In the little room she called her own, Marian Hazelton sat, her beautiful hair disordered, and her eyes dim with the tears she had shed. She knew that Wilford was dead, and as if his dying had brought back all her olden love she wept bitterly for the man who had so darkened her life. She had not expected to see him with Katy present; but now that it was over she might go to him. There could be no harm in that. No one but Morris would know who she was, she thought, when there came a timid knock upon her door, and Katy entered, her face very pale, and her manner very calm, as she came to Marian, and kneeling down beside her, laid her head in her lap with the air of a weary child who has sought its mother for rest.
“Poor little Katy!” Marian said; “your husband, they tell me, is dead.”
“Yes;” and Katy lifted up her head, and fixing her eyes earnestly upon Marian, continued, “Wilford is dead. but before he died he left a message for Genevra Lambert. Will she hear it now?”
With a sudden start Marian sprang to her feet, and demanded, “Who told you of Genevra Lambert?”
“Wilford told me months ago, showing me her picture, which I readily recognized, and I have pitied you so much, knowing you were innocent. Wilford thought you were dead,” Katy said, flinching a little before Marian’s burning gaze, which fascinated even while it startled her.
It is not often that two women meet bearing to each other the relations these two bore, and it is not strange that both felt constrained and embarrassed as they stood looking at each other. As Marian’s was the stronger nature, so she was the first to rally, and with the tears swimming in her eyes she drew Katy closely to her, and said,
“Now that he is gone I am glad you know it. Mine has been a sad life, but God has helped me to bear it. You say he believed me dead. Sometime I will tell you how that came about; but now, his message,—he left one, you say?”
Carefully Katy repeated every word Wilford had said, and with a gasping cry Marian wound her arms around her neck, exclaiming,
“And you will love me, because I have suffered so much. You will let me call you Katy when we are alone. It brings you nearer to me.”
Marian was now the weaker of the two, and it was Katy’s task to comfort her, as sinking back in her chair she sobbed,