e walked to the window, and lifting the sash scraped from the
sill a handful of the light spring snow which had been falling since
noon. With this he brought his wife back to consciousness, and then
marked out her future course.

"I know what is in your mind," he said. "You would like to have all the
blame rest on Katy; but, madam, hear me--just so sure as through your
means one breath of suspicion falls on her. I'll _bla at_ out the whole
story of Genevra. Then see who is censured. On the other hand, if you
hold your tongue, and make Juno hold hers, and stick to Katy through
thick and thin, acting as if you would like to swallow her whole, I'll
say nothing of this Genevra. Is it a bargain?"

"Yes," came faintly from the sofa cushions, where Mrs. Cameron had
buried her face, sobbing in a confused, frightened way, and after a
moment finding voice to say: "What will you do with Phillips and Esther?
He must have questioned them."

"The deuce he did! I'll see to that I'll throttle them if they venture
to speak!" and summoning both the females to his presence, Mr. Cameron
demanded if either had reported what Wilford had said to them.

Except to each other they had not, though Phillips confessed to a great
desire to do so when a cousin was in the previous night.

"Hang the cousin, and you, too, if you do!" Mr. Cameron replied, and
giving them some very strong advice, couched in very strong language, he
dismissed the servants to the kitchen, satisfied that so far Katy was
safe. "But who is the villain who first informed? If I had him by the
neck!" the enraged man continued, just as there came a second ring--a
timid, hesitating ring, as if the new arrival were half afraid to
present himself and his errand.

"Speak of angels and you hear the rustle of their wings," is a proverb
as true and much pleasanter of thought than its opposite, and whether
Tom Tubbs were an angel or not, it was he who stood twirling his cap in
the hall, asking for Mrs. Cameron.

"She can't see you, but I'll take the message. Is it about my son?"
Father Cameron said, striding up to the boy, who began to wish himself
away.

Ever since inquiries had been made at the office for Wilford's
whereabouts, Tom had been uneasy, for he could not forget the savage
look in Wilford's face when he first told him of Katy and Dr. Grant; and
when he heard that instead of going to Yonkers Wilford had taken the
cars for Philadelphia, he was certain something was wron