The gentlemen came at last, and father Cameron drew his chair close to Katy’s side, laying his hand on her little soft warm one, and giving it a squeeze as the bright face glanced lovingly into his. Father Cameron had grown a milder, gentler man since Katy came. He now went much oftener into society, and did not so frequently shock his wife with expressions and opinions which she held as heterodox. Katy had a softening influence over him, and he loved her as well perhaps as he had ever loved his own children.
“Better,” Juno said; and now she touched Bell’s arm, to have her see “how father was petting Katy.”
But Bell did not care, while Wilford was pleased, and himself drew nearer the chair, standing just behind it, so that Katy could not see him as he smoothed her curly head, and said, half indifferently, “Now for the all-important name. What shall we call our daughter?”
“Let your mother speak first,” Katy said, and thus appealed to, Mrs. Cameron came up to Wilford and expressed her preference for Margaret, as being a good name, an aristocratic name, and her own.
“Yes, but not half so pretty and striking as Rose Marie,” Juno chimed in.
“Rose Mary! Thunder!” father Cameron exclaimed. “Call her a marygold, or a sunflower, just as much. Don’t go to being fools by giving a child a heathenish name. Give us your opinion, Katy.”
“I have known from the first,” Katy replied, “and I am sure you will agree with me. ’Tis a beautiful name of a sweet young girl, and there was a great secret about her, too—Genevra, baby will be called,” and Katy looked straight into the fire, wholly unconscious of the effect that name had produced upon Wilford and his mother.
Wilford’s face was white as marble, and his eyes turned quickly to his mother, who, in her first shock, started so violently as to throw down from the stand a costly vase, which was broken in many pieces. This occasioned a little diversion, and by the time the flowers and fragments were gathered up, Wilford’s lips were not quite so livid, but he dared not trust his voice yet, and listened while his sisters gave their opinion of the name, Bell deciding for it at once, and Juno hesitating until she had heard from a higher power than Katy.
“What put that fanciful name into your head?” Mrs. Cameron asked.
Katy explained, and with the removal of the fear, which for a few moments had chilled his blood, Wilford grew calm again; while into his heart there crept the thought that by giving that name to his child, some slight atonement might be made to her above whose head the English daisies had blossomed and faded many a year. But not so with his mother;—the child should not be called Genevra if she could prevent it; and she opposed it with all her powers, offering at last, as a great concession on her part, to let it bear the name of either of Katy’s family—Hannah and Betsy excepted, of course Lucy Lennox, Helen Lennox, Katy Lennox, anything but Genevra. As usual, Wilford, when he learned her mind, joined with her, notwithstanding his secret preference, and the discussion became quite warm, especially as Katy evinced a willfulness for which Helen had never given her credit. Hitherto she had been as yielding as wax, but on this point she was firm, gathering strength from the fact that Wilford did not oppose her as he usually did. She could not, perhaps, have resisted him, but his manner was not very decided, and so she quietly persisted, “Genevra or nothing,” until the others gave up the contest, hoping she would feel differently after a few days’ reflection. But Katy knew she shouldn’t, and Helen could not overcome the exultation with which she saw her little sister put the Camerons to rout and remain master of the field.