hear her sister's voice above them all.
Chameleon-like she was all gaiety and laughter now, since her gravity at
supper.

They were coming out the front door and down the walk. Kate was with them.
Marcia could catch glimpses of the girls' white frocks as they came
nearer. She saw that her sister was walking with Captain Leavenworth. He
was a handsome young man who made a fine appearance in his uniform. He and
Kate had been intimate for two years, and it might have been more than
friendship had not Kate's father interfered between them. He did not think
so well of the handsome young captain as did either his daughter Kate or
the United States Navy who had given him his position. Squire Schuyler
required deep integrity and strength of moral character in the man who
aspired to be his son-in-law. The captain did not number much of either
among his virtues.

There had been a short, sharp contest which had ended in the departure of
young Leavenworth from the town some three years before, and the temporary
plunging of Kate Schuyler into a season of tears and pouting. But it had
not been long before her gay laughter was ringing again, and her father
thought she had forgotten. About that time David Spafford had appeared and
promptly fallen in love with the beautiful girl, and the Schuyler mind was
relieved. So it came about that, upon the reappearance of the handsome
young captain wearing the insignia of his first honors, the Squire
received him graciously. He even felt that he might be more lenient about
his moral character, and told himself that perhaps he was not so bad after
all, he must have something in him or the United States government would
not have seen fit to honor him. It was easier to think so, now Kate was
safe.

Marcia watched her sister and the captain go laughing down to the gate,
and out into the street. She wondered that Kate could care to go out
to-night when it was to be almost her last evening at home; wondered, too,
that Kate would walk with Captain Leavenworth when she belonged to David
now. She might have managed it to go with one of the girls. But that was
Kate's way. Kate's ways were not Marcia's ways.

Marcia wondered if she would miss Kate, and was obliged to acknowledge to
herself that in many ways her sister's absence would be a relief to her.
While she recognized the power of her sister's beauty and will over her,
she felt oppressed sometimes by the strain she was under to please, and
wearie