“Katy,” and Wilford grew very earnest in his attempts to defend himself, “do you remember that day we sat under the buttonwood tree, and you promised to be mine? Try and recall the incidents of that hour and see if I did not hint at some things in the past which I wished had been otherwise, and did not offer to show you the blackest page of my whole life, but you would not see it. Was that so, Katy?” “Yes,” she answered, and he continued: “You said you were satisfied to take me as I was. You would not hear evil against me, and so I acquiesced, bidding you not shrink back if ever the time should come when you must read that page. I was to blame, I know, but there were many extenuating circumstances, much to excuse me for withholding what you would not hear.” Wilford did not like to be censured, neither did he like to censure himself, and now that Katy was out of danger and comparatively calm, he began to build about himself a fortress of excuses for having kept from her the secret of his life. “When did you hear of Genevra?” he asked. Katy told him when and how she heard the story, and then added, “Oh, Wilford, why did you keep it from me? What was there about it wrong, and where is she buried?” “In Alnwick, at St. Mary’s,” Wilford answered, determining now to hold nothing back, and by his abruptness wounding Katy afresh. “In Alnwick, at St. Mary’s,” Katy cried. “Then I have seen her grave, and that is why you were so anxious to get there—so unwilling to go away. Oh, if I were lying there instead of Genevra, it would be so much better, so much better.” Katy was sobbing now, in a moaning, plaintive way, which touched Wilford tenderly, and smoothing her tangled hair, he said, “I would not exchange my Katy for all the Genevras in the world. She was never as dear to me as you. I was but a boy, and did not know my mind, when I met her. Shall I tell you about her now? Can you bear to hear the story of Genevra?” There was a nod of assent, and Katy turned her face to the wall, clasping her hands tightly together, while Wilford drew his chair to her side and began to read the page he should have read to her long before. CHAPTER XXXIII. WHAT THE PAGE DISCLOSED.