sure, but he never told me so in his life. He don't make many
protestations; he takes a great deal for granted. Why shouldn't he;
we've known one another from babyhood? But Master Harwin knew, somehow,
the minute after he spoke, if he didn't at the time, that he wouldn't
die for his fault at all, whatever it was. And then, after he spoke it
seemed to me as if he had changed his mind and didn't care about it in
any way, he only cared that I had refused him, and that he was not going
to see me any more. I am sorry for a man like that, and if he were going
to stay here I should be afraid of him, afraid for Stephen. But he sails
in a few days. I don't wonder he couldn't wait here for the next ship,
wait over the wedding, and whatever danger from him there may have been
sails with him. Poor man, I don't see what he liked me for." And with a
sigh, Katie dismissed the thought of him and his grief and evil
together, and turned her attention again to the wedding finery.

"Only see what exquisite lace," she cried, throwing it out on the table
to examine the web. "Where did Elizabeth get it, I wonder? She begged to
be allowed to give me my bridal veil, and she has certainly done it
handsomely, just as she always does everything, dear child. I suppose it
came out in one of her father's ships."

"Everything Master Royal touches turns into gold," said Mrs. Archdale,
after a critical examination of the lace had called forth her
admiration. "It's Mechlin, Katie. There is nobody in the Colonies richer
than he," she went on, "unless, possibly, the Colonel."

"I dare say I ought to pretend not to care that Stephen will have ever
so much money," returned the girl, taking up a broad band of India
muslin wrought with gold, and laying it over her sleeve to examine the
pattern, at which she smiled approvingly. "But then I do care. Stephen