Katherine, Chapters XVII-XX [pp. 394-416]

416 KATKARJNE. [Dec.,
be sorry for her. She has worn out even his patience at last.
I always knew he was selfish, though. He would hardly speak
to me last summer after it was arranged that I should leave
home for a year. Some people never think of any one but themselves!"
"Dear sister,",the letter ran, "my father wished to write to you himself, but I have persuaded him that it is better to let me do it. I showed
Mr. Asbell your last letter on Sunday night, and told him that while my
father was in such feeble health and the two little ones still so young I
could not think it my duty to leave them to entire strangers. He made
me very little answer, and was married on Wednesday to Sarah Frisbee. I
hope God may forgive him and you, and that you will both be happy in
your new homes is the prayer of your affectionate sister,
"MARY GERMAIN."
Katharine's eyes were moist as she looked up from the paper,
but her heart was very indignant.
"May I never give any one occasion to make such a prayer
for me!" she said. "I should be afraid to have it answered."
"Do have common sense!" her cousin replied imperturbably.
"In the first place, she is well rid of a man who could act in that
way, and, in the second, don't you think it more important that a
man like Arthur White should be able to carry out his plans and
settle down to a life of quietness, in which he will be able to do
his best work and bring out all there is in him, than that a
country farmer like Jonas should insist on marrying to-day instead of to-morrow? He is only twenty-six when all is said. I
don't blame him half as much as I do Mary. I can't help it
if she chooses to throw herself down before Juggernaut. My
father ought to have prevented it. I talked the whole thing
over with Arthur."
"And he would not wait another year himself? I am disappointed in him."
"Well-yes-he would, I suppose, if I had been very stiff
about it. But he really needs this European trip, and the congregation insisted on his taking it. I think the doctor has prescribed it for his throat-difficulty. He would have gone alonebut-well, he thought, as I do, that Mary's carefulness is overstrained. A man with my father's money can always hire what
help is needed, and Mary was to be close by in any case. Why
should we have waited? I might never have had such a chance
for culture offered me again. Of course I didn't believe things
would take quite this turn. One comfort is that Jonas will sup
sorrow for it. If ever a man was absurdly in love with a girl, he