Silverton when it was known that Katy
had come home to stay until her husband returned from the war, and at
first the people were inclined to gossip and hint at some mystery or
possible estrangement; but this was brought to an end when the
postmaster's wife told of a letter which had come to Mrs. Wilford
Cameron from the Army of the Potomac, and of the answer returned within
three days to Lieutenant Wilford Cameron, Co., --th Regt., N. Y. V.,
etc. It must be all right, the gossips said, after that, but they
watched Katy curiously as she came among them again, so quiet, so
subdued, so unlike the Katy of old that they would hardly have
recognized her but for the beauty of her face and the sunny smile she
gave to all, but which rested oftenest on the poor and suffering, who
blessed her as the angel of their humble homes, praying that God would
remember her for all she was to them. The gold was purified at last, the
dross removed, and Katy, in her beautiful consistent life, seemed indeed
like some bright angel straying among the haunts of men, rather than the
weak and ofttimes sorely tempted mortal, which she knew herself to be.

Wilford's letters, though not unkind, were never very satisfactory, and
always brought on a racking headache, from which she suffered intently.
He had censured her at first for going back to Silverton, when he
preferred she should stay in New York, hinting darkly at the reason of
her choice, and saying to her once, when she told him how the Sunday
before her twenty-first birthday she had knelt before the altar and
taken upon herself the vows of confirmation: "Your saintly cousin is,
of course, delighted, and that I suppose is sufficient, without my
congratulations."

Perhaps he did not mean it, but he seemed to take delight in teasing
her, and Katy sometimes felt she should be happier without his letters
than with them. He had never said he was sorry he had left her so
suddenly--indeed he seldom referred to the past in any way; or if he did
it was in a manner which showed that he thought himself the injured
party, if either. Once, indeed, he did admit that, in calmly reviewing
the whole thing, he saw no reason now to believe that in the matter of
Dr. Grant she had been to blame, except in going to him with her trouble
and so bringing about the present unfortunate state of affairs. This was
the nearest to a concession on his part of anything he made; but it did
Katy a world of good, brightening up