and Joris would have decidedly interfered with visits
sure to cause unpleasant remarks about his daughter. The medium was
found in the mantua-maker, Miss Pitt. Mrs. Gordon was her most
profitable customer, and Katherine went there for needles and threads
and such small wares as are constantly needed in a household. And
whenever she did so, Miss Pitt was sure to remark, in an after-thought
kind of way, "Oh, I had nearly forgotten, miss! Here is a small parcel
that Mrs. Gordon desired me to present to you."

One exquisite morning in May, Katherine stood at an open window looking
over the garden and the river, and the green hills and meadows across
the stream. Her heart was full of hope. Richard's recovery was so far
advanced that he had taken several rides in the middle of the day.
Always he had passed the Van Heemskirks' house, and always Katherine had
been waiting to rain down upon his lifted face the influence of her most
bewitching beauty and her tenderest smiles. She was thinking of the last
of these events,--of Richard's rapid exhibition of a long, folded paper,
and the singular and emphatic wave which he gave it towards the river.
His whole air and attitude had expressed delight and hope; could he
really mean that she was to meet him again at their old trysting-place?

[Illustration: His whole air and attitude had expressed delight]

As thus she happily mused, some one called her mother from the front
hall. On fine mornings it was customary to leave the door standing open;
and the visitor advanced to the foot of the stairs, and called once
more, "Lysbet Van Heemskirk! Is there naebody in to bid me welcome?"
Then Katherine knew it was Madam Semple; and she ran to her mother's
room, and begged her to go down and receive the caller. For in these
days Katherine dreaded Madam Semple a little. Very naturally, the mother
blamed her for Neil's suffering and loss of time and prestige; and she
found it hard to forgive also her positive rejection of his suit. For
her sake, she herself had been made to suffer mortification and
disappointment. She had lost her friends in a way which deprived her of
all the fruits of her kindness. The Gordons thought Neil had
transgressed all the laws of hospitality. The Semples had a similar
charge to make. And it provoked Madam Semple that Mrs. Gordon continued
her friendship with Katherine. Every one else blamed Katherine
altogether in the matter; Mrs. Gordon had defied the use and wont of