was sorry to have been
recalled for nothing to a country which brought his old life back again,
with all its forms and ceremonies, reviving his dread lest Katy should
not acquit herself as was becoming Mrs. Wilford Cameron. In his
selfishness he had kept her almost wholly to himself, so that the polish
she was to acquire from her travels abroad was not as perceptible as,
now that he looked at her with his family's eyes, he could desire. Katy
was Katy still, in spite of London, Paris, or Rome. To be sure there
was about her a little more maturity and self-assurance, but in all
essential points she was the same; and Wilford winced as he thought how
the free, impulsive manner which, among the Scottish hills, where there
was no one to criticise, had been so charming to him, would shock his
lady mother and Sister Juno. And this it was which made him moody and
silent, replying hastily to Katy when she said to him: "Please, Wilford,
telegraph to Helen to be with mother at the West depot when we pass
there to-morrow. The train stops five minutes, you know, and I want to
see them so much. Will you, Wilford?"

She had come up to him now, and was standing behind him, with her hands
upon his shoulder; so she did not see the expression of his face as he
answered quickly;

"Yes, yes."

A moment after he quitted the room, and it was then that Katy, standing
before the window, charged the day with what was strictly Wilford's
fault. Returning at last to her chair she went off into a reverie as to
the new home to which she was going and the new friends she was to meet,
wondering much what they would think of her, and wondering most if they
would like her. Once she had said to Wilford:

"Which of your sisters shall I like best?"

And Wilford had answered her by asking:

"Which do you like best, books or going to parties in full dress?"

"Oh, parties and dress," Katy had said, and Wilford had then rejoined:

"You will like Juno best, for she is all fashion and gayety, while
Bluebell prefers her books and the quiet of her own room."

Katy felt afraid of Bell, and in fact, now that they were so near, she
felt afraid of them all, notwithstanding Esther's assurances that they
could not help loving her. During the six months they had been together
Esther had learned to feel for her young lady that strong affection
which sometimes exists between mistress and servant. Everything which
she could do for her she did, smoothing as much as p