er to bear the extreme distress caused by the prospect of
returning the poor children on their mother's hands.

A period of uncertainty is always trying, and the reflection that the
present crisis was the result of her unfortunate infringement of the
unalterable law of right and wrong overwhelmed her with a sense of
guilt. Had she not meddled with the matter, no doubt such a man as
Errington would, were the case properly represented to him, have given
some portion of the wealth bequeathed him to the family of the testator.
But how could she have foreseen? True; but she might have resisted the
temptation to deviate from the straight path. "She might!" What an abyss
of endless regret yawns at the sound of those words, used in the sense
of too late!

This was a hard worldly trouble over which she could not weep. Over and
over again she told herself that nothing should part her from the boys,
that she would devote her life to repair as far as possible the injury
she had done them. And Ada, would she also suffer for her (Katherine's)
sins? But while brooding constantly on these miserable thoughts she kept
a brave front, quiet and steady, though Miss Payne saw that her
composure hid a good deal of suffering.

It was more, however, than Katherine's resolution could accomplish to
keep a few evening engagements which she had made. "I should feel too
great an impostor," she said. "How thankful I shall be when the murder
is out and the nine days' wonder over! Have you any commissions, dear
Miss Payne? I want an object to take me out, and I feel I must not mope
in-doors."

"No, I cannot say I have any shopping to do, and I am obliged to go into
the City myself. Take a steady round of Kensington Gardens; it is quite
mild and bright to-day. I shall not return till six, I am afraid."

So Katherine went out alone immediately after luncheon, before the world
and his wife had time to get abroad. She had made a circuit of the
ornamental water, and was returning by the footpath near the sunk fence
which separates the Gardens from the Park, when she recognized De Burgh
coming toward her. He had been in her thoughts at the moment; for,
feeling that it was quite likely he had been considered a suitor, she
was anxious to give him an opportunity of making an honorable retreat
before society found out that the sceptre of wealth had slipped from her
hand.

"Pray is this the way you cure a cold?" he asked, abruptly. "Last night
Lady Mary Vi