have written that they are coming to visit us,--us, Katie? You remember
they had an invitation to our wedding,--they shall have another,
dearest,--and could not come then, but they propose paying us a visit in
our own home at Seascape where they suppose we are living now, you and
I. I told you about my staying with them in England and asking them to
visit me when I was married. I was thinking then of my chances of being
engaged to you, Katie."

"Yes, you told me of them," she said, and after a pause added, "You will
have to write them the truth."

"It is too late for that to do any good. They follow close on the heels
of the letter; that is, by the next ship."

"Then I suppose Aunt Faith will take them, either at your father's, or
at Seascape. Which will it be, Stephen?"

"That house! It can never be opened until you do it, Katie; you know
that well enough."

The girl sighed. Yet with all the sadness of her lot it was delightful
to be loved and mourned over in this way; mourned over, and yet perhaps
not lost.

"I don't know about that being the best way," she returned slowly. "You
know Stephen, Uncle Walter is peculiar, and you could not entertain your
guests yourself; you would not have freedom. Really, it would not be
quite as nice for you."

"Always thinking of me," he cried. "It seems now that the only freedom I
care about is the freedom to make you my wife, Katie."

"Yes," she sighed again and was silent a moment. Then she said, "But
Stephen, if Aunt Faith is there, you know it won't be like anybody else,
and you can show them the house I am going to have. Do you believe
that?" she broke out suddenly. "Do you really believe that? This
uncertainty is killing me--don't imagine that I could not wait for
years, I am not dying for you, Stephen; I should not do such a thing, of
course. But not to know! I must know soon; life is unendurable under
such a strain."

"Poor little girl, she was not made, surely, to bear suffering," thought
Archdale. And he went away assured that she was most of all to be
pitied, that she was least protected from the North wind which was
blowing against them all three. As to the house, she should certainly
have her way about it. He saw that she was sacrificing her own feelings
for him. She did not understand that it was making matters a great deal
harder, she thought that she was making it pleasanter for him. Well, she
should have the satisfaction of believing she had done so. It did