Mary Jane Holmes

“ She was at home, uttering an exclamation of astonishment when she saw who her visitors were, and turning white as ashes, when Katy, taking her baby from Helen's arms, placed it in her lap, saying,
"You would not come to see it and so I brought it to you. Isn't she a beauty?"
There was a blur before Marian's eyes, a pressure about her heart which seemed congealing into stone, but she tried to stammer out something, bending over the tiny thing. Wilford Cameron's child, which she could not see for the thick blackness around her. ”

“ Like some marble statue Morris seemed as with lip compressed and brows firmly knit together he, too, sat watching Katy, feeling for the pulse and bending his ear to catch the faintest breath which came from her parted lips, while in his heart there was an earnest prayer for the safety of the soul hovering so evenly between this world and the next. He did not ask that she might live, for if all were well hereafter he knew it was far better for her to die in her young womanhood than to live till the heart now so sad and bleeding had grown calloused with sorrow. ”

“ Some men can love a dozen times; but it was not so with Morris. He could overcome his love so that it should not be a sin, but no other could ever fill the place where Katy had been; and as he looked along the road through life he felt that he must travel it alone. Truly, if Katy were not yet passing through the fire, he was, and it had left its mark upon him, purifying as it burned, and bringing his every act into closer submission to his God. Only Helen and Marian Hazelton interpreted aright that look upon his face, and knew it came from the hunger of his heart, but they kept silence ”

“ It was a most delightful trip, and Wilford was better satisfied with himself than he had been before in years. His past life was not all free from error, and there were many sad memories haunting him, but with Katy at his side, seeing what he saw, admiring what he admired, and doing what he bade her do, he gave the bygones to the wind, feeling only an intense desire to clasp the young girl in his arms and bear her away to some spot where with her pure fresh life all his own he could begin the world anew, and retrieve the past which he had lost. ”

“ Katy asked again. "Was there not a Sybil Grey, or some one of that name?"
At mention of Sybil Grey, Wilford looked relieved, and answered her at once:
"Yes, there was a Sybil Grey, Mrs. Judge Grandon now, and a dashing widow. Don't sigh so wearily," he continued, as Katy drew a gasping breath. "Knowing she was a widow, I chose you, thus showing which I preferred. Few men live to be thirty without more or less fancies, which under some circumstances might ripen into something stronger, and I am not an exception. I never loved Sybil Grey, nor wished to make her my wife. I admired her very much. ”

“ With a toss of her head Helen turned away, forgetting her resentment in the more absorbing thought that Katy was really leaving her.
The bell had rung, the heavy machinery groaned and creaked, and the long train was under way, while from an open window a little white hand was thrust, waving its handkerchief until the husband quietly drew it in, experiencing a feeling of relief that all was over, and that unless he chose, his wife need never go back again to that vulgar crowd standing upon the platform and looking with tearful eyes and aching hearts after the fast receding train. ”

“ Morris' carriage was at the door, and the newly married pair moved slowly out, Katy smiling upon all, kissing her hand to some and whispering a good-by to others, her diamond flashing in the light and her rich silk rustling as she walked, while at her side was Wilford, proudly erect, and holding his head so high as not to see one of the crowd around him, until arrived at the vestibule he stopped a moment and was seized by a young man with curling hair, saucy eyes, and that air of ease and assurance which betokens high breeding and wealth. ”

“ She liked going up to Linwood, as she often did. Its quiet seclusion, and the beauty of its grounds suited her taste, and she often passed hours in the pleasant summer house, or on the broad piazza, dreaming sometimes of the past, and sometimes, it must be confessed, dreaming of a future, and wondering what it would bring her when Mark came back, as come he would, and Helen was gone for good. She would be very lonely with people so much older than herself, and who did not understand the different tastes and ways of thinking which she had acquired. ”

“ He could not, with those fiery eyes fixed upon him, and he sat erect in his chair, while Katy talked of Silverton, and the days gone by until her voice grew very faint, ceasing at last as she fell into a second sleep, heavier, more death-like, than the first. Something in her face alarmed Morris, and in spite of the eyes watching him he bent every energy to retain the feeble pulse, and the breath which grew shorter with each respiration.
"Do you think her dying?" Wilford asked, and Morris replied: "Not yet; but the look about the mouth and nose is like the look which so often precedes death." ”

“ Katy was not insensible, and the name by which he called her, with the kisses that he gave, thawed the ice around her heart and brought a flood of tears which Morris wiped away, removing her heavy fur and lifting her gently up, while he took away the cloak and left her unencumbered. With a sigh she sank back into the chair, and, leaning her head upon its cushioned arm, moaned like a weary child.
"It is so pleasant to be here, and it rests me so. I wish I might never go away. May I stay here, Morris, as your housekeeper, instead of Mrs. Hull?—that is, if I am not his wife. ”

“ It is surely nothing to me what Katy Cameron does," he kept repeating to himself; but as often as he said it there came up before him a pale, anxious face, shaded with Helen Lennox's bands of hair, and Helen Lennox's voice whispered to him: "Save Katy, for my sake;" and so next day, when Mark found himself alone with Katy, while most of the guests were at the beach, he questioned her of her life at Saratoga and Newport, and gradually, as he talked, there crept into Katy's heart a suspicion that he was not altogether pleased with her account, or with what he had seen of her since his arrival. ”

“ Morris was thoroughly a man, and though much of his sinful nature had been subdued, there was enough left to make his heart rise and fall with great throbs of joy as he thought of Katy free, even though that freedom were bought at the expense of dire disgrace to others and of misery to her. But only for a moment did he feel thus, only till the bonnet was removed and the gaslight fell upon the pallid face with the dark rings beneath the eyes, and the faint, quivering motion around the lips, which told that she was not wholly unconscious. ”

“ An hour later and Morris came, relieving Marian of her burden which he carried in his own arms, while he strove to comfort Katy, who, crouching by the empty crib, was sitting motionless in a kind of dumb despair, all hope crushed out by his answer to her entreaties that he would tell her the truth, keeping nothing back.
"I think your baby will die," he had said to her very gently, pausing a moment in awe of the white face, whose expression terrified and shocked him, it was so full of agony.
Bowing her head upon her hands, poor Katy whispered sadly: "God must not take my baby. ”

“ Katy would not insist and so went alone with Wilford to the entertainment given to a few young men who seemed as heroes then, when the full meaning of that word had not been exemplified, as it has been since in the life so cheerfully laid down and the heart's blood poured so freely, by the tens of thousands who have won a martyr's and a hero's name. Curiously, eagerly Mark Ray scanned each new arrival, feeling his lips grow white and his pulses faint when he at last caught sight of Wilford's tall figure, and looked for what might be beside it. ”

“ She was very earnest in her attempts to prove that Genevra was still a lawful wife, so earnest that a dark suspicion entered Morris's mind, finding vent in the question, "Katy, don't you love your husband, that you try so hard to prove he is not yours?"
There were red spots all over Katy's face and neck as she saw the meaning put upon her actions, and covering her face with her hands she sobbed violently as she replied: "I do, oh, yes, I do. I never loved any one else. I would have died for him once. Maybe I would die for him now; but, Morris, I fear he is disappointed in me. ”