"I hope so," cried Katie, "he is a most fascinating man, and of such family! Stephen was speaking of him the other day. He was very attentive, was he not, Betsey?"
"Ye-es, I suppose so. But there was something that I fancied papa did not like."
"I'm so sorry," cried Katie. She rose, and crossing the little space between herself and her friend, dropped upon the footstool at Elizabeth's feet, and laying her arms in the girl's lap and resting her chin upon them, looked up and added, "Tell me all about it, my dear."
"There is nothing to tell," answered Elizabeth, caressing the beautiful hair and looking into the eyes that had tears of sympathy in them.
"I was afraid something had gone wrong, afraid that you would care."
Elizabeth sat thinking.
"I don't know," she said slowly at last, "I don't know whether I should really care or not if I never saw him again."
Her companion looked at her a moment in silence, and when she began to speak it was about something else.