'That was not all,' said Katie, very decidedly. 'It never shall be all in my mind. If you had not been with us I should now have been drowned, and cold, and dead; and mamma! where would she have been? Oh! Charley, I shall think myself so wicked if I have said anything to vex you.' Charley did not analyse his feelings, nor did Katie analyse hers. It would have been impossible for her to do so. But could she have done it, and had she done it, she would have found that her gratitude was but the excuse which she made to herself for a passionate love which she could not have excused, even to herself, in any other way. He said everything he could to reassure her and make her happy, and she soon smiled and laughed again. 'Now, that's what my editor would call a Nemesis,' said Charley. 'Oh, that's a Nemesis, is it?' 'Johnson was cheated into doing my work, and getting me my supper; and then you scolded me, and took away my appetite, so that I couldn't eat it; that's a Nemesis. Johnson is avenged, only, unluckily, he doesn't know it, and wickedness is punished.' 'Well, mind you put it into the _Daily Delight_. But all the girls are going upstairs; pray let me get out,' and so Katie went upstairs again. It was then past one. About two hours afterwards, Gertrude, looking for her sister that she might take her home, found her seated on a bench, with her feet tucked under her dress. She was very much fatigued, and she looked to be so; but there was still a bright laughing sparkle in her eye, which showed that her spirits were not even yet weary. 'Well, Katie, have you had enough dancing?' 'Nearly,' said Katie, yawning. 'You look as if you couldn't stand.' 'Yes, I am too tired to stand; but still I think I could dance a little more, only--' 'Only what?' 'Whisper,' said Katie; and Gertrude put down her ear near to her sister's lips. 'Both my shoes are quite worn out, and my toes are all out on the floor.' It was clearly time for them to go home, so away they all went. CHAPTER XXVII EXCELSIOR The last words that Katie spoke as she walked down Mrs. Val's hall, leaning on Charley's arm, as he led her to the carriage, were these-- 'You will be steady, Charley, won't you? you will try to be steady, won't you, dear Charley?' and as she spoke she almost imperceptibly squeezed the arm on which she was leaning. Charley pressed her little hand as he parted from her, but he said nothing. What could he say, in that moment of time, in answer to such a request? Had he made the reply which would have come most readily to his lips, it would have been this: 'It is too late, Katie--too late for me to profit by a caution, even from you--no steadiness now will save me.' Katie, however, wanted no other answer than the warm pressure which she felt on her hand.