“Yes, darling, I love you now,” she said, removing Katy’s clinging arms and taking care that they should not enfold her a second time.  “You are tired and cold,” she continued; “you had better go at once to your rooms.  You will find them in order, and I will send Esther up.  There is plenty of time to dress for dinner,” and with a wave of her hand she dismissed Katy up the stairs, noticing as she went the exquisite softness of her fur cloak; but thinking it too heavy a garment for her slight figure, and noticing, too, the graceful ankle and foot which the little high-heeled gaiter showed to good advantage.  “I did not see her face distinctly, but she has a well-turned instep and walks easily,” was the report she carried to her daughters, who in their own room, over Katy’s, were dressing for dinner.

“She will undoubtedly make a good dancer, then, unless like Dr. Grant, she is too blue for that,” Juno said, while Bell shrugged her shoulders, congratulating herself that she had a mind above such frivolous matters as dancing and well-turned insteps, and wondering if Katy cared in the least for books.

“Couldn’t you see her face at all, mother?” Juno asked.

“Scarcely; but the glimpse I did get was satisfactory.  I think she is pretty.”

And this was all the sisters could ascertain until their toilets were finished, and they went down into the library, where their brother waited for them.  He had seen his father and Jamie, and now he arose to meet his sisters, kissing them both affectionately, and complimenting them on their good looks.

“I wish we could say the same of you,” saucy Juno answered, playfully pulling his mustache; “but, upon my word, Will, you are fast settling down into an oldish married man, even turning gray,” and she ran her fingers through his dark hair, where there was now and then a thread of silver.  “Disappointed in your domestic relations, eh?” she continued, looking him archly in the face.

Wilford was rather proud of his good looks, and during his sojourn abroad, Katy had not helped him any in overcoming this weakness, but, on the contrary, had fed his vanity by constant flattery.  And still he was himself conscious of not looking quite as well as usual just now, for the sea voyage had tired him as well as Katy, but he did not care to be told of it, and Juno’s ill-timed remarks aroused him at once, particularly as they reflected somewhat on Katy.

“I assure you I am not disappointed,” he answered, “and the six months of my married life have been the happiest I ever knew.  Katy is more than I expected her to be.”

Juno elevated her eyebrows slightly, but made no direct reply, while Bell began to ask about Paris and the places he had visited.

Meanwhile Katy had been ushered into her room, which was directly over the library and separated from Mrs. Cameron’s only by a range of closets and presses, a portion of which were to be appropriated to her own use.  Great pains had been taken to make her rooms attractive, and as the large bay window in the library below extended to the third story, it was really the pleasantest chamber in the house.  To Katy it was perfect, and her first exclamation was one of delight.