love to use when in anger. She hates me for it, and I can
do naught to win the confidence due me as her rightful guardian. So I
have settled upon an immediate espousal--"

"Immediate? Thou marry a child,--'tis unseemly--"

"Nay, 'tis not unseemly; 'tis the most proper thing to do. Janet
says so, too, and will urge her to accept me as soon as I wish to
wed--which shall be at the earliest moment."

"Janet, indeed! What right has a servant to forward the doings of
master and mistress? Thou hadst best wait and have her Grace of
Ellswold present her at Court and give the child at least one season
in London to improve her convent ways."

"Nay, Constance, if she were to grow one whit more beautiful, 'twould
kill me dead."

"I am afraid thou art easily slain; indeed, I never knew beauty was so
murderous before. Thou art surely beside thyself; she here alone in
this great castle without a mother's love to guide! No one to whom she
can tell her troubles! How must the poor child feel to be forced into
a marriage she most like--hates;"--and her ladyship's voice took
on such a tone of pity one would think she was about to break into
tears,--"'tis a barbarous act for thee to talk of marriage so soon to
a helpless being."

"There is nothing helpless about Kate, she can take her own part. She
hath wit and temper for a half dozen."

"But thou wilt acknowledge if she will have _her_ way she must leave
the castle; for thou art bent upon _thy_ way--thou wilt not listen to
reason; so, see to it, and wed her straightway if--if thou canst." He
was about to answer her with an oath, when suddenly Katherine stood in
the half-open door smiling over the top of a great bunch of roses.
On Constance' face was a look of triumph, as she noted Cedric's
confusion; but Katherine's words put Cedric at ease.

"I was told thou wert ill and that Lord Cedric was uneasy and had come
to thee; and I reproached myself for not coming earlier to see if thou
wert in need of aught." She placed the vase of roses on a table close.
Constance thanked her and took the tapering fingers and hugged them
between her own. Katherine looked down upon her thin, arrogant lips;
and as there always comes to the innocent--when dealing with those of
other mould--a warning, a feeling of repulsion, took possession of her
and she withdrew her hand, and, in a moment, her presence.

"'Tis a vision of loveliness more refreshing than the nosegay she
brought, thinkest thou not so, C