self upon her face, she
had scarcely changed at all since the day when she came home from
Canandaigua with her heart and head so full of him who now lay sleeping
in Greenwood.

"I know what's the matter. It's the net," she said, frowning
disapprovingly upon the silken meshes which confined her hair. "Yes,
it's nothing but this net which makes me look so young. Every schoolgirl
wears one, and I have followed the fashion, letting it hang down my
back in a way very unbecoming to a widow of my age. I'll take it off, or
at all events I won't wear it to Linwood," and tossing aside the
offending net, Katy bound her luxuriant hair in bands which she coiled
around the back of her head and then put on the widow's cap, discarded
so many months, and from which she shrank a little as she surveyed
herself in the glass.

It was not exactly unbecoming; nothing could be unbecoming to that fair,
open face, which, surrounded by the white border, looked much like a
sweet baby's face, except that it was older; but it was now so long
since Katy had seen anything of the kind, and as habit is everything,
she was not quite as well pleased with her headgear as in New York,
where such things were common. Nevertheless, she would wear it to
Linwood, and she went for her round straw hat, but, alas, the sun hat
which made her look so frightfully young was not made for the widow's
cap, and casting it aside, Katy threw a thick black veil over her head,
and then stepping to the door of the room where her mother and Aunt
Betsy were busy at work, she said:

"I am going to Linwood, and shall stay there to dinner."

"In the name of the people, what has the child rigged herself out in
that shape for?" Aunt Betsy exclaimed, letting fall the knife with which
she was chopping cheese curd, and staring in astonishment. "I'd enough
sight rather you'd frizzle your hair over rats, as Helen does, making
herself look like some horned critter, than wear that heathenish thing.
Why do you do it, Catherine?"

Catherine could not tell her, and laughing merrily at her aunt's
animadversions against her own and Helen's style of hairdressing, she
hurried away across the fields to Linwood. Aunt Betsy's surprise was in
a measure shared by Helen, who, understanding Katy better, made no
comments on her appearance, but smiled quietly at the air of matronly
dignity which Katy had assumed, and which really sat so prettily upon
her as she went from room to room to see what had b