king out, over the garden that
merged into a pasture, and so down gradually into the ravine where the
ruined slave-house stood.

"Suppose," she asked in a muffled voice, "suppose I couldn't marry? What
then?"

Kate believed she understood. The affair with Channing had left more of
a hurt than she had realized. Jacqueline, at seventeen, doubtless
considered herself a blighted being.--She controlled the smile that
twitched at her lips, and said cheerfully, "Then you will just have to
be a prop for my declining years. You won't begrudge me a prop, dear?
Surely _you_ don't want to go away from me?"

The unconscious emphasis on the pronoun went to Jacqueline's heart. She
remembered the day Jemima had shut them out into the world of people who
were not Kildares, she and her mother together....

She came back at a run, and plumped herself down on Kate's knees, great
girl that she was, hiding her face in that sheltering breast, holding
her mother tight, tight, as if she could never let her go.

Kate returned the embrace with interest. She, too, remembered.

"It will be something bigger than a career that takes you away from your
mother!" she whispered.

"Something bigger than a career," echoed Jacqueline, clinging closer.

CHAPTER XXXIV

Kate broached the subject of the New York trip at supper that night, but
met with no encouragement whatever from her elder daughter, somewhat to
her surprise.

"What is the use of buying an expensive trousseau? Mag sews quite well
enough, and anyway I have more clothes now than I know what to do with,"
she argued practically. "If you think I haven't enough lingerie and all
that, I can take some of Jacky's. It seems rather mean to desert a man
just as soon as you get engaged to him. Besides, James and I shall be
going to New York next month, on our wedding-trip."

"Next month?" cried Kate.

"Why, yes, Mother. There's no use putting it off, I think. James has
been alone so many years; and he certainly needs some one to look after
him. If you could see the pile of perfectly good socks in his closet
that only need a little darning!" She spoke unsentimentally as ever; but
there was a tone in her voice that made her mother give her hand a
little squeeze.

"Very well, dear. You shall be married to-morrow, if you like."

"To-morrow is a little soon. Suppose we say three weeks from to-day?"

Kate gasped, but consented.

Preparations for the wedding went on apace at Storm, tho