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dumbly enduring her burden of grief, and irresponsible for what she did when goaded by its torment.

Durst he risk inciting a fresh outbreak?

Knowing what he knew, he felt he dared not. That, at least, she should be spared. Perhaps Evelyn was wrong,knowing what we know, undoubtedly he must seem so; but he was at least honest, and that he was unable at the moment to think with calmness, or to reason at all, should not surely be reckoned against him.

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Pollaxfen could not have chosen a better moment for instilling his poison. His auditor had been previously animated, uplifted, off his guard, it followed that the sudden shock threw his blood into a ferment which he could not master. Self-sacrifice and self-sacrifice on Kate's account was the only idea that seemed to do him any good; and alas! he pitched upon the unfortunate notion that, by checking the impulse which would have sent him to her side, he could benefit her most enduringly and unselfishly.

But where else to go? What to do? How to get away from it all?

Even the petty shafts of innocent jest and laughter over their fulfilled prophecy which would assail him from his intimates, would carry a sting altogether unintended; while the graver astonishment of slighter acquaintance, their questions and comments, would be insufferable.

Of course he could say that he had quarrelled with Pollaxfen, and say no more; but this one phrase would inevitably have to be repeated some fifty times a-day.

And it would be talked about, and allusions would be made to it, and the whole might get to Pollaxfen's ears, and set his tongue wagging in a self-defence which might lead to anything.

No, he had better be out of the way for a time.

He looked around him. During the bygone week he had somehow or other connected every object of note within those four walls with the thought of Kate.

He had mentally checked off what he should take with him when he left his bachelor-quarters, and what he would get rid of. He had wondered if she would fancy his favourite picture, and how she would take to his dog.

Oh, he had not much doubted what the upshot of this wedding journey would be!

The bare sight of all the familiar surroundings to which he must now attach himself afresh, was grating, sickening. He could not do it. He could not go on in the old way. Something fresh must be found, some new ground must be broken.

Before the following night he had entered into arrangements for exchanging into a regiment about to start on foreign service.

And Kate, all unsuspicious, was on that same April evening quietly gathering ferns and leaves in the Carnochan woods, and loading her baskets with feathery moss which must be brought home and thrown into water to soak for twelve hours, before it would be deemed fit to deck the chambers for the gala.

Neither of the little sisters, who were supposed to be giving their aid, were half so blithe or so efficient. Marjorie was tired out, and Bertha as usual had her grievance. They would have left the long sprays that were out of reach, and found others; or, at least, they would have looked about for less inaccessible places to surmount than Kate did. She minded no trouble, found no wall too rickety, no ditch too deep.

Marjorie was not half so mud-bespattered and draggletailed when the three came in, nor had Marjorie a third of the bloom upon her cheek.

The weathercock had veered round again, you see. She had got over her first ecstasy, and its first reaction. Nothing she could now do or say could avert the delicious danger, and it was so near-so near. She hugged her secret to her heart, conning over every probability, spelling out, as it were, every syllable, of the scene to come.

It was easy once more to enter into the minutiae of pomp, which were so dear to the bride-elect, and to skip with the little ones about the house. It seemed quite natural to be useful and necessary; and for the demand, "Where is Kate?" to be heard imperatively from one and another.

To run off to her room, to escape the hubbub and traffic which were going on everywhere else, was the last thing to be thought of. Why, there was Mademoiselle calling for assistance in her grand design for the bride's toilet-table; and there was Bertha with a message from the gardener, with whom she had undertaken to co-operate, respecting the

floral arches and flowers for the banquet; and there was the schoolmistress waiting "just to know how Miss Kate would like the children to stand around the gateway, and at what precise moment they should be marshalled ready to throw their bouquets on the carriage-roof?"

Lady Olivia had taken care that nothing should be left undone which would give éclat to the proceedings. Mademoiselle had approved of the trousseau, and Alice herself was contented, and taking the full benefit of all.

Since it was so, Kate had no longer a right to fret.

"She is quite a help," testified Lady Olivia, in the end; "she really is. So wonderfully altered-so improved! My dear," she observed, quite affectionately, on the wedding eve, "do not over-fatigue yourself; you have been running about for every one all day long. Go to bed, Kate, and do not rise too early."

Ah! she had no cause to rise early-the day was long and sad enough.

CHAPTER XXV.

"FROM HOPE'S SUMMIT HURLED."

From the first dawn of reason in the mind,
Man is foredoomed the thorns of grief to find;

At every step has further cause to know

The draught of pleasure still is dashed with woe."
-KIRKE WHITE.

Having done so well with Alice, it was but natural that Lady Olivia, who was now fully reinstated in her own opinion as the model step-mother, should turn her attention with increased complacency to the superior charms of Kate.

Kate the prodigal was a very different person from Kate the insurgent. The contour which had been admired by Lady Olivia, even when seldom seen exempt from passion or from moodiness, could not now be thought too highly of. Its expressiveness, its animation, were commented upon; its varied play was noted only as an increased attraction.

She had seldom now, she declared to herself, to find fault

of any kind with the girl who had once been in perpetual disgrace.

Kate spoke to her properly, looked at her properly, and would remain in the room with her for an hour at a time.

This was quite a new thing indeed; for it had been one of the grievances in the early wedded days that none of Mr Newbattle's daughters would associate with his wife more than they could help, and it was hardly pleasant to be shunned even by those whom she might herself have chosen to shun. The way that one after another would shuffle out of the room on various pretexts, directly their step-mother appeared,—and the way that Kate would march past, head in air, without any pretext at all,-had been more mortifying than any one had ever known, especially since listeners had always been as indispensable to Lady Olivia as correspondents.

It was undeniable that she had been sinned against. Whatever had been her own failings, the children had not been guiltless. They had drawn themselves together in opposition even before she came amongst them, and had begun to treat her with contumely from the very first week after her arrival.

Alice, who had endeavoured to compass this end by stealth, and Kate, who had withstood her to her face, had of course been followed by the younger ones,-even Marjorie deserting, when it suited her, to the enemy's ranks; and when it is remembered that they were four to one, and that they had the secret support of every member-in and out of the house of the Carnochan establishment,-it will be felt that some excuse must be made for their solitary opponent, when in desperation she had resorted to strong measures. Undoubtedly, a better woman would have acted otherwisewould have seen that the daughter, if separated from her family, was suitably established elsewhere-and would have let no opportunity pass of bringing her to reason, and reinstating her as soon as it was desirable in her home; but being what she was, excuses must be made for Lady Olivia. Her fair bevy had plagued her life out.

But now-now that the past year was to be blotted from remembrance-now that all things had turned out so inconceivably well, who could say that events had not justified her policy?

She had not shown wisdom nor humanity. Ha! But

she had got Alice off her hands, and had brought Kate to her bearings!

She chuckled to herself as she saw that her eldest, if not her most formidable antagonist, was now all amiability and deference, seeking her opinion at every turn-convinced of having been well guided, pleased with herself, and proud of her position.

She laughed in her heart as she laid a hand on Kate's shoulder and whispered a direction, which met with the most earnest and immediate attention. It was about Rupert's room; and she experienced a feeling of proud satisfaction in the thought that she would soon be able to point out her triumph to her son, who had gone so far as to sug gest a thing he had never done before-that she was not on the right tack with the turbulent damsels : Rupert should

see now.

She longed to have her little crow over him.

He would probably admire. Kate, but she was not afraid of this. A London man,—and a man who had, moreover, the entrée of many of the best country seats in England,could hardly be susceptible to mere beauty, and have escaped matrimony so long.

She looked to him to help her with this dark-eyed belle. Kate should do better than Alice, for whom Pollaxfen had been good enough. With the prestige of her sister's early and excellent establishment in life, her chances would be doubled, moreover. This, added to her own charms, to Lady Olivia's reputation, and to Captain Evelyn's password, ought to bring her into notice at once.

("That is all," said the profound woman of the world to herself" that is all that can be said for any untried daughter. She may succeed, or she may not. She may make a hit at the outset, or she may go pottering on among second-rate houses the season through, and be nowhere at the end of it! If that should happen to be the way with Kate, it would scarcely be of any use to try her again. Country houses would be better; and indeed, were it not that she is striking as well as handsome, I should be disposed to let London alone, and go in at once for the country. It would be a pity, however, not just to see, first. Should we discover afterwards that she might have made a mark in Town, I should never forgive myself for having failed to do her justice; besides which, she would have nothing to talk

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