Family Pride

"They certainly call her Miss Hazelton," he thought, as he bade her good-by and then left her alone, going back to the house which even to him seemed lonely, with all the paraphernalia of babyhood removed. Still, now that the worst was over, he rather enjoyed it, for Katy was free from care; there was nothing to hinder her gratifying his every wish, and with his spirits greatly enlivened as he reflected how satisfactory everything had been managed at the last, he proposed taking both Helen and Katy to the theatre that night. But Katy answered: "No, Wilford, not to-night; it seems too much like baby's funeral. I'll go next week, but not to-night."

So Katy had her way, but among the worshipers who next day knelt in Grace Church with words of prayer upon their lips, there was not one more in earnest than she whose only theme was, "My child, my darling child."

She did not get over it by Monday, as Mrs. Cameron had predicted. She did not get over it at all, though she went without a word where Wilford willed that she should go, and even Helen, with her sounder health and stronger constitution, grew tired of that endless round, which gave her scarcely a quiet hour at home. And Katy was a belle again, her name on every lip, her praise in every heart, for none could feel jealous, she bore her honors so meekly, wondering why people liked her so much and loving them because they did. And none admired her more than Helen, who, scarcely less a belle herself, yielded everything to her young sister whom she pitied while she admired, for nothing had power to draw one look from her blue eyes, the look which many observed, and which Helen knew sprang from the mother love, hungering for its child. Only once before had Helen seen a look like this, and that came to Morris' face on the sad night when she said to him, "It might have been." It had been there ever since, and Helen, though revering him before, felt that by the pangs with which that look was born he was a better man, just as Katy was growing better for that hunger in her heart. God was taking his own way to purify them both, but the process was going on and Helen watched it intently, wondering what the end would be.