Newport, however, diverted his attention for a little, making him decide
to wait and see what Newport might have in store for him. But Newport
was dull this season, at least to him, though Juno and Bell both found
ample scope for their different powers of attraction, and his mother was
always happy when showing off her children and knowing that they were
appreciated. With Wilford it was different. Listless and taciturn, he
went through with the daily routine, wondering how he had ever found
happiness there, and finally, at the close of the season, casting all
policy and prudence aside, he wrote to Katy Lennox that he was coming
to Silverton on his way home, and that he presumed he should have no
difficulty in finding his way to the farmhouse.

CHAPTER IV.

PREPARING FOR THE VISIT.

"Of course he will not, for I shall ask Dr. Morris to go after him in
his carriage," Katy said, as out in the orchard where she was gathering
the early harvest apples she read the letter brought her by Uncle
Ephraim, her face crimsoning all over with happy blushes as she saw
the dear affixed to her name.

Katy had waited so anxiously for a letter, or some message which should
say that she was not forgotten by Wilford Cameron, but as the weeks went
by and it did not come, a shadow had fallen upon her spirits, and the
family missed something from her ringing laugh and frolicsome ways,
while she herself wondered why the household duties given to her should
be so utterly distasteful. She used to enjoy them so much, but now she
liked nothing except to go with Uncle Ephraim out into the fields where
she could sit alone while he worked nearby, or to ride with Morris as
she sometimes did when he made his round of calls. She was not as good
as she used to be, she thought, and with a view of making herself better
she took to teaching in Morris' and Helen's Sunday-school, greatly to
the distress of Aunt Betsy, who groaned bitterly when both her nieces
adopted the "Episcopal quirks," forsaking entirely the house where
Sunday after Sunday her old-fashioned leghorn with its faded ribbon of
green was seen, bending down in the humble worship which God so much
approves. But teaching in Sunday-school, taken by itself, could not make
Katy better, and the old restlessness remained until the morning when,
sitting on the grass beneath the apple tree, she read that Wilford
Cameron was coming. Then, as by magic, everything was changed, and Katy
never fo