g, and longed to
confess to Katy what he knew of the matter. He had no idea of meddling,
but came with the kindest intentions, thinking he should feel better
when the load was off his mind. He was then poorly prepared for his
fierce reception from Mr. Cameron, who asked so energetically what he
had to say.

"It wasn't much," Tom began. "I only wanted to tell her maybe I was to
blame for repeating what I saw."

"What did you see?" and Mr. Cameron laid his hand on Tom's coat collar
as if to shake the information out of him.

But there was no need of this, for the frightened youth told quickly
what he had come to tell, seeming so sorry and appearing so hurt withal
that the elder Cameron grew very gracious, and dismissed him with the
conviction that Katy had nothing to fear from Tom Tubbs. Mrs. Cameron
was with her now, giving her kisses and words of sympathy, telling her
Wilford would come back, and adding that in any event no one could or
should blame her.

"I have heard the whole from husband; it was a misunderstanding, that is
all. Wilford was wrong to deceive you about Genevra. I was wrong to let
him; but we will have no more concealments. You think she is living
still--that she is Marian Hazelton?" and Mrs. Cameron smoothed Katy's
hair as she talked, trying to be motherly and kind, while her heart beat
more painfully at thoughts of a Genevra living than it ever had on
thoughts of a Genevra dead.

She did not doubt the story, although it seemed so strange, and it made
her faint as she wondered if the world would ever know and what it would
say if it did. That her husband would tell if she failed in a single
point she was sure, but she should not fail; she would swear Katy was
innocent of everything, if necessary, while Juno and Bell should swear
too. Of course they must know and she should tell them that very night,
she said to herself, and hence it was that in the gossip which followed
Wilford's disappearance not a word was breathed against Katy, whose
cause the family espoused so warmly. Bell and the father because they
really loved and pitied her, and Mrs. Cameron and Juno because it saved
them from the disgrace which would have fallen on Wilford had the
fashionable world known then of Genevra.

The sudden disappearance of a man like Wilford Cameron could not fail
even in New York to cause some excitement, especially in his own
immediate circle of acquaintances, and for several days the matter was
discussed