r even than the
farmhouse up the river, he thought, for it was farther away, and Katy
could not be tiring herself with driving out every few days, and keeping
herself constantly uneasy and excited. The distance between New York
and New London was the best feature of the whole; and he wondered Katy
had not thought of it as an objection. But she had not, and but for the
pain when she remembered the coming separation, she would have been very
happy that evening, listening with Wilford and Helen to the opera of
"Norma," and sympathizing so keenly with the poor distracted mother.

Very differently from this was Marian's evening passed, and on her face
there was a look such as Katy's had never worn, as on her knees she
asked for guidance to choose the right, to lay all self aside, and if it
were her duty and care for the child which had stirred the pulsations of
her heart and made the old wound bleed and throb with bitter anguish as
she remembered what she once hoped would be, and what but for a cruel
wrong might still have been. And as she prayed there crept into her face
another look which told that self was sacrificed at last, and Katy
Cameron was safe with her.

* * * * *

Mrs. Hubbell was willing--aye, more than that--was glad to take the
child, and the generous remuneration offered would make them so
comfortable in their little cottage, she wrote to Marian, who hastened
to confer by note with Katy, adding in a postscript, "Is it still your
wish that I should go? if so, I am at your disposal."

It was Katy's wish, and she hastened to reply, going next to the nursery
to confer with Mrs. Kirby. Dark were the frowns and dire the displeasure
of that lady when told that her services would soon be no longer needed
on Madison Square--that instead of going up the river as she had hoped,
she was free to return to the "genteel and highly respectable home on
Bond Street," where Mrs. Cameron had found her.

"Wait till the madam comes and then we'll see," she thought, referring
to Mrs. Cameron, and feeling delighted when that very day she heard that
lady's voice in the parlor.

But Mrs. Cameron, though a little anxious with regard to both Mrs.
Hubbell's and Marian's antecedents, and a little doubtful as to the
effect a common dressmaker's nursing might have upon the child, saw at
once that Wilford was in favor of New London and so voted accordingly,
only asking that she might see and talk with Mar