the idol she worshiped—­he the one for whose sake she tried so hard to drop her country ways and conform to the rules his mother and sister taught, submitting with the utmost good-nature to what Bell in her journal had called the drill, but it must be confessed not succeeding very well in imitating Juno.  Katy could hardly be other than her own easy, graceful self, and though the drills had their effect, and taught her many things, they could not divest her of that natural, playful, airy manner which so charmed the city people and made her the reigning belle.  As Marian Hazleton had predicted, others than her husband had spoken words of praise in Katy’s ear; but such was her nature that the shafts of flattery glanced aside, leaving her unharmed, so that her husband, though sometimes startled and disquieted, had no cause for jealousy, enjoying Katy’s success far more than she did herself, urging her out when she would rather have stayed at home, and evincing so much annoyance if she ventured to remonstrate that she gave it up at last and floated on with the tide.

Mrs. Cameron had at first been greatly shocked at Katy’s want of propriety, looking on aghast when she wound her arms around Wilford’s neck, or sat upon his knee; but to the elder Cameron the sight was a pleasant one, bringing back sunny memories of a summer time years ago, when he was young, and a fair bride had for a few brief weeks made this earth a paradise to him.  But fashion had entered his Eden—­that summer time was gone, and only the dim leaves of autumn lay where the buds which promised so much had been.  The girlish bride was a stately matron now, doing nothing amiss, but making all her acts conform to a prescribed rule of etiquette, and frowning majestically upon the frolicsome, impulsive Katy, who had crept so far into the heart of the eccentric man that he always found the hours of her absence long, listening intently for the sound of her bounding footsteps, and feeling that her coming to his household had infused into his veins a better, healthier life than he had known for years.  Katy was very dear to him, and he felt a thrill of pain, while a shadow lowered on his brow when first the toning down process commenced.  He had heard them talk about it, and in his wrath he had hurled a cut-glass goblet upon the marble hearth, breaking it in atoms, while he called them a pair of precious fools, and Wilford a bigger one because he suffered it.  So long as his convalescence lasted, he was some restraint upon his wife, but when he was well enough to resume his duties in his Wall Street office, there was nothing in the way, and Katy’s education progressed accordingly.  For Wilford’s sake, Katy would do anything, and as from some things he had dropped she guessed that her manner was not quite what suited him, she submitted to much which would otherwise have been excessively annoying.  But she was growing tired now, and it told upon her face, which was whiter than when she came to New York, while her figure was, if possible, slighter and more airy; but this only enhanced her loveliness, Wilford thought, and so he paid no heed to her complaints of weariness, but kept her in the circle which welcomed her so warmly, and would have missed her so much.