her.

"I should not myself like to run the risk of meeting a divorced wife at
any time," he thought; "but Genevra is dead, and Katy ought to be more
reasonable. I did not suppose there was so much spirit in her."

But reason as he might, Wilford could not forget Katy's face, so full of
reproach. It followed him continually, and was the magnet which turned
his steps homeward before his business was quite done, and before the
telegram found him. Thus it was with no knowledge of existing
circumstances that he reached New York just at the close of the day
after Katy's return, and ordering a carriage, was driven rapidly toward
home. All the shutters in the front part of the house were closed and
not a ray of light was to be seen in the parlors as he entered the hall,
where the gas was burning dimly.

"Katy is at home," he said, as he went into the library, where a shawl
was thrown across a chair, as if some one had lately been there.

It was his mother's shawl, and Wilford was wondering if she was there,
when down the stairs came a man's rapid step, and the next moment Dr.
Grant stepped into the room, starting when he saw Wilford, who felt
intuitively that something was wrong.

"Is Katy sick?" was his first question, which Morris answered in the
affirmative, holding him back as he was starting for her room, and
saying to him: "Let me send your mother to you first." What passed
between Wilford and his mother was never known exactly, but at the close
of the interview Mrs. Cameron was very pale, while Wilford's face looked
dark and anxious, as he said: "You think he understands it, then?"

"Yes, in part. Of course he cannot make a very connected story out of
her ravings; but that he believes you had a wife before Katy, I am sure,
just as I am that the world will be none the wiser for his knowledge. I
knew Dr. Grant before you did, and there are few men living whom I
respect as much, and no one whom I would trust as soon."

Mrs. Cameron had paid a high compliment to Morris Grant, and Wilford
bowed in assent, asking next how she managed Dr. Craig.

"That was easy, inasmuch as he believed it an insane freak of Katy's to
have no other physician than her cousin. It was quite natural, he said,
adding that she was as safe with Dr. Grant as any one. So that is
settled, and I was glad, for I could not have a stranger know of that
affair. If I thought it would save her life to retain him, I should feel
differently, of course."