Family Pride

Marian did not, and assured on that point, Katy went back to the farmhouse, asking numberless questions about its inmates, and at last coming to the business which had brought her to Marian's room.

There were perceptible spots on Marian's neck, and her lips were very white, while her hands grasped the bundles tossed into her lap--the yards and yards of lace and embroidery, linen, and cambric, which she was expected to make for the wife of Wilford Cameron; and her voice was husky as she asked directions or made suggestions of her own.

"It's because she has no such joy in expectation. I should feel so, too, if I were thirty and unmarried," Katy thought, as she noticed Marian's agitation, and tried to divert her mind by telling her as delicately as possible that she had brought with her sundry stores of which she had such an abundance.

"I knew you were not an object of charity," she said, as she saw the flush on Marian's brow, "but when I have so much I like to share it with others, and you seem like our folks."

"Did Wilf--did Mr. Cameron know?" Marian asked, and Katy answered "No; but it does not matter. He lets me do as I like in these matters, and the greatest pleasure I have is giving. You are not offended?" she continued, as she saw a tear drop from Marian's eyelids.

"No--oh, no," and Marian quietly laid aside the packages which would find their way to many an humble garret or cellar, where biting poverty had its abode.

It would choke her to eat whatever came from Wilford Cameron, but she could not tell Katy so, though she did say: "I will keep these because you brought them, but do not do so again. There are many far more needy. I saved something in Silverton. I shall not suffer so long as my health is spared."

Then after a few more inquiries concerning the work, about which she could now talk calmly, she asked where Katy went when she was abroad, her blue eyes growing almost black as Katy talked of Rome, of Venice, of Paris, and then of Alnwick, where they had stopped so long.

"By the way, you were born in England? Were you ever at Alnwick?" Katy asked, and Marian replied: "Once, yes. I've seen the castle and the church. Did you go there--to St. Mary's, I mean?"

"Oh, yes, and I was never tired of that old churchyard, Wilford liked it, too, and we wandered by the hour among the sunken graves and quaint headstones."