ht of fashion,
and, worse still--oh, a thousand times worse!--she was bringing all her
charms to bear upon handsome Harry Kendal, who was walking up the
graveled walk with her.

"Why don't you answer me?" cried Dorothy, impatiently.

"She--she is about your height," stammered Katy, "and--and she is very
plain, and--and not so fair as you;" and Katy lifted up her face to
heaven, clasping her hands, whispering to herself: "May God forgive me!
It is my first lie!"

CHAPTER X.

Mrs. Kemp hastened to the door to meet her niece, and the next moment
the echo of a gay young voice, bright and joyous, rang through the
corridor.

"She must be a very happy girl, and light of heart," sighed Dorothy.

Katy, the maid, had nothing to say. Much to Dorothy's surprise, they did
not come to the room in which she was awaiting them, and she heard them
go on to the drawing-room, and the door close behind them.

Ten, twenty minutes, half an hour passed, still they did not come to
her, though the sound of their merry laughter fell upon her ears from
time to time. Katy tried to arouse her mistress' interest, but it was
useless--the girl never moved from her position, sitting pale and white
in the great arm-chair, with her sightless eyes turned toward the door.

Suddenly she turned to Katy with a great sob.

"They have forgotten me," she said.

Katy had come to this conclusion long before.

"I will tell them you are waiting," she replied, and as she spoke she
hurried from the room to the drawing-room. On the threshold she came
face to face with Mr. Kendal, and at a glance she could not help but
notice the happy, flushed look on his face.

"Miss Dorothy sent me in search of you, sir," she said, with a low
courtesy. The smile on his lips died away in an instant, giving place to
a dark frown of impatience.

"What does she want?" he asked, sharply.

"She says she is so lonesome, sir, and sent me to tell you so."

"Is there a minute of my life that she is not sending for me--expecting
me to be at her beck and call?" he said. "I am going out into the
conservatory to get some flowers for Miss Vincent. I guess it won't hurt
Dorothy to wait a little while, will it?"

"Is that what I shall tell her?" asked the girl, quietly.

"Tell her whatever you like," he said to the girl, hurrying on and
leaving her standing there with a very white, sorrowful face.

Slowly she walked back to the breakfast-room, her heart burning with
indi