incentive to the ascent.

"My dear child," she said adroitly, "I said just now that I was sorry you
had been obliged to hear of this sad affair; but after all it is only you
who can avert its consequences."

Kate drew an eager breath. "Its consequences?" she faltered.

Mrs. Peyton's voice dropped solemnly. "Denis has told me everything," she
said.

"Everything?"

"That you insist on putting off the marriage. Oh, my dear, I do implore you
to reconsider that!"

Kate sank back with the sense of having passed again into a region of
leaden shadow. "Is that all he told you?"

Mrs. Peyton gazed at her with arch raillery. "All? Isn't it everything--to
him?"

"Did he give you my reason, I mean?"

"He said you felt that, after this shocking tragedy, there ought, in
decency, to be a delay; and I quite understand the feeling. It does seem
too unfortunate that the woman should have chosen this particular time! But
you will find as you grow older that life is full of such sad contrasts."

Kate felt herself slowly petrifying under the warm drip of Mrs. Peyton's