to-morrow. If Katey herself was to come
to me and say, 'Peter, I can't bring
myself to live an hour longer with you
under the same roof, I can't bear the sight
of you: give me fifty pounds, and let me be
off on the world!' d'ye think I'd blame
her? That would be only the old touch
of Eve, which is in every girl, ready to
take up with any serpent that may
turn up."

"I never relish your rather free and
profane allusions, so pray do not indulge any
more, in my presence, at least. I am afraid
the excuse you make for your children would
excuse any crime. However, I am glad we
have come to an explanation. The best
thing now for Tom to do is to go away and
seek his fortune. The present governor
of Australia was an old friend of mine, and
he will give him a start. Tom has been
eager to go this long time, only for your
daughter, on whom he was been fool
enough——"

"And d'ye think I'd let child of mine, one
of those two sweet fairies, be dragged out
to that place? So that's what Master Tom
was planning, to make a bush-woman of
her, and no less, out among the bogs and
trees! Ah, no thankye. 'Pon my honour
the Findlaters are come down, when such
propositions are made to them!"

CHAPTER XXXII. TOM AND KATEY.

STILL the Doctor went away in high good
humour. But, strange to say, when he
saw his daughter, he relapsed again. Polly
was still aggrieved. She had spent the
night in tears. The pillow had irritated
her face with constant rubbing; she would
not speak to Katey, whom she called "an
adder." Poor Katey was overwhelmed by
this charge, and used every sweet art, of
which she had a perfect storehouse, to
bring her back. But nothing would
console Polly. As she asked, and with justice
enough, "How could she ever walk
into M'Intyre's, and see those shopwomen
again?" As in a great many other
instances, where the affections are supposed
to be suffering, it is in truth often
mortification that is at work.

The Doctor came in gloomy. "My poor
Polly, it's very hard on you. But I have
my own worries, too, I declare, and begin
to wish there were no such things as
daughters made at all."

As Polly was glowering on the sofa, her
lips drawn down scornfully, he motioned
to Katey to follow him down. When she
was in the room, he said hurriedly:

"There, I was up with old Clarke, the
parson, and he has it too. Bringing me to
book, insulting me and my country, and
aspershing you."

"Aspersing—how, Peter?"

"That you were scheming—you, my pet,
my cherub. Why you couldn't. Why I
wouldn't give you to that family; no, not
if you were starving; though you would
starve if I did. It's low, low. And he
seemed to say we'd be all left there, and
that the young fellow was only amusing
himself."

"Indeed it's a calumny!" said Katey,
indignantly. "He's too much of a gentleman
to do that——"

"Whist! Hush!" said the Doctor,
suddenly, and creeping towards the window,
like an Indian scout. "I declare here's
that fellow Tom, I suppose come to be
more insulting. Well, this is charming.
But see him, dear. He's come to call you
to account, pet. However, I shan't say
anything. You a schemer!"

Katey's lip trembled. In a moment the
Doctor had stolen away, and she was alone
with Tom, who was very pale and angry.

She put up her hand hastily. She had
that scornful air about her lips which
seemed, in some measure, to justify the
Doctor's boast of kingly descent. "You're
not come, are you, Tom, to insult our family,
as your father did mine?"

"I am come to speak very plainly to
you, Katey; to say," he added, with a
trembling voice, "what I think of your
conduct. I could not have believed it.
Never! not if it had been sworn on fifty
Bibles. But I was a fool not to trust what
I saw the other day, with my own eyes,
when you, with your deceitful tongue,
tried to blind me. For shame, for shame!
With your quiet, demure, devotional air!
For shame to be deceitful, not merely to
me, but to your own sister. I know it all.
Everybody here knows it too. Pretending
to be advancing her cause, and all the time
insinuating yourself into her place. Thank
Heaven, my eyes are opened—opened in
time!"

Katey listened amazed. She was not one
of those who would sink on the ground in a
swoon when she found a lover false. It was
indignation that filled her at the injustice,
the shocking injustice, of the charge,
intensified by the reflection that there were
others—the world, in short—who took
their share in it. She addressed him calmly,
and almost with contempt:

"I care not what they think, and now