This was the meaning of what he said, and though his manner was guarded and his words kind, they were very conclusive, and with one gasping sob Katy gave up Silverton, charging it more to Mrs. Cameron than to Wilford, and writing next day to Helen that she could not come just then, but after she was settled they might surely expect her.
With a bitter pang Helen read this letter to the three women who had so much anticipated Katy's visit, and each of whom cried quietly over her disappointment, while even Uncle Ephraim went back to his work that afternoon with a sad, heavy heart, for now his labor was not lightened by thoughts of Katy's being there so soon.
"Please God she may come to us some time," he said, pausing beneath the butternut in the meadow, and remembering just how Katy looked on that first day of her return from Canandaigua, when she sat on the flat stone while he piled up the hay and talked with her of different paths through life, one of which she must surely tread.
She had said, "I will choose the straight and pleasant," and some would think she had; but Uncle Ephraim was not so sure, and leaning against a tree, he asked silently that, whether he ever saw his darling again or not, God would care for her and keep her unspotted from the world.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE NEW HOUSE.
It was a cruel thing for Wilford Cameron to try thus to separate Katy from the hearts which loved her so much: and, as if he felt reproached, there was an increased tenderness in his manner toward her, particularly as he saw how sad she was for a few days after his decision. But Katy could not be sorry long, and in the excitement of settling the new house her spirits rallied, and her merry laugh thrilled like a bird through the rooms where the workmen were so busy, and where Mrs. Cameron was the real superintendent, though there was always a show of consulting Katy, who nevertheless was a mere cipher in the matter. In everything the mother had her way, until it came to the room designed for Helen, and which Mrs. Cameron was for converting into a kind of smoking or lounging room for Wilford and his associates. Katy must not expect him to be always as devoted to her as he had been during the winter, she said. He had a great many bachelor friends, and now that he had a house of his own, it was natural that he should have some place where they could spend an hour or so with him without the restraint of ladies' society, and this was just the room—large, airy, quiet, and so far from the parlors that the odor of the smoke could not reach them.
"Oak and green will do nicely here," turning to Wilford, "but you must have some very handsome cigar sets, and one or two boxes of chess. Shall I see to that?"
Katy had submitted to much without knowing that she was submitting; but something Bell had dropped that morning had awakened a suspicion that possibly she was being ignored, and the wicked part of Helen would have enjoyed the look in her eye as she said, decidedly, not to Mrs. Cameron, but to Wilford: "I have from the very first decided this chamber for Helen, and I cannot give it up for a smoking room. You never had one at home. Why did you not, if it is so necessary?"