ching the
effect the news produced upon her--but after the remark that the mails
were always irregular from those far-away countries, she had turned the
conversation into other channels, she having caught sight of Willits,
who had just dismounted from his horse.

As to St. George's own position in the affair he felt that his hands
were still so firmly tied that he could do nothing one way or the other.
His personal intercourse with Willits had been such as he would always
have with a man with whom he was on speaking terms, but it never passed
that border. He was courteous, careful of his speech, and mindful of the
young man's devotion to Kate, whose guardian for the time being he was,
but he neither encouraged nor thwarted his suit. Kate was of age and
was fully competent to decide for herself--extremely competent, for that
matter.

How little this clear reader of women's hearts--and scores had been
spread out before him--knew of Kate's, no one but the girl herself could
have told. That she was adrift on an open sea without a rudder, and that
she had already begun to lose confidence both in her seamanship and in
her compass, was becoming more and more apparent to her every day she
lived. All she knew positively was that she had been sailing before the
wind for some weeks past with everything flying loose, and that the time
had now come for her either to "go about" or keep on her course.

Her suitor's family she had carefully considered. She had also studied
his environment and the impression he made upon those who had known him
longest:--she must now focus her mental lenses on the man himself. He
had, she knew, graduated with honors, being the valedictorian of his
class; had risen rapidly in his profession, and, from what her father
said, would soon reach a high place among his brother lawyers. There was
even talk of sending him to the legislature, where her own father, the
Honorable Prim, had achieved his title. She wished, of course, that Mr.
Willits's hair was not quite so red; she wished, too, that the knuckles
on his hands were not so large and bony--and that he was not always at
her beck and call; but these, she was forced to admit, were trifles in
the make-up of a fine man. There was, however, a sane mind under the
carrot-colored hair and a warm palm inside the knotted knuckles, and
that was infinitely more important than little physical peculiarities
which one would forget as life went on. As to his periods of