onfronted her now. For the first
time Catherine saw her child trembling at the sight of her. Before that
discovery, the emotions that shook her under the insult which she had
received lost their hold. She caught Kitty up in her arms. "My darling,
my angel, it isn't you I am thinking of. I love you!--I love you! In the
whole world there isn't such a good child, such a sweet, lovable, pretty
child as you are. Oh, how disappointed she looks--she's crying. Don't
break my heart!--don't cry!" Kitty held up her head, and cleared her
eyes with a dash of her hand. "I won't cry, mamma." And child as she
was, she was as good as her word. Her mother looked at her and burst
into tears.

Perversely reluctant, the better nature that was in Mrs. Presty rose to
the surface, forced to show itself. "Cry, Catherine," she said kindly;
"it will do you good. Leave the child to me."

With a gentleness that astonished Kitty, she led her little
granddaughter to the window, and pointed to the public walk in front
of the house. "I know what will comfort you," the wise old woman began;
"look out of the window." Kitty obeyed.

"I don't see my little friends coming," she said. Mrs. Presty still
pointed to some object on the public walk. "That's better than nothing,
isn't it?" she persisted. "Come with me to the maid; she shall go with
you, and take care of you." Kitty whispered, "May I give mamma a kiss
first?" Sensible Mrs. Presty delayed the kiss for a while. "Wait till
you come back, and then you can tell your mamma what a treat you have
had." Arrived at the door on their way out, Kitty whispered again:
"I want to say something"--"Well, what is it?"--"Will you tell the
donkey-boy to make him gallop?"--"I'll tell the boy he shall have
sixpence if you are satisfied; and you will see what he does then."
Kitty looked up earnestly in her grandmother's face. "What a pity it
is you are not always like what you are now!" she said. Mrs. Presty
actually blushed.

Chapter XXXV. Captain Bennydeck.

For some time, Catherine and her mother had been left together
undisturbed.

Mrs. Presty had read (and destroyed) the letters of Lady Myrie and Mrs.
Romsey, with the most unfeigned contempt for the writers--had repeated
what the judge had really said, as distinguished from Lady Myrie's
malicious version of it--and had expressed her intention of giving
Catherine a word of advice, when she was sufficiently composed to profit
by it. "You have recovered