Kenelm Waldo was in the West Indies, trying to escape from his pain at
Katie Archdale's refusal, but carrying it everywhere with him, as he did
recollections of her; to have lost them would have been to have lost his
memory altogether.

Ralph Harwin also had gone. His money was still in the firm of John
Archdale & Co., which it had made one of the richest in the Colonies;
its withdrawal was now to be expected at any moment, for Harwin did not
mean to return, and Archdale, while endeavoring to be ready for this,
saw that it would cripple him. Harwin had been right in believing that
he should make himself very useful and very acceptable to Katie's
father. For Archdale who was more desious of his daughter's happiness
than of anything else in the world, was disappointed that this did not
lie in the direction which, on the whole, would have been for his
greatest advantage. Harwin and he could have done better for Katie in
the way of fortune than Stephen Archdale with his distaste for business
would do. The Archdale connection had always been a dream of his, until
lately when this new possibility had superseded his nephew's interest in
his thoughts. There was an address and business keenness about Harwin
that, if Stephen possessed at all, was latent in him. The Colonel was
wealthy enough to afford the luxury of a son who was only a fine
gentleman. Stephen was a good fellow, he was sure, and Katie would be
happy with him. And yet--but even these thoughts left him as he leaned
back in his chair that day, sitting alone after dinner, and a mist came
over his eyes as he thought that in less than a fortnight his home would
no longer be his little daughter's.

"It will be all right," he said to himself with that sigh of resignation
with which we yield to the inevitable, as if there were a certain choice
and merit in doing it. "It is well that the affairs of men are in higher