r heart felt lighter than for many days
past; for if Katherine could laugh and make jokes in this fashion,
it was plain there was no harm done. So she drew a long breath and
went on: "I wish you would try to be serious for a few minutes and
listen to me. What is only fun to you may be grim earnest to poor
Mary, and I like her so well that I do not care to think of her
missing the best thing that life can give her."

"Which is----?" queried Katherine mischievously.

"Which is the love she longs for," Mrs. Burton answered, with a
sentimental sigh.

Katherine broke into irrepressible laughter. Then, when her mirth
had subsided a little, she said: "Just fancy speaking of a girl as
'Poor Mary' whose father has an income of five or six thousand
pounds a year!"

"Still, she is poor in spite of her money if she can't get what she
wants," Mrs. Burton said, sticking to her point. "Money isn't
everything by a long way, and you can't satisfy heart-hunger with
dollars, or pounds either."

"Did Mary take you into her confidence concerning this want which
money can't satisfy?" demanded Katherine, a touch of scorn in her
tone and a chill feeling at her heart, as if someone had laid an
icy finger upon it.

"Dear me, no! Mary is not the sort of girl to go round howling
about what she wants but can't get," Mrs. Burton replied. "But I
have eyes in my head, and I think a married woman sees more, and
has a larger understanding of affairs of the heart, than a girl who
has had no experience at all."

"That is very probable," Katherine said quietly, while the chill
feeling grew and intensified, despite her efforts to make light of
the matter. "But what has all this to do with me? Do you want me
to approach Mr. Ferrars on the subject, and say to him that he had
better make haste and satisfy the heart-hunger of the rich Miss
Selincourt?"

Mrs. Burton looked absolutely shocked. "Dear Katherine, do be
serious for once if you can!" she pleaded. "If I thought that you
cared for Mr. Ferrars yourself I should never have mentioned this
to you at all; but you are so plainly fancy-free that surely it
won't hurt you to stand aside and let Mary have her chance."

"Stand aside? How?" Katherine kept her voice steady by an effort,
while her thoughts flew back to that evening when Jervis Ferrars
had taken her up to Ochre Lake, and had talked to her of the
struggles and hardships of his life. She had been so happy that
evening, and ever