Family Pride

The scene shifts now to New York, where, one week after that wedding in Silverton, Mark and Helen were, and where, too, were Morris and Katy. But not on Madison Square. That house had been sold, and Katy had seen it but once, her tears falling fast as driving slowly by with Morris she gazed at the closed doors and windows of what was once her home, and around which lingered no pleasant memories save that it was the birthplace of Baby Cameron. Once Lieutenant Reynolds had thought to buy it, but Bell said: "No, it would not be quite pleasant for Katy to visit me there, and I mean to have her with me as much as possible," so the house went to strangers, and a less pretentious, but quite as comfortable, one was bought for Bell, so far uptown that Mrs. Cameron pronounced it quite in the country, while Juno wondered how her sister would manage to exist so far from everything, intimating that her visits would be far between, a threat which Lieutenant Bob took quite heroically; indeed, it rather enhanced the value of his pleasant home than otherwise, for Juno was not a favorite, and his equanimity was not likely to be disturbed if she never crossed his threshold. She was throwing bait to Arthur Grey, the man who swore he was forty-five to escape the draft, and who, now that the danger was over, would gladly take back his oath and be forty, as he really was. With the most freezing kiss imaginable, Juno had greeted Katy, calling her "Mrs. Grant," and treating Morris as if he were an entire stranger, instead of the man whom to get she would once have moved both earth and heaven. Mrs. Cameron, too, though glad in her heart that Katy was married, and fully approving of her choice, threw into her manner so much reserve that Katy's intercourse with her was anything but agreeable, and she turned with alacrity to Father Cameron, who had received her with open arms, calling her his daughter, and welcoming Morris as his son, taken in Wilford's stead. "My boy," he frequently called him, showing by his manner how willingly he accepted him as the husband of one whom he really loved as his child. Greatly he wished that they should stay with him while they remained in New York, but Katy preferred going with Helen to Mrs. Banker's, where she would be more quiet, and avoid the bustle and confusion attending the preparations for Bell's wedding. It was to be a grand church affair, and to take place during Easter week, after which the bridal pair were going on to Washington, Fortress Monroe, and, if possible, to Richmond, where Bob had been a prisoner. Everything seemed conspiring to make the occasion a joyful one, for all through the North, from Maine to California, the air was rife with the jubilee songs of victory, and the notes of approaching peace. But, alas! He who holds our country's destiny in His hand changed that song of gladness into a wail of woe, which, echoing through the land, rose up to Heaven in one mighty sob of anguish, as the whole nation bemoaned its loss. Our President was dead!--foully, cruelly murdered!--and New York was in mourning, so black, so profound, that with a shudder Bell Cameron tossed aside the orange wreath and said to her lover: "We will be married at home. I cannot now go to the church, when everything seems so like one great funeral."