It was a very happy day for Katy, and when she first sat down to dinner in her own handsome home her face shone with a joy which even the presence of her mother-in-law could not materially lessen.  She would rather have been alone with Wilford, it is true, but as her choice was not consulted she submitted cheerfully, proudly taking her rightful place at the table, and doing the honors so well that Mrs. Cameron, in speaking of it to her daughters, acknowledged that Wilford had little to fear if Katy always appeared as much at ease as she did that day.  A thought similar to this passed through the mind of Wilford, who was very observant of such matters, and that night, after his mother was gone, he warmly commended Katy, but spoiled the pleasure his commendation would have given by telling her next, as if one thought suggested the other, that Sybil Grandon had returned, that he saw her on Broadway, accepting her invitation to a seat in her carriage which brought him to his door.  She had made many inquiries concerning Katy, he said, expressing a great curiosity to see her, and saying that as she drove past the house that morning, she was strongly tempted to waive all ceremony and run in, knowing she should be pardoned for the sake of Auld Lang Syne, when she was privileged to take liberties with the Camerons.  All this Wilford repeated to Katy, but he did not tell her how at the words Auld Lang Syne, Sybil had turned her fine eyes upon him with an expression which made him color, for he knew she was referring to the time when her name and his were always coupled together.

Wilford would not have exchanged Katy for a dozen Sybils, but there was about the latter a flash and sparkle very fascinating to most men, and Wilford felt himself so much exhilarated in her society that he half regretted leaving it, wishing as he did so that in some things Katy was more like the brilliant woman of the world, who, flashing upon him her most bewitching smile, leaned back in her handsome carriage with a careless, easy abandon, while he ran up the steps of his own dwelling, where Katy waited for him.  In this state of mind her achievement at the dinner table was exceedingly gratifying.  Sybil herself could not have done better.  But alas, there were many points where Katy fell far below this standard; so after speaking of Sybil’s inquiries for his wife, he went on to talk of Sybil herself, telling how much she was admired and how superior she was to the majority of ladies whom Katy had met, adding that he felt more anxious that Katy should make a favorable impression upon her than any one of his acquaintance, as she would be sure to note the slightest departure from her code of etiquette.  How Katy hated the words etiquette, and style and manner, wishing they might be stricken from the language, and how she dreaded this Sybil Grandon, who seemed to her like some ogress, instead of the charming creature she was described to be.  Thoughts of the secret picture and the