“Perhaps she would come to the church,” she said, “though she could not promise;” and her manner was so strange as she gathered up her things that Katy wondered if in any way she could have been offended, and at last said to her timidly, as she stood with her bonnet on waiting for Uncle Ephraim:  “You are not angry with me for anything, are you?”

“Angry with you!” and Katy never forgot the glitter of the tearful eyes, or their peculiar expression as they turned upon her.  “No, oh, no; I could not be angry with you, and yet, Katy Lennox, some in my position would hate you, contrasting your prospects with their own; but I do not; I love you; I bless you, and pray that you may be happy with your husband; honor him, obey him if need be, and above all, never give him the slightest cause to doubt you.  You will have admirers, Katy Lennox.  In New York others than your husband will speak to you words of flattery, but don’t you listen.  Remember what I tell you; and now, again, God bless you.”

She touched her lips to Katy’s forehead, and when they were withdrawn there were great tears there which she had left!  Marian’s tears on Katy’s brow; and truly, it was very meet that just before her bridal day Wilford Cameron’s bride should receive such baptism from Marian Hazelton.

CHAPTER IX.

Before the marriage.

On the morning of the ninth day of June, 18—­, Wilford Cameron stood in his father’s parlor, surrounded by the entire family, who, after their usually early breakfast, had assembled to bid him good-by, for Wilford was going for his bride, and it would be months, if not a year, ere he returned to them again.  They had given him up to his idol, asking only that none of the idol’s family should be permitted to cross their threshold, and also that the idol should not often be allowed the privilege of returning to the place from whence she came.  These restrictions had emanated from the female portion of the Cameron family, the mother, Juno and Bell.  The father, on the contrary, had sworn roundly as he would sometimes swear at what he called the contemptible pride of his wife and daughters.  Katy was sure of a place in his heart just because of the pride which was building up so high a wall between her and her friends, and when at parting he held his son’s hand in his, he said: 

“I charge you, Will, be kind to that young girl, and don’t, for Heaven’s sake, go to cramming her with airs and nonsense which she does not understand.  Tell her I’ll be a father to her; her own, you say, is dead, and give her this as my bridal present.”