r neither Bell nor Juno were wont to address him just as Katy
did--Katy, standing close to him, with her hand upon his shoulder and
her kiss yet fresh upon his lips.

She had already crept a long way into his heart, and he took her hand
from his shoulder and holding it between his own, said to her:

"I did not think you were so small or young. You are my little
daughter, my baby, instead of my son's wife. How do you ever expect
to fulfill the duties of Mrs. Wilford Cameron?"

"It's my short hair, sir. I am not so young," Katy answered, her eyes
filling with tears as she began to wish back the heavy braids which
Helen cut away when the fever was at its height.

"Never mind, child," Mr. Cameron rejoined, playfully. "Youth is no
reproach; there's many a one would give their right hand to be young
like you. Juno, for instance, who is--"

"Hus-band!" came reprovingly from Mrs. Cameron, spoken as only she could
speak it, with a prolonged buzzing sound on the first syllable, and
warning the husband that he was venturing too far.

"It is time to go down if Mrs. Cameron sees the young ladies before
dinner," she said, a little stiffly; whereupon her better half startled
Katy with the exclamation:

"Mrs. Cameron! Thunder and lightning, wife, call her Katy, and don't go
into any nonsense of that kind."

The lady reddened, but said nothing until she reached the hall, when she
whispered to Katy, apologetically:

"Don't mind it. He is rather irritable since his illness, and sometimes
makes use of coarse language."

Katy had been a little frightened at the outburst, but she liked Mr.
Cameron, notwithstanding, and her heart was lighter as she went down to
the library, where Wilford met her at the door, and taking her on his
arm led her in to his sisters, holding her back as he presented her,
lest she should assault them as she had his mother. But Katy felt no
desire to hug the tall, queenly girl whom Wilford introduced as Juno,
and whose large, black eyes seemed to read her through as she offered
her hand and very daintily kissed her forehead, murmuring something
about a welcome to New York. Bell came next, broad-faced,
plainer-looking Bell, who yet had many pretentions to beauty, but whose
manner, if possible, was frostier, cooler, than her sister's. Of the
two, Katy liked Juno best, for there was about her a flash and sparkle
very fascinating to one who had never seen anything of the kind and did
not know that much of this