"Oh no! He could not afford it. He told me he must marry a rich woman."
"Did he, really? It is just like him. What audacity! I wonder you ever spoke to him again. Then you are going in for rank, Katherine?"
"How can you tell? I don't know myself. Good-night. I shall tell you whenever I know my own mind."
"She is as close as wax, with all her frankness," thought Mrs. Ormonde as she went up to her room, after taking an affectionate leave of her sister-in-law.
The boys at school, Katherine found time hung somewhat heavily on her hands—a condition of things only too favorable to thought and visions of what "might have been." So, with the earnest hope of finding the exhilarations which might lead, through forgetfulness, to the happiness she so eagerly craved, Katherine accepted almost all the invitations which were soon showered upon her. At the houses of acquaintances she had made abroad she made numerous new ones, who were quite ready to fete, the handsome, sweet-voiced, pleasant-mannered heiress, who seemed to think so little about herself.
"Just the creature to be imposed upon, my dear!" as each mother whispered to the one next her, thinking, of course, of the other's son.
But her most satisfactory hours were those spent with Rachel, when they talked of the business, and often branched off to more abstract subjects. To the past they never alluded. Katherine was glad to see that the dead, hopeless expression of Rachel Trant's eyes had changed, yet not altogether for good. A certain degree of alertness had brightened them, but with it had come a hard, steady look, as though the spirit within had a special work to do, and was steeled and "straitened till it be accomplished."
"You are quite a clever accountant, Rachel," said Katherine, one afternoon in early April, after they had gone through the books together. "You have been established nearly five months, and you have paid expenses and a trifle over."
"It is not bad. Then, you see, the warehouses will give me credit for the next orders, three months' credit, and my orders are increasing. I am sure it is of great importance to have materials for customers to choose from. Ladies like to be saved the trouble of shopping, and I can give a dress at a more moderate rate, if I provide everything, than they can buy it piecemeal. I hope to double the business this season, and pay you a good percentage. Even on credit I can venture to order a fair supply of goods."
"Don't try credit yet, Rachel," said Katherine, earnestly. "I can give you a check now, and after this you can stand alone."