppose you +ride with me. My carriage is at the door, and I have a few hours' +leisure. Tell your sister I insist," she continued, as Helen hesitated +between inclination and what she fancied was her duty. + +To see New York with Mrs. Banker was a treat indeed, and Helen's heart +bounded high as she ran up to Katy's room with the request. + +"Yes, by all means," Katy said. "It is so kind in Mrs. Banker, and so +like her, too. I meant that Wilford should have driven with you to-day, +and spoke to him about it, but Mrs. Banker will do better. Tell her I +thank her so much for her thoughtfulness," and with a kiss Katy sent +Helen away, while Mrs. Cameron, after twisting her rings nervously for +a moment, said to Katy: + +"Perhaps your sister would do well to wear your furs. Hers are small and +common fitch." + +"Yes, certainly. Take them to her," Katy answered, knowing intuitively +the feeling which had prompted this suggestion from her mother-in-law, +who hastened to Helen's room with the rich sable she was to wear in +place of the old fitch. + +Helen appreciated the difference at once between her furs and Katy's, +and felt a pang of mortification as she saw how old and poor and dowdy +hers were beside the others. But they were her own; the best she could +afford. She would not begin by borrowing, and so she declined the offer, +and greatly to Mrs. Cameron's horror went down to Mrs. Banker clad in +the despised furs, which Mrs. Cameron would on no account have had +beside her on Broadway in an open carriage. Mrs. Banker noticed them, +too, but the eager, happy face, which grew each moment brighter as they +drove down the street, more than made amends; and in watching that and +pointing out the places which they passed, Mrs. Banker forgot the furs +and the coarse straw hat whose strings of black had undeniably been +dyed. Never in her life had Helen enjoyed a ride as she did that +pleasant winter day, when her kind friend took her wherever she wished +to go, showing her Broadway in its glory from Union Square to Wall +Street, where they encountered Mark in a bustling crowd. He saw them, +too, and beckoned to them, while Helen's face grew red as, lifting his +hat to her, he came up to the carriage, and at his mother's suggestion +took a seat just opposite, asking where they had been and jocosely +laughing at his mother's taste in selecting such localities as the +Bowery, the Tombs and Barnum's Museum, when there were so many finer +places to be seen. + +Helen felt the hot blood pricking the roots of her hair, for the Bowery, +the Tombs and Barnum's Museum had been her choice as the points of which +she had heard the most. So when Mark continued: + +"You shall ride with me, Miss Lennox, and I will show you something +worth your seeing," she frankly answered: + +"Your mother is not in fault, Mr. Ray. She asked me where I wished to +go, and I mentioned these places; so please attribute it wholly to my +country breeding, and not to your mother's lack of taste." + +There was something in the frank speech which won Mrs. Banker's heart, +while she felt an increased respect for the young girl, who, she saw, +was keenly sensitive, even with all her strength of character. + +"You were quite right to commence as you have," she said, "for now you +have a still greater treat in store, and Mark shall drive you to the +park some day. I know you will like that." + +Helen felt that she should like anything with that friendly voice to +reassure her, and leaning back she was thinking how pleasant it was to +be in New York, how different from what she had expected, when a bow +from Mark made her look up in time to see that they were meeting a +carriage, in which sat Wilford, and with two gayly-dressed ladies, both +of whom gave her a supercilious stare as they passed by, while the +younger of the two half turned her head, as if for a more prolonged +gaze. + +"Mrs. Grandon and Juno Cameron," Mrs. Banker said, making some further +remark to her son; while Helen felt that the brightness of the day +changed, for she could not be unconscious of the look with which she had +been regarded by these two fashionable ladies, and again her furs came +up before her, bringing a feeling of which she was ashamed, especially +as she had fancied herself above all weakness of the kind. + +But Helen was a woman, with a woman's nature, and so that ride was not +without its annoyance, though her face was very bright as she bade Mrs. +Banker and Mark good-by, and then ran up the steps to Katy's home. That +night at the dinner, from which Mrs. Cameron was absent, Wilford was +unusually gracious, asking "had she enjoyed her ride, and if she did +not find Mrs. Banker a very pleasant acquaintance." + +The fact was, Wilford felt a little uncomfortable himself for having +suffered a stranger to do for Katy's sister what devolved upon himself. +Katy had asked him to drive with Helen; but he had found it very +convenient to forget it, and take a seat instead with Juno and Mrs. +Grandon, the latter of whom complimented "Miss Lennox's fine +intellectual face," after they had passed, and complimented it the more +as she saw how it vexed Juno, who could see nothing "in those bold eyes +and that masculine forehead," just because their _vis-a-vis_ chanced to +be Mark Ray's. Juno was not pleased with Helen's first appearance in the +street, but nevertheless she called upon her next day, with Sybil +Grandon and her sister, Bell. To this she was urged by Sybil, who, +having a somewhat larger experience of human nature, foresaw that Helen +would be popular just because Mrs. Banker had thus early taken her up, +and who, besides, had conceived a capricious fancy to patronize Miss +Lennox. But in this she was foiled, for Helen was not to be patronized, +and she received her visitors with that calm, assured manner so much a +part of herself. + +"Diamond cut diamond," Bell thought, as she saw how frigidly polite +both Juno and Helen were, each recognizing in the other something +antagonistic, which could never harmonize. + +Had Juno never cared for Dr. Grant, or suspected Helen of standing +between herself and him, and had Mark Ray never stopped at Silverton, or +been seen on Broadway with her, she might have judged her differently, +for there was something attractive in Helen's face and appearance as +she sat talking to her guests, not awkwardly nor timidly, but with as +much quiet dignity as if she had never mended Uncle Ephraim's socks, or +made a pound of butter among the huckleberry hills. Bell was delighted, +detecting at once traces of the rare mind which Helen Lennox possessed, +and wondering to find it so. + +"I hope we shall see each other often," she said, at parting. "I do not +go out a great deal myself--that is, not as much as Juno--but I shall be +always glad to welcome you to my den. You may find something there to +interest you." + +This was Bell's leave-taking, while Sybil's was, if possible, even more +friendly, for aside from really fancying Helen, she took a perverse kind +of pleasure in annoying Juno, who wondered "what she or Bell could see +to like in that awkward country girl, whom she knew had on one of Katy's +cast-off collars, and her wardrobe was the most ordinary she ever saw; +fitch furs, think of that!" and Juno gave a little pull at the +fastenings of her rich ermine collar, showing so well over her velvet +basquine. + +"Fitch furs or not, they rode with Mark Ray on Broadway," Bell retorted, +with a wicked look in her eyes, which aroused Juno to a still higher +pitch of anger, so that by the time the carriage stopped at No. ----, +the young lady was in a most unamiable frame of mind as regarded both +Helen Lennox and the offending Mark. + +That evening there was at Mrs. Reynolds' a little company of thirty +or more, and as Mark was present, Juno seized the opportunity for +ascertaining, if possible, his real opinion of Helen Lennox, joking him +first about his having taken her to ride so soon, and insinuating that +he must have a penchant for every new and pretty face. + +"Then you think her pretty? You have called on her?" Mark replied, his +manner evincing so much pleasure that Juno bit her lip to keep down her +wrath, and flashing upon him her scornful eyes, replied: "Yes, Sybil and +Bell insisted that I should. Of myself I would never have done it, for I +have now more acquaintances than I can attend to, and do not care to +increase the list. Besides that, I do not imagine that Miss Lennox can +in any way add to my happiness, brought up as she has been among the +woods and hills, you know." + +"Yes, I have been there--to her home, I mean," Mark rejoined, and Juno +continued: + +"Only for a moment, though. You should have stayed, like Will, to +appreciate it fully. I wish you could hear him describe the feather beds +in which he slept--that is, describe them before he decided to take +Katy; for after that he was chary of his remarks, and the feathers by +some marvelous process were changed into hair, for what he knew or +cared." + +Mark hesitated a moment, and then said, quietly: + +"I have stayed there all night, and have tested that feather bed, but +found nothing disparaging to Helen, who was as much a lady in the +farmhouse as here in the city." + +There was a look of withering scorn on Juno's face as she replied: + +"As much a lady as here! That may very well be; but, pray, how long +since you took to visiting Silverton so frequently--becoming so familiar +as to spend the night?" + +There was no mistaking the jealousy which betrayed itself into every +tone of Juno's voice as she stood before Mark a fit picture of the +enraged goddess whose name she bore. Soon recollecting herself, however, +she changed her mode of attack, and said, laughingly: + +"Seriously, though, this Miss Lennox seems a very nice girl, and is +admirably fitted, I think, for the position she is to fill--that of a +country physician's wife," and in the black eyes there was a wicked +sparkle as Juno saw that her meaning was readily understood, Mark +looking quickly at her and asking if she referred to Dr. Grant. + +"Certainly; I imagine that was settled as long ago as we met him in +Paris. Once I thought it might have been our Katy, but was mistaken. I +think the doctor and Miss Lennox well adapted to each other--it is an +excellent match." + +There was for a moment a dull, heavy pain at Mark's heart, caused by +that little item of information which made him so uncomfortable. On the +whole he did not doubt it, for everything he could recall of Morris had +a tendency to strengthen the belief. Nothing could he more probable, +thrown together as they had been, without other congenial society, and +nothing could be more suitable. + +"They are well matched," Mark thought, as he walked listlessly through +Mrs. Reynolds' parlors, seeing only one face, and that the face of Helen +Lennox, with the lily in her hair, just as it looked when she had tied +the apron about his neck and laughed at his appearance. + +Helen was not the ideal which in his boyhood Mark had cherished of the +one who was to be his wife, for that was of a more brilliant, beautiful +woman, a woman more like Juno, with whom he had always been on the best +of terms, giving her some reason, it is true, for believing herself the +favored one; but ideals change as years go on, and Helen Lennox had more +attractions for him now than the most dashing belle of his acquaintance. + +"I do not believe I am in love with her," he said to himself that night, +when, after his return from Mrs. Reynolds' he sat for a long time before +the fire in his dressing-room, cogitating upon what he had heard, and +wondering why it should affect him so much. "Of course I am not," he +continued, feeling the necessity of reiterating the assertion by way of +making himself believe it. "She is not at all what I used to imagine the +future Mrs. Mark Ray to be. Half my friends would say she had no style, +no beauty, and perhaps she has not. Certainly she does not look just +like the ladies at Mrs. Reynolds' to-night, but give her the same +advantages and she would surpass them all." + +And then Mark Ray went off into a reverie, in which he saw Helen Lennox +his wife, and with the aids by which he would surround her rapidly +developing into as splendid a woman as little Katy Cameron, who did not +need to be developed, but took all hearts at once by that natural, +witching grace so much a part of herself. It was a very pleasant picture +which Mark painted upon the mental canvas; but there came a great blur +blotting out its brightness as he remembered Dr. Grant, and felt that +Linwood was one day to be Helen's home. + +"But it shall not interfere with my being just as kind to her as before. +She will need some attendant here, and Wilford, I know, will be glad to +shove her off his hands. He is so infernal proud," Mark said, and taking +a fresh cigar he finished his reverie with the magnanimous resolve that +were Helen a hundred times engaged she should be his especial care +during her sojourn in New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +HELEN IN SOCIETY. + + +It was three days before Christmas, and Katy was talking confidentially +to Mrs. Banker, whom she had asked to see the next time she should call. + +"I want so much to surprise her," she said, speaking in a whisper, "and +you have been so kind to us both that I thought it might not trouble you +very much if I asked you to make the selection for me, and see to the +engraving. Wilford gave me fifty dollars, all I needed, as I had fifty +more of my own, and now that I have a baby, I am sure I shall never +again care to go out. My darling baby, how small the whole world seems +to me now when compared with her," and the little mother glanced +lovingly at the crib where slept the baby, worth more than all the +world. + +"Yes," Mrs. Banker said, thoughtfully, as she rolled up the bills, +"you wish me to get as heavy bracelets as I can find--for the hundred +dollars." + +"Yes," Katy replied, "I think that will please her, don't you?" + +Mrs. Banker knew Katy's fondness for jewelry, and knowing, too, that her +girlhood was spent in comparative poverty, she could readily understand +how she would gratify her taste when circumstances were favorable; but +Helen was different, and she felt certain that the hundred dollars could +be spent to better advantage and in a manner more satisfactory to her. +Still she hardly liked to interfere until Katy, observing her hesitancy, +asked again if she did not think Helen would be pleased. + +"Yes, pleased with anything you choose to give her, but--excuse me, dear +Mrs. Cameron, if I speak as openly as if I were the mother of you both. +Bracelets are suitable for you who can have everything else, but is +there not something your sister needs more, something which will do more +good? Now, allowing me to suggest, I should say, buy her some furs, and +let the bracelets go. In Silverton her furs were well enough, but here, +as the sister of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, she is deserving of better." + +It was the first time that Katy had thought that in New York her sister +might need more than at home. Seeing her only in the dim sickroom, the +contrast between Helen and her and her husband's sisters had not struck +her, or if it had, she gave the preference to Helen in her dark merino +and linen collar, rather than to Juno in her silks and velvet; but she +understood Mrs. Banker at once, her cheeks reddening as there flashed +upon her the reason why Wilford had never yet been in the street with +Helen, notwithstanding that she had more than once requested it. + +"You are right," she said. "It was thoughtless in me not to think of +this myself. Helen shall have the furs, and whatever else is necessary. +I am so glad you reminded me of it. You are kind as my own mother," and +Katy kissed her friend fondly as she bade her good-by, charging her a +dozen times not to let Helen know the surprise in store for her. + +There was little need of this caution, for Mrs. Banker understood human +nature too well to divulge a matter which might wound one as sensitive +as Helen. Between the latter and herself there was a strong bond of +friendship, and to the kind patronage of this lady Helen owed most of +the attentions she had as yet received from her sister's friends; while +Mark Ray did much toward lifting her to the place she held in spite of +the common country dress, which Juno unsparingly criticised, and which, +in fact, kept Wilford from taking her out, as his wife so often asked +him to do. And Helen, too, keenly felt the difference between herself +and those with whom she came in contact, crying over it more than once, +but never dreaming of the surprise in store for her, when on Christmas +morning she went as usual to Katy's room, finding her alone, her face +all aglow with excitement, and her bed a perfect showcase of dry goods, +which she bade Helen examine and say how she liked them. + +Wilford was no niggard with his money, and when Katy had asked for more, +it had been given unsparingly, even though he knew the purpose to which +it was to be applied. + +"Oh, Katy, Katy, why did you do it?" Helen cried, her tears falling +like rain through the fingers she clasped over her eyes. + +"You are not angry?" Katy said, in some dismay, as Helen continued to +sob without looking at the handsome furs, the stylish hat, the pretty +cloak, and rich patterns of blue and black silk, which Mrs. Banker had +selected. + +"No, oh, no!" Helen replied. "I know it was all meant well; but there is +something in me which rebels against taking this from Wilford. He had +better have sent to Silverton for that trunk. Its contents have never +been disturbed, and surely there might be something found good enough +for me." + +It was the first time Helen had alluded to that trunk; but Katy did not +think that anything ill-natured was meant by the remark. She only felt +that Helen shrank from receiving so much from Wilford, as it was natural +she should, and she hastened to reassure her, using all her powers to +comfort her until she at last grew calm enough to examine and admire the +Christmas gifts upon which no expense had been spared. Much as we may +ignore dress, and sinful as is an inordinate love for it, there is yet +about it an influence for good, when the heart of the wearer is right, +holding it subservient to all higher, holier affections. At least Helen +Lennox found it so, when, clad in her new garments, which added so much +to her good looks, she drove with Mrs. Banker, or returned Sybil +Grandon's call, feeling that there was about her nothing for which Katy +need to blush, or even Wilford, who blandly invited her one pleasant day +to drive with him to the Park, seeming so disappointed when told that he +had been forestalled by Mr. Ray, whose fine turnout attracted less +attention that afternoon than did the handsome lady at his side, Helen +Lennox, who bade fair to rival even her Sister Katy tarrying at home, +and listening with delight to the flattering things which Wilford +reported as having been said of Helen by those for whose opinion he +cared the most. He was not afraid to be seen with her now, and Helen, +while knowing the reason of the change, did not feel like quarreling +with him for it, but accepted with a good-natured grace of what made her +life in New York very happy. With Bell Cameron she was on the best of +terms; while Sybil Grandon, always going with the tide, professed for +her an admiration, which, whether fancied or real, did much toward +making her popular; and when, as the mistress of her brother's house, +she issued cards of invitation for a large party, she took especial +pains to insist upon Helen's attending, even if Katy were not able. But +from this Helen shrank. She could not meet so many strangers alone, she +said, and so the matter was dropped, until Mrs. Banker offered to +chaperone her, when Helen began to waver, changing her mind at last +and promising to go. + +Never since the days of her first party had Katy been so wild with +excitement as she was in deciding upon Helen's dress, which well became +the wearer, who scarcely knew herself when, before the mirror, with the +blaze of the chandelier falling upon her, she saw the picture of a young +girl arrayed in rich pink silk, with an overskirt of lace, and the light +pretty cloak, just thrown upon her uncovered neck, where Katy's pearls +were shining. Even Wilford was pleased, and stood by admiring her almost +as much as Katy. + +"What would they say at home if they could only see you?" Katy +exclaimed, throwing back the handsome cloak so as to show more of the +well-shaped neck, gleaming so white beneath it. + +"Aunt Betsy would say I had forgotten half my dress," Helen replied, +blushing as she glanced at the uncovered arms, which never since her +childhood had been thus exposed to view, except at such times as her +household duties had required it. + +Even this exception would not apply to the low neck, at which Helen long +demurred, yielding finally to Katy's entreaties, but often wondering +what Mark Ray would think, and if he would not be shocked. Mark Ray had +been strangely blended with all Helen's thoughts as she submitted +herself to Esther's practiced hands, and when the hairdresser, summoned +to her aid, asked what flowers she would wear, it was a thought of him +which led her to select a single water lily, which looked as natural as +if its bed had really been the bosom of Fairy Pond. + +"Nothing else? Surely mademoiselle will have these few green leaves?" +Celine had said, but Helen would have nothing save the lily, which was +twined tastefully amid the heavy braids of the brown hair, whose length +and luxuriance had thrown the hairdresser into ecstasies of delight, +and made Esther lament that in these days of false tresses no one would +give Miss Lennox credit for what was wholly her own. + +"You will be the belle of the evening," Katy said, as she kissed her +sister good-night and then ran back to her baby, while Wilford, yielding +to her importunities that he should not remain with her, followed Mrs. +Banker's carriage in his own private conveyance, and was soon set down +at Sybil Grandon's door. + +Meanwhile, at the elder Cameron's there had been a discussion touching +the propriety of their taking Helen under their protection, instead of +leaving her to Mrs. Banker to chaperone, Bell insisting that it ought to +be done, while the father swore roundly at the imperious Juno, who would +not "be bothered with that country girl." + +"You would rather leave her wholly to Mark Ray and his mother, I +suppose," Bell said, adding, as she saw the flush on Juno's face. "You +know you are dying of jealousy, and nothing annoys you so much as to +hear people talk of Mark's attentions to Miss Lennox." + +"Do they talk?" Mrs. Cameron asked quickly, while in her gray eyes there +gleamed a light far more dangerous and threatening to Helen than Juno's +open scorn. + +Mrs. Cameron had long intended Mark Ray for her daughter, and accustomed +to see everything bend to her wishes, she had come to consider the +matter as almost certain, even though he had never proposed in words. He +had done everything else, she thought, attending Juno constantly and +frequenting their house so much that it was a standing joke for his +friends to seek him there when he was not at home or at his office. +Latterly, however, there had been a change, and the ambitious mother +could not deny that since Helen's arrival in New York Mark had visited +them less frequently and stayed a shorter time, while she had more than +once heard of him at her son's in company with Helen. Very rapidly a +train of thought passed through her mind; but it did not manifest itself +upon her face, which was composed and quiet as she decided with Juno +that Helen should not trouble them. With the utmost care Juno arrayed +herself for the party, thinking with a great deal of complacency how +impossible it was for Helen Lennox to compete with her in point of +dress. + +"She is such a prude, I daresay she will go in that blue silk with the +long sleeves and high neck, looking like a Dutch doll," she said to +Bell, as she shook back the folds of her rich crimson, and turned her +head to see the effect of her wide braids of hair. + +"I am not certain that a high dress is worse than bones," Bell retorted, +playfully touching Juno's neck, which, though white and gracefully +formed, was shockingly guiltless of flesh. + +There was an angry reply, and then wrapping her cloak about her Juno +followed to their carriage, and was ere long one of the gay crowd +thronging Sybil Grandon's parlors. Helen had not yet arrived, and Juno +was hoping she would not come, when there was a stir at the door and +Mrs. Banker, in her velvet and diamonds, appeared, and with her Helen +Lennox, but so transformed that Juno hardly knew her, looking twice ere +she was sure that the beautiful young lady, so wholly self-possessed, +was indeed the country girl she affected to despise. + +"Who is she?" was asked by many, who at once acknowledged her claims to +their attention, and as soon as practicable sought her acquaintance, so +that Helen suddenly found herself the center of a little court of which +she was the queen and Mark her sworn knight. + +Presuming upon his mother's chaperonage, he claimed the right of +attending her, and Juno's glory waned quite as effectually as it had +done when Katy was the leading star to which New York paid homage. + +Juno had been annoyed then, but now fierce jealousy took possession +of her heart as she watched the girl whom all seemed to admire, even +Wilford feeling a thrill of pride that the possession of so attractive +a sister-in-law reflected credit upon himself. + +He was not ashamed of her now, nor did he retain a single thought of the +farmhouse or Uncle Ephraim as he made his way to her side, standing +protectingly at her left, just as Mark was standing at her right, and +at last asking her to dance. + +With a heightened color Helen declined, saying frankly: + +"I have never learned." + +"You miss a great deal," Wilford rejoined, appealing to Mark for a +confirmation of his words. + +But Mark did not heartily respond. He, too, had solicited Helen as a +partner when the dancing first commenced, and her quiet refusal had +disappointed him a little, for Mark was fond of dancing, and though +as a general thing he disapproved of waltzes and polkas when he was the +looker-on, he felt that there would be something vastly agreeable and +exhilarating in clasping Helen in his arm and whirling her about the +room just as Juno was being whirled by a young cadet, a friend of +Lieutenant Bob's. But when he reflected that not his arm alone would +encircle her waist, or his breath touch her snowy neck, he was glad she +did not dance, and professing a weariness he did not feel, he declined +to join the dancers on the floor, but kept with Helen, enjoying what she +enjoyed, and putting her so perfectly at her ease that no one would ever +have dreamed of the curdy cheeses she had made, or the pounds of butter +she had churned. But Mark thought of it as he secretly admired the neck +and arms seen once before on that memorable day when he assisted Helen +in the labors of the dairy. If nothing else had done so, the lily in +her hair would have brought that morning to his mind, and once as they +walked up and down the hall he spoke of the ornament she had chosen, and +how well it became her. + +"Pond lilies are my pets," she said, "and I have kept one of those I +gathered last fall when at Silverton. Do you remember them?" and his +eyes rested upon Helen with a look that made her blush as she faintly +answered "yes"; but she did not tell him of a little box at home, a box +made of cones and acorns, and where was hidden a withered water lily, +which she could not throw away, even after its beauty and fragrance had +departed. + +Had she told him this it might have put to flight the doubts troubling +Mark so much, and making him wonder if Dr. Grant had really a claim upon +the girl stealing his heart so fast. + +"I mean to sound her," he thought, and as just then Lieutenant Bob +passed by, making some jocose remark about his offending all the fair +ones by the course he was taking, Mark said to Helen, who suggested +returning to the parlor: + +"As you like, though it cannot matter; a person known to be engaged is +above Bob Reynolds' jokes." + +Quick as thought the hot blood stained Helen's face and neck, for Mark +had made a most egregious blunder, giving her only the impression that +he was the engaged one referred to, not herself, and for a moment she +forgot the gay scene around her in the sharpness of the pang with which +she recognized all that Mark Ray was to her. + +"It was kind in him to warn me. I wish it had been sooner," she thought, +and then with a bitter feeling of shame she wondered how much he had +guessed of her real feelings, and who the betrothed one was. "Not Juno +Cameron," she hoped, as after a few moments Mrs. Cameron came up, and +adroitly detaching Mark from her side, took his place while he sauntered +to a group of ladies and was ere long dancing merrily with Juno, whose +crimson robe once brushed against Helen's pink, and whose black eyes +looked exultingly into Helen's face. + +"They are a well-matched pair," Mrs. Cameron said, assuming a very +confidential manner toward Helen, who assented to the remark, while the +lady continued: "There is but one thing wrong about Mark Ray. He is a +most unscrupulous flirt, pleased with every new face, and this of course +annoys Juno." + +"Are they engaged?" came faintly and involuntarily from Helen's lips, +while Mrs. Cameron's foot beat the carpet with a very becoming +hesitancy, as she replied: "Oh, that was settled in our family a long +time ago. Wilford and Mark have always been like brothers." + +If Helen had been on the watch for equivocations she would not have +placed as much stress as she did on Mrs. Cameron's words, for that lady +did not say positively "They are engaged." She could not quite bring +herself to a deliberate falsehood, which, if detected, would reflect +upon her character as a lady, but she could mislead Helen, and she did +so effectually, as was evinced by the red spot which burned on her +cheeks, and by her uncertain way of replying to a gentleman who stood by +her for a moment, addressing to her some casual remark and departing +with the impression that Miss Lennox was very timid and shy. After he +was gone, Mrs. Cameron continued, "It is not like us to bruit our +affairs abroad, and were my daughter ten times engaged, the world would +be none the wiser. I doubt if even Katy suspects what I have admitted; +but knowing how fascinating Mark can be, and that just at present he +seems to be pleased with you, I have acted as I should wish a friend to +act toward my own child. Were it not that you are one of our family, I +might not have interfered, and I trust you not to repeat even to Katy +what I have said." + +Helen nodded assent, while in her heart was a wild tumult of +feelings--flattered pride, disappointment, indignation and mortification +all struggling for the mastery---mortification to feel that she who had +quietly ignored such a passion as love when connected with herself, had, +nevertheless, been pleased with the attentions of one who was only +amusing himself with her, as a child amuses itself with some new toy +soon to be thrown aside--indignation at him for vexing Juno at her +expense--disappointment that he should care for such as Juno, and +flattered pride that Mrs. Cameron should include her in "our family." +Helen had as few weak points as most young ladies, but she was not free +from them all, and the fact that Mrs. Cameron had taken her into a +confidence which even Katy did not share, was soothing to her ruffled +spirits, particularly as after that confidence Mrs. Cameron was +excessively gracious to her, introducing her to many whom she did not +know before, and paying her numberless little attentions, which made +Juno stare, while the clearer-seeing Bell arched her eyebrows, and +wondered for what Helen was to be made a catspaw by her clever mother. +Whatever it was, it did not appear, save as it showed itself in Helen's +slightly changed demeanor when Mark again sought her society, and tried +to bring back to her face the look he had left there. But something +evidently had come between them, and the young man racked his brain to +find the cause of this sudden indifference in one who had been pleased +with him only a short half hour before. + +"It's that confounded waltzing which disgusted her," he said, "and no +wonder, for if ever a man looks like an idiot, it is when he is kicking +up his heels to the sound of a viol, and wheeling around some woman +whose skirts sweep everything within the circle of a rod, and whose face +wears that die-away expression I have so often noticed. I've half a mind +to swear I'll never dance again." + +But Mark was too fond of dancing to quit it at once, and finding Helen +still indifferent, he yielded to circumstances, and the last she saw of +him, as at a comparatively early hour she left the gay scene, he was +dancing again with Juno, whose face beamed with a triumphant look, as if +she in some way guessed the aching heart her rival carried home. It was +a heavy blow to Helen, for she had become greatly interested in Mark +Ray, whose attentions had made her stay in New York so pleasant. But +these were over now--at least the excitement they brought was over, and +Helen, as she sat in her dressing-room at home, and thought of the +future as well as the past, felt stealing over her a sense of desolation +and loneliness such as she had experienced but once before, and that on +the night when leaning from her window at the farmhouse where Mark Ray +was stopping she had shuddered and shrank from living all her days among +the rugged hills of Silverton. New York had opened an entirely new world +to her, showing her much that was vain and frivolous, with much too, +that was desirable and good; and if there had crept into her heart the +vague thought that a life with such people as Mrs. Banker and those who +frequented her house would be preferable to a life in Silverton, where +only Morris understood her, it was but the natural result of daily +intercourse with one who had studied to please and interest as Mark Ray +had done. But Helen had too much good sense and strength of will long to +indulge in what she would have called "love-sick regrets" in others, and +she began to devise the best course for her to adopt hereafter, +concluding finally to treat him much as she had done, lest he should +suspect how deeply she had been wounded. Now that she knew of his +engagement, it would be an easy matter, she thought, so to demean +herself as neither to annoy Juno nor really to vex him. Thoroughly now +she understood why Juno Cameron had seemed to dislike her so much. + +"It is natural," she said, "and yet I honestly believe I like her better +for knowing what I do. There must be some good beneath that proud +exterior, or Mark would never seek her." + +Still, look at it from any point she chose, it seemed a strange, +unsuitable match, and Helen's heart ached sadly as she finally retired +to rest, thinking what might have been had Juno Cameron found some other +lover more like her than Mark could ever be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +GENEVRA. + + +Far more elated with her sister's success than Helen herself, Katy could +talk of little else next morning, telling Helen how many complimentary +things Wilford had said of her, and how much he had heard others say, +while Mark Ray had seemed perfectly fascinated. + +"I never thought till last night how nice it would be for you to marry +Mark and settle in New York," Katy said, never dreaming how she was +wounding Helen, who, but for Mrs. Cameron's charge, would have +proclaimed Mark's engagement with Juno. + +As it was, she felt the words struggling against her lips; but she +forced them back, and tried to laugh at Katy's castles in the air, as +she called them. + +"You looked beautiful, Wilford said," Katy continued, "and I am so glad, +only," and Katy's voice fell, while her eyes rested upon the crib where +the baby was sleeping, "only I think Wilford is more anxious than ever +for me to go again into society. He will not hear of my staying home for +the entire season, as I wish to do, for baby is better to me than all +the parties in the world. I am so tired of it all, and have been ever +since I was at Newport. I was so vain and silly there, and I have been +so sorry since. But that summer cured me entirely, and you don't know +how I loathe the very thought of entering society again. For your sake I +should be willing to go sometimes, if there were no one else. But Mrs. +Banker has kindly offered to take you under her charge, and so there is +no necessity for me to matronize you." + +Helen laughed merrily at the idea of being matronized by the little +girlish creature not yet twenty years of age, kissing fondly the white, +thin cheek so much whiter and thinner than it used to be. + +"You are confining yourself too much," she said. "You are losing all +your color. Fresh air will do you good, even if parties will not. +Suppose we drive this afternoon to Marian Hazelton's and show her the +baby." + +Nothing could please Katy better. Several times since baby's birth she +sent a message to Fourth Street, begging of Marian to come and see her +treasure, and once, urged by her entreaties, Wilford himself had written +a brief note asking that Miss Hazleton would call if perfectly +convenient. But there had always been some excuse, some plea of work, +some putting off the coming, until Katy feared that something might he +wrong, and entered heartily into Helen's propositions. It was a pleasant +winter's day, and toward the middle of the afternoon the Cameron +carriage stopped before the humble dwelling where Marian Hazleton was +living. + +"You needn't go up," Katy said to the nurse, feeling that she would +rather meet Marian without the presence of a stranger. "Miss Lennox will +carry baby and you can wait here. It is not cold," she added, as the +nurse showed signs of remonstrance, "and if it is, John can drive you +around a square or two." + +After this there was no further demur, and Katy soon stood with Helen at +the door of Marian's room. She was at home, uttering an exclamation of +astonishment when she saw who her visitors were, and turning white as +ashes, when Katy, taking her baby from Helen's arms, placed it in her +lap, saying, + +"You would not come to see it and so I brought it to you. Isn't she a +beauty?" + +There was a blur before Marian's eyes, a pressure about her heart which +seemed congealing into stone, but she tried to stammer out something, +bending over the tiny thing. Wilford Cameron's child, which she could +not see for the thick blackness around her. Tears and bitter pangs of +grief had the news of that child's birth wrung from Marian, bringing +back all the dreadful past, and making her hear again as if it were but +yesterday, the cold, decisive words: + +"If there were a child it would of course be different." + +There was a child now, and it lay in Marian's lap, clad in the garments +she had made, the cambric and the lace, the flannel and the merino, +which nevertheless could not take from it that look of sickly infancy, +or make it beautiful to others beside the mother. But it was Wilford's +child, and so when for a moment both Helen and Katy turned to examine a +rosebush just in bloom, Marian Hazleton hugged the little creature to +her bosom, whispering over it a blessing which, coming from one so +wronged, was doubly valuable. There was a tear, one of Marian's, on its +face, when Katy came back to it, and there were more in Marian's eyes, +falling like rain, as Katy asked, "What makes you cry?" + +"I was thinking of what might have been," came struggling from Marian's +pale lips, and Helen felt a throb of pain as she remembered Dr. Grant, +and then thought of herself in connection with this sad "Might have +been." + +Marian, too, knew the full meaning of those words, as was attested by +the gush of tears which dropped so fast on baby's face that Katy, +alarmed for the safety of the crimson cloak wrapped around it for +effect, took the child in her own arms, commencing that cooing +conversation which shows how much young mothers love their first born. +Marian's tears ceased at last, and after questioning Helen of Silverton +and its people, she turned abruptly to Katy, still rocking and talking +to her child, and asked: + +"What do you intend to call her?" + +"Genevra," Katy said, and simultaneously with that word Marian Hazleton +dropped without sound or motion to the floor. + +Had Helen and Katy been put upon their oath, both would have testified +that even before the answer came, Marian had fainted, just as she did +when Helen first went to secure her services for Katy's bridal wardrobe. +This time, however, there was no Dr. Grant at hand, and so the +frightened ladies did what they could, bathing her face and chafing +her cold hands until the life came slowly back, and with a frightened +expression Marian looked around her, asking what had happened? + +"Yes, I know now," she said, as baby's cry fell on her ear, but +restoring her wholly to herself. "Fainting is one of my weaknesses," +she continued, turning to Helen. "You have seen me so before. It is my +heart," and with this explanation she satisfied her visitors, though +Katy expressed much solicitude and proposed to send her medical aid. + +But Marian declined, and when it was time for Katy to go, she took the +child in her own arms again, and as if there was now a new link which +bound her to it, she kissed it many times, while in the eyes fastened so +lovingly, so wistfully upon its face, there was a strange, yearning look +which neither Helen nor Katy could fathom. Certain it is they had no +suspicion of the truth, and on their way home they spoke with much +concern of these fainting attacks, wondering if nothing could be done +to ward them off. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE NAME. + + +Wilford had wished for a son, and in the first moment of disappointment +he had almost been conscious of a half-resentful feeling toward Katy, +who had given him only a daughter. A boy, a Cameron heir, was something +of which to be proud, especially as Jamie would always remain a helpless +cripple; but a little girl, scarcely larger than the last doll with +which Katy had played, was a different thing, and it required all +Wilford's philosophy and common sense to keep him from showing his +chagrin to the girlish creature, whose love had fastened with an +idolatrous grasp upon her child, clinging to it with a devotion which +made Helen tremble as she thought what if God should take it from her. + +"He won't, oh, He won't," Katy had said, when once she suggested the +possibility, and in the eyes usually so soft and gentle there was a +fierce gleam, as Katy hugged her baby closer to her, and said: + +"God does not willfully torment us. He will not take my baby, when my +whole life would die with it. I had almost forgotten to pray, there was +so much else to do, till baby came, but now I never go to sleep at night +or waken in the morning, that there does not come a prayer of thanks +for baby given to me. I could hardly love God if He took her away." + +There was a chill feeling at Helen's heart as she listened to her sister +and then glanced at the baby so passionately loved. In time it would be +pretty, for it had Katy's perfect features, and the hair just beginning +to grow was a soft, golden brown; but it was too small now, too puny to +be handsome, while in its eyes there was a scared, hunted kind of look, +which chafed Wilford more than aught else could have done, for that was +the look which had crept into Katy's eyes at Newport when she found she +was not going home. Still it was a Cameron, of royal lineage, loved at +least by four, its mother, its grandfather, Helen and Jamie, while the +others looked forward to a time when they should be proud of it, even if +they were not so now. + +Many discussions had been held at the elder Cameron's concerning its +name, Mrs. Cameron deciding finally that it should bear her own, +Margaret Augusta, while Juno advocated that of Rose Marie, inasmuch as +their new clergyman would Frenchify the pronunciation so perfectly, +rolling the "_r_," and placing so much accent on the last syllable. At +this the Father Cameron swore as cussed nonsense--"better call it +Jemima, a grand sight, than saddle it with such a silly name as Rose +Mah-ree, with a roll to the 'r,'" and with another oath the disgusted +old man departed, while Bell suggested that Katy might wish to have a +voice in naming her own child. + +This was a possibility that had formed no part of Mrs. Cameron's +thoughts, or Juno's. Of course Katy would acquiesce in whatever Wilford +said was best, and he always thought as they did. Consequently there +would be no trouble whatever. It was time the child had a name--time it +wore the elegant christening robe, Mrs. Cameron's gift, which cost more +money than would have fed a hungry family for weeks. The matter must be +decided, and so with a view of deciding it a family dinner party was +held at No. ---- Fifth Avenue, the day succeeding the call on Marian +Hazleton. + +Very pure and beautiful Katy looked as she once more took her old place +in the chair they called hers at Father Cameron's, because it was the +one she had always preferred to any other--a large, motherly +easy-chair, which took in nearly the whole of her petite figure, and +against whose soft cushioned back she leaned her curly head with a +pretty air of importance, as after dinner was over, she came back to the +parlor with the other ladies, waiting for the gentlemen to join them, +when they were to talk up baby's name. + +Katy knew exactly what it would be called, but as Wilford had never +asked her, she was keeping it a secret, not doubting that the others +would be quite as much delighted as herself with the novel name, +"Genevra." Not long before her illness she had read an English story, +which had in it a Genevra, and she had at once seized upon it as the +most delightful cognomen a person could well possess. "Genevra Cameron!" +She had repeated it to herself many a time as she sat with her baby on +her lap. She had written it on sundry slips of paper, which had +afterward found their way into the grate; and once she had scratched +with her diamond ring upon the window pane in her dressing-room, where +it now stood in legible characters, "Genevra Cameron!" There should be +no middle name to take from the sweetness of the first--only +Genevra--that was sufficient; and the little lady tapped her foot +impatiently upon the carpet, wishing Wilford and father would hurry and +come in. + +Never for an instant had it entered her mind that she, as the mother, +would not be permitted to call her baby what she chose; so when she +heard Mrs. Cameron speaking to Helen of Margaret Augusta, she smiled +complacently, tossing her curls of golden brown, and thinking to +herself, "Maggie Cameron--pretty enough, but not like Genevra. Indeed +I shall not have any Margarets now; next time perhaps I may." + +Since the party at Mrs. Grandon's, Mrs. Cameron had been very kind and +gracious to Helen, while Juno, who understood that Helen believed her +engaged to Mark, treated her with far more attention than before, and +now both kept near to her, chatting familiarly, Mrs. Cameron about the +opera, and Juno the matinee, to which they were to take her, without +waiting for Katy. Helen's success at the party, together with Mrs. +Banker's and Sybil's evident determination to bring her forward, had +taught them that she could not well be longer ignored, and as Juno did +not greatly dread her as a rival now, she could afford to be gracious; +and she was, making herself so agreeable that Helen observed the change, +imputing it to the fact that Mark had probably returned to his +allegiance, and blaming herself for having unwittingly wounded Juno by +receiving his attentions. The belief that she was adding to another's +happiness made it easier to bear the pang, which would make itself felt +whenever she recalled the kindly manner, the handsome face, and more +than all the expressive eyes, which had looked whole volumes into hers; +and Helen quite enjoyed her first dinner party at the Camerons, though +she began to wish, with Katy, that the gentlemen would join them. + +They came at last, and Father Cameron drew his chair close to Katy's +side, laying his hand on her little soft, warm one, giving it a squeeze +as the bright face glanced lovingly into his. Father Cameron was a +milder, gentler man than he was before Katy came, going much oftener +into society, and not so frequently shocking his wife with expressions +and opinions which she held as heterodox. Katy had a softening influence +over him, and he loved her as well perhaps as he had ever loved his own +children. + +"Better," Juno said, and now she touched Bell's arm, to have her see +"how father was petting Katy." + +But Bell did not care, while Wilford was pleased, and drew himself +nearer the chair, standing just behind it, so that Katy could not see +him as he smoothed her curly head, and said, half indifferently, "Now +for the all-important name. What shall we call our daughter?" + +"Let your mother speak first," Katy said, and thus appealed to Mrs. +Cameron came up to Wilford and expressed her preference for Margaret, as +being a good name--an aristocratic name, and her own. + +"Yes, but not half so pretty and striking as Rose Marie," Juno chimed +in. + +"Rose Mary! Thunder!" Father Cameron exclaimed. "Call her a marygold, or +a sunflower, just as much. Don't go to being fools by giving a child a +heathenish name. Give us your opinion, Katy." + +"I have known from the first," Katy replied, "and I am sure you will +agree with me. Tis such a beautiful name of a sweet young girl, and +there was a great secret about her, too--Genevra, baby will be called," +and Katy looked straight into the fire, wholly unconscious of the effect +that name had produced upon two of her auditors, Wilford and his mother. + +They did not faint, like Marian, but Wilford's face was white as marble, +and his eyes turned quickly to his mother, who, in her first shock, +started so violently as to throw down from the stand a costly vase, +which was broken in many pieces. This occasioned a little diversion, and +by the time the flowers and fragments were gathered up, Wilford's lips +were not quite as livid, but he dared not trust his voice yet, and +listened while his sisters gave their opinion of the name. Bell deciding +for it at once, and Juno hesitating until she had heard from a higher +power than Katy. One there was in that family council who seized upon it +eagerly. Jamie had been brought into the parlor in his wheel-chair, and +sat leaning his cheek upon his hand when the name was spoken. Then, with +a sudden lighting up of his face, he exclaimed, "Genevra! I've heard it +before. Where was it, grandma? Didn't you talk of it once with--" + +"Hush-h, Jamie. Don't interrupt us now," Wilford said, in a voice so +much sterner than he was wont to use when addressing the little boy, +that Jamie shrank back abashed and frightened; while Mrs. Cameron, still +with her back to Katy, asked, what had put that fanciful name into her +mind? Where had she heard it? + +Katy explained, and, with the removal of the fear which for a few +moments had chilled his blood, Wilford grew calm again; while into his +heart there crept the thought that by giving that name to his child some +slight atonement might be made to the occupant of that grave in St. +Mary's churchyard--to her above whose head the English daisies had +blossomed and faded many a year. But not so with his mother--the child +should not be called Genevra if she could prevent it; and she opposed it +with all her powers, offering at last, as a great concession on her +part, to let it bear the name of any of Katy's family--Hannah and Betsy +mentally excepted, of course--Lucy Lennox, Helen Lennox, Katy Lennox, +anything but Genevra. As usual, Wilford when he had learned her mind, +joined with her, notwithstanding the secret preference, and the +discussion became quite warm, especially as Katy evinced a willfulness +for which Helen had never given her credit. Hitherto she had been as +yielding as wax, but on this point she was firm, gathering strength from +the fact that Wilford did not oppose her as he usually did. She could +not, perhaps, have resisted him, but his manner was not very decided, +and so she quietly persisted. "Genevra, or nothing," until the others +gave up the contest, hoping she would feel differently after a few days' +reflection. But Katy knew she shouldn't; and Helen could not overcome +the exultation with which she saw her little sister put the Camerons to +rout and remain master of the field. + +"After all it does not matter," Mrs. Cameron said to her daughters, +when, after Mrs. Wilford had gone, she sat talking of Katy's queer fancy +and her obstinacy in adhering to it. "It does not matter; and on the +whole I had as soon the christening would be postponed until the child +is more presentable than now. It will be prettier by and by, and the +dress will become it better. We can afford to wait." + +This heartless view of the case was readily adopted by Juno, while Bell +professed to be terribly shocked at hearing them talk thus of a baptism, +as if it were a mere show and nothing more, wondering if the Savior +thought either of dress or personal appearance when the Hebrew mothers +brought their children to Him. But little did Mrs. Cameron or Juno care +for the baptism except as a display, and as both would be much prouder +of a fine looking child, they were well content to wait until such time +as Katy should incline more favorably to their Margaret or Rose Marie. +To Helen it seemed highly probable that after a private interview with +Wilford Katy would change her mind, and she felt a wickedly agreeable +degree of disappointment when, on the day following the dinner party, +she found her sister even more resolved than ever upon having her own +way. Like the Camerons, she did not feel the necessity of haste--time +enough by and by, when she would not have so much opposition to +encounter, she said; and as Wilford did not care, it was finally +arranged that they would wait a while, ere they gave a cognomen to +the little nameless child, only known as Baby Cameron. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +TROUBLE IN THE HOUSEHOLD. + + +As soon as it was understood that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was able to go +out, there were scores of pressing invitations from the gay world which +had missed her so much, but Katy declined them all on the plea that baby +needed her care. She was happier at home, and as a mother it was her +place to stay there. At first Wilford listened quietly, but when he +found it was her fixed determination to abjure society entirely, he +interfered in his cool, decisive way, which always carried its point. + +"It was foolish to take that stand," he said. "Other mothers went and +why should not she? She had already stayed in too much. She was injuring +herself, and"--what was infinitely worse to Wilford--"she was losing her +good looks." + +As proof of this he led her to the glass, showing her the pale, thin +face and unnaturally large eyes, so distasteful to him. Wilford Cameron +was very proud of his handsome house, proud to know that everything +there was in keeping with his position and wealth, but when Katy was +immured in the nursery, the bright picture was obscured, for it needed +her presence to make it perfect, and he began to grow dissatisfied with +his surroundings, while abroad he missed her quite as much, finding the +opera, the party or the reception insipid where she was not, and feeling +fully conscious that Wilford Cameron, without a wife, and that wife +Katy, was not a man of half the consequence he had thought himself to +be. Even Sybil Grandon did not think it worth her while to court his +attention, especially if Katy were not present, for unless some one saw +and felt her triumph it ceased directly to be one. On the whole Wilford +was not well pleased with society, as he found it this winter, and +knowing where the trouble lay he resolved that Katy should no longer +remain at home, growing pale and faded and losing her good looks. +Wilford would not have confessed it, and perhaps was not himself aware +of the fact, that Katy's beauty was quite as dear to him as Katy +herself. If she lost it her value was decreased accordingly, and so as +a prudent husband it behooved him to see that what was so very precious +was not unnecessarily thrown away. It did not take long for Katy to +understand that her days of quiet were at an end, that neither crib nor +cradle could avail her longer. Mrs. Kirby, selected from a host of +applicants, was wholly competent for Baby Cameron, and Katy must throw +aside the mother which sat so prettily upon her and become again the +belle. It was a sad trial, but Katy knew that submission was the only +alternative, and so when Mrs. Banker's invitation came, she accepted it +at once, but there was a sad look upon her face as she kissed her baby +for the twentieth time ere going to her dressing-maid. + +Never until this night had Helen realized how beautiful Katy was when in +full evening dress, and her exclamations of delight brought a soft flush +to Katy's cheek, while she felt a thrill of the olden vanity as she saw +herself once more arrayed in all her costly apparel. Helen did not +wonder now at Wilford's desire to have Katy with him, and very proudly +she watched her young sister as Esther twined the flowers in her hair +and then brought out the ermine cloak she was to wear as a protection +against the cold. + +"If they could only see you at home," she said, while instantly there +arose a thought of Dr. Grant, and Helen felt a throb of keen regret as +she contrasted the gay, airy figure with the grave, quiet Morris, who +found his chief delights in works of charity, and whose feet lingered +amid the haunts of poverty and suffering, rather than such scenes as +that to which she was going. + +But Katy's path lay far from Dr. Grant's, and only Wilford Cameron had +A right to say whither she should go or when return. He was standing by +her now, making a few suggestions and expressing his approbation in a +way which reminded Helen of that night before the marriage, when Katy's +dress had been condemned, and of that sadder, bitterer time when she +had poured her tears like rain into that trunk returned. All she had +thought of Wilford then was now more than confirmed, but he was kind to +her and very proud of Katy, so she forced back her feelings of disquiet, +which, however, were roused again when she saw the dark look on his +face, as Katy, at the very last, ran to the nursery to kiss baby again, +succeeding this time in waking it, as was proven by the cry that made +Wilford scowl angrily and brought to his lips a word of rebuke for +Katy's childishness. + +"You are like a girl with her first doll," he said, as he opened the +door for her to pass, and Helen, though she felt the truth of the +remark, knew there was no necessity for him to throw so much of lordly +displeasure into his manner, and make poor Katy look so distressed and +worried as they drove rapidly along the streets to Mrs. Banker's. + +The party was not so large as that at Sybil Grandon's, but it was more +select, and Helen enjoyed it better, meeting people like Morris, who +readily appreciated the peculiarities of her mind, and who would have +made her forget all else around her if she had not been a guest at Mark +Ray's house. It was the first time she had met him away from home since +the night of Mrs. Grandon's, and as if forgetful of her reserve, he paid +her numberless attentions, which, coming from the master of the house, +were the more to be valued. + +With a quiet dignity Helen received them all, the thought once creeping +into her heart that she was preferred, notwithstanding that engagement. +But she soon repudiated this idea as unworthy of her. She could not be +wholly happy with one who, to win her hand, had trampled upon the +affections of another, even if that other were Juno Cameron. + +And so she kept out of his way as much as possible, watching her sister +admiringly as she moved about with an easy, assured grace, or floated +like a snow flake through the dance in which Wilford persuaded her to +join, looking after her with a proud, all-absorbing feeling, which left +no room for Sybil Grandon's coquettish advances. + +As if the reappearance of Katy had awakened all that was weak and silly +in Sybil's nature, she now put forth her full powers of attraction, but +met only with defeat. Katy, and even Helen, was preferred before +her--both belles of a different type; but both winning golden laurels +from those who hardly knew which to admire most--Katy, with her pure, +delicate beauty and charming simplicity, or Helen, with her attractive +face and sober, quiet manner. But Katy grew tired early. She could not +endure what she once did; and when she came to Wilford with a weary look +upon her face and asked him to go home, he did not refuse, though Mark, +who was near, protested against their leaving so soon. + +"Surely Miss Lennox might remain; the carriage could be sent back for +her; and he had hardly seen her at all." + +But Miss Lennox chose to go; and after her white cloak and hood passed +down the stairs and through the door into the street, there was nothing +attractive for Mark in his crowded parlors, and he was glad when the +last guest had departed and he was left alone with his mother. + +Operas, parties, receptions, dinners, matinees, morning calls, drives, +visits and shopping; how fast one crowded upon the other, leaving +scarcely an hour of leisure to the devotee of fashion who attended to +them all. How astonished Helen was to find what high life in New York +implied, ceasing to wonder that so many of the young girls grew haggard +and old before their time, or that the dowagers grew selfish and hard +and scheming. She would die outright, she thought, and she pitied poor +little Katy, who, having once returned to the world, seemed destined to +remain there, in spite of her entreaties and the excuses she made for +declining the invitations which poured in so fast. + +"Baby was not well--baby needed her," was the plea with which she met +Wilford's arguments, until the mention of his child was sure to bring a +scowl upon his face, and it became a question in Helen's mind whether he +would not be happier if baby had never come between him and his +ambition. + +To hear Katy's charms extolled, and know that she was admired, and he +was envied the possession of so rare a gem, feeling all the while sure +of her faith, was Wilford's great delight, and it is not strange that, +without any very strong fatherly feeling or principle of right in that +respect, he should be irritated by the little life so constantly +interfering with his pleasure and so surely undermining Katy's health. +For Katy did not improve, as Wilford hoped she might; and with his two +hands he could almost span her slender waist, while the beautiful neck +and shoulders, once his chiefest pride, were no longer worn uncovered, +for Katy would not display her bones, whatever the fashion might be. In +this dilemma Wilford sought his mother, and the result of that +consultation brought a more satisfied look to his face than it had worn +for many a day. + +"Strange he had never thought of it, when it was what so many people +did," he said to himself as he hurried home. "It was the very best thing +both for Katy and the child, and would obviate every difficulty." + +Next morning, as she sometimes did when more than usually fatigued, Katy +breakfasted in bed; while Wilford's face, as he sat opposite Helen at +the table, had on it a look of quiet determination, such as she had +rarely seen there before. In a measure accustomed to his moods, she felt +that something was wrong, and never dreaming that he intended honoring +her with his confidence, she was wishing he would finish the coffee and +leave, when, motioning the servant from the room, he said abruptly, and +in a tone which roused Helen's antagonistic powers at once, it was so +cool, so decided: "I believe you have more influence over your sister +than I have; at least, she has latterly shown a willfulness in +disregarding me and a willingness to listen to you, which confirms +me in this conclusion--" + +"Well," and Helen twisted her napkin ring nervously, waiting for him to +say more; but her manner, so different from Katy's, disconcerted him, +making him a little uncertain what might be hidden behind that rigid +face, confronting him so steadily, a little doubtful as to the +expression it would put on when he had said all he meant to say. + +He did not expect it to wear a look as frightened and hopeless as Katy's +did when he last saw it upon the pillow, for he knew how different the +two sisters were, and much as he had affected to despise Helen Lennox, +he was afraid of her now. It had never occurred to him before that he +was somewhat uncomfortable in her presence, that her searching brown +eyes held him often in check; but it came to him now that his wife's +sister was in his way, for what could he do with a will almost as firm +as his own, and she was sure to take Katy's part. He saw it in her face, +even though she had no idea of what he meant to say. + +"Well;" that was the last sound heard in the quiet room; but since its +utterance the relative positions of the two individuals sitting opposite +each other had changed. Wilford regarding Helen as an obstacle in his +path, and Helen regarding him as a tyrant contemplating some direful +harm against her sister. + +He must explain some time, and so at last he continued: "You must have +seen how opposed Katy is to complying with my wishes, setting them at +naught, when she knows how much pleasure she would give me by yielding +as she used to do." + +"I don't know what you mean," Helen replied, "unless it is her aversion +to going out, as that I think is the only point where her obedience has +not been absolute." + +Wilford did not like the words "obedience" and "absolute;" that is, he +did not like the sound. Their definition suited him, but Helen's +enunciation was at fault, and he answered quickly: "I do not require +absolute obedience from Katy. I never did; but in the matter to which +you refer, I think she might consult my wishes as well as her own. There +is no reason for her secluding herself in the nursery as she does. Do +you think there is?" + +He put the question direct, and Helen answered it. + +"I do not believe Katy means to displease you, but she has conceived a +strong aversion for festive scenes, and besides baby is not healthy, you +know, and like all young mothers she may be over-anxious, while I fancy +she has not the fullest confidence in the nurse, and this may account +for her unwillingness to leave the child with her." + +Kirby was all that was desirable, Wilford replied. His mother had taken +her from a genteel, respectable house in Bond Street, and he paid her an +enormous price, consequently she must be right; and then there came out +the story how his mother had decided that neither Katy nor baby would +improve so long as they remained together--that for both a separation +was desirable--that she had recommended sending the child into the +country, where it would be better cared for than it could be at home +with Katy constantly undoing all Mrs. Kirby had done, disregarding her +orders, waking it from sleep whenever the fancy took her, and in short +treating it much as she probably did her doll when she was a little +girl. With the child away there would be nothing to prevent Katy's going +out as she used to do, and getting back her good looks, which were +somewhat impaired. + +"Why, she looks older than you do," Wilford said, thinking thus to +conciliate Helen, who quietly replied: + +"There is not two years difference between us, and I have always been +well, keeping regular hours until I came here." + +Wilford's compliment had failed, and more annoyed than before, he asked, +not what Helen thought of the arrangement, but if she would influence +Katy to act and think rationally upon it; "at least you will not make it +worse," he said, and this time there was something quite deferential and +pleading in his manner. + +Helen knew the matter was fixed, that neither Katy's tears nor +entreaties would avail to revoke the decision, and so, though her whole +soul rose in indignation against a man who would deliberately send his +nursing baby from his roof because it was in his way, and was robbing +his bride's cheek of its girlish bloom, she answered composedly: + +"I will do what I can, but I must confess it seems to me an unnatural +thing. I had supposed parents less selfish than that." + +Wilford did not care what Helen had supposed, and her opposition only +made him more resolved. Still he did not say so, and he even tried to +smile as he quitted the table and remarked to her: + +"I hope to find Katy reconciled when I come home. I think I had better +not go up to her again, so tell her I send a good-by kiss by you. I +leave her case in your hands." + +It was a far more difficult case than either he or Helen imagined, and +the latter started back in alarm from the white face which greeted her +view as she entered Katy's room, and then with a moan hid itself in the +pillow. + +"Wilford thought he had better not come up, but he sent a kiss by me," +Helen said, softly touching the bright, disordered hair, all she could +see of her sister. + +"It does not matter," Katy gasped. "Kisses cannot help me if they take +my baby away. Did he tell you?" and she turned now partly toward Helen, +who nodded affirmatively while Katy continued: "Had he taken a knife and +cut a cruel gash it would not have hurt me half so badly. I could bear +that, but my baby--oh, Helen, do you think they will take her away?" + +She was looking straight at Helen, who shivered as she met an expression +so unlike Katy, and so like to that a hunted deer might wear if its +offspring were in danger. + +"Say, do you think they will?" she continued, shedding back with her +thin hand the mass of tangled curls which had fallen about her eyes. + +"Whom do you mean by 'they'?" Helen asked, coming near to her, and +sitting down upon the bed. + +There was a resentful gleam in the blue eyes usually so gentle, as Katy +answered: + +"Whom do I mean? His folks of course! They have been the instigators of +every sorrow I have known since I left Silverton. Oh, Helen, never, +never marry anybody who has folks, if you wish to be happy." + +Helen could not repress a smile, though she pitied her sister, who +continued: + +"I don't mean Father Cameron, nor Bell, nor Jamie, for I love them all, +and I believe that they love me. Father does, I know, and Jamie, while +Bell has helped me so often; but Mrs. Cameron and Juno--oh, Helen, you +will never know what they have been to me." + +"I notice you always say 'father' and 'Mrs. Cameron.' Why is that?" +Helen asked, hoping thus to divert Katy's mind from her present trouble, +and feeling a little anxious to hear Katy's real sentiments with regard +to her husband's family. + +Since Helen came to New York there has been so much to talk about +that, though Katy had told her of her fashionable life, she had said +comparatively little of the Camerons. Now, however, there was no holding +back on Katy's part, and beginning with the first night of her arrival +in New York she told what is already known to the reader, and more, +exonerating Wilford in word, but dealing out full justice to his mother +and Juno, the former of whom controlled him so completely. + +"I tried so hard to love her," Katy said, "and if she had given me ever +so little in return I would have been satisfied, but she never did--that +is, when I hungered for it most, missing you at home, and the loving +care which sheltered me in childhood. After the world took me into favor +she too began to caress me, but I was wicked enough to think it all came +of selfishness. I know I am hard and bad, for when I was sick Mrs. +Cameron was really very kind, and I began to like her; but if she takes +baby away, I shall surely die." + +Katy had come back to the starting point, and in her eye there was the +same fierce look which Helen had at first observed. + +"Where is baby to be sent?" Helen asked, and Katy answered: + +"Up the river, to a house which Father Cameron owns, and which is kept +by a farmer's family. I can't trust Kirby. I do not like her. She keeps +baby asleep too long, and acts so cross if I try to wake her, or hint +that she looks unnatural. I cannot give baby to her care, with no one to +look after her, though Wilford says I must." + +"Why then do you try to resist, when you know how useless it is?" Helen +asked, and something in her manner brought a sudden flush of shame to +Katy's cheek, as she said: + +"What do you mean? Of what are you thinking?" + +Helen did not stop to consider the propriety of her remarks, but +replied: + +"I was thinking that you reminded me of a bird beatings wings against +the bars of its cage, vainly hoping to escape into the freedom which it +feels is outside its prison house, but falling back bruised and bleeding +with its efforts, and no nearer escape." + +For a moment Katy regarded her sister intently, while she seemed trying +to digest the meaning of her words; then, as it vaguely flashed upon +her, tears gathered on her eyelashes and rolled down her cheeks, while +with a quivering lip she asked: + +"If you were that bird, what would you do?" + +"I? What would I do? I should beat my wings until I died; but your +nature is different. You are more yielding, more loving, more +submissive. You can bear it better." + +This was not the first time since she came to New York and saw how firm, +how unbending was the will which held Katy in its grasp, that Helen had +thought how surely she, with her high, imperious spirit, should die, +from the very resistance she should offer to that will. But as she had +truly expressed it, Katy's gentle, submissive nature saved her, for +never had she offered so violent opposition to any plan as she did now +to that of sending her child away. + +"I can't, I can't," she repeated constantly, and Mrs. Cameron's call, +made that afternoon with a view to reconcile the matter, only made it +worse, so that Wilford, on his return at night, felt a pang of +self-reproach as he saw the drooping figure holding his child upon its +lap and singing it a lullaby in a plaintive voice, which told how sore +was its heart. + +Wilford did not mean to be either a savage or a brute. On the contrary +he had made himself believe that he was acting only for the good of both +mother and child; but the sight of Katy touched him, and he might have +given up the contest had not Helen unfortunately taken up the cudgels in +Katy's defense, neglecting to conceal the weapons, and so defeating her +purpose. It was at the dinner from which Katy was absent that she +ventured to speak, not asking that the plan be given up, but speaking of +it as an unnatural one which seemed to her not only useless but cruel. + +Wilford did not tell her that her opinion was not desired, but his +manner implied as much, and Helen felt the angry blood prickling through +her veins as she listened to his reply, that it was neither unnatural +nor cruel, that many people did it, and his would not be an isolated +case. + +"Then if it must be," Helen said, "pray let it go to Silverton, and I +will be its nurse. Katy will not object to that." + +In a very ironical tone Wilford thanked her for her offer, which he +begged leave to decline, intimating a preference for settling his own +matters according to his own ideas. Helen knew that further argument was +useless, and but for Katy, wished herself at home, where there were no +wills like this with which she had unwittingly come in contact, and +which, ignoring Katy's tears and Katy's pleading face, would not retract +one iota, or even stoop to reason with the suffering mother, except to +reiterate, "It is only for your good, and every one with common sense +will say so." + +Next morning Helen was surprised at Katy's proposition to drive around +to Fourth Street, and call on Marian, whom they had not seen for several +days. + +"I am always better after talking with her," Katy said, "And I have a +strong presentiment that she can do me good." + +"Shall you tell her?" Helen asked in some surprise; and Katy replied, +"perhaps I may. I'll see." + +An hour later, and Katy, up in Marian's room, sat with her hands clasped +together upon the table, listening intently while Marian spoke of a +letter received a few days since from an old friend who had worked with +her at Madam ----'s, and to whom she had been strongly attached, keeping +up a correspondence with her after her marriage and removal to New +London, in Connecticut; and whose little child, born two months before +Katy's, was dead, and the mother, finding her home so desolate, had +written, beseeching Marian to come to her for the remainder of the +winter, adding in conclusion: "If you know of any little homeless baby, +bring it to me in place of mine, which God has taken. I shall thus be +doing good, and in part forget my sorrow." + +Instantly Helen and Katy glanced at each other, the same thought +flashing upon both, and finding form in Katy's vehement outburst, "If +Mrs. Hubbell would take baby, and Marian would go, too, I should be so +happy." + +In a few moments Marian had heard Katy's trouble--struggling hard to +fight back the giddy faintness she felt stealing over her, as she +thought of nursing Wilford Cameron's child. + +"Write to her, Marian--write to-day--now, before I go," Katy continued, +clasping Marian's hand, with an expression which, more than aught else +won Marian Hazelton's consent to a plan which seemed so strange. + +"Yes, I will write," she answered; "I will tell Amelia what you desire." + +"But, Marian, you, too, must go. I'll trust baby with you. Say, Marian, +will you take care of my darling?" + +It was hard to refuse, with those great, wistful, pleading eyes looking +so earnestly into hers; but Marian must have time to consider. She had +thought of going to New London to open a shop, and if she did she should +board with Mrs. Hubbell, and so be with the child. She would decide when +the answer came to the letter. + +This was all the encouragement she would give; but it was enough to +change the whole nature of Katy's feelings, and her face looked bright +and cheerful as she tripped down the stairway, talking to Helen of what +seemed to both like a direct interposition of Providence, and what she +was sure would please Wilford quite as well as the farmhouse up the +river. + +"Surely he will yield to me in this," she said. Nor was she wrong; for +glad of an opportunity to make some concessions, and still in the main +have his own way, Wilford raised no objection to the plan as +communicated to him by Katy, when, at an earlier hour than usual, he +came home to dinner, drawn thither by a remembrance of the face which +had haunted him the entire day, and bringing as a peace offering to both +wife and sister--a new book for the one, and for the other a set of +handsome coral, which he had heard her admire only the week before. + +These he presented with that graceful, winning manner he knew so well +how to assume, and with the harmony of his household once more restored, +felt himself a model husband as he listened to Katy's plan of sending +baby to New London. On the whole, it might be better even than the +farmhouse up the river, he thought, for it was farther away, and Katy +could not be tiring herself with driving out every few days, and keeping +herself constantly uneasy and excited. The distance between New York +and New London was the best feature of the whole; and he wondered Katy +had not thought of it as an objection. But she had not, and but for the +pain when she remembered the coming separation, she would have been very +happy that evening, listening with Wilford and Helen to the opera of +"Norma," and sympathizing so keenly with the poor distracted mother. + +Very differently from this was Marian's evening passed, and on her face +there was a look such as Katy's had never worn, as on her knees she +asked for guidance to choose the right, to lay all self aside, and if it +were her duty and care for the child which had stirred the pulsations of +her heart and made the old wound bleed and throb with bitter anguish as +she remembered what she once hoped would be, and what but for a cruel +wrong might still have been. And as she prayed there crept into her face +another look which told that self was sacrificed at last, and Katy +Cameron was safe with her. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Hubbell was willing--aye, more than that--was glad to take the +child, and the generous remuneration offered would make them so +comfortable in their little cottage, she wrote to Marian, who hastened +to confer by note with Katy, adding in a postscript, "Is it still your +wish that I should go? if so, I am at your disposal." + +It was Katy's wish, and she hastened to reply, going next to the nursery +to confer with Mrs. Kirby. Dark were the frowns and dire the displeasure +of that lady when told that her services would soon be no longer needed +on Madison Square--that instead of going up the river as she had hoped, +she was free to return to the "genteel and highly respectable home on +Bond Street," where Mrs. Cameron had found her. + +"Wait till the madam comes and then we'll see," she thought, referring +to Mrs. Cameron, and feeling delighted when that very day she heard that +lady's voice in the parlor. + +But Mrs. Cameron, though a little anxious with regard to both Mrs. +Hubbell's and Marian's antecedents, and a little doubtful as to the +effect a common dressmaker's nursing might have upon the child, saw at +once that Wilford was in favor of New London and so voted accordingly, +only asking that she might see and talk with Marian Hazelton herself. + +"One can judge so much better from hearing one converse. If her manner +should be very bad and her grammar execrable, I should consider it my +duty to withdraw my consent," she said, with as much deliberation as if +the matter were wholly at her disposal. "Would Katy drive around with +her to Marian Hazelton's to-morrow?" + +Katy would be delighted; and so next day Mrs. Cameron, the elder, was +holding high her aristocratic skirts and glancing ruefully around as she +followed Mrs. Cameron, the younger, up the three flights of stairs to +Marian's door, which did not open to the assured knock, nor yet yield to +the gentle pressure. Marian was out, and there was no alternative but +for Katy to scribble a few lines upon the card she left upon the knob, +telling Marian who had been there, and requesting her to call that +evening at No. ---- Fifth Avenue, as the elder Mrs. Cameron was +particularly anxious to see her before committing her grandchild to her +care. "Please go, Marian, for my sake," Katy added, but in reading to +Wilford's mother what she had written, she omitted that, and so escaped +a lecture from that lady upon undue familiarity with inferiors. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +HOW IT ENDED. + + +"Will Marian go to No. ---- Fifth Avenue?" Marian asked herself that +question many times, as with Katy's card in her hand she stood pondering +the subject and feeling glad of the good fortune which had sent her from +home when Wilford's mother called. + +Yes, Marian would; and at the hour between the daylight and the dark, +just as the lamps are lighted in the street, and before they are usually +lighted in the parlors there was a ring at the door, whose massive plate +bore the name of Cameron, and the colored man who answered that ring +stared at the figure he ushered in, seating it in the dim hall and +asking for the name. + +"Miss Hazelton wishes to see Mrs. Cameron," was the reply, and at the +sound of that musical, well-bred voice, the servant half opened the +parlor door, but closed it again as he went for his mistress, who +expressed her surprise that Marian Hazelton should presume to enter +where she did. + +"Maybe she is a lady, mother; Katy raves about her continually," Bell +said; but with an air of incredulity at the lady part, Mrs. Cameron +swept haughtily down the broad staircase, the rustle of her heavy silk +sending a chill of fear through Marian's frame, but not affecting her so +much as did the voice; the cold, proud, metallic voice, which said to +her as she half arose to her feet, "Miss Hazelton, I believe?" + +At that sound there crept over her the same sensation she had felt years +ago, whenever the tones of that voice fell on her ear, for this was not +the first meeting of Mrs. Cameron and Marian Hazelton. But for all the +former guessed or knew, it was the first, and she looked curiously at +the graceful figure, but dimly seen in the shadowy twilight, noticing +the thick green veil which so nearly concealed the face, and wondering +why it was worn, or being worn, why it was kept so nearly down. + +"Miss Hazelton, I believe?" was all that had passed between them as yet, +for at these words a great fear had come upon Marian lest her own voice +should seem as natural as did the one which had just spoken to her. + +But she could not stand there long without answering, and so she +ventured at last to say: + +"Yes, I found Mrs. Wilford Cameron's note, and came around as she +requested." + +There was nothing objectionable in that remark, while the voice was +very, very sweet and musical, so musical, indeed, so like a voice heard +before, that Mrs. Cameron involuntarily went a step nearer to the +stranger, and even thought of calling up a servant to light the gas. But +that would perhaps be too great a civility, or at least betoken too +great a curiosity, and so she forebore, while she began to question +Marian of her own and Mrs. Hubbell's antecedents. Both were English, +both had worked upon the Isle of Wight, and later in New York, at +Madam ----'s; one had married, living now in New London, and the other +Stood there as Marian Hazelton, puzzling and bewildering Mrs. Cameron, +who tried to recall the person of whom she was reminded by that voice and +that manner, so wholly ladylike and refined. + +Marian Hazelton pleased her, as was apparent from her expressing a wish +that "as far as practicable Miss Hazelton should take charge of the +child. We cannot tell how early life-long impression may be made, and it +is desirable that they be of the right nature, and wholly in accordance +with refinement and good-breeding." + +There was a curl on Marian's lip as she remembered another meeting with +the proud lady whose words were not as complimentary as now, but she +merely bent her head in supposed acquiescence to the belief that Baby +Cameron was, or soon would be, capable of discriminating between a nurse +refined and one the opposite. There was a moment's silence and then +Marian asked if baby had been christened? + +"Not yet, we cannot decide upon a name," was the reply, while Marian +continued: + +"I understood your daughter that it was to be Genevra." + +Marian Hazelton was growing too familiar, and so the lady deigned no +answer, but stepped a little to one side, as if she would thus indicate +that the conference was ended. + +Dropping her veil entirely over her face, for the servant was now +lighting the parlor lamps, Marian turned toward the door which Mrs. +Cameron opened, and she passed out just as up the steps came Wilford, +Marian's skirts brushing him as she passed, and her heart beating +painfully as she thought of her escape and began to realize the danger +she incurred when she accepted the office of partial nurse to his child. + +"Dark, mother? How is that? Why is the hall not lighted?" she heard him +say, and the old, familiar tones, so little changed, vibrated sadly in +her ear, as she dashed away a tear, and then hurried on through the +darkened streets toward her humble home, so different from the Cameron's. + +"Who was that, mother?" Wilford said, expressing regret that he had not +happened in a little earlier, so as to have seen her himself, and +asking what his mother thought of her. + +"I liked her. She seemed a well-bred person, and her voice is much like +Genevra's." + +Wilford turned his eyes quickly upon his mother, who continued: + +"I did not think of her, it is true, until Miss Hazelton inquired about +baby's name, and said she understood from Katy that it was to be +Genevra. Then it came to me whose her voice was like. Genevra's, you +know, was very musical." + +"Yes," Wilford answered, and in his eyes there was a look of pain, such +as thoughts of Genevra always brought. + +She was in his mind when he ran up his father's steps, not Genevra +living, but Genevra dead--she who slept in that lone corner of the +churchyard across the sea. "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," and not +Genevra, aged nearly thirty-two, if she had been still living. Kindly, +regretfully, he always spoke of her now, separating her entirely from +the little fairy who was mistress of his house and love--Katy, who was +preferred before Genevra, and to whom no wrong was done, he thought, by +his sad memories of the beautiful English girl, whose grave was at St. +Mary's, and whose picture was so securely hidden from every eye save his +own. He never liked to talk of her now, and he changed the subject at +once, asking when it would be best to send his child away. + +"Miss Hazelton is ready any time, and so I decided upon the day after +to-morrow--that will be Saturday--thus giving Katy the benefit of Sunday +in which to get over it and recover her usual spirits." + +"You are sure it is right?" Wilford asked, for now that the time drew +near when the little crib at home would be empty, the nursery desolate, +with no fretful, plaintive wail to annoy and worry him, he began to feel +that after all that cry was not so very vexing as he had imagined it to +be; that he might miss it when it was gone, and wish back the little +creature which had been so greatly in his way. + +Besides this, there was a sense of injustice to Katy. Perhaps he had not +been considerate enough of her feelings; at all events, his mother's +arranging the time of baby's departure looked like ignoring Katy +altogether, and he ventured a remonstrance. But his mother soon +convinced him of her infallible judgment; not only in that matter, but +in all others pertaining to his household; and so with his good opinion +of himself restored, he went home to where Katy waited for him, with her +baby in her lap, both tastefully attired, and making a most lovely +picture. Wilford kissed them both, and took his daughter in his arms, an +act he had not often been guilty of, for baby tending was not altogether +to his taste. + +In the dark hours of agony which came to him afterward, he remembered +that night, feeling again the touch of the velvet cheek and the warmth +of the faint breath which floated across his face as he held his little +girl for a moment to it, laughing at Katy's distress because "his +whiskers scratched it." + +It was strange how much confidence Katy had in Marian Hazelton, and how +the fact that she was going to New London reconciled her to the plan, +making her even cheerful during the last day of baby's stay at home. But +as the daylight waned and the night came on, a shadow began to steal +across her sunny face, and her step was slower as it went up the stairs +to the nursery, while only herself that night could disrobe the little +creature and hush it into sleep. + +"'Tis the last time, you know," she said to Kirby, who readily yielded +her post and went out, leaving the young mother and child alone. + +Mournfully sad and sweet was the lullaby Katy sang, and Helen, in the +hall, listening to the low, sad moaning, half prayer, half benediction, +likened it to a farewell between the living and the dead. Half an hour +later, when she glanced into the room, lighted only by the moonbeams, +baby was sleeping in her crib, which Katy knelt beside, her face buried +in her hands, and her form quivering with the sobs she tried to smother +as she softly prayed that her darling might come back again; that God +would keep the little child and forgive the erring mother who had sinned +so deeply since the time she used to pray in the home among the hills of +Massachusetts. She was very white next morning, and to Helen she seemed +to be expanding into something more womanly, more mature, as she +disciplined herself to bear the pain welling up so constantly from her +heart, and at last overflowing in a flood of tears when Marian was +announced as in the parlor below waiting for her charge. Fortunately +there was but little time for parting kisses and fond good-byes, for +Marian had purposely waited as long as possible ere coming, and +expedition was necessary if she reached the train. + +It was Katy who made her baby ready, trusting her to no one else, and +repelling with a kind of fierce decision all offers of assistance made +either by Helen, Mrs. Cameron, Bell, or the nurse, who were present. +While Katy's hands drew on the little bright, soft socks of wool, tied +the hood of satin and lace, and fastened the scarlet cloak, her tears +falling like rain as she met the loving, knowing look the baby was just +learning to give her, half smiling, half cooing, as she bent her face +down to it. + +"Please all of you go out," she said, when baby was ready--"Wilford and +all. I had rather be alone." + +They granted her request, but Wilford stood beside the open door, +listening while the mother bade farewell to her baby. + +"Darling," she murmured, "what will poor Katy do when you are gone, +or what will comfort her as you have done? Precious baby, my heart is +breaking to give you up; but will the Father in Heaven who knows how +much you are to me, keep you from harm and bring you back again? Some +time I'd give the world to keep you, but I cannot do it, for Wilford +says that you must go, and Wilford is your father." + +At that moment Wilford Cameron would have given half his fortune to have +kept his child for Katy's sake, but it was now too late; the carriage +was at the door, and Marian, whom no one had seen but Helen, was waiting +in the hall, her thick green veil dropped before her face, and a muffler +about her mouth as if suffering from the toothache. Helen had asked if +it were so, but Marian's answer was prevented by the little procession +filing down the stairs--Mrs. Cameron and Bell, Wilford and Katy, who +carried the baby herself, her face bent over it and her tears still +dropping like rain. But it was Wilford who put his child into Marian's +extended arms, forgetting in his excitement to notice aught in the new +nurse except the long, green veil which was not raised at all, even when +Katy said, pleadingly, "You will care for her, Marian, as if she were +your own." + +"Yes, I will, I will," was the response, spoken huskily and having in +it no tone like Genevra's. "I will as if it were my own," were the last +words Marian said as she went down the steps, followed by Wilford, to +whom the thought had just occurred that he ought to see her off. + +Marian had not expected this, and the tension of her nerves was hardly +equal to the task of sitting there with Wilford Cameron opposite, his +baby in her lap, his voice in her ear, and his eyes turned upon her as +if curious to know what manner of woman she was. But the thick veil did +its duty well, while the muffler answered the purpose intended; it +changed the voice which was only natural once, and that when it +addressed the baby, which began to grow restless as they drew near the +depot. Then Wilford was reminded of Genevra, and the thought carried him +across the sea, so that he forgot all else until the station was reached +and he was busy, procuring checks and ticket. He saw her into the car, +procuring for her a double seat, and speaking a word for her to the +conductor, whom he knew. And this he did partly for Katy's sake, and +partly because in spite of the plain attire he recognized the lady and +felt that Marian Hazelton was no ordinary person. He offered her his +hand, wondering why hers trembled so in his grasp, wondering why it was +so cold, and wondering, too, why, if she had never been a wife, she wore +that plain gold circlet which glittered upon her third finger. + +"They certainly call her Miss Hazelton," he thought, as he bade her +good-by and then left her alone, going back to the house which even to +him seemed lonely, with all the paraphernalia of babyhood removed. +Still, now that the worst was over, he rather enjoyed it, for Katy was +free from care; there was nothing to hinder her gratifying his every +wish, and with his spirits greatly enlivened as he reflected how +satisfactory everything had been managed at the last, he proposed taking +both Helen and Katy to the theatre that night. But Katy answered: "No, +Wilford, not to-night; it seems too much like baby's funeral. I'll go +next week, but not to-night." + +So Katy had her way, but among the worshipers who next day knelt in +Grace Church with words of prayer upon their lips, there was not one +more in earnest than she whose only theme was, "My child, my darling +child." + +She did not get over it by Monday, as Mrs. Cameron had predicted. She +did not get over it at all, though she went without a word where Wilford +willed that she should go, and even Helen, with her sounder health and +stronger constitution, grew tired of that endless round, which gave her +scarcely a quiet hour at home. And Katy was a belle again, her name on +every lip, her praise in every heart, for none could feel jealous, she +bore her honors so meekly, wondering why people liked her so much and +loving them because they did. And none admired her more than Helen, who, +scarcely less a belle herself, yielded everything to her young sister +whom she pitied while she admired, for nothing had power to draw one +look from her blue eyes, the look which many observed, and which Helen +knew sprang from the mother love, hungering for its child. Only once +before had Helen seen a look like this, and that came to Morris' face on +the sad night when she said to him, "It might have been." It had been +there ever since, and Helen, though revering him before, felt that by +the pangs with which that look was born he was a better man, just as +Katy was growing better for that hunger in her heart. God was taking his +own way to purify them both, but the process was going on and Helen +watched it intently, wondering what the end would be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +AUNT BETSY GOES ON A JOURNEY. + + +Just through the woods, where Uncle Ephraim was wont to exercise old +Whitey, was a narrow strip of land, extending from the highway to the +pond, and fertile in nothing except the huckleberry bushes, where the +large, dark fruit grew so abundantly, and the rocky ledges over which a +few sheep roamed, seeking for the short grass and stunted herbs, which +gave them a meager sustenance. As a whole it was comparatively +valueless, but to Aunt Betsy Barlow it was of great importance, as it +was her own--her property--her share--set off from the old estate--the +land on which she paid taxes willingly--the real estate the deed of +which was lying undisturbed in her hair trunk, where it had lain for +years. Several dispositions the good old lady had mentally made of this +property, sometimes dividing it equally between Helen and Katy, +sometimes willing it all to the former, and again, when she thought of +Mark Ray, leaving the interest of it to some missionary society in which +she was greatly interested. + +How then was the poor woman amazed and confounded when suddenly there +appeared a claimant to her property; not the whole, but a part, and that +part taking in the big sweet apple tree and the very best of the berry +bushes, leaving her nothing but rocks and bogs, a pucker cherry tree, a +patch of tansy, and one small tree, whose gnarly apples were not fit, +she said, to feed the pigs. + +Of course she was indignant, and all the more so because the claimant +was prepared to prove that the line fence was not where it should be, +but ran into his own dominions for the width of two or three rods, a +fact he had just discovered by looking over a bundle of deeds, in which +the boundaries of his own farm were clearly defined. + +In her distress Aunt Betsy's first thoughts were turned to Wilford as +the man who could redress her wrongs if any one, and a long letter was +written to him in which her grievances were told in detail and his +advice solicited. Commencing with "My dear Wilford," closing with +"Your respected ant," sealed with a wafer, stamped with her thimble, +and directed bottom side up, it nevertheless found its way to +No. ---- Broadway, and into Wilford's hands. But with a frown and pish of +contempt he tossed it into the grate, and vain were all Aunt Betsy's +inquiries as to whether there was any letter for her when Uncle Ephraim +came home from the office. Letters there were from Helen, and sometimes +one from Katy, but none from Wilford, none for her, and her days were +passed in great perplexity and distress, until another idea took +possession of her mind. She would go to New York herself! She had never +traveled over half a dozen miles in the cars, it was true, but it was +time she had, and now that she had a new bonnet and shawl, as good as +anybody's, she could go to York as well as not! + +Wholly useless were the expostulations of the family, for she would not +listen to them, nor believe that she would not be welcome at that house +on Madison Square, to which even Mrs. Lennox had never been invited +since Katy was fairly settled in it. Much at first had been said of her +coming, and of the room she was to occupy; but all that had ceased, and +in the mother's heart there had been a painful doubt as to the reason of +the silence, until Helen's letters enlightened her, telling her it was +not Katy, for she was still unchanged--was still the loving, impulsive +creature who, if she could, would take all Silverton to her arms. It was +Wilford who had built so high a wall between Katy and her friends; +Wilford who at first had endured Helen because he must, but who now kept +her with him from choice, even though she was sometimes greatly in his +way, especially when her will clashed with his and her stronger +arguments for the right swept his own aside. Far better than she used, +did Mrs. Lennox understand her son-in-law, and she shrank in horror from +suffering her aunt to go where she would be so serious an annoyance, +frankly telling her the reason for her objections, and asking if she +wished to mortify the girls. + +At this Aunt Betsy took umbrage at once. + +"She'd like to know what there was about her to mortify anybody? Wasn't +her black silk dress made long and full, and the old pongee fixed into a +Balmoral, and hadn't she a bran-new cap with purple ribbon, and couldn't +she travel in her delaine, and didn't she wear hoops always now, except +at cleanin' house times? Didn't she nuss both the girls, especially +Catherine, carrying her in her arms one whole night when she had the +canker-rash, and everybody thought she'd die; and when she swallered +that tin whistle didn't she spat her on the back and swing her in the +air till she came to and blew the whistle clear across the room? Tell +her that Catherine would be ashamed? she knew better!" + +Then as a doubt began to cross her own mind as to Wilford's readiness to +entertain her at his house, she continued: + +"At any rate, the Tubbses, who moved from Silverton last fall, and who +were living in such style on the Bowery, wouldn't be ashamed, and I can +stop with them at first, till I see how the land lies. They have invited +me to come, both Miss Tubbs and 'Tilda, and they are nice folks, who +belong to the Orthodox Church. Tom is in town now, and if I see him I +shall talk with him about it, even if I never go." + +Most devoutly did Mrs. Lennox and Aunt Hannah hope that Tom would +return to New York without honoring the farmhouse with a call; but +unfortunately for them he came that very afternoon, and instead of +throwing obstacles in Aunt Betsy's way, urged her warmly to make the +proposed visit. + +"Mother would be so glad to see an old neighbor," the honest youth said, +"for she did not know many folks in the city. 'Till had made some flashy +acquaintances, of whom he did not think much, and they kept a few +boarders, but nobody had called, and mother was real lonesome. He wished +Miss Barlow would come; she would have no difficulty in finding them," +and on a bit of paper he marked out the route of the Fourth Avenue cars, +which passed their door, and which Aunt Betsy would take after arriving +at the New Haven depot. "If he knew when she was coming he would meet +her," he said, but Aunt Betsy could not tell; she was not quite certain +whether she should go at all, she was so violently opposed. + +Still she did not give it up entirely, and when, a few days after Tom's +return to New York, there came a pressing invitation from the daughter +Matilda, or Mattie, as she signed herself, the fever again ran high, and +this time with but little hope of its abating. + +"We shall be delighted, both mother and me," Mattie wrote. "I will show +you all the lions of the city, and when you get tired of us you can go +up to Mrs. Cameron's. I know exactly where they live, and have seen her +at the opera in full dress, looking like a queen." + +Over the last part of this letter Aunt Betsy pondered for some time. +That as good an orthodox as Miss Tubbs should let her girl go to the +opera, passed her. She had wondered at Helen's going, but then she was a +'Piscopal, and them 'Piscopals had queer notions about usin' the world +and not abusin' it. Still, as Helen did not attend the theatre and did +attend the opera, there must be a difference in the two places, and into +the old lady's heart there slowly crept the thought that possibly she +might try the opera too, if 'Tilda Tubbs would go, and promise never to +tell the folks at Silverton! She should like to see what it was, and +also what full dress meant, though she s'posed it was pilin' on all the +clothes you had so as to make a show; but if she wore her black silk +gown with her best bunnet and shawl, she guessed that would be dress +enough for her. + +This settled, Aunt Betsy began to devise the best means of getting off +with the least opposition. Both Morris and her brother would be absent +from town during the next week, and she finally resolved to take that +opportunity for starting on her visit to New York, wisely concluding to +keep her own counsel until she was quite ready. Accordingly, on the very +day Morris and the deacon left Silverton, she announced her intention so +quietly and decidedly that further opposition was useless, and Mrs. +Lennox did what she could to make her aunt presentable. And Aunt Betsy +did look very respectable in her dark delaine, with her hat and shawl, +both Morris' gift, and both in very good taste. As for the black silk +and the new cap, they were carefully folded away, one in a box and the +other in a satchel she carried on her arm, and in one compartment of +which were sundry papers of fennel, caraway, and catnip, intended for +Katy's baby, and which could be sent to it from New York. There was also +a package of dried plums and peaches for Katy herself, and a few cakes +of yeast of her own make, better than any they had in the city! Thus +equipped she one morning took her seat in the Boston and New York train, +which carried her swiftly on toward Springfield. + +"If anybody can find their way in New York, it is Betsy," Aunt Hannah +said to Mrs. Lennox, as the day wore on and their thoughts went after +the lone woman, who with satchel, umbrella and capbox, was felicitating +in the luxury of a whole seat, and the near neighborhood of a very nice +young man, who listened with well-bred interest while she told of her +troubles concerning the sheep pasture, and how she was going to New York +to consult a first-rate lawyer. + +Once she thought to tell who the lawyer was, and perhaps enhance her own +merits in the eyes of her auditors by announcing herself as aunt to Mrs. +Wilford Cameron, of whom she had no doubt he had heard--nay, more, whom +he possibly knew, inasmuch as his home was in New York, though he spent +much of his time at West Point, where he had been educated. But certain +disagreeable remembrances of Aunt Hannah's parting injunction, "not to +tell everybody in the cars that she was Katy's aunt," kept her silent on +that point, and so Lieutenant Bob Reynolds failed to be enlightened with +regard to the relationship existing between the fastidious Wilford +Cameron of Madison Square, and the quaint old lady whose very first act +on entering the car amused him vastly. At a glance he saw that she was +unused to traveling, and as the car was crowded, he had kindly offered +his seat near the door, taking the side one under the window, and so +close to her that she gave him her capbox to hold while she adjusted her +other bundles. This done and herself comfortably settled, she was just +remarking that she liked being close to the door in case of a fire, when +the conductor appeared, extending his hand officially toward her as the +first one convenient. For an instant Aunt Betsy scanned him closely, +thinking she surely had never seen him before, but as he seemed to claim +acquaintance she could not find it in her kind heart to ignore him +altogether, and so she grasped the offered hand, which she tried to +shake, saying apologetically: + +"Pretty well, thank you, but you've got the better of me, as I don't +justly recall your name." + +Instantly the eyes of the young man under the window met those of the +conductor with a look which changed the frown gathering in the face of +the latter into a comical smile as he withdrew his hand and shouted: + +"Ticket, madam, your ticket!" + +"For the land's sake, have I got to give that up so quick, when it's at +the bottom of my satchel," Aunt Betsy replied, somewhat crestfallen at +her mistake, and fumbling in her pocket for the key, which was finally +produced, and one by one the paper parcels of fennel, caraway, and +catnip, dried plums, peaches and yeast cakes, were taken out, until at +the very bottom, as she had said, the ticket was found, the conductor +waiting patiently, and advising her, by way of avoiding future trouble, +to pin the card to her shawl, where it could be seen. + +"A right nice man," was Aunt Betsy's mental comment, but for a long time +there was a red spot on her cheeks as she felt that she had made herself +ridiculous, and hoped the girls would never hear of it. + +The young man, however, helped to reassure her, and in telling him her +troubles she forgot her chagrin, feeling very sorry that he was going on +to Albany, and so down the river to West Point. West Point was +associated in Aunt Betsy's mind with that handful of noble men who +within the walls of Sumter were then the center of so much interest, and +at parting with her companion she said to him: + +"Young man, you are a soldier, I take it, from your havin' been to +school at West Point. Maybe you'll never have to use your learning, but +if you do, stick to the old flag. Don't you go against that, and if an +old woman's prayers for your safety can do any good, be sure you'll have +mine." + +She raised her hand reverently, and Lieutenant Bob felt a kind of awe +steal over him as if he might one day need that benediction, the first +perhaps given in the cause now so terribly agitating all hearts both +North and South. + +"I'll remember what you say," he answered, and then as a new idea was +presented he took out a card, and writing a few lines upon it, bade her +hand it to the conductor just as she was getting into the city. + +Without her glasses Aunt Betsy could not read, and thinking it did not +matter now, she thrust the card into her pocket, and bidding her +companion good-by, took her seat in the other train. Lonely and a very +little homesick she began to feel; for her new neighbors were not +one-half as willing to talk as Bob had been, and she finally relapsed +into silence, which resulted in a quiet sleep, from which she awoke +just as they were entering the long, dark tunnel, which she would have +likened to Purgatory had she believed in such a place. + +"I didn't know we ran into cellars," she said, faintly; but nobody +heeded her, or cared for the anxious and now timid-looking woman, who +grew more and more anxious, until suddenly remembering the card, she +drew it from her pocket, and the next time the conductor appeared handed +it to him, watching him while he read that "Lieutenant Robert Reynolds +would consider it as a personal favor if he would see the bearer into +the Fourth Avenue cars." + +Surely there is a Providence which watches over all; and Lieutenant +Reynolds' thoughtfulness was not a mere chance, but the answer to the +simple trust Aunt Betsy had that God would take her safely to New York, +never doubting until she reached it that she had been heard. And even +then she did not doubt it long, for the conductor knew Lieutenant Bob, +and attended as faithfully to his wishes as if it had been a born +princess instead of Aunt Betsy Barlow whom he led to a street car, +ascertaining the number on the Bowery where she wished to stop, and +reporting to that conductor, who bowed in acquiescence, after glancing +at the woman, and knowing intuitively that she was from the country. +Could she have divested herself wholly of the fear that the conductor +would forget to put her off at the right place, Aunt Betsy would have +enjoyed that ride very much; and as it was, she looked around with +interest, thinking New York a mightily cluttered-up place, and wondering +if all the folks were in the streets. "They must be a gadding set," she +thought; and then, as a lady in flaunting robes took a seat beside her, +crowding her into a narrow space, the good old dame thought to show that +she did not resent it, by an attempt at sociability, asking if she knew +"Mrs. Peter Tubbs, whose husband kept a store on the Bowery?" + +"I have not that honor," was the haughty reply, the lady drawing up +her costly shawl and moving a little away from her interlocutor, who +continued: "I thought like enough you might have seen 'Tilda, or Mattie +she calls herself now. She is a right nice girl, and Tom is a very +forrard boy." + +To this there was no reply; and as the lady soon left the car, Aunt +Betsy did not make another attempt at conversation, except to ask once +how far they were from the Bowery, adding, as she received a civil +answer, "You don't know Mr. Peter Tubbs?" + +The worthy man was evidently a stranger to the occupants of that car, +and so Aunt Betsy employed her time in wondering if they kept up a sight +of style. She presumed they did from what 'Tilda had written to one of +Captain Perry's girls about their front parlor, and back parlor, and +library; but she did so hope their boarders were not the stuck up kind. +In Mrs. Peter Tubbs herself she had the utmost confidence, knowing her +to be a kind, friendly woman; and so her heart did not beat quite as +fast as it would otherwise have done when the car stopped at last upon +a crossing, and the conductor pointed back a few doors to the right, +telling her that was her number. + +"I should s'pose he might have driv right up, instead of leaving me +here," she said, looking wistfully at the retreating car, which now +seemed almost like home. "Coats, and trousers, and jackets! I wonder if +there is nothing else to be seen here," she continued, as her eye caught +the long line of clothing so conspicuously displayed in that part of the +Bowery. "'Tain't no great shakes," was the feeling struggling into Aunt +Betsy's mind, as with Tom's outline map in hand she peered at the +numbers of the doors, finding the right one at last, and ringing the +bell with a force which brought Mattie at once to the rescue. + +If Mattie was not glad to see her guest, she seemed to be, which +answered every purpose for the tired woman, who followed her into the +dark, narrow hall, filled with the sickly odor of the kitchen, and up +the narrow stairs, through a still darker hall, and into the front +parlor, which looked out upon the Bowery. This was comparatively +comfortable, for there was a fire in the stove, and the carpet the same +which Aunt Betsy remembered to have seen in Mrs. Tubbs' best room at +Silverton. But the diminutive dimensions of the apartment struck her at +once, and she mentally decided that it must be the "libry." But, alas! +the so-called "library" was a large-sized closet, or single room, at the +other end of the hall, and now used as an _omnium gatherum_ for the +various articles Mrs. Tubbs found necessary for her "back parlor," or +dining-room, where the table was set cornerwise, its soiled linen and +dingy napkins presenting a striking contrast to the snowy cloth which +always covered the table at the farmhouse, while the dry, baker's bread, +and the frowsy butter were almost more than Aunt Betsy could swallow, +hungry as she was. + +But all this was half an hour after the time when Mrs. Tubbs came in to +meet her, expressing genuine pleasure at seeing her there, and feeling +what she said; for Mrs. Tubbs did not take kindly to city life, and the +sight of a familiar face, which brought the country with it, was very +welcome to her. Mattie, on the contrary, liked New York, and there was +scarcely a street where she had not been, with Tom for a protector; +while she was perfectly conversant with all the respectable places of +amusement--with their different prices and different grades of patrons. +She knew where Wilford Cameron's office was, and also his house, for she +had walked by the latter many times, admiring the elegant curtains and +feasting her eyes upon the glimpses of inside grandeur, which she +occasionally obtained as some one came out or went in. Once she had seen +Helen and Katy enter their carriage, which the colored coachman drove +away, but she had never ventured to accost them. Katy would not have +known her if she had, for the family had come to Silverton while she was +at Canandaigua, and as, after her return to Silverton, until her +marriage, Mattie had been in one of the Lawrence factories, they had +never met. With Helen, however, she had a speaking acquaintance; but she +had never presumed upon it in New York, though to some of her young +friends she had told how she once sat in the same pew with Mrs. Wilford +Cameron's sister when she went to the "Episcopal meeting," and the +consideration which this fact procured for her from those who had heard +of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, of Madison Square, awoke in her the ambition to +know more of that lady, and, if possible, gain an entrance to her +dwelling. To this end she favored Aunt Betsy's visit, hoping thus to +accomplish her object, for, of course, when Miss Barlow went to Mrs. +Cameron's, she was the proper person to go with her and point the way. +This was the secret of Mattie's letter to Aunt Betsy, and the warmth +with which she welcomed her to that tenement on the Bowery, over a +clothing store, and so small that it is not strange Aunt Betsy wondered +where they all slept, never dreaming of the many devices known to city +housekeepers, who can change a handsome parlor into a kitchen or +sleeping-room, and _vice versa_, with little or no trouble. But she +found it out at last, lifting her hands in speechless amazement, when, +as the hour for retiring came, what she imagined the parlor bookcase was +converted into a comfortable bed, on which her first night in New York +was passed in comfort if not in perfect quiet. + +The next day had been set apart by Mattie for showing their guest the +city and possibly calling on Mrs. Wilford; but the poor old lady, unused +to travel and excitement, was too tired to venture out, seeing from the +window more than she had seen in all her life before, and coming to the +conclusion that New York must contain "a sight of folks," judging from +the crowds who passed that way and the glimpses she caught of other +crowds in the streets beyond. Still in some things she was disappointed. +New York was not so grand as she had imagined it to be--not as grand as +Helen's letters would imply; and she "didn't suppose everybody lived +upstairs and kept men's clothes to sell." The boarders, too, troubled +her. They were well enough, it is true, but they were neither fine +ladies nor gentlemen, such as Wilford and Katy; and Aunt Betsy, while +receiving every attention which Mrs. Tubbs could give her, was guilty of +wishing herself back in the clean, bright kitchen at home, where the +windows looked out upon woods and fields instead of that never-ceasing +rush which made her dizzy and faint. On the whole she was as nearly +homesick as she well could be, and so when Mattie asked if she would +like to go out that evening, she caught eagerly at the idea, as it +involved a change, and again the opera came before her mind, in spite +of her attempts to thrust it away. + +"Did 'Tilda know if Katy went to the opera now? Did she s'pose she +would be there to-night? Was it far to the show house? What was the +price--and was it a very wicked place?" + +To all these queries Mattie answered readily. She presumed Katy would be +there, as it was a new opera. It was not so very far. Distance in the +city was nothing, and it was not a wicked place, but over the price +Mattie faltered. Tickets for Aunt Betsy, herself and Tom, who of course +must go with them, would cost more than her father had to give. The +theatre was preferable, as that came within their means, and she +suggested Laura Keene's; but from that Aunt Betsy recoiled as from +Pandemonium itself. + +Catch her at a theatre--her, a deacon's sister, looked up to for a +sample, and who run once for vice-president of the Sewing Society in +Silverton! It was too terrible to think of. But the opera seemed +different. Helen went there; it could not be very wrong, particularly as +the tickets were so high that bad folks could not go, and taking out her +purse Aunt Betsy counted its contents carefully, holding the bills +thoughtfully for a moment, while she seemed to be balancing between what +she knew was safe and what she feared might be wrong, at least in the +eyes of Silverton. + +"But Silverton will never know it," the tempter whispered, "and it is +worth something to see the girls in full dress." + +This decided it, and Aunt Betsy generously offered "to pay the fiddler," +as she termed it, "provided 'Tilda would never let it get to Silverton +that Betsy Barlow was seen inside a playhouse!" To Mrs. Tubbs it seemed +impossible that Aunt Betsy could be in earnest, but when she was, she +put no impediments in her way; and so, conspicuous among the crowd of +transient visitors who that night entered the Academy of Music was Aunt +Betsy Barlow, chaperoned by Miss Mattie Tubbs and protected by Tom, a +shrewd, well-grown youth of seventeen, who passed for some years older, +and consequently was a sufficient escort for the ladies under his +charge. It was not his first visit there and he managed to procure a +seat which commanded a good view of several private boxes, and among +them that of Wilford Cameron. This Mattie, who remembered where she had +seen both Helen and Katy, pointed out to the excited woman gazing about +her in a maze of bewilderment, and half doubting her own identity with +the Betsy Barlow who, six weeks before, if charged with such a sin as +she was now committing, would have exclaimed, "Is thy servant a dog to +do this thing?" Yet here she was, a deacon's sister, a candidate for the +vice-presidency of the Silverton Sewing Society, a woman who, for +sixty-three years and a-half, had led a blameless life, frowning upon +all worldly amusements and setting herself for a burning light to +others--here she was in her black silk dress, her best shawl pinned +across her chest, and her bonnet tied in a square bow which reached +nearly to her ears, which Mattie Tubbs, who tied it, had said was all +the style. Here she was, in that huge building, where the lights were so +blinding and the crowd so great that she shut her eyes involuntarily, +while she tried to realize what she could be doing. + +"I'm in for it now anyhow, and if it is wrong may the good Father +forgive me," she said softly to herself, just as the orchestra struck +up, thrilling her with its ravishing strains, and making her forget all +else in her rapturous delight. + +She was very fond of music and listened eagerly, beating time with both +her feet, and making her bonnet go up and down until the play commenced +and she saw stage dress and stage effect for the first time in her life. +This part she did not like: "they mumbled their words so nobody could +understand more than if they spoke a heathenish tongue," she thought, +and she was beginning to yawn when a nudge from Mattie and a whisper, +"There they come," roused her from her stupor, and looking up she saw +both Helen and Katy entering their box, and with them Mark Ray and +Wilford Cameron. + +Very rapidly Katy's eyes swept the house, running over the sea of heads +below but failing to see the figure which, half arising from its seat, +stood with clasped hands, gazing upon her, the tears running like rain +over the upturned face, and the lips murmuring: "Darling Katy! blessed +child! She's thinner than when I see her last, but oh! so beautiful and +grand! Precious lambkin! It isn't wicked now for me to be coming here, +where I can see her face again." + +It was all in vain that Mattie pulled her dress, bidding her sit down +as people were staring at her. Aunt Betsy did not hear, and if she had +she would scarcely have cared for those who did look at her, and who, +following her eyes, saw the beautiful young ladies, behind whom Wilford +and Mark were standing, but never dreamed of associating them with the +"crazy thing" who sank back at last into her seat, keeping her eyes +still upon the box where Helen and Katy sat, their heads uncovered and +their rich cloaks falling off just enough to show the astonished woman +that both their necks were uncovered, too, while Helen's arms, raised to +adjust her glass, were discovered to be in the same condition. + +"Ain't they splendid in full dress?" Mattie whispered, while Aunt Betsy +replied: + +"Call that full dress? I'd sooner say it was no dress at all! They'll +catch their death of cold. What would their mother say?" + +Then as the enormity of the act grew upon her, she continued more to +herself than to Mattie: + +"I mistrusted Catherine, but that Helen should come to this passes me." + +Still as she became more accustomed to it, and glanced at other +full-dressed ladies, the first shock passed away, and she could calmly +contemplate Katy's dress, wondering what it cost, and then letting her +eyes pass on to Helen, to whom Mark Ray seemed so loverlike that Aunt +Betsy remembered her impressions when he stopped at Silverton, her heart +swelling with pride as she thought of both the girls making out so well. + +"Who is that young man talking to Helen?" Mattie asked, between the +acts, and when told that it was "Mr. Ray, Wilford's partner," she drew +her breath eagerly, and turned again to watch him, envying the young +girl who did not seem as much gratified with the attentions as Mattie +fancied she should do were she in Helen's place. + +How could she, with Juno Cameron just opposite, watching her jealously, +while Madam Cameron fanned herself in dignity, refusing to look upon +what she so greatly disapproved. + +But Mark did not care who was watching him, and continued his attentions +until Helen wished herself away, and though a good deal surprised, was +not sorry when Wilford abruptly declared the opera a bore, and suggested +going home. + +They would order an ice, he said, and have a much pleasanter time in +their own private parlor. + +"Please don't go; I rather like the play to-night," Katy said; but on +Wilford's face there was that look which never consulted Katy's wishes, +and so the two ladies tied on their cloaks, and just as the curtain rose +in the last act, left their box, Juno wondering at the movement, and +hoping Mark would now come around to her, while Aunt Betsy looked +wistfully after them, but did not suspect she was the cause of their +exit, and of Wilford's evident perturbation. + +Running his eye over the house below, it had fallen upon the trio, Aunt +Betsy, Mattie and Tom, the first of whom was at that moment partly +standing, while she adjusted her heavy shawl, which the heat of the +building had compelled her to unfasten. + +There was a start, a rush of blood to the head and face, and then he +reflected how impossible it was that she should be there, in New York, +and at the opera, too. + +The shawl arranged, Aunt Betsy took her seat and turned her face fully +toward him, while Wilford seized Katy's glass and leveled it at her. He +was not mistaken. It was Aunt Betsy Barlow, and Wilford felt the +perspiration oozing out beneath his hair and about his lips, as he +remembered the letter he had burned, wishing now that he had answered +it, and so, perhaps, have kept her from his door. For she was coming +there, nay, possibly had come, since his departure from home, and +learning his whereabouts, had followed on to the Academy of Music, +leaving her baggage where he should stumble over it on entering the +hall. + +Such was the fearful picture conjured up by Wilford's imagination, as +he stood watching poor Aunt Betsy, a dark cloud on his brow and fierce +anger at his heart, that she should thus presume to worry and annoy him. + +"If she spies us she will be finding her way up here; there's no piece +of effrontery of which that class is not capable," he thought, wondering +next who the vulgar-looking girl and _gauche_ youth were who were with +her. + +"Country cousins, of whom I have never heard, no doubt," and he ground +his teeth together as with his next breath he suggested going home, +carrying out his suggestion and hurrying both Helen and Katy to the +carriage as if some horrible dragon had been on their track. + +There was no baggage in the hall, there had been no woman there, and +Wilford's fears for a time subsided, but growing strong again about the +time he knew the opera was out, while the sound of wheels coming toward +his door was sufficient to make his heart stop beating and every hair +prickle at its roots. + +But Aunt Betsy did not come except in Wilford's dreams, which she +haunted the entire night, so that the morning found him tired, moody, +and cross. That day they entertained a select dinner party, and as this +was something in which Katy rather excelled, while Helen's presence, +instead of detracting from, would add greatly to the _eclat_ of the +affair, Wilford had anticipated it with no small degree of complacency. +But now, alas! there was a phantom at his side--a skeleton of horror, +wearing Aunt Betsy's guise; and if it had been possible he would have +given the dinner up. But it was too late for that; the guests were +bidden, the arrangements made, and there was nothing now for him but +to abide the consequences. + +"She shall at least stay in her room, if I have to lock her in," he +thought, as he went down to his office without even kissing Katy or +bidding her good-by. + +But business that day had no interest for him, and in a listless, absent +way he sat watching the passers-by and glancing at his door as if he +expected the first assault to be made there. Then as the day wore on, +and he felt sure that what he so much dreaded had really come to pass, +that the baggage expected last night had certainly arrived by this time +and spread itself over his house, he could endure the suspense no +longer, and startled Mark with the announcement that he was going home, +and should not return again that day. + +"Going home, when Leavitt is to call at three!" Mark said, in much +surprise, and feeling that it would be a relief to unburden himself to +some one, the story came out how Wilford had seen Aunt Betsy at the +opera, and expected to find her at Madison Square. + +"I wish I had answered her letter about that confounded sheep pasture," +he said, "for I would rather give a thousand dollars--yes, ten +thousand--than have her with us to-day. I did not marry my wife's +relations," he continued, excitedly, adding, as Mark looked quickly up, +"Of course I don't mean Helen. She is right; and though she rasps me a +little, I'd rather have her than not. Neither do I mean that doctor, for +he is a gentleman. But this Barlow woman--oh! Mark, I am all of dripping +sweat just to think of it." + +He did not say what he intended doing, but with Mark Ray's ringing laugh +in his ears, passed into the street, and hailing a stage was driven +toward home, just as a downtown stage deposited on the walk in front of +his office "that Barlow woman" and Mattie Tubbs! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +AUNT BETSY CONSULTS A LAWYER. + + +Aunt Betsy did not rest well after her return from the opera. Novelty +and excitement always kept her awake, while her mind was not wholly at +ease with regard to what she had done. Not that she really felt she had +committed a sin, except so far as the example might be bad, but she +feared the result, should it ever reach the orthodox church at Silverton. + +"There's no telling what Deacon Bannister would do--send a subpoena +after me, for what I know," she thought, as she laid her tired head upon +her pillow and went off into that weary state halfway between sleep and +wakefulness, a state in which operas, play actors, Katy in full dress, +Helen and Mark Ray, choruses, music by the orchestra, to which she had +been guilty of beating her foot, Deacon Bannister and the whole offended +brotherhood, with constable and subpoenas, were pretty equally blended +together--the music which she liked, and the subpoena which she feared +taking the precedence of the others. + +But with the daylight her fears subsided, and at the breakfast table +she was hardly less enthusiastic over the opera than Mattie herself, +averring, however; that "once would do her and she had no wish to go +again." + +The sight of Katy looking so frail and delicate, but so beautiful +withal, had awakened all the olden intense love she had felt for her +darling, and she could not wait much longer without seeing her "in her +own home and hearing her blessed voice." + +"Hannah, and Lucy amongst 'em, advised me not to come," she said to Mrs. +Tubbs, "hinting that I might not be wanted up there; but now I'm here I +shall go if I don't stay more than an hour." + +"Of course I should," Mattie answered, herself anxious to stand beneath +Wilford Cameron's roof and see Mrs. Wilford at home. "She don't look as +proud as Helen, and you are her aunt, her blood kin, so why shouldn't +you go there if you like?" + +"I shall--I am going," Aunt Betsy replied, feeling that to take Mattie +with her was not quite the thing, and not exactly knowing how to manage, +for the girl must of course pilot the way. "I'll risk it and trust to +Providence," was her final decision, and so after an early lunch she +started out with Mattie as her escort, suggesting that they visit +Wilford's office first and get that affair out of her mind. + +At this point Aunt Betsy began to look upon herself as a most hardened +wretch, wondering at the depths of iniquity to which she had fallen. The +opera was the least of her offenses, for she was not harboring pride and +contriving how to be rid of 'Tilda Tubbs, as clever a girl as ever +lived, hoping that if she found Wilford he would see her home, and so +save 'Tilda the trouble? Playhouses, pride, vanity, subterfuge and +deceit--it was a long catalogue she would have to confess to Deacon +Bannister, if confess she did, and with a groan the conscience-smitten +woman followed her conductor along the street, and at last into the +stage which took them to Wilford's office. + +Broadway was literally jammed that day, and the aid of two policemen was +required to extricate the bewildered countrywoman from the mass of +vehicles and horses' heads, which took all her sense away. Trembling +like a leaf when Mattie explained that the "two nice men" who had +dragged her to the walk were police officers, and thinking again of the +subpoena, the frightened woman who had escaped such peril, followed up +the two flights of stairs and into Wilford's office, where she sank +breathless into a chair, while Mark, not in the least surprised, greeted +her cordially, and very soon succeeded in getting her quiet, bowing so +graciously to Mattie when introduced that the poor girl dreamed of him +for many a night, and by day built castles of what might have been had +she been rich, instead of only 'Tilda Tubbs, whose home was on the +Bowery. Why need Aunt Betsy in her introduction have mentioned that +fact? Mattie thought, her cheeks burning scarlet; or why need she +afterward speak of her as 'Tilda, who was kind enough to come with her +to the office where she hoped to find Wilford? Poor Mattie, she knew +some things very well, but she had never yet conceived of the +immeasurable distance between herself and Mark Ray, who cared but little +whether her home were on the Bowery or on Murray Hill, after the first +sight which told him what she was. He was very polite to her, however, +for it was not in his nature to be otherwise, while the fact that she +came with Helen's aunt gave her some claim upon him. + +"Mr. Cameron had just left the office and would not return that day," +he said to Aunt Betsy, asking if he could assist her in any way, and +assuring her of his willingness to do so. + +Aunt Betsy could talk with him better than with Wilford, and was about +to give him the story of the sheep pasture in detail, when, motioning to +a side door, he said, "Walk in here, please. You will not be liable to +so many interruptions." + +"Come, 'Tilda, it's no privacy," Aunt Betsy said; but Tilda felt +intuitively that she was not wanted, and rather haughtily declined, +amusing herself by the window, while Aunt Betsy in the private office +told her troubles to Mark Ray; and received in return the advice to let +the claimant go to law if he chose, he probably would make nothing by +it, and even if he did, she would not sustain a heavy loss, according to +her own statement of the value of the land. + +"If I could keep the sweet apple-tree, I wouldn't care," Aunt Betsy +said, "for, the rest ain't worth a lawsuit; though it's my property, and +I have thought of willing it to Helen, if she ever marries." + +Here was a temptation which Mark Ray could not resist. Ever since Mrs. +General Reynolds' party Helen's manner had puzzled him; but her shyness +only made him more in love than ever, while the rumor of her engagement +with Dr. Morris tormented him continually. Sometimes he believed it, and +sometimes he did not, wishing always that he knew for certain. Here then +was a chance for confirming his fears or for putting them at rest, and +blessing 'Tilda Tubbs for declining to enter his back office, he said in +reply to Aunt Betsy's "If she ever marries," "And of course she will. +She is engaged, I believe?" + +"Engaged? Who to? When? Strange she never writ, nor Katy neither," Aunt +Betsy exclaimed, while Mark, raised to an ecstatic state, replied, "I +refer to Dr. Grant. Haven't they been engaged for a long time past?" + +"Why--no--indeed," was the response, and Mark could have hugged the good +old lady, who continued in a confidential tone: "I used to think they'd +make a good match; but I've gin that up, and now I sometimes mistrust +'twas Katy, Morris wanted. Anyhow, he's mighty changed since she was +married, and he never speaks her name. I never heard anybody say so, and +maybe it's all a fancy, so you won't mention it." + +"Certainly not," Mark replied, drawing nearer to her, and continuing in +a low tone, "Isn't it possible that after all Helen is engaged to her +cousin, and you do not know it?" + +"No," and Aunt Betsy grew very positive. "I am sure she ain't, for only +t'other day I said to Morris that I wouldn't wonder if Helen and another +chap had a hankerin' for one another; and he said he wished it might be +so, for you--no, that other chap, I mean--would make a splendid +husband," and Aunt Betsy turned very red at the blunder, which made Mark +Ray feel as if he walked on air, with no obstacle whatever in his path. + +Still he could not be satisfied without probing her a little deeper, and +so he said: "And that other chap? Does he live in Silverton?" + +Aunt Betsy's look was a sufficient answer; for the old lady knew he was +quizzing her, just as she felt that in some way she had removed a +stumbling block from his path. She had--a very large stumbling block, +and in the first flush of his joy and gratitude he could do most +anything. So when she spoke of going up to Katy's, he set himself +industriously at work to prevent it for that day at least. "They were to +have a large dinner party," he said, "and both Mrs. Cameron and Miss +Lennox would be wholly occupied. Would it not be better to wait until +to-morrow? Did she contemplate a long stay in New York?" + +"No, she might go back to-morrow--certainly the day after," Aunt Betsy +replied, her voice trembling at this fresh impediment thrown in the way +of her seeing Katy. + +The quaver in her voice touched Mark's sympathy. "She was old and +simple-hearted. She was Helen's aunt," and this, more than aught else, +helped him to a decision. "She must be homesick in the Bowery; he should +die if compelled to stay there long; he would take her to his mother's +and keep her until the morrow, and perhaps until she left for home; +telling Helen that night, of course, and then suffering her to act +accordingly." + +This he proposed to his client; assuring her of his mother's entire +willingness to receive her, and urging so many reasons why she should go +there, instead of "up to Katy's," where they were in such confusion that +Aunt Betsy was at last persuaded, and was soon riding uptown in a +Twenty-third Street stage, with Mark Ray her _vis-a-vis_ and Mattie at +her right. Why Mattie was there Mark could not conjecture; and perhaps +she did not know herself, unless it were that, disappointed in her call +on Mrs. Cameron, she vaguely hoped for some redress by calling on Mrs. +Banker. How then was she chagrined, when, as the stage left them at a +handsome brownstone front, near Fifth Avenue Hotel, Mark said to her, as +if she were not of course expected to go in, "Please tell your mother +that Miss Barlow is stopping with Mrs. Banker to-day. Has she baggage at +your house?--If so, we will send around for it at once. Your number, +please?" + +His manner was so offhand and yet so polite that Mattie could neither +resist him, nor yet be angry, though there was a sad feeling of +disappointment at her heart as she gave the required number, and then +shook Aunt Betsy's hand, whispering in a choked voice: + +"You'll come to us again before you go home?" + +"Of course I shall," Aunt Betsy answered, feeling that something was +wrong, and wondering if she herself were in fault. + +With a good-by to Mark, whose bow atoned for a great deal, Mattie walked +slowly away, leaving Mark greatly relieved. Aunt Betsy was as much as he +cared to have on his hands at once, and as he led her up the steps, he +began to wonder more and more what his mother would say to his bringing +that stranger into her house, unbidden and unsought. + +"I'll tell her just the truth," was his rapid decision, and assuming +a manner which warned the servant who answered his ring neither to be +curious nor impertinent, he conducted his charge into the parlor, and +bringing her a chair before the grate, went in quest of his mother, who +he found was out. + +"Kindle a fire then in the front guest chamber," he said, "and see that +it is made comfortable as soon as possible." + +The servant bowed in acquiescence, wondering who had come, and feeling +not a little surprised at the description given by John of the woman he +had let into the house, and who now in the parlor was looking around her +in astonishment and delight, thinking she had found New York at last, +and condemning herself for the feeling of homesickness with which she +remembered the Bowery, contrasting her "cluttered quarters" there with +the elegance around her. "Was Katy's house as fine as this?" she asked +herself, feeling intuitively that such as she might be out of place in +it, just as she began to fear she was out of her place here, bemoaning +the fact that she had forgotten her capbox, with its contents, and so +could not remove her bonnet, as she had nothing with which to cover her +gray head. + +"What shall I do?" she was asking herself, when Mark appeared, explaining +that his mother was absent, but would be at home in a short time. + +"Your room will soon be ready," he continued, "and meantime you might +lay aside your wrappings here if you find them too warm." + +There was something about Mark Ray which inspired confidence, and in her +extremity Aunt Betsy gasped, "I can't take off my bunnet till I get my +caps down to Mrs. Tubbs'. Oh, what a trouble I be." + +Not exactly comprehending the nature of the difficulty, Mark suggested +that she go without a cap until he could send for them; but Aunt Betsy's +assertion that "she was grayer than a rat," enlightened him with regard +to her dilemma, and full permission was given for her "to sit in her +bonnet" until such time as a messenger could go to the Bowery and back. +In this condition she had better be in her own room, and as it was in +readiness, Mark himself conducted her to it, the stern gravity of his +face putting down the laugh which sprang to the waiting maid's eyes at +the old lady's ejaculations of surprise and amazement that anything +could be so fine as the house where she so unexpectedly found herself a +guest. + +"She is unaccustomed to the city, but a particular friend of mine; so +see that you treat her with respect," was all the explanation he +vouchsafed to the curious girl. + +But that was enough. A friend of Mr. Ray's must be somebody, even if she +sat with two bonnets on instead of one, and appeared ten times more +rustic than Aunt Betsy, who breathed freer when she found herself alone +upstairs, and knew her baggage would soon be there. + +In some little trepidation Mark paced up and down the parlor waiting +for his mother, who came ere long, expressing her surprise to find him +there, and asking if anything had happened that he seemed so agitated. + +"Yes, I'm in a deuced scrape," he answered, coming up to her with the +saucy, winning smile she could never resist, and continuing, "To be in +at the foundation, you know how much I am in love with Helen Lennox?" + +"No, I don't," was the reply, as Mrs. Banker removed her fur with the +most provoking coolness. "How should I know when you have never told me?" + +"Haven't you eyes? Can't you see? Don't you like her yourself?" + +"Yes, very much." + +"And are you willing she should be your daughter?" + +Mark had his arm around his mother's neck, and bending his face to hers, +kissed her playfully as he asked her the last question. + +"Say, mother, are you willing I should marry Helen Lennox?" + +There was a struggle in Mrs. Banker's heart, and for a moment she felt +jealous of the girl whom she had guessed was dearer to her son than ever +his mother could be again, but she was a sensible woman. She knew that +it was natural for another and a stronger love to come between her and +her boy. She liked Helen Lennox. She was willing to take her as a +daughter, and she said so at last, and listened half amazed and half +amused to the story which had in it so much of Aunt Betsy Barlow, who +had cleared away his doubts, and who at that very moment was an occupant +of their best guest chamber, sitting with her bonnet on, and waiting for +her cap from the Bowery. + +"Perhaps it was wrong to bring her home," he added, "but I did it to +spare Helen. I knew just what a savage Wilford would be if he found her +there, where she would be in the way. Say, mother, was I wrong?" + +He was not often wrong in his mother's estimation, and certainly he was +not now, when he kissed her so often, begging her to say he had done +right. + +Certainly he had. Mrs. Banker was very glad to find him so thoughtful; +few young men would do as much, she said, and from feeling a little +doubtful, Mark came to look upon himself as a very nice young man, who +had done a most unselfish act, for of course he had not been influenced +by any desire to keep Aunt Betsy from the people who would be present at +the dinner, neither had Helen been at all mixed up in the affair. + +It was all himself, and he began to whistle "Annie Laurie" very +complacently, thinking the while what a clever fellow he was, and +meditating other dangerous acts toward the old lady overhead, standing +by the window, and wondering what the huge building could be gleaming +so white in the fading light. + +"Looks as if it was made of stone cheena," she thought, just as Mrs. +Banker appeared, her kind, friendly manner making Aunt Betsy feel wholly +at ease, as she answered the lady's questions or volunteered remarks of +her own. + +Mrs. Banker had lived in the country, and had seen just such women as +Aunt Betsy Barlow, understanding her intrinsic worth, and knowing how +Helen Lennox, though her niece, could still be refined and cultivated. +She could also understand how one educated as Wilford Cameron had been +would shrink from coming in contact with her, and possibly be rude if +she thrust herself upon him. Mark did well to bring her here, she +thought, as she left the room to order the tea which the tired woman so +much needed. The satchel, umbrella and capbox, with a note from Mattie, +had by this time arrived, and in her Sunday cap, with the purple bows, +Aunt Betsy felt much better, and enjoyed the tempting little supper, +served on silver and Sevres china, the attendant waiting in the hall +instead of in her room, where her presence might embarrass one +unaccustomed to such usages. They were thoughtful, very kind, and had +Mark been her own son she could not have been more deferential than he +appeared when just before starting for the dinner he went up to see her, +asking what message he should take to Helen. Mrs. Banker, too, came in, +her dress eliciting many compliments from her guest, who ventured to ask +the price of the diamond pin which fastened the point lace collar. Five +hundred dollars seemed an enormous sum, but Aunt Betsy was learning fast +not to say all she thought, and merely remarked that Katy had some +diamonds, too, which she presumed cost full as much as that. + +"She should do very well alone," she said, "she could read her Bible, +and if she got too tired, go to bed, though she guessed she should stay +up till they came home, so as to hear about the doin's," and with a +good-by she sent them away, after saying to Mrs. Banker, "Maybe you +ain't the kissin' kind, but if you be, I wish you would kiss Katy once +for me." + +There was a merry twinkle in Mark's eyes as he asked: + +"And Helen, too?" + +"I meant your marm, not you," Aunt Betsy answered; while Mrs. Banker +raised her hand to her mischievous son, who ran lightly down the stairs, +carrying a happier heart than he had known since Helen Lennox had first +come to New York, and he had met her at the depot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE DINNER PARTY. + + +It was a very select party which Wilford Cameron entertained that +evening; and as the carriages rolled to his door and deposited the +guests, the cloud which had been lifting ever since he came home and +found "no Barlow woman" there, disappeared entirely, leaving him the +blandest, most urbane of hosts, pleased with everybody--himself, his +guests, his sister-in-law, and his wife, who had never looked better +than she did to-night, in pearls and light blue silk, which harmonized +so perfectly with her waxlike complexion. Like some little fairy she +flitted through the rooms, receiving, with a sweet childlike grace the +kiss which Mrs. Banker gave her, but never dreaming from whom it came. +Aunt Betsy's proximity was wholly unsuspected, both by her and Helen, +who was very handsome to-night, in crimson and black, with lilies in her +hair. Nothing could please Mark better than his seat at table, where he +could look into her eyes, which dropped so shyly whenever they met his +ardent gaze. Helen was beginning to doubt the story of his engagement +with Juno, or at least to think that it might possibly have been broken +off. Certainly she could not mistake the nature of the attentions he +paid to her, especially to-night, when he hovered continually near her, +totally ignoring Juno's presence, and conscious apparently of only one +form, one face, and that the face and form of Helen Lennox. + +There was another, too, who felt the influence of Helen's beauty, and +that was Lieutenant Bob, who, after dinner, attached himself to her +side, while around them gathered quite a group, all listening with peals +of laughter as Bob, who was something of a mimic, related his adventure +of two days before, with "the most rustic and charming old lady it was +ever his fortune to meet." Told by Bob the story lost nothing of its +freshness; for every particular, except indeed the kindness he had shown +her, was related, even to the sheep pasture, about which she was going +to New York to consult a lawyer. + +"I thought once of referring her to you, Mr. Cameron," Bob said; "but +couldn't find it in my heart to quiz her, she was so wholly unsuspicious. +You have not seen her, have you?" + +"No," came faintly from the lips which tried to smile; for Wilford knew +who was the heroine of that story; wondering more and more where she +was, and feeling a sensation of uneasiness as he thought, "Can any +accident have befallen her?" + +It was hardly probable; but Wilford felt very uncomfortable after +hearing the story, which had brought a pang of doubt and fear to another +mind than his. From the very first Helen feared that Aunt Betsy was the +"odd woman" who had gotten upon the train at some station which Bob +could not remember; while, as the story progressed, she was sure of it, +for she had heard of the sheep-pasture trouble, and of Aunt Betsy's +projected visit to New York, privately writing to her mother not to +suffer it, as Wilford would be so greatly vexed. "Yes, it must be Aunt +Betsy," she thought, and she turned so white that Mark, who was watching +both her and Wilford, came as soon as possible to her side, and adroitly +separating from the group around, said softly: "You look tired, Miss +Lennox. Come with me a moment. I have something to tell you." + +Alone with her in the hall, he continued, "I have the sequel of Bob +Reynolds' story. That woman--" + +"Was Aunt Betsy," Helen gasped. "But where is she now? That was two days +ago. Tell me if you know. Mr. Ray, you do know," and in her agony of +fear lest something dreadful had happened, she laid her hand on Mark's, +beseeching him to tell her if he knew where Aunt Betsy was. + +It was worth torturing her for a moment to see the pleading look in her +eyes, and feel the soft touch of the hand which he took between both his +own, holding it there while he answered her: "Aunt Betsy is at my house; +kidnapped by me for safe keeping, until I could consult with you. Was +that right?" he asked as a flush came to Helen's cheek, and an +expression to her eye which told that his meaning was understood. + +"Is she there willingly? How did it happen?" was Helen's reply, her +hand still in those of Mark, who thus circumstanced grew very warm and +eloquent with the sequel to Bob's story, making it as long as possible, +telling what he knew, and also what he had done. + +He had not implicated Wilford in any way; but Helen read it all, saying +more to herself than him: "And she was at the opera. Wilford must have +seen her, and that is why he left so suddenly, and why he has appeared +so absent and nervous to-day, as if expecting something. Excuse me," she +suddenly added, drawing her hand away and stepping back a little, "I +forgot that I was talking as if you knew." + +"I do know more than you suppose--that is, I know human nature--and I +know Will better than I did that morning when I first met you," Mark +said, glancing at the freed hand he wished so much to take again. + +But Helen kept her hands to herself, and answered him. + +"You did right under the circumstances. It would have been unpleasant +for us all had she happened here to-night. I thank you, Mr. Ray--you and +your mother, too--more than I can express. I will see her early to-morrow +morning. Tell her so, please, and again I thank you." + +There were tears in Helen's soft brown eyes, and they glittered like +diamonds as she looked even more than spoke her thanks to the young man, +who, for another look like that, would have driven Aunt Betsy amid the +gayest crowd that ever frequented the Park, and sworn she was his blood +relation! A few words from Mrs. Banker confirmed what Mark had said, and +it was not strange if that night Miss Lennox, usually so entertaining, +was a little absent, for her thoughts were up in that chamber on +Twenty-third Street, where Aunt Betsy sat alone, but not lonely, for +her mind was very busy with all she had been through since leaving +Silverton, while something kept suggesting to her that it would have +been wiser and better to have stayed at home than to have ventured where +she was so sadly out of place. This last came gradually to Aunt Betsy +as she thought the matter over, and remembered Wilford as he had +appeared each time he came to Silverton. + +"I ain't like him; I ain't like this Miss Banker; I ain't like anybody," +she whispered. "I'm nothin' but a homely, old-fashioned woman, without +larnin', without nothin'. I might know I wasn't wanted," and a rain of +tears fell over the wrinkled face as she uttered this tirade against +herself, standing before the long mirror and inspecting the image it +gave back of a plain, unpolished countrywoman, not much resembling Mrs. +Banker, it must be confessed, nor much resembling the gay young ladies +she had seen at the opera the previous night. "I won't go near Katy," +she continued; "it will only mortify her, and I don't want to make her +trouble. The poor thing's face looked as if she had it now, and I won't +add to it. I'll start for home to-morrow. There's Miss Smith, in +Springfield, will keep me overnight, and Katy shan't be bothered." + +When this decision was reached Aunt Betsy felt a great deal better, and +taking the Bible from the table, she sat down again before the fire, +opening, as by a special Providence, to the chapter where hewers of wood +and drawers of water are mentioned as being necessary to mankind, each +filling his appointed place. + +"That's me--that's Betsy Barlow," she whispered, taking off her glasses +to wipe away the moisture gathering so fast upon them. Then resuming +them, she continued: "I'm a hewer of wood--a drawer of water. God made +me so, and shall the clay find fault with the potter for making it into +a homely jug? No, indeed; and I was a very foolish old jug to think of +sticking myself in with the chinaware. But I've larnt a lesson," and the +philosophic woman read on, feeling comforted to know that though a +vessel of the rudest make, a paltry jug, as she called herself, the +promises were still for her as much as for the finer wares--ay, that +there was more hope of her entering at last where "the walls are all of +precious stones and the streets are paved with gold," than of those +whose good things are given so abundantly during their lifetime. + +Assured, comforted, and encouraged, she fell asleep at last, and when +Mrs. Banker returned she found her slumbering quietly in her chair, the +Bible open on her lap, and her finger upon the passage referring to the +hewers of wood and drawers of water, as if that was the last thing read. + +Next morning, at a comparatively early hour, Helen stood ringing the +bell of Mrs. Banker's house. She had passed a restless, but not +altogether wretched night, for the remembrance of Mark's kindness in +keeping Aunt Betsy away, and his manner while telling her of it would +not permit of her being more than anxious as she lay awake, wondering +why Mark was so kind, and if it could be possible that he was free from +Juno and cared for her. It made her happy to think so, and her face, as +she stood upon the steps, looked bright and fresh, instead of pale and +tired, as it usually did after a night of wakefulness. She had said to +Katy that she was going out and could not tell just when she might +return, and as Katy never questioned her acts, while Wilford was too +intent upon his own miserable thoughts as to "where Aunt Betsy could be +or what had befallen her," to heed any one else, no inquiries were made +and no obstacles put in the way of her going to Mrs. Banker's, where +Mark met her himself, holding her cold hand until he led her to the fire +and placed her in a chair. He knew she would rather meet her aunt alone, +and so when he heard her step in the hall he left the room, holding the +door for Aunt Betsy, who wept like a little child at the sight of Helen, +accusing herself of being a fool, an old fool, who ought to be shut up +in the insane asylum, but persisting in saying she was going home that +very day without seeing Katy at all. "If she was here I'd like it, but I +shan't go there, for I know Wilford don't want me. Say, Helen, don't you +think he'll be ashamed of me and wish I was in Guinea?" she asked as her +desire to see Katy grew stronger, but was met and combated with her +dread of Wilford! + +Helen could not tell her he would be ashamed, but Aunt Betsy knew she +meant it, and with a fresh gush of tears she gave the project up +entirely, telling Helen all she did not already know of her trip to New +York, her visit to the opera, her staying with the Tubbses and her +meeting with Mark, the best young chap she ever saw, not even excepting +Morris. "If he was my own son, he couldn't be kinder," she added, "and I +mistrust he hopes to be my nephew. You can't do better, and if he +offers, take him." + +Helen's cheeks were crimson as she waived this part of the conversation +and wished aloud that she had come around in the carriage, as she could +thus have taken Aunt Betsy over the city before the train would leave. + +"Mark spoke of that when he heard I was going to-day," Aunt Betsy said; +"I'll warrant you he'll tend to it." + +Aunt Betsy was right, for when Mark and his mother joined their guests +and learned that Aunt Betsy's intention was unchanged, he suggested the +ride and offered the use of their carriage. Helen did not decline the +offer, and ere half an hour had passed, Aunt Betsy, with her satchel, +umbrella and capbox, was comfortably adjusted in Mrs. Banker's carriage +with Helen beside her, while Mark bade his coachman drive wherever Miss +Lennox wished to go, taking care to reach the train in time. + +They were tearful thanks which Aunt Betsy gave to her kind friends as +she was driven away, going first to the Bowery to say good-by and leave +the packages of fruits and herbs, lest the Tubbses should "think her +suddenly stuck up." + +"Would you mind taking 'Tilda in? It would please her mightily," Aunt +Betsy whispered, as they were alighting in front of Mr. Peter Tubbs'; +and as the result of this suggestion the carriage, when again it emerged +into Broadway, held Mattie Tubbs, happier, prouder than she had been in +all her life before, while the gratified mother at home felt amply +repaid for all the trouble her visitor had made her. + +And Helen enjoyed it, too, finding Mattie a little insipid and tiresome, +it is true, but feeling happy in the consciousness that she was making +others happy. It was a long drive they took, and Aunt Betsy saw so much +that her brain grew giddy and she was glad when they started for the +depot, taking Madison Square on the way and passing Katy's house. + +"I dare say it is all grand and smart," Aunt Betsy said, leaning out to +look at it, "but I feel best at hum where they are used to me." + +And her face did bear a brighter look, when finally seated in the cars, +than it had before since she left Silverton. + +"You'll be home in April, and maybe Katy'll come, too," she whispered as +she kissed Helen good-by and shook hands with Mattie Tubbs, thanking her +for her kindness in seein' to an old woman, and charging her again never +to let the folks in Silverton know that "Betsy Barlow had once been seen +at a playhouse." + +Slowly the cars moved away and Helen was driven home, leaving Mattie +alone in her glory as she rolled down the Bowery, enjoying greatly the +_eclat_ of her position, but feeling a little chagrined at not meeting a +single acquaintance by whom to be envied and admired. Only Tom saw her +alight, giving vent to a whistle, and asking if she didn't feel big, as +he tried to hold out his pantaloons in imitation of her dress and walk +as she disappeared through the door where the dry goods were swinging. + +Katy did not ask where Helen had been, for she was wholly absorbed in +Marian Hazelton's letter, telling how fast the baby improved, how pretty +it was growing, and how fond both she and Mrs. Hubbell were of it, +loving it almost as well as if it were their own. + +"I know now it was best for it to go, but it was hard at first," Katy +said, putting the letter away, and sighing wearily as she missed the +clasp of the little arms and touch of the baby lips. + +Several times Helen was tempted to tell her of Aunt Betsy's visit, but +decided finally not to do so as it might distress her to know that +strangers rendered the hospitalities it was her duty to give, and so +Katy never guessed the truth, nor knew what it was which for many days +made Wilford so nervous and uneasy, starting quickly at every sudden +ring, going often to the window, and looking out into the street as if +expecting some one who never came, while he grew strangely anxious for +news from Silverton, asking when Katy had heard from home, and why she +did not write. One there was, however, who knew and who enjoyed it +vastly, watching Wilford closely, and guessing just how his anxiety +grew as day after day went by; and she neither came nor was heard from +in any way, for Helen did not show the letter apprising her of Aunt +Betsy's safe arrival home, and so all in Wilford's mind was left a vague +conjecture. + +He had seen her, she had been in New York, as was proven by Bob +Reynolds, but where was she now, and who were those people with her? Had +they entrapped her into some snare, and possibly murdered her? It might +be. Such things were not of rare occurrence, and Wilford actually grew +poor with the uncertainty which hung over the fate of one whom in his +present state of mind he would have warmly welcomed to his fireside, had +there been a dozen dinner parties in progress. At last, as he sat one +day in his office, with the same worried look on his face, Mark, who had +also been watching him, said: + +"By the way, Will, how did that sheep pasture come out, or didn't the +client appear?" + +"Mark," and Wilford's voice was husky with emotion; "you've stumbled +upon the very thing which is tormenting my life out of me. Aunt Betsy +has never turned up or been heard from since that night. For aught I +know she was murdered, or spirited away, and I am half distracted. I'd +give a thousand dollars to know what has become of her." + +"Put down half that pile and I'll tell you," was Mark's nonchalant +reply, while Wilford, seizing his shoulder and compelling him to look +up, exclaimed: + +"You know, then? Tell me--you do know? Where is she?" + +"Safe in Silverton, I presume," was the reply, and then Mark told his +story, to which Wilford listened, half incredulous, half indignant, and +a good deal relieved. + +"You are a splendid fellow, Mark, though I must say you meddled, but I +know you did not do it unselfishly. Yes, on the whole, I thank you and +Helen, too, for saving me that mortification. I feel like a new man, +knowing the old lady is safe at home, where I trust she will remain. And +that Tom, who called here yesterday, asking to be our clerk, is the +youth I saw at the opera. I thought his face was familiar. Let him come +of course. In my gratitude I feel like patronizing the entire Tubbs +family." + +And so it was this flash of gratitude for a peril escaped which procured +for young Tom Tubbs the situation of clerk in the office of Cameron and +Ray, the application for such situation having been urged by the +ambitious Mattie, who felt her dignity considerably increased when she +could speak of Brother Tom in company with Messrs. Cameron & Ray. And it +was also a part of the same gratitude which suggested the huge package +of merino and gingham, calico and linen, together with the handsome silk +shawl and black lace veil, which a few days later was left by the +express boy at the door of the farmhouse for Miss Betsy Barlow, who in +a long letter overwhelmed Katy with her thanks, and nearly let out her +visit to New York, as yet a secret to Mrs. Wilford. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE SEVENTH REGIMENT. + + +Does the reader remember the pleasant spring days of four years ago, +when the thunder of Fort Sumter's bombardment came echoing up to the +Northern hills and across the Western prairies, stopping for a moment +the pulses of the nation, but quickening them again with a mighty power +as from Maine to California man after man arose to smite the maddened +foe trailing our honored flag in the dust? Nowhere, perhaps, was the +excitement so great or the feeling so strong as in New York, when the +Seventh Regiment was ordered on to Washington, its members, who so often +had trodden the streets with a proud step, never faltering or holding +back, but with a nerving of the will and a putting aside of self, +prepared to do their duty. Conspicuous among them was Mark Ray, who, +laughing at his mother's fears, kissed her livid cheek, and then with +a pang remembered Helen--dearer even than his mother--wondering how she +would feel, and thinking the path to danger would be so much easier if +he knew her love was his, that her prayers, her wishes would go with +him, shielding him from harm and bringing him back again to the +sunshine of her presence. + +And before he went Mark must know this for certain, chiding himself for +having put it off so long. True she had been sick and confined to her +room for a long while after Aunt Betsy's memorable visit; and when she +was able to go out, Lent had put a stop to her mingling in festive +scenes, so that he had seen but little of her, and had never met her +alone. But he would write that very day. She knew, of course, that he +was going, bidding him Godspeed he was sure, for her whole heart was +with the gallant men who had stood so nobly against the enemy, +surrendering only because they must. She would say that he did well to +go; and she would answer "yes" to the question he would ask her. Mark +felt sure of that; but still the letter he wrote was eloquent with his +pleadings for her love, while he confessed his own, and asked that she +would be his wife--would give him the right to carry her in his +heart--to think of her as his affianced bride--to know she waited for +his return, and would crown it at last with the full fruition of her +priceless love. + +"I meet a few of my particular friends at Mrs. Grandon's to-night," he +added, in conclusion. "Can I hope to see you there, taking your presence +as a token that I may speak and tell you in words what I have so poorly +written?" + +"She surely will be there, as it is the last, perhaps, she'll ever see +of some of us poor wretches," Mark said, his hand trembling a little as +he sealed the note, which he would not trust to the post. + +He would deliver it himself, avoiding the possibility of a mistake, he +said, and half an hour later he rang the bell at No. ----, asking "If +Miss Lennox was at home." + +She was; and handing the girl the note, Mark ran down the steps, while +the servant carried the missive to the library, where upon the table lay +other letters received that morning by the penny post, and as yet +unopened; for Katy was very busy, and Helen was dressing to go out with +Juno Cameron, who had graciously asked her to drive with her that +morning and look at a picture she had set her heart on having. + +Juno had not yet appeared; but Mark was scarcely out of sight when she +came in with the familiarity of a sister and entered the library to +wait. Carelessly turning over the books upon the table, she stumbled +over Mark's letter, which, through some defect in the envelope, had +become unsealed, and lay with its edge lifted so that to peer at its +contents was a very easy matter had she been so disposed. But Juno, +though indignant and jealous--for she knew the handwriting--could not at +first bring herself even to touch what was intended for her rival. But +as she gazed the longing grew, until at last she took it in her hand, +turning it to the light, and tracing distinctly the words "My dear +Helen," while a storm of pain and passion swept over her, mingled with +a feeling of shame that she had let herself down so far. + +"It does not matter now," the tempter whispered. "You may as well read +it and know the worst. Nobody will suspect it," and so, led on step by +step, she was about to take the folded letter from the envelope, +intending fully to replace it after it was read, when a rapid step +warned her some one was coming, and hastily thrusting the letter in her +pocket, she dropped her veil to cover her confusion, and then confronted +Helen Lennox, ready for the drive, and all unconscious of the wrong +which could not then be righted. + +Juno was unusually kind and familiar that morning, delicately +complimenting Helen's taste with regard to pictures, and trying in +various ways to forget the letter which lay upon her conscience like +a leaden weight, driving all other thoughts from her mind, and leaving +only the torturing one, "How can I return it without detection?" Juno +did not mean to keep the letter, and all that morning she was devising +measures for making restitution, even thinking once to confess the +whole, but shrinking from that as more than she could do. As they were +driving home they met Mark Ray; but Helen, who chanced to be looking in +an opposite direction, did not see the earnest look of scrutiny he gave +her, scarcely heeding Juno, whose face was all ablaze with guilt as she +returned his bow, and whose voice trembled as she spoke of him to Helen +and his intended departure. Helen observed the tremor in her voice, and +pitied the girl whose agitation she fancied arose from the fact that her +lover was so soon to go where danger and possibly death were waiting. +In Helen's heart, too, there was a cutting pang whenever she remembered +Mark, and what had so recently passed between them, raising hopes which +now were wholly blasted. For he was Juno's, she believed, and the grief +at his projected departure was the cause of that young lady's softened +and even humbled demeanor, as she insisted on Helen's stopping at her +house for lunch before going home. + +To this Helen consented--Juno still revolving in her mind how to return +the letter, which grew more and more a horror to her. It was in her +pocket yet, she knew, for she had felt it there when, after lunch, she +went to her room for a fresh handkerchief. She would accompany Helen +home, would manage to slip into the library alone, and put it partly +under a book, so that it would appear to be hidden, and thus account for +it not having been seen before; or better yet, she would catch it up +playfully and banter Helen on her carelessness in leaving her love +letters so exposed. This last seemed a very clever plan, and with her +spirits quite elated, Juno drove around with Helen, finding no one in +the parlor below, and felicitating herself upon the fact that Helen left +her alone while she ran up to Katy. + +"Now is my time," she thought, stealing noiselessly into the library and +feeling for the letter. + +But it was not there. It was missing, gone, and no amount of search, no +shaking of handkerchief, or turning of pocket inside out could avail to +find it. The letter was lost, and in the utmost consternation Juno +returned to the parlor, still hunting for the letter, and appearing so +abstracted as scarcely to be civil when Katy came down to see her; +asking if she was going that night to Sybil Grandon's, and talking of +the dreadful war, which she hoped would not be a war after all. Juno was +too wretched to talk, and after a few moments she started for home, +hunting in her own room and through the halls, but failing in her +search, and finally giving it up, with the consoling reflection that +were it found in the street, as seemed quite probable, no suspicion +could fasten on her; and as fear of detection, rather than contrition +for the sin, had been the cause of her distress, she grew comparatively +calm, save when her conscience made itself heard and admonished +confession as the only reparation which was now in her power. But Juno +could not confess, and all that day she was absent-minded and silent, +while her mother watched her closely, wondering what connection, if any, +there was between her burning cheeks and the letter she had found upon +the floor in her daughter's room just after she had left it; the letter, +at whose contents she had glanced, shutting her lips firmly together as +she saw that her plans had failed, and finally putting the document away +where there was less hope of its ever finding its rightful owner than if +it had remained with Juno. Had Mrs. Cameron supposed that Helen had +already seen it, she would have returned it at once; but of this she had +her doubts, after learning that "Miss Lennox did not go upstairs at +all." Juno, then, must have been the delinquent; and though the mother +shrank from the act as unladylike, if nothing more, she resolved to keep +the letter till some inquiry was made for it at least. And so Helen, +sitting by her window, and looking dreamily out into the street, with a +feeling of sad foreboding as she thought of the dark cloud which had +burst so suddenly upon the nation's horizon, enveloping Mark Ray in its +dark fold, and bearing him away, possibly never to return again, had no +suspicion of the truth, and did not guess how anxiously the young man +was anticipating the interview at Sybil Grandon's, scarcely doubting +that she would be there, and fancying just the expression of her eyes +when they first met his. Alas for Mark, also for Helen, that both should +be so cruelly deceived. Had the latter known of the loving words sent +from the true heart which longed for some word of hers to lighten the +long march and beguile the tedious days of absence, she would not have +said to Katy, when asked if going to Mrs. Grandon's, "Oh, no; please +don't urge me. I would so much rather stay at home." + +Katy would not insist and so went alone with Wilford to the +entertainment given to a few young men who seemed as heroes then, when +the full meaning of that word had not been exemplified, as it has been +since in the life so cheerfully laid down and the heart's blood poured +so freely, by the tens of thousands who have won a martyr's and a hero's +name. Curiously, eagerly Mark Ray scanned each new arrival, feeling his +lips grow white and his pulses faint when he at last caught sight of +Wilford's tall figure, and looked for what might be beside it. But only +Katy was there. Helen had not come, and with a feeling of chill despair +Mark listened while Katy explained to Mrs. Grandon that her sister had +fully intended coming in the morning, but had suddenly changed her mind +and begged to be excused. + +"I am sorry," Sybil said, "and so I am sure is Mr. Ray," turning lightly +to Mark, whose white face froze the gay laugh on her lips and made her +try to shield him from observation until he had time to recover himself +and appear as usual. + +How Mark blessed Sybil Grandon for that kindness, and how wildly the +blood throbbed through his veins as he thought "She would not come. She +does not care. I have deceived myself in hoping that she did, and now +welcome war, welcome anything which shall help me to forget." + +Mark was very wretched, and his wretchedness showed itself upon his +face, making more than one rally him for what they termed fear, while +they tried to reassure him that to the Seventh there could be no danger +after Baltimore was safely passed. This was more than Mark could bear, +and at an early hour he left the house, bidding Katy good-by in the +hall, and telling her he probably should not see her again, as he would +not have time to call. + +"Not call to say good-by to Helen," Katy exclaimed. + +"Helen will not care," was Mark's reply as he hurried away into the +darkness of the night, more welcome in his present state of mind than +the gay scene he had left. + +And this was all Katy had to carry to Helen, who beat the window pane +nervously, fighting back the tears wrung out by her disappointment, for +she had expected to see Mark once more, to bless him as a sister might +bless a brother, speaking to him words of cheer and bidding him go on to +where duty led. But he was not coming and she only saw him from the +carriage window, as with proud step and head erect he passed with his +regiment through the densely crowded streets, where the wailing cries +and the loud hurrahs of the multitude, which no man could number, rent +the air and told how terribly in earnest the great city was, and how +its heart was with that gallant band, their pet, their pride, sent forth +on a mission such as it had never had before. But Mark did not see +Helen, and only his mother's white face as it looked when it said "God +bless my boy" was clear before his eyes as he moved on through Broadway +and down Cortlandt Street, until the ferryboat received him, and the +crowd began to disperse. + +There was more than one pillow wet with tears that night as mothers, +wives and sisters wept for the loved ones gone, but nowhere were sadder, +bitterer tears shed than in the silent chamber where Helen Lennox prayed +that God would guard that regiment and bring it back again as full of +life and vigor as it had gone away. For them all she prayed, in a +general kind of way, but there was one whose image was in her heart, +whose name was ever on her lip, breaking the silence of the room, which +echoed the name of Mark, who, could he have heard that prayer, would +have cast aside the heavy pain, so hard to bear during those first days +when his cruel disappointment was fresh and the soldier duty new. + +Now that Mark was gone, Mrs. Banker turned intuitively to Helen, finding +greater comfort in her quiet sympathy than in the more wordy condolence +offered by Juno, who as she heard nothing from the letter, began to lose +her fears of detection and even suffer her friends to rally her upon the +absence of Mark Ray and the anxiety she must feel on his account. +Moments there were, however, when thoughts of the stolen letter brought +a pang, while Helen's face was a continual reproach, and she was glad +when toward the first of May her rival left New York for Silverton, +where, as the spring and summer work came on, her services were needed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +KATY GOES TO SILVERTON. + + +A summer day in Silverton--a soft, bright August day, when the early +rareripes by the well were turning their red cheeks to the sun, and the +flowers in the garden were lifting their heads proudly and nodding to +each other as if they knew the secret which made that day so bright +above all others. Old Whitey, by the hitching post, was munching at his +oats and glancing occasionally at the covered buggy standing on the +greensward, fresh and clean as water from the pond could make it; the +harness, new, not mended, lying upon a rock, where Katy used to feed the +sheep with salt, and the whip standing upright in its socket, all +waiting for the deacon, donning his best suit of clothes, even to a +stiff shirt collar which almost cut his ears, his face shining with +anticipations which he knew would be realized. Katy was really coming +home, and in proof thereof there were behind the house and barn piles of +rubbish, lath and plaster, moldy paper and broken bricks, the tokens and +remains of the repairing process, which for so long a time had made the +farmhouse a scene of dire confusion, driving its inmates nearly +distracted, except when they remembered for whose sake they endured so +much, inhaling clouds of lime, stepping over heaps of mortar, tearing +their dress skirts on sundry nails projecting from every conceivable +quarter, and wondering the while if the masons ever would finish or the +carpenters be gone. + +As a condition on which Katy might be permitted to come home, Wilford +had stipulated an improvement in the interior arrangement of the house, +offering to bear the expense even to the furnishing of the rooms. To +this the family demurred at first, not liking Wilford's dictatorial +manner, nor his insinuation that their home was not good enough for +his wife, Mrs. Katy Cameron. But Helen turned the tide, appreciating +Wilford's feelings better than the others could do, and urging a +compliance with his request. + +"Anything to get Katy home," she said, and so the chimney was torn away, +a window was put here and an addition made there, until the house was +really improved with its pleasant, modern parlor and the large airy +bedroom, with bathing-room attached, the whole the idea of Wilford, who +graciously deigned to come out once or twice from New London, where he +was spending a few weeks, to superintend the work and suggest how it +should be done. + +The furniture, too, which he sent on from New York, was perfect in its +kind, not elegant like Katy's, but well adapted to the rooms it was to +adorn, and suitable in every respect. Helen enjoyed the settling very +much, and when it was finished it was hard telling which was the more +pleased, she or good Aunt Betsy, who, having confessed in a general kind +of way at a sewing society that she did go to a playhouse, and was not +so very sorry either, except as the example might do harm, had nothing +on her conscience now, nothing to fear from New York, and was +proportionately happy. At least she would have been if Morris had not +seemed so off, as she expressed it, and evincing no pleasure at Katy's +expected visit. He had been polite to Wilford, had kept him at Linwood, +taking him to and from the depot, but even Wilford had thought him +changed, telling Katy how very sober and grave he had become, rarely +smiling, and not seeming to care to talk unless it were about his +profession or on some religious topic. And Morris was greatly changed. +The wound which in most hearts would have healed by this time had grown +deeper with each succeeding year, while from all he heard he felt sure +that Katy's marriage was a sad mistake, wishing sometimes that he had +spoken, and so perhaps have saved her from the life in which she could +not be wholly free. "She would be happier with me," he had said, with a +sad smile to Helen, when once she told him of some things which she had +not mentioned elsewhere, and there were great tears in Morris' eyes, +tears of which he was not ashamed when Helen spoke of Katy's distress, +and the look which crept into her face when baby was taken away. When +Morris first heard of the baby he had hoped he might love Katy less; +that she would seem to him as more a wife and less a girl, but she did +not, and there were times when the silent doctor, living alone at +Linwood, felt that his grief was too great to bear. But the deep, dark +waters were always forded safely, and Morris' faith in God prevailed, so +that only a dull, heavy pain remained, with the consciousness that it +was no sin to remember Katy as she was remembered now. Oh, how he had +longed to see her, and yet how he had dreaded it, lest poor weak human +flesh should prove inadequate to the sight. But she was coming home; +Providence had ordered that and he accepted it, looking eagerly for the +time when he should see her again, but repressing his eagerness, so that +not even Helen suspected how impatient he was for the day of her return. +Four weeks she had been at the Pequot House in New London, occupying a +little cottage and luxuriating in the joy of having her child with her +almost every day. Country air and country nursing had wrought wonders in +the baby, which had grown so beautiful and bright that it was no longer +in Wilford's way save as it took too much of Katy's time, and made her +careless for the gay crowd at the hotel. + +Marian was working at her trade, and never came to the hotel except one +day when Wilford was in New York, but that day sufficed for Katy to know +that after herself it was Marian whom baby loved the best--Marian, who +cared for it even more than Mrs. Hubbell. And Katy was glad to have it +so, especially after Wilford and his mother decided that she must leave +the child in New London while she made the visit to Silverton. + +Wilford did not like her taking so much care of it as she was inclined +to do. It had grown too heavy for her to lift; it was better with Mrs. +Hubbell, he said, and so to the inmates of the farmhouse Katy wrote that +baby was not coming. + +They were bitterly disappointed, for Katy's baby had been anticipated +quite as much as Katy herself, Aunt Betsy bringing from the woodshed +chamber a cradle which nearly forty years before had rocked the deacon's +only child, the little boy, who died just as he had learned to lisp his +mother's name. As a momento of those days the cradle had been kept, Katy +using it sometimes for her kittens and her dolls, until she grew too old +for that, when it was put away beneath the eaves whence Aunt Betsy +dragged it, scouring it with soap and sand, until it was white as snow. +But it would not be needed, and with a sigh the old lady carried it +back, thinking "things had come to a pretty pass when a woman who could +dance and carouse till twelve o'clock at night was too weakly to take +care of her child," and feeling a very little awe of Katy who must have +grown so fine a lady. + +But all this passed away as the time drew near when Katy was to come, +and no one seemed happier than Aunt Betsy on the morning when Whitey was +eating his oats, and the carriage stood on the greensward. The sky above +and the earth beneath were much as they were that other day when they +were expecting Katy, but Helen's face was not as bright, or her steps as +buoyant. She could not forget who was there one year ago, and all the +morning painful memories had been tugging at her heart as she remembered +the past, and wondered at the gloomy silence which Mark Ray had +maintained toward her ever since the day when the Seventh Regiment left +New York, followed by so many prayers and tears. He had returned, she +knew, but neither from his mother nor himself had there ever come a word +or message for her, while Bell Cameron, who wrote to her occasionally, +had spoken of his attentions to Juno as becoming more pointed than ever. + +"I have strong hopes that in time Juno will be quite a woman," Bell +added. "She is not so proud and sarcastic as she used to be, and all the +while Mark was gone she seemed very much depressed, so that I began to +believe she really liked him. You would hardly recognize her in her new +phase, she acts so humble like, as if she were constantly asking +forgiveness; and this, you know, is something novel for her." + +After this letter Helen sat herself resolutely at work to forget all +that had ever passed between herself and Mark, succeeding so well that +Silverton and its duties ceased to be very irksome, until the +anniversary of the morning when he had twined the lily in her hair, and +looked such fancies in her heart. It was well for her that too many +things were claiming her attention to allow of solitary regrets. + +Katy's room was to be arranged, Katy's "box bed," as Aunt Betsy called +it, to be fixed, flowers to be gathered for the parlor and vegetables +for the dinner, so that her hands were full, up to the moment when Uncle +Ephraim drove away from the door, setting old Whitey into a canter, +which, by the time the "race" was reached, had become a rapid trot, the +old man holding up his reins and looking proudly at the oat-fed animal, +speeding along so fast. + +He did not have long to wait this time, for the train came rolling +across the meadow, and while his head was turned toward the car where he +fancied she might be, a pair of arms were thrown impetuously around his +neck, and a little figure, standing on tiptoe, almost pulled him down in +its attempts to kiss him. + +"Uncle Eph! oh, Uncle Eph, I've come! I'm here," a young voice cried; +but the words the deacon would have spoken were smothered by the kisses +which pressed upon his lips, kisses which only came to an end when a +voice said, rather reprovingly: "There, Katy, that will do. You have +almost strangled him." + +Wilford had not been expected, and the expression of the deacon's face +was not a very cordial greeting to the young man who hastened to explain +that he should only stop till the next train, and then go on to Boston. +In his presence the deacon was not quite natural, but he lifted in his +arms his "little Katy-did," looking straight into her face, where there +were as yet no real lines of care, only shadows, which told that in some +respects she was not the same Katy he had parted with two years before. +There was a good deal of the city about her dress and style, and the +deacon felt a little overawed at first; but this wore off as on their +way to the farmhouse, she, sitting partly in his lap and partly in her +husband's, kept one hand upon his neck, her snowy fingers occasionally +playing with his silvery hair, while she looked at him with her loving +old smile, and asked questions about the people he supposed she had +forgotten, nodding to everybody she met, whether she knew them or not, +and at last, as the old house came in sight, hiding her face in a gush +of happy tears upon his neck, not Wilford's. That gentleman was watching +her in silence, wishing she were less impulsive, and wondering at the +strong home-love he could not understand. To him there was nothing +pleasant in that low, humble farmhouse, or in the rocks and hills which +overshadowed it; while, with the exception of Helen, the women gathered +at the door as they came up were very distasteful to him. But with Katy +it was different. They were her rocks, her hills, her woods, and more +than all, they were her folks into whose arms she threw herself with an +impetuous rush, scarcely waiting for old Whitey to stop, but with one +leap clearing the wheel and springing first to the embrace of her +mother. It was a joyful meeting, and when the first excitement was over +Katy inspected the improvements, approving all, and thanking Wilford for +having done so much for her comfort. + +"I shall sleep so nicely here," she said, tossing her hat into Helen's +lap, and lying down at once upon the bed it had taken so long to make. +"Yes, I shall rest so nicely, knowing I can wear my wrapper all day +long. Don't look so horrified, Wilford," she added, as she caught his +eye. "I shall dress me sometimes; but you don't know what a luxury it +is to feel that I need not unless I like." + +"Didn't you rest at New London?" Helen asked, when Wilford had left the +room. + +"Yes, some," Katy replied; "but there were dances every night, or sails +upon the bay, and I had to go, for many of our friends were there, and +Wilford was not willing for me to be quiet." + +This, then, was the reason why Katy came home so weary and pale, and +craving so much the rest she had not had in more than two years. But she +would get it now, and before the first dinner was eaten some of her old +color came stealing back to her cheeks, and her eyes began to dance just +as they used to do, while her merry voice rang out in silvery peals at +Aunt Betsy's quaint remarks, which struck her so forcibly from not +having heard them for so long a tune. A hit of a lecture Wilford deemed +it his duty to give her when after dinner they sat together alone for +half an hour. "She must restrain herself. Surely she was old enough +to be more womanly, and she would tire herself out with her nervous +restlessness, besides giving the people a bad opinion of Mrs. Wilford +Cameron." + +To this Katy listened quietly, breathing freer when it was over, and +breathing freer still when Wilford was gone, even though her tears did +fall as she watched him out of sight, and knew it would be at least four +weeks before she saw him again. To the entire family his departure +brought relief; but they were not prepared for the change it produced in +Katy; who, freed from all restraint, came back so soon to what she was +when a young, careless girl she sat upon the doorsteps and curled the +dandelion stalks. She did not do this now, for there were none to curl; +but she strung upon a thread the delicate petals of the phlox growing by +the door, and then bound it as a crown about the head of her mother, who +could not yet quite recognize her Katy in the elegant Mrs. Wilford +Cameron, with rustling silk, and diamonds flashing on her hands every +time they moved. But when she saw her racing with the old brown goat and +its little kid out in the apple orchard, her head uncovered, and her +bright curls blowing about her face, the feeling disappeared, and she +felt that Katy had indeed come back again. + +And where all the while was Morris? Were his patients so numerous that +he could not find time to call upon his cousin? Katy had inquired for +him immediately after her arrival, but in her excitement she had +forgotten him again, until Wilford was gone and tea was over, when, just +as she had done on the day of her return from Canandaigua, she took her +hat and started on the well-worn path toward Linwood. She was not going +there, she said, she only wanted to try the road and see if it had +changed since she used to go that way to gather butternuts in the autumn +or berries in the summer. Airily she tripped along, her light plaid silk +gleaming through the deep green of the trees and revealing her coming to +the tired man sitting upon a little rustic seat, beneath a chestnut +tree, where he once had sat with Katy, and extracted a cruel sliver from +her hand, kissing the place to make it well as she told him to. She was +a child then, a little girl of twelve, and he was twenty, but the sight +of her pure face lifted confidingly to his had stirred his heart as no +other face had stirred it since, making him look forward to a time when +the hand he kissed would be his own, and his the fairy form he watched +so carefully as it expanded day by day into the perfect woman. He was +thinking of that time now, and how different it had all turned out, when +he heard the bounding step and saw her coming toward him, swinging her +hat in childish abandon, and warbling a song she had learned from him. + +"Morris, oh, Morris!" she cried, as she ran eagerly forward; "I am so +glad to see you. It seems so nice to be with you once more here in the +dear old woods. Don't get up--please don't get up," she continued, as he +started to rise. + +She was standing before him, a hand on either side of his face, into +which she was looking quite as wistfully as he was regarding her. +Something she missed in his manner, something which troubled her; and +thinking she knew what it was, she said to him: "Why don't you kiss me, +Morris? You used to. Ain't you glad to see me?" + +"Yes, very glad," he answered, and drawing her down to the bench beside +him, he kissed her twice, but so gravely, so quietly, that Katy was not +satisfied at all, and tears gathered in her eyes as she tried to think +what it was ailed Morris. + +He was very thin, and there were a few white hairs about his temples, so +that, though four years younger than her husband, he seemed to her much +older, quite grandfatherly in fact, and this accounted for the liberties +she took, asking what was the matter, and trying to make him like her +again, by assuring him that she was not as vain and foolish as he must +suppose from what Helen had probably told him of her life since leaving +Silverton. + +"I do not like it at all," she said. "I am in it, and must conform; but, +oh Morris! you don't know how much happier I should be if Wilford were +just like you, and lived at Linwood instead of New York. I should be so +happy here with baby all the time." + +It was well she spoke that name, for Morris, listening to her as she +charged him with indifference, could not have borne much more; but the +mention of her child had a strange power over him, of quieting him at +once, so that he could calmly tell her that she was the same to him that +she had always been, while with his next breath he asked: "Where is your +baby, Katy?" adding with a smile: "I can remember when you were a baby, +and I held you in my arms." + +"Can you really?" Katy said; and as if that remembrance made him older +than the hills, she nestled her curly head against his shoulder, while +she told him of her bright-eyed darling, and as she talked the +mother-love which spread itself over her girlish face made it more +beautiful than anything Morris had ever seen. + +"Surely an angel's countenance cannot be fairer, purer than hers," he +thought, listening while she talked of the only thing which had a power +to separate her from him, making her seem as a friend, or at most as a +beloved sister. + +A long time they talked together, and the sun was setting ere Morris +rose, suggesting that she go home, as the night dew would soon be +falling. + +"And you are not as strong as you once were," he added, pulling her +shawl around her shoulders with careful solicitude, and thinking how +slender she had become. + +From the back parlor Helen saw them coming up the path, detecting the +changed expression of Morris' face, and feeling a pang of fear when as +he left them after nine o'clock she heard her mother say that he had not +appeared so natural since Katy went away as he had done that night. +Knowing what she did, Helen trembled for Morris, with this terrible +temptation before him, and Morris trembled for himself as he went back +the lonely path, and stopped again beneath the chestnut tree where he +had so lately sat with Katy. There was a great fear at his heart, and it +found utterance in words as kneeling by the rustic bench with only the +lonely night around him and the green boughs overhead, he asked that he +might be kept from sin, both in thought and deed, and be to Katy Cameron +just what she took him for, her friend and elder brother. And God, who +knew the sincerity of the heart thus pleading before him, heard and +answered the prayer, so that after that first night of trial Morris +could look on Katy without a wish that she were otherwise than Wilford +Cameron's wife and the mother of his child. He was happier because of +her being at the farmhouse, though he did not go there one-half as often +as she came to him. She seemed to prefer Linwood to the farmhouse, +staying there hours, both when he was at home and when he was away, +strolling through his garden, or sitting quietly in the pleasant +summer-house which looked out upon the pond. + +Those September days were happy ones to Katy, who, freed from all +restraint, became a child again--a petted, spoiled child, whom every one +caressed and suffered to have her way. To Uncle Ephraim it was as if +some bright angel had suddenly dropped into his path, flooding it with +sunshine, and making him so glad to have back his "Katy-did," who went +with him to the fields, waiting patiently till his work was done, and +telling him of all the wondrous things she saw abroad, but speaking +little of her city life. That was something she did not care to talk +about, and but for Wilford's letters, and the frequent mention of baby, +the deacon could easily have imagined that Katy had never left him. But +these were barriers between the old life and the present, these were the +insignia of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, who was watched and envied by the +curious Silvertonians, and pronounced charming by them all. Still there +was one drawback to Katy's happiness. She missed her child, mourning for +it so much that her family, quite as anxious as herself to see it, +suggested her sending for it. It would surely take no harm with them, +and Marian would come with it. To this plan Katy listened more willingly +from the fact that Wilford had gone West, and the greater the distance +between them the more she dared to do. And so Marian Hazelton was one +day startled at the sudden appearance at the cottage of Katy, who had +come to take her and baby to Silverton. + +There was no resisting the vehemence of Katy's arguments, and before the +next day's sunsetting, the farmhouse, usually so quiet and orderly, had +been turned into one general nursery, where Baby Cameron reigned +supreme, screaming with delight at the tinware which Aunt Betsy brought +out from the cake cutter to the dipper, the little creature beating a +noisy tattoo upon the latter with an iron spoon, and then for diversion +burying its fat dimpled hands in Uncle Ephraim's long white hair, for +the old man went down upon all fours to do his great-grand niece homage. + +That night Morris came up, stopping suddenly as a loud baby laugh +reached him, even across the orchard, and leaning for a moment against +the wall, while he tried to prepare himself for the shock it would be to +see Katy's child, and hold it in his arms, as he knew he must, or the +mother be aggrieved. + +He had supposed it was pretty, but he was not prepared for the beautiful +little cherub which in its short white dress, with its soft curls of +golden brown clustering about its head, stood holding to a chair, +pushing it occasionally, and venturing now and then to take a step, +while its infantile laugh mingled with the screams of its delighted +auditors, watching it with so much interest. + +There was one great, bitter, burning pang, a blur before his eyes, and +then, folding his arms composedly upon the window sill, Dr. Grant stood +looking in upon the occupants of the room, whistling at last to baby, as +he was accustomed to whistle to the children of his patients. + +"Oh, Morris," Katy cried, "baby can almost walk, Marian has taken so +much pains, and she can say 'papa.' Isn't she a beauty?" + +Baby had turned her head by this time, her ear caught by the whistle and +her eye arrested by something in Morris which fascinated her gaze. +Perhaps she thought of Wilford, of whom she had been very fond, for she +pushed her chair toward him and then held up her fat, creasy arms for +him to take her. Morris was fond of children and took the infant at +once, strained it to his bosom with a passionate caress, which seemed to +have in it something of the love he bore the mother, who went off into +ecstasies of joy when baby, attacking Morris' hair and patting softly +his cheek, tried to kiss him as it had been taught by Marian. Never was +mother prouder, happier than Katy during the first few days succeeding +baby's arrival, while the family seemed to tread on air, so swiftly the +time went by with that active little life in their midst, stirring them +up so constantly, putting to rout all their rules of order and keeping +their house in a state of delightful confusion. + +It was wonderful how rapidly the child improved with so many teachers, +learning to lisp its mother's name and taught by her attempting to say +"Doctor." From the very first the child took to Morris, crying after him +whenever he went away, and hailing his arrival with a crow of joy and an +eager attempt to reach him. + +"It was altogether too forward for this world," Aunt Betsy often said, +shaking her head ominously, but not really meaning what she predicted, +even when for a few days it did not seem as bright as usual, but lay +quietly in Katy's lap, a blue look about the mouth and a flush upon its +cheeks, which neither Morris nor Marian liked. + +More accustomed to children than the other members of the family, they +both watched it closely, Morris coming over twice one day, and the last +time he came regarding Katy with a look as if he would fain ward off +from her some evil-which he feared. + +"What is it, Morris?" she asked. "Is baby going to be very sick?" and a +great crushing fear came upon her as she waited for his answer. + +"I hope not," he said; "I cannot tell as yet; the symptoms are like +cholera infantum, of which I have several cases, but if taken in time +I apprehend no danger." + +There was a low shriek and baby opened its heavy lids and moaned, while +Helen came at once to Katy, holding her hand upon her heart as if the +pain had entered there. To Marian it was no news, for ever since the +early morning she had suspected the nature of the disease stealing over +the little child, so suddenly stricken down, and looking by the +lamplight so pale and sick. All night the light burned in the farmhouse, +where there were anxious, troubled faces, Katy bending constantly over +her darling, and even amid her terrible anxiety dreading Wilford's +displeasure when he should hear what she had done and its possible +result. She did not believe as yet that her child would die; but she +suffered acutely, watching for the early dawn when Morris had said he +would be there, and when at last he came, begging of him to stay, to +leave his other patients and care only for baby. + +"Would that be right?" Morris asked, and Katy blushed for her +selfishness when she heard how many were sick and dying around them. "I +will spend every leisure moment here," he said, leaving his directions +with Marian and then hurrying away without a word of hope for the child, +growing worse so fast that when the night shut down again it lay upon a +pillow, its blue eyes closed and its head thrown back, while its sad +moanings could only be hushed by carrying it in one's arms about the +room, a task which Katy could not do. + +She had tried it once, refusing all their offers with the reply: "Baby +is mine and shall I not carry her?" + +But the feeble strength gave out, the limbs began to totter, and +staggering backward she cried: "Somebody must take her." + +It was Marian who went forward, Marian, whose face was a puzzle as she +took the infant in her stronger arms, her stony eyes, which had not wept +as yet, fastening themselves upon the face of Wilford Cameron's child +with a look which seemed to say: "Retribution, retribution." + +But only when she remembered the father, now so proud of his daughter, +was that word in her heart. She could not harbor it when she glanced at +the mother, and her lips moved in earnest prayer that, if possible, God +would not leave her so desolate. An hour later and Morris came, +relieving Marian of her burden which he carried in his own arms, while +he strove to comfort Katy, who, crouching by the empty crib, was sitting +motionless in a kind of dumb despair, all hope crushed out by his answer +to her entreaties that he would tell her the truth, keeping nothing +back. + +"I think your baby will die," he had said to her very gently, pausing a +moment in awe of the white face, whose expression terrified and shocked +him, it was so full of agony. + +Bowing her head upon her hands, poor Katy whispered sadly: "God must not +take my baby. Oh, Morris, please pray that he will not. He will hear and +answer you, while I have been so bad I cannot pray. But I'm not going to +be bad again. If he will let me keep my darling I will begin a new life. +I will try to serve him. Dear Lord, hear and answer, and not let baby +die." + +She was praying herself now, and Morris' broad chest heaved as he +glanced at her kneeling figure, and then at the death-like face upon +the pillow, with the pinched look about the nose and lips, which to his +practiced eye was a harbinger of death. + +"Its father should be here," he thought, and when Katy lifted up her +head again he asked if she was sure her husband had not yet returned +from Minnesota. + +"Yes, sure--that is, I think he has not," was Katy's answer, a chill +creeping over her at the thought of meeting Wilford, and giving him his +daughter dead. + +"I shall telegraph in the morning at all events," Morris continued, +"and if he is not in New York, it will be forwarded." + +"Yes, that will be best," was the reply, spoken so mournfully that +Morris stopped in front of Katy, trying to reason with her. + +But Katy would not listen, only answering to him that he did not know, +he could not feel, he never had been tried. + +"Perhaps not," Morris said; "but Heaven is my witness, Katy, that if I +could save you this pain by giving up my life for baby's, I would do it +willingly; but God does not give us our choice. He knoweth what is best, +and baby is better with Him than us." + +For a moment Katy was silent, then, as a new idea took possession of her +mind, she sprang to Morris' side and seizing his arm, demanded: "Can an +unbaptized child be saved?" + +"We nowhere read that baptism is a saving ordinance," was Morris' +answer; while Katy continued: "But do you believe they will be saved?" + +"Yes, I do," was the decided response, which, however, did not ease +Katy's mind, and she moaned on: "A child of heathen parents may, but I +knew better, I knew it was my duty to give the child to God, and for a +foolish fancy withheld the gift until it is too late, and God will take +it without the mark upon its forehead, the water on its brow. Oh, baby, +baby, if she should be lost--no name, no mark, no baptismal sign." + +"Not water, but the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin," Morris said, +"and as sure as he died so sure this little one is safe. Besides that, +there may be time for the baptism yet--that is, to-morrow. Baby will not +die to-night, and if you like, it still shall have a name." + +Eagerly Katy seized upon that idea, thinking more of the sign, the +water, than the name, which scarcely occupied her thoughts at all. It +did not matter what the child was called, so that it became one of the +little ones in glory, and with a calmer, quieter demeanor than she had +shown that day she saw Morris depart at a late hour; and then turning to +the child which Uncle Ephraim now was holding, kissed it lovingly, +whispering as she did so: "Baby shall be baptized--baby shall have the +sign." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +LITTLE GENEVRA. + + +Morris had telegraphed to New York, receiving in reply that Wilford was +hourly expected home, and would at once hasten on to Silverton. The +clergyman, Mr. Kelly, had also been seen, but owing to a funeral which +would take him out of town, he could not be at the farmhouse until five +in the afternoon, when, if the child still lived, he would be glad to +officiate as requested. All this Morris had communicated to Katy, who +listened in a kind of stupor, gasping for breath, when she heard that +Wilford would so soon be there, and moaning "that will be too late," +when told that the baptism could not take place till night. Then, +kneeling by the crib where the child was lying, she fastened her great, +sad blue eyes upon the pallid face with an earnestness as if thus she +would hold till nightfall the life flickering so faintly and seeming so +nearly finished. The wailings had ceased, and they no longer carried it +within their arms, but had placed it in its crib, where it lay perfectly +still, save as its eyes occasionally unclosed and turned wistfully +toward the cups, where it knew was something which quenched its raging +thirst. Once, indeed, as the hours crept on to noon and Katy bent over +it so that her curls swept its face, it seemed to know her, and the +little wasted hand was for a moment uplifted and rested on her cheek +with the same caressing motion it had been wont to use in health. Then +hope whispered that it might live, and with a great cry of joy Katy +sobbed: "She knows me, Morris--mother, see; she knows me. Maybe she will +live." + +But the dull stupor which succeeded to that act swept all hope away, and +again Katy resumed her post, watching first her dying child, and then +the long hands of the clock which crept on so slowly, pointing to only +two when she thought it must be five. Would that hour never come, or +coming, would it find baby there? None could answer that last +question--they could only wait and pray, and as they waited thus the +warm September sun neared the western sky till its yellow beams came +stealing through the window and across the floor to where Katy sat +watching its onward progress and looking sometimes out upon the hills +where the purplish autumnal haze was lying just as she once loved to see +it; but she did not heed it now, or care how bright the day with the +flitting shadows dancing on the grass, the tall flowers growing by the +door and old Whitey standing by the gate, his head stretched toward the +house in a kind of dreamy, listening attitude, as if he, too, knew of +the great sorrow hastening on so fast. The others saw all this, and it +made their hearts ache more as they thought of the beautiful little +child, so much fairer than sky or day or flowers could be, going from +their midst when they wished so much to keep her. But Katy had only one +idea, and that was of the child growing very restless now and throwing +up its arms as if in pain. It is striking five, and with each stroke the +dying baby moans, while Katy strains her ear to catch another sound, the +sound of horses' hoofs hurrying up the road. The clergyman has come and +anon the inmates of the house gather around in silence, while he makes +ready to receive the child into Christ's flock, where it so soon will +really be. + +Mrs. Lennox had questioned Helen about the name and Helen had answered: +"Katy knows, I presume. It does not matter," but no one had spoken +directly to Katy, who had scarcely given it a thought, caring more for +the rite she had deferred so long. + +"He must hasten," she said to Morris, her eyes fixed upon the panting +child she had lifted to her own lap, and thus abjured the clergyman +failed to make the usual inquiry concerning the name he was to give. + +Calm and white as a marble statue, Marian Hazelton glided to the back of +Katy's chair, pressing both her hands upon it, and leaning over Katy so +that her eyes too were fixed upon the little face, from which they never +turned but once, and that when the clergyman's voice was heard asking +for a name. There was an instant's silence, and Katy's lips began to +move, when one of Marian's hands was laid upon her head, while the other +took in its own the limp, while baby fingers, and Marian's voice was +very steady in its tone as it said: "Genevra." + +"Yes, Genevra," Katy whispered, and then the solemn words were heard: +"Genevra, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Ghost." + +Softly the baptismal waters fell upon the pale forehead, and at their +touch the little Genevra's eyes unclosed, the waxen fingers withdrew +themselves from Marian's grasp, and again sought the mother's cheek, +resting there for an instant; while a smile broke around the baby lips, +which tried to say "Mam-ma." Then the hand fell back, down upon +Marian's, the soft eyes closed, the limbs grew rigid, the shadow of +death grew deeper, and while the prayer was said, and Marian's tears +fell with Katy's upon the brow where the baptismal waters were not +dried, the angel came, and when the prayer was ended, Morris, who knew +what the rest did not, took the lifeless form from Katy's lap, and +whispered to her gently: "Katy, your baby is dead!" + +An hour later, and the sweet little creature, which had been a sunbeam +in that house for a few happy days, lay upon the bed where Katy said it +must be laid; its form shrouded in the christening robe which Grandma +Cameron had bought, flowers upon its pillow, flowers upon its bosom, +flowers in its hands, which Marian had put there; for Marian's was the +mind which thought of everything concerning the dead child; and Helen, +as she watched her, wondered at the mighty love which showed itself in +every lineament of her face, the blue veins swelling in her forehead, +her eyes bloodshot, and her lips shut firmly together, as if it were by +mere strength of will that she kept back the scalding tears as she +dressed the little Genevra. They spoke of that name in the kitchen when +the first great shock was over, and Helen explained why it had been +Katy's choice. Poor stricken Katy, it was Morris' task to comfort +her--Morris, who sat by her holding the hot, feverish hand she had +placed in his, and telling her of the blessed Savior who loved the +little children while here on earth, and to whom her darling had surely +gone. + +"Safe in His arms it would not come back if it could," he said, "and +neither would you have it." + +But Katy was the mother, and human love could not so soon submit, but +went out after the lost one with a piteous agonizing wail, which hurt +Morris cruelly. + +"Oh, I want my baby back. I know she is safe, but I want her back. She +was my life--all I had to love," Katy moaned, rocking to and fro in this +first hour of her bereavement. + +"You forget your husband," Morris said. "You have him left, and +husbands, I supposed, were dearer than one's children." + +"Yes," Katy answered, "I have Wilford, and am glad of that; but he will +blame me so much for bringing baby here to die. He will say it was my +fault; and that I can't bear. I know it was, know I killed my baby; but +I did not mean to. I would give my life for hers, if like her I was +ready," and into Katy's face there came a look of fear which Morris +failed to understand, not knowing Wilford as well as Katy knew him. + +Surely no man could reproach the half-crazed creature, who all that +night sat by the bedside of her dead child, sleeping a little in her +chair, but obtaining no real rest, so that by the morning her face was +like some white rose on which a fierce storm has beaten, breaking off +its petals and crushing out its life. At nine o'clock there came to her +a telegram. Wilford had reached New York and would be in Silverton that +afternoon, accompanied by Bell. At this last Marian Hazelton caught +eagerly as an excuse for what she intended doing. She could not remain +there after Wilford came, nor was it necessary. Her task was done, or +would be when she had finished the wreath and cross of flowers she was +making for the coffin. Laying them on baby's pillow, Marian went in +quest of Helen, to whom she explained that as Bell Cameron was coming, +and the house would be full, she had decided upon going to West +Silverton, especially as she wished to see the lady with whom she once +boarded, and who had been so kind to her. + +"I might stay," she added, as Helen began to protest, "but you do not +need me. I have done all I can, and would rather go where I can be quiet +for a little." + +To this last argument there could be no demur, and so the same carriage +which at ten o'clock went for Wilford Cameron carried Marian Hazelton +to the village where she preferred being left. + + * * * * * + +In much anxiety and distress Wilford Cameron read the telegram +announcing baby's illness. + +"At Silverton!" he said. "How can that be when the child was at New +London?" and he glanced at the words: + +"Your child is dying at Silverton. Come at once. + +"M. GRANT." + +There could be no mistake, and Wilford's face grew dark, for he guessed +the truth, censuring Katy much, but censuring her family more. They, of +course, had encouraged her in the plan of taking her child from New +London, where it was doing so well, and this was the result. Wilford was +proud of his daughter now, and during the few weeks he had been with it +the little thing had found a strong place in his love. Many times he had +thought of it during his journey West, indulging in bright anticipations +of the coming winter, when he would have it home again. It would not be +in his way now. On the contrary, it would add much to his luxurious +home, and the young father's heart bounded as Wilford Cameron had never +believed his heart could bound, with thoughts of the beautiful baby as +he had last seen it in Katy's arms, crowing its good-by to him and +trying to lisp his name, its sweet voice haunting him for weeks, and +making him a softer, better man, who did not frown impatiently as he +used to do upon the children in the cars, but who took notice of them +all, even laying his hand once on a little curly head which reminded him +of baby's. + +Alas for him, he little dreamed of the great shock in store for him. The +child was undoubtedly very sick, he said, but that it could die was not +possible; and so, though he made ready to hasten to it, he did withhold +his opinion of the rashness, as he termed it, which had brought it to +such peril. + +"Had Katy obeyed me it would not have happened," he said, pacing up and +down the parlor and preparing to say more, when Bell came to Katy's aid, +and lighting furiously upon him, asked what he meant by blaming his +wife so much. + +"For my part," she said, "I think there has been too much fault-finding +and dictation from the very day of the child's birth till now, and if +God takes it, as he may, I shall think it a judgment upon you. First you +were half vexed with Katy because it was not a boy, as if she were to +blame; then you did not like it because it was not more promising and +fair; next it was in your way, and so you sent it off, never considering +Katy any more than if she were a mere automaton, to turn which way you +said. Then you must needs forbid her taking it home to her own family, +as if they had no right, no interest in it. I tell you, Will, it is not +all Cameron--there is some Barlow blood in its veins--Aunt Betsy +Barlow's, too, and you cannot wash it out. Katy had a right to take her +own child where she pleased, and you are not a man if you censure her +for it, as I see in your eyes you mean to do. Suppose it had stayed in +New London and been struck with lightning--you would have been to blame, +of course, according to your own view of things." + +There was too much truth in Bell's remarks for Wilford to retort, even +had he been disposed, and he contented himself with a haughty toss of +his head as she left the room to get herself in readiness for the +journey she insisted upon taking. Wilford was glad she was going, as her +presence at Silverton would relieve him of the awkward embarrassment he +always felt when there; and magnanimously forgiving her for the +plainness of her speech, he was the most attentive of brothers until +Silverton was reached and he found Dr. Grant waiting for him. Something +in his face, as he came forward to meet them, startled both Wilford and +Bell, the latter of whom asked quickly: + +"Is the baby better?" + +"Baby is dead," was the brief reply, and Wilford staggered back against +the doorpost, where he leaned a moment for support in that first great +shock for which he was not prepared. + +"Dead," he repeated, "our baby dead," and Morris was glad that he said +our, as it indicated a thought of Katy as a mutual sharer in the loss. + +Upon the doorstep Bell sat down, crying quietly, for she had loved the +little child, and she listened anxiously while Morris repeated the +particulars of its illness and then spoke of Katy's reproaching herself +so bitterly for having brought it from New London. "She seems entirely +crushed," he continued, when they were driving toward the farmhouse. +"For a few hours I trembled for her reason, while the fear that you +might reproach her added much to the poignancy of her grief." + +Morris said this very calmly, as if it were not what he had all the +while intended saying, and his eye turned toward Wilford, whose lips +were compressed with the emotion he was evidently trying to control. It +was Bell who spoke first. Bell who said impulsively; "Poor Katy, I knew +she would feel so, but it is unnecessary, for none but a savage would +reproach her now, even if she were in fault." + +Morris blessed Bell Cameron in his heart, knowing how much influence her +words would have upon her brother, who brushed away the first tear he +had shed, and tried to say that "of course she was not to blame." + +They were in sight of the farmhouse now, and Bell, with her city ideas, +was looking curiously at it, mentally pronouncing it a nicer, pleasanter +place than she had supposed, inasmuch as it reminded her of the +description she had read of the Virginia farmhouse, where a young +officer was encamped for a few days, an officer who wore a lieutenant's +uniform and who signed himself as Bob. It was very quiet about the +house, and old Whitey's neigh as Morris' span of bays came up was the +only sound which greeted them. In the woodshed door Uncle Ephraim sat +smoking his clay pipe and likening the feathery waves which curled above +his head to the little soul so recently gone upward, while by his side, +upon a log of wood, holding a pan of the luscious peaches she was +slicing up for tea, sat a woman whom Bell knew at once for Aunt Betsy +Barlow, thinking more of the peaches than of the old lady who, pan in +hand, came forward to met her, curtseying very low when introduced by +Morris, and asking to be excused from shaking hands, inasmuch as hers +were not fit to be touched. Bell's quick eye took her in at a glance, +from her clean spotted gown to her plain muslin cap tied with a black +ribbon, put on that day with a view to mourning, and then darted off to +Uncle Ephraim, who won her heart at once when she heard how his voice +trembled as he took Wilford's hand and said so pityingly, so +father-like: "Young man, this is a sad day for you and you have my +sympathy, for I remember well how my heart ached when, on just such a +day as this, my only child lay dead as yours is lying." + +Every muscle of Wilford's face quivered then, but he was too proud to +show all that he felt, and he was glad when Helen appeared in the door, +as that diverted his mind somewhat, and he greeted her most cordially, +even stooping down and kissing her smooth forehead, a thing he had never +done before. But sorrow is a great softener and Wilford was very sorry, +feeling his loss more here where everything was so quiet, so suggestive +of death. + +"Where is Katy?" he asked. + +"She is sleeping for the first time since the baby died. She is in here +with the child. She will stay nowhere else," Helen said, opening softly +the door of the bedroom and motioning Wilford in. + +With hushed breath and a beating heart, Wilford stepped across the +threshold and Helen closed the door, leaving him alone with the living +and the dead. Pure and beautiful as some fair blossom, the dead child +lay upon the bed, the curls of golden hair clustering about its head, +and on its lips the smile which had settled there when it tried to say +"mamma"--its dimpled hands folded upon its breast, where lay the cross +of flowers which Marian Hazelton had made--flowers upon its pillow, +flowers around its head, flowers upon its shroud, flowers everywhere, +and itself the fairest flower of all, Wilford thought as he stood gazing +at it and then let his eye move on to where poor, tired, worn-out Katy +had crept up so close beside it that her breath touched the marble cheek +and her own disordered hair rested upon the pillow of her child. Even in +her sleep her tears kept dropping from the long eyelashes, and the pale +lips quivered in a grieved, touching way. Hard indeed would Wilford have +been had he cherished one bitter thought against the wife so wounded. He +could not when he saw her, but no one ever knew just what passed through +his mind during the half hour he sat there beside her, scarcely +stirring and not daring to kiss his child lest he should awaken her. He +could hear the ticking of his watch and the beating of his heart as he +waited for the first sound which should herald Katy's waking. + +Suddenly there was a low, gasping moan, and Katy's eyes unclosed and +rested on her husband. He was bending over her in an instant, and her +arms were around his neck, while she said to him so sadly: + +"Our baby is dead--you've nobody left but me; and oh! Wilford, you will +not blame me bringing baby here? I did not think she would die. I'd give +my life for hers if that would bring her back. Say, Wilford, would you +rather it was me lying as baby lies, and she here in your arms?" + +"No, Katy," Wilford answered, and by his voice Katy knew that she was +wholly forgiven, crying on his neck in a plaintive, piteous way, while +Wilford soothed and pitied and caressed, feeling subdued and humbled, +and we must confess it, feeling too how very good and generous he was to +be thus forbearing, when but for Katy's act of disobedience they might +not now be childless! + + * * * * * + +With a great gust of tears Bell Cameron bent over the little form, and +then enfolded Katy in a more loving embrace than he had ever given her +before; but whatever she might have said was prevented by the arrival of +the coffin and the confusion which followed. + +Much Wilford regretted that New York was so far away, for a city coffin +was more suitable, he thought, for a child of his, than the one which +Dr. Grant had ordered. But that was really of less consequence than the +question where should the child be buried? A costly monument at +Greenwood was in accordance with his ideas, but all things indicated +a contemplated burial there in the country churchyard, and sorely +perplexed he called on Bell as the only Cameron at hand, to know what +he should do. + +"Do just as Katy prefers," was Bell's reply, as she led him to the +coffin and pointed to the name: "Little Genevra Cameron, aged nine +months and twenty days." + +"What is it, Wilford--what is the matter?" she asked, as her brother +turned whiter than his child, and struck his hand upon his head as if +a blow had fallen there. + +Had "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two," met his eye, he could not have +been more startled than he was; but soon rallying, he said to Morris, +who came near: + +"The child was baptized then?" + +"Yes, baptized Genevra. That was Katy's choice, I understand," Morris +replied, and Wilford bowed his head, wishing the Genevra across the sea +might know that his child bore her name. + +"Perhaps she does," he thought, and his heart grew warm with the fancy +that possibly in that other world, whose existence he never really +doubted, the Genevra he had wronged would care for his child, if +children there need care. "She will know it is mine at least," he said, +and with a thoughtful face he went in quest of Katy, whom he found +sobbing by the side of the mourning garments just sent in for her +inspection. + +Wilford was averse to black. It would not become Katy, he feared, and it +would be an unanswerable reason for her remaining closely home for the +entire winter. + +"What's this?" he asked, lifting the crape veil and dropping it again +with an impatient gesture as Helen replied: "It is Katy's mourning +veil." + +Contrary to his expectations, black was becoming to Katy, who looked +like a pure white lily, as, leaning on Wilford's arm next day, she stood +by the grave where they were burying her child. + +Wilford had spoken to her of Greenwood, but she had begged so hard that +he had given up that idea, suggesting next, as more in accordance with +city custom, that she remain at home while he only followed to the +grave; but from this Katy recoiled in such distress that he gave up too, +and bore, magnanimously, as he thought, the sight of all the Barlows +standing around that grave, alike mourners with himself, and all a right +to be there. Wilford felt his loss deeply, and his heart ached to its +very core as he heard the gravel rattling down upon the coffin lid which +covered the beautiful child he had loved so much. But amid it all he +never for a moment forgot that he was Wilford Cameron, and infinitely +superior to the crowd around him--except, indeed, his wife, his sister, +Dr. Grant, and Helen. He could bear to see them sorry, and feel that by +their sorrow they honored the memory of his child. But for the rest--the +village herd, with the Barlows in their train--he had no affinity, and +his manner was as haughty and distant as ever as he passed through their +midst back to the carriage, which took him again to the farmhouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +AFTER THE FUNERAL. + + +Had there been a train back to New York that afternoon Wilford would +most certainly have suggested going, but as there was none he passed the +time as well as he could, finding Bell a great help to him, but +wondering that she could assimilate so readily with such people, +declaring herself in love with the farmhouse, and saying she should like +to remain there for weeks, if the days were all as sunny as this, the +dahlias as gorgeously bright, and the peaches by the well as delicious +and ripe. To these the city girl took readily, visiting them the last +thing before retiring, while Wilford found her there when he arose next +morning, her dress and slippers nearly spoiled with the heavy dew, and +her hands full of the fresh fruit which Aunt Betsy knocked from the tree +with a quilting rod; her dress pinned around her waist, and disclosing a +petticoat scrupulously clean, but patched and mended with so many +different patterns and colors that the original ground was lost, and +none could tell whether it had been red or black, buff or blue. Between +Aunt Betsy and Bell the most amicable feeling had existed ever since the +older lady had told the younger how all the summer long she had been +drying fruit, "thimble-berries, blue-berries and huckleberries" for the +soldiers, and how she was now drying peaches for Willard Buxton--once +their hired man. These she should tie up in a salt bag, and put in the +next box sent by the society of which she seemed to be head and front, +"kind of fust directress," she said, and Bell was interested at once, +for among the soldiers down by the Potomac was one who carried with him +the whole of Bell Cameron's heart; and who for a few days had tarried at +just such a dwelling as the farmhouse, writing back to her such pleasant +descriptions of it, with its fresh grass and shadowy trees, that she had +longed to be there too. So it was through this page of romance and love +that Bell looked at the farmhouse and its occupants, preferring good +Aunt Betsy because she seemed the most interested in the soldiers, +working as soon as breakfast was over upon the peaches, and kindly +furnishing her best check apron, together with pan and knife for Bell, +who offered her assistance, notwithstanding Wilford's warning that the +fruit would stain her hands, and his advice that she had better be +putting up her things for going home. + +"She was not going that day," she said, point-blank, and as Katy too +had asked to stay a little longer, Wilford was compelled to yield, and +taking his hat sauntered off toward Linwood; while Katy went listlessly +into the kitchen, where Bell Cameron sat, her tongue moving much faster +than her hands, which pared so slowly and cut away so much of the juicy +pulp, besides making so frequent journeys to her mouth, that Aunt Betsy +looked in alarm at the rapidly disappearing fruit, wishing to herself +that "Miss Cameron had not listed." + +But Miss Cameron had enlisted, and so had Bob, or rather he had gone to +do his duty, and as she worked, she repeated to Helen the particulars of +his going, telling how, when the war first broke out, and Sumter was +bombarded, Rob, who, from long association with Southern men at West +Point, had imbibed many of their ideas, was very sympathetic with the +rebelling States, gaining the cognomen of a secessionist, and once +actually thinking of casting in his lot with that side rather than the +other. But the remembrance of a little incident saved him, she said. The +remembrance of a queer old lady whom he met in the cars, and who, at +parting, held her wrinkled hand above his head in benediction, charging +him not to go against the flag, and promising her prayers for his safety +if found on the side of the Union. + +"I wish you could hear Bob tell the story, the funny part, I mean," +she continued, narrating, as well as she could, the particulars of +Lieutenant Bob's meeting with Aunt Betsy, who, as the story progressed +and she recognized herself in the queer old Yankee woman, who shook +hands with the conductor and was going to law about a sheep pasture, +dropped her head lower and lower over her pan of peaches, while a +scarlet flush spread itself all over her thin face, but changed into a +grayish white as Bell concluded with "Bob says the memory of that hand +lifted above his head haunted him day and night, during the period of +his uncertainty, and was at last the means of saving him from treachery +to his country." + +"Thank God!" came involuntarily from Aunt Betsy's quivering lips, and, +looking up, Bell saw the great tears running down her cheeks, tears +which she wiped away with her arm, while she said faintly: "That old +woman, who made a fool of herself in the cars, was me!" + +"You, Miss Barlow, you!" Bell exclaimed, forgetting in her astonishment +to carry to her mouth the luscious half peach she had intended for that +purpose, and dropping it untasted into the pan, while Katy, who had been +listening with some considerable interest, came quickly forward, saying: +"You, Aunt Betsy! When were you in New York, and why did I never know +it?" + +It could not be kept back, and, unmindful of Bell, Helen explained to +Katy as well as she could the circumstances of Aunt Betsy's visit to New +York the previous winter. + +"And she never let me know it, or come to see me, because--because--" +Katy hesitated, and looked at Bell, who said, pertly: "Because Will is +so abominably proud, and would have made such a fuss. Don't spoil a +story for relations' sake, I beg," and the young lady laughed good +humoredly, restoring peace to all save Katy, whose face wore a troubled +look, and who soon stole away to her mother, whom she questioned further +with regard to a circumstance which seemed so mysterious to her. + +"Miss Barlow," Bell said, when Katy was gone, "you will forgive one for +repeating that story as I did. Of course I had no idea it was you of +whom I was talking." + +Bell was very earnest, and her eyes looked pleadingly upon Aunt Betsy, +who answered her back: "There's nothing to forgive. You only told the +truth. I did make an old fool of myself, but if I helped that boy to a +right decision, my journey did some good, and I ain't sorry now if I +did go to the playhouse. I confessed that to the sewing circle, and Mrs. +Deacon Bannister ain't seemed the same toward me since, but I don't +care. I beat her on the election to first directress of the Soldiers' +Aid. She didn't run half as well as me. That chap you call Bob, is he +anything to you? Is he your beau?" + +It was Bell's turn now to blush and then grow white, while Helen +lightly touching the superb diamond on her first finger, said: "That +indicates as much. When did it happen, Bell?" + +Mrs. Cameron had said they were not a family to bruit their affairs +abroad, and if so, Bell was not like her family, for she answered +frankly: "Just before he went away. It's a splendid diamond, isn't it?" +and she held it up for Helen to inspect. + +The basket was empty by this time, and as Aunt Betsy went to fill it +from the trees, Bell and Helen were left alone, the former continuing in +a low, sad tone: "I've been so sorry sometimes that I did not tell Bob I +loved him, when he wished me to so much." + +"Not tell him you loved him! How then could you tell him yes, as it +appears you did?" Helen asked, and Bell answered: "I could not well help +that; it came so sudden and he begged so hard, saying my promise would +make him a better man, a better soldier and all that. It was the very +night before he went, and so I said that out of pity and patriotism I +would give the promise, and I did, but it seemed too much for a woman to +tell a man all at once that she loved him, and I wouldn't do it, but +I've been sorry since; oh, so sorry, during the two days when we heard +nothing from him after that dreadful battle at Bull Run. We knew he was +in it, and I thought I should die until his telegram came saying he was +safe. I did sit down then and commence a letter, confessing all I felt, +but I tore it up, and he don't know now just how I feel." + +"And do you really love him?" Helen asked, puzzled by this strange girl, +who laughingly held up her soft, white hand, stained and blackened with +the juice of the fruit she had been paring, and said: "Do you suppose I +would spoil my hands like that and incur _ma chere-mamma's_ displeasure, +if Bob were not in the army and I did not care for him? And now that I +have confessed so much, allow me to catechise you. Did Mark Ray ever +propose and you refuse him?" + +"Never!" and Helen's face grew crimson, while Bell continued: "That is +funny. Half our circle think so, though how the impression was first +given I do not know. Mother told me, but would not tell where she +received her information. I heard of it again in a few days, and have +reason to believe that Mrs. Banker knows it too and feels a little +uncomfortable that her son should be refused when she considers him +worthy of the empress herself." + +Helen was very white, and her limbs shook as she asked: "And how with +Mark and Juno?" + +"Oh, off and on," Bell replied; "that is, Juno is always on, while Mark +is more uncertain, and Juno really has improved in some respects. As I +wrote you once, she is very docile when with Mark, and acts as if trying +to atone for something--her old badness, I guess. You are certain you +never cared for Mark Ray?" + +This was so abrupt and Bell's eyes were so searching that Helen grew +giddy for a moment and grasped the back of the chair, as she replied: "I +did not say I never cared for him. I said he never proposed; and that is +true; he never did." + +"And if he had?" Bell continued, never taking her eyes from Helen, who, +had she been less agitated, would have denied Bell's right to question +her so closely. Now, however, she answered blindly: "I do not know. I +cannot tell. I thought him engaged to Juno." + +"Well, if that is not the rarest case of cross-purposes that I ever +knew," Bell said, wiping her hands upon Aunt Betsy's apron, and +preparing to attack the piled up basket just brought in. + +Further conversation was impossible, and, with her mind in a perfect +tempest of thought, Helen went away, trying to decide what it was best +for her to do. Some one had spread the report that she had refused Mark +Ray, telling of the refusal, of course, or how else could it have been +known? and this accounted for Mrs. Banker's long-continued silence. +Since Helen's return to Silverton Mrs. Banker had written two or thee +kind, friendly letters, which did her so much good; but these had +suddenly ceased, and Helen's last remained as yet unanswered. She saw +the reason now, every nerve quivering with pain as she imagined what +Mrs. Banker must think of one who could make a refusal public, or what +was tenfold worse, pretend to an offer she never received. "She must +despise me, and Mark Ray, too, if he has heard of it," she said, +resolving one moment to ask Bell to explain to Mrs. Banker, and then +changing her mind and concluding to let matters take their course, +inasmuch as interference from her might be construed by the mother into +undue interest in the son. "Perhaps Bell will do it without my asking," +she thought, and this hope did much toward keeping her spirits up on +that last day of Katy's stay at home, for she was going back in the +morning. Wilford would not leave her, though she begged to stay. He did +not like the sad expression of her face, and he must take her where she +would have more excitement, hoping thus to win her from her grief, and +perhaps induce her to lay aside her black, which would be so serious a +hindrance to his enjoyment. But Katy clung to that as to a strict, +religious duty, saying to Helen, as in the twilight they sat together +up in their old room, talking of the ensuing winter, which would be so +different from the last: + +"If anything besides the feeling that she is so much happier, could +reconcile me to baby's loss, it is the knowing that my mourning will +keep me from the society in which I could not mingle so soon," and her +tears dropped upon the somber robes, which had transformed her so +suddenly from the gay, airy creature of fashion into the sober, quiet +woman who seemed older, soberer than even Helen herself. + +They did not see Marian Hazelton again, and Katy wondered at it, +deciding that in some things Marian was very peculiar, while Wilford and +Bell were slightly disappointed, as both had a desire to meet and +converse with one who had been so like a second mother to the little +dead Genevra. Wilford spoke of his child now as Genevra, but to Katy it +was baby still; and, with choking sobs and passionate tears, she bade +good-by to the little mound underneath which it was lying, and then went +back to her city home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE FIRST WIFE. + + +Softly and swiftly the hazy September days glided into dun October, who +shook down leafy showers of crimson and of gold upon the withered grass, +and then gave place to the dark November rains, which made the city seem +doubly desolate to Katy, who, like the ghost of her former self, moved +listlessly about her handsome home, starting quickly as a fancied baby +cry fell on her ear, and then weeping bitterly as she remembered the sad +past and thought of the still sadder present. Katy was very unhappy, and +the world, as she looked upon it, seemed utterly cheerless. For much of +this unhappiness Wilford was himself to blame. After the first few days, +during which he was all kindness and devotion, he did not try to comfort +her, but seemed irritated that she should mourn so deeply for the child +which, but for her indiscretion, might have been living still. Her +seclusion from gay society troubled him. He did not like staying at +home, and their evenings, when they were alone, passed in gloomy +silence. At last Mrs. Cameron, annoyed at what annoyed her son, brought +her influence to bear upon her daughter-in-law, trying to rouse her to +something like her olden interest in the world; but all to no effect, +and matters grew constantly worse, as Wilford thought Katy unreasonable +and selfish, while Katy tried hard not to think him harsh in his +judgment of her, and exacting in his requirements. "Perhaps she was +the one most in fault; it could not be pleasant for him to see her so +entirely changed from what she used to be," she thought, one morning +late in November, when her husband had just left her with an angry frown +upon his face and reproachful words upon his lips. + +Father Cameron and his daughters were out of town, and Mrs. Cameron, +feeling lonely in their absence, had asked Wilford and Katy to dine with +her. But Katy did not wish to go, and so Wilford had left her in anger, +saying "she could suit herself, but he should go at all events." + +Left alone, Katy began to feel that she had done wrong in declining the +invitation. Surely she could go there, and the echo of the bang with +which Wilford had closed the street door was still vibrating in her ear, +when her resolution began to give way, and while Wilford was riding +moodily downtown, thinking harsh things against her, she was meditating +what she thought might be an agreeable surprise. She would go around and +meet him at dinner, trying to appear as much like her old self as she +could, and so atone for anything which had hitherto been wrong in her +demeanor. + +It was strange how much better Katy felt when this decision was reached, +and Esther, below stairs, raised her finger warningly for the cook to +listen as her mistress trilled a few notes of a song. It was the first +time since her return from Silverton that a sound like that had been +heard within the house, and it seemed the precursor of better days. At +lunch, too, Katy's face was very bright, and Esther was surprised when, +later in the day, she was sent for to arrange her mistress' hair, as she +had not arranged it since baby died. Greatly annoyed, Wilford had been +by the smooth bands combed so plainly back, and at the blackness of the +dress; but now there was a change, and graceful curls fell about the +face, giving it the girlish expression which Wilford liked. The +somberness of the dark dress was relieved by simple folds of white crape +at the throat and wrists, while the handsome jet ornaments, the gift of +Wilford's father, added to the style and beauty of the childish figure, +which had seldom looked lovelier than when ready and waiting for the +carriage. At the door there was a ring, and Esther brought a note to +Katy, who, recognizing her husband's handwriting, tore it quickly open +and read as follows: + +"DEAR KATY: I have been suddenly called to leave the city on business, +which will probably detain me for three days or more, and as I must go on +the night train, I wish Esther to have my portmanteau ready with whatever +I may need for the journey. As I proposed this morning, I shall dine with +mother, but come home immediately after dinner. W. CAMERON." + +Katy was glad now that she had decided to meet him at his mother's, as +the knowing she had pleased him would make the time of his absence more +endurable, and after seeing that everything was ready for him she +stepped with a comparatively light heart into her carriage, and was +driven to No. ---- Fifth Avenue. + +Mrs. Cameron was out, the servant said, but was expected every minute +with Mr. Wilford. + +"Never mind," Katy answered; "I want to surprise them, so please don't +tell them I am here when you let them in," and going into the library +she sat down before the grate, waiting rather impatiently until the door +bell rang and she heard both Wilford's and Mrs. Cameron's voice in the +hall. + +Contrary to her expectations, they did not come into the library, but +went instead into the parlor, the door of which was partially ajar, so +that every word they said could be distinctly heard where Katy sat. It +would seem that they were continuing a conversation which had been +interrupted by their arriving home, for Mrs. Cameron said, with the tone +she always assumed when sympathizing with her son: "I am truly sorry for +you. Is she never more cheerful than when I have seen her?" + +"Never," and Katy could feel just how Wilford's lips shut over his +teeth as he said it; "never more cheerful, but worse if anything. Why, +positively the house seems so like a funeral that I hate to leave the +office and go back to it at night, knowing how mopish and gloomy Katy +will be." + +"My poor boy, it is worse than I feared," Mrs. Cameron said, with a +little sigh, while Katy, with a great gasping sob, tried to rise and go +to them, to tell them she was there--the mopish Katy, who made her home +so like a funeral to her husband. + +But her limbs refused to move, and she sank back powerless in her chair, +compelled to listen to things which no true husband should ever say to a +mother of his wife, especially when that wife's error consisted +principally in mourning too much for the child "which but for her +imprudence might have been living then." These were Wilford's very +words, and though Katy had once expected him to say them, they came upon +her now with a dreadful shock, making her view herself as the murderer +of her child, and thus blunting the pain she might otherwise have felt +as he went on to speak of Silverton and its inhabitants, just as he +would not have spoken had he known she was so near. Then, encouraged by +his mother, he talked again of her, not against her, but in a way which +made her poor aching heart throb as she whispered, sadly: "He is +disappointed in me. I do not come up to all that he expected. I do very +well, considering my low origin, but I am not what his wife should be." + +Wilford had not said all this, but Katy inferred it, and every nerve +quivered with anguish as the wild wish came over her that she had died +on that day when she sat in the summer grass at home watching the +shadows come and go and waiting for Wilford Cameron. Poor Katy! she +thought her cup of sorrow full, when, alas! only a drop had as yet been +poured into it. But it was filling fast, and Mrs. Cameron's words: "It +might have been better with Genevra," was the first outpouring of the +overwhelming torrent which for a moment bore her life and sense away. +She thought they meant her baby--the little Genevra sleeping under the +snow in Silverton--and her white lips answered: "Yes, it would be +better," before Wilford's voice was heard, saying, as he always said: +"No, I have never wished Genevra in Katy's place, though I have +sometimes wondered what the result would have been had I learned +in season how much I wronged her." + +Was heaven and earth coming together, or what made Katy's brain so dizzy +and the room so dark, as, with head bent forward and lips apart, she +strained her ear to catch every word of the conversation which followed, +and in which she saw glimpses of that leaf offered her once to read, and +from which she had promised not to shrink should it ever be thrust upon +her? But she did shrink, oh! so shudderingly, holding up her hands and +striking them through the empty air as if she would thrust aside the +terrible scepter risen so suddenly before her. She had heard all that +she cared to hear then. Another word and she should surely die where she +was, within hearing of the voices still talking of Genevra. Stopping her +ears to shut out the dreadful sound, she tried to think what she should +do. To gain the door and reach the street was her desire, and throwing +on her wrappings she went noiselessly into the hall, and carefully +turning the lock closed the door behind her, finding herself alone in +the street in the dusk of a November night. But Katy was not afraid, and +drawing her hood closely over her face she sped on until her own house +was reached, alarming Esther with her frightened face, but explaining +that she had been taken suddenly ill and returned before dinner. + +"Mr. Cameron will be here soon," she said. "I do not need anything +to-night, so you can leave me alone and go where you like--to the +theatre, if you choose. I heard you say you wished to go. Here is the +money for you and Phillips," and handing a bill to the slightly puzzled +Esther, she dismissed her from the room. + +Meanwhile, at the elder Cameron's, no one had a suspicion of Katy's +recent presence, for the girl who had admitted her had gone to visit a +sick sister, with whom she was to spend the night. Thus Katy's secret +was safe, and Wilford, when at last he bade his mother good-by and +started for home, was not prepared for the livid face, the bloodshot +eyes, and the strange, unnatural look which met him at the threshold. + +Katy was waiting for him, and answered his ring herself, her hands +grasping his almost fiercely and dragging him up the stairs to her own +room, where, more like a maniac than Katy Cameron, she confronted him +with the startling question: + +"Who is Genevra Lambert? It is time I knew before committing greater +sin. Tell me, Wilford, who is she?" + +She was standing before him, her slight figure seeming to expand into a +greater height, the features glowing with strong excitement, and her hot +breath coming hurriedly through her dilated nostrils, but never opening +the pale lips set so firmly together. There was something terrible in +her look and attitude, and it startled Wilford, who recoiled a moment +from her, scarcely able to recognize the Katy hitherto so gentle and +quiet. She had learned his secret, but the facts must have been +distorted, he knew, or she had never been so agitated. From beneath his +hair the great sweat drops came pouring, as he tried to approach her and +take the uplifted hands, motioning him aside with the words: "Not touch +me; no, not touch me till you have told me who is Genevra Lambert." + +She repeated the question twice, and rallying all his strength Wilford +answered her at last: "Genevra Lambert was my wife!" + +"I thought so," and the next moment Katy lay in Wilford's arms, dead, as +he feared, for there was no motion about the eyelids, no motion that he +could perceive about the pulse or heart, as he laid the rigid form upon +the bed and then bent every energy to restore her, even though he feared +that it was hopeless. + +"I must do what I can," he said, thinking once to send for a physician +and laying his hand upon the bell rope for the purpose of ringing up a +servant; but a faint, gasping sound met his ear, assuring him there yet +was life and that Katy was not dead. + +If possible he would prefer that no one should intrude upon them now, +and he chafed her icy hands and bathed her face until the eyes unclosed +again, but with a shudder turned away as they met his. Then as she grew +stronger and remembered the past she started up, exclaiming: "If Genevra +Lambert is your wife, what then am I? Oh, Wilford, how could you make me +not a wife, when I trusted and loved you so much?" + +He knew now that she was laboring under a mistake, and he did not wonder +at the violence of her emotions if she believed he had wronged her so +cruelly, and coming nearer to her he said: "You mistake me; Genevra +Lambert was my wife once, but is not now, for she is dead. Do you hear +me, Katy? Genevra died years ago, when you were a little girl playing in +the fields at home." + +By mentioning Silverton he hoped to bring back something of her olden +look, in place of the expression which troubled and frightened him. The +experiment was successful and great tears gathered in Katy's eyes, +washing out the wild, unnatural gleam, while the lips whispered: "And it +was her picture Juno saw. She told me the night I came and I tried to +question you. You remember?" + +Wilford did remember it and he replied: "Yes, but I did not suppose you +knew I had a picture. You have been a good wife, Katy, never to mention +it since then;" and he tried to kiss her forehead, but she covered it +with her hands, saying, sadly: "Not yet, Wilford, I cannot bear it now. +I must know the whole about Genevra. Why didn't you tell me before? Why +have you deceived me so?" + +"Katy," and Wilford grew very earnest in his attempts to defend himself, +"do you remember that day we sat under the buttonwood tree and you +promised to be mine? Try and recall the incidents of that hour and see +if I did not hint at some things past which I wished had been +otherwise--did not offer to show you the blackest page of my whole life +and you would not see it. Was that so, Katy?" + +"Yes," she answered, and he continued: "You said you were satisfied +to take me as I was. You would not hear evil against me and so I +acquiesced, bidding you not shrink back if ever the time should come +when you must read that page. I was to blame, I know, but there were +many extenuating circumstances, much to excuse me for withholding what +you would not hear." + +Wilford did not like to be censured, neither did he like to censure +himself, and now that Katy was out of danger and comparatively calm, he +began to build about himself a fortress of excuses for having kept from +her the secret of his life. + +"Would not most any man have done just as I did?" he continued. "Can you +mention one who would not?" + +"Yes, Cousin Morris," Katy answered; "he would never have deceived me +thus." + +A little vexed at the mention of Dr. Grant, Wilford replied: "I do not +pretend to be a saint, and I believe your cousin does; but I doubt +whether even he, with all his goodness, would do very differently from +what I have done; but tell me how, where did you hear of Genevra?" + +Amid sobs and tears Katy told him how she had repented of her decision +not to join him at his mother's, coming to the conclusion that she was +doing wrong to seclude herself so much and trying her best to look well +again in his eyes. + +"I meant to surprise you," she said, "and when I heard your mother was +out I went into the library to wait, thinking you would come there, but +you did not, and I started to go to you when my feet were stopped, for +you were talking of me, Wilford, not bad, perhaps, but as you would not +have talked had you known that I was there where I heard the words which +burned like coals of fire, so that I could have screamed in my +distress." + +Katy was not weeping now and her face was like that of some accusing +angel as she continued: "I thought my heart was broken when I heard you +talk so of me and Silverton, but that was nothing compared with what +came next, when your mother spoke of Genevra. I thought it was my baby +she meant at first, and the tightness around my heart was giving way, +for if you did complain of me to your mother, I could forgive that +because you were baby's father; but Genevra Lambert! oh, Wilford, I died +a thousand deaths in one when I first heard of her and understood why +you objected to the name our baby finally bore. You did not wish to be +so constantly reminded of the other wife. I could not sit there longer, +the room around me grew so black, so I struggled to my feet and reached +the door, going into the street and thinking once I would end my +wretched life in the distant river; but something turned my steps toward +home and I came, thinking it all over and suffering such agony. Oh, +Wilford, why did you keep it from me? What was there about it wrong and +where is she buried?" + +"In Alnwick, at St. Mary's," Wilford answered, determining now to hold +nothing back, and by his abruptness wounding Katy afresh. + +"In Alnwick, at St. Mary's" Katy cried. "Then I have seen her grave, and +that is why you were so anxious to get there, so unwilling to go away. +Oh, if I were lying there instead of Genevra, it would be so much +better, so much better." + +There was sobbing now, in a moaning, plaintive way which touched Wilford +tenderly, and smoothing her tangled hair, he said: "I would not exchange +my Katy for all the Genevras in the world. She was never as dear to me +as you. I was but a boy, and did not know my mind when I met her. Shall +I tell you about her now? Can you bear to hear the story of Genevra?" + +There was a nod of assent, and Katy turned her face to the wall, +clasping her hands tightly together, while Wilford drew his chair to her +side and began to read the page he should have read to her long before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +WHAT THE PAGE DISCLOSED. + + +"I was little more than nineteen years of age when I left Harvard +College and went abroad with my only brother, the John or Jack of whom +you have so often heard. Both himself and wife were in delicate health, +and it was hoped a voyage across the sea would do them good. For nearly +a year we were in various parts of England, stopping for two months at +Brighton, where, among the visitors, was a widow from the vicinity of +Alnwick, and with her an orphan niece whom I often met, and whose +dazzling beauty attracted my youthful fancy. She was not happy with her +aunt, upon whom she was wholly dependent, and my sympathies were all +enlisted, when, with the tears shining in her lustrous eyes, she one day +accidentally stumbled upon her trouble and told me how wretched she was, +asking if in America there was not something for her to do. + +"It was at this time that Jamie was born and Mary, the girl who went out +with us, was married to an Englishman, making it necessary for Hatty to +find some one to take her place. Hearing of this, Genevra came one day, +and to my secret delight offered herself as half companion, half +waiting-maid to Hatty. Anything was preferable to the life she led, she +said, pleading so hard that Hatty, after an interview with the old +aunt--a purse-proud, vulgar woman, who seemed glad to be rid of her +charge--consented to receive her, and Genevra became one of our family, +an equal rather than a menial, whom Hatty treated with as much +consideration as if she had been a sister. I wish I could tell you how +beautiful Genevra Lambert was at that period of her life. I have her +picture, which I will show you by and by, but it will not convey an +adequate idea of her as she was then, with her brilliant English +complexion, her eyes so full of poetry and passion, her perfect +features, and, more than all, the wondrous smile, which would have made +a plain face handsome. She was full of life and spirits, with enough of +coquetry about her to fascinate and turn older heads than mine. + +"Of course I came to love her, and loved her all the more for the +opposition I knew my family would throw in the way of my marrying the +daughter of an English apothecary, and one who was voluntarily filling a +servant's place. But with my mother across the sea, I could do anything; +and when Genevra told me of a base fellow, as she termed him, who, since +she was a child, had sought her for his wife, and still pursued her with +his letters, my passions all were roused, and I offered myself at once. +I do not think she anticipated this when she told me of the letters, as +it might seem to you. She was neither designing nor artful, but, on the +contrary, wholly open-hearted and truthful, telling me the contents of +the letter because I found her weeping over it and insisted upon knowing +the cause. Her answer to my offer was a decided refusal. She knew her +position, she said, and she knew mine, just as she knew the nature of +the feeling which prompted me to act thus toward her. Although just my +age, she was older in judgment and experience, and she seemed to +understand the difference between our relative positions. I was not +indifferent to her, she said, and were she my equal her answer might be +otherwise than the decided no. + +"Of course this only made me more eager, particularly as during the next +two weeks she avoided me as much as possible, never stopping alone with +me for a moment or giving me a chance to say a word in private. Madly in +love, and fancying I could not live without her, I besieged her with +letters, some of which she returned unopened, while on the others she +wrote a few hurried lines, calling me a boy, who did not know my own +mind, and asking what my friends would say. + +"I cared little for friends, urging my suit the more vehemently, as we +were about going into Scotland, where our marriage could be celebrated +in private at any time. I say in private, for I did not contemplate +making the affair public at once. That would take from the interest and +romance, while, unknown to myself, there was at heart a fear of my +family. + +"But not to dwell too long upon those days, which seem to me now so like +a dream, we went to Scotland and were married privately, for I won her +to this at last. And now comes the part where Jamie is concerned. On the +night of our marriage, Genevra, who had obtained permission to be absent +on a plea of visiting a friend, had procured some one to take charge of +Jamie, a red-faced girl from Edinburgh, who, unused to children, perched +the child upon her shoulder, and while in this condition let him fall, +injuring his spine and making him a cripple for life. Genevra never +forgave herself for that sad accident, which would not have happened had +she remained at her post, while to me Jamie has ever since been a sacred +thing, his helplessness which he bears so meekly a constant reproach, +reminding me of what I would had never been." + +"Then you are sorry you married Genevra?" Katy exclaimed, turning partly +toward him, and giving the first token she as yet had given that she was +listening to the story. + +Sometimes Wilford was sorry and sometimes he was not, for there was a +world of pleasurable excitement connected with those months of secrecy, +those private interviews, those stolen kisses, and little acts of +endearment, which so intoxicated and bewildered him that the talking of +them now brought something of the olden thrill he had experienced, when +for a moment he held Genevra's hand in his or wound his arm around her +waist, knowing he had a perfect right to do so. But it was better not to +confess this to Katy, and so he evaded the question, and continued: + +"My brother's failing health, as well as Hatty's, prevented them from +suspecting what was going on, and when at last we went to Italy they had +no idea that Genevra was my wife. At Rome her beautiful face attracted +much attention from tourists and residents, among whom were a few young +men, who, looking upon her as Jamie's nurse, or at most a companion for +his mother, made no attempt to disguise their admiration. For this I had +no redress except in an open avowal of the relation in which I stood to +her, and this I could not then do, for the longer it was deferred the +harder I found it to acknowledge her my wife. I loved her devotedly, and +that perhaps was one great cause of the jealousy which began to spring +up and embitter my life. + +"I do not believe that Genevra was at heart a coquette. She was very +fond of admiration, but when she saw how much I was disturbed she +made an effort to avoid those who flattered her, but her manner was +unfortunate, while her voice--the sweetest I ever heard--was calculated +to invite rather than repel attention. As the empress of the world, she +would have won and kept the homage of mankind, from the humblest beggar +in the street to the king upon the throne, and had I been older I should +have been proud of what then was my greatest annoyance. But I was +young--a mere boy--and so I watched her jealously, until a new element +of disquiet was presented to me in the shape of a ruffianly looking +fellow, who was frequently seen about the premises, and with whom I once +found Genevra in close converse, starting and blushing guiltily when I +came upon her, while her companion went swiftly from my sight. + +"'It was an old English acquaintance, who was poor and asking charity,' +she said, when questioned, but her manner led me to think there was +something wrong, particularly as I saw her with him again, and thought +she held his hand. + +"It was evident that my brother would never see America again, and at +his request my mother came to us, in company with a family from Boston, +reaching us two weeks before he died. From the first, she disliked +Genevra, suspecting the liking between us, but never dreaming of the +truth until a week after Jack's death, when in a fit of anger at Genevra +for listening to an English artist, who had asked to paint her picture, +the story of the marriage came out, and like a child dependent on its +mother for advice, I asked, 'What shall I do?' + +"You know mother, Katy--that is, you know her pride--and can in part +understand how she would scorn a girl who, though born to better things, +was still found in the capacity of a waiting maid. I never saw her so +moved as she was for a time, after learning that her only living son, +from whom she expected so much, had thrown himself away, as she +expressed it. Sister Hatty, who loved Genevra, did all she could to heal +the growing difference between us, but I trusted mother most. I believed +that what she said was right, and so matters grew worse, until one +night, the last we spent in Rome, I missed Genevra from our rooms, and +starting in quest of her, found her in a little flower garden back of +our dwelling. There, under the deep shadow of a tree, and partly +concealed from view, she stood with her arm around the neck of the same +rough-looking man who had been there before. She did not see me as I +stood and watched her while she parted with him, suffering him to kiss +her hand and forehead as he said, 'Good-by, my darling.' + +"In a tremor of anger and excitement I quitted the spot, my mind wholly +made up with regard to my future. That there was something wrong about +Genevra I did not doubt, and I would not give her a chance to explain by +telling her what I had seen, but sent her back to England, giving her +ample means for defraying the expenses of her journey and for living in +comfort after her arrival there. From Rome we went to Naples, and then +to Switzerland, where Hatty died, leaving us alone with little Jamie. It +was here at Berne that I received an anonymous letter from England, the +writer stating that Genevra was with her aunt, that the whole had ended +as he thought it would, that he could readily guess at the nature of the +trouble, and hinting that if a divorce was desirable on my return to +England, all necessary proof could be obtained by applying to such a +number in London, the writer announcing himself a brother of the man who +had once sought Genevra, and saying he had always opposed the match, +knowing Genevra's family. + +"This was the first time the idea of a divorce had entered my mind. +Instead of that the hope that Genevra might in some way be restored to +me unspotted, had unconsciously been the daystar of my existence, and I +shrank from a final separation. But mother felt differently. It was not +a new thought to her, knowing as she did that the validity of a Scotch +marriage, such as ours, was frequently contested in the English courts. +Once free from Genevra the world this side the water would never know of +that mistake, and she set herself steadily to accomplish her purpose. To +tell you all that followed our return to England and the steps by which +I was brought to sue for a divorce would make my story too long, and so +I will only state that, chiefly by the testimony of the anonymous letter +writer, whose acquaintance we made, a divorce was at last obtained, +Genevra putting in no defense, but as I heard afterward, settling down +to an apathy from which nothing had power to rouse her until the news of +her freedom from me was carried to her, when, amid a paroxysm of tears +and sobs she wrote me a few lines, assuring me of her innocence, +refusing to send back her wedding ring, and saying God would not forgive +me for the great wrong I had done her. I saw her once after that by +appointment and her face haunted me for years. Indeed, I sometimes see +it in my dreams as it confronted me then, with a look which I now know +was a look of deeply injured innocence, for, Katy, Genevra was innocent, +as I found after the time was past when reparation could be made." + +Wilford's voice trembled now, and for a moment there was silence in the +room while he composed himself to go on with the story: + +"She would not live with me again if she could, she said, denouncing +bitterly the Cameron pride and saying she was happier to be free. I +remember I tried to excuse myself, remember saying that if there had +been children or a child I should have paused before taking the decisive +step, and there we parted, but not until she had told me that her +traducer was the old discarded suitor who had sworn to have revenge, and +who, since the divorce, had dared seek her again. A vague suspicion of +this had crossed my mind once before, but the die was cast, and even if +the man were false, what I saw myself in Rome still stood against her +and so my conscience was quieted, while mother was more than glad to be +rid of a daughter-in-law of whose family I knew nothing. Rumors I did +hear of a cousin whose character was not the best, and of the father +who for some crime had fled the country, dying in a foreign land, but as +that was nothing to me now, I passed it by, feeling it was best to be +relieved from one of so doubtful antecedents. + +"In the spring of 185- we came back to New York, where no one had ever +heard of the affair, so quietly and well had it been managed. I was a +young man still, no one except my mother sharing in the secret. With her +I often talked of Genevra, wishing sometimes that I could hear from her, +a wish which was finally gratified. One day I received a note requesting +an interview at a downtown hotel, the writer signing himself as Thomas +Lambert, and adding that I need have no fears as he came to perform an +act of justice, not of retribution. Three hours later I was locked in a +room with Genevra's father, the same man whom I had seen in Rome. +Detected in forgery years before, he had fled from England and had +hidden himself in Rome, where he accidentally met his daughter, and so +that stain was removed. He had heard of the divorce by a letter which +Genevra managed to send him, and braving all difficulties and dangers he +had come back to England and found his child, hearing from her the story +of her wrongs, and as well as he was able setting himself to discover +the author of the calumny. He was not long in tracing it to Le Roy, whom +he found in a dying condition, and who with his last breath confessed +the falsehood which was imposed upon me, he said, partly from motives of +revenge and partly with a hope that free from me Genevra would at the +last turn to him. As proof that Mr. Lambert told me the truth, he +brought the dying man's confession, written in a cramped, trembling +hand, which I recognized at once. The confession ended with the solemn +assertion: 'For aught I know or believe, Genevra Lambert is as pure and +true as any woman living.' + +"I cannot describe the effect this had upon me. I did not love Genevra +then. I had outlived that affection, but I felt remorse and pity for +having wronged her so, and asked how I could make amends. + +"'You cannot,' the old man said, 'except in one way, and that she does +not desire. I did not come here with any wish for you to take her for +your wife again. It was an unequal match which never should have been; +but if you believe her innocent, she will be satisfied. She wanted you +to know it, I wanted you to know it, and so I crossed the sea to find +you.' + +"I sent a letter by him assuring her she stood acquitted in my mind of +all I had suspected her, and asked her pardon for the great wrong I had +done her. The next I heard of her was in the columns of an English +newspaper, which told me she was dead, while in another place a pencil +mark was lightly turned around a paragraph, which said that 'a forger, +Thomas Lambert, who escaped years ago and was supposed to be dead, had +recently reappeared in England, where he was recognized, but not +arrested, for the illness proved fatal.' He was attended, the paper said, +by his daughter, 'a beautiful young girl whose modest mien and gentle +manner had done much toward keeping the officers of justice from her +dying father, no one being able to withstand her pleadings that her +father might die in peace.' + +"I was grateful for this tribute, to Genevra, and I felt that it was +deserved; turning again to the notice of her death, which must have +occurred within a short time of her father's, and was probably induced +by past troubles and recent anxiety for him. + +"'Genevra Lambert died at Alnwick, aged twenty-two.' There could be no +mistake, and with a tear to the memory of the dead whom I had loved and +injured, I burned the paper, feeling that now there was no clew to the +secret I was as anxious to preserve as was my mother. + +"And so the years wore on till I met and married you, withholding from +you that yours was not the first love which had stirred my heart, nor +yours the first head which had slept upon my arm. I meant to tell you, +Katy, but I could not for the great fear of losing you if you knew all. +And then an error concealed so long is hard to be confessed. I took you +across the sea to Brighton, where I first met Genevra, and then to +Alnwick, seeking out the grave which made assurance doubly sure. It was +that one in the far corner of St. Mary's where I went so often and where +once you came, sitting upon the very mound whose headstone bore +Genevra's name. I drew my breath quickly as if the dead were thus +dishonored, but I knew you meant no harm, and as soon as possible I +hurried you away. It was natural that I should make some inquiries +concerning her last days, but lest it should all come out kept me back, +so that I only questioned the old sexton who once was at work nearby. +Calling his attention to the name, I said it was an uncommon one and +asked if he knew the girl. + +"'Not by sight, no,' he said. 'She was only here a few days before she +died. I've heard she was very winsome and that there was a scandal of +some kind mixed up with her.' + +"I would not ask him any more; and without any wrong to you, my wife, I +confess that my tears dropped upon the turf under which I knew Genevra +lay." + +"I am glad they did; I should hate you if you had not cried," Katie +exclaimed, her voice more natural than it had been since the great shock +came, and her own tears falling fast to the memory of Genevra, whose +grave she had sat upon with Wilford standing near. + +A buried wife was not so dreadful to contemplate as a wife divorced but +living still, and Katy's heart did not beat with quite so heavy throbs +of fear and shame as it had at first. But it was very sore with the +feeling that to her almost as great a wrong had been done as to Genevra, +for had he not deceived her from the very first, he and his mother, who +had been the terror of Genevra's life as she was the bane of Katy's. + +"Do you forgive me, Katy? Do you love me as well as ever?" Wilford +asked, stooping down to kiss her, but Katy drew her face away and did +not answer then. + +She did not know herself just how she felt toward him. He did not seem +just like the husband she had trusted in so blindly. It would take a +long time to forget that another head than hers had lain upon his bosom, +and it would take longer yet to blot out the memory of the complaining +words uttered to his mother. She had never thought he could do that, +never dreamed of such a thing, knowing that she would sooner have parted +with her right hand than have complained of him. Her idol had fallen in +more respects than one, and the heart it had bruised in the fall refused +at once to gather the shattered pieces up and call them good as new. She +was not obstinate, she was not sulky, as Wilford began to fancy. She +was only stunned and could not rally at his bidding. He had confessed +the whole, keeping nothing back, and he felt that Katy was unjust not to +acknowledge his magnanimity and restore him to her favor. Again he asked +forgiveness, again bent down to kiss her, but Katy answered: "Not yet, +Wilford, not till I feel all right toward you. A wife's kiss should be +sincere." + +"As you like," trembled on Wilford's lips, but he beat back the words +and walked up and down the room, knowing now that his journey must be +deferred till morning, and wondering if Katy would hold out till then. + +It was long past midnight, but to retire was impossible, and so for one +whole hour he paced through the room, while Katy lay with her eyes +closed and her lips moving occasionally in the words of prayer she tried +to say, asking God to help her, and praying that she might in future lay +her treasures up where they could not so suddenly be swept away. Wearily +the hours passed, and the gray dawn was stealing into the room when +Wilford again approached his wife and said, "You know I was to have left +home last night on business. As I did not go then, it is necessary that +I leave this morning. Are you able to stay alone for three days or more? +Are you willing?" + +"Yes--oh, yes," Katy replied, feeling that to have him gone while she +battled with the pain lying so heavy at her heart would be a great +relief. + +Perhaps he suspected this feeling in part, for he bit his lip +impatiently, and without another word called up the servant whose duty +it was to prepare his early breakfast. Cold and cheerless seemed the +dining-room, to which an hour later he repaired, and tasteless was the +breakfast without Katy there to share it. She had been absent many times +before, but never just as now, with this wide gulf between them, and as +he broke his egg and tried to drink his coffee, Wilford felt like one +from whom every support had been swept away, leaving him tottering and +giddy. He did not like the look of Katy's face or the sound of her +voice, and as he thought upon them, self began to whisper again that she +had no right to stand out so long when he had confessed everything, and +by the time his breakfast was finished Wilford Cameron was, in his own +estimation, an abused an injured man, so that it was with an air of +defiance rather than humility that he went again to Katy. She, too, had +been thinking, and as the result of her thoughts she lifted up her head +as he came in and said, "I can kiss you now, Wilford." + +It was human nature, we suppose--at least it was Wilford's nature--which +for an instant tempted him to decline the kiss proffered so lovingly; +but Katy's face was more than he could withstand, and when again he left +that room the kiss of pardon was upon his lips and comparative quiet was +in his heart. + +"The picture, Wilford--you have forgotten that," Katy called after him, +as he was running down the stairs. + +Wilford would rather have been with her when she first looked upon +Genevra, but there was not time for that, and hastily unlocking his +private drawer he carried the case to Katy's room, laying it upon the +bureau and saying to her: "I would not mind it now, until it is fully +light. Try and sleep a while. You need the rest so much." + +Katy knew she had the whole day before her in which to investigate the +face of one who once had filled her place, and so she nestled down among +her pillows, and soon fell into a quiet sleep, from which Esther, who +looked in upon her several times, at last awakened her, asking if she +should bring her breakfast to her room. + +"Yes, do," Katy replied, adjusting her dress and trying to arrange the +matted curls, which were finally confined in a net until Esther's more +practiced hands were ready to attack them. + +And all this while the picture lay upon the bureau--the square, +old-fashioned daguerreotype, which Katy shrank from opening. + +"I'll wait till after breakfast," she said; then as the thought came +over her that if the face proved as beautiful as Wilford had described, +she in her present forlorn condition would feel the contrast deeply, she +said, "I'll wait till Esther has fixed my hair; then I will look at +Genevra." + +Breakfasting did not occupy her long, and Esther soon was busy with her +toilet, combing out and looping-back her curls, and bringing a plain +dress of rich bombazine, with fresh bands of white crape, as had been +worn the previous day. Katy's toilet was complete at last, and as Esther +closed the door behind her, Katy, with a trembling hand, took from the +drawer, where she had hid it from Esther's eyes, the picture of Genevra +Lambert. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE EFFECT. + + +With a shiver Katy held it a moment in her lap, noticing how old and +worn it looked--noticing, too, the foreign mark upon it, and that one +hinge was broken, wondering if all this wear had come from frequent use. +Had Wilford looked often at that picture?--and if so, what were his +feelings as he looked? Was he sorry that Genevra died? Did he sometimes +wish her there, instead of Katy Lennox, of Barlow origin? Did he +contrast their faces one with the other, giving the preference to +Genevra, or was Katy's liked the best? All these questions Katy asked +herself, while her fingers fluttered about the clasp, which she half +dreaded to unfasten. + +Cautiously, very cautiously, at last the lid was opened, and a lock of +soft brown hair fell out, clinging to Katy's hand as if it had been a +living thing, and making her shudder with fear as she shook off the +silken tress and remembered that the head it once adorned was lying in +St. Mary's churchyard, where the English daisies grew. + +"She had pretty hair," she thought; "darker, richer than mine," and into +Katy's heart there crept a feeling akin to jealousy, lest Genevra had +been fairer than herself, as well as better loved. "I won't be foolish +any longer," she said, and turning resolutely to the light she opened +the lid again and saw Genevra Lambert, starting quickly, then looking +again more closely--then, with a gasp, panting for breath, while like +lightning flashes the past came rushing over her, as, with her eyes +fixed upon that picture, she tried to whisper, "It is--it is!" + +She could not then say whom, for if she were right in her belief, +Genevra was not dead. There were no daisies growing on her grave, for +she still walked the earth a living woman, whom Katy knew so +well--Marian Hazelton. That was the name Katy could not speak, as, with +the blood curdling in her veins and freezing about her heart, she sat +comparing the face she remembered so well with the one before her. In +some points they were unlike, for thirteen years had slightly marred the +youthful contour of the face she knew--had sharpened the features and +thinned the abundant hair; but still there could be no mistake. The +eyes, the brow, the smile, the nose, all were the same, and with a pang +bitterer than she yet had felt, poor Katy fell upon her face and asked +that she might die. In her utter ignorance of law, she fancied that if +Genevra were alive, she had no right to Wilford's name--no right to be +his wife--especially as the sin for which Genevra was divorced had by +her never been committed, and burning tears of bitter shame ran down her +cheeks as she whispered, "'What God hath joined together let no man put +asunder.' Those are God's words, and how dare the world act otherwise? +She is his wife, and I--oh! I don't know what I am!" and on the carpet +where she was kneeling Katy writhed in agony as she tried to think what +she must do. Not stay there--she could not do that now--not, at least, +until she knew for sure that she was Wilford's wife, in spite of +Genevra's living. Maybe she was; there was a Mrs. Grainier in the city +divorced from her first husband and living with her second; but then the +man was a profligate, a most abandoned wretch, who had not been proved +innocent, as Genevra had, and that must make a difference. "Oh, if there +was only some one to advise me--some one who knew and would tell me what +was right," Katy moaned, feeling herself inadequate to meet the dark +hour alone. + +But to whom should she go? To Father Cameron? No, nor to his mother. +They might counsel wrong for the sake of secrecy. Would Mark Ray or Mrs. +Banker know? Perhaps; but they were strangers--her trouble must not be +told to them, and then with a great bound her heart turned at last to +Morris. He knew everything. He would not sanction a wrong. He would tell +her just what was right, and she could trust him fully in everything. +There was no other person whom she could believe just as she could him. +Uncle Ephraim was equally as good and conscientious, but he did not know +as much as Morris--he did not understand everything. Morris was her +refuge, and to him she would go that very day, leaving a note for +Wilford in case she never came back, as possibly she might not. And +then, like an imprisoned bird, which sees its cage door opened at last, +but dreads the freedom offered, Katy drew her bleeding wings close to +her side and shrank from the cold world which lay outside that home of +luxury. But when she remembered that possibly she had no right to stay +there, she grew strong again, and, seizing her pen, dashed off a wild, +impassioned letter, which, if her husband did not find her there on his +return, would tell him where she was and why she had gone. This she left +in a drawer appropriated to Wilford's use, and where he could not fail +to find it; but the picture she put in her own pocket, not caring to +part with that. Had Marian been in the city she would have gone to her +at once, but Marian was where long rows of cots are ranged against the +hospital walls, each holding a maimed and suffering soldier, to whom she +ministered so tenderly, the brightness of her smile and the beauty of +her face deluding the delirious ones into the belief that the journey of +life for them was ended and heaven reached at last, where an angel in +woman's garb attended upon them. Marian was impossible, and Dr. Grant +was the only alternative left. + +Summoning Esther, Katy told her, in as calm a voice as she could +command, that, feeling very lonely, she was going out to spend the day, +and probably the night. At all events the servants were not to expect +her until she came. + +"Yes, ma'am--going to Mr. Cameron's, I suppose?" Esther said, and as +Katy made no answer the impression in Esther's mind was that she would +spend the day and night at the elder Cameron's, as she had done once +before when Wilford was away. + +And this was the intelligence carried to the servants, who wondered that +their mistress did not order the carriage, but started off on foot, her +face looking ghastly white beneath the folds of her crape veil as she +closed the door behind and looked back at the home she might be leaving +forever. The carriage, she knew, would lead to detection, and as it was +not far to the New Haven depot, she kept on her way until the train was +reached, and she in a seat by herself was looking with eyes which could +not weep over the city she was so fast leaving behind. Had she for one +moment suspected Morris's love, all her womanly instincts would have +kept her from seeking him then, but she had no such suspicion. Morris +was her elder brother, and like a stricken sister she was going to him +with her grief, sure of sympathy and sure of counsel for the right. + +The afternoon was cold and stormy, so that it was late in the evening +when the long train reached West Silverton, where Katy was to stop. +Owing to the storm but few were at the depot, and among them none who +recognized Katy Cameron beneath the heavy veil she kept so closely over +her face, even while asking for a conveyance out to Linwood. It was a +comparative boy who volunteered his services, and as he had recently +come to Silverton he knew nothing of Katy or of Dr. Grant, so that she +was saved from all embarrassment upon that point; her driver never +addressing her except to ask the way, which was not wholly familiar to +him. + +"Turn here. Yes, that is right," she said, when they reached the road +which led to Linwood, and a feeling like guilt crept over her as through +the leafless trees and across the meadow land she spied the farmhouse +light shining through the drifting snow as if beckoning her to come. +"Not yet--not now. I must see Morris first," she answered mentally to +that silent invitation, and drawing the buffalo skin around her with a +shiver. She did not look again toward the farmhouse, but onward to where +the lights of Linwood shone through the wintry darkness. "This is the +place," she said, and in a moment she stood upon the broad stone steps, +shaking the snow from her cloak, while the boy waited a moment, hoping +to be invited to share the warmth he felt there was within that handsome +building. + +Katy would rather he should not stop, but when she saw how cold he was +she began to relent, and telling him where to shelter his horse, pointed +to the basement bidding him go in there. Then, with a hesitating step +on she began to wonder what Morris would say, she crossed the wide +piazza and softly turning the door knob, stood in the hall at Linwood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THE INTERVIEW. + + +Dr. Morris was very tired, for his labors that day had been unusually +severe, and it was with a feeling of comfort and relief that he had +turned his steps homeward just as the night was closing in, finding a +bright fire waiting for him in the library, where his supper was soon +brought by the housekeeper, Mrs. Hull, the other servants having gone to +an adjoining town to attend the wedding party of a former associate. It +was very pleasant in that cozy library of oak and green, with the bright +fire on the hearth, the heavy curtains shutting out all traces of the +storm, and the smoking supper set so temptingly before him. And Morris +felt the comfort of his home, thanking the God who had given him all +this, and chiding his wayward heart that it had ever dared to repine. He +was not repining to-night; he had not repined for many a day, though he +never sat down at home after his day's labor in slippers and +dressing-gown, with a new book beside him on the table, that there was +not a sense of something wanting, a glancing at the empty chair across +the hearth, a thought perhaps of Katy, who could squeeze the whole of +her slight form into that chair. But he was not thinking of her now, as +with his hands crossed upon his head he sat looking into the fire and +watching the bits of glowing anthracite dropping into the pan. He was +thinking of the sickbed which he had visited last, and how a faith in +Jesus can make the humblest room like the gate of heaven; thinking how +the woman's eyes had sparkled when she told him of the other world, +where she would never know pain, or hunger, or cold again, and how +quickly their luster was dimmed when she spoke of her absent husband, +the soldier to whom the news of her death with the child he had never +seen would be a crushing blow. + +"They who have neither wife nor child are the happier perhaps," he said, +and then the thought of Katy and her great sorrow when baby died, +wondering if to spare herself that pain she would rather baby had never +been. "No--oh, no," he answered to his own inquiry. "She would not lose +the memory which comes from that little grave for all the world +contains. It is better once to love and lose than not to love at all. In +heaven we shall see and know why these things were permitted, and marvel +at the poor human nature which rebelled against them." + +Just at this point of his soliloquy the door opened, so softly that he +did not hear it turn upon its hinges, nor hear the light footstep on the +carpet as Katy came in. But when she coughed he started up in wonder at +the apparition standing so still before him. + +"Morris, oh, Morris," Katy cried, throwing back her veil and revealing a +face which Morris could not believe was hers for the lines of suffering +and distress stamped so legibly upon it. + +But it was Katy, as the voice implied, and, seizing her cold hands, +Morris asked: "Katy, why are you here to-night, and why are you alone? +Has anything happened? Tell me! your looks frighten me!" + +"I am so wretched--so full of pain. I have heard of something dreadful," +she replied--"something which took my life away. I could not stay there +after that, and so I come to you. I am not Wilford's wife, for he had +another, before me--a wife in Italy--who is not dead! And I--oh! Morris, +what am I? Untie my bonnet, do! It is choking me to death! I am--yes--I +am--going--to faint!" + +It was the first time Katy had put the great horror in words addressed +to another, and the act of doing so made it more appalling, while the +excitement and fatigue she had endured, together with the action of the +heat upon her chilled system, took her strength away, and into the chair +where Morris had so often seen her in fancy, she sank a crumpled heap of +cloaks and furs and bonnet, which Morris tried to remove so as to reach +the limp, fainting creature which had said: "I am not Wilford's wife, +for he had another before me--a wife in Italy--who is not dead." + +Dr. Morris was thoroughly a man, and though much of his sinful nature +had been subdued, there was enough left to make his heart rise and fall +with great throbs of joy as he thought of Katy free, even though that +freedom were bought at the expense of dire disgrace to others and of +misery to her. But only for a moment did he feel thus, only till the +bonnet was removed and the gaslight fell upon the pallid face with the +dark rings beneath the eyes, and the faint, quivering motion around the +lips, which told that she was not wholly unconscious. + +"My poor little wounded bird," he said, as pityingly as if he had been +her father, while, much as a father might kiss his suffering child, he +kissed the forehead and the eyelids where the tears began to gather. + +Katy was not insensible, and the name by which he called her, with the +kisses that he gave, thawed the ice around her heart and brought a flood +of tears which Morris wiped away, removing her heavy fur and lifting her +gently up, while he took away the cloak and left her unencumbered. With +a sigh she sank back into the chair, and, leaning her head upon its +cushioned arm, moaned like a weary child. + +"It is so pleasant to be here, and it rests me so. I wish I might never +go away. May I stay here, Morris, as your housekeeper, instead of Mrs. +Hull?--that is, if I am not his wife. The world might despise me, but +you would know I was not to blame. I should go nowhere but to the +farmhouse, to church, and baby's grave. Poor baby! I am glad God gave +her to me, even if I am not Wilford's wife; and I am glad now that she +died." + +She was talking to herself rather than to Morris, who, smoothing back +her hair and chafing her cold hands, said: + +"My poor child, you have passed through some agitating scene. Are you +able now to tell me all about it, and what you mean by another wife?" + +He saw she was greatly exhausted, and he brought her a glass of wine, +hoping she would rally. She had no supper, she said, except a cracker +bought in Springfield, but the moment he turned to the bellrope she +begged him not to ring. She was not hungry--she could not eat. She +should never eat again. + +Wishing himself to know something definite ere going to Mrs. Hull, +Morris yielded to her entreaties, and sitting down in front of her, said +again: "Now tell me what brought you here without your husband's +knowledge." + +There was a shiver, and the white lips grew still whiter as Katy began +her story, going back to St. Mary's churchyard, and then coming to her +first night in New York, when Juno had told her of a picture and asked +her whose it was. Then she told of Wilford's admission of an earlier +love, who, he said, was dead; of the trouble about the baby's name, and +his aversion to Genevra; of his frequent abstracted moods, which she +remembered now, never suspecting at the time their cause, and not +knowing now for certain that Genevra was the subject of his thoughts. +But it was safe to believe almost anything of one who had deceived her +so cruelly, and Katy's blue eyes flashed resentfully as she uttered the +first bitter words she had ever breathed against her husband. But when +she approached the dinner at the elder Cameron's, her lip quivered in a +grieved kind of way as she remembered what Wilford had said of her to +his mother, but she would not tell this to Morris, it was not necessary +to her story, and so she said: "They were talking of what I ought never +to have heard, and it seemed as if the walls were closing me in so that +I could not move to let them know I was there. I said to myself, 'I +shall go mad after this,' and I thought of you all coming to see me in +the madhouse, your kind face, Morris, coming up distinctly before me, +just as it would look at me if I were really crazed. But all this was +swept away like a hurricane when I heard the rest, the part about +Genevra, Wilford's other wife." + +Katy was panting for breath and Morris brought the wine again, after +which she went on with the story, which made Morris clinch his hands as +he comprehended the deceit which had been practiced so long. Of course +he did not look at it as Katy did, for he knew that according to all +civil law she was as really Wilford's wife as if no other had existed, +and he told her so, but Katy shook her head: "He can't have two wives +living, and I tell you I knew the picture--Genevra is not dead. I have +seen her; I have talked with her--Genevra is not dead." + +"Granted that she is not," Morris answered, "the divorce remains the +same." + +"I do not believe in divorces. 'Whom God hath joined together let no man +put asunder,'" Katy said with an air which implied that from this +argument there could be no appeal. + +"That is the Scripture I know," Morris replied, "but you must remember +that for one sin our Savior permitted a man to put away his wife, thus +making it perfectly right." + +"But in Genevra's case the sin did not exist. She was as innocent as I +am, and that must make a difference." + +She was very earnest in her attempts to prove that Genevra was still a +lawful wife, so earnest that a dark suspicion entered Morris's mind, +finding vent in the question, "Katy, don't you love your husband, that +you try so hard to prove he is not yours?" + +There were red spots all over Katy's face and neck as she saw the +meaning put upon her actions, and covering her face with her hands she +sobbed violently as she replied: "I do, oh, yes, I do. I never loved any +one else. I would have died for him once. Maybe I would die for him now; +but, Morris, I fear he is disappointed in me. Our tastes are not alike, +and we made a great mistake, or Wilford did when he took me for his +wife. I was better suited to most anybody else, and I have been so +wicked since, forgetting all the good I ever knew, forgetting prayer +save as I went through the form from old habit's sake, forgetting God, +who has overtaken me at last and punished me so sorely that every nerve +smarts with the stinging blows." + +Oh, how lovingly, how earnestly Morris talked to Katy then, telling her +of Him who smites but to heal, who chastens not in anger, but who would +lead the lost one back into the quiet fold where there was perfect +peace. + +And Katy, listening eagerly, with her great blue eyes fixed upon his +face, felt that to be like him, to experience that of which he talked, +was worth more than all the world beside. Gradually; too, there stole +over her the rest she always felt with him--the indescribable feeling +which prompted her to care for nothing except to do just what he bade +her do, knowing it was right. So when he said at last, "You must go back +to New York; this is no place for you," she offered no remonstrance; but +when he continued, "And you must go to-night; that is, you must take the +early morning train, so as to reach the city before any one has had a +chance to read the letter," she demurred at once. "She must see mother; +she must see Helen; she must tell Helen who Genevra was. She wanted her +to know it, but no one else. She must visit baby's grave; she could not +go back without it." + +"Not if it is right?" Morris asked, and Katy began to waver when he told +her how much better it would be for her family not to know of this visit +to him, as it would trouble them. She could tell Wilford, if she liked, +but he must not be permitted to find the letter, as he would if he +returned while she was gone. "I will go with you. It is not safe for you +to go alone," he continued, feeling her rapid pulse and noticing the +alternate flushing and paling of her cheek. + +A fever was coming on, he feared, and it must not be there with him, for +more reasons than one. She must return to New York, or, failing to do +that, he must take her across the fields to the farmhouse before the +coming dawn. + +"Are you sick, Katy?" he asked, as she appeared to be growing stupid. + +"Not sick, no; only so tired, so sleepy," and the heavy lids closed over +the dull eyes, while Katy's head still lay upon the cushioned arm of the +large chair. + +Her position was not an easy one, and wheeling the lounge to the fire +Morris brought a pillow from his sleeping room adjoining, and taking +Katy in his arms laid her where she would at least be more comfortable +than in the chair. Wrapping his shawl about her and turning down the gas +so as to shield her eyes, he left her alone, while he went to Mrs. Hull, +puzzling her brain to know who the lady was, brought there that stormy +night, and talking so long and earnestly with the doctor. The driver boy +was gone, and thinking it possible that their visitor might be wanting +supper, the thoughtful woman had put the kettle on the stove, where it +was sending forth volumes of steam just as Morris appeared. If he went +to New York with Katy he must trust Mrs. Hull with his reasons for +going, and as from past experience he believed she could be trusted, he +frankly told her that Mrs. Wilford Cameron was in the library; that +circumstances rendered it desirable for her to return to New York as +soon as possible; that as she could not go alone he must of course go +with her, and he expected Mrs. Hull not only to help him off, but also +to keep the fact of Katy's having been there a secret from every one. + +"Some trouble with that high-headed husband of hers; I always mistrusted +him," was Mrs. Hull's mental conclusion, as she nodded assent to what +Morris had said, asking if he proposed taking the early morning train +which passed at four o'clock, and who did he expect would drive his +cutter back, as the boys would not be home before broad daylight. + +Here was a dilemma of which Morris had not thought, but Mrs. Hull's +woman's wits came to his aid, suggesting that he "leave his horse at the +tavern in West Silverton and she would send John after it as soon as he +returned." + +This arranged, Mrs. Hull next asked if Katy would not have some supper +before her long ride. + +"A cup of tea and a slice of toast was all she would require," Morris +said, and he felt many doubts about her touching that. + +She was sleeping when he returned to her, but when the tea was ready, +she roused up enough to say she did not want it. + +"Make her drink it if you ever expect to get her to New York," Mrs. Hull +suggested, alarmed at the redness of Katy's face, and the brightness of +her eyes. + +"You must drink it," Morris said. "It will make you stronger for the +ride. We are going very soon, you know--going to New York," and he shook +her shoulder gently as he tried to make her comprehend. + +When he said she must, Katy lifted up her head, doing whatever he bade +her do, and seeming more natural for the exertion and the food she took. + +"Let me rest now for a little while," she said, and lying back upon her +pillow she slept for an hour, while Morris knelt beside her, counting +her rapid pulse, marking the progress of the fever and praying +earnestly that she might be able to reach New York, and that no serious +consequences would result from his taking her there that night. + +To others it might seem a crazy project, but Morris felt that it was +right, and he nerved himself to his part of the toil, harnessing his own +horse and leading him around to the door, where he left him while he +went to get Katy ready. She was not sleeping now, for the powerful +stimulant given just before leaving her had taken effect, and she seemed +a great deal better, fastening her cloak herself and tying her own +bonnet, while Morris put an extra shawl around her, and Mrs. Hull +brought the hot soapstone prepared for her feet. Then, when all was +ready, Morris carried her to the covered sleigh, wrapping robes and furs +around her so that it seemed impossible she should take cold. + +The storm had now abated, and the moon shone brightly upon the cold, +frosty snow, as they sped along, Morris' bells tinkling in the clear +cutting air, and occasionally waking some light sleeper, who knew those +musical bells, and said: "That is the doctor," wondering who was sick, +and as they nestled down again in their warm bed, feeling glad that they +were not obliged to be abroad in a wintry night like this. There was no +one at the West Silverton depot except the man who always stayed there, +and he was too nearly asleep to notice whether it was one or twenty +ladies whom Morris accompanied into the sitting-room, going next to +provide for his horse at the hotel nearby. + +This done he came back to Katy, staying by her until the early train +came swiftly in, pausing only for a moment, and when next it moved +forward, bearing him and Katy on the strange journey to New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +GETTING HOME. + + +Springfield was left behind just as the gray daylight came stealing +through the frost-bound windows, rousing the sleepy passengers, and +making Morris pull his wide collar a little closer about his face as if +to avoid observation. He was not afraid of daylight except as it might +disclose some old acquaintance who would perhaps wonder to see him at +that hour between Springfield and Hartford, and wonder more whose was +the head resting so confidentially upon his shoulder, for after the +change at Springfield, Katy, who could no longer keep awake, had leaned +against his arm as readily as if he had been her brother. + +A secret of any kind makes its possessor suspicious, and Morris felt +anxious whenever any one glanced that way, but he would not waken Katy, +who slept upon his arm until New York was reached, when with a +frightened, startled feeling, she sat up, and pushing her veil from her +face, looked about her, nodding half unconsciously to Thomas Tubbs, whom +she knew from having seen him in her husband's office, and who since +leaving Hartford had been a passenger on board that train, sitting just +behind Dr. Morris, and wondering when he saw who his companion was, "if +Mrs. Wilford had been to Silverton." Mattie wondered, too, when he told +her, as she poured his half-cold coffee, and then it passed from his +mind, until the following morning when he heard Mark Ray saying to a +client who had asked when Mr. Cameron would probably return: + +"If he does not come to-day, we shall telegraph for him, as his wife is +very sick." + +Then Tom remembered how white and haggard Katy's face had looked, and +many times that day his mind recurred to Katy Cameron, whom in his +boyish way he had admired as something supernaturally beautiful, and +who, in her own room at home, lay burning with fever, and talking of +Silverton, of Linwood, of baby, of Genevra, and of Wilford. + +Morris had seen her safely to her own door, and then thinking she would +do best alone for a time, he left her on the steps, after having rung +the bell and seen that the ring was answered. + +It was Esther who met her, expressing much concern at her appearance, +and asking why she did not stay at Father Cameron's instead of coming +home this cold raw day. + +Hardly knowing what she did, Katy motioned Esther to her after reaching +her room, and whispered: + +"I have not been to Father Cameron's. I had business somewhere else, but +you must not tell. I am in trouble, Esther, or rather, I have been. I +guess it's over now. You are a good girl, and I can trust you. There's +a letter in that drawer, please bring it to me." + +Either complied, and Katy held in her hand the letter left for Wilford. +It had not been opened. It must never be opened now, and holding it +until a fire was kindled in the grate, she tossed it into the flames, +watching it as it crispened and blackened upon the glowing coals. + +The quick-witted Esther saw that something was wrong, and traced it +readily to Wilford, whose exacting nature she thoroughly understood. She +had not been blind during the two years and a half she had been Katy's +maid, and no impatient word of Wilford's, or frown upon his face, had +escaped her when occurring in her presence, while Katy's uniform +sweetness and entire submission to his will had been noted as well, so +that in Esther's opinion Wilford was a domestic tyrant, and Katy was an +angel. There was no danger then of Esther's repeating anything +forbidden. She had, of course, her own private speculation on the +subject, and when she learned that the tall, handsome man who came +within an hour after Katy's arrival was Dr. Grant, about whom she had +heard both her young mistress and Mrs. Cameron talk so much, her woman's +wits came to her aid again, and to herself she said: + +"It's to Silverton Mrs. Cameron went, though how she could get there and +back so soon is a mystery to me, or why she went at all." + +Then as she remembered all the circumstances which followed the dinner +for which Katy had dressed with so much care, and the burning of the +letter, a wild conjecture passed through her mind as to the nature of +the trouble which had taken Katy to Silverton in her husband's absence, +leaving a letter for him, and then burning it up when she came back, +accompanied by Dr. Grant. For that he did come with her Esther was sure, +as she saw him on the steps when she answered Katy's ring, and knew the +man who now sat in the parlor waiting for her to take his name to Katy +was the same. + +"There is something in the wind," she thought, as she carried Morris' +name to Katy, who did not seem to hear, or if she did, she paid no heed, +but talked of the blinding snow, and the grave in St. Mary's churchyard, +which was no grave at all. + +Her manner, more than her looks, frightened the girl, who retreated down +the stairs, meeting Morris in the hall, and saying as she grasped his +arm: + +"You are a doctor, Dr. Grant. Come, then, to Mrs. Cameron. She is taken +out of her head, and talks so queer and raving." + +Morris had expected this, but he was not prepared to find the fever so +high, or the symptoms so alarming. + +"Shall I send for Mrs. Cameron and another doctor, please?" Esther +asked. + +Morris had faith in himself, and he would rather no other hand should +minister to Katy; but he knew he could not stay there long, for there +were those at home who needed his services. Added to this, her family +physician might know her constitution now better than he knew it, and so +he answered that it would be well to send for both the doctor and Mrs. +Cameron. + +It was growing dark now in the city, and the shadows were stealing into +the room where Morris sat down to wait for other counsel and the arrival +of Mrs. Cameron. To the servants in the kitchen Esther stated, with a +very matter-of-course air, that her mistress had come home, feeling +sick, and that as she seemed getting worse, she was to send to Madam +Cameron, adding that it was a piece of great good luck that Dr. Grant, +from Silverton, who was her cousin, happened to be in the city, and had +called just when he was needed the most. + +"He was the doctor whom Jamie talked so much about," she said; "the +doctor whom the family met in Paris," dwelling so long on Dr. Grant and +discussing him so volubly that Phillips and the other servants lost +sight entirely of what had struck them a little oddly, to wit: that Mrs. +Wilford should leave Father Cameron's if she was so very sick. + +It was Esther who met Mrs. Cameron in the hall, conducting her into the +parlor and adopting a different style of argument with her from that +used in the basement. "Mrs. Wilford was not well when her husband went +away; but of course he thought nothing of it, neither did +she--Esther--until to-day, when she came in from the street, looking +very badly, and going directly to her bed, where she had been growing +worse ever since." + +"Yes," and Mrs. Cameron beat her foot thoughtfully. "I wish I had called +yesterday. I did speak of it, fearing she would be lonely." + +"I dare say she was," Esther replied, never changing color in the least, +although somewhat afraid she was being driven to the wall. "She seemed +downcast all the morning, but went about noon. I thought maybe she would +call on you." + +"I wish she had," Mrs. Cameron replied, and then Esther told her how +providential it was that a Dr. Grant from Silverton happened to come to +New York that very day. Of course he called upon his cousin, first +sending up his card, and then going himself when told that Mrs. Cameron +was out of her head and did not understand who was waiting to see her. + +Completely befogged with regard to a part of the play enacting before +her eyes, Mrs. Cameron exclaimed: "Dr. Grant, of Silverton! I have the +utmost confidence in his skill. Still, it may be well for Dr. Craig to +see her. I think that is his ring." + +The city and country physicians agreed exactly with regard to Katy's +illness, or rather the city physician bowed in acquiescence when Morris +said to him that the fever raging so high had perhaps been induced by +natural causes, but was greatly aggravated by some sudden shock to the +nervous system. This was before Mrs. Cameron came up, but it was +repeated in her presence by Dr. Craig, who thus left the impression that +the idea had originated with himself rather than with Dr. Grant, as +perhaps he thought it had. He was at first inclined to patronize the +country doctor, but soon found that he had reckoned without his host. +Morris knew more of Katy and quite as much of medicine as he did +himself, and when Mrs. Cameron begged him to stay longer he answered +that her son's wife was as safe in his brother physician's hands as she +could be in his. + +"Indeed, she's safer," he added, "for Dr. Grant can watch her every +moment, and I leave her in his care, calling again of course in the +morning." + +Mrs. Cameron was very glad that Dr. Grant was there, she said. It was +surely Providence who sent him to New York on that particular day, and +Morris shivered as he wondered if it were wrong not to explain the whole +to her. + +"Perhaps it is best she should not know of Katy's journey to Silverton," +he thought, and merely bowing to her remarks, he turned to Katy, who was +growing very restless and moaning as if in pain. + +"It hurts," she said, turning her head from side to side; "I am lying on +Genevra." + +With a sudden start Mrs. Cameron drew nearer, but when she remembered +the little grave at Silverton, she said: "It's the baby she's talking +about." + +Morris knew better, and as Katy still continued to move her head as if +something were really hurting her, he passed his hand under her pillow +and drew out the picture which she had held as long as her consciousness +remained. He knew it was Genevra's picture, and was about to lay it away +when the cover dropped from his hand and his eye fell upon a face which +was not new to him, while an involuntary exclamation of surprise broke +from his lips as Katy's assertion that Genevra was living was thus fully +confirmed. Marian had not changed past recognition since her early +girlhood, and Morris knew the likeness at once, pitying Katy more than +he had pitied her yet, as he remembered how closely Marian Hazelton had +been interwoven with her married life and the life of the little child +which had borne her name. + +"What is that?" Mrs. Cameron asked, and Morris passed the case to her, +saying: "A picture was under Katy's pillow." + +Morris did not look at Mrs. Cameron, but tried to busy himself with the +medicines upon the stand, while she, too, recognized Genevra Lambert, +wondering how it came in Katy's possession, and how much she knew of +Wilford's secret. + +"She most have been rummaging," she thought, and then, as she +remembered what Esther had said about her mistress appearing sick and +unhappy when her husband left, she repaired to the parlor and summoning +Esther to her presence, asked her again: "When she first observed traces +of indisposition in Mrs. Cameron." + +Considerably flurried and anxious to prove true to Katy, Esther replied, +at random: "When she came home from that dinner at your house. She was +just as pale as death, and her teeth fairly chattered as I took off her +things." + +"Dinner? What dinner?" Mrs. Cameron asked, and Esther replied: "Why, the +night Mr. Wilford went away or was to go. She changed her mind about +meeting him at your house and said she meant to surprise him. But she +came home before Mr. Cameron, looking like a ghost and saying she was +sick. It's my opinion something she ate at dinner hurt her." + +"Very likely; yes. You can go now," Mrs. Cameron said, and Esther +departed, never dreaming how much light she had inadvertently thrown +upon the mystery. + +"She must have been in the library and heard all we said," Mrs. Cameron +thought, as she nervously twisted the fringe of her breakfast shawl. "I +remember we talked of Genevra, and I remember, too, that we both heard a +strange sound from some quarter, but thought it came from the kitchen. +That was Katy. She was there all the time and let herself quietly out of +the house. I wonder does Wilford know," and then there came over her an +intense desire for Wilford to come home, a desire which was not lessened +when she returned to Katy's room and heard her talking of Genevra and +the grave at St. Mary's "where nobody was buried." + +In a tremor of distress, lest she should betray something which Morris +must not know, Mrs. Cameron tried to hush her, talking as if it was the +baby she meant, the Genevra who died at Silverton; but Katy answered +promptly: "I'm not to be hoodwinked any longer. It's Genevra Lambert I +mean, Wilford's other wife; the one across the sea, whom you and he +browbeat. She was innocent, too--as innocent as I, whom you both +deceived." + +Here was a phase of affairs for which Mrs. Cameron was not prepared, +and excessively mortified that Morris should hear Katy's ravings, she +tried again to quiet her, consoling herself with the reflection that as +Morris was Katy's cousin, he would not repeat what he heard, and feeling +gratified now that Dr. Craig was absent, as she could not be so sure of +him. If Katy's delirium continued, no one must be admitted to the room +except those who could be trusted, and as there had been already several +rings, she said to Esther that as the fever was probably malignant and +contagious, no one must be admitted to the house with the expectation of +seeing the patient, while the servants were advised to stay in their own +quarters, except as their services might be needed elsewhere. And so it +was that by the morrow the news had spread of some infectious disease at +No. ---- on Madison Square, which was shunned as carefully as if the +smallpox itself had been raging there instead of the brain fever, which +increased so fast that Morris suggested to Mrs. Cameron that she +telegraph for Wilford. + +"They might find him, and they might not," Mark Ray said, when the +message came down to the office. "They could try, at all events," and in +a few moments the telegraphic wires were carrying the news of Katy's +illness, both to the West, where Wilford had gone, and to the East, +where Helen read with a blanched cheek that Katy perhaps was dying, and +she was needed again. + +This was Mrs. Cameron's suggestion, wrung out by the knowing that some +woman besides herself was needed in the sickroom, and by the feeling +that Helen could be trusted with the story of the first marriage, which +Katy talked of constantly, telling it so accurately that only a fool +would fail of being convinced that there was much of truth in those +delirious ravings. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE FEVER AND ITS RESULTS. + + +On every business paper Wilford wrote or signed, and in every object he +met in his journey, one face had been prominent, and that the face of +Katy as it looked in the gray dawn when it lifted itself up to kiss him, +while the white lips tried to speak his pardon. Sometimes Wilford was +very sorry and full of remorse, knowing how Katy was suffering for his +sin; and then, when he remembered her long refusal to pardon him, +notwithstanding that he sued for it so earnestly, his self-importance +was touched, and he felt she had no right to be so obstinate. He did not +deserve it. He was a very kind, indulgent husband, who had raised her +from the humblest position to the very highest, and she ought not to +feel so indignant because he had kept from her an act which, after all, +did not affect her materially. If Genevra was living, and on this side +of the water, he could understand how it might be unpleasant for Katy +and for him, too, knowing, as they both did, that she was innocent of +the charges alleged against her. + +"I should not myself like to run the risk of meeting a divorced wife at +any time," he thought; "but Genevra is dead, and Katy ought to be more +reasonable. I did not suppose there was so much spirit in her." + +But reason as he might, Wilford could not forget Katy's face, so full of +reproach. It followed him continually, and was the magnet which turned +his steps homeward before his business was quite done, and before the +telegram found him. Thus it was with no knowledge of existing +circumstances that he reached New York just at the close of the day +after Katy's return, and ordering a carriage, was driven rapidly toward +home. All the shutters in the front part of the house were closed and +not a ray of light was to be seen in the parlors as he entered the hall, +where the gas was burning dimly. + +"Katy is at home," he said, as he went into the library, where a shawl +was thrown across a chair, as if some one had lately been there. + +It was his mother's shawl, and Wilford was wondering if she was there, +when down the stairs came a man's rapid step, and the next moment Dr. +Grant stepped into the room, starting when he saw Wilford, who felt +intuitively that something was wrong. + +"Is Katy sick?" was his first question, which Morris answered in the +affirmative, holding him back as he was starting for her room, and +saying to him: "Let me send your mother to you first." What passed +between Wilford and his mother was never known exactly, but at the close +of the interview Mrs. Cameron was very pale, while Wilford's face looked +dark and anxious, as he said: "You think he understands it, then?" + +"Yes, in part. Of course he cannot make a very connected story out of +her ravings; but that he believes you had a wife before Katy, I am sure, +just as I am that the world will be none the wiser for his knowledge. I +knew Dr. Grant before you did, and there are few men living whom I +respect as much, and no one whom I would trust as soon." + +Mrs. Cameron had paid a high compliment to Morris Grant, and Wilford +bowed in assent, asking next how she managed Dr. Craig. + +"That was easy, inasmuch as he believed it an insane freak of Katy's to +have no other physician than her cousin. It was quite natural, he said, +adding that she was as safe with Dr. Grant as any one. So that is +settled, and I was glad, for I could not have a stranger know of that +affair. If I thought it would save her life to retain him, I should feel +differently, of course." + +"Yes, certainly," Wilford rejoined, while at his heart there was the +germ of a feeling which, if in the slightest degree encouraged, would +almost have given Katy's life to save his darling self-love and honor in +the eyes of the world. + +Few men are as thoroughly selfish as Wilford Cameron, and though he was +very much concerned for Katy, he thought more of preserving a secret +which, if known at this late day, would subject him to much censure and +reproach, than he did of her. So when his mother told him next that +Helen had been sent for, his morbid fears took alarm. + +"Why was it necessary to bring another here?" he asked, so indignantly +that tears sprang to his mother's eyes as she pleaded her own weariness +and inability to remain always in the sickroom, and charged him with +ingratitude for all she had done in his behalf. + +Wilford could not afford to quarrel with his mother, and he quieted her +as soon as possible, admitting that if she must have an assistant he +would rather it were Helen than Bell or Juno, or even Esther, who, in +spite of the alarm about malignant fever, would willingly have +administered to her young mistress, had she been allowed to do so. + +"You will go up now," Mrs. Cameron said to her son, when peace was fully +restored, and a moment after Wilford stood in the dimly-lighted room, +where Katy was talking of going to the hospitals, and of Marian +Hazelton, and was only kept upon her pillow by the strong arm of Morris, +who stood over her when Wilford entered, telling her to "wait until +to-morrow--it would be better then, and she had not seen her husband +yet." + +"I have no husband," she replied, her lip curling with scorn, and her +eyes just then falling upon Wilford, who stood appalled at the fearful +change which had passed over her since he left her three days before. + +She knew him, and writhing herself away from Morris' arms, she raised up +in bed and said to him: + +"I've been at the bottom of things, and Genevra is not in that grave at +St. Mary's. Nobody is there; consequently, she is living, and you are +not my husband. So if you please you can leave the house at once. Morris +will do very well. He will settle the estate, and no bill shall be sent +in for your board and lodging." + +In some moods Wilford would have smiled at being thus summarily +dismissed from his own house and assured that no bill should be sent +after him for board and lodging; but he was too sore now, too sensitive +to smile, and his voice was rather severe as he laid his hand on Katy's, +and said: + +"Don't be foolish, Katy. Don't you know me? I am Wilford, your husband." + +"That was, you mean," Katy rejoined, drawing her hand quickly away. "Go +find your first love, where bullets fall like hail, and where there is +pain, and blood, and carnage. Genevra is there." + +She would not let Wilford come near her, and grew so excited by his +presence that he was forced either to leave the room or sit where she +could not see him. He chose the latter, and from his seat by the door +watched with a half-jealous, half-angry heart, Morris Grant doing for +his wife what he should have done. + +With Morris Katy was gentle as a little child, talking still of +Genevra, but talking quietly, and in a way which did not wear her out +as fast as her excitement did. + +"What God hath joined together let not man put asunder," was the text +from which she preached several short sermons as the night wore on, but +just as the morning dawned she fell into the first quiet sleep she had +had during the last twenty-four hours. And while she slept Wilford +ventured near enough to see the sunken cheeks and hollow eyes which +wrung a groan from him as he turned to Morris, asking what he supposed +was the immediate cause of her sudden illness? + +"A terrible shock, the nature of which I understand, but you have +nothing to fear from me," Morris replied. "I accuse you to no man, but +leave you to settle it with your conscience whether you did right to +deceive her so long." + +Morris spoke as one having authority, and Wilford simply bowed his head, +feeling then no resentment toward one who had ventured to reprove him. +Afterward he might remember it differently, but now he was too anxious +to keep Morris there to quarrel with him, and so he made no reply, but +sat watching Katy as she slept, wondering if she would die, and feeling +how terrible life would be without her. Suddenly Genevra's warning words +rang in his ear: + +"God will not forgive you for the wrong you have done me." + +Was Genevra right? Had God remembered all this time, and overtaken him +at last? It might be, and with a groan Wilford hid his face in his +hands, believing that he repented of his sin, and not knowing that his +fancied repentance arose merely from the fact that he had been detected. +Could the last few days be blotted out, and Katy stand just where she +did, with no suspicion of him, he would have cast his remorse to the +winds, and as it is not such repentance God accepts, Wilford had only +begun to sip the cup of retribution presented to his lips. + +Worn out with watching and waiting, Mrs. Cameron, who would suffer +neither Juno nor Bell to come near the house, waited uneasily for the +arrival of the New Haven train, which she hoped would bring Helen to her +aid. Under ordinary circumstances she would rather not have met her, +for her presence would keep the letter so constantly in her mind, but +now anybody who could be trusted was welcome, and when at last there +came a cautious ring she went herself to the hall, starting back with +undisguised vexation when she saw the timid-looking woman following +close behind Helen, and whom the latter presented as "My mother, Mrs. +Lennox." + +Convinced that Morris' sudden journey to New York had something to do +with Katy's illness, and almost distracted with fears for her daughter's +life, Mrs. Lennox could not remain at home and wait for the tardy mail +or careless telegraph. She must go to her child, and casting off her +dread of Wilford's displeasure, she had come with Helen, and was bowing +meekly to Mrs. Cameron, who neither offered her hand nor gave any token +of greeting except a distant bow and a simple "Good-morning, madam." + +But Mrs. Lennox was too timid, too bewildered, and too anxious to notice +the lady's haughty manner as she led them to the library and then went +for her son. Wilford was not glad to see his mother-in-law, but he tried +to be polite, answering her questions civilly, and when she asked if it +was true that he had sent for Morris, assuring her that it was not--"Dr. +Grant happened here very providentially, and I hope to keep him until +the crisis is past, although he has just told me he must go back +to-morrow," Wilford said, mentally hoping Mrs. Lennox might think it +best to go with him, or if she did not, wondering how long she did +intend to stay. It hurt his pride that she, whom he considered greatly +his inferior, should learn his secret; but it could not now be helped, +and within an hour after her arrival she was looking curiously at him +for an explanation of the strange things she heard from Katy's lips. + +"Was you a widower when you married my daughter?" she said to him, when +at last Helen left the room, and she was alone with him. + +"Yes, madam," he replied, "some would call me so, though I was divorced +from my wife. As this was a matter which did not in any way concern your +daughter, I deemed it best not to tell her. Latterly she has found it +out, and it is having a very extraordinary effect upon her." + +Mrs. Lennox was too much afraid of the man addressing her so haughtily +to make him any reply, and so she only wept softly as she bent to kiss +her child, still talking of Genevra and the empty grave at St. Mary's, +where she once sat down. + +And this was all Mrs. Lennox knew until alone with Helen, who had heard +from Morris all he knew of the sad story except the part relating to +Marian Hazelton. His sudden journey to New York was thus accounted for, +and Helen explained it to her mother as well as she could, advising her +to say nothing of it either to Wilford or Mrs. Cameron, as it was quite +as well for them not to know it yet. Many messages Helen brought to her +cousin from his patients, and Morris felt it was his duty to go to them +for a day or so at least. + +"You have other physicians here," he said to Wilford, who objected to +his leaving. "Dr. Craig will do as well as I." + +Wilford admitted that he might; but it was with a sinking heart that he +saw Morris depart, and then went to Katy, who began to grow very +restless and uneasy, bidding him go away and send Dr. Morris back. It +was in vain that they administered the medicine just as Morris had +directed. Katy grew constantly worse, until Mrs. Lennox asked that +another doctor be called. But to this Wilford did not listen. Fear of +exposure and censure were stronger than his fear for Katy's life, which +seemed balancing upon a thread as that long night and the next day went +by. Three times Wilford telegraphed for Morris, and it was with +unfeigned joy that he welcomed him back at last, and heard that he had +so arranged his business now as to stay with Katy while the danger +lasted. + +With a monotonous sameness the days now came and went, people still +shunning the house as if the plague was there. Once Bell Cameron came +around to call on Helen, holding her breath as she passed through the +hall, and never asking to go near Katy's room. Two or three times, too, +Mrs. Banker's carriage stood at the door, and Mrs. Banker herself came +in, seeming surprised when she met Helen and appearing so cool and +distant that the latter could scarcely keep back her tears as she +guessed the cause. Mark never came, but from the window Helen saw him +riding by with Juno, who kept her face turned toward him, as if in close +and confidential chat. + +"They were engaged," Esther said, adding that "he was about joining the +army as first lieutenant in a company composed of the finest young men +in the city." + +Helen doubted if this were true, until one day, when driving with her +mother, she met him arrayed in his new uniform, looking so handsome and +proud. He, too, was driving with a brother officer, and as he passed he +lifted his cap in token of recognition; but the olden look which Helen +remembered so well, and which had been wont to make her pulses thrill +with a most exquisite delight, was gone, and Helen felt more than ever +the wide gulf some hand had built between them. The next she heard was +from Mrs. Banker, whose face looked pale and worn as she incidentally +remarked: "I shall be very lonely now that Mark is gone. He left me +to-day for Washington." + +There were tears on the mother's face, and her lip quivered as she tried +to keep them back, looking from the window into the street instead of at +her companion, who, overcome with the rush of feeling which swept over +her, laid her face on the sofa arm and sobbed aloud. + +"Why, Helen! Miss Lennox, I am surprised! I had supposed--I was not +aware--I did not think you would care," Mrs. Banker exclaimed, coming +closer to Helen, who stammered out: "I beg you will excuse me, I cannot +help it. I care for all our soldiers. It seems so terrible." + +At the words "I care for all the soldiers," a shadow of disappointment +flitted over Mrs. Banker's face. She knew her son had offered himself +and been refused, as she supposed, and she believed, too, that Helen had +given publicity to the affair, feeling justly indignant at this breach +of confidence and lack of delicacy in one whom she had liked so much and +whom she still liked in spite of the wounded pride which had prompted +her to seem so cold and distant. + +"Perhaps it is all a mistake," she thought, as she continued standing by +Helen, whose tears did not cease, "or it may be she has relented," and +for a moment she felt tempted to ask why her boy had been refused. + +But Mark would not be pleased with her interference, she knew, and so +the golden moment fled, and when she left the house the misunderstanding +between herself and Helen was just as wide as ever. Wearily after that +the days passed with Helen until all thoughts of herself were forgotten +in the terrible fear that death was really brooding over the pillow +where Katy lay, insensible to all that was passing around her. The lips +were silent now, and Wilford had nothing to fear from the tongue +hitherto so busy. Juno, Bell and Father Cameron all came to see her, +dropping tears upon the face looking so old and worn with suffering, but +yet so sweet and pure, and treading softly as they left the room and +went out into the sunshine where Katy might never go again. In the +kitchen there was mourning, too; Phillips weeping for her mistress, +while Esther, with her apron over her head, sobbed passionately, wishing +she, too, might die if Katy did. Mrs. Cameron also was very sorry, very +sad, but managed to find some consolation in mentally arranging a grand +funeral, which would do honor to her son, and wondering if "those +Barlows in Silverton would think they must attend." And while she thus +arranged, the mother who had given birth to Katy wrestled in earnest +prayer that God would spare her child, or at least grant some space in +which she might be told of the world to which she was hastening. What +Wilford suffered none could guess. His face was very white and his +expression almost stern as he sat watching the young wife who had been +his for little more than two brief years, and who but for his sin might +not have been lying there unconscious of the love and grief around her. +Like some marble statue Morris seemed as with lip compressed and brows +firmly knit together he, too, sat watching Katy, feeling for the pulse +and bending his ear to catch the faintest breath which came from her +parted lips, while in his heart there was an earnest prayer for the +safety of the soul hovering so evenly between this world and the next. +He did not ask that she might live, for if all were well hereafter he +knew it was far better for her to die in her young womanhood than to +live till the heart now so sad and bleeding had grown calloused with +sorrow. And yet it was terrible to think of Katy dead; to know that +never again would her little feet dance on the grass, or her bird-like +voice break the silence of his home; terrible to think of that face and +form laid away beneath the turf of Greenwood, where those who loved her +best could seldom go to weep. + +And as they sat thus the night shadows stole into the room and the hours +crept on till from a city tower a clock struck ten, and Morris, +motioning Helen to his side, bade her go with her mother to rest. "We do +not need you here," he said, "your presence can do no good. Should a +change occur you shall be told at once." + +Thus importuned Helen and her mother withdrew and only Morris and +Wilford remained to watch that heavy slumber so nearly resembling death. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +MORRIS' CONFESSION. + + +Gradually the noise in the streets died away; the tread of feet, the +rumbling wheels and the tinkle of the car bells ceased, and not a sound +was heard, save as the distant fire bells pealed forth their warning +voices, or some watchman went hurrying by. The great city was asleep, +and to Morris the silence brooding over the countless throng was deeper, +more solemn than the silence of the country where nature gives out her +own mysterious notes and lullabies for her sleeping children. Slowly the +minutes went by, and Morris became at last aware that Wilford's eyes, +instead of resting on the pallid face which seemed to grow each moment +more pallid and ghastly, were fixed on him with an expression which made +him drop the pale hand he held between his own, pooring it occasionally +as a mother might poor and pity the hand of her dying baby. + +Before his marriage a jealous thought of Morris Grant had found a +lodgment in Wilford's breast; but remembering the past he had tried to +drive it out, and fancied that he had succeeded, experiencing a sudden +shock when he felt it lifting its green head, and poisoning his mind +against the man doing for Katy only what a brother might do, or rather, +against the motives which prompted this man's devotion. He forgot that +it was his own entreaties which had kept Morris there, refusing to let +him go even for a day to the other patients missing him so much, and +complaining of his absence. Jealous men never reason clearly, and in +this case Wilford did not reason at all, but jumped readily at his +conclusion, calling to his aid as proof all that he had ever seen pass +between Katy and her cousin. That Morris Grant loved Katy was, after a +few moment's reflection, as fixed a fact in his mind as that she lay +there between them, her eyelids quivering, and her lips moaning feebly +as if about to speak. Years before, when Genevra was the wife, jealousy +had made Wilford almost a madman, and it now held him again in its +powerful grasp, whispering suggestions he would have spurned in a calm +frame of mind. There was a clinching of his fist, a knitting of his +brows, and a gathering blackness in his eyes as he listened while Katy, +rousing partially from her lethargy, talked of the days when she was a +little girl, and Morris had built the playhouse for her by the brook, +where the thorn apples grew and the waters fell over the smooth, white +rocks. + +"Take me back there," she said, "and let me lie on the grass again. It +is so long since I was there, and I've suffered so much since then. +Wilford meant to be kind, but he did not try to understand or know how I +loved the country with its birds and flowers and springing grass by the +well, where the shadows come and go. I used to wonder where they were +going, and one day when I watched them I was waiting for Wilford, and +wishing he would come. Would it have been better if he had never come?" + +Wilford's body shook with strong emotion as he bent forward to hear +Katy's answer to her question. + +"Were there no Genevra," she said, "no verse 'what God hath joined +together let no man put asunder,' I should not think so; but there is +such a verse, and now I don't know what I think, only I must go. Come, +Morris, we will go together, you and I." + +She turned partly toward Morris, who made her no reply. He could not, +with those fiery eyes fixed upon him, and he sat erect in his chair, +while Katy talked of Silverton, and the days gone by until her voice +grew very faint, ceasing at last as she fell into a second sleep, +heavier, more death-like, than the first. Something in her face alarmed +Morris, and in spite of the eyes watching him he bent every energy to +retain the feeble pulse, and the breath which grew shorter with each +respiration. + +"Do you think her dying?" Wilford asked, and Morris replied: "Not yet; +but the look about the mouth and nose is like the look which so often +precedes death." + +And that was all they said until another hour went by, when Morris' hand +was laid upon the forehead and moved up under the golden hair where +there were drops of perspiration. + +"She is saved, thank God, Mr. Cameron, Katy is saved," was his joyful +exclamation, and burying his head in his hands, he wept for a moment +like a child, for Katy was restored again. + +On Wilford's face there was no trace of tears. On the contrary, he +seemed hardening into stone, and in his heart fierce passions were +contending for the mastery, and urging him on to an act from which, in +his right mind, he would have shrunk. Rising slowly at last, he came +around to Morris' side, and grasping his shoulder, said: + +"Morris Grant, you love Katy Cameron." + +Like the peal of a bell on the frosty air the words rang through the +room, starting Morris from his bowed attitude, and for an instant +curdling his blood in his veins, for he understood now the meaning of +the look which had so puzzled him. In Morris' heart there was a moment's +hesitancy to know just what to answer, an ejaculatory prayer for +guidance, and then lifting up his head, his calm blue eyes met the eyes +of black unflinchingly, as he replied: + +"I have loved her always." + +A blaze like sheet lightning shot from beneath Wilford's eyelashes, and +a taunting sneer curled his lip, as he said: + +"You, a saint, confess to this?" + +It was quite natural, and in keeping with human nature for Wilford to +thrust Morris' religion in his face, forgetting that never on this side +the eternal world can man cease wholly to sin, that so long as flesh and +blood remain, there will be temptation, error and wrong, even among +God's children. Morris felt the sneer keenly; but the consciousness of +peace with his Maker sustained him in the shock and, with the same tone +he had at first assumed, he said: + +"Should my being what you call a saint prevent my confessing what I +did?" + +"No, not the confession, but the fact," Wilford answered, savagely. "How +do you reconcile your acknowledged love for Katy with the injunctions of +the Bible whose doctrines you indorse?" + +"A man cannot always control his feelings, but he can strive to overcome +them and put the temptation aside. One does not sin in being tempted, +but in listening to the temptation." + +"Then according to your own reasoning you have sinned, for you not only +have teen tempted, but have yielded to the temptation," Wilford +retorted, with a sinister look of exultation in his black eyes. + +For a moment Morris was silent, while a struggle of some kind seemed +going on in his mind, and then he said: + +"I never thought to lay open to you a secret which, after myself, is, I +believe, known to only one living being." + +"And that one--is--you will not tell me that is Katy?" Wilford +exclaimed, his voice hoarse with passion, and his eyes flashing with +fire. + +"No, not Katy. She has no suspicion of the pain which, since I saw her +made another's, has eaten into my heart, making me grow old so fast, and +blighting my early manhood." + +Something in Morris' tone and manner inspired Wilford with awe, making +him relax his grasp upon the arm, and sending him back to his chair +while Morris continued: + +"Most men would shrink from talking to a husband of the love they bore +his wife, and an hour ago I should have shrunk from it, too, but you +have forced me to it, and now you must listen while I tell you of my +love for Katy. It began longer ago than she can remember--began when she +was my baby sister, and I hushed her in my arms to sleep, kneeling by +her cradle and watching her with a feeling I have never been able to +define. She was in all my thoughts, her face upon the printed page of +every book I studied, and her voice in every strain of music I ever +heard. Then, when she grew older, I used to watch the frolicsome child +by the hour, building castles even then of the future, when she would be +a woman and I a man, with a man's right to win her. I know that she +shielded me from many a snare into which young men are apt to fall, for +when the temptation was greatest, and I was at its verge, a thought of +her was sufficient to lead me back to virtue. I carried her in my heart +across the sea, and said when I go back I will ask her to be mine. I +went back, but at my first meeting with Katy after her return from +Canandaigua she told me of you, and I knew then that hope for me was +gone, praying for strength to bear my loss and hide my love from her. +God grant that you nor she may never experience what I experienced on +that day which made her your wife, and I saw her go away. It seemed +almost as if God had forgotten me as the night after the bridal I sat +alone at home, and met that dark hour of sorrow. In the midst of it +Helen came, discovering my secret, and sympathizing with me until the +pain at my heart grew less, and I could pray that God would grant me a +feeling for Katy which should not be sinful. And He did at last, so I +could think of her without a wish that she was mine. Times there were +when the old love would burst forth with fearful power, and then I +wished that I might die. These were my moments of temptation which I +struggled to overcome. Sometimes a song, a strain of music, or a ray of +moonlight on the floor would bring the past to me so vividly that I +would stagger beneath the burden, feeling that it was greater than I +could bear. But God was very merciful and sent me work which took up all +my time, leaving little leisure for regrets, and driving me away from my +own pain to soothe the pain of others. When Katy came to us last summer +there was an hour of trial, when faith in God grew weak, and I was +tempted to question the justice of His dealing with me. But that, too, +passed, and in my love for your child I forgot the mother in part, +looking upon her as a sister rather than the Katy I had loved so well. I +would have given my life to have saved that child for her, even though +it was a bar between us, a something which separated her from me more +than the words she spoke at the altar. Though dead, that baby is still +a bar, and Katy is not the same to me she was before that little life +came into being. It is not wrong to love her as I do now. I feel no pang +of conscience save when something unexpected carries me back to the old +ground where I have fought so many battles." + +Morris paused a moment, thinking of the time when Katy came to him with +her story of Genevra, and wondering if it were best to repeat the +incidents of that night. It was not, he finally concluded. It would be +better for Katy to tell it herself, and so he added at last: "What I +have borne has told upon me terribly. My people say I work too hard, but +they look only on the surface--they have never seen that inner chamber +of my heart, where only you have been fully admitted. Even Helen knows +not half what's there, but I felt that it was due to you, and so have +told you all, asking that no shadow of censure shall fall on Katy, who +would be greatly shocked to know what you know now." + +Morris' manner was that of a man who spoke with perfect sincerity, and +it carried conviction to Wilford's heart, disarming him for a time of +the fierce anger and resentment he had felt while listening to Morris' +story. Acting upon the good impulse of the moment, he arose, and +offering his hand to Morris, he said: + +"You have done nobly, Dr. Grant, I believe in your religion now. Forgive +me that I ever doubted it. I exonerate you from blame." + +And thus they pledged their faith, Wilford meaning then all he said, and +feeling only respect for the man who had confessed his love for Katy. +After what had passed, Morris felt that it would be pleasanter for +Wilford if he were gone, and after a time he suggested returning to +Silverton at once, inasmuch as the crisis was past and Katy out of +danger. There was a struggle in Wilford's mind as to the answer he +should make to this suggestion. It would not be pleasant to see Morris +there now, for though he had said he forgave him, there was a feeling of +disquiet at his heart, and he at last signified his willingness for him +to leave when he thought best. + +It was broad day when Katy awoke, so weak as to be unable to turn her +head upon the pillow, but in her eyes the light of reason was shining, +and she glanced wonderingly, first at Helen, at her mother, and then at +Wilford, as if trying to comprehend what had happened. + +"Have I been sick?" she asked in a whisper, and Wilford, bending over +her, replied: "Yes, darling, very sick for nearly two whole weeks--ever +since I left home that morning, you know." + +"Yes," and Katy shivered a little. "Yes, I know. But where is Morris? He +was here the last I can remember." + +Wilford's face grew dark at once, and stepping back as Morris came in, +he said: "She asks for you." Then with a rising feeling of resentment he +watched them, while Morris spoke to Katy, telling her she was better, +but must keep very quiet, and not allow herself in any way to be +excited. + +"Have I been crazy? Have I talked much?" she asked, and when Morris +replied in the affirmative there came a startled look into her eye, as +she said: "Of what or whom have I talked most?" + +"Of Genevra," was the answer, and Katy continued: "Did I mention no one +else?" + +Morris guessed of whom she was thinking, and answered, indifferently: +"You spoke of Miss Hazelton in connection with baby, but that was all." + +Katy was satisfied, and closing her eyes fell away to sleep again, while +Morris made his preparations for leaving. It hardly seemed right for him +to go just then, but the only one who could have kept him maintained a +frigid silence with regard to a longer stay, and so the first train +which left New York for Springfield carried Dr. Grant, and Katy was +without a physician. + +Wilford had hoped that Mrs. Lennox, too, would see the propriety of +accompanying Morris; but she would not leave Katy, and Wilford was fain +to submit to what he could not help. No explanation whatever had he +given to Mrs. Lennox or Helen with regard to Genevra. He was too proud +for that, but his mother had deemed it wise to smooth the matter over as +much as possible, enjoining upon them both the necessity of secrecy. + +"When I tell you that neither my husband or daughters know it, you will +understand that I am greatly in earnest in wishing it kept," she said. +"It was a most unfortunate affair, and though the divorce is, of +course, to be lamented, it is better that she died. We never could have +received her as our equal." + +"Was anything the matter, except that she was poor?" Mrs. Lennox asked, +with as much dignity as was in her nature to assume. + +"Well, no. She had a good education, I believe, and was very pretty; but +it makes trouble always where there is a great inequality between a +husband's family and that of his wife." + +Poor Mrs. Lennox understood this perfectly, but she was too much afraid +of the great lady to venture a reply, and a tear rolled down her burning +cheek as she wet the napkin for Katy's head, wishing that she had back +again the daughter, whose family she knew the Camerons despised. The +atmosphere of Madison Square did not suit Mrs. Lennox, especially when, +as the days went by and Katy began to mend, troops of gay ladies called, +mistaking her for the nurse, and all staring a little curiously when +told that she was Mrs. Cameron's mother. Of course, Wilford chafed and +fretted at what he could not help, seldom addressing his mother-in-law +on any subject, and making himself so generally disagreeable that Helen +at last suggested returning home, inasmuch as Katy was so much better. +There was then a faint remonstrance on his part, but Helen did not waver +in her decision, though she pitied Katy, who, when the day of her +departure came and they were for a few moments alone, took her hand +between her own and kissing it fondly, said: "You don't know how I dread +your going or how wretched I shall be without you. Everything which once +made me happy has been removed or changed. Baby is dead, and +Wilford--oh, Helen, I sometimes wish I had not heard of Genevra, for I +am afraid it can never be with us as it was once; that is, I have not +quite the same trust in him, and he seems so changed. Have you noticed +how silent and moody he has grown?" + +Helen had noticed it, but she would not say so, and she tried to comfort +her sister, telling her she would be very happy yet; "but, Katy +darling," she continued, "you have a duty to perform as well as Wilford. +Your heart is very sore now because of the deception, but you must not +let that soreness appear in your manner. You must be to Wilford just +what you always were, unless you wish to wean him from you. He, too, has +had a terrible shock; his pride and self-love have been wounded, and men +like him do not like being humbled as he has been. You must soothe him, +Katy, and smooth his ruffled feathers, proving to him that you can and +do forgive the past. And, Katy, remember you have a Friend always near +to whom you can carry your burdens, sure that He will listen and heal +the smarting pain. Go to Him often and make Him yours indeed. He has +come very near to you within the last year, and such visitations have a +meaning in them. Listen, then, lest He should come again and visit you +with greater sufferings." + +"Purified by Suffering." The words came floating back to Katy, just as +Uncle Ephraim had spoken them in the pleasant meadowland, and just as +they had sometimes haunted her since, but never having so deep a meaning +as now, when Helen's words suggested them again. She was suffering, oh, +so terribly, but was she purifying, too? She feared not, and after the +sad parting with her mother and sister was over she turned her face to +her pillow, trying so hard to pray that God would make her His own, and +by the suffering He sent purify her for heaven. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +DOMESTIC TROUBLES. + + +From the bathroom, which adjoined Katy's sickroom, Wilford had heard all +that passed between the sisters, and his face grew dark as he thought of +having his "ruffled feathers smoothed" even by the little thin white +hand, which, the first time it had a chance laid itself upon his face +with a caressing motion, from which he involuntarily drew back, thinking +the affection thus timidly expressed was all put on with a view to being +good, as he termed it. + +Wilford was in a most unhappy frame of mind. He was not pleased that +Katy had heard of Genevra, and imparted his secret to others. He did not +like being humbled as he had been, even Mrs. Lennox taking it upon +herself to lecture him for his misdemeanors, sobbing as she lectured, +and asking "how he could treat Katy so?" He did not like, either, to +lose Helen's good opinion, as he was sure he had, while, worse than all +the rest, was the galling fact that Morris Grant loved his wife, and was +undoubtedly more worthy of her than himself. He had said that he forgave +Morris, and at the time he said it he fancied he did, but as the days +went by, and thought was all the busier from the moody silence he +maintained, there gradually came to life a feeling of dislike, if not of +hatred, for the man, whose name he could not hear without a frown, +telling Katy very sharply once that he wished she would not talk so much +of Cousin Morris, as if there were no other physician in the world! Dr. +Craig would have done quite as well, and for his part he wished they had +employed him. + +Wilford knew he did not mean what he said, but he was in a very +unamiable frame of mind, and watched Katy close, to detect, if possible, +some sign by which he should know that Morris' love was reciprocated. +But Katy was innocence itself, and as the weeks of convalescence went by +she tried so hard to do her duty as a wife, going often to the Friend of +whom Helen had told her, and finding there the grace which helped her +bear what otherwise she could not have borne and lived. The entire +history of her life during that wretched winter was never told save as +it was written on her face, which was a volume in itself of meek and +patient suffering. + +Wilford had never mentioned Genevra to her since the day of his return, +and Katy sometimes felt that it would be well to talk that matter over. +It might lead to a more perfect understanding than existed between them +now, and dissipate the cloud which hung so darkly on their domestic +horizon. But Wilford repulsed all her advances upon that subject, and +Genevra was a dead name in their household, save as it was on Katy's +lips when she prayed, asking that she might feel only perfect kindness +toward the Genevra who had so darkened her life. + +Wilford's home was not pleasant to him now, but the fault was with +himself. Katy did well her part, meeting him always with a smile, and +trying to win him from the dark mood she could not fathom. Times there +were when for an entire day he would appear like his former self, +caressing her with unwonted tenderness, calling her his "poor crushed +dove," but never asking her forgiveness for all he had made her endure. +He was too proud to do that now, and his tenderness always passed away +when he remembered Morris Grant and Katy's remark to Helen: "I am afraid +it can never be with us as it was once. I have not the same trust in +him." + +"She had no right to complain of me to Helen," he thought, forgetting +the time when he had been guilty of a similar offense in a more +aggravated form. + +He could not reason upon anything naturally, and matters grew daily +worse, while Katy's face grew whiter and her voice sadder in its tone. + +Sometimes Wilford would spend the entire evening away from home, +tarrying till the clock struck twelve before he came, and Katy would +afterward hear that he had been at the house of some friend, or with +Sybil Grandon, whose influence over him increased in proportion as her +own was lessened. + +When the Lenten days came on, oh, how Katy longed to be in Silverton, to +kneel again in its quiet church, and offer up her penitential prayers +with the loved ones at home. At last she ventured to ask Wilford if she +might go, her spirits rising when he did not refuse her request at once, +but asked: + +"Whom do you wish to see the most?" + +His black eyes seemed reading her through, and something in their +expression brought to her face the blush which he construed according to +his jealousy, and when she answered: + +"I wish to see them all," he retorted: + +"Say, rather, you wish to see that doctor, who has loved you so long, +and who but for me would have asked you to be his wife!" + +"What doctor, Wilford? Whom do you mean?" and Wilford replied: + +"Dr. Grant, of course. Did you never suspect it?" + +"Never," and Katy's face grew very white, as she asked how Wilford knew +what he had asserted. + +"I had it from his own lips; he sitting on one side of you and I upon +the other. I so far forgot myself as to charge him with loving you, and +he did not deny it, but confessed as pretty a piece of romance as I ever +read, except that, according to his story, it was a one-sided affair, +confined wholly to himself. You never dreamed of it, he said." + +"Never, no, never," Katy said, panting for her breath, and remembering +suddenly many things which confirmed what she had heard. + +"Poor Morris, how my thoughtlessness must have wounded him," she +murmured, and then all the pent up passion in Wilford's heart burst out +in an impetuous storm. + +He did not charge his wife directly with returning Morris' love, but he +said he was sorry she had not known it earlier; asking her pointedly if +it were not so, and pressing her for an answer until the bewildered +creature cried out: + +"Oh, I don't know. I never thought of it before." + +"But you can think of it now," Wilford continued, his cold, icy tone +making Katy shiver, as more to herself than him she said: + +"A life at Linwood would be perfect rest, compared to this." + +Wilford had wrung from her all he cared to know, and believing himself +the most injured man in existence, he left the house, and Katy heard his +step as it went furiously down the walk. For a time she seemed stunned +with what she had heard, and then there came stealing into her heart a +glad feeling that Morris deemed her worthy of his love when she had so +often feared the contrary. It was not a wicked emotion, nor one +faithless to Wilford. She could pray with just as pure a heart as +before, and she did pray, thanking God for the love of this good man, +and asking that long ere this he might have learned to be content +without her. Never once did the thought "It might have been," intrude +itself upon her, nor did she picture to herself the life which she had +missed. She seemed to rise above all that, and Wilford, had he read her +heart, would have found no evil there. + +"Poor Morris," she kept repeating, while little throbs of pleasure went +dancing through her veins, and the world was not one-half so dreary for +knowing he had loved her. Toward Wilford, too, her heart went out in a +fresh gush of tenderness, for she knew how one of his jealous nature +must have suffered. + +"I'll drive down to the office for him this afternoon," she said. "That +will surely please him; and to prove still further that I never dreamed +of Morris' love, I'll tell him coming home how in the great sorrow about +Genevra I went to him for counsel, and how he sent, or rather, brought +me back." + +But this confession would necessitate her telling that Genevra was not +dead, and it was better for them both, she thought, that he should not +know this until the relations between herself and him were more as they +used to be; so she decided finally to withhold the fact for a time at +least. But she would go for him, as she had at first intended, and she +counted the hours impatiently, thinking once her watch had stopped, and +seeming brighter and happier than she had been since her illness, when +at last she stepped into her carriage, and was driven down Broadway. + +Business had gone wrong with Wilford that day, and Tom Tubbs had +mentally pronounced his master "crosser than a bear," and sighing +secretly for the always cheerful Mark, he had taken up his book, and was +quietly reading by the office window when Katy came in, her white face +seeming whiter from contrast with her black dress, and her eyes looking +unnaturally large and bright as she darted across the room to Wilford, +who, surprised to see her there, and a good deal displeased withal, +inasmuch as he had often said that the office was no place for his wife, +never smiled or spoke, but with pent up brows waited for her to open the +conversation. Katy saw she was not welcome, and with a tremulous voice +she began: + +"The day is so fine I thought I would come in the carriage for you. It +is early yet, and if you like, we can have a little drive. It might do +you good. You look tired," she continued, and unmindful of Tom, trying +to smooth his hair. + +With an impatient gesture, Wilford drew his hand away from the pale +fingers which sought their fellows in a nervous clasp as Katy tried not +to think Wilford cross, even after he replied: + +"You need not have come for me, as I always prefer a stage; besides +that, I can't go home just yet, I am not ready." + +Katy stood a moment in silence, a flush on her cheek and a pallor about +her lips, which Tom Tubbs saw, secretly shaking his fist and thinking +how he would like to knock down the man who could speak so to a wife as +beautiful and sweet as Katy seemed. + +"I have not been here before since my illness, and I wanted to come once +more," she said at last, apologetically, while Wilford, still looking +over papers, replied: "A sweet place to come to. I sometimes hate it +myself. By the way, I have something to tell you," and his face began to +brighten. "Mrs. Mills, from Yonkers, was in town to-day, and as she had +not time to see you, she found me and insisted upon your keeping the +promise you made last summer of spending some days with her. The +Beverleys are there and the Lincolns--quite a nice party--so I ventured +to say that you should go out to-morrow and I would come out Saturday +afternoon to spend Sunday." + +"Oh, Wilford, I can't," and Katy's lip began to quiver at the very +thought of meeting people like the Beverleys and Lincolns in her present +state of mind. + +"You can't! Why not?" Wilford asked, and Katy replied: "I've never been +in so much company as I shall meet there since baby died, and then--did +you forget that it was Lent?" + +"You are getting very good to think a few days' visit in the country +will harm you," Wilford replied; "besides that, neither Mrs. Mills, nor +the Beverleys, nor Lincolns, are church people, and cannot, of course, +sympathize in this superstitious fancy." + +Katy looked up in astonishment, for never before had she heard Wilford +speak thus of the Fast which his whole family honored. But Wilford was +growing hard, and with a sigh Katy turned away, knowing how useless it +was to reason with him then. Driving home alone, she gave vent to a +passionate flood of tears as she wondered how it all would end. For some +reason Wilford had set his heart upon the visit to Mrs. Mills, a +pleasant, fascinating woman, who liked Katy very much and had +anticipated the promised visit with a great deal of pleasure, making all +her plans with a direct reference to Mrs. Cameron, whose absence would +have been a great disappointment. Wilford knew this and resolved that +Katy should go, and as opposition to his will was always useless, the +close of the next day found Katy at Mrs. Mills' handsome dwelling +overlooking the broad river and the blue mountains beyond. Wilford was +with her; he had come out to spend the night, returning to the city in +the morning. Now that he had accomplished his purpose he was in the best +of spirits, treating Katy with unwonted kindness and wondering why he +hated so to leave her, while she, too, clung to him, wishing he could +stay. Their parting was only for two days, for this was Thursday, and he +was to return on Saturday, but in the hearts of both there was that dark +foreboding which is so often a sure precursor of evil. Twice Wilford +turned back to kiss his wife, feeling tempted once to tell her he was +sorry for his jealousy and distrust, but such confession was hard for +him and so he left it unsaid, looking back to the window against which +Katy's face was pressed as she watched him going from her, but little +guessing what would be ere she looked on him again. + + * * * * * + +Tom Tubbs sat reading Chitty as usual when Mr. Cameron came in from his +trip up the river. Since Katy's last call at the office Tom had been +haunted with her face as it looked when Wilford's cold greeting fell on +her ear, and after a private conference with Mattie, who listened +eagerly to every item of information with regard to Katy, he had come to +the conclusion that his employer was a brute, and that his wife was not +as happy as it was his duty to make her. + +"It's mean in him to speak so hateful to her," he was thinking just as +Wilford came in, appearing so very amiable and good-humored that the boy +ventured to inquire for Mrs. Cameron. "She looked so pale and sick, the +other day," he said, "almost as bad in fact as she did that night in the +cars with Dr. Grant, just before she was so dangerously ill." + +"What's that? What did you say?" Wilford asked quickly, and Tom, +thinking he had not been understood, repeated his words, while in a +voice which Tom scarcely knew, it was so low and husky, Wilford asked: +"What night was Mrs. Cameron in the cars with Dr. Grant? When was it, +and where?" + +As suspicion is an intense magnifier, so the absence of it will blind +one completely, and Tom was thus blindfolded as he stated in detail how +two months or more ago, while Mr. Cameron was absent, he had been sent +by Mr. Ray to Hartford, returning in the early train, that just before +him, in the car, a gentleman sat with a lady who seemed to be sick, at +all events her head lay on his shoulder and he occasionally bent over +her to see if she wanted anything. + +"I did not mind much about them," Tom said, "till it got to broad +daylight, when I saw the man was Dr. Grant, and when we reached New York +the lady threw back her veil and I saw it was Mrs. Cameron." + +"Are you sure?" and Wilford grasped Tom's arm with an energy which made +the boy wince, while there came over him a suspicion that he had talked +too much. + +But it could not now be helped, and to Wilford's question he answered: + +"Yes, for she bowed to me and smiled." + +"Where did they go?" was the next question, put in thunder tones, for +Wilford was remembering things Katy said in her delirium, and which were +now explained, if Tom's statement was true. + +"They went off in a carriage toward your house, and that night I heard +she was sick," Tom said, going back to his book, while Wilford seized +his hat and started up Broadway. It was not his intention when he left +the office to question the servants with regard to his wife, for every +feeling and principle of his nature shrank from such an act, but by the +time his home could be reached it could scarcely be said that he was in +his right mind, and meeting Phillips in the hall, he demanded of her "if +she remembered the day when Mrs. Cameron was first taken ill." + +Yes. Phillips remembered how sick Esther said she looked when she came +home from his father's, where she spent the night. + +"Oh, yes; she stayed at my father's then. It was very proper she +should," Wilford replied, recollecting himself, and trying to appear +natural, so that Phillips would not suspect him of any special purpose +in questioning her. + +If Katy spent the night at his father's then Tom's statement was not +true, and dismissing Phillips he hastened to his mother, to whom he put +the question: + +"Did Katy stay here a night while I was gone, the night but one after +that dinner when she heard of Genevra, I mean?" + +"Why, no," Mrs. Cameron replied, in some surprise. "Katy has not stayed +here since last October, just after she came from Silverton, and you +were in Detroit. Why do you ask? What is the matter? What do you fear?" + +Wilford would not tell his mother what he feared, but waived her +question by bidding her repeat what she could remember of the day when +she was first summoned to Katy, and to tell him also who was there. + +"Dr. Grant was there, and Dr. Craig," she said. "The former, as I +understood from Esther, had just come to the city and called on Katy, +finding her so ill that he sent for me immediately." + +"And you do not know that Katy was away from home at all?" was Wilford's +next inquiry, to which his mother replied: + +"Esther spoke of her looking very sick when she came in, from which I +inferred she had been driving or shopping, but she was not here, sure." + +Esther, it would seem, was the only one who could throw light upon the +mystery, and as by this time the jealous man did not care whom he +questioned, he left his mother without a word of explanation, and +hurried home, where he found Esther, and in a voice which made her +tremble, bade her answer his questions truthfully, without the slightest +attempt at evasion. + +"Yes, sir," Esther replied, and Wilford continued: + +"Where was your mistress the night before Dr. Grant came here, and she +was so very sick?" + +"I don't know, sir. I had the impression that she at your mother's. +Wasn't she there?" and Esther looked very innocent, while Wilford +replied: + +"It is your business to answer questions, not to ask them. Tell me then +the particulars of her going away, and what she said." + +As nearly as she could remember Esther repeated what had passed between +herself and Katy that morning, but her manner was such as to convince +Wilford she was keeping back something, and in a paroxysm of excitement +he seized her arm, exclaiming: + +"You know more than you admit. Tell me then the truth. Who came home +with Mrs. Cameron, and when?" + +Esther was afraid of Wilford, and at last between tears and sobs +confessed that Mrs. Wilford said she had been out of town, but asked her +not to tell, that she guessed it was Silverton where she had been, and +also that when she opened the door to her, Dr. Morris was going down the +steps; "not in a hurry--not like making off as if there was something +wrong," she added, in her eagerness to exonerate her mistress. + +"Who hinted there was anything wrong?" Wilford exclaimed, in tones which +made poor Esther tremble, for now that he had heard all he cared to +hear, he began to be ashamed of having gained his information in the way +he had. + +"Nobody hinted," Esther sobbed, with her face hidden in her apron; "and +if they did it's false. There never was a truer, sweeter lady." + +"See that you stick to that whatever may occur, and, mind you, let there +be no repeating this conversation in the kitchen or elsewhere," Wilford +hurled at her savagely, going next to a telegraph office, and sending +over the wires the following: + +"NEW YORK, March --, 1862. + +"To MR. EPHRAIM BARLOW, Silverton, Mass. + +"Has Mrs. Wilford Cameron been in Silverton since last September? +W. CAMERON." + +To this he was prompted by Esther's having suggested Silverton, as the +place where her mistress had possibly been, and taking warning by his +past experience with Genevra, he resolved to give Katy the benefit of +every doubt, to investigate closely, before taking the decisive step, +which even while Tom Tubbs was talking to him had flashed into his mind. +Perhaps Katy had been to Silverton in her excited state, and if so the +case was not so bad, though he blamed her much for concealing it from +him. At first he thought of telegraphing to Morris, but pride kept him +from that, and Uncle Ephraim was made the recipient of the telegram, +which startled him greatly, being the first of the kind sent directly to +him. + +As it chanced the deacon was in town that day, and at the store just +across the street from the telegraph office. This the agent knew by old +Whitey, who was standing meekly at the hitching-post, covered with his +blanket, a faded woolen bedspread, which years before Aunt Betsy had +spun and woven herself. + +"A letter for me!" Uncle Ephraim said, when the message was put into his +hands. "Who writ it?" and he turned it to the light trying to recognize +the handwriting. + +"I think it wants an answer," the boy said, as Uncle Ephraim thrust it +into his pocket, and taking up his molasses jug and codfish started for +the door. + +"May be it does. I'll look again," and depositing his fish and jug +safely under the wagon box, the old man adjusted his spectacles, and +with the aid of the boy deciphered the dispatch. + +"What does it mean?" he asked, but the boy volunteered no ideas, and the +simple-hearted deacon asked next: "What shall I tell him?" + +"Why, tell him whether she has been here or not since last September. +Write on the envelope what you want sent, so I can take it back; and +come, hurry up your cakes, I can't wait all day," and young America, +having thus asserted its superiority over old, began to kick the melting +snow, while Uncle Ephraim, greatly bewildered and perplexed, bent +himself to the tremendous task of writing the four words: + +"Not to my knowledge." To this he appended: "Yours, with regret, Ephraim +Barlow," and handing it to the waiting boy, unhitched old Whitey, and +stepping into his wagon, drove home as rapidly as the half-frozen March +mud would allow. + +"I wonder what he sent me that word for?" he kept repeating to himself. +"We had a letter from Katy yesterday, and there can't be nothing wrong. +I won't tell the folks yet a while anyway till I see what comes of it, +Lucy is so fidgety." + +It was this resolution, whether wise or unwise, which kept from Morris +and the deacon's family a knowledge of the telegram, the answer to which +was read by Wilford within half an hour after the deacon's arrival home. + +"She has not been to Silverton," Wilford said. "The case then is very +clear." + +Indeed, it had been growing clear to the suspicious man ever since Tom +Tubbs' unfortunate remark. There are no glasses as perfect as those +which jealousy wears, no magnifying lens as powerful, and Wilford was +"fully convinced." Had he been asked of what he was convinced he could +hardly have told unless it were that in some way he had been deceived, +that Morris had spoken falsely when he said his love for Katy was not +returned or even suspected, that Katy had acted the hypocrite, and that +both had been guilty of a great indiscretion, at least, by being seen as +they were in the New Haven train, and then keeping the occurrences of +that night a secret from him. Wilford did not believe Katy had fallen, +but she had surely stepped upon forbidden ground, and it was not in his +nature to forgive the error--at least, not then, when he was so sore +with past remembrances which had come so fast upon him. First, the +baby's death, just when he was learning to love it so much, then the +Genevra affair about which Katy had acted so foolishly, then the talk +with Dr. Grant, and then his last offense, so much worse than all the +rest. + +It was a sad catalogue of grievances, and Wilford made it sadder by +brooding over and magnifying it until he reached a point from which he +would not swerve. + +"I shall do it," he said, and his lips were pressed firmly together, as +before his lonely fire he sat that chill March night, revolving the past +and then turning to the future opening so darkly before him, and making +him shudder as he thought of what it might bring. "I will spare Katy as +much as possible," he said, "for hers is a different nature from +Genevra's. She cannot bear as well," and a bitter groan broke the +silence of the room as Katy came up before him just as she had looked +that very morning standing by the window, with tears in her eyes, and a +wistful, sorry look on her white face. + +Could she be false to him and wear that look? The question staggered +Wilford for a moment, but when he remembered the proof, he steeled his +heart against her and prepared to act. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +DISAPPEARED. + + +All the next day Wilford was very busy arranging his affairs, and a +casual looker-on would have seen nothing unusual in the face always so +grave and cold. But to Tom Tubbs, casting furtive glances over his book +and wondering at his employer's sudden activity, it was terrible in its +dark, hard, unrelenting expression, while even his mother, upon whom he +called that evening, looked at him anxiously, asking what was the +matter, but not mentioning the conversation held with her the previous +day respecting Katy. + +She was still at Yonkers, Wilford said, and his voice was very natural +as he added: "I am expected to go out there to-morrow night with +Beverley and Lincoln, whose wives are also at Mrs. Mills'; quite a gay +party we shall make," and he tried to smile, but it was a sickly effort +and made his face look still more ghastly and strange. + +"What ails you, Wilford?" his mother asked, but he answered pettishly: +"Nothing, so pray don't look at me so curiously as if I was hiding some +terrible secret." + +He was hiding a secret, and it almost betrayed itself, when at last he +said good-by to his mother, who followed him to the door and stood +looking after him in the darkness until the sound of his footsteps died +away upon the pavement. There was a fire in his room and Wilford sat +down to write the brief note he would leave, for when the night shut +down again he would not be there. He could not feel that the parting +from Katy would be final, because he did not believe she had sinned as +he counted sin, but she certainly preferred another to himself; she had +deceived him and played the successful hypocrite. This was Wilford's +accusation against his wife; this for what she must be punished, until +such time as his royal clemency saw fit to forgive and take her back as +he meant to. He had no fear of her going to Morris, or to the farmhouse +either, for much as she was attached to her family, he believed she +would shrink from a return to poverty, choosing rather the luxuries of +her city home. And he would put no impediment in the way of her staying +there as long as she liked; he would arrange that for her, feeling +himself very magnanimous as he thought of giving her permission to +invite her mother to New York as a kind of protection against scandalous +remarks. Mrs. Lennox and Helen too should come. That certainly was +generous, and lest his goodness should abate he seized his pen and +wrote: + +"DEAR KATY: Your own conscience will tell you whether you are worthy of +being addressed as 'Dear,' but I have called you thus so often that I +cannot bring myself to any other form. Do my words startle you, and will +you be sorry when you read this and find that I am gone, that you are +free from the husband you do not love, the husband whom perhaps you +never loved, though I thought you did? I trusted you once, and now I do +not blame you as much as I ought, for you are young. You are easily +influenced. You are very susceptible to flattery, as was proven by your +career at Saratoga and Newport. I had no suspicion of you then, but now +that I know you better, I see that it was not all childish simplicity +which made you smile so graciously upon those who sought your favor. You +are a coquette, Katy, and the greater one because of that semblance of +artlessness which is the perfection of art. This, however, I might +forgive, were it not for one flagrant act, which, if it is not a proof +of faithlessness, certainly borders upon it. You know to what I refer, +or if you do not, ask your smooth-tongued saint, your companion in the +New Haven train; he will enlighten you; he will not wonder at my going, +and perhaps he will offer you comfort, both religious and otherwise; but +if you ever wish me to return, avoid him as you would shun a deadly +poison. Until I countermand the order I wish you to remain here in this +house, which I bought for you. Helen and your mother both may live with +you, while father will have a general oversight of your affairs; I shall +send him a line to that effect. And now, good-by. I am very calm as I +write this, because I know you have deceived me. Not as I did you with +regard to Genevra, but in a deeper sense, which touches a tenderer point +and makes me willing to brave the talk my sudden departure will create. +No one knows I am going, no one will know until you have waited and +looked in vain for me with the gay young men who to-morrow night-will +join their wives as I hoped yesterday morning to join mine. But that is +over now. I cannot come to you. I am going away, where--it matters not +to you. So farewell. + +"Your deceived and disappointed husband." + +Had Wilford read this letter over, he might not have left it, but he did +not read it, and in recalling its contents he gave himself great credit +for his forbearance when speaking of Morris, whom he hated so cordially. +Sealing the letter, and laying it in Katy's drawer just above where she +had left his, he tried to sleep; but the morning found him haggard and +tired, and Esther, as she poured his coffee, asked if he was sick. + +"No," he answered, and then as he pushed back his chair, he said: "I +shall not be home again to-day, as Mrs. Cameron expects me to spend +Sunday at Yonkers." + +And so all that day and the next, the doors were locked, the shutters +closed, the curtains dropped, while an ominous silence reigned +throughout the house; but when Monday came, and was halfway gone there +were inquiries made for Mr. Cameron by young Beverley and Lincoln, whose +faces looked anxious and disturbed at Esther's answer: + +"He went to Yonkers, Saturday. I have not seen him since." + + * * * * * + +Out at Yonkers on Saturday night, three young wives had waited for their +husbands, and none more eagerly than Katy, who, fair as a lily, in her +dark dress, with her soft hair curling about her face, sat by the window +watching for the carriage from the station, hers the first ear to catch +the sound of wheels, and here the first form upon the piazza. + +"Where's Wilford?" she asked, as only two alighted, and neither of them +her husband. + +But no one could answer that question. The gentlemen had looked for him +at Chambers Street, expecting him every moment to join them. Perhaps he +was detained, he might come yet at twelve, they said, trying to comfort +Katy, who, with a sad foreboding, went back into the parlor, and tried +to join in the laugh and jest which seemed almost like mockery. +Something had happened to Wilford she was sure when the night train did +not bring him; and all the next day, while the Sunday bells pealed their +music in her ears, and the sounds of thoughtless mirth came up from the +room below, where the elaborate dinner was in progress, she lay upon her +pillow, her head almost bursting with pain, and her heart aching so +sadly as she tried to pray that no harm had befallen her husband. She +never dreamed of his desertion, even when about noon of the next day a +telegram came from Father Cameron, bidding her hasten to the city. +Wilford was sick or dead, probably the latter, was the feeling uppermost +in her mind, as she was borne rapidly to New York, where Mr. Cameron met +her, his face confirming her fears, but not preparing her for the great +shock awaiting her. + +"Wilford is not dead," he said, when at last she was in the carriage. +"It is worse than that, I fear. We have traced him to the Philadelphia +train, which he took on Saturday. His manner all that day and the +previous one was very strange, while from some words he dropped my wife +is led to suppose there was trouble between you two. Was there?" and +Father Cameron's gray eyes rested earnestly on the white, frightened +face which looked up so quickly as Katy gasped: + +"No, oh, no; he never was kinder to me than when we parted last Friday +morning at Mrs. Mills'. There is some mistake. He would not leave me, +though he has not been quite the same since--" + +Katy was interrupted by the carriage stopping before her home; but when +they had been admitted to the parlor where a fire was lighted, Father +Cameron said: + +"Go on now. Wilford has not been the same since when?" + +Thus importuned Katy continued: + +"Since baby died. I think he blamed me as the cause of its death." + +"Don't babies die every day?" Father Cameron growled, kicking at the +hearth rug, while Katy, without considering that he had never heard of +Genevra, continued: + +"And then it was worse after I found out about Genevra, his first wife." + +"Genevra! Genevra, Wilford's first wife! Thunder and lightning! what are +you talking about?" and Father Cameron bent down to look in Katy's face, +thinking she was going mad. + +But Katy was not mad, and knowing it was now too late to retract, she +told the story of Genevra Lambert to the old man, who, utterly +confounded, stalked up and down the room, kicking away chairs and +footstools, and whatever came in his way, and swearing promiscuously at +his wife and Wilford, whom he pronounced a precious pair of fools, with +a dreadful adjective appended to the fools, and an emphasis in his voice +which showed he meant what he said. + +"It's all accounted for now," he said, "the piles of money that boy had +abroad, his privacy with his mother, and all the other tomfoolery I +could not understand. Katy," and pausing in his walk, Mr. Cameron came +close to his daughter-in-law, who was lying with her face upon the sofa. +"Katy, be glad your baby died. Had it lived it might have proved a curse +just as mine have done--not all, for Bell, though fiery as a pepper-pod, +has some heart, some sense--and there was Jack, my oldest boy, a little +fast, it's true; but when he died over the sea, I forgave all that, +forgetting the chair he broke over a tutor's head, and the scrapes for +which I paid as high as a thousand at one time. He sowed his wild oats, +and died before he could reap them, died a good man, I believe, and went +to heaven. Juno you know, and you can judge whether she is such as would +delight a parent's heart; while Wilford, my only boy, to deceive me so; +though I knew he was a fool in some things, I did trust Wilford." + +The old man's voice shook now, and Katy felt his tears dropping on her +hair as he stooped down over her. Checking them, however, he said: + +"And he was cross because you found him out. Was there no other reason?" + +Katy thought of Dr. Morris, but she could not tell of that, and so she +answered: + +"There was--but please don't ask me now. I can't tell, only I was not to +blame. Believe me, father, I was not to blame." + +"I'll swear to that," was the reply, as Father Cameron commenced his +walking again. "He may have left some word, some line," he said. +"Suppose you look. It would probably be upstairs." + +Katy had not thought of this, but it seemed reasonable that it should be +so, and going to her room, followed by Father Cameron, she went, as by +some instinct, to the very drawer where the letter lay. + +There was perfect silence while she read it through, Mr. Cameron never +taking his eyes from the face which turned first white, then red, then +spotted, and finally took a leaden hue as Katy ran over the lines, +comprehending the truth as she read, and when the letter was finished, +lifting her dry, tearless eyes to Father Cameron, and whispering to +herself: + +"Deserted!" + +She let him read the letter, and when he had finished explained the +parts he did not understand, telling him now what Morris had confessed, +telling him too that in her first sorrow, when life and sense seemed +reeling, she had gone to Dr. Grant, who had brought her back, as a +brother might have done, and this was the result. + +"Why did you say you went to him--that is, what was the special reason?" +Mr. Cameron asked, and after a moment's hesitancy, Katy told him her +belief that Genevra was living--that it was she who made the bridal +trousseau for Wilford's second wife, who nursed his child until it died, +giving to it her own name, arraying it for the grave, and then leaving, +as she always did, before the father came. + +"I never told Wilford," Katy said. "I felt as if I would rather he +should not know it yet. Perhaps I was wrong, but if so, I have been +terribly punished." + +Mr. Cameron could not look upon the woman who stood before him, so +helpless and stricken in her desolation, and believe her wrong in +anything. The guilt lay in another direction, and when as the terrible +reality that she was indeed a deserted wife came rushing over Katy, she +tottered toward him for help, he stretched his arms out for her, and +taking the sinking figure in them, laid it upon the sofa as gently, as +kindly as Wilford had ever touched it in his most loving days. + +Katy did not faint nor weep. She was past all that, but her face was +like a piece of marble, and her eyes were like those of the hunted fawn +when the chase is at its height and escape impossible. + +"Wilford would come back if he knew just how it was," the father said, +"but the trouble is where to find him. He speaks of writing to me, as I +presume he will in a day or so, and perhaps it will be as well to wait +till then. What the plague--who is ringing that bell enough to break the +wire?" he added, as a sharp, rapid ring echoed through the house and was +answered by Esther. "It's my wife," he continued, as he caught the sound +of her voice asking if Mrs. Cameron had returned. "You stay here while I +meet her first alone. I'll give it to her for cheating me so long and +raising thunder generally!" + +Katy tried to protest, but he was halfway down the stairs, and in a +moment more was with his wife, who had come around armed and equipped to +censure Katy as the cause of Wilford's disappearance, and to demand of +her where she was the night she pretended to spend at No. ---- Fifth +Avenue. But the lady who came in so haughty and indignant was a very +different personage from the lady who, after listening for fifteen +minutes to a fearful storm of oaths and reproaches, mingled with +startling truths and bitter denunciations against herself and her boy, +sank into a chair, pale and trembling, and overwhelmed with the harvest +she was reaping. + +But her husband was not through with her yet. He had reserved the +bitterest drop for the last, and coming close to her he said: + +"And who think you the woman is--this Genevra, Wilford's and your +divorced wife? You were too proud to acknowledge an apothecary's +daughter! See if you like better a dressmaker, a nurse to Katy's baby, +Marian Hazelton!" + +He whispered the last name, and with a shriek the lady fainted. Mr. +Cameron would not summon a servant, and as there was no water in the +room, he walked to the window, and lifting the sash scraped from the +sill a handful of the light spring snow which had been falling since +noon. With this he brought his wife back to consciousness, and then +marked out her future course. + +"I know what is in your mind," he said. "You would like to have all the +blame rest on Katy; but, madam, hear me--just so sure as through your +means one breath of suspicion falls on her. I'll _bla at_ out the whole +story of Genevra. Then see who is censured. On the other hand, if you +hold your tongue, and make Juno hold hers, and stick to Katy through +thick and thin, acting as if you would like to swallow her whole, I'll +say nothing of this Genevra. Is it a bargain?" + +"Yes," came faintly from the sofa cushions, where Mrs. Cameron had +buried her face, sobbing in a confused, frightened way, and after a +moment finding voice to say: "What will you do with Phillips and Esther? +He must have questioned them." + +"The deuce he did! I'll see to that I'll throttle them if they venture +to speak!" and summoning both the females to his presence, Mr. Cameron +demanded if either had reported what Wilford had said to them. + +Except to each other they had not, though Phillips confessed to a great +desire to do so when a cousin was in the previous night. + +"Hang the cousin, and you, too, if you do!" Mr. Cameron replied, and +giving them some very strong advice, couched in very strong language, he +dismissed the servants to the kitchen, satisfied that so far Katy was +safe. "But who is the villain who first informed? If I had him by the +neck!" the enraged man continued, just as there came a second ring--a +timid, hesitating ring, as if the new arrival were half afraid to +present himself and his errand. + +"Speak of angels and you hear the rustle of their wings," is a proverb +as true and much pleasanter of thought than its opposite, and whether +Tom Tubbs were an angel or not, it was he who stood twirling his cap in +the hall, asking for Mrs. Cameron. + +"She can't see you, but I'll take the message. Is it about my son?" +Father Cameron said, striding up to the boy, who began to wish himself +away. + +Ever since inquiries had been made at the office for Wilford's +whereabouts, Tom had been uneasy, for he could not forget the savage +look in Wilford's face when he first told him of Katy and Dr. Grant; and +when he heard that instead of going to Yonkers Wilford had taken the +cars for Philadelphia, he was certain something was wrong, and longed to +confess to Katy what he knew of the matter. He had no idea of meddling, +but came with the kindest intentions, thinking he should feel better +when the load was off his mind. He was then poorly prepared for his +fierce reception from Mr. Cameron, who asked so energetically what he +had to say. + +"It wasn't much," Tom began. "I only wanted to tell her maybe I was to +blame for repeating what I saw." + +"What did you see?" and Mr. Cameron laid his hand on Tom's coat collar +as if to shake the information out of him. + +But there was no need of this, for the frightened youth told quickly +what he had come to tell, seeming so sorry and appearing so hurt withal +that the elder Cameron grew very gracious, and dismissed him with the +conviction that Katy had nothing to fear from Tom Tubbs. Mrs. Cameron +was with her now, giving her kisses and words of sympathy, telling her +Wilford would come back, and adding that in any event no one could or +should blame her. + +"I have heard the whole from husband; it was a misunderstanding, that is +all. Wilford was wrong to deceive you about Genevra. I was wrong to let +him; but we will have no more concealments. You think she is living +still--that she is Marian Hazelton?" and Mrs. Cameron smoothed Katy's +hair as she talked, trying to be motherly and kind, while her heart beat +more painfully at thoughts of a Genevra living than it ever had on +thoughts of a Genevra dead. + +She did not doubt the story, although it seemed so strange, and it made +her faint as she wondered if the world would ever know and what it would +say if it did. That her husband would tell if she failed in a single +point she was sure, but she should not fail; she would swear Katy was +innocent of everything, if necessary, while Juno and Bell should swear +too. Of course they must know and she should tell them that very night, +she said to herself, and hence it was that in the gossip which followed +Wilford's disappearance not a word was breathed against Katy, whose +cause the family espoused so warmly. Bell and the father because they +really loved and pitied her, and Mrs. Cameron and Juno because it saved +them from the disgrace which would have fallen on Wilford had the +fashionable world known then of Genevra. + +The sudden disappearance of a man like Wilford Cameron could not fail +even in New York to cause some excitement, especially in his own +immediate circle of acquaintances, and for several days the matter was +discussed in all its phases, and every possible opinion and conjecture +offered as to the cause of his strange conduct. Insanity! how many sins +it is made to cover, and how often is it pleaded for an excuse when no +other can be found. This is especially true in the higher walks of life, +and so in Wilford's case it was put forward, cautiously at first by Mrs. +Cameron herself, who wondered at the avidity with which the suggestion +was seized and handed from one to another, some remembering little +things which tended to confirm the belief, others slyly shrugging their +shoulders as they responded: "Very probable," but all tacitly allowing +the understanding to prevail that insanity had made Wilford Cameron a +voluntary wanderer from home. They could not believe in domestic +troubles when they saw how his family clung to and defended Katy from +the least approach of censure, Juno taking up her abode with her +"afflicted sister" until such time as Wilford could be heard from or +more definite arrangements be made; Mrs. Cameron driving around each day +to see her; Bell always speaking of her with genuine affection, while +the father clung to her like a hero, the quartet forming a barrier +across which the shafts of scandal could not reach. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +WHAT FOLLOWED. + + +And where the while was Wilford? Fortunate, indeed, is it for the +disappointed, desperate men of the present day that when their horizon +is blackest and life seems not worth preserving, they can leave the past +behind and find a refuge in the army. To Wilford it presented itself at +once as the place of all others. Anything which could divert his mind +was welcome, and ere the close of that first day of Katy's return from +Yonkers, his name was enrolled in the service of his country. He had +gone directly to Washington, stumbling accidentally upon an old college +acquaintance who was getting up a company, and whose first lieutenant +had disappointed him. Learning Wilford's wishes he offered him the post, +which was readily accepted, and ere four days were gone Lieutenant +Wilford Cameron, with no regret as yet for the past, marched away to +swell the ranks of men who, led by General McClellan, were pressing on, +as they believed, to Richmond and victory. A week of terrible suspense +went by and then there came a note to Mr. Cameron from his son, +requesting him to care for Katy, but asking no forgiveness for himself. + +"I have disgraced you all," he wrote, "and I know just how you feel, but +I am not sorry for the step I've taken. When I am I shall probably come +back, provided that day finds me alive." + +And that was all the proud man wrote. Not one word was there for Katy, +whose eyes, which had not wept since she knew she was deserted, moved +slowly over the short letter, weighing every word, and then were lifted +sadly to her father's face as she said: "I will write and tell him all +the truth, and on his answer will depend my future course." + +This she said referring to the question she had raised as to whether in +case Wilford did not come back she should remain in New York or go to +Silverton, where as yet they were ignorant of her affliction, for Uncle +Ephraim had not told of the telegram, and Katy would not alarm them +until she knew something definite. + +And so the days went by, while Katy's letter was sent to Wilford, +together with another from his father, who confirmed all Katy had +protested of her innocence and ended by calling his son a "confounded +fool" and telling him to throw up his shoulder straps, which "only honest +men had a right to wear, and come home where he belonged." + +To this there came an angry, indignant answer, bidding the father attend +to his own business, and allow the son to attend to his. To Katy, +however, Wilford wrote in a different strain, showing here and there +marks of tenderness and relenting, but saying what he had done could not +now be helped--he was in for a soldier's life of two years, and should +abide his choice. At the idea of Genevra's being alive he scoffed; he +knew better than that, and even if she were why need Katy have gone with +it to Morris. Surely she should have had the discretion to keep +something to herself. + +This was the purport of Wilford's letter to Katy, who when she had +finished reading said, sorrowfully: + +"Wilford never loved me. It was a mere fancy, a great mistake, and I +cannot stay in his home, knowing that I am not trusted and respected as +a wife should be. I will go to Silverton. There is room for me there. I +shall write to Helen to-day." + +Meanwhile at Silverton, Uncle Ephraim, still keeping the telegram a +secret, grew more and more anxious as there came no news of Katy. What +did the silence mean? Uncle Ephraim pondered the matter all day long, +holding conversations with himself upon the subject, and finally making +up his mind to the herculean task of going to New York to see what was +the matter. To the family, who asked the reason of his sudden journey, +he said: He had a notion that something ailed Katy, and he was going +to see. + +No one ever thought of opposing Uncle Ephraim, and the following day +found him ready for the journey Aunt Betsy had taken before him. + +Presuming upon her experience as a traveler, that good dame had +proffered sundry pieces of advice with reference to what it was best for +him to do on the road, telling him which side of the car to sit, where +to get out, and above all things not to shake hands with the conductor +when asked for his ticket. + +Uncle Ephraim heard her good-humoredly, and stuffing into his pocket the +paper of ginger-snaps, fried cakes and cheese, which Aunt Hannah had +prepared for his lunch, he started for the cars, and was soon on his way +to New York. + +In his case there was no Bob Reynolds to offer aid and comfort, and the +old man was nearly torn in pieces by the burly hackman, who, the moment +he appeared to view, pounced upon him as lawful prey, each claiming the +honor of taking him wherever he wished to go, and raising such a din +about his ears that he finally turned away thoroughly disgusted, telling +them: + +"He had feet and legs, and common sense, and he guessed he could find +his way without 'em. 'Bleeged to you, gentlemen, but I don't need you," +and with a profound bow the honest-looking old deacon walked away, +asking the first man he met the way to Madison Square, and succeeded in +finding the number without difficulty. + +"This is it," he said, stopping in front of the tall building, and +examining it closely from the roof to the basement. + +Now that he was really there, a misgiving as to the propriety of the act +assailed him for the first time, and he began to wish he had not come. + +"I won't pull that nub," he said, glancing at the silver knob. "I'll go +down to the kitchen door, as like enough they've company." + +Accordingly Esther, who chanced to be in the basement, was startled by a +heavy knock, and was startled still more at the tall, white-haired man +who addressed her as "Sis," and asked if "Miss Cameron was to hum." + +"A man in the kitchen asking for me!" Katy exclaimed, when Esther +reported the message, and with her mind full of possible news from +Wilford, she ran hastily down the basement stairs, and with a loud +scream of joy threw herself into Uncle Ephraim's arms, an act which so +astonished Phillips that she dropped the dish of soup she was preparing +for the dinner table, the greasy liquid bespattering Katy's dress, and +bringing her to a sense of where she was, and that she should not be +there. + +"Come upstairs," she said, holding Uncle Ephraim's hand, and leading him +to the parlor, while the first tears she had shed since she knew she was +deserted rained in torrents over her face. + +"What is it, Katy-did? I mistrusted something was wrong. What has +happened?" Uncle Ephraim asked, and with his arm thrown protectingly +around her, Katy told him what had happened, and then asking what she +should do. + +"Do?" the old man repeated. "Go home with me to your own folks until he +comes from the wars. He is your husband, and I shall say nothing agin' +him, but if it was to do over I would forbid the banns. That chap has +misused you the wust way. You need not deny it, for it's writ all over +your face," he continued, as Katy tried to stop him, for sore as was her +heart with the great injustice done her, she would not have Wilford +blamed. + +He was her husband still, and she had loved him so fondly that, whether +worthy or not of her love, she could not turn from him so soon. + +"I wrote to Helen yesterday, so they will be prepared for me," she said, +anxious to change the conversation, and feeling glad when dinner was +announced. + +Leading him to the table, she presented him to Juno, whose cold nod +and haughty stare were lost on the old man presiding with so much +patriarchal dignity at the table, and bowing his white head so +reverently as he asked the first blessing which had ever been said at +that table, except as Helen or Morris had breathed a prayer of thanks +for the bounty provided. + +It had not been a house of prayer--no altar had been erected for the +morning and evening sacrifice. God had almost been forgotten, and now He +was pouring His wrath upon the handsome dwelling, making it so +distasteful that Katy was anxious to leave it, and expressed her +willingness to accompany Uncle Ephraim to Silverton as soon as the +necessary arrangements could be made. + +"I don't take it she comes for good," Uncle Ephraim said that evening, +when Mr. Cameron, to whom she referred the matter, opposed her going, +"for when the two years are gone, and her man wants her back, as he +will, she must come, of course. But she grows poor here in the city. It +don't agree with her like the scent of the clover and the breeze from +the hills. So, shet up the house for a spell, and let the child come +with me." + +Mr. Cameron knew that Katy would be happier at Silverton, and though he +disliked to part with her, he finally consented to her going, and placed +at her disposal a sum which seemed to the deacon a little fortune in +itself. + +In the kitchen there were sad faces when the servants heard of the +arrangement which was to deprive them not only of a pleasant home, but +of a mistress whom they both respected and loved. Esther pleaded hard to +go with Katy, and only the latter's promise that possibly she might come +by and by was of any avail to stay the tears which dropped so fast as +she put up her mistress' dresses, designed for Silverton, and laid away +the gayer, richer ones, which would be so sadly out of place upon her +now. + +To Mrs. Cameron and Juno it was a relief to have Katy taken from their +hands, and though they made a show of opposition, they were easily +quieted, and helped her off with alacrity, the mother promising to see +that the horse was promptly called for, and Juno offering to send the +latest fashion which might be suitable, as soon as it appeared. Bell was +heartily sorry to part with the young sister who seemed going from her +forever. + +"I know you will never come back. Something tells me so," she said as +she stood with her arms around Katy's waist, and her lips occasionally +touching Katy's forehead. "But I shall see you," she continued; "I am +coming to the farmhouse in the summer, to stay ever so long; and you may +say to Aunt Betsy that I like her ever so much, and"--here Bell glanced +behind her, to see that no one was listening, and then continued--"tell +her a certain officer was sick a few days in a hospital last winter, and +one of his men brought to him a dish of the most delicious dried +peaches he ever ate. That man was from Silverton, and the fruit was sent +to him, he said, in a salt bag, by a nice old lady, for whose brother he +used to work. Just to think, that the peaches I helped to pare, coloring +my hands so that the stain did not come off in a month, should have gone +so straight to Bob," and Bell's fine features shone with a light which +would have told Bob Reynolds he was beloved, even if the lips did not +refuse to confess it. + +"I'll tell her," Katy said, and then bidding them all good-by, and +putting her hand on Uncle Ephraim's arm she went with him from the home +where she had lived but two short years, and those the saddest, most +eventful ones of her short life. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +MARK AND HELEN. + + +There was much talk and wonder in Silverton when it was known that Katy +had come home to stay until her husband returned from the war, and at +first the people were inclined to gossip and hint at some mystery or +possible estrangement; but this was brought to an end when the +postmaster's wife told of a letter which had come to Mrs. Wilford +Cameron from the Army of the Potomac, and of the answer returned within +three days to Lieutenant Wilford Cameron, Co., --th Regt., N. Y. V., +etc. It must be all right, the gossips said, after that, but they +watched Katy curiously as she came among them again, so quiet, so +subdued, so unlike the Katy of old that they would hardly have +recognized her but for the beauty of her face and the sunny smile she +gave to all, but which rested oftenest on the poor and suffering, who +blessed her as the angel of their humble homes, praying that God would +remember her for all she was to them. The gold was purified at last, the +dross removed, and Katy, in her beautiful consistent life, seemed indeed +like some bright angel straying among the haunts of men, rather than the +weak and ofttimes sorely tempted mortal, which she knew herself to be. + +Wilford's letters, though not unkind, were never very satisfactory, and +always brought on a racking headache, from which she suffered intently. +He had censured her at first for going back to Silverton, when he +preferred she should stay in New York, hinting darkly at the reason of +her choice, and saying to her once, when she told him how the Sunday +before her twenty-first birthday she had knelt before the altar and +taken upon herself the vows of confirmation: "Your saintly cousin is, +of course, delighted, and that I suppose is sufficient, without my +congratulations." + +Perhaps he did not mean it, but he seemed to take delight in teasing +her, and Katy sometimes felt she should be happier without his letters +than with them. He had never said he was sorry he had left her so +suddenly--indeed he seldom referred to the past in any way; or if he did +it was in a manner which showed that he thought himself the injured +party, if either. Once, indeed, he did admit that, in calmly reviewing +the whole thing, he saw no reason now to believe that in the matter of +Dr. Grant she had been to blame, except in going to him with her trouble +and so bringing about the present unfortunate state of affairs. This was +the nearest to a concession on his part of anything he made; but it did +Katy a world of good, brightening up her face, and making her even dare +to meet Morris alone and speak to him naturally. Ever since her return +to Silverton she had studiously avoided him, and a stranger might have +said they were wholly indifferent to each other; but that stranger would +not have known of Morris' daily self-discipline or of the one little +spot in Katy's heart kept warm and sunny by the knowing that Morris +Grant had loved her, even if the love had died, as she hoped it had. It +would be better for them all, and so, lest by word or deed she should +keep the germ alive, she seldom addressed him directly, and never went +to Linwood unless some one was with her to prevent her being left with +him alone. A life like this could not be pleasant for Morris, and as +there seemed to be a lack of competent physicians in the army, he, after +prayerful deliberation, accepted a situation offered him as surgeon in a +Georgetown hospital, and early in June left Silverton for his new field +of labor. + +True to her promise, Bell came at the last of July to Silverton, +proving herself a dreadful romp as she climbed over the rocks in Aunt +Betsy's famous sheep pasture, or raked the hay in the meadow, and +proving herself, too, a genuine woman, as with blanced cheek and anxious +heart she waited for tidings from the battles before Richmond, where the +tide of success seemed to turn, and the North, hitherto so jubilant and +hopeful, wore weeds of mourning from Maine to Oregon. Lieutenant Bob was +there, and Wilford, too; and so was Captain Ray, digging in the marshy +swamps, where death floated up in poisonous exhalations--plodding on the +weary march, and fighting all through the seven days, where the sun +poured down its burning heat and the night brought little rest. No +wonder, then, that the three faces at the farmhouse grew white with +anxiety, or that three pairs of eyes grew dim with watching the daily +papers. But the names of neither Wilford, Mark, nor Bob were ever found +among the wounded, dead, or missing, and with the fall of the first +autumn leaf Bell returned to the city, more puzzled, more perplexed than +ever with regard to Helen Lennox's real feelings toward Captain Ray. + +Rapidly autumn went by, bringing at last the week before Christmas, when +Mark came home for a few days, looking ruddy and bronzed from exposure +and hardship, but wearing the disappointed, listless look which Bell was +quick to detect, connecting it in some way with Helen Lennox. Only once +did he call at Mr. Cameron's, and then as Juno was not present Bell had +him all to herself, talking a great deal of Silverton, of Helen and +Katy, in the latter of whom he seemed far more interested than in her +sister. Many questions he asked concerning Katy, expressing his regret +that Wilford had ever left her, and saying he believed Wilford was +sorry, too. He was in the hospital now, with a severe cold and a touch +of the rheumatism, he said; but as Bell knew this already she did not +dwell long upon that subject, choosing rather to talk of Helen--"as much +interested in the soldiers," she said, "as if she had a brother or a +lover in the army," and her bright eyes glanced meaningly at Mark, who +answered carelessly: + +"Dr. Grant is there, you know, and that may account for her interest." + +Mark knew he must say something to ward off Bell's attacks, and so he +continued talking of Dr. Grant and how much he was liked by the poor +wretches who needed some one as kind and gentle as he to keep them from +dying of homesickness if nothing else. Once, too, he spoke of a nurse, a +second Nightingale, whose shadow on the wall the soldiers had not kissed +perhaps, but who was worshiped by the pale, sick men to whom she +ministered so tenderly. + +"She is very beautiful," he added, "and every man of us would willingly +try a hospital cot for the sake of being nursed by her." + +Bell thought at once of Marian, but as Mark knew nothing of their +private affairs she would not question him, and after a few bantering +words concerning Lieutenant Bob and the picture he carried into every +battle, buttoned closely over his heart. Mark Ray took his leave, while +Bell, softened by thoughts of Cob, ran upstairs to cry, going to her +mother's room, as a seamstress was occupying her own. Mrs. Cameron was +out that afternoon, and that she had dressed in a hurry was indicated by +the unusual confusion of her room. Drawers were left open and various +articles scattered about, while on the floor just as it had fallen from +a glove box lay a letter which Bell picked up, intending to replace it. + +"Miss Helen Lennox," she read in astonishment. "How came Helen Lennox's +letter here in mother's room, and from Mark Ray, too," she continued, +still more amazed as she took the neatly folded note from the envelope +and glanced at the name. "Foul play somewhere. Can it be mother?" she +asked, as she read enough to know that she held in her hand Mark's offer +of marriage which had in some mysterious manner found its way to her +mother's room. "I don't understand it at all," she said, racking her +brain for a solution of the mystery. "But the letter at least is safe +with me. I'll send it to Helen this very day and to-morrow I'll tell +Mark Ray." + +Procrastination was not one of Bell Cameron's faults, and for full half +an hour before her mother and Juno came home, the stolen letter had been +lying in the mail box where Bell herself deposited it, together with a +few hurriedly written lines, telling how it came into her hands, but +offering no explanation of any kind. + +"Mark is home now on a leave of absence which expires day after +to-morrow," she wrote, "but I am going around to see him, and if you +do not hear from him in person I am greatly mistaken." + +Very closely Bell watched her mother when she came from her room, but +the letter had not been missed, and in blissful ignorance Mrs. Cameron +displayed her purchases and then talked of Wilford, wondering how he was +and if it were advisable for any of them to go to him. + +The next day a series of hindrances kept Bell from making her call as +early as she had intended doing, so that Mrs. Banker and Mark were just +rising from dinner when told she was in the parlor. + +"I meant to have come before," she said, seating herself by Mark, "but +I could not get away. I have brought you some good news. I think--that +is--yes, I know there has been some mistake, some wrong somewhere, +whether intended or not. Mark Ray," and the impetuous girl faced +directly toward him, "if you could have any wish you might name what +would it be? Come now, imagine yourself a Cinderella and I the fairy +godmother. What will you have?" + +Mark knew she was in earnest and her manner puzzled him greatly, but he +answered, laughingly: "As a true patriot I should wish for peace on +strictly honorable terms." + +"Pshaw!" + +The word dropped very prettily from Bell's lips as with a shrug she +continued: + +"You men are very patriotic, I know, especially if you wear shoulder +straps, but isn't there something dearer than peace? Suppose, for +instance, Union between the North and South on strictly honorable terms, +as you say, was laid upon one scale and union between yourself and Helen +Lennox was laid upon the other, which would you take?" + +Mark's lips were very white now, but he tried to laugh as he replied: "I +should say the Union, of course." + +"Yes, but which union?" Bell rejoined, and then as she saw that Mrs. +Banker was beginning to frown upon her she continued: "But to come +directly to the point. Yesterday afternoon I found--no matter where or +how--a letter intended for Helen Lennox, which I am positive she never +saw or heard of; at least her denial to me that a certain Mark Ray had +ever offered himself is a proof that she never saw what was an offer +made just before you went away. I read enough to know that, and then I +took the letter and--" + +She hesitated, while Mark's eyes turned dark with excitement, and even +Mrs. Banker, scarcely less interested, leaned eagerly forward, saying: + +"And what? Go on, Miss Cameron. What did you do with that letter?" + +"I sent it to its rightful owner, Helen Lennox. I posted it myself, so +it's sure this time. But why don't you thank me, Captain Ray?" she +asked, as Mark's face was overshadowed with anxiety. + +"I was wondering whether it were well to send it--wondering how it might +be received," he said, and Bell replied: + +"She will not answer no. As one woman knows another I know Helen Lennox. +I have sounded her on that point. I told her of the rumor there was +afloat, and she denied it, seeming greatly distressed, but showing +plainly that had such offer been received she would not have refused it. +You should have seen her last summer, Captain Ray, when we waited so +anxiously for news from the Potomac. Her face was a study as her eyes +ran over the list of casualties, searching not for her amiable +brother-in-law, nor yet for Willard Braxton, their hired man. It was +plain to me as daylight, and all you have to do is to follow up that +letter with another, or go yourself, if you have time." Bell said, as +she arose to go, leaving Mark in a state of bewilderment as to what he +had heard. + +Who withheld that letter? and why? were questions which troubled him +greatly, nor did his mother's assurance that it did not matter so long +as it all came right at last, tend wholly to reassure him. One thing, +however, was certain. He would see Helen before he returned to his +regiment--he would hear from her own lips what her answer would have +been had she received the letter. He would telegraph in the morning to +Washington, and then run the risk of being a day behind the time +appointed for his return to duty. Never since the day of Aunt Betsy's +revelations had Mark felt as light and happy as he did that night, +scarcely closing his eyes in sleep, but still not feeling tired when +next morning he met his mother at the breakfast table and disclosed in +part his plans. He would not tell her all there was in his mind lest it +should not be fulfilled, but when at parting with her he did say: + +"Suppose you have three children when I return instead of two, is there +room in your heart for the third?" + +"Yes, always room for Helen," was the reply, as with a kiss of +benediction Mrs. Banker sent her boy away. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +CHRISTMAS EVE AT SILVERTON. + + +There was to be a Christmas tree at St. John's, and all the week the +church had been the scene of much confusion. But all the work was over +now; the church was swept and dusted, the tree with its gay adornings +was in its place, the little ones, who, trying to help, had hindered and +vexed so much, were gone, as were their mothers, and only tarried with +the organ boy to play the Christmas carol, which Katy was to sing alone, +the children joining in the chorus as they had been trained to do. It +was very quiet there, and very pleasant too, with the fading sunlight +streaming through the chancel window, lighting up the cross above it, +and falling softly on the wall where the evergreens were hung with the +sacred words: "Peace on earth and good will toward men." And Helen felt +the peace stealing over her as by the register she sat down for a moment +ere going to the organ loft where the boy was waiting for her. Not even +the remembrance of the dark war cloud hanging over the land disturbed +her then, as her thoughts went backward eighteen hundred years to +Bethlehem's manger and the little child whose birth the angels sang. And +as she thought, that Child seemed to be with her, a living presence to +which she prayed, leaning her head upon the railing of the pew in front +and asking Him to keep her in the perfect peace she felt around her now. +She had given Mark Ray up, and giving up had made a cruel wound, but she +did not feel it now, although she thought of him in that quiet hour, +asking God to keep him in safety wherever he might be, whether in the +lonely watch or kneeling as she hoped he might in some house of God, +where the Christmas carols would be sung and the Christmas story told. + +A movement of her hand as she lifted up her head struck against the +pocket of her dress, where lay the letter brought to her an hour or so +ago--Bell's letter--which, after glancing at the superscription, she had +put aside until a more convenient season for reading it. + +Taking it out, she tore open the envelope, starting suddenly as another +letter, soiled and unsealed, met her eye. She read Bell's first, and +then, with a throbbing heart, which as yet would not believe, she took +up Mark's, and understanding now much that was before mysterious to her. +Juno's call, too, came to her mind, and though she was unwilling to +charge so foul a wrong upon that young lady, she could find no other +solution to the mystery. There was a glow of indignation--Helen had +scarcely been mortal without it; but that passed away in pity for the +misguided girl and in joy at the happiness opening so broadly before +her. That Mark would come to Silverton she had no hope, but he would +surely write--his letter, perhaps, was even then on the way; and kissing +the one she held she hid it in her bosom and went up to where the organ +boy had for several minutes been kicking at stools and books, and +whistling "Old John Brown" by way of attracting attention. The boy was +in a hurry, and asked in so forlorn a tone: "Is we going to play?" that +Helen answered good-humoredly: "Just a few minutes, Billy. I want to try +the carol and the opening, which I've hardly played at all." + +With an air of submission Bill took his post and Helen began to play, +but she could only see before her: "I have loved you ever since that +morning when I put the lilies in your hair," and she played so out of +time and tune that Billy asked: "What makes 'em go so bad?" + +"I can't play now; I'm not in the mood," she said at last. "I shall +feel better by and by. You can go home if you like." + +Billy needed no second bidding, but catching up his cap ran down the +stairs and out into the porch, just as up the step a young man came +hurriedly, the horse he had hitched to a tree smoking from exercise and +himself looking eager and excited. + +"Hello, boy," he cried, grasping the collar of Bill's roundabout and +holding him fast, "who's in the church?" + +"Darn yer, old Jim Sykes, you let me be, or I'll--" the boy began, but +when he saw his captor was not Jim Sykes, but a tall, fine-looking man, +wearing a soldier's uniform, he changed his tone, and standing still, +answered civilly: "I thought you was Jim Sykes, the biggest bully in +town, who is allus hectorin' us boys. Nobody is there but she--Miss +Lennox--up where the organ is," and having given the desired +information, Bill ran off, wondering first if it wasn't Miss Helen's +beau, and wondering next, in case she should some time get married in +church, if he wouldn't fee the organ boy as well as the sexton. "He +orto," Bill soliloquized, "for I've about blowed my gizzard out +sometimes, when she and Mrs. Cameron sings the 'Te Deum.'" + +Meanwhile Mark Ray, who had driven first to the farmhouse in quest of +Helen, entered the church, glancing in upon the festooned walls, and +then as he heard a sound in the loft, stealing noiselessly up the stairs +to where Helen sat in the dim light, reading again the precious letter +withheld from her so long. She had moved her stool near to the window, +and her back was toward the door, so that she neither saw nor heard, nor +suspected anything, until Mark, bending over her so as to see what she +had in her hand, as well as the tear she had dropped upon it, clasped +both his arms about her neck, and drawing her face over back, kissed her +fondly, calling her his darling, and saying to her as she tried to +struggle from him: + +"I know I have a right to call you darling by that tear on my letter and +the look upon your face. Dear Helen, we have found each other at last." + +It was so unexpected that Helen could not speak, but she let her head +rest on his bosom, where he had laid it, and her hot, trembling hand +crept into his, so that he was answered, and for a moment he only kissed +and caressed the fair girl he knew now was his own. They could not talk +together there very long, for Helen must go home; but he made good use +of the time he had, telling her many things, and then asking her a +question which made her start away from him as she replied: "No, no, oh! +no, not to-night--not so soon as that!" + +"And why not, Helen?" he asked, with the manner of one who is not to be +denied. "Why not to-night, so there need be no more misunderstanding? +I'd rather leave you as my wife than my betrothed. Mother will like it +better. I hinted it to her and she said there was room for you in her +love. It will make me a better man, a better soldier, if I can say 'my +wife,' as other soldiers do. You don't know what a charm there is in +that word, Helen--keeping a man from sin, and if I should die I would +rather you should bear my name and share in my fortune. Will you, Helen, +when the ceremonies are closed, will you go up to that altar and pledge +your vows to me? I cannot wait till to-morrow; my leave of absence +expired to-day. I must go back to-night, but you must first be mine." + +Helen was shaking as with a chill, but she made him no reply, and +wrapping her cloak and furs about her, Mark led her down to the sleigh, +and taking his seat beside her, drove back to the farmhouse, where the +supper waited for her. Katy, to whom Mark first communicated his desire, +warmly espoused his cause, and that went far toward reassuring Helen, +who, for some time past had been learning to look up to Katy as to an +older sister, so sober, so earnest, so womanly had Katy grown since +Wilford went away. + +"It is so sudden, and people will talk," Helen said, knowing while she +said it how little she cared for people and smiling at Katy's reply: + +"They may as well talk about you a while as me. It is not so bad when +once you are used to it." + +After Katy, Aunt Betsy was Mark's best advocate. It is true this was not +just what she had expected when Helen was married. The "infair" which +Wilford had declined was still in Aunt Betsy's mind; but that, she +reflected might be yet. If Mark went back on the next train there could +be no proper wedding party until his return, when the loaves of frosted +cake, and the baked fowls she had seen in imagination should be there in +real, tangible form, and as she expressed it they would have a "high." +Accordingly she threw herself into the scale beginning to balance in +favor of Mark, and when at last old Whitey stood at the door ready to +take the family to the church, Helen sat upon the lounge listening half +bewildered, while Katy assured her that she could play the voluntary, +even if she had not looked at it, that she could lead the children +without the organ, and in short do everything Helen was expected to do +except go to the altar with Mark. + +"That I leave for you," and she playfully kissed Helen's forehead, as +she tripped from the room, looking back when she reached the door, and +charging the lovers not to forget to come, in their absorption of each +other. + +St. John's was crowded that night, just as churches always are on such +occasions, the children occupying the front seats, with looks of +expectancy upon their faces, as they studied the heavily laden tree, the +boys wondering if that ball, or whistle, or wheelbarrow was for them, +and the girls appropriating the tastefully dressed dolls, showing so +conspicuously among the dark-green foliage. The Barlows were rather +late, for upon Uncle Ephraim devolved the duty of seeing to the license, +and as he had no seat in that house, his arrival was only known by Aunt +Betsy's elbowing her way to the front, and near to the Christmas tree +which she had helped to dress, just as she had helped to trim the +church. She did not believe in such "flummmeries" it is true, and she +classed them with the "quirks," but rather than "see the gals slave +themselves to death," she had this year lent a helping hand. Donning two +shawls, a camlet cloak, a knit scarf for her head, and a hood to keep +from catching cold, she had worked early and late, fashioning the most +wonderfully shaped wreaths, tying up festoons, and even trying her hand +at a triangle; but turning her back resolutely upon crosses, which were +more than her Puritanism could endure. The cross was a "quirk," with +which she'd have nothing to do, though once, when Katy seemed more than +usually bothered and wished somebody would hand her tacks. Aunt Betsy +relented so far as to bring the hoop she was winding close to Katy, +holding the little nails in her mouth, and giving them out as they were +wanted; but with each one given out, conscientiously turning her head +away, lest her eyes should fall upon what she conceived the symbol of +the Romish Church. But when the whole was done, none were louder in +their praises than the good Aunt Betsy, who was guilty of asking Mrs. +Deacon Bannister when she came in to inspect, "why the orthodox couldn't +get up some such doin's for their Sunday school. It pleased the children +mightily." + +But Mrs. Deacon Bannister answered with some severity: + +"We don't believe in shows and plays, you know," thus giving a double +thrust, and showing that the opera had never been quite forgotten. +"Here's a pair of skates, though, and a smellin' bottle. I'd like to +have put on for John and Sylvia," she added, handing her package to Aunt +Betsy, who, while seeing the skates and smelling bottle suspended from a +bough, was guilty of wondering if "the partaker wasn't most as bad as +the thief." + +This was in the afternoon and was all forgotten now, when with her +Sunday clothes she never would have worn in that jam but for the great +occasion, Aunt Betsy elbowed her way up the middle aisle, her face +wearing a very important and knowing look, especially when Uncle +Ephraim's tall figure bent for a moment under the hemlock boughs, and +then disappeared in the little vestry room where he held a private +consultation with the rector. That she knew something her neighbors +didn't was evident. But she kept it to herself, turning her head +occasionally to look up at the organ where Katy was presiding. Others, +too, there were who turned their heads as the soft liquid music began to +fill the church, and the heavy bass rolled up the aisles, making the +floor tremble beneath their feet and sending a thrill through every +vein. It was a skillful hand which swept the keys that night, for Katy's +forte was music, and she played with her whole soul, not the voluntary +there before her in printed form, nor any one thing she had ever heard, +but taking parts of many things, and mingling them with strains of her +own improvising, she filled the house as it had never been filled +before, playing a soft, sweet refrain when she thought of Helen, then +bursting into louder, fuller tones, when she remembered Bethlehem's +child and the song the angels sang, and then as she recalled her own +sacrifice since she knelt at the altar a happy bride, the organ notes +seemed much like human sobs, now rising to a stormy pitch of passion, +wild and uncontrolled, and then dying out as dies the summer wind after +a fearful storm. Awed and wonderstruck the organ boy looked at Katy as +she played, almost forgetting his part of the performance in his +amazement, and saying to himself when she had finished: + +"Guy, though, ain't she a brick," and whispering to her: "Didn't we go +that strong?" + +Katy knew she had made an impression, and her cheeks were very red as +she went down to the body of the church, joining the children with whom +she was to sing, but she soon forgot herself in the happiness of the +little ones, who could scarcely be controlled until the short service +was over and the gifts about to be distributed. Much the people had +wondered where Helen was, as, without the aid of music, Katy led the +children in their carols, and this wonder increased when as time passed +on it was whispered around that "Miss Lennox had come and was standing +with a man back by the register." + +After this Aunt Betsy grew very calm. She knew Helen was there and could +now enjoy the distributing of the gifts, going up herself two or three +times, and wondering why anybody should think of her, a good-for-nothing +old woman. The skates and the smelling bottles both went safely to +Sylvia and John, while Mrs. Deacon Bannister looked radiant when her +name was called and she was made the recipient of a jar of butternut +pickles, such as only Aunt Betsy Barlow could make. + +"Miss Helen Lennox. A soldier in uniform, from one of her Sunday school +scholars." + +The words rang out loud and clear, the rector holding up the sugar toy +before the amused audience, who turned to look at Helen, blushing so +painfully, and trying to hold back the real man in soldier's dress who +went quietly up the aisle, receiving the gift with a bow and smile +which turned the heads of half the ladies near him, and then went back +to Helen, over whom he bent, whispering something which made her cheeks +grow brighter than they were before, while she dropped her eyes +modestly. + +"Who is he?" a woman asked, touching Aunt Betsy's shoulder. + +"Captain Ray, from New York," was the answer, as Aunt Betsy gave to her +dress a little broader sweep and smoothed the bow she had tried to tie +beneath her chin just as Mattie Tubbs had tied it on the memorable opera +night. + +"Miss Helen Lennox. A sugar heart, from one of her scholars," the rector +called again, the titters of the audience almost breaking into cheers as +they began to suspect the relation sustained to Helen by the handsome +young officer, going up the aisle after Helen's heart and stopping to +speak to good Aunt Betsy, who pulled his coat skirt as he passed her. + +The tree by this time was nearly empty. Every child had been remembered, +save one, and that Billy, the organ boy, who, separated from his +companions, stood near Helen, watching the tree wistfully, while shadows +of hope and disappointment passed alternately over his face as one after +another the presents were distributed and nothing came to him. + +"There ain't a darned thing on it for me," he exclaimed at last, when +boy nature could endure no longer, and Mark turned toward him just in +time to see the gathering mist which but for the most heroic efforts +would have merged into tears. + +"Poor Billy," Helen said, as she too heard his comment, "I fear he has +been forgotten. His teacher is absent and he so faithful at the organ +too." + +Mark knew now who the boy was and after a hurried consultation with +Helen, who knowing Billy well, suggested that money would probably be +more acceptable than even skates or jackknives, neither of which were +possible now, folded something in a bit of paper, on which he wrote a +name and then sent it to the rector. + +"Billy Brown, our faithful organ boy," sounded through the church, and +with a brightened face Billy went up the aisle and received the little +package, ascertaining before he reached his standpoint near the door +that he was the owner of a five-dollar bill, and mentally deciding to +add both peanuts and molasses candy to the stock of apples he daily +carried into the cars. + +"You gin me this," he said, nodding to Mark, "and you," turning to +Helen, "poked him up to it." + +"Well then, if I did," Mark replied, laying his hand on the boy's coarse +hair, "if I did, you must take good care of Miss Lennox when I am gone. +I leave her in your charge. She is to be my wife." + +"Gorry, I thought so," and Bill's cap went toward the plastering just as +the last string of popcorn was given from the tree, and the exercises +were about to close. + +It was not in Aunt Betsy's nature to keep her secret till this time, and +simultaneously with Billy's going up for his gift she whispered it to +her neighbor, who whispered it to hers, until nearly all the audience +knew of it, and kept their seats after the benediction was pronounced. + +At a sign from the rector, Katy went with her mother to the altar, +followed by Uncle Ephraim, his wife, and Aunt Betsy, while Helen, +throwing off the cloud she had worn upon her head, and giving it, with +her cloak and fur, into Billy's charge, took Mark's offered arm, and +with beating heart and burning cheeks passed between the sea of eyes +fixed so curiously upon her, up to where Katy once had stood on the June +morning when she had been the bride. Not now, as then, were aching +hearts present at that bridal. No Marian Hazelton fainted by the door; +no Morris felt the world grow dark and desolate as the marriage vows +were spoken; and no sister doubted if it were all right and would end in +happiness. Only Katy seemed sad as she recalled the past, praying that +Helen's life might not be like hers. + +The ceremony lasted but a few moments, and then the astonished audience +pressed around the bride, offering their kindly congratulations, and +proving to Mark Ray that the bride he had won was dear to others as well +as to himself. Lovingly he drew her hand beneath his arm, fondly he +looked down upon her as he led her back to her chair by the register, +making her sit down while he tied on her cloak and adjusted the fur +about her neck. + +"Handy and gentle as a woman," was the verdict pronounced upon him by +the female portion of the congregation as they passed out into the +street, talking of the ceremony, and contrasting Helen's husband with +the haughty Wilford, who was not a favorite with them. + +It was Billy Brown who brought Mark's cutter around, holding the reins +while Mark helped Helen, and then tucking the buffalo robes about her +with the remark: "It's all-fired cold, Miss Ray. Shall you play in +church to-morrow?" + +Assured that she would, Billy walked away, and Mark was alone with his +bride, slowly following the deacon's sleigh, which reached the farmhouse +a long time before the little cutter, so that a fire was already kindled +in the parlor when Helen arrived, and also in the kitchen stove, where +the teakettle was placed, for Aunt Betsy said "the chap should have some +supper before he went back to York." + +Four hours he had to stay, and they were well spent in talking of +himself, of Wilford, and of Morris, and in planning Helen's future. Of +course she would spend a portion of her time at the farmhouse, he said, +but his mother had a claim upon her, and it was his wish that she should +be in New York as much as possible. + +"Now that you have Mrs. Cameron, you do not need my wife," he said to +Mrs. Lennox, with an emphasis upon the last word, which he seemed very +fond of using. + +Much he wished to stay with the wife so lately his, but as that could +not be, he asked at last that she go with him to Washington. It might be +some days before his regiment was ordered to the front, and in that time +they could enjoy so much. But Helen knew it would not be best, and so +she declined, promising, however, to come to him whenever he should need +her. + +Swiftly now the last moments went by, and a "Merry Christmas" was said +by one and another as they took their seats at the plentiful repast Aunt +Betsy had provided, Mark feasting more on Helen's face than on the +viands spread before him. It was hard for him to leave her, hard for her +to let him go, but the duty was imperative, and so when at last the +frosty air grew keener as the small hours of night crept on, he stood +with his arms about her, nor thought it unworthy of a soldier that his +own tears mingled with hers as he bade her good-by, kissing her again +and again, and calling her his precious wife, whose memory would make +his camp-life brighter and shorten the days of absence. There was no one +with them when at last Mark's horse dashed from the yard over the +creaking snow, leaving Helen alone upon the doorstep, with the +glittering stars shining above her head and her husband's farewell kiss +wet upon her lips. + +"When shall we meet again?" she sobbed, gazing up at the clear blue sky, +as if to find the answer there. + +But only the December wind sweeping down from the steep hillside, and +blowing across her forehead, made reply to that questioning, as she +waited till the last faint sound of Mark Ray's bells died away in the +distance, and then shivering with cold re-entered the farmhouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +AFTER CHRISTMAS EVE. + + +Merrily rang the bells next day, the sexton deeming it his duty to send +forth a merry peal in honor of the bride whose husband had remembered +his boy so liberally. But Helen's heart was very sad as she met the +smiling faces of her friends, and Mark had never been prayed for more +earnestly than on that Christmas morning, when Helen knelt at the altar +rail and received the sacred symbols of a Savior's dying love, asking +that God would keep the soldier husband, hastening on to New York, and +from thence to Washington. Much the Silvertonians discussed the wedding, +nor were these discussions likely to be shortened by the arrival of +Mattie Tubbs and Tom, who came by the express from New York, both +surprised at what they heard, and both loud in their praises of Captain +Ray, "the best and kindest man that ever lived," Tom said, while Mattie +told fabulous stories of his wealth. Had Helen been the queen she could +hardly have been stared at more curiously than she was that Christmas +day, when late in the afternoon she drove through the town with Katy, +the villagers looking admiringly after her, noting the tie of her +bonnet, the arrangement of her face trimmings, and discovering in both a +style and fitness they had never discovered before. As the wife of Mark +Ray Helen became suddenly a heroine, in whose presence poor Katy +subsided completely, nor was the interest at all diminished when two +days later Mrs. Banker came to Silverton and was met at the depot by +Helen, whom she hugged affectionately, calling her "my dear daughter," +and holding her hand all the way to the covered sleigh waiting there for +her. Further than that the curious ones could not follow, and so they +did not know how on the road to the farmhouse Mrs. Banker expressed her +approbation of what her boy had done, acknowledged her own unjust +suspicions, asking pardon for them, and receiving it in the warm kiss +Helen pressed upon her offered hand. Mrs. Banker was very fond of Helen, +and not even the sight of the farmhouse, with its unpolished inmates, +awakened a feeling of regret that her only son had not looked higher for +a wife. She was satisfied with her new daughter, and insisted upon +taking her back to New York. + +"I am very lonely now, lonelier than you can possibly be," she said +to Mrs. Lennox, "and you will not refuse her to me for a few weeks at +least. It will do us both good, and make the time of Mark's absence so +much shorter." + +"Yes, mother, let Helen go. I will try to fill her place," Katy said, +though while she said it her heart throbbed with pain and dread as she +thought how desolate she should be without her sister. + +But it was right, and Katy urged Helen's going, thinking how the tables +were turned since the day when she had been the happy bride to whom +good-bys were said, instead of the wounded, sore-hearted sister left +behind, bearing up bravely so long as Helen was in sight, but shedding +bitter tears when at last she was gone, tears which were only stayed by +kind old Uncle Ephraim offering to take her to the little grave, where, +from experience, he knew she always found rest and peace. The winter +snows were on it now, but Katy, looking at it from the sleigh in which +she sat, knew just where the daisies were, and the blue violets which +with the spring would bloom again, feeling comforted as she thought of +that eternal spring in the bright world above, where her child had +gone. And so that night, when they gathered again around the fire in the +pleasant little parlor, the mother and the old people did not miss Helen +half so much as they should, for Katy sang her sweetest songs and wore +her sunniest smile, while she told them of Helen's new home, and then +talked of whatever else she thought would interest and please them. + +"Little Sunbeam," Uncle Ephraim called her now, instead of "Katy-did," +and in his prayer that first night of Helen's absence he asked, in his +touching way, "that God would bless his little Sunbeam, and not let her +grow tired of living there alone with folks so odd and old." + + * * * * * + +"MARRIED--On Christmas Eve, at St. John's Church, Silverton, Mass., by +Rev. Mr. Kelly, Captain MARK RAY, of the --th Regiment, N.Y.S.V., to +Miss HELEN LENNOX, of Silverton." + +Such was the announcement which appeared in several of the New York +papers two days after Christmas, and such the announcement which Bell +Cameron read at the breakfast table on the morning of the day when Mrs. +Banker started for Silverton. + +"Here is something which will perhaps interest you," she said, passing +the paper to Juno who had come down late, and was looking cross and +jaded from the effects of last night's dissipation. + +Taking the paper from her sister's hand, Juno glanced carelessly at +the paragraph indicated by Bell; then, as she caught Mark's name, she +glanced again with a startled, incredulous look, her cheeks and lips +turning white as she read that Mark Ray was lost to her forever, and +that in spite of the stolen letter Helen Lennox was his wife. + +"What is it, Juno?" Mrs. Cameron asked, noticing her daughter's +agitation. + +Juno told her what it was, handing her the paper and letting her read it +for herself. + +"Impossible! there is some mistake! How was it brought about?" she +continued, darting a curious glance at Bell, whose face betrayed nothing +as she leisurely sipped her coffee, and remarked: "I always thought it +would come to this, for I knew he liked her. It is a splendid match." + +Whatever Juno thought she kept it to herself, just as she kept her room +the entire day, suffering from a racking headache, and ordering the +curtains to be dropped, as the light hurt her eyes, she said to Bell, +who, really pitying her now, never suggested that the darkened room was +more to hide her tears than to save her eyes, and who sent away all +callers with the message that Juno was sick--all but Sybil Grandon, who +insisted so hard upon seeing her dear friend that she was admitted to +Juno's room, talking at once of the wedding, and making every one of +Juno's nerves quiver with pain as she descanted upon the splendid match +it was for Helen, or indeed for any girl. + +"I had given you to him," she said, "but I see I was mistaken. It was +Helen he preferred, unless you jilted him, as perhaps you did." + +Here was a temptation Juno could not resist, and she replied, haughtily: + +"I am not one to boast of conquests, but ask Captain Ray himself if you +wish to know why I did not marry him." + +Sybil Grandon was not deceived, but she good-naturedly suffered that +young lady to hope she was, and answered, laughingly: "I can't say I +honor your judgment in refusing him, but you know best. However, I trust +that will not prevent your friendly advances toward his bride. Mrs. +Banker has gone after her, I understand, and I want you to call with me +as soon as convenient. Mrs. Mark Ray will be the belle of the season, +depend upon it," and gathering up her furs Mrs. Grandon kissed Juno +affectionately and then swept from the room. + +That Mrs. Cameron had hunted for and failed to find the stolen letter, +and that she associated its disappearance with Mark Ray's sudden +marriage, Bell was very sure, from the dark, anxious look upon her face +when she came from her room, whither she had repaired immediately after +breakfast, but whatever her suspicions were they did not find form in +words. Mark was lost. It was too late to help that now, and as a politic +woman of the world, Mrs. Cameron decided to let the matter rest, and by +patronizing the young bride prove that she had never thought of Mark +Ray for her son-in-law. Hence it was that the Cameron carriage and the +Grandon carriage stood together before Mrs. Banker's door, while the +ladies who had come in the carriages paid their respects to Mrs. Ray, +rallying her upon the march she had stolen upon them, telling her how +delighted they were to have her back again, and hoping they should see a +great deal of each other during the coming winter. + +"You know we are related," Juno said, holding Helen's hand a long time +at parting, ostensibly to show how very friendly she felt, but really to +examine and calculate the probable value of the superb diamond which +shone on Helen's finger, Mark's first gift, left for her with his +mother, who had presented it for him. + +"As diamonds are now, that never cost less than four or five hundred +dollars," Juno said, as she was discussing the matter with Bell, and +telling her that Helen had the ring they had admired so much at +Tiffany's the last time they were there, and then her spiteful, envious +nature found vent in the remark: "I wonder at Mark's taste when only +shoddy buy diamonds now." + +"Why, then, did you torment father into buying that little pin for you +the other day?" Bell asked, and Juno replied: + +"I have always been accustomed to diamonds and that is a very different +thing from Helen Lennox putting them on. Did you notice how red and fat +her fingers were, and rough, too? Positively her hand felt like a nutmeg +grater." + +"You know the fable of the fox and the grapes," Bell said, her gray eyes +flashing indignantly upon her sister, who, wisely forbore further +remarks upon Helen's hands and contented herself with wondering if +people generally would take up Mrs. Ray and honor her as they once did +Katy. + +"Of course they will," she said. "It's like heaps of them to do it," and +in this conclusion she was not wrong, for those who had liked Helen +Lennox did not find her less desirable now that she was Helen Ray, and +numberless were the attentions bestowed upon her and the invitations she +received. + +But with few exceptions Helen declined the latter, feeling that, +circumstanced as she was, with her husband in so much danger, it was +better not to mingle much in gay society. She was very happy with Mrs. +Banker, who petted and caressed and loved her almost as much as if she +had been an own daughter. Mark's letters, too, which came nearly every +day, were bright sun spots in her existence, so full were they of tender +love and kind thoughtfulness for her. He was very happy, he wrote, in +knowing that at home there was a dear little brown-haired wife, waiting +and praying for him, and but for the separation from her was well +content now with a soldier's life. Once when he was stationed for a +longer time than usual at some point Helen thought seriously of going to +him for a week or more, but the project was prevented by the sudden +arrival in New York of Katy, who came one night to Mrs. Banker's, her +face as white as ashes, and a strange, wild expression in her eyes as +she said to Helen: + +"I am going to Wilford. He is dying. He has sent for me. I ought to go +on to-night, but cannot, my head aches so," and pressing both her hands +upon her head Katy sank fainting into Helen's arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +GEORGETOWN HOSPITAL. + + +"GEORGETOWN, February --, 1862. + +"MRS. WILFORD CAMERON: + +"Your husband cannot live long. Come immediately. + +"M. HAZELTON." + +So read the telegram received by Katy one winter morning, when her eyes +were swollen with weeping over Morris' letter, which had come the +previous night, telling her how circumstances which seemed providential +had led him to the hospital where her husband was, and where, too, was +Marian Hazelton. + +"I did not think it advisable to visit your husband at first," he wrote, +"while Miss Hazelton, who had recently been transferred to this +hospital, also kept out of the way. Nor was it necessary that either of +us should minister to him there, for he was not thought very ill. 'Only +a slight touch of rheumatism, and a low, nervous fever,' said the +attending physician, of whom I inquired. Latterly, however, the fever +has increased to a fearful extent, seating itself upon the brain, so +that he knows neither myself nor Miss Hazelton, both of whom are with +him. She, because she would be here where she heard of danger, and I +because his case was given into my charge. So I am with him now, writing +by his side, while he lies sleeping quietly, and Miss Hazelton bends +over him, bathing his burning head. He does not know her, but he talks +of Katy, who he says is dead and buried across the sea. Will you come to +him, Katy? Your presence may save his life. Telegraph when you leave New +York, and I will meet you at the depot." + +It is not strange that this letter, followed so soon by the telegram +from Marian, should crush one as delicate as Katy, or that for a few +minutes she should have been stunned with the shock, so as neither to +feel nor think. But the reaction came soon enough, bringing with it only +the remembrance of Wilford's love. All the wrong, the harshness, was +forgotten, and only the desire remained to fly at once to Wilford, +talking of her in his delirium. Bravely she kept up until New York was +reached, but once where Helen was, the tension of her nerves gave way, +and she fainted, so we have seen. + +At Father Cameron's that night there were troubled, anxious faces, for +they, too, had heard of Wilford's danger. But the mother could not go to +him. A lung difficulty, to which she was subject, had confined her to +the house for many days, and so it was the father and Bell who made +their hasty preparations for the hurried journey to Georgetown. They +heard of Katy's arrival and Bell came at once to see her. + +"She will not be able to join us to-morrow," was the report Bell carried +home, for she saw more than mere exhaustion from fatigue and fainting in +the white face lying so motionless on Helen's pillow, with the dark +rings about the eyes, and the quiver of the muscles about the mouth. + +The morrow found that Bell was right, for Katy could not rise, but lay +like some crushed flower still on Helen's bed, moaning softly: + +"It is very hard, but God knows best." + +"Yes, darling, God knows best," Helen answered, smoothing the bright +hair, and thinking sadly of the young officer sitting by his camp-fire, +and waiting so eagerly for the bride who could not go to him now. "God +knows what is best, and does all for the best." + +Katy said it many times that long, long week, during which she stayed an +invalid in Helen's room, living from day to day upon the letters sent by +Bell, who had gone on to Georgetown with her father, and who gave but +little hope that Wilford would recover. Not a word did she say of +Marian, and only twice did she mention Morris, so that when at last Katy +was strong enough to venture on the journey, she had but little idea of +what had transpired in Wilford's sickroom. + + * * * * * + +Those were sad, weary days which Wilford first passed upon his hospital +cot, and as he was not sick but crippled, he had ample time for +reviewing the past, which came up before his mind as vividly as if he +had been living again the scenes of bygone days. Of Katy he thought +continually, blaming himself much, but so strong was his pride and +selfishness, blaming her more for the trouble which had come upon them. +Why need she have taken the Genevra matter so to heart, going with it to +Morris and so bringing him into his present disagreeable situation. He +did not mean to be unjust or unkind toward Katy, but he looked upon her +as the direct cause of his being where he was. Had she never been seen +in the cars with Morris, he should not have left home as he did, and +might anticipate going back without a flush of shame and a dread of +meeting old friends, who would think less of him than they used to do. A +thousand times Wilford had repented of his rashness, but never by a word +had he admitted such repentance to any living being, and when on the +dark, rainy afternoon which first saw him in the hospital, he turned his +face to the wall and wept, he replied to one who said to him soothingly: + +"Don't feel badly, my young friend. We will take as good care of you +here as if you were at home." + +"It's the pain which brings the tears. I'd as soon be here as at home." + +Gradually, however, there came a change, and Wilford grew softer in his +feelings, longing for home, or for the sight of a familiar face, and +half resolving more than once to send for Katy, who had offered to come, +and to whom he had replied: "It is not necessary." But as often as he +resolved his evil genius whispered: "She does not care to come here," +and so the message was never sent, while the longing for home faces +brought on a nervous fever, which made him so irritable that his +attendants sometimes turned from him in disgust, thinking him the most +unreasonable man they had ever met. Once he dreamed Genevra was +there--that she came to him just as she was in her beautiful +girlhood--that her fingers threaded his hair as they used to do in their +happy days at Brighton--that her hand was on his brow, her breath upon +his face, and with a start he awoke just as the rustle of female +garments died away in the hall. + +"The new nurse in the second ward has been in here," a comrade said. +"She seemed specially interested in you, and if she had not been a +stranger I should have said she was crying over you." + +With a quick, sudden movement Wilford put his hand to his cheek, where +there was a tear, either his own or that of the "new nurse," who had so +recently bent over him. Retaining the same proud reserve which had +characterized his whole life, he asked no questions, but listened +intently to what his sick companions were saying of the beauty and +tenderness of the young girl, they called her, who had glided for a few +moments into their presence, winning their hearts in that short space of +time, and making them wish she would come back again. Wilford wished so +too, conjuring up all sorts of conjectures about the unknown nurse, and +once going so far as to fancy it was Katy herself. But this idea was +soon dismissed. Katy would hardly venture there as a nurse, and if she +did she would not keep aloof from him. It was not Katy, and if not, who +was it that twice when he was sleeping came and looked at him, his +comrades said, rallying him upon the conquest he had made, and so +exciting his imagination that the fever which at first was hardly +observable began to increase, and the blood throbbed hotly through his +veins, while his brows were knit together with thoughts of the +mysterious stranger. Then with a great shock it occurred to him that +Katy had affirmed: + +"Genevra is alive, I have seen her. I recognized the picture at once." + +What if it were so, and this nurse was Genevra? The very thought fired +Wilford's brain, and when next his physician came he looked with some +alarm upon the great change for the worse exhibited by his patient. That +surgeon's forte was more in dressing ghastly wounds than in subduing +fever, and as he held Wilford's hand, he said: + +"You have a fever, my friend, and it is increasing fast. Perhaps you +would like to see our new physician, Dr. Grant. He is great on fevers." + +"Dr. Grant--Dr. Morris Grant?" Wilford exclaimed, starting up in bed +with a fierce energy which surprised the surgeon. + +"Yes, Dr. Morris Grant, from Massachusetts," the latter replied, his +surprise increasing when Wilford rejoined: + +"Send Satan himself sooner than he. I hate him." + +The words dropped hissingly from the firmly set teeth, and Wilford fell +back upon his pillow, exhausted with excitement and anger that Morris +Grant should be there in the same building and offered as his physician. + +"Never while my reason lasts," he whispered to himself, with hatred of +Morris growing more intense with every beat of his wiry pulse. + +Wilford was very sick, and when next the surgeon came around he knew by +the bright, restless eyes that reason was tottering. + +"Shall I send for your friends?" he asked, and Wilford answered, +savagely: + +"I have no friends--none, at least, but what will be glad to know I'm +dead." + +And that was the last, except the wild words of a maniac, which came +from Wilford's lips for many a day and night. When they said he was +dangerous, Marian Hazelton the "new nurse," sought and obtained +permission to attend him, and again the eyes of the other occupants of +the room were turned wonderingly toward her as she bent over the sick +man, parting his matted hair, smoothing his tumbled pillow, and holding +the cooling draught to the parched lips which muttered strange things in +her ear, talking of Brighton, of Alnwick and Rome--of the heather on the +Scottish moors, and the daisies on Genevra's grave, where Katy once sat +down. + +"She did not know Genevra was there," he said. "She never guessed there +was a Genevra; but I knew, and I felt almost as if the dead were wronged +by that act of Katy's. Do you know Katy?" and his black eyes fastened +upon Marian, who, with the strange power she possessed over her +patients, soothed him into quiet, while she told him she knew Katy, and +talked to him of her, telling of her graceful beauty, her loving heart, +and the sorrow she would feel when she heard how sick he was. + +"Shall I send for her?" she asked, but Wilford answered: + +"No, I am satisfied with you," and holding her hand he fell away to +sleep. + +This was the first day of her being with him, but there were other days +when he was not so quiet, when all her strength and that of Morris, who, +at her earnest solicitation, came to her aid, was required to keep him +on his bed. He was going home, he said, going back to Katy's; he had +punished her long enough, and like a giant he writhed under a force +superior to his own, and which held him down and controlled him, while +his loud outcries filled the buildings, and sent a shudder to the hearts +of those who heard them. As the two men, who at first had occupied the +room with him, were well enough to leave for home, Marian and Morris +both begged that unless absolutely necessary no other one should he sent +to that small apartment, where all the air was needed for the patient in +their charge. And thus the room was left alone for Wilford, who grew +worse so fast that Morris wrote to Katy, while Marian followed the +letter with a telegram, bidding her come at once. + + * * * * * + +Slowly the wintry night was passing, the fifth since Morris' letter was +sent to Katy, and Morris sat by Wilford's cot, wondering if the morning +would bring her to him, when suddenly he met Wilford's eyes fixed upon +him with a look of recognition he could not mistake. + +"Do you know me?" he asked, so kindly and with so much of genuine +sympathy in his voice that the heavy eyelids quivered for an instant, as +Wilford nodded his head, and whispered: + +"Dr. Grant." + +There had been a momentary flash of resentment when he saw who was the +watcher beside him, but Wilford was too weak, too helpless to cherish +that feeling long, and besides there were floating through his still +bewildered mind visions of some friendly hand, which had ministered to +him daily, of a voice and form, distinct from the one he thought an +angel's, and which was not there now with him. That voice, that form, he +felt sure belonged to Morris Grant, and remembering his past harshness +toward him, a chord of gratitude was touched, and when Morris took his +hand he did not at once withdraw it, but let his long, white fingers +cling around the warm, vigorous ones, which seemed to impart new life +and strength. + +"You have been very sick," Morris said, anticipating the question +Wilford would ask, "You are very sick still, and at the request of your +nurse I came to attend you." + +A pressure of the hand was Wilford's reply, and then there was silence +between them, while Wilford mastered all his pride, and with quivering +lips whispered: + +"Katy." + +"We have sent for her. We expect her every train," Morris replied, and +Wilford asked: + +"Who is we? Who has been with me--the nurse, I mean? Who is she?" + +Morris hesitated a moment, and then said: + +"Marian Hazelton--she who took care of baby." + +"I know--yes," Wilford said, having no suspicion as to who was the woman +standing now just outside his door, and listening, with a throbbing +heart, to his rational questions. + +In all their vigils held together no sign had ever passed from Dr. +Grant to Marian that he knew her, but he had waited anxiously for this +moment, knowing well that in his present state Wilford must not be +shocked, as a sight of Marian would shock him. He knew she was outside +the door, and as Wilford turned his head upon the pillow, he went to +her, and leading her to a safe distance, said softly: + +"His reason has returned." + +"And my services, then, are ended," Marian rejoined, looking him +steadily in the face, but not in the least prepared for his affirmative +question: + +"You are Genevra Lambert?" + +There was a low, gasping sound, and Marian staggered forward a step or +two, then steadying herself, she said: + +"And if I am, it surely is not best for him to see me. You would not +advise it?" + +She looked wistfully at Morris, the great desire to be recognized, to be +spoken to kindly by the man who once had been her husband overmastering +for a moment all her prudence. + +"It would not be best, both for his sake and Katy's," Morris said, +reading her thoughts aright, and with a moan like the dying out of her +last hope, Marian turned away, her eyes dim with tears and her heart +heavy with a sense of something lost, as in the gray dawn of the morning +she went back to her former patients, who hailed her coming with +childish joy, one fair young boy from the Granite hills kissing the hand +which bandaged his poor crushed arm so tenderly, and thanking her that +she had returned to him again. + +She had not asked Dr. Grant how much he knew of her story, or where he +had learned it. She was satisfied that he did know it, and she left her +case in his hands, wondering if at any time Wilford had been conscious +of her presence as a nurse, and if he would miss her any. He did miss +her, but he made no comment, and when, as the morning advanced, another +nurse appeared, he said to himself: + +"Surely this cannot be Miss Hazelton," but asked no questions of any +kind, and Marian's heart grew heavier when in answer to her inquiry, +Morris said: "He has not mentioned you." + + * * * * * + +"Mr. J. Cameron, Miss Bell Cameron," were the names on the cards sent to +Dr. Grant late that afternoon, and in a few moments he was with the +father and sister asking so anxiously for Wilford and explaining why +Katy was not with them. + +Wilford was sleeping when they entered his room, his face looking so +worn and thin, and his hands folded so helplessly upon his breast, that +with a gush of tears Bell knelt beside him and laying her warm cheek +against his bony one, woke him with her sobs. For a moment he seemed +bewildered, then recognising her, he raised his feeble arm and winding +it about her neck, kissed her more tenderly than he had ever done +before. He had not been demonstrative of his affection for his sisters. +But Bell was his favorite, and he held her close to him while his eyes +moved past his father, whom he did not see, on to the door as if in +quest of some one. It was Katy, and, guessing his thoughts, Bell said: + +"She is not here. She could not come now. She is sick in New York, but +will join us in a few days." + +There was a look of intense disappointment in Wilford's face, which even +his father's warm greeting could not dissipate, and Morris saw the great +tears as they dropped upon the pillow, the proud man trying hard to +repress them, and asking no questions concerning any one at home. He was +too weak to talk, but he held Bell's hand firmly in his as if afraid +that she would leave him, while his eyes rested alternately upon her +face and that of his father, who, wholly unmanned at the fearful change +in his son, laid his head upon the bed and cried aloud. + +Next morning Bell was very white and her voice trembled as she sought +her brother's side and asked how he had rested. She had come from a +conference with Dr. Morris, who had told her that her brother would die. + +"He may live a week and he may not," he said, adding solemnly: "As his +sister you will tell him of his danger while there is time to seek the +refuge without which death is terrible." + +"Oh, if I could only pray with and for him," Bell thought, as she went +next to her brother, mourning her misspent days, and feeling her courage +giving way when at last she stood in his presence and met his kindly +smile. + +"I dreamed it was all a dream," he said, "and that you were not here +after all. I am so glad to find it real. How long before I can go home, +do you suppose?" + +He had stumbled upon the very thing Bell was there to talk about, his +question indicating that he had no suspicion of the truth. Nor had he, +and it came like a thunderbolt, when Bell, forgetting all her prudence, +said impetuously: + +"Oh, Wilford, maybe you'll never go home. Maybe you'll--" + +"Not die!" Wilford exclaimed, clasping his hands with sudden emotion. +"Not die, you don't mean that. Who told you so? Who said I was near to +death?" + +"Dr. Grant," was Bell's reply, which brought a fierce frown to Wilford's +face, and awoke all the angry passions of his heart. + +"Dr. Grant," he repeated. "He says so because he wishes it. He would +like me removed from his path, but it shall not be. I will not die. Tell +him that. I will not die," and Wilford's voice was hoarse with passion +as he raised his clinched fists in the air. + +He was terribly excited, and in her fright Bell ran for Dr. Grant. But +Wilford motioned him back, hurling after him words which kept him from +the room the entire day, while the sick man rolled, and tossed, and +raved in the delirium, which had returned, and which wore him out so +fast. No one had the least influence over him except Marian Hazelton, +who, without a glance at Mr. Cameron or Bell, glided to his side, and +with her presence and gentle words soothed him into comparative quiet, +so that the bitter denunciations against the saint who wanted him to +die, ceased, and he fell into a troubled sleep. + +Smoothing his pillow, and arranging the bedclothes tidily about him, +Marian turned to meet the eyes of both Mr. Cameron and Bell fixed +curiously upon her. With a strange feeling of interest they had watched +her, both feeling an aversion to addressing her, and both wondering if +she were indeed Genevra, as Katy had affirmed. They would not ask her, +and both breathed more freely when, with a bow in acknowledgment of Mr. +Cameron's compliment to her skill in quieting his son, she left the +room. + +Neither said what they thought of her, nor was her name once mentioned, +but she was not for a moment absent from their minds as they from choice +sat that night with Wilford, who slept off his delirium, and lay with +his face turned from them, so that they could not guess by its +expression what was passing in his mind. + +All the next day he maintained the most frigid silence, answering only +in monosyllables, while Bell kept wiping away the great drops of sweat +constantly oozing out upon his forehead and about the pallid lips. + +Just at nightfall he startled Bell by asking that Dr. Grant be sent for. + +"Please leave me alone with him," he said, when Dr. Morris came; then +turning to Morris, as the door closed upon his father and his sister, he +said, abruptly: + +"Pray for me, if you can pray for one who yesterday hated you so for +saying he must die." + +Earnestly, fervently, Morris prayed, as for a dear brother, and when he +finished Wilford's faint "amen" sounded through the room. + +"I am not right yet," the pale lips whispered, as Morris sat down beside +him. "Not right with God, I mean. I've sometimes said there was no God, +but I did not believe it, and now I know there is. He has been moving +upon me all the day, driving out my bitterness toward you, and causing +me to send for you at last. Do you think there is hope for me? I have +much to be forgiven." + +"Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow," Morris +replied; and then, oh, how earnestly he tried to point that erring man +to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, convincing +him that there was hope even for him, and leaving him with the +conviction that God would surely finish the good work begun, nor suffer +this soul to be lost which had turned to Him even at the eleventh hour. + +Wilford knew his days were numbered, and he talked freely of it to his +father and sister the next morning when they came to him. He did not say +that he was ready or willing to die, only that he must, and he asked +them to forget, when he was gone, all that had ever been amiss in him as +a son and brother. + +"I was too proud, too selfish, to make others happy," he said. "I +thought it all over yesterday, and the past came back again so vividly, +especially the part connected with Katy. Oh, Katy, I did abuse her!" and +a bitter sob attested the genuineness of Wilford's grief for his +treatment of Katy. "I thought because I took her from a lower walk of +life than mine, that she was bound by every tie of gratitude to do just +what I said, and I set myself at work to crush her every feeling and +impulse which savored of her early home. I despised her family, I +treated them with contempt. I broke Katy's heart, and now I must die +without telling her I am sorry. But you'll tell her, father, and you, +too, Bell, how, dying, I tried to pray, but could not for thought of my +sin to her. She will not be glad that I am dead. I know her better than +to think that; and I believe she loves me. But, after I am gone, and the +duties of the world have closed up the gap I shall leave, I see a +brighter future for her than her past has been; and you may tell her I +am--" He could not then say "I am willing." + +Few husbands could have done so then, and he was not an exception. + +Wholly exhausted he lay quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again it +was of Genevra. Even here he did not try to screen himself. He was the +one to blame, he said. Genevra was true, was innocent, as he ascertained +too late. + +"Would you like to see her if she were living?" came to Bell's lips, but +the fear that it would be too great a shock prevented their utterance. + +He had no suspicion of her presence, and it was best he should not. Katy +was the one uppermost in his mind, and in the letter Bell sent to her +the next day, he tried to write: "Good-by, my darling," but the words +were scarcely legible, and his nerveless hand fell helpless at his side +as he said: + +"She will never know the effort it cost me, nor hear me say that I hope +I am forgiven. It came to me last night, the peace for which I've sought +so long, and Dr. Grant has prayed, and now the way is not so dark, but +Katy will not know." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +LAST HOURS. + + +Katy would know, for she was coming to him on the morrow, as a brief +telegram announced, and Wilford's face grew brighter with thoughts of +seeing her. He knew when the train was due, and with nervous +restlessness he asked repeatedly what time it was, reducing the hours to +minutes, and counting his own pulses to see if he would last so long. + +"Save me, doctor," he whispered to Morris. "Keep me alive till Katy +comes. I must see Katy again." + +And Morris, tenderer than a brother, did all he could to keep the feeble +breath from going out ere Katy came. + +"I must have clean linen on my bed and on my person, too," Wilford said, +"for Katy is coming, and I must not look repulsive." + +The clean white linen was brought, and when it was arranged a smile of +childish satisfaction crept around the lips, as Wilford said: + +"Katy can kiss me now. She is not accustomed to hospital fare, you +know." + +His mind seemed slightly to wander; but when the hour came for the +arrival of the train he knew it, asking, eagerly: + +"Do you suppose she's come?" and straining his ear to catch the sound of +the distant whistle. Dr, Morris had gone to meet her, and the time fled +on apace until at last his step was heard, and Wilford, lifting up his +head, listened for that other step, which, alas! was not there. + +"The train is behind time several hours," was Morris' report, and with +a moan Wilford turned away and wept, thinking by some strange chance of +that day when at the farmhouse others had waited for Katy as he was +doing, and waited, too, in vain. + +Truly, they of the farmhouse were avenged, for never had they felt so +bitter a pang as Wilford did when he knew Katy had not come. + +"It's right," he said, when he could trust himself to speak; "but I did +want to see her. Tell her I am willing." + +The last seemed wrung from him almost against his will, and drops of +sweat stood thickly upon his brow. Only Bell and her father guessed what +he meant by being willing. Morris had no idea, but he wiped the +death-sweat away, and said, soothingly: + +"Be quiet, and you may see her yet. She will surely come by and by." + +Thus reassured, Wilford grew calm and fell asleep, while the watchers by +his side waited anxiously for the first sound which should herald the +arrival of the train. + + * * * * * + +It was dark in the hospital, and from every window a light was shining, +when Morris carried rather than led a quivering figure up the stairs and +through the hall, where, in a corner, Marian Hazelton's white face +looked out upon him, her hands clasped over her heart, and working +nervously as she watched Katy going where she must not go--going to the +room where the Camerons were, the father standing at the foot of +Wilford's bed, and Bell bending over his pillow, administering the +stimulants which kept her brother alive. When Katy came in, she moved +away, as did her father, while Morris, too, stepped back into the hall, +and thus the husband and wife were left alone in this their first +meeting since the parting at Yonkers nearly one year ago. + +"Katy, precious Katy, you have forgiven me?" he whispered, and the rain +of tears and kisses on his face was Katy's answer as she hung over him. + +She had forgiven him like a true, faithful wife, and she told him so, +when she found voice to talk, wondering to find him so changed from the +proud, exacting, self-worshiping man, to the humble, repentant and +self-accusing person, who took all blame of the past to himself, and +exonerated her from every fault. But when he drew her close to him, and +whispered something in her ear, she knew whence came the change, and a +reverent "Thank the Good Father," dropped from her lips. + +"The way was dark and thorny," Wilford said, making her sit down where +he could see her as he talked, "and only for God's goodness I should +have lost the path. But he sent one Morris Grant to point the road, and +I trust I am in it now. I wanted to see you before I died, to tell you +with my own lips how sorry I am for what I have made you suffer; but +sorriest of all for sending Baby away. Oh, Katy, you do not know how +that rested upon my conscience, or how often in my sleep upon the tented +plain or hillside I have felt again the touch of Baby's arms and Baby's +cheek against my own as I felt it that day when I came home and took her +from you. Forgive me, Katy, that I robbed you of your child." + +He was growing very weak, and he looked so white and ghastly that Katy +called for Bell, who came at once, as did her father, and the three +stood together around the bedside of the dying, Katy with his cold hand +in hers, and occasionally bending down to hear his whispered words of +love and deep contrition. + +"You will remember me, Katy," he said, "but you cannot mourn for me +always, and some time in the future you will cease to be my widow, and, +Katy, I am willing. I wanted to tell you this so that no thought of me +should keep you from a life where you will be happier than I have made +you." + +Wholly bewildered, Katy made no reply, and Wilford was silent a few +moments, in which he seemed partially asleep. Then rousing up, he said: + +"You wrote me once that Genevra was not dead. Did you mean it, Katy?" + +Frightened and bewildered, Katy turned appealingly to her father-in-law, +who answered for her; "She meant it--Genevra is not dead," while a +blood-red flush stained Wilford's face, and his thin fingers beat the +bedspread thoughtfully. + +"I fancied once that she was here--that she was the nurse the boys +praise so much. But that was a delusion," he said, and without a thought +of the result, Katy asked, impetuously: "If she were here would you care +to see her?" + +There was a startled look on Wilford's face, and he grasped Katy's hand +nervously, his frame trembling with a dread of the great shock which he +felt impending over him. + +"Is she here? Was the nurse Genevra?" he asked, then as his mind went +back to the past, he answered his own question by asserting: "Marian +Hazelton is Genevra." + +They did not contradict him, nor did he ask to see her. With Katy there, +he felt he had better not, but after a moment he continued: "It is all +so strange; I do not comprehend how it can be. She has been kind to me. +Tell her I thank her for it. I was unjust to her. I have much to answer +for." + +Between each word he uttered now there was a gasp for breath, and Father +Cameron opened the window wide to admit the cool night air. But nothing +had power to revive him. He was going very fast, Morris said, as he took +his stand by the bedside and watched the approach of death. There were +no convulsive struggles, only heavy breathings, which grew farther and +farther apart, until at last Wilford drew Katy close to him, and winding +his arm around her neck, whispered: + +"I am almost home, my darling, and all is well. Be kind to Genevra for +my sake. I loved her once, but not as I love you." + +He never spoke again, and a few minutes later Morris led Katy from the +room, and then went out to give his orders for the embalming of the +body. + + * * * * * + +In the little room she called her own, Marian Hazelton sat, her +beautiful hair disordered, and her eyes dim with the tears she had shed. +She knew that Wilford was dead, for Morris had told her so, and as if +his dying had brought back all her olden love, she wept bitterly for the +man who had so darkened her life. She did not know that at the last he +knew she was so near. She had not expected to see him with Katy present; +but now that it was over, she might go to him. There could be no harm in +that. No one but Morris would know who she was, she thought, and she was +making up her mind to go, when there came a timid knock upon the door, +and Katy entered, her face very pale, her manner very calm, as she came +to Marian, and kneeling down beside her, laid her head in her lap with +the air of a weary child who has sought its mother for rest. + +"Poor little Katy!" Marian said, caressing her golden hair. "Your +husband, they tell me, is dead." + +"Yes," and Katy lifted up her head, and fixing her eves earnestly upon +Marian, continued: "Wilford is dead, but before he died he left a +message for Genevra Lambert. Will she hear it now?" + +With a sudden start, Marian sprang to her feet, and holding Katy from +her, demanded: "Who told you of Genevra Lambert, and when?" + +"Wilford told me months ago, showing me her picture, which I readily +recognized," was Katy's answer, and a flush of fear and shame came to +Marian's cheek as she continued: + +"Did he tell you all? And do you hate me as a vile, polluted creature?" + +"Hate you, Marian? No. I have pitied you so much, knowing you were +innocent. Wilford told me all, but he thought you were dead," Katy said, +flinching a little before Marian's burning gaze, which fascinated even, +while it startled her. + +It is not often two women meet bearing to each other the relations +these two bore, and it is not strange that both felt constrained and +embarrassed as they stood looking at each other. As Marian's was the +stronger nature, so she was the first to rally, and with the tears +swimming in her eyes she drew Katy closely to her, and said: + +"Now that he is gone I am glad you know it. Mine has been a sad, sad +life, but God has helped me bear it. You say he believed me dead. Some +time I will tell you how that came about; but now, his message--he left +one, you say?" + +Carefully Katy repeated every word Wilford had said, and with a gasping +cry Marian wound her arms around her neck, exclaiming: + +"And you will love me, not because he did once, but because I have +suffered so much? You will let me call you Katy when we are alone? It +brings you nearer to me." + +Marian was now the weaker of the two, and it was Katy's task to comfort +her, as, sinking back in her chair, she sobbed: + +"He did love me once. He acknowledged it at the last, before them all, +his wife, his father and his sister. Do they know?" she suddenly asked, +and when assured that they did, she relapsed into a silent mood, while +Katy stole quietly out and left her there alone. + +Half an hour later a female form passed hurriedly through the hall and +across the threshold into the chamber where the dead man lay. There was +no one with him now, and Marian was free to weep out the pent-up sorrow +of her life, which she did with choking sobs and passionate words poured +into the ear deaf now to every human sound. A step upon the floor +startled her, and turning around she stood face to face with Wilford's +father, who was regarding her with a look which she mistook for one of +reproof and displeasure that she should be there thus. + +"Forgive me," she said, wringing her hands together. "I know how you +despise me, but he was my husband once, and surely now that he is dead +you will not begrudge me a few last moments with him for the sake of the +days when he loved me." + +There were many tender chords in the heart of Father Cameron, and +offering Marian his hand, he said: + +"Far be it from me to refuse you this privilege. I pity you, Genevra, +for I believe he dealt unjustly by you--but I will not censure him now +that he is gone. He was my only boy. Oh, Wilford, Wilford. You have left +me very lonely." + +He released her hand, and Marian fled away, meeting next with Bell, who +felt that she must speak to her, but was puzzled what to say. Bell could +not define her feelings toward Marian, or why she shrank from +approaching her. It was not pride, but rather a feeling of prejudice, as +if Marian were in some way to blame for all the trouble which had come +to them, while her peculiar position as the divorced wife of her brother +made it the more embarrassing. But she could not resist the mute +pleading of the eyes lifted so tearfully to her, as if asking for +a nod of recognition, and stopping before her she said, softly: + +"Genevra." + +That was all, but it made Genevra's tears flow in torrents, and she +involuntarily held her hand out to Bell, who took it, and holding it +between her own, said: + +"You were very kind to my brother. I thank you for it, and will tell my +mother, who will feel so grateful to you." + +This was a good deal for Bell to say, and after it was said, she +hastened away, while Marian went on her daily round of duties, speaking +softer, if possible, to her patients that day, and causing them to +wonder what had come over that sweet face to make it so white and +tear-stained. That night in Marian's room Katy sat and listened to what +she did not before know of the strange story kept from her so long. +Candidly Marian confirmed all Wilford had told, breathing no word of +blame against him now that he was dead, only stating facts, and leaving +Katy to draw her own conclusions. Herself she censured much for +fostering that fondness for admiration so irritating to a jealous man +like Wilford. + +"I knew that I was handsome," she said, "and I liked to test my power; +but for that weakness I have been sorely punished. I had not at first +any intention of making him believe that I was dead, and when I sent the +paper containing the announcement of father's death I was not aware that +it also contained the death of my cousin, a beautiful girl just my age, +who bore our grandmother's name of Genevra, and about whom and a young +English lord, who had hunted one season in her father's neighborhood, +there were some scandalous reports. Afterward it occurred to me that +Wilford would see that notice and naturally think it referred to me, +inasmuch as he knew nothing of my Cousin Genevra, she having spent much +of her time in the northern part of Scotland, and he never inquired +particularly about my relatives. + +"It was just as well, I said, I was dead to him, and I took a strange +satisfaction in wondering if he would care. Incidentally I heard that +the postmaster at Alnwick had been written to by an American gentleman, +who asked if such a person as Genevra Lambert was buried at St. Mary's; +and then I knew he believed me dead, even though the name appended to +the letter was not Wilford Cameron, nor was the writing his, for, as the +cousin of the dead Genevra. I asked to see the letter, and my request +was granted. It was Mrs. Cameron who wrote it, I am sure, at the +instigation, probably, of her son, signing a feigned name and bidding +the postmaster answer to that address. He did so, assuring the inquirer +that Genevra Lambert was buried there, and wondering to me if the young +American who seemed interested in her could have been a lover of the +unfortunate girl. + +"I was now alone in the world, for the aunt with whom my childhood was +passed died soon after my father, and so I went at last to learn a trade +on the Isle of Wight, emigrating from thence to New York, with the +determination in my rebellious heart that some time, when it would cut +the deepest, I would show myself to the proud Camerons, whom I so +cordially hated. This was before God had found me, or rather before I +had listened to the still, small voice which took the hard, vindictive +feelings away, and made me feel kindly toward the mother and sisters +when I saw them, as I often used to do, driving gayly by. Wilford was +sometimes with them, and the sight of him always sent the hot blood +surging through my heart. But the greatest shock I ever had came to me +when I heard from your sister of his approaching marriage with you. +Those were terrible days that I passed at the farmhouse, working on your +bridal _trousseau_; and sometimes I thought it more than I could bear. +Had you been other than the little, loving, confiding, trustful girl you +were, I must at some time have disclosed the whole, and told that you +would not be the first who had stood at the altar with Wilford. But pity +for you, whom I knew loved him so much, kept me silent, and you became +his wife. + +"Of what has happened since you know--except, indeed, how hard it was +sometimes for poor, weak human nature to see you as happy as you were at +first, and then contrast my lot with yours. I loved your baby almost as +much as if it had been my own, and when it died there was nothing to +bind me to the North, and so I came here, where I hope I have done some +good; at least, I was here to care for Wilford, and that is a sufficient +reward for all the toil which falls to the lot of a hospital nurse. I +shall stay until the war is ended, and then go I know not where. It will +not be best for us to meet very often, for though we may and do respect +each other, neither can forget the past, or that one was the lawful, +the other the divorced, wife of the same man. I have loved you, Katy +Cameron, for your uniform kindness shown to the poor dressmaker. I shall +always love you, but our paths lie widely apart. Your future I can +predict, but mine God only knows." + +Marian had said all she meant to say, and all Katy came to hear. The +latter was to leave in the morning, and when they would meet again +neither could tell. Few were the parting words they spoke, for the great +common sorrow welling up from their hearts; but when at last they said +good-by, the bond of friendship between them was more strongly cemented +than ever, and Katy long remembered Marian's parting words: + +"God bless you, Katy Cameron! You have been a bright sun spot in my +existence since I first knew you, even though you have stirred some of +the worst impulses of my nature. I am a better woman for having known +you. God bless you, Katy Cameron!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +MOURNING. + + +The grand funeral which Mrs. Cameron once had planned for Katy was a +reality at last, but the breathless form lying so cold and still in the +darkened rooms at No. ---- Fifth Avenue was not Katy's, but that of a +soldier embalmed--an only son brought back to his father's house amid +sadness and tears. They had taken him there rather than to his own +house, because it was the wish of his mother, who, however hard and +selfish she might be to others, had loved and idolized her son, mourning +for him truly, and forgetting in her grief to care how grand the funeral +was, and feeling only a passing twinge when told that Mrs. Lennox had +come from Silverton to pay the last tribute of respect to her late +son-in-law. Some little comfort it was to have her boy lauded as a +faithful soldier and to hear the commendations lavished upon him during +the time he lay in state, with his uniform around him; but when the +whole was over, and in the gray of the wintry afternoon her husband +returned from burying his son, there came over her a feeling of such +desolation as she had never known--a feeling which drove her at last to +the little room upstairs, where sat a lonely man, his head bowed upon +his hands, and his tears dropping silently upon the hearthstone as he, +too, thought of the vacant parlor below and the new-made grave at +Greenwood. + +"Oh, husband, comfort me, for our only boy is dead," fell from her lips +as she tottered to her husband, who opened his arms to receive her, +forgetting all the years which had made her the cold, proud woman, who +needed no sympathy, and remembering only that bright, green summer when +she was first his bride, and came to him for comfort in every little +grievance, just as now she came in this great, crushing sorrow. + +He did not tell her she was reaping what she had sown, that but for her +pride and deception concerning Genevra, Wilford might never have gone to +the war, or they been without a son. He did not reproach her at all, but +soothed her tenderly, calling her even by her maiden name, and awkwardly +smoothing her hair, silvered now with gray, feeling for a moment that +Wilford had not died in vain, if by his dying he gave back to his father +the wife so lost during the many years since fashion and folly had been +the idols she worshiped. But the habits of years could not be lightly +broken, and Mrs. Cameron's mind soon became absorbed in the richness of +her mourning, and the strict etiquette of her mourning days. To Katy she +was very kind, caressing her with unwonted affection, and scarcely +suffering her to leave her sight, much less to stay even for a day at +Mrs. Banker's, where Katy secretly preferred to be. Of Genevra, too, she +talked with Katy, and at her instigation wrote a friendly letter, +thanking Miss Lambert for all her kindness to her son, expressing her +sorrow that she had ever been so unjust to her, and sending her a +handsome locket, containing on one side a lock of Wilford's hair, and on +the other his picture, taken from a large-sized photograph. Mrs. Cameron +felt herself a very good woman after she had done all this, together +with receiving Mrs. Lennox at her own house, and entertaining her for +one whole day; but at heart there was no real change, and as time passed +on she gradually fell back into her old ways of thinking, and went no +more for comfort to her husband as she had on that first night after the +burial. + +With Mr. Cameron the blow struck deeper, and his Wall Street friends +talked together of the old man he had grown since Wilford died, while +Katy often found him bending over his long-neglected Bible, as he sat +alone in his room at night. And when at last she ventured to speak to +him upon the all-important subject, like a little child, he put his hand +in hers, and bade her teach him the narrow way which she had found, and +wherein Wilford, too, had walked at the very last, they hoped. + +For many weeks Katy lingered in New York, and the June roses were +blooming when she went back to Silverton, a widow and the rightful owner +of all Wilford's ample fortune. They had found among his papers a will, +drawn up and executed not long before his illness, and in which Katy was +made his heiress, without condition or stipulation. All was hers to do +with as she pleased, and the bitterest tears she ever shed were those +which fell like rain when she heard how generous Wilford had been. Then, +as she thought of Marian, and the life of poverty before her, she crept +to Father Cameron's side, and said to him, pleadingly: + +"Let Genevra share it with me. She needs it quite as much." + +Father Cameron would not permit Katy to divide equally with Marian. It +was not just, he said; but he did not object to a few thousand going to +her, and before Katy left New York for Silverton, she wrote a long, kind +letter to Marian, presenting her with ten thousand dollars, which she +begged her to accept, not so much as a gift, but as her rightful due. +There was a moment's hesitancy on the part of Marian when she read the +letter, a feeling that she could not take so much from Katy; but when +she looked at the pale sufferers around her, and remembered how many +wretched hearts that money would help to cheer, she said: + +"I will keep it." + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +PRISONERS OF WAR. + + +The heat, the smoke, the thunder of the battle were over, and the fields +of Gettysburg, where the terrible three days' fight had been, were +drenched with human blood and covered with the dead and dying. The +contest had been fearful, and its results carried sorrow and anguish to +many a heart waiting for tidings from the war, and looking so anxiously +for the names of the loved ones who, on the anniversary of the day which +saw our nation's independence, lay upon the hills and plains of +Gettysburg, their white faces upturned to the summer sky, and wet with +the raindrops which like tears for the noble dead the pitying clouds had +shed upon them. And nowhere, perhaps, was there a whiter face or a more +anxious heart than at the farmhouse, where both Helen and her +mother-in-law were spending the hot July days. Since the Christmas Eve +when Helen had watched her husband going from her across the wintry +snow, he had not been back, though several times he had made +arrangements to do so. Something, however, had always happened to +prevent. Once it was sickness which kept him in bed for a week or more; +again his regiment was ordered to advance, and the third time it was +sent on with others to repel the invaders from Pennsylvania soil. +Bravely through each disappointment Helen bore herself, but her cheek +always grew paler and her eye darker in its hue when the evening papers +came, and she read what progress our soldiers had made, feeling that a +battle was inevitable, and praying so earnestly that Mark Ray might be +spared. Then when the battle was over, and up the Northern hills came +the dreadful story of thousands and thousands slain, there was a fearful +look in her eyes, and her features were rigid as marble, while the +quivering lips could scarcely pray for the great fear tugging at her +heart. Mark Ray was not with his men when they came from that terrific +onslaught. A dozen had seen him fall, struck down by a rebel ball, and +that was all she heard for more than a week, when there came another +relay of news. + +Captain Mark Ray was a prisoner of war, with several of his own company. +An inmate of Libby Prison and a sharer from choice of the apartment +where his men were confined. As an officer, he was entitled to better +quarters than the filthy pen where the poor privates were, but Mark Ray +had a large, warm heart, and he would not desert those who had been so +faithful to him, and so he took their fare, and by his genial humor and +unwavering cheerfulness kept many a heart from fainting and made the +prisoners' life more bearable than it could have been without him. To +young Tom Tubbs, who had enlisted six months before, he was a +ministering angel, and many times the poor, homesick boy crept to the +side of his captain, and laying his burning head in his lap, wept +himself to sleep and dreamed he was at home again. The horrors of that +prison life have never been told, but Mark bore up manfully, suffering +less in mind, perhaps, than did the friends at home, who lived, as it +were, a thousand years in that one brief summer while he languished in +that horrid den whose very name had a power to send a thrill of fear to +every heart. + +At last, as the frosty days of October came on, they began to hope he +might be exchanged, and Helen's face grew bright again, until one day +there came a soiled, half-worn letter, in Mark's own handwriting. It was +the first word received from him since his capture in July, and with a +cry of joy Helen snatched it from Uncle Ephraim, for she was still at +the farmhouse, and sitting down upon the doorstep just where she had +been standing, read the words which Mark had sent to her. He said +nothing of the treatment he received, for he wanted the letter to reach +her, and he knew well that if he complained the chances were small for +the missive ever to leave the capital of the "chivalry." He was very +well, he said, and had been all the time, but he pined for home, longing +for the dear girl-wife never so dear as now, when separated by so many +miles, with prison walls on every side, and an enemy's line between +them. + +"But be of good cheer, darling," he wrote. "I shall come back to you +some time, and life will he all the brighter for what you suffer now. I +am so glad my darling consented to be my wife, even though I could stay +with her but a moment. The knowing you are really mine makes me happy +even here, for I think of you by day, and in my dreams I always hold you +in my arms and press you to my heart." + +Far different from this cheerful letter was the one which Tom inclosed +in it for his family--a wild, homesick outburst, containing so much of +truth that it was strange it was ever permitted to leave the city. Of +this letter Helen heard by way of Mattie Tubbs, and hope died within +her, especially as Tom spoke of their being sent further South as a +probable event. + +"If Mark goes I shall never see him again," Helen said, despairingly; +and when at last the message came that Mark had been removed, and that, +too, just at the time when an exchange was constantly expected, she gave +him up as lost, feeling almost as much widowed as Katy in her weeds. + +Slowly the winter passed away, and the country was rife with stories of +the inhuman treatment of our men, daily dying by hundreds, while those +who survived the cruelties were reduced to maniacs and imbeciles. And +Helen, as she listened, grew nearly frantic with the sickening suspense. +She did not know now where her husband was. He had made several attempts +to escape, and with each failure had been removed to safer quarters, so +that the chances now of his being exchanged seemed very far away. Week +after week, month after month, passed on, until came the memorable +battle of the Wilderness, when Lieutenant Bob, as yet unharmed, stood +bravely in the thickest of the fight, his tall figure towering above the +rest, and his soldier's uniform buttoned over a dark tress of hair, and +a face like Bell Cameron's, Lieutenant Bob had taken two or three +furloughs, but the one which had left the sweetest, pleasantest memory +in his heart was that of the autumn before, when the crimson leaves of +the maple and the golden tints of the beech were burning themselves out +on the hills of Silverton, where his furlough was mostly passed, and +where, with Bell Cameron, he scoured the length and breadth of Uncle +Ephraim's farm, now stopping by the shore of Fairy Pond and again +sitting for hours on a ledge of rocks far up the hill, where, beneath +the softly-whispering pines nodding above their heads, Bell gathered the +light brown cones, and said to him the words he had so thirsted to hear: + +"I love you, Robert Reynolds." + +Much of Bell's time was passed with Katy at the farmhouse, and here +Lieutenant Reynolds found her, accepting readily of Uncle Ephraim's +hearty invitation to remain; and spending his entire vacation there, +with the exception of three days given to his family. Perfectly charmed +with quaint Aunt Betsy, whom he remembered so well, he flattered and +courted her almost as much as he did Bell, but did not take her with him +in his long rambles over the hills, or sit with her at night alone in +the parlor until the clock struck twelve--a habit which Aunt Betsy +greatly disapproved, but overlooked for this once, seeing, as she said, +that: + +"The young leftenant was none of her kin, and Isabel only a little." + +Those were halcyon days which Robert passed at Silverton, but one stood +out prominently before him, whether sitting by his camp-fire or plunging +into the battle, and that the one when, casting aside all pride and +foolish theories, Bell Cameron freely acknowledged her love for the man +to whom she had been so long engaged, and paid him back the kisses she +had before refused to give. + +"I shall be a better soldier for this," Robert had said, as he guided +her down the steep of rocks, and with her hand in his, walked slowly +back to the farmhouse, which, on the morrow, he left to take again his +place in the army. + +There were no more furloughs for him after that, and the winter passed +away, bringing the spring again, when came that battle in the +Wilderness, and like a hero he fought until, becoming separated from his +comrades, he fell into the enemy's hands, and two days after there sped +along the telegraphic wires to New York: + +"Lieutenant Robert Reynolds captured the first day of the battle." + +Afterward there came news that Andersonville was his destination, +together with many others made prisoners that day. + +"It is better than being shot, and a great deal better than being +burned, as some of the poor wretches were," Juno said, trying to comfort +Bell, who doubted a little her sister's word. + +True, there was now the shadow of a hope that he might survive the +horrors, the mere recital of which made the strongest heart shiver with +dread; but the probabilities were all against it, and Bell's face grew +almost as white as Helen's, while her eyes acquired that restless, +watchful, anxious look which has crept into the eyes of so many +sorrowing women, looking away to the southward, where the dear ones were +languishing in the filthy rebel holes, unworthy the name of prison. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +DR. GRANT. + + +Morris had served out his time as surgeon in the army, had added to it +an extra six months, and by his humanity, his skill and Christian +kindness, made for himself a name which would be long remembered by the +living to whom he had ministered so carefully, while many a dying +soldier had blessed him for pointing out the way which leadeth to the +life everlasting, and in many a mourning family his name was a household +word for the good he had done to a dying son and brother. But Morris' +hospital work was over. He had gone a little too far, incurring too much +risk, until his own strength had failed from long-continued toil, and +now in the month of June, when Linwood was bright with the early summer +blossoms, he was coming back, with health greatly impaired and a dark +cloud before his vision, so that he could not see how beautiful his home +was looking, or gaze into the faces of those who waited so anxiously to +welcome again their beloved physician. Blind, some said he was, but the +few lines sent to Helen announcing the day of his arrival contradicted +that report. His eyes were very much diseased, his amanuensis wrote, but +he trusted that the pure air of his native hills and the influence of +old scenes and associations would soon effect a cure. If not too much +trouble, he added, please see that the house is made comfortable, and +have John meet me on Friday at the station. + +Helen had just returned from New York, where she could not remain any +longer, for the scenes of gayety in which she was sometimes compelled to +mingle were utterly distasteful to her, and she longed for the seclusion +of the farmhouse and the quiet there is among the hills. She was glad +Morris was coming home, for he always did her good; he could comfort her +better than any other, unless it were Katy, whose loving, gentle words +of hope were very soothing to her. + +"Poor Morris!" she sighed, as she finished his letter, and then took it +to the family sitting upon the pleasant piazza, which, at Katy's expense +and her own, had been added to the house, overlooking Fairy Pond and the +pleasant hills beyond. + +"Morris is coming home," she said, as Aunt Betsy asked: "What news?" "He +will be here on Friday, and he wishes us to see that all things are in +order at Linwood for his reception. His eyes are badly diseased, but he +is not blind, and he hopes that coming back to us will cure him," she +added, glancing aside at Katy, who sat upon a step of the piazza, her +hands folded together upon her lap and her blue eyes looking far off +into the fading sunset, just as Evangeline sits looking down the +Mississippi River. + +When she heard Morris' name she turned her head a little, so that the +ripple of her golden hair was more distinctly visible beneath the silken +net she wore, and a deep tinge of red dyed her cheeks; but she made no +comment or showed by any sign that she heard what they were saying. Katy +was very lovely and consistent in her young widowhood, and not a whisper +of gossip had the Silvertonians coupled with her name since she came to +them, leaving her husband in Greenwood. There had been no parading of +her grief before the public or assumption of greater sorrow than many +others had known; but the soberness of her demeanor, and the calm, +subdued expression of her face, attested to what she had suffered. +Sixteen months had passed since Wilford died, and she still wore her +deep mourning weeds, except the widow's cap, which, at her mother's and +Aunt Betsy's earnest solicitations, she had laid aside, substituting in +its place a simple net, which confined her waving hair and kept it from +breaking out in flowing curls, as it was disposed to do. Against this +fashion Aunt Betsy also inveighed. + +"Couldn't a body curl their hair when nater intended it to curl, and +mourn a-plenty, too?" For her part, she believed it people's duty to +look as well as they could, mournin' or not mournin', and Katy couldn't +look much wus' than she did, with her hair shoved back under that net, +unless it was when she wore that heathenish cap, which made her look so +like a grandmother. + +This was Aunt Betsy's opinion, but to others there was something +singularly sweet and beautiful in the childish face, from which the +golden hair was brushed back so plainly, waving softly about the +forehead, and occasionally escaping from its confinement in a graceful +curl, which Katy suffered to remain for Aunt Betsy's sake. Katy had +never been prettier than she was now, in her mature womanhood, and to +the poor and sorrowful, whose homes she cheered so often, she was an +angel of goodness. + +Truly she had been purified by suffering; the dross had been burned out, +and only the gold remained, shedding its brightness on all with which it +came in contact. + +They would miss her at the farmhouse now far more than they did when she +first went away, for she made the sunshine of their home, filling +Helen's place when she was in New York, and when she came back proving +to her a stay and comforter. Indeed, but for Katy's presence, Helen +often felt that she could not endure the sickening suspense and doubt +which hung so darkly over her husband's fate. + +"He is alive; he will come back," Katy always said, and from her perfect +faith, Helen, too, caught a glimpse of hope. + +Could they have forgotten Mark they would have been happy at the +farmhouse now, for with the budding spring and blossoming summer, Katy's +spirits had returned, and her old, musical laugh rang often through the +house just as it used to do in the happy days of girlhood, while the +same silvery voice which led the chair in the brick church, and sang +with the little children their Sunday hymns, often broke forth into +snatches of songs, which made even the robins listen, as they built +their nests in the trees; while Uncle Ephraim, far from condemning this +lightness of spirits, thanked God, who had brought his darling safely +through the cloud to where the sun was shining. + +If Katy thought of Morris she never spoke of him when she could help it. +It was a morbid fancy to which she clung; that duty to Wilford's memory +required her to forget, or, at least, avoid the man who had so +innocently come between them; and when she heard he was coming home she +felt more pain than sorrow. She liked going up to Linwood, as she often +did. Its quiet seclusion, and the beauty of its grounds suited her +taste, and she often passed hours in the pleasant summer house, or on +the broad piazza, dreaming sometimes of the past, and sometimes, it must +be confessed, dreaming of a future, and wondering what it would bring +her when Mark came back, as come he would, and Helen was gone for good. +She would be very lonely with people so much older than herself, and who +did not understand the different tastes and ways of thinking which she +had acquired. She was very happy at the farmhouse, it is true, and loved +its inmates with a deep, unselfish love, but Helen's frequent absences +from home showed her that even the farmhouse could be dreary with no +congenial spirit to sympathize with her as Helen did. + +Matters were in this state when news came of Morris' intended return, +and Katy, sitting on the piazza step, and gazing dreamily into the +crimson clouds piled against the western sky, seemed not to hear what +her sister was saying. She did hear, however, and the blood leaped more +swiftly through her veins for a moment, as she thought of Morris at +Linwood just as he used to be. But when she remembered Wilford's words, +"He confessed to me that he loved you," she felt only a nervous dread of +Morris' coming, and forthwith set to work to fortify herself at every +point with a stricture of reserve which she was far from feeling. + +The day of his return was balmy and beautiful as the days of June are +apt to be, and at an early hour Helen went over to Linwood to see that +everything was in order for his arrival. + +"Mrs. Hull will have dinner waiting for him, and I shall stay," she +said to Katy, adding: "I wish you would come over, too. Morris will feel +grateful, I know." + +Katy did not reply, but struck softly the chords of the piano and +thought how foolish she was to feel as she did. Suppose Morris had loved +her once, he probably did not now, and even if he did, it could do no +good, for she was the same as dead to all that kind of thing. She had +tried matrimony, and found it--she did not say what. She never allowed +herself to think an unkind thing of Wilford if she could help it, but a +tear dropped upon the piano keys as she unconsciously hummed a part of +the song commencing "I would not, no, I would not, recall the past +again, for mingled with the pleasure was too much grief and pain." + +Katy's tears were falling fast by the time the song was ended, but she +dashed them away and sprang from the stool, exclaiming: + +"Crying because Morris is coming home, poor, worn-out, half-blind +Morris, who has done so much for the soldiers, I will go up and welcome +him. I will not be so silly as to imagine he still retains a fancy for +an old woman of twenty-three, even if he had one for the girl of +seventeen." + +Katy felt very old just then, and walking to the glass, was almost vexed +at the smooth, round face which met her view. + +"I ought to look older at twenty-three," she said. "Morris will think +I have not mourned a bit, nor cared for Wilford," and another tear +glistened on her eyelashes as she thought of being accused of +forgetfulness of the dead. + +Katy did look very young for twenty-three. Her health was perfect now, +and save as the change in her character showed itself upon her face, she +had scarcely changed at all since the day when she came home from +Canandaigua with her heart and head so full of him who now lay sleeping +in Greenwood. + +"I know what's the matter. It's the net," she said, frowning +disapprovingly upon the silken meshes which confined her hair. "Yes, +it's nothing but this net which makes me look so young. Every schoolgirl +wears one, and I have followed the fashion, letting it hang down my +back in a way very unbecoming to a widow of my age. I'll take it off, or +at all events I won't wear it to Linwood," and tossing aside the +offending net, Katy bound her luxuriant hair in bands which she coiled +around the back of her head and then put on the widow's cap, discarded +so many months, and from which she shrank a little as she surveyed +herself in the glass. + +It was not exactly unbecoming; nothing could be unbecoming to that fair, +open face, which, surrounded by the white border, looked much like a +sweet baby's face, except that it was older; but it was now so long +since Katy had seen anything of the kind, and as habit is everything, +she was not quite as well pleased with her headgear as in New York, +where such things were common. Nevertheless, she would wear it to +Linwood, and she went for her round straw hat, but, alas, the sun hat +which made her look so frightfully young was not made for the widow's +cap, and casting it aside, Katy threw a thick black veil over her head, +and then stepping to the door of the room where her mother and Aunt +Betsy were busy at work, she said: + +"I am going to Linwood, and shall stay there to dinner." + +"In the name of the people, what has the child rigged herself out in +that shape for?" Aunt Betsy exclaimed, letting fall the knife with which +she was chopping cheese curd, and staring in astonishment. "I'd enough +sight rather you'd frizzle your hair over rats, as Helen does, making +herself look like some horned critter, than wear that heathenish thing. +Why do you do it, Catherine?" + +Catherine could not tell her, and laughing merrily at her aunt's +animadversions against her own and Helen's style of hairdressing, she +hurried away across the fields to Linwood. Aunt Betsy's surprise was in +a measure shared by Helen, who, understanding Katy better, made no +comments on her appearance, but smiled quietly at the air of matronly +dignity which Katy had assumed, and which really sat so prettily upon +her as she went from room to room to see what had been done, lingering +longest in Morris' own apartment, opening from the library, where she +made some alterations in the arrangement of the furniture, putting one +chair a little more to the right, and pushing a stand or table to the +left, just as her artistic eye dictated. By some oversight, no flowers +had been put in there, but Katy gathered an exquisite bouquet and left +it on the mantel, just where she remembered to have seen flowers when +Morris was at home. + +"He will he tired," she said. "He will lie down after dinner," and she +laid a few sweet English violets upon the pillow, thinking their perfume +might be grateful to him after the pent-up air of the hospital and cars. +"He will think Helen put them there, or Mrs. Hull," she thought, as she +stole softly out and shut the door behind her, glancing next at the +clock, and feeling a little impatient that a whole hour must elapse +before they could expect him. + +Poor Morris! he did not dream how anxiously he was waited for at home, +nor yet of the crowd assembled at the depot to welcome back the loved +physician, whom they had missed so much, and whose name they had so +often heard coupled with praise as a true hero, even though his post was +not in the front of the battle. Thousands had been cared for by him, +their gaping wounds dressed skillfully, their aching heads soothed +tenderly, and their last moments made happier by the words he spoke to +them of the world to which they were going, where there is no more war +or shedding of man's blood. In the churchyard at Silverton there were +three soldiers' graves, whose pale occupants had each died with Dr. +Grant's hand held tightly in his, as if afraid that he would leave them +before the dark river was crossed, while in more than one Silverton home +there was a wasted form on which the soldier coat hung loosely, who +never tired of telling Dr. Morris' praise and dwelling on his goodness. +But Dr. Morris was not thinking of this as, faint and sick, with the +green shade before his eyes, he leaned against the pile of shawls his +companion had placed for his back and wondered if they were almost +there. + +"I smell the pond lilies; we must he near Silverton," he said, and a +sigh escaped his lips as he thought of coming home and not being able to +see it or the woods and fields around it. "Thy will be done," he had +said many times since the fear first crept into his heart that for him +the light had faded. + +But now, when home was almost reached, and he began to breathe the air +from the New England hills and the perfume of the New England lilies, +the flesh rebelled again, and he cried out within himself: "Oh, I cannot +be blind! God will not deal thus by me!" while keen as the cut of a +sharpened knife was the pang with which he thought of Katy, and wondered +would she care if he were blind. + +Just then the long train stopped at Silverton, and, led by his +attendant, he stepped feebly into the crowd, which sent up deafening +cheers for Dr. Grant come home again. At the sight of his helplessness, +however, a feeling of awe fell upon them, and whispering to each other, +"I did not suppose he was so bad," they pressed around him, offering +their hands and inquiring anxiously how he was. + +"I have been sick, but I shall get better now. The very sound of your +friendly voices does me good, even though I cannot see you distinctly," +he said, as he went slowly to his carriage, led now by Uncle Ephraim, +who could not keep back his tears as he saw how weak Morris was, panting +for breath as he leaned back among the cushions. + +It was very pleasant that afternoon, and Morris enjoyed the drive so +much, assuring Uncle Ephraim that he was growing better every moment. He +did seem stronger when at last the carriage stopped at Linwood, and his +step was more rapid as he went up the steps where Helen, Katy and Mrs. +Hull were waiting for him. He could not see them sufficiently to +distinguish one from the other, but even without the aid of her voice he +would have known when Katy's hand was put in his, it was so small, so +soft, and trembled so as he held it. Her cap had been worn for nothing, +nor did she think of it in her sorrow at finding him so helpless. Pity +was the strongest feeling of which she was conscious, and it manifested +itself in various ways. + +"Let me lead you, Cousin Morris," she said, as she saw him groping his +way to his room, and without waiting for his reply, she held his hand +again in hers and led him to his room, where the sweet English violets +were. + +"I used to lead you, Katy," Morris said, as he took his seat by the +window, "and I little thought then that you would one day return the +compliment. It is very hard to be blind." + +The tone of his voice was inexpressibly sad, but his smile was as +cheerful as ever as his face turned toward Katy, who could not answer +for her tears. It seemed so terrible to see a strong man so stricken, +and that strong man Morris--terrible to watch him in his helplessness, +trying to appear as of old, so as to cast on others no part of the +shadow resting so darkly on himself. When dinner was over and the sun +began to decline, many of his former friends came in, but he looked so +pale and weary that they did not tarry long, and when the last one was +gone, Morris was led back to his room, which he did not leave again +until the summer was over and the luscious fruits of September were +ripening upon the trees. + +Toward the middle of July, Helen, whose health was suffering from her +restless anxiety concerning Mark, was taken by Mrs. Banker to Nahant, +where Mark's sister, Mrs. Ernst, was spending the summer, and thus on +Katy alone fell the duty of paying to Morris those little acts of +sisterly attentions such as no other member of the family knew how to +pay. In the room where he lay so helpless Katy was not afraid of him, +nor did she deem herself faithless to Wilford's memory, because each day +found her at Linwood, sometimes bathing Morris' inflamed eyes, sometimes +bringing him the cooling drink, and again reading to him by the hour, +until, soothed by the music of her voice, he would fall away to sleep +and dream it was an angel there with him. + +"My eyes are getting better," he said to her one day toward the latter +part of August, when she came as usual to his room. "I knew last night +that Mrs. Hull's dress was blue, and I saw the sun shine through the +shutters. Soon, very soon, I hope to see you, Katy, and know if you have +changed." + +She was standing close by him, and as he talked he raised his hand as if +to rest it on her head, but, with a sudden movement, Katy eluded the +touch, and stepped a little farther from him. + +She did not go to Linwood the next day, nor the next; and when she went +again there was in her manner a shade more of dignity, which had both +amused and interested Morris. He did not know for certain that Wilford +had told Katy of the confession made that memorable night when her +recovery seemed so doubtful, but he more than half suspected it from the +shyness of her manner and from the various excuses she now made for not +coming to Linwood every day, as she had heretofore done. + +"You do not need me as much as you did," she said to him one morning in +September, when he complained of his loneliness, and told how he had +waited for her the previous day until night shut down, and he knew she +would not come. "You can see better than you did. You are able to sit up +all day, and walk about a little, so if I come I am not needed," and +seating herself at a respectful distance from him, Katy folded her white +hands demurely over her black dress, after having first adjusted the cap +worn constantly since the time when she learned that Morris' sight was +improving. + +"I sometimes think I need you more than I did then, and if you must stay +away now, I am ungrateful enough to wish you had not come at all," +Morris replied, and Katy's cheeks burned crimson as she felt that the +dim eyes, seen through the green shades, were trying to study her as +they had not studied her before. "What is that on your head?" Morris +asked, rather abruptly. "I have tried to make it out, wondering if it +were a handkerchief, and why it was worn." + +"It is my cap--the widow's cap--worn for Wilford's sake," was the reply, +which silenced Morris for that time, making him feel that between Katy +Lennox, the girl, and Katy Cameron, the widow, there was a vast +difference, and awakening in his heart a fear lest Wilford Cameron dead +should prove as strong a rival as Wilford living had been. + +In his great pity for Katy when she was first a widow, Morris had +scarcely remembered that she was free, or if it did flash upon his mind, +he thrust the thought aside as injustice to the dead; but as the months +and the year went by, and he heard constantly from Helen of Katy's +increasing cheerfulness, it was not in his nature never to think of what +might be, and more than once he had prayed that, if consistent with his +Father's will, that the woman he had loved so well should be his yet. If +not, he could go his way alone, just as he had always done, knowing +that it was right. + +Such was the state of Morris' mind when he returned from Washington, but +now it was somewhat different. The weary weeks of sickness, during which +Katy had ministered to him so kindly, had not been without their effect, +and if Morris had loved the frolicsome, childlike Katy Lennox much, he +loved far more the gentle, beautiful woman whose character had been so +wonderfully developed by suffering, and who was now far more worthy of +his love than in her early girlhood. + +"I cannot lose her now," was the thought constantly in Morris' mind, as +he experienced more and more how desolate were the days which did not +bring her to him. "It is twenty months, just, since Wilford died; and +George Washington asked Martha Custis for her hand within less time than +that after her husband's death," he said to himself one wet October +afternoon, when he sat listening dreamily to the patter of the rain +falling upon the windows, and looking occasionally across the fields to +the farmhouse, in the vain hope of spying in the distance the little +airy form, which, in its waterproof and cloud, had braved worse storms +than this at the time he was so ill. + +But no such figure appeared. He hardly expected it would, but he watched +the pathway just the same, and the smoke wreaths rising so high above +the farmhouse. The deacon burned out his chimney that day, and Morris, +whose sight had greatly improved of late, knew it by the dense, black +volume of smoke, mingled with rings of fire, which rose above the roof, +remembering so well another rainy day, twenty years ago, when the +deacon's chimney was cleaned, and a little, toddling girl, in scarlet +gown and white pinafore, had amused herself with throwing into the +blazing fire upon the hearth a straw at a time, almost upsetting herself +with standing so far back and making such efforts to reach the flames. A +great deal had passed since then. The little girl in the pinafore had +been both wife and mother. She was a widow now, and Morris glanced +across his hearth toward the empty chair he had never seen in +imagination filled by any but herself. + +Surely, she would some day be his own, and leaning his head upon the +cane he carried, he prayed earnestly for the good he coveted, keeping +his head down so long that, until it had left the strip of woods and +emerged into the open fields, he did not see the figure, wrapped in +waterproof and hood, with a huge umbrella over its head and a basket +upon its arm, which came picking its way daintily toward the house, +stopping occasionally, and lifting up the little, high-heeled Balmoral, +which the mud was ruining so completely. Katy was coming to Linwood. It +had been baking day at the farmhouse, and remembering how much Morris +used to love her custards, Aunt Betsy had prepared him some, which she +warranted to "melt in his mouth," and then asked Katy to take them over, +so he could have them for tea. + +"The rain won't hurt you an atom," she said, as Katy began to demur and +glance at the lowering sky. "You can wear your waterproof boots and my +shaker, if you like, and I do so want Morris to have them to-night." + +Thus importuned, Katy consented to go, but declined the loan of Aunt +Betsy's shaker, which being large of the kind, and capeless, too, was +not the most becoming headgear a woman could wear. With the basket of +custards, and cup of jelly she made herself, Katy finally started forth, +Aunt Betsy saying to her, as in the door she stopped to take up her +dress: "It must he dretful lonesome for Morris to-day. S'posin' you stay +to supper with him, and when it's growin' dark I'll come over for you. +You'll find the custards fust-rate." + +Katy did not think it very probable that she should stay to tea with +Morris, but she made no reply, and walked away, while Aunt Betsy went +back to the coat she was patching for her brother, saying to herself: + +"I'm bound to fetch that 'round. It's a shame for two young folks, just +fitted to each other, to live apart when they might be so happy, with +Hannah, and Lucy, and me, close by, to see to 'em, and allus make their +soap, and see to the butcherin', besides savin' peneryle and catnip for +the children, if there was any." + +Aunt Betsy had turned matchmaker in her old age, and day and night she +planned how to bring about the match between Morris and Katy. That they +were made for each other she had no doubt. From something which Helen +inadvertantly let fall she had guessed that Morris wanted Katy prior to +her marriage with Wilford. She had suspected as much before, she was +sure of it now, and straightway put her wits at work "to make it go," as +she expressed it. But Katy was too shy to suit her, and since Morris' +convalescence had stayed too much from Linwood. To-day, however, Aunt +Betsy "felt it in her bones" that, if properly managed, something would +happen, and the custards were but the means to the desired end. With no +suspicion whatever of the good dame's intentions, Katy picked her way to +Linwood, and leaving her damp garments in the hall, lest Morris should +take cold, went at once into the library, where he was sitting near to a +large chair kept sacred for her, his face looking unusually cheerful, +and the room unusually pleasant, with the bright wood fire on the +hearth. She knew he was glad she had come, that he thought more of her +being there than of the custards she brought him. + +"I have been so lonely, with no company but the rain," he said, pushing +the chair a little toward her, and bidding her sit near the fire, where +she could dry her feet. + +Katy obeyed, and sat down so near to him that had he chose he might have +touched her head, which this day was minus cap, or even net, the golden +hair combed back and fastened in heavy coils low down on her neck, +giving to her a very girlish appearance, as Morris thought, for he could +see her now, and while she dried her feet he looked at her eagerly, +wondering that the fierce storm she had encountered had left so few +traces upon her face. Just about the mouth there was a deep-cut line, +but this was all; the remainder of the face was fair and smooth as in +her early girlhood, and far more beautiful, just as her character was +lovelier, and more to be admired. + +Morris had done well to wait if he could win her now. Perhaps he thought +so, too, and this was why his spirits became so gay as he kept talking +to her, suggesting at last that she should stay to tea. The rain was +falling in torrents when he made the proposition. She could not go then, +even had she wished it, and though it was earlier than his usual tea +time, Morris at once rang for Mrs. Hull, and ordered that tea be served +in there as soon as possible. + +"I ought not to stay. It is not proper, and my cap at home, too," Katy +kept thinking as she fidgeted in her chair, and watched the girl +setting the table so cosily for two, and occasionally deferring some +debatable point to her as if she were mistress there. + +"Shall we have some thin slices of cold chicken to go with the jelly?" +she asked, looking at Katy, who answered in the affirmative, wishing she +was at home, and deploring again the absence of her cap. + +"You can go now, Reekie," Morris said, when the boiling water was poured +into the silver kettle, and tea was on the table. "If we need you we +will ring." + +With a vague wonder as to who would toast the doctor's bread and butter +it, Reekie departed, and the two were left together. It was Katy who +toasted the bread, kneeling upon the marble hearth, nearly blistering +her hands, burning her face and scorching the bread in her nervousness +at the novel position in which she so unexpectedly found herself. It was +Katy, too, who prepared Morris' tea, and tried to eat, but could not. +She was not hungry, she said, and the custard was the only thing she +tasted, besides the tea, which she sipped at frequent intervals, so as +to make Morris think she was eating more than she was. But Morris was +not deceived, nor yet disheartened. Possibly she suspected his +intention, and if so, the sooner he reached the point the better. So +when the tea equipage was put away, and she began again to speak of +going home, he said: + +"No, Katy, you can't go yet till I have said what's in my mind to say," +and laying his hand upon her shoulder he made her sit down beside him +and listen while he told her the love he had borne for her long before +she knew the meaning of that word as she knew it now--of the struggle to +keep that love in bounds after its indulgence was a sin, of his +temptations and victories, of his sincere regret for Wilford, and of his +deep respect for her grief, which made her for a time as a sister to +him. But that time had passed. She was not his sister now, nor ever +could be again. She was Katy, dearer, more precious, more desired even +than before another called her wife, and he asked her to be his, to come +up there to Linwood and live with him, making the rainy days brighter, +balmier, than the sunniest had ever been, and helping him in his work of +caring for the poor and sick around them. + +"Will Katy come? Will she be the wife of Cousin Morris?" + +There was a world of pathos and pleading in the voice which asked this +question, just as there was a world of tenderness in the manner in which +Morris smoothed and caressed and fondled the bowed head resting on the +chair arm. And Katy felt it all, understanding what it was to be offered +such a love as Morris offered, but only comprehending in part what it +would be to refuse that love. For, alas! her blinded judgment said she +must refuse it. Had there been no sad memories springing from that grave +in Greenwood, no bitter reminiscences connected with her married +life--had Wilford never heard of Morris' love and taunted her with it so +often, she might perhaps consent, for she craved the rest there would be +with Morris to lean upon. But the happiness was too great for her to +accept. It would seem too much like faithlessness to Wilford, too much +as if he had been right when he charged her with preferring Morris to +himself. + +"It cannot be--oh, Morris, it cannot be," she sobbed, when he pressed +her for answer. "Don't ask me why--don't ever mention it again, for I +tell you it cannot be. My answer is final; it cannot be. I am sorry for +you, so sorry. I wish you had never loved me, for it cannot be." + +She writhed herself from the arms which tried to detain her, and rising +to her feet left the room suddenly, and throwing on her wrappings, +quitted the house without another word, leaving basket and umbrella +behind, and never knowing she had left them, or how the rain was pouring +down upon her unsheltered person until, as she entered the narrow strip +of woodland, she was met by Aunt Betsy, who exclaimed at seeing her, and +asked: + +"What has become of your umberell? Your silk one, too. It's hopeful you +haven't lost it. What has happened you?" and coming closer to Katy, Aunt +Betsy looked searchingly in her face. It was not so dark that she could +not see the traces of recent tears, and instinctively suspecting their +nature, she continued: "Catherine, have you gin Morris the mitten?" + +"Aunt Betsy, is it possible that you and Morris contrived this plan?" +Katy asked, half indignantly, as she began in part to understand her +aunt's great anxiety for her to visit Linwood that afternoon. + +"Morris had nothing to do with it," Aunt Betsy replied. "It was my +doin's wholly, and this is the thanks I git. You quarrel with him and +git mad at me, who thought only of your good. Catherine, you know you +like Morris Grant, and if he asked you to have him why don't you?" + +"I can't, Aunt Betsy. I can't, after all that has passed. It would be +unjust to Wilford." + +"Unjust to Wilford--fiddlesticks!" was Aunt Betsy's expressive reply, as +she started on toward Linwood, saying she was going after the umberell +before it got lost, with nobody there to tend to things as they should +be tended to. "Have you any word to send?" she asked, hoping Katy had +relented. + +But Katy had not; and with a toss of her head, which shook the raindrops +from her capeless shaker, Aunt Betsy went on her way, and was soon +confronting Morris, sitting just where Katy had left him, and looking +very pale and sad. + +He was not glad to see Aunt Betsy. He would rather be alone until such +time as he could control himself and still his throbbing heart. But with +his usual affability, he bade Aunt Betsy sit down, shivering a little +when he saw her in the chair where Katy had sat, her thin, angular body +presenting a striking contrast to the graceful, girlish figure which had +sat there an hour since, and the huge India rubbers she held up to the +fire as unlike as possible to the boot of fairy dimensions he had +admired so much when it was drying on the hearth. + +"I met Catherine," Aunt Betsy began, "and mistrusted at once that +something was to pay, for a girl don't leave her umberell in such a rain +and go cryin' home for nothin'." + +Morris colored, resenting for an instant this interference by a third +party; but Aunt Betsy was so honest and simple-hearted that he could not +be angry long, and listened calmly while she continued: + +"I have not lived sixty-odd years for nothing, and I know the signs +pretty well. I've been through the mill myself." + +Here Aunt Betsy's voice grew lower in its tone, and Morris looked up +with real interest, while she went on: + +"There's Joel Upham--you know Joel--keeps a tin shop now, and seats the +folks in meetin'. He asked me once for my company, and to be smart I +told him 'no,' when all the time I meant 'yes,' thinkin' he would ask +ag'in, but he didn't, and the next I knew he was keepin' company with +Patty Adams, now his wife. I remember I sniveled a little at being taken +at my word, but it served me right for saying one thing when I meant +another. However, it don't matter now. Joel is as clever as the day is +long, but he is a shiftless critter, never splits his kindlin's till +jest bedtime, and Patty is pestered to death for wood, while his snorin' +nights, she says, is awful, and that I never could abide; so, on the +whole, I'm better off than Patty." + +Morris laughed a loud, hearty laugh, which did him good, and emboldened +his visitor to say more than she had intended saying: + +"You just ask her ag'in. Once ain't nothing at all, and she'll come to. +She likes you; 'tain't that which made her say no. It's some foolish +idea about faithfulness to Wilford, as if he deserved that she should be +faithful. They never orto have had one another--never; and now that he +is well in heaven, as I do suppose he is, it ain't I who hanker for him +to come back. Neither does Katy, and all she needs is a little urging to +tell you yes. So ask her again, will you?" + +"I think it very doubtful. Katy knew what she was doing, and meant what +she said," Morris replied; and with the consoling remark that if young +folks would be fools it was none of her business to bother with them, +Aunt Betsy pinned her shawl across her chest, and hunting up both basket +and umbrella, bade Morris good-night, and went back across the fields to +the farmhouse, hearing from Mrs. Lennox that Katy had gone to bed with a +racking headache. + +"Just the way I felt when I heard about Joel and Patty," Aunt Betsy said +to herself, and as she remembered what had helped her then, so, fifteen +minutes later, she appeared at Katy's bedside, with a cup of strong sage +tea which she bade Katy swallow, telling her it was good for her +complaint. + +To prevent being urged and annoyed, Katy drank the tea, and then without +a question concerning Aunt Betsy's call at Linwood, lay down upon her +pillow, asking to be left alone. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +KATY. + + +"Are you of the same mind still?" Helen asked, when, three weeks later, +she returned from New York, and at the hour for retiring sat in her +chamber watching Katy as she brushed her wavy hair, occasionally curling +a tress around her fingers and letting it fall upon her snowy +nightdress. + +They had been talking of Morris, whom Katy had only seen once since that +rainy night, and that at church, where he had come the previous Sunday. +Katy had written an account of the transaction to her sister, who had +chosen to reply by word of mouth rather than by letter, and so the first +moment they were alone she seized the opportunity to ask if Katy was of +the same mind still as when she refused the doctor. + +"Yes; why shouldn't I be?" Katy replied. "You better than any one else +knew what passed between Wilford and me concerning Morris, and you +can--" + +"Do you love Morris?" Helen asked, abruptly, without waiting for Katy to +finish her sentence. + +For an instant the hands stopped in their work, and Katy's eyes filled +with tears, which dropped into her lap as she replied: + +"More than I wish I did, seeing I must always tell him no. It's strange, +too, how the love for him keeps coming in spite of all I can do. I have +not been there since, nor spoken with him until last Sunday, but though +I did not know he was coming, I knew the moment he entered the church, +and when in the first chant I heard his voice, my fingers trembled so +that I could scarcely play, while all the time my heart goes out after +the rest I always find with him. But it cannot be." + +"Suppose Morris had asked you first, what then?" was Helen's next +straightforward question, and Katy, who had no secrets from her sister, +answered: + +"It might have been, perhaps, though I never thought of it then. Oh, +Helen, I wish Wilford had never known that Morris loved me." + +She was sobbing now, with her head in Helen's lap, and Helen, smoothing +her bright hair, said, gently: + +"You have taken a morbid fancy, Katy. You do not reason correctly. It is +right for you to answer Morris yes, and Wilford would say so, too. When +I received your letter apprising me of the refusal, I read it to Bell, +who said she was so sorry, and then told what Wilford said before he +died. You must have forgotten it, darling. He referred to a time when +you would cease to be his widow, and he said he was willing, said so to +her, and you. Do you remember it, Katy?" + +"Yes, I do now, but I had forgotten. I was so stunned then, so +bewildered, that it made no impression. I did not think he meant Morris. +Helen, do you believe he meant Morris?" and lifting up her face, Katy +looked at her sister with a wistfulness which told how anxiously she +waited for the answer. + +"I know that he meant Morris," Helen replied. "Bell thinks so, too. So +does her father, and both bade me tell you to revoke your decision, to +marry Dr. Grant, with whom you will be so happy." + +"I cannot. It is too late. I told him no, and, Helen, I told him a +falsehood, too, which I wish I might take back," she added. "I said I +was sorry he ever loved me, when I was not, for the knowing that he had +made me very happy. My conscience has smitten me cruelly since for that +falsehood told, not intentionally, for I did not consider what I said." + +Here was an idea at which Helen caught at once. She knew just how +conscientious Katy was, and by working upon this principle she hoped to +persuade her into going over to Linwood and telling Morris that when she +said she was sorry he loved her she did not mean it. But this Katy would +not do. Helen could tell him, if she liked, but she must not encourage +him to hope for a recantation of all she had said to him. She meant the +rest. She could not be his wife. + +Early the next morning Helen went to Linwood, and the same afternoon +Morris returned her call. He had been there two or three times since his +return from Washington, but not since Katy's refusal, and her cheeks +were scarlet as he met him in the parlor and tried to be natural. He did +not look unhappy. He was not taking his rejection very hard, after all, +she thought, and the little lady felt a very little piqued to find him +so cheerful, and even gay, when she had scarcely known a moment's quiet +since the day she carried him the custards, and forgot to bring away her +umbrella. As it had rained that day, so it did now, a decided, energetic +rain, which set in after Morris came, and precluded the possibility of +his going home that night. + +"He would catch his death of cold," Aunt Betsy said, while Helen, too, +joined her entreaties until Morris consented, and the carriage which +came around for him at dark returned to Linwood, with the message that +the doctor would pass the night at Deacon Barlow's. A misty, rainy +night, who does not enjoy it when sitting by a cheerful fire, they +listen dreamily to the falling rain sifting softly through the leafless +trees, and answering to the faint sighing of the autumn wind. Morris +enjoyed it very much, and but for the green glasses he still wore would +have looked and appeared like his former self as he sat in his armchair, +now holding the skein of yarn which Aunt Betsy wound, now talking with +the deacon of the probable exchange of all the prisoners, a theme which +quickened Helen's pulse and sent the blood to her pale cheeks, and again +standing by Katy as she played his favorite airs, his rich bass voice +mingling with hers and Helen's, the three making finer music, Aunt Betsy +said, than that for which she paid two dollars at the playhouse. + +He did not often address Katy directly, but he knew each time she moved, +and watched every varying expression of her face, feeling a kind of pity +for her, when without appearing to do so intentionally, the family, one +by one, stole from the room--Uncle Ephraim and Aunt Hannah without any +excuse; Aunt Betsy to raise the cakes for breakfast; Mrs. Lennox to +wind the clock, and Helen to find a book for which Morris had asked. + +Katy might not have thought strange of their departure were it not that +neither one came back again, and after the lapse of ten minutes or more +she felt convinced that she had purposely been left alone with Morris. + +The weather and the family had conspired against her, but after one +throb of fear she resolved to brave the difficulty and meet whatever +might happen as became a woman of twenty-three, and a widow, too. She +knew Morris was regarding her intently as she fashioned into shape the +coarse wool sock, intended for some soldier, and she could almost hear +her heart beat in the silence which fell between them ere Morris said to +her, in a tone which reassured her at once: + +"And so you told me a falsehood the other day, and your conscience has +troubled you ever since?" + +"Yes, Morris," and Katy dropped her stitch as she replied. "Yes; that +is, I told you I was sorry that you ever loved me, which was not exactly +true, for, after I knew you did, I was happier than before." + +Her words implied a knowledge of his love previous to that night at +Linwood when he had himself confessed it, and he said to her, +inquiringly: + +"You knew it then before I told you?" + +"From Wilford--yes," Katy faltered, a tear dropping on her cheek as she +recalled the circumstances of Wilford's telling her. + +"I understand now why you have been so shy of me," Morris said. "It was +only natural you should be until you knew what my intentions were; but, +Katy, must this shyness continue always? Think now, and say if you did +not tell more than one falsehood the other night, as you count +falsehoods." + +Katy looked wonderingly at him, and he continued; + +"You said you could not be my wife. Was that true? Can't you take it +back, and give me a different answer?" + +Katy's checks were scarlet, and her hands had ceased to flutter about +the knitting which lay upon her lap. + +"I meant what I said," she whispered; "for knowing, as I do, how Wilford +felt, it would not be right for me to be so happy." + +"Then it's nothing personal? If there were no harrowing memories of +Wilford, you could be happy with me. Is that it, Katy?" Morris asked, +coming close to her now, and imprisoning her hands, which she did not +try to take away, but let them lie in his as he continued: "Wilford was +willing at the last. Have you forgotten that?" + +"I had, until Helen reminded me." Katy replied. "But, Morris, the +talking of this thing brings Wilford's death back so vividly, making it +seem but yesterday since I held his dying head." + +She was beginning to relent, Morris knew, and bending nearer to her, he +said: + +"It was not yesterday. It will be two years in February; and this, you +know, is November. I need you, Katy. I want you so much. I have wanted +you all your life. Before it was wrong to do so I used each day to pray +that God would give you to me, and now I feel just as sure that he has +opened the way for you to come to me as I am sure that Wilford is in +heaven. He is happy there, and shall a morbid fancy keep you from being +happy here? Tell me then, Katy, will you be my wife?" + +He was kissing her cold hands, and as he did so he felt her tears +dropping on his hair. + +"If I say yes, Morris, you will not think that I never loved Wilford, +for I did, oh yes, I did. Not exactly as I supposed I might, even then, +have loved you, had you asked me first, but I loved him, and I was happy +with him, or if there were little clouds, his dying swept them all +away." + +Katy was proving herself a true woman, who remembered only the good +there was in Wilford, and Morris did not love her less for it. She was +all the dearer to him, all the more desirable. Once he told her so, +winding his arms about her, and resting her head upon his shoulder, +where it lay just as it had never lain before, for with the first kiss +Morris gave her, calling her "My own little Katy," she felt stealing +over her the same indescribable peace she had always felt with him, +intensified now, and sweeter from the knowing it would remain if she +should will it so. And she did will it so, kissing Morris back when he +asked her to, and thus sealing the compact of her second betrothal. It +was not exactly like the first. There was no tumultuous emotions, or +ecstatic joys, but Katy felt in her inmost heart that she was happier +now than then, that between herself and Morris there was more affinity +than there had been between herself and Wilford, and as she looked back +over the road she had come, and remembered all Morris had been to her, +she wondered at her blindness in not recognizing and responding to the +love in which she had now found shelter. + +It was very late that night when Katy crept up to bed, and Helen, who +was not asleep, knew by the face on which the lamplight fell, as Katy +sat for a moment in thoughtful mood, looking out into the darkness, that +Morris had not sued in vain. Aunt Betsy knew it, too, next morning, by +the same look on Katy's face, when she came downstairs, but this did not +prevent her saying, abruptly, as Katy stood by the sink: + +"Be you two engaged?" + +"We are," was Katy's frank reply, which brought back all Aunt Betsy's +visions of roasted fowls and frosted cake, and maybe a dance in the +kitchen, to say nothing of the feather bed which she had not dared to +offer Katy Cameron, but which she thought would come in play for "Miss +Dr. Grant." + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +THE PRISONERS. + + +Many of the captives were coming home. Prison after prison had given up +its starving, vermin-eaten inmates, while all along the Northern lines +loving hearts were waiting, and friendly hands outstretched to welcome +them back to "God's land," as the poor, suffering creatures termed the +soil over which waved the Stars and Stripes, for which they had fought +so bravely. Wistfully, thousands of eyes ran over the long columns of +names of those returned, each eye seeking for its own, and growing dim +with tears as it failed to find it, or lighting up with untold joy when +it was found. + +"Lieutenant Robert Reynolds" and "Thomas Tubbs," Helen read among the +list of those just arrived at Annapolis, but "Captain Mark Ray" was not +there, and with a sickening feeling of disappointment she passed the +paper to her mother-in-law, and hastened away, to weep and pray that +what she so greatly feared might not come upon her. + +It was after Katy's betrothal, and she was in New York, happy to hear +news from Mark, and perhaps to see him ere long, for, as nearly as she +could trace him from reports of others, he was last at Andersonville. +But there was no mention made of him, no sign by which she could tell +whether he still lived, or had long since been relieved from suffering. + +Early the next day she heard that Mattie Tubbs had received a telegram +from Tom, who would soon be at home, while later in the day Bell Cameron +came around to say that Bob was living, but had lost his right arm, and +was otherwise badly crippled. It never occurred to Helen to ask if this +would make a difference. She only kissed Bell fondly, rejoicing at her +good fortune, and then sent her back to the home where there were hot +discussions regarding the propriety of receiving into the family a +maimed and crippled member. + +"It was preposterous to suppose Bob would expect it," Juno said, while +the mother admitted that it was a most unfortunate affair, as indeed the +whole war had proved. For her part, she sometimes wished the North had +let the South go quietly when they wanted to, and so saved thousands of +lives, and prevented the country from being flooded with cripples, and +negroes, and calls for more men and money. On the whole, she rather +doubted the propriety of re-electing Lincoln, and prolonging the war; +and she certainly doubted the propriety of giving her daughter to a +cripple. There was Arthur Grey, who had lately been so attentive; he was +a wealthier man than Lieutenant Bob, and if Bell had any discretion she +would take him in preference to a disfigured soldier. + +Such was the purport of Mrs. Cameron's remarks, to which her husband +listened, his eyes blazing with passion, which, the moment she finished, +burst forth in a storm of oaths and invectives against what, with his +pet adjective, he called her "Copperhead principles," denouncing her as +a traitor, reproaching her for the cruelty which would separate her +daughter from Robert Reynolds because he had lost an arm in the service +of his country, and then turning fiercely to Bell with the words: + +"But it isn't for you to say whether he shall or shall not have Bell. +She is of age. Let her speak for herself." + +And she did speak, the noble, heroic girl, who had listened, with bitter +scorn, to what her mother and sister said, and who now, with elevated +nostrils and voice hoarse with emotion, answered slowly and +impressively: + +"I would marry Lieutenant Reynolds if he had only his ears left to hear +me tell him how much I love and honor him! Arthur Grey! Don't talk to me +of him! the craven coward, who will neither volunteer nor give a cent +for our poor, suffering soldiers, but turns people off with: 'Government +provides,' or 'the stores do not reach them,' and all those subterfuges +to which mean men resort to keep from giving, and to avoid the draft +swore he was forty-five, when we all know better. Don't insult Robert +with such a comparison, or think I will break my faith with him." + +After this no more was said to Bell, who waited anxiously for further +news from Bob, and who, the moment she heard he was at home, went to his +father's house, and asked to see him. + +He was sleeping when she entered his room, and pushing back the heavy +curtain, so that the light would fall more directly upon him, Mrs. +Reynolds went out and left her there alone. + +With a beating heart, she stood looking at his hollow eyes, his sunken +cheek, his short, dry hair, and thick, gray skin--all marks of the +brutal treatment he had received. She did not think of his arm until she +glanced at the wall where hung a large-sized photograph, taken in full +uniform the last time he was at home, and in which his full, +well-developed figure showed to good advantage. Could it be that the +wreck before her had ever been as full of life and vigor as the picture +would indicate, and was that arm which held the sword severed from the +body, and left a token of the murderous war? + +"Poor Bob! how much he must have suffered," she whispered, and kneeling +down beside him, she hid her face in her hands, weeping bitter tears +for her armless hero. + +The motion awakened Robert, who gazed for a moment in surprise at the +kneeling, sobbing maiden; then, when sure it was she, he raised himself +in bed, and ere Bell could look up, two arms, one quite as strong as the +other, were wound around her neck, and her head was pillowed upon the +breast, which heaved with strong emotions as the soldier said: + +"My darling Bell, my promised wife, you don't know how much good this +meeting does me!" + +He kissed her many times, and Bell did not prevent it, but gave him kiss +after kiss, then, still doubting the evidence of her eyes, she unclasped +his clinging arms, and holding both his poor hands in hers, gave vent to +a second gush of tears as she said: + +"I am so glad--oh, so glad!" + +Then, as it occurred to her that he might perhaps misjudge her, and put +a wrong construction upon her joy, she added: + +"I did not care for myself, Robert. Don't think I cared for myself, or +was ever sorry a bit on my own account." + +Bob looked a little bewildered as he replied: "Never were sorry and +never cared! I can scarcely credit that, for surely your tears and +present emotions belie your words." + +Bell knew he had not understood her, and she said: + +"Your arm, Robert, your arm. We heard it was cut off, and that you were +otherwise mutilated." + +"Oh, that's it, then!" and something like his old, mischievous smile +glimmered about Bob's mouth as he added: "They spared my arms, but, +Bell"--and he tried to look very solemn--"suppose I tell you that they +hacked off both my legs, and if you marry me, as you seem to think you +will, you must walk all your life by the side of wooden pins and +crutches?" + +Bell knew by the curl of his lip that he was teasing her, and she +answered, laughingly: + +"Wooden pins and crutches will be all the fashion when the war is over; +badges of honor of which any woman might be proud." + +"Well, Bell," he replied, "I am afraid there is no such honor in store +for my wife, for if I ever get back my strength and the flesh upon my +bones, she must take me with legs and arms included. Not even a scratch +or wound of any kind with which to awaken sympathy." + +He appeared very bright and cheerful, but when, after a moment, Bell +asked for Mark Ray, there came a shadow over his face, and with +quivering lips he told a tale which blanched Bell's cheek, and made her +shiver with pain and dread as she thought of Helen, the wife who had +never known the sweets of matrimony, and who would never taste them now, +for Mark was dead--shot down as he attempted to escape from the train +which took them from one place of torment to another. He was always +devising means of escape, succeeding several times, but was immediately +captured and brought back, or sent to some closer quarters, Robert said; +but his courage never deserted him, and in the muddy, filthy place where +they were herded like so many cattle, without shelter of any kind, he +was the life of them all, and by his presence kept many a poor fellow +from dying of homesickness and despair. But he was dead; there could be +no mistake, for Robert saw him when he jumped, heard the ball which went +whizzing after him, saw him as he fell on the open field, saw a man from +a rude dwelling nearby go hurriedly toward him, firing his own revolver, +as if to make the death deed doubly sure. Then, as the train slacked its +speed, with the view, perhaps, to take the body on board, he heard the +man who had reached Mark and was bending over him, call out: "Go on; +I'll tend to him. He is dead as a stone; bullet went right through +here," and he turned the dead man's face toward the train, so all could +see the blood pouring from the temple which the finger of the rebel +ruffian touched. + +"Oh, Helen! poor Helen! How can I tell her, when she loved him so much!" +Bell sobbed, while Bob repeated many things to prove how strong was the +love the unfortunate Mark Ray had borne for his young wife. + +"He used to make pictures of her," he said, "with a pencil which he had, +and once he whittled out her face with a lily in the hair. It was a good +likeness, too, and I saw Mark kiss it more than once when he thought he +was not seen. He had her photograph, it seems, but a brutal keeper took +it away, for no earthly purpose except to distress him. I never saw Mark +cast down till then, when for two whole days he scarcely spoke, but +would stand for hours with his face turned toward the North, and a +quivering motion around his lips, as if his heart were broken." + +Bell could hear no more, but motioned him to stop. + +"It's too terrible even to think about," she said. "Oh, how can I tell +Helen!" + +"You will do it better than any one else," Bob said. "You will be very +tender with her; and, Bell, tell her, as some consolation, that he did +not break with the treatment, as most of us wretches did; he kept up +wonderfully--said he was perfectly well--and, indeed, he looked so. Tom +Tubbs, who was his shadow, clinging to him with wonderful fidelity, will +corroborate what I have said. He was with us, he saw him, and only +animal force prevented him from leaping from the car and going to him +where he fell. I shall never forget his shriek of agony at the sight of +that blood-stained face turned an instant toward us." + +"Don't, don't!" Bell cried again; "I can't endure it!" and as Mrs. +Reynolds then came in, she left her lover, and with a foreboding heart, +started for Mrs. Banker's, meeting on the steps Tom Tubbs himself, who +had come on an errand similar to her own. + +"Sit here in the hall a moment," she said to him, as the servant +admitted them both. "I must see Mrs. Ray first." + +Helen was reading to her mother-in-law, but she laid down her book and +came to welcome Bell, detecting at once the agitation in her manner and +asking if she had had bad news from Robert. + +"No, Robert is at home; I have just come from there, and he told me--oh! +Helen, can you bear it?--Mark is dead--shot twice as he jumped from the +train taking him to another prison, Robert saw it, and knew that he was +dead." + +Bell could get no further, for Helen, who had never fainted in her life, +did so now, lying senseless so long that the physician began to think it +would be a mercy if she never came back to life, for her reason, he +fancied, had fled. But Helen did come back to life with reason +unimpaired, and insisted upon hearing every detail of the dreadful +story, both from Bell and Tom. The latter confirmed all Lieutenant +Reynolds had said, besides adding many items of his own. Mark was dead, +there could be no doubt of it; but with the tenacity of a strong, +hopeful nature, the mother clung to the illusion that possibly the ball +stunned, instead of killing--that he would yet come back; and many a +time, as the days went by, that mother started at a step upon the walk +or ring of the bell, which she fancied might be his, hearing him +sometimes calling in the night storm for her to let him in, and hurrying +down to the door only to be disappointed, and go back to her lonely room +to weep the dark night through. + +With Helen there were no such illusions. After talking calmly and +rationally with both Robert and Tom, she knew her husband was dead, and +never watched and waited for him as his mother did. She had heard from +Mark's companions in suffering all they had to tell, of his captivity, +and his love for her which manifested itself in so many different ways. +Passionately she had wept over the tress of faded hair which Tom Tubbs +brought to her, saying: "He cut it from his head just before we left the +prison, and told me if he never got home and I did, to give the lock to +you, and say that all was well between him and God--that your prayers +had saved him. He wanted you to know that, because, he said, it would +comfort you most of all." + +And it did comfort her, so that she could almost say with a full heart: +"Thy will be done," when she looked up at the clear, wintry heavens and +thought that her lost one was there. It was her first real trial, and it +crushed her with its magnitude so that she could not submit at once, and +many a cry of desolate agony broke the silence of her room, where the +whole night through she sat musing of the past, and raining kisses upon +the little lock of hair which from the Southern prison had come to her, +sole relic of the husband so dearly loved and truly mourned. How faded +it was from the rich brown she remembered so well, and Helen gazing at +it could realize in part the suffering and want which had worn so many +precious lives away. It was strange she never dreamed of him. She often +prayed that she might, so as to drive from her mind, if possible, the +picture of the prostrate form upon the low, damp field, and the +blood-stained face turned in its mortal agony toward the Southern sky +and the pitiless foe above it. So she always saw him, shuddering as she +wondered if the foe had buried him decently or left his bones to bleach +upon the open plain. + +Poor Helen, she was widowed indeed, and it needed not the badge of +mourning to tell how terribly she was bereaved. But the badge was there, +too, for in spite of the hope which said "he is not dead," Mrs. Banker +yielded to Helen's importunities, and clothed herself and +daughter-in-law in the habiliments of woe, still waiting, still +watching, still listening for the step she should recognize so quickly, +still looking down the street; but looking, alas! in vain. The winter +passed away. Captive after captive came home, heart after heart was +cheered by the returning loved one, but for the inmates of No. ---- the +heavy cloud grew blacker, for the empty chair by the hearth remained +unoccupied, and the aching hearts uncheered. Mark Ray did not come back. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +THE DAY OF THE WEDDING. + + +Those first warm days of March, 1865, when spring and summer seemed to +kiss each other and join hands for a brief space of time, how balmy, how +still, how pleasant they were, and how bright the farmhouse looked, +where preparations for Katy's second bridal were going rapidly forward. +Aunt Betsy, as chief directress, was in her element, for now had come +the reality of the vision she had seen so long, of house turned upside +down in one grand onslaught of suds and sand, then righted again by +magic power, and smelling very sweet and clean from its recent +ablutions--of turkeys dying in the barn, of chickens in the shed, of +ovens heating in the kitchen, of loaves of frosted cake, with cards and +cards of snowy biscuit piled upon the pantry shelf--of jellies, tarts +and chicken salad--of home-made wine and home-brewed beer, with tea and +coffee, portioned out and ready for the pots, the latter mixed with +fresh-laid eggs, and smelling strongly of old Java, and the former as +fragrant as two and one-half dollars per pound could buy. + +Aunt Betsy was very happy, for this, the brightest, balmiest day of all, +was Katy's wedding day, and in the dining-room the table was already set +with the new chinaware and silver, a joint Christmas gift from Helen and +Katy to their good Aunt Hannah, as real mistress of the house. + +"Not plated-ware, but the gen-oo-ine article," Aunt Betsy had explained +at least twenty times to those who came to see the silver, and she +handled it proudly now as she took it from the flannel bags where Mrs. +Deacon Bannister said it must be kept, and placed it on a side table. + +The coffee-urn was Katy's, so was the teakettle and the massive pitcher, +but the rest was "ours," Aunt Betsy complacently reflected as she +contemplated the glittering array, end then hurried off to see what was +burning on the stove, or "spell" Uncle Ephraim, working industriously at +the ice-cream, out on the back stoop, stumbling over Morris as she went, +and telling him he had come too soon--it was not fittin' for him to be +there under foot until he was wanted. + +Morris probably thought he was wanted, by one member of the family at +least, and without replying directly to Aunt Betsy, he knocked with a +vast amount of assurance at a side door, which opened directly, and +Katy's glowing face looked out, and Katy's voice was heard, not telling +him he was not wanted, but saying, joyfully: + +"Oh, Morris, it's you. I'm so glad you've come, for I wanted--" + +But what she wanted was drowned by a succession of certain mysterious +sounds, such as are only produced by a collision of lips, and which made +Aunt Betsy mutter to herself: + +"It's all right, I know, but so much kissin' as I've seen the last +fortni't is enough to turn a body's stomach. I guess old bachelders and +widders is commonly wus than fresh hands at it." + +And having thus expressed her thoughts, Aunt Betsy seized the handle of +the ice-cream freezer and turned it vigorously, thinking, perhaps, of +Joel Upham, and what might have been but for a freak of hers. Meanwhile +Morris and Katy sat alone in the little sewing-room, where latterly they +had passed so many quiet hours together, and where lay the bridal dress, +with its chaste and simple decorations. Katy had clung tenaciously to +her mourning robes, asking, half tearfully, if she might wear black, as +ladies sometimes did. But Morris had promptly answered no. His bride, if +she came to him willingly, must not come clad in widow's weeds, for when +she became his wife she would cease to be a widow. + +And so the black was laid aside, and Katy, in soft tinted colors, with +her bright hair curling in her neck, looked as girlish and beautiful as +if in Greenwood there were no pretentious monument, with Wilford's name +upon it, nor any little grave in Silverton where Baby Cameron slept. She +had been both wife and mother, but she was quite as dear to Morris as if +she had never borne other name than Katy Lennox, and as he held her for +a moment closely to his heart, he thanked God, who had at last given to +him the idol of his boyhood and the love of his later years. Across +their pathway no shadow was lying, except when they remembered Helen, on +whom the mantle of widowhood had so darkly fallen just as Katy was +throwing it off. + +Poor Helen, the tears always crept to Katy's eyes when, she thought of +her, and now as she saw her steal across the road and strike into the +winding path which led to the pasture where the pines and hemlock grew, +she nestled closer to Morris, and whispered: + +"Sometimes I think it wrong to be so happy when Helen is so sad. I pity +her so much to-day." + +And Helen was to be pitied, for her heart was aching to its very core. +She had tried to keep up through the preparations for Katy's bridal, +tried to seem interested, and even cheerful, while all the time a hidden +agony was tugging at her heart, and life seemed a heavier burden than +she could bear. + +All her portion of the work was finished now, and in the balmy +brightness of that warm April afternoon she went into the fields where +she could be alone beneath the soft, summer-like sky, and pour out her +pent-up anguish into the ear of Him who had so often soothed and +comforted her when other aids had failed. Last night, for the first time +since she heard the dreadful news, she had dreamed of Mark, and when she +awoke she still felt the pressure of his lips upon her brow, the touch +of his arm upon her waist, and the thrilling clasp of his warm hand as +it pressed and held her own. But that was a dream, a cruel delusion, and +its memory made the day more dark and dreary as she went more slowly up +the beaten path, pausing once beneath a chestnut tree and leaning her +throbbing head against the shaggy bark as she heard in the distance the +shrill whistle of the downward train from Albany, and thought, as she +always did when she heard that whistle, "Oh, if that heralded Mark's +return, how happy I should be." But many a sound like that had echoed +across the Silverton hills, bringing no hope to her, and now, as it +again died away in the Cedar Swamp, she pursued her way up the path till +she reached the long, white ledge of rocks where with Katy she used to +play, and where Bell Cameron had come with Lieutenant Bob, while Morris, +too, had more than once led Katy there since the weather was so fine. + +"The Lovers' Rock," some called it, for village boys and maidens knew +the place, repairing to it often, whispering their vows beneath the +overhanging pines, which whispered back again, and told the winds the +story which, though so old, is always new to her who listens to him who +tells. + +Just underneath the spreading pine there was a large, flat stone, and +there Helen sat down, gazing sadly upon the valley below, and the clear +waters of Fairy Pond gleaming in the April sunshine, which lay so warmly +on the grassy hills and flashed so brightly from the cupola at Linwood, +where the national flag was flying. For a time Helen watched the banner +as it shook its folds to the breeze, then, as she remembered with what a +fearful price that flag had been saved from foul dishonor, she hid her +face in her hands and sobbed bitterly: + +"God help me not to begrudge the price or think I paid too dearly for my +country's rights. Oh, Mark, my murdered husband, I may be wrong, but you +were dearer to me than many, many countries, and it is hard to give you +up--hard to know that the notes of peace which even now float up to us +from the South will not waken you in that grave which I can never see. +Oh, Mark, my darling, my darling, I loved you so much, I miss you so +much, I want you so much. God help me to bear. God help me to say, 'Thy +will be done.'" + +She was rocking to and fro in her grief, with her hands pressed over her +face, as she thus moaned out a prayer that God would help her to feel, +as well as to say, "Thy will be done," and for a long time she sat there +thus, while the sun crept on further toward the west, and the freshened +breeze shook the tasseled pine above her head and kissed the bands of +rich brown hair, from which her hat had fallen. She did not heed the +lapse of time in the earnest prayer she breathed for entire submission +to God's will, nor did she hear the footstep coming up the pathway to +the ledge where she was sitting, the footstep which paused at intervals, +as if the comer were weary, or else in quest of some one, but which at +last came on with rapid bounds as an opening among the trees showed +where Helen sat. It was a tall young man who came, a young man sunburned +and scarred, with uniform soiled and worn, but with the fire in his +brown eyes unquenched, the love in his true heart unchanged, save as it +was deeper, more intense for the years of separation, and the long, +cruel suspense which was all over now. The grave had given up its dead, +the captive was released, and through incredible suffering and danger +had reached his Northern home, had sought and found his girl-wife of a +few hours, for it was Mark Ray speeding up the path, and holding back +his breath as he came close to the bowed form on the rock, feeling a +strange throb of awe when he saw the mourning dress, and knew it was +worn for him. A moment more, and she lay in his arms, white and +insensible, for with the sudden winding of his arms around her neck, the +pressure of his lips upon her cheek, the calling of her name, and the +knowing it was really her husband, she had uttered a wild, impassioned +cry, half of terror, half of joy, and fainted entirely away, just as she +did when told that he was dead! There was no water near, but with loving +words and soft caresses, Mark brought her back to life, raining both +tears and kisses upon the dear face which had grown so white and thin +since the Christmas Eve when the wintry starlight had looked down upon +their parting. For several moments neither could speak for the great +choking joy which wholly precluded the utterance of a word. Helen was +the first to rally, and lying in Mark's lap, with her head pillowed on +Mark's arm, she whispered: + +"Let us thank God together. You, too, have learned to pray." + +Reverently Mark bent his face to hers, and the pine boughs overhead +heard, instead of mourning notes, a prayer of praise, as the reunited +wife and husband fervently thanked God, who had brought them together +again. + +Not until nearly half an hour was gone, and Helen had begun to realize +that the arm which held her so tightly was genuine flesh and blood, and +not a mere delusion, did she look up into the face, glowing with so much +of happiness and love. Upon the forehead, and just beneath the hair, +there was a savage scar, and the flesh about it was red and angry still, +showing how sore and painful it must have been, and making Helen shudder +as she touched it with her lips, and said: + +"Poor, darling Mark! that's where the cruel ball entered; but where is +the other scar--the one made by the man who went to you in the fields, +and who also fired, they said. I have tried so hard to hate him for +firing at a fallen foe." + +"Rather, pray for him, darling. Bless him as the savior of your +husband's life, the noble fellow but for whom I should not have been +here now, for he was a Unionist, as true to the old flag as Abraham +himself," Mark Ray replied; and then, as Helen looked wonderingly at +him, he laid her head in an easier position upon his shoulder, and told +her a story so strange in its details that but for the frequent +occurrence of similar incidents it would be pronounced wholly unreal and +false. + +Of what he suffered in the Southern prisons he did not speak, either +then or ever after, but began with the day when, with a courage born of +desperation, he jumped from the moving train, and was shot down by the +guard. Partially stunned, he still, retained sense enough to know when +a tall form bent over him, and to hear the rough but kindly voice which +said: + +"Play 'possum, Yank. Make b'lieve you're dead, and throw them hellhounds +off the scent." + +This was the last he knew for many weeks, and when again he awoke to +consciousness he found himself on the upper floor of a dilapidated hut, +which stood in the center of a little wood, his bed a pile of straw, +over which was spread a clean patchwork quilt, while seated at his side, +and watching him intently, was the same man who had bent over him in the +field, and shouted to the rebels that he was dead. + +"I shall never forget my sensations then," Mark said, "for, with the +exception of this present hour, when I hold you, my darling, in my arms, +and know the danger is over, I never experienced a moment of greater +happiness and rest than when, up in that squalid garret, where the +rafters, festooned with cobwebs and dust, could be touched by stretching +out my hand, and where the sunlight only found an entrance through an +aperture in the roof, which admitted the rain as well, I came back to +life again, the pain in my head all gone, and nothing left save a +delicious feeling of languor, which prompted me to lie quietly for +several minutes, examining my surroundings, and speculating upon the +chance which brought me there. That I was a prisoner I did not doubt, +until the man at my side said to me, cheerily: 'Well, old chap, you've +come through it like a major, though I was mighty dubious a spell about +that pesky ball. But old Aunt Bab and me fished it out, and since then +you've begun to mend.' + +"'Where am I? Who are you?' I asked, and he replied: 'Who be I? Why, I'm +Jack Jennin's, the rarinest, red-hottest secesh thar is in these yere +parts, so the rebs thinks; but 'twixt you and me, boy, I'm the tallest +kind of a Union--got a piece of the old flag sewed inside of my boots, +and every night before sleepin' I prays Lord gin Abe the victory,' and +raise Cain generally in t'other camp, and forgive Jack Jennin's for +tellin' so many lies, and makin' b'leeve he's one thing, when you know +and he knows he's t'other. If I've spared one Union chap, I'll bet I +have a hundred, me and old Bab, a black woman who lives here and tends +to the cases I fotch her, till we contrive to git 'em inter Tennessee, +whar they hev to shift for themselves.' + +"I could only press his bony hand in token of my gratitude, while he +went on to say: 'Them was beans I fired at you that day, but they sarved +every purpose, and them scalliwags on the train s'pose you were put +under ground weeks ago, if, indeed, you wasn't left to rot in the sun, +as heaps and heaps on 'em is. Nobody knows you are here but Bab and me, +and nobody must know if you want to git off with a whole hide. I could +git a hundred dollars by givin' you up, but you don't s'pose Jack +Jennin's is agwine to do that ar infernal trick? No, sir,' and he +brought his brawny fist down upon his knee with a force which made me +tremble, while I tried to express my thanks for his great kindness. He +was a noble man, Helen, while Aunt Bab, the colored woman, who nursed me +so tenderly, and whose black, bony hands I kissed at parting, was as +true a woman as any with a fairer skin and more beautiful exterior. + +"For three weeks longer I stayed up in that loft, and in that time three +more escaped prisoners were brought there, and one Union refugee from +North Carolina. We left in company one wild, rainy night, when the storm +and darkness must have been sent for our special protection, and Jack +Jennings cried like a little child when he bade me good-by, promising, +if he survived the war, to find his way to the North and visit me in New +York. I should be prouder, Helen, to welcome him to our home than to +entertain the Emperor of France, while Bab should have a seat at my own +table, and I be honored by it. There are many such noble spirits there, +and when I remember them, I wish to spare a land which I once hoped +might be burned with fire until no trace was left. We found them +everywhere, and especially among the mountains of Tennessee, where, but +for their timely aid, we had surely been recaptured. The negroes, too, +were powerful helps, and in no single case has a black man proved +treacherous to his suffering white brother, I was not an Abolitionist +when the war broke out, but I am one now, and to see the negro free I +would almost spill my last drop of blood. They are a patient, +all-enduring, faithful race, and without them the bones of many a poor +wretch who now sits by his own fireside and recounts the perils he has +escaped, would whiten in the Southern swamps or on the Southern +mountains. Three times were we chased by bloodhounds, and in every case +the negroes were the means of saving us from certain death. For weeks we +were hidden in a cave, hunted by the Confederates by day, and fed at +night by negroes, who told us when and where to go. With blistered feet +and bruised limbs, we reached the lines at last, when fever attacked me +for the second time and brought me near to death. Somebody wrote to you, +but you never received it, and when I grew better I would not let them +write again, as I wanted to surprise you. As soon as I was able I +started North, my thoughts full of the joyful meeting in store--a +meeting which I dreaded, too, for I knew you must think me dead, and I +felt so sorry for you, my darling, knowing, as I did, you would mourn +for your soldier husband. That my darling has mourned is written on her +face, and needs no words to tell it; but that is over now," Mark said, +folding his wife closer to him, and kissing the pale lips which +whispered: + +"Yes, I have been so sorry, Mark--so tired, so sad, and life was such a +burden, I would gladly have laid it down." + +"The burden is now removed," Mark said, and then he told her how, +arrived at Albany, he had telegraphed to his mother, asking where Helen +was. + +"In Silverton," was the reply, and so he came on in the morning train, +meeting his mother in Springfield, as he had half expected to do, +knowing that she could leave New York in time to join him there. + +"No words of mine," he said, "are adequate to describe the thrill of joy +with which I looked again upon the hills and rocks so identified with +you that I loved them for your sake, hailing them as old, familiar +friends, and actually growing sick and faint with excitement when, +through the leafless woods, I caught the gleam of Fairy Pond, where I +gathered the lilies for you. Does my darling remember it?" + +He knew she did by the clasp of her hand, and he continued: + +"Had a dead body risen from its grave, and walked into the farmhouse, +carrying its coffin with it, it could not have created greater +consternation, or made worse havoc with the people's wits than did my +sudden appearance in their midst. Good Aunt Betsy, I am sorry to say, +fell the entire length of the cellar stairs, spraining her ankle, +bruising her elbow shockingly, and, direst calamity of all, in her +estimation, breaking the dish of charlotte russe she was holding in her +hand. There is a wedding in progress, I learned from mother, and it +seems very meet that I should come at this time, making, in reality, a +double wedding, when I can truly claim my bride," and Mark kissed Helen +passionately, laughing to see how the blushes broke over her white face, +and burned upon her neck. + +Those were happy moments which they passed together upon that ledge of +rocks, happy enough to atone for all the dreadful past, and when at last +they arose and slowly retraced their steps to the farmhouse, it seemed +to Mark that Helen's cheeks were rounder, fuller, than when he found +her, while Helen knew that the arm on which she leaned was stronger than +when it first inclosed her an hour or two ago. + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +THE WEDDING. + + +Many times Aunt Betsy had hobbled to the door, and shading her eyes with +her hand, had looked wistfully up the hill in quest of Mark and Helen, +wondering why they stayed out so long, when they must know the sun was +nearly down, and wondering next if Morris would never go home about his +business and give Katy a chance to dress. + +Poor, worried, unfortunate Aunt Betsy! her foot was very lame, and her +arm was badly bruised; but she bandaged it up in camphor and sugar, +wincing at the terrible smart when the wash was at first applied, but +saying to Morris, who asked if it did not hurt cruelly: "Yes, it hurts +some, but nothin' to what the poor soldiers is hurt; and I wouldn't mind +it an atom if I hadn't broke the dish with the heathenish name." + +And, indeed, the loss of the charlotte russe did weigh heavily on Aunt +Betsy's mind, proving the straw too many, and only Bell Cameron, who, +with Lieutenant Bob, had come on the same train with Mark and Mrs. +Banker, had power to reassure her by telling her that charlotte russe +was not essential at all; that, for her part, she was glad to have it +out of sight, as it was her especial detestation. This comforted Aunt +Betsy, who had made many of her preparations for the wedding with a +direct reference to the "city folks" so confidently expected. The +substantials were for the neighbors--those who would have no supper at +home, but reserve their appetites for the wedding viands; while the +delicacies, the knickknacks, were designed exclusively for "them +stuck-up critters, the Camerons," not one of whom, it now seemed, would +be present except Bell. Father Cameron was not able to come; he would +gladly have done so if he could, and he sent his blessing to Katy, with +the wish that she might be very happy in her second married life. This +message Bell gave to Katy, and then tried to form some reasonable excuse +for her mother's and Juno's absence, for she could not tell how +haughtily both had declined the invitation, Juno finding fault because +Katy had not waited longer than two years, and Mrs. Cameron blaming her +for being so very vulgar as to be married at home, instead of in church, +where she ought to be. On this point Katy herself had been a little +disquieted, feeling how much more appropriate it was that she be married +in the church, but shrinking from standing again a bride at the same +altar where she had once before been made a wife. She could not do it, +she finally decided; there would be too many harrowing memories crowding +upon her mind, and as Morris did not particularly care where the +ceremony was performed, provided he got Katy at the last, it was settled +that it should be at the house, even though Mrs. Deacon Bannister did +say that she had supposed Dr. Grant too High Church to do anything as +Presbyterianny as that. + +Bell's arrival at the farmhouse was timely, for the unexpected +appearance in their midst of one whom they looked upon as surely dead +had stunned and bewildered the family to such an extent that it needed +the presence of just such a matter-of-fact, self-possessed woman as +Bell to bring things back to their original shape. It was wonderful how +the city girl fitted into the vacant niches, seeing to everything which +needed seeing to, and still finding time to steal away alone with +Lieutenant Bob, who kept her in a painful state of blushing by +constantly wishing it was his bridal night as well as Dr. Grant's, and +by inveighing against the weeks which must still intervene ere the day +appointed for the grand ceremony to take place in Grace Church, and +which was to make Bell his wife. + + * * * * * + +"Ain't Morris ever goin' home? He won't be dressed in time, as sure as +the world, if he stays here much longer," Aunt Betsy said a dozen times, +until at last her patience was exhausted, and going boldly in where he +was, she bade him start in at once, or he would not have time to put on +his best coat and jacket, let alone Katy's changin' her clothes. + +Thus importuned, Morris quitted the house, just as Mark and Helen came +slowly up, their faces happier, if possible, than his own, and telling +of the great joy which had succeeded their dark night of sorrow. + + * * * * * + +"Come in here, Helen, I have something to show you," Mrs. Banker said, +after she had again embraced and wept over her long-lost son, whose +return was not quite real yet, and leading her daughter-in-law to her +bedroom, she showed her the elegant white silk which had been made for +her just after her marriage, two years before, and which with careful +forethought she had brought with her, as more suitable now for the +wedding than Helen's mourning weeds. + +"I made the most of my time last night after receiving Mark's telegram, +and had it modernized somewhat," she said. "And I brought your pearls, +for you know you will be most as much a bride as Katy, and I have a +pride in seeing my son's wife appropriately dressed." + +Far different were Helen's feelings now, as she donned the elegant +dress, from what they had been the first and only time she wore it. Then +the bridegroom was where danger and death lay thickly around his +pathway, but now he was at her side, kissing her cheek where the roses +were burning so brightly, and calling still deeper blushes to her face +by his teasing observations and humorous ridicule of his own personal +appearance. Would she not feel ashamed of him, in his soiled, faded +uniform? And would she not cast longing glances at her handsome +brother-in-law and the stylish Lieutenant Bob? But Helen was proud of +her husband's uniform, as a badge of what he had suffered, and when the +folds of her rich dress swept against it, she did not draw them away, +but nestled closer to him, leaning upon his shoulder, and when no one +was near, winding her soft arms about his neck, whispering: "My darling +Mark, I cannot make it real yet." + +Softly the night shadows fell around the farmhouse, and in the rooms +below a rather mixed group was assembled--all the _elite_ of the town, +with many of Aunt Betsy's neighbors, and the doctor's patients, who had +come to see their loved physician married, rejoicing in his happiness, +and glad that the mistress of Linwood was not to be a stranger, but the +young girl who had grown up in their midst, and who, by suffering and +sorrow, had been molded into a noble woman, worthy of Dr. Grant. She was +ready now for her second bridal, and she looked like some pure waxen +figure in her dress of white, with no vestige of color in her face, and +her great blue eyes shining with a brilliancy which made them almost +black. Occasionally, as her thoughts leaped backward over a period of +almost six years, a tear trembled on her long eyelashes, but Morris, as +often as he saw it, kissed it away, asking if she were sorry. + +"Oh, no, not sorry that I am to be your wife," she answered; "but it is +not possible that I should forget entirely the roughness of the road +which has led me to you." + +"They are waiting for you," was said several times ere the parties +waited for were quite ready to go; but everything was done at last, and +slowly down the stairs passed Mark Ray and Helen, Lieutenant Bob and +Bell, with Dr. Grant and Katy, whose face, as she stood again before the +clergyman and spoke her marriage vows, shone with a strange, peaceful +light, which made it seem to those who gazed upon her like the face of +some pure angel. + +There was no thought then of that deathbed in Georgetown--no thought of +Greenwood, or the little grave in Silverton, where the crocuses and +hyacinths were blossoming--no thought of anything save the man at her +side, whose voice was so full and earnest, as it made the responses, and +who gently pressed the little hand as he fitted the wedding ring. It was +over at last, and Katy was Morris' wife, blushing now as they called her +Mrs. Grant, and putting up her rosebud lips to be kissed by all who +claimed that privilege. Helen, too, came in for her share of attention, +and the opinion of the guests as to the beauty of the respective brides, +as they were termed, was pretty equally divided; both were beautiful, +and both bore traces of the suffering and suspense which had purified +and made them better. + +In heavy, rustling silk, which actually trailed an inch, and cap of real +lace, Aunt Betsy hobbled among the crowd, her face aglow with the +satisfaction she felt at seeing her nieces so much admired and +appreciated, and her heart so full of good will and toleration that +after the supper was over, and she fancied a few of the younger ones +were beginning to feel tired, she suggested to Bell that she might start +a dance if she had a mind to, either in the kitchen or parlor, it did +not matter where, and "Ephraim would not care an atom," a remark which +brought from Mrs. Deacon Bannister a most withering look of reproach, +and slightly endangered Aunt Betsy's standing in the church. Perhaps +Bell Cameron suspected as much, for she replied that they were having a +splendid time as it was, and as Dr. Grant did not dance, they might as +well dispense with it altogether. And so it happened that there was no +dancing at Katy's wedding, and Uncle Ephraim escaped the reproof which +his brother deacon would have felt called upon to give him had he +permitted so grievous a sin, while Mrs. Deacon Bannister, who, at the +first trip of the toe, would have felt it her duty to depart, lest her +eyes should look upon the evil thing, was thus permitted to remain until +"it was out," and the guests retired _en masse_ to their respective +homes. + + * * * * * + +The carriage from Linwood stood at the farmhouse door, and Katy, +wrapped in shawls and hood, was ready to go with her husband to the home +where she knew so much of rest and quiet awaited her. There were no +tears shed at this parting, for their darling was not going far away; +her new home was just across the fields, and through the soft moonlight +they could see its chimney tops, and trace for some little distance the +road over which the carriage went, bearing her swiftly on, her hands +fast locked in Morris', her head upon his arm, and the hearts of both +too full of bliss for either to speak a word until Linwood was reached, +when, folding Katy to his bosom in a passionate embrace, Morris said to +her: + +"We are home at last--your home and mine, my precious, precious wife." + +The village clock was striking one, and the sound echoed across the +waters of Fairy Pond, awakening, in his marshy bed, a sleeping frog, who +sent forth upon the warm, still air a musical, plaintive note as Morris +bore his bride over the threshold and into the library, where on the +hearth a cheerful fire was blazing. He had ordered it kindled there, for +he had a fancy ere he slept to see fulfilled the dream he had dreamed so +often, of Katy sitting in the chair across the hearth, where he placed +her now, himself removing her shawl and hood, then kneeling down before +her, with his arm around her waist and his head upon her shoulder, he +prayed aloud to the God who had brought her there, asking His blessing +upon their future life, and dedicating himself and all he had to his +Master's service. It is such prayer which God delights to answer; and a +peace, deeper than they had yet known, fell upon that newly-married pair +at Linwood. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +CONCLUSION. + + +The scene shifts now to New York, where, one week after that wedding in +Silverton, Mark and Helen were, and where, too, were Morris and Katy. +But not on Madison Square. That house had been sold, and Katy had seen +it but once, her tears falling fast as driving slowly by with Morris +she gazed at the closed doors and windows of what was once her home, and +around which lingered no pleasant memories save that it was the +birthplace of Baby Cameron. Once Lieutenant Reynolds had thought to buy +it, but Bell said: "No, it would not be quite pleasant for Katy to visit +me there, and I mean to have her with me as much as possible," so the +house went to strangers, and a less pretentious, but quite as +comfortable, one was bought for Bell, so far uptown that Mrs. Cameron +pronounced it quite in the country, while Juno wondered how her sister +would manage to exist so far from everything, intimating that her visits +would be far between, a threat which Lieutenant Bob took quite +heroically; indeed, it rather enhanced the value of his pleasant home +than otherwise, for Juno was not a favorite, and his equanimity was not +likely to be disturbed if she never crossed his threshold. She was +throwing bait to Arthur Grey, the man who swore he was forty-five to +escape the draft, and who, now that the danger was over, would gladly +take back his oath and be forty, as he really was. With the most +freezing kiss imaginable, Juno had greeted Katy, calling her "Mrs. +Grant," and treating Morris as if he were an entire stranger, instead of +the man whom to get she would once have moved both earth and heaven. +Mrs. Cameron, too, though glad in her heart that Katy was married, and +fully approving of her choice, threw into her manner so much reserve +that Katy's intercourse with her was anything but agreeable, and she +turned with alacrity to Father Cameron, who had received her with open +arms, calling her his daughter, and welcoming Morris as his son, taken +in Wilford's stead. "My boy," he frequently called him, showing by his +manner how willingly he accepted him as the husband of one whom he +really loved as his child. Greatly he wished that they should stay with +him while they remained in New York, but Katy preferred going with Helen +to Mrs. Banker's, where she would be more quiet, and avoid the bustle +and confusion attending the preparations for Bell's wedding. It was to +be a grand church affair, and to take place during Easter week, after +which the bridal pair were going on to Washington, Fortress Monroe, and, +if possible, to Richmond, where Bob had been a prisoner. Everything +seemed conspiring to make the occasion a joyful one, for all through +the North, from Maine to California, the air was rife with the jubilee +songs of victory, and the notes of approaching peace. But, alas! He who +holds our country's destiny in His hand changed that song of gladness +into a wail of woe, which, echoing through the land, rose up to Heaven +in one mighty sob of anguish, as the whole nation bemoaned its loss. Our +President was dead!--foully, cruelly murdered!--and New York was in +mourning, so black, so profound, that with a shudder Bell Cameron tossed +aside the orange wreath and said to her lover: "We will be married at +home. I cannot now go to the church, when everything seems so like one +great funeral." + +And so in Mrs. Cameron's drawing-room there was a quiet wedding one +pleasant April morning, and Bell's plain traveling dress was far more +in keeping with the gloom which hung over the great city than her gala +robes would have been, with a long array of carriages and merry wedding +chimes. Westward they went, instead of South, and when our late lamented +President was borne back to the prairie of Illinois, they were there to +greet the noble dead, and mingle their tears with those who knew and +loved him long before the world appreciated his worth. + + * * * * * + +Softly the May rain falls on Linwood, where the fresh green grass is +springing and the early spring flowers blooming, and where Katy, fairest +flower of all, stands for a moment in the deep bay window of the +library, listening dreamily to the patter on the tin roof overhead, and +gazing wistfully down the road, as if watching for some one, then +turning, she enters the dining-room and inspects the supper table, +shining with silver, and laid for six, for her mother, Aunt Hannah and +Aunt Betsy are visiting her this rainy afternoon, while Morris, on his +return from North Silverton, where he has gone to see a patient, is to +call for Uncle Ephraim, who, in clean linen, checked gingham neck +handkerchief and the swallow-tailed coat which has served him for so +many years, sits waiting at home, with one kitten in his lap and +another on his shoulder. + +Linwood is a nice place to visit, and the old ladies enjoy it vastly, +especially Aunt Betsy, who never tires of telling what they have "over +to Katy's," and whose capeless shaker hangs often on the hall stand, +just as it hangs now, while she, good soul, sits in the pleasant parlor, +near the blazing fire, and darns the socks for Morris, taking as much +pains as if it were a network of fine lace she was weaving, instead of a +shocking rent in some luckless heel or toe. Upstairs there is a pleasant +room which Katy calls Aunt Betsy's, and in it is the feather bed on +which Wilford Cameron once slept, a part of Katy's "setting out," which +never found its way to Madison Square. Morris himself did not think much +of feathers, but he made no objection when Aunt Betsy insisted on +sending over the bed kept for so many years, and only smiled a droll +kind of smile when he one morning met it coming up the walk in the +wheelbarrow which Uncle Ephraim trundled. + +Morris and his young wife were very happy together, and Katy found the +hours of his absence very long, especially when she was left alone. Even +to-day, with her aunts and mother, the time drags heavily, and she looks +more than once from the bay window, until at last Brownie's head is seen +over the hill, and a few moments after Morris' arm is around her +shoulders, and her lips are upturned for the kiss he gives as he leads +her into the house out of the chill, damp air, chiding her gently for +exposing herself to the rain, and placing in her hand three letters, +which she does not open until the cozy tea is over and her family +friends have gone. Then, while her husband looks over his evening paper, +she breaks the seals, one by one, reading first the letter from "Mrs. +Bob Reynolds," who has returned from the West, and who is in the full +glory of her bridal calls. + +"I was never so happy in my life as I am now," she wrote. "Indeed, I did +not know that a married woman could be so happy; but then every woman +has not a Bob for her husband, which makes a vast difference. You ought +to see Juno. I know she envies me, though she affects the utmost +contempt for matrimony, and reminds me forcibly of the fox and the +grapes. You see, Arthur Grey is a failure, so far as Juno is concerned, +he having withdrawn from the field and laid himself, with his forty-five +years, at the feet of Sybil Grandon, who will be Mrs. Grey, and a bride +at Saratoga the coming summer. Juno, I believe, intends going, too, as +the bridesmaid of the party; but every year her chances lessen, and I +have very little hope that father will ever call other than Bob his son, +always excepting Morris, of course, whom he really has adopted in place +of Wilford. You don't know, Katy, how much father thinks of you, +blessing the day which brought you to us, and saying that if he is ever +saved, he shall in a great measure owe it to your sweet influence and +consistent life after the great trouble came upon you." + +There were tears in Katy's eyes as she read this letter from Bell, and +with a mental prayer of thanksgiving that she had been of any use in +guiding even one to the Shepherd's fold, she took next the letter whose +superscription made her tremble for a moment and turn faint, it brought +back so vividly to her mind the daisy-covered grave in Alnwick, whose +headstone bore Genevra Lambert's name. Marian, who was now at Annapolis, +caring for the returned prisoners, did not write often, and her letters +were prized the more by Katy, who read with a heating heart the kind +congratulations upon her recent marriage, sent by Marian Hazelton. + +"I knew how it would end, even when you were in Georgetown," she wrote, +"and I am glad that it is so, praying daily that you may be as happy +with Dr. Grant as to remember the sad past only as some dream from which +you have awakened. I thank you for your invitation to visit Linwood, and +when my work is over I may come for a few weeks and rest in your bird's +nest of a home. Thank God the war is ended; but my boys need me yet, and +until the last crutch has left the hospital, and the last worn figure +gone, I shall stay where duty lies. What my life will henceforth be I do +not know, but I have sometimes thought that with the ample funds you so +generously bestowed upon me, I shall open a school for orphan children, +taking charge myself, and so doing some good. Will you be the lady +patroness, and occasionally enliven us with the light of your +countenance? I have left the hospital but once since you were here, and +then I went to Wilford's grave. Forgive me, Katy, if I did wrong in +wishing to kneel once upon the sod which covered him. I prayed for you +while there, remembering only that you had been his wife. In a little +box where no eyes but mine ever look, there is a bunch of flowers +plucked from Wilford's grave. They are faded now and withered, but +something of their sweet perfume lingers still; and I prize them as my +greatest treasure, for, except the lock of raven hair severed from his +head, they are all that is remaining to me of the past, which now seems +so far away. It is time to make my nightly round of visits, so I must +bid you good-by. The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you, +and be with you forever. + +"MARIAN HAZELTON." + +For a long time Katy held this letter in her hand, wondering if the +sorrowful woman whose life was once so strangely blended with that of +Marian Hazelton and the pale occupant of that grave at Greenwood, whence +the flowers came, could be the Katy Grant who sat by the evening fire at +Linwood, with no shadow on her brow, and only the sunshine of perfect +happiness resting on her heart. "Truly, He doeth all things well to +those who wait upon Him," she thought, as she laid down Marian's letter +and took up the third and last, Helen's letter, dated at Fortress +Monroe, whither with Mark Ray she had gone just after Bell Cameron's +bridal. + +"You cannot imagine," she wrote, "the feelings of awe and even terror +which steal over me the nearer I get to the seat of war, and the more I +realize the bloody strife we have been engaged in, and which, thank God, +has now so nearly ceased. You have heard of John Jennings, the noble man +who saved my dear husband's life, and of Aunt Bab, who helped in the +good work? Both are here. It seems that suspicion was aroused against +them at last, and Bab was cruelly whipped to make her confess where a +Union prisoner was hidden; but, though the blows cut deep into her back, +bringing the blood at every stroke, she never uttered a word; and with +her wounds all smarting as they were, she helped the poor boy off, and +then with her master, John Jennings, started for the North. I never saw +Mark more pleased than when seized around the neck by two long, brawny +arms, while a cheery voice called out: 'Hello, old chap, has you done +forgot John Jennin's?' I verily believe Mark cried, and I know I did, +especially when old Bab came up and shook 'young misses' hand.' I kissed +her, Katy--all black, and rough, and uncouth as she was. I kissed her +more than once, and felt honored in doing so. Poor Bab! her back is +still a piteous sight, and I dress it every day, shuddering at the +sight, and thanking God that slavery, with all its horrors, is at an +end. I wish you could see how grateful the old creature is for every act +of kindness. She says 'the very feel of misses' soft, white hands makes +her old back better,' and she praises me continually to Mark, who is +just foolish enough to believe all she says. When we come home again, +both John and Bab will come with us, though what we shall do with John +is more than I can tell. Mark says he shall employ him about the office, +and this I know will delight Tom Tubbs, who has again made friends with +Chitty, and who will almost worship John as having saved Mark's life. +Aunt Bab shall have an honored seat by the kitchen fire, and a pleasant +room all to herself, working only when she likes, and doing as she +pleases. + +"Did I tell you that Mattie Tubbs was to be my seamstress? I am getting +together a curious household, you will say; but I like to have those +about me to whom I can do the greatest amount of good, and as I happen +to know how much Mattie admires 'the Lennox girls,' I did not hesitate +to take her, even though Mark did ask if I intended bringing her into +the parlor to help entertain my company. Mark is a saucy, teasing +fellow, and I see more and more how he kept up that dreadful +Andersonville while so many of his comrades died. Dear Mark! can I ever +be grateful enough to God for bringing him home? + +"We stopped at Annapolis on our way here, and I shall never forget the +pale, worn faces, or the great, sunken eyes which looked at me so +wistfully as I went from cot to cot, speaking words of cheer to the +sufferers, some of whom were Mark's companions in prison, their dim eyes +lighting up with joy as they recognized him and heard of his escape. +There are several nurses here, but no words of mine can tell what one of +them is to the poor fellows, or how eagerly they watch for her coming, +following her with so greedy glances as he moves about the room, and +holding her hand with a clasp, as if they would keep her with them +always. Indeed, more than one heart, as I am told, has confessed its +allegiance to her; but she answers all the same: 'I have no love to +give. It died out long ago, and cannot be recalled.' Yon can guess who +she is, Katy. The soldiers call her an angel, but we know her as +Marian." + +There were great tear-blots upon that letter as Katy put it aside, and +nestling close to Morris, laid her head upon his knee, where his hand +could smooth her golden curls, while she gazed long and earnestly into +the fire, musing upon Helen's closing words, and thinking how much they +expressed, and how just a tribute they were to the noble woman whose +life had been one constant sacrifice of self for another's good--"The +soldiers call her an angel, but we know her as Marian." + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Family Pride, by Mary J. Holmes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILY PRIDE *** + +***** This file should be named 15607.txt or 15607.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/6/0/15607/ + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Mary Meehan, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/15607.zip b/15607.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2fc1c57 --- /dev/null +++ b/15607.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff3e90a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #15607 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15607) |