to put up with her. Thank goodness! I'm going to be
married."

"Thank goodness!" repeated Eeny; "there will be peace in the house when
you're out of it. I don't know any one I pity half so much as that poor
M. La Touche."

Kate saw Rose's angry retort in her eyes, and hurried away from the
coming storm. She kept her room until luncheon-time, and she found her
father alone in the dining-room when she entered. The anxious look he
gave her made her think of Father Francis' words.

"I have heard all, papa," she said, smiling, and holding up her cheek.
"I am glad you will be happy when we are gone."

He drew a long breath of relief as he kissed her.

"Father Francis told you? You like Grace?"

"I want to like every one you like, papa," she replied, evasively.

Grace came in as she spoke, and, in spite of herself, Kate's face took
that cold, proud look it often wore; but she went up to her with
outstretched hand. She never shrank from disagreeable duties.

"Accept my congratulations," she said, frigidly. "I trust you will be
happy."

Two deep red spots, very foreign to her usual complexion, burned in
Grace's cheeks. Her only answer was a bow, as she took her seat at the
table.

It was a most comfortless repast. There was a stiffness, a restraint
over all, that would not be shaken off--with one exception. Rose, who
latterly had been all in the downs, took heart of grace amid the general
gloom, and rattled away like the Rose of other days. To her the idea of
her father's marriage was rather a good joke than otherwise. She had no
deep feelings to be wounded, no tender memories to be hurt, and the
universal embarrassment tickled her considerably.

"You ought to have heard everybody talking on stilts, Reginald," she
said, in the flow of her returned spirits, some hours later, when the
gentlemen returned. "Kate was on her dignity, you know, and as
unapproachable as a princess-royal, and Grace was looking disconcerted
and embarrassed, and papa was trying to be preternaturally cheerful and
easy, and Eeny was fidgety and scared, and I was enjoying the fun. Did
you ever hear of anything so droll as papa's getting married?"

"I never heard of anything more sensible," said Reginald, resolutely.
"Grace is the queen of housekeepers, and will make the pink and pattern
of matrons. I have foreseen this for some time, and I assure you I am
delighted."

"So is Kate," said Rose, her eyes twinkling. "You ought to have seen her
co