three legs, trailing the fourth one behind it.

"The brute!" Kate cried, as she fondled the injured animal and poured
indignant tears over it. Her gentle soul was so stirred by the cowardly
deed that she felt that she could have flown at her late suitor were he
still in the room. "Poor little Flo! That kick was meant for me in
reality, my little pet. Never mind, dear, there are bright days coming,
and he has not forgotten me, Flo. I know it! I know it!" The little
dog whined sympathetically, and licked its mistress's hand as though it
were looking into its canine future, and could also discern better days
ahead.

Ezra Girdlestone, fierce and lowering, tramped into the library, and
told his father brusquely of the result of his wooing. What occurred in
that interview was never known to any third person. The servants, who
had some idea that something was afoot, have recorded that at the
beginning of the conversation the bass voice of the son and the high
raucous tones of the father were heard in loud recrimination and
reproach. Then they suddenly sunk into tones so low that there might
have been complete silence in the room for all that any one could tell
from the passage outside. This whispered conversation may have lasted
the greater part of an hour. At the end of it the young merchant
departed for the City. It has been remarked that from that time there
came a change over both the father and the son--a change so subtle that
It could hardly be described, though it left its mark upon them both.
It was not that the grey, wolfish face of the old man looked even greyer
and fiercer, or that the hard, arrogant expression of Ezra deepened into
something even more sinister. It was that a shadow hung over both their
brows--a vague indefinable shadow--as of men who carry a thought in
their minds on which it is not good to dwell.

During that long hour Kate had remained in the breakfast-room, still
nursing her injured companion, and very busy with her own thoughts.
She was as convinced now that Tom had been true to her as if she had had
the assurance from his own lips. Still there was much that was
unaccountable--much which she was unable to fathom. A vague sense of
the wickedness around her depressed and weighed her down. What deep
scheme could these men have invented to keep him away from her during
these long weeks? Was he, too, under some delusion, or the victim of
some conspiracy? Whatever had been done