ly pleased with the idea of having her
husband's distinguished relative for a virtuous and despairing adorer,
and his desertion had mortified her considerably.

"Yes, money is certainly a great help," returned Katherine, scarce
heeding what she said.

"It certainly has been to you, Katie. Don't think me disagreeable for
suggesting it, but do you suppose De Burgh would show you all this
devotion if you were to lose your money?"

"Oh no! He could not afford it. He told me he must marry a rich woman."

"Did he, really? It is just like him. What audacity! I wonder you ever
spoke to him again. Then you _are_ going in for rank, Katherine?"

"How can you tell? I don't know myself. Good-night. I shall tell you
whenever I know my own mind."

"She is as close as wax, with all her frankness," thought Mrs. Ormonde
as she went up to her room, after taking an affectionate leave of her
sister-in-law.

The boys at school, Katherine found time hung somewhat heavily on her
hands--a condition of things only too favorable to thought and visions
of what "might have been." So, with the earnest hope of finding the
exhilarations which might lead, through forgetfulness, to the happiness
she so eagerly craved, Katherine accepted almost all the invitations
which were soon showered upon her. At the houses of acquaintances she
had made abroad she made numerous new ones, who were quite ready to
_fete_, the handsome, sweet-voiced, pleasant-mannered heiress, who
seemed to think so little about herself.

"Just the creature to be imposed upon, my dear!" as each mother
whispered to the one next her, thinking, of course, of the other's son.

But her most satisfactory hours were those spent with Rachel, when they
talked of the business, and often branched off to more abstract
subjects. To the past they never alluded. Katherine was glad to see that
the dead, hopeless expression of Rachel Trant's eyes had changed, yet
not altogether for good. A certain degree of alertness had brightened
them, but with it had come a hard, steady look, as though the spirit
within had a special work to do, and was steeled and "straitened till it
be accomplished."

"You are quite a clever accountant, Rachel," said Katherine, one
afternoon in early April, after they had gone through the books
together. "You have been established nearly five months, and you have
paid expenses and a trifle over."

"It is not bad. Then, you see, the warehouses will give me credit for
t