rising hope checked her utterance, and she saw in a flash that it still lay
with him to regain his hold on her. But Mrs. Peyton went on delicately:
"It has been a great shock to my poor boy. To be brought in contact with
Arthur's past was in itself inexpressibly painful; but this last dreadful
business--that woman's wicked act--"

"Wicked?" Kate exclaimed.

Mrs. Peyton's gentle stare reproved her. "Surely religion teaches us that
suicide is a sin? And to murder her child! I ought not to speak to you of
such things, my dear. No one has ever mentioned anything so dreadful in my
presence: my dear husband used to screen me so carefully from the painful
side of life. Where there is so much that is beautiful to dwell upon, we
should try to ignore the existence of such horrors. But nowadays everything
is in the papers; and Denis told me he thought it better that you should
hear the news first from him."

Kate nodded without speaking.

"He felt how _dreadful_ it was to have to tell you. But I tell him he
takes a morbid view of the case. Of course one is shocked at the woman's
crime--but, if one looks a little deeper, how can one help seeing that it
may have been designed as the means of rescuing that poor child from a life
of vice and misery? That is the view I want Denis to take: I want him to
see how all the difficulties of life disappear when one has learned to look
for a divine purpose in human sufferings."

Mrs. Peyton rested a moment on this period, as an experienced climber
pauses to be overtaken by a less agile companion; but presently she became
aware that Kate was still far below her, and perhaps needed a stronger