was said
about Jacqueline's letter to the Bishop, the thought of it had not for a
moment been absent from their minds. "You think that?" she asked in a
low voice.

"I know it! The right sort of wife is important to any man, but more to
a clergyman than to others. Charm, tact, the kindliness that comes from
the heart itself, above all, understanding--these are the things your
little Jacqueline has brought to help her husband, and he will go far.
Mark my words!--Presently I shall have to take those two young people
away from you, into a wider field."

He watched her compressed, tremulous lips shrewdly and sympathetically.
Jacqueline's confession and her voluntary atonement had touched his
broad nature to the quick; and he had come to Storm of his own volition
for the purpose of reconciling her with a presumably unforgiving mother.
But his first glimpse of the mother's face showed him the needlessness
of such an errand so far as she was concerned, and his sympathies turned
into another channel.

He said lightly, "I suppose you hear often from the honeymooners?"

Kate shook her head.

"No? Young people are sometimes thoughtless in their happiness,
forgetful of the rights of mothers.--My dear," he said suddenly,
abandoning his pretense of ignorance, "why don't you go to them, take
her by surprise? Things are so much better said face to face, and before
any hurt has had time to rankle. Why don't you go to them?"

"I do not know where they are."

The Bishop looked thoughtful. "I can tell you," he said at last. "And I
think I shall."

But Kate stopped him. The temptation had been great. She was weary of
waiting for the word that never came, for the chance to hold her child
in her arms again, and kiss away all the grief and pain and remorse that
lay between them.

But she knew it was best for Jacqueline and Philip to come to their
readjustment without her. Long meditation had taught her at last to
understand that it was she herself who, unwittingly and unwillingly, had
stood between them.

When the Bishop rose to go, he held her hand between his own for some
moments. "When will you come to Lexington, my dear? I am an old and busy
man, but I cannot afford to lose touch with such a woman as you. Will
you come to see me occasionally?"

Kate replied quietly that she never went to Lexington. He understood.
Though it had happened before his time, he had not failed to hear of the
occasion when young Kate Leigh had broug