evening, and
Phillips had declined the "honor," as she styled it.

There was a homesick feeling tugging at Helen's heart, while she tried
to eat, and only the certainty that Katy was not far away kept her tears
back. To her the very grandeur of the house made it desolate, and she
was so glad it was Katy who lived there and not herself as she went up
the soft carpeted stairway, which gave back no sound, and through the
marble hall to the parlor, where by the table on which her cloak and
furs were still lying, a lady stood, as dignified and unconscious as
if she had not been inspecting the self-same fur which Mark Ray had
observed, but not like him thinking it did not matter, for it did matter
very materially with her, and a smile of contempt had curled her lip as
she turned over the tippet which even Phillips would not have worn.

"I wonder how long she means to stay, and if Wilford will have to take
her out," she was thinking, just as Helen appeared in the door and
advanced into the room.

By herself, it was easy to slight Helen Lennox, but in her presence Mrs.
Cameron found it very hard to appear as cold and distant as she had
meant to do, for there was something about Helen which commanded her
respect, and she went forward to meet her, offering her hand, and
saying, cordially:

"Miss Lennox, I presume--my daughter Katy's sister?"

Helen had not expected this, and the warm flush which came to her cheeks
made her very handsome, as she returned Mrs. Cameron's greeting, and
then asked more particularly for Katy than she had yet done. For a while
they talked together, Mrs. Cameron noting carefully every item of
Helen's attire, as well as the purity of her language and her perfect
repose of manner after the first stiffness had passed away.

"Naturally a lady as well as Katy; there must be good blood somewhere,
probably on the Lennox side," was Mrs. Cameron's private opinion, while
Helen, after a few moments, began to feel far more at ease with Mrs.
Cameron than she had done in the dining-room with Esther, waiting on
her, and the cross Phillips stalking once through the room for no
ostensible purpose except to get a sight of her.

Helen wondered at herself as much as Mrs. Cameron wondered at her,
trying to decide whether it were ignorance, conceit, obtuseness, or
what, which made her so self-possessed when she was expected to appear
so different.

"Strong-minded," was her final decision, as she said at last: "We
p