They walked silently along the little path under the sunlit shade of the fruit-trees. Mary stopped at a turning. "Yes; that is encouraging. Reminds one of Emerson and optimism. Peter did find you." Her large clear eyes looked an exhortation into Hilda's. "Peter found you, my dear child; let Peter keep you, then." "He always will keep--what he found," said Hilda, trembling. "I love him. I shall always love him." "My dear Hilda!" "But I cannot marry him. I cannot." "You are a foolish little Hilda." "We made Katherine miserable." "And therefore all three must be miserable. For Peter to have kept faith with Katherine--loving you--might have called down a far worse tragedy." Hilda gazed widely at her-- "Yes; I deserve that suspicion." "Oh, you foolish, foolish child!" cried Mary, laughing; and she kissed her. "Come, come; say that you will be good to my poor brother?" "I love him, but I cannot ground my happiness on a wrong." "Your happiness would be grounded on a right; the wrong was a mere incidental. Peter must wait, I see. Perhaps you will own some day that that was ample expiation." CHAPTER XIV One October day Hilda received a queer little note from Katherine. That Katherine had spent a month in Scotland and was now on a yacht with a party of friends, Hilda knew, and the note was dated from Amalfi. "Why don't you marry Peter, you little goose?" was all it said. Hilda trembled as she read. Katherine's scorn and Katherine's nobility seemed to breathe from it. "I am not as base as you think," was her answer. Katherine received this answer in Amalfi. She had come in from a walk with Allan Hope along the road that runs above the sea between Amalfi and Sorrento, and one of the yachting party, a girl who much admired Katherine, was waiting for her before the hotel holding the letter, an excuse for the excited whisper with which she gave it to her. "Dear Miss Archinard, _he_ is here!" "What 'he,' Nelly?" asked Katherine; she looked down at the writing on the envelope of her letter, and the becoming flush that her walk through the warm evening had brought to her cheeks faded a little. Allan Hope had gone on into the hotel, and Nelly's excited eyes followed him till he was safely out of sight. "Mr. Odd," she said with dramatic emphasis. "Of course he didn't know." "Oh, he is here!" Katherine's eyes were still on the writing. "No, of course he didn't know." "You aren't afraid of his meeting Allan?" Nelly was Allan Hope's cousin. "Is there no danger, Miss Archinard? He must be feeling so--dreadfully!" "What a romantic little pate it is! I really believe you were looking forward to a duel. No, no, Nelly, there is nothing of an exciting nature to hope for!" "But won't it be terrible for you to meet him? The first time, you know! And engaged to Allan!" said Nelly. "We are not at all afraid of one another. Don't tremble, Nelly."