through the empty air as if she would thrust aside the
terrible scepter risen so suddenly before her. She had heard all that
she cared to hear then. Another word and she should surely die where she
was, within hearing of the voices still talking of Genevra. Stopping her
ears to shut out the dreadful sound, she tried to think what she should
do. To gain the door and reach the street was her desire, and throwing
on her wrappings she went noiselessly into the hall, and carefully
turning the lock closed the door behind her, finding herself alone in
the street in the dusk of a November night. But Katy was not afraid, and
drawing her hood closely over her face she sped on until her own house
was reached, alarming Esther with her frightened face, but explaining
that she had been taken suddenly ill and returned before dinner.

"Mr. Cameron will be here soon," she said. "I do not need anything
to-night, so you can leave me alone and go where you like--to the
theatre, if you choose. I heard you say you wished to go. Here is the
money for you and Phillips," and handing a bill to the slightly puzzled
Esther, she dismissed her from the room.

Meanwhile, at the elder Cameron's, no one had a suspicion of Katy's
recent presence, for the girl who had admitted her had gone to visit a
sick sister, with whom she was to spend the night. Thus Katy's secret
was safe, and Wilford, when at last he bade his mother good-by and
started for home, was not prepared for the livid face, the bloodshot
eyes, and the strange, unnatural look which met him at the threshold.

Katy was waiting for him, and answered his ring herself, her hands
grasping his almost fiercely and dragging him up the stairs to her own
room, where, more like a maniac than Katy Cameron, she confronted him
with the startling question:

"Who is Genevra Lambert? It is time I knew before committing greater
sin. Tell me, Wilford, who is she?"

She was standing before him, her slight figure seeming to expand into a
greater height, the features glowing with strong excitement, and her hot
breath coming hurriedly through her dilated nostrils, but never opening
the pale lips set so firmly together. There was something terrible in
her look and attitude, and it startled Wilford, who recoiled a moment
from her, scarcely able to recognize the Katy hitherto so gentle and
quiet. She had learned his secret, but the facts must have been
distorted, he knew, or she had never been so agitated. From