"What a ridiculous idea!" she exclaimed, while Mrs. Stafford, looking very serious, asked:
"Is this really true, or are you still jesting? I can scarcely credit what you say."
"Quite true—even to the ring Kate is now wearing!" and Mr. Stafford pointed to a pretty little amethyst on his daughter's finger.
Mrs. Stafford no longer doubted the story. She looked troubled, and during the remainder of the meal remained very quiet. Not so the father and daughter, who carried on a merry war—Kate declaring she was not at all curious, and certainly not anxious to see him, and scouting the idea of a ready-made husband, while Mr. Stafford kept teasing her on these points. Yet, when she retired to her room immediately after breakfast, and looked at her reflection in the glass, she did "wonder what he was like."
It was a beautiful form, and a face not only beautiful, but essentially good, that she gazed upon, and any he might be proud to have a claim upon it; but she was accustomed to the features before her, and not especially interested in any man. So wasting no time upon either, she set about that mysterious performance (to men) known as "changing her dress." This, at all events, must be a matter requiring time, for a full half-hour had elapsed when she appeared before her father in the library, arrayed in full out-door costume, and with a saucy smile invited his criticism, adding as she swung round before him:
"You can now see how curious I am to behold him!"
CHAPTER II.
Despite the fact that her "betrothed" was liable to arrive at any minute, Kate started immediately after breakfast to visit a friend—one Jennie Fleming, living about ten miles from Hanley Hall—and did not return until evening. Passing the parlor door, she saw her mother in conversation with a strange gentleman, and at once surmised it was the expected visitor from America.
As her pony was in good condition and anxious to go, she had given him his head on the way home, and the road being rather muddy, she arrived in a bespattered condition—although looking decidedly the better for her rapid drive.