The old man’s voice shook now, and Katy felt his tears dropping on her hair as he stooped over her. Checking them, however, he said,
“And he was cross because you found him out. Was there no other reason?”
Katy thought of Dr. Morris, but she could not tell of that, and so she answered,
“There was—but please don’t ask me now. I can’t tell, only I was not to blame. Believe me, father, I was not to blame.”
“I’ll swear to that,” was the reply, and father Cameron commenced his walking again, just as Esther came to the door with the morning letters.
There was one from Wilford for Katy, who nervously tore off the envelope and read as follows:
“Will you be sorry when you read this and find that I am gone, that you are free from the husband you do not love,—whom, perhaps, you never loved, though I thought you did. I trusted you once, and now I do not blame you as much as I ought, for you are young and easily influenced. You are very susceptible to flattery, as was proven by your career at Saratoga and Newport. I had no suspicion of you then, but now that I know you better, I see that it was not all childish simplicity which made you smile so graciously upon those who sought your favor. You are a coquette, Katy, and the greater one because of that semblance of artlessness which is the perfection of art. This, however, I might forgive, if I had not learned that another man loved you first and wished to make you his wife, while you, in your secret heart, wish you had known it sooner. Don’t deny it, Katy; I saw it in your face when I first told you of Dr. Grant’s confession, and I heard it in your voice as well as in your words when you said ‘A life at Linwood would be perfect rest compared with this.’ That hurt me cruelly, Katy. I did not deserve it from one for whom I have done and borne so much, and it was the final cause of my leaving you, for I am going to Washington to enroll myself in the service of my country. You will be happier without me for awhile, and perhaps when I return, Linwood will not look quite the little paradise it does now.
“I might reproach you with having telegraphed to Dr. Grant about that miserable Genevra affair which you had not discretion enough to keep to yourself. Few men would care to have their wives send for a former lover in their absence and ask that lover to take them away. Your saintly cousin, good as he is, cannot wonder at my vexation, or blame me greatly for going away. Perhaps he will offer you comfort, both religious and otherwise: but if you ever wish me to return, avoid him as you would shun a deadly poison. Until I countermand the order, I wish you to remain in the house which I bought for you. Helen and your mother both may live with you, while father will have a general oversight of your affairs; I shall send him a line to that effect.
“Your Disappointed Husband.”
This was the letter, and there was perfect silence while Katy read it through, Mr. Cameron never taking his eyes from her face, which turned first white, then red, then spotted, and finally took a leaden hue as Katy ran over the lines, comprehending the truth as she read, and when the letter was finished, lifting her dry, tearless eyes to Father Cameron, and whispering to herself,