"When I get a house of my own I mean she shall live with me all the while," she said, stooping to gather a tuft of wild bluebells growing in a marshy spot.
Wilford winced a little, for in his estimation Helen Lennox formed no part of that household to be established on Madison Square, but he would not so soon tear down Katy's castles, and so he merely remarked as she asked if it would not be nice to have Helen with them.
"Yes, very nice, but do not speak of it to her yet, as it will probably be some time before she will come to us, and she had better not have it in anticipation."
And so Helen never knew the honor in store for her as she stood in the doorway anxiously waiting for her sister, who, she feared, would take cold from being out so long. Something though in Katy's face made her guess that to her was lost forever the bright little sister whom she loved so dearly, and fleeing up the narrow stairway to her room she wept bitterly as she thought of the coming time when she would share that room alone, and know that never again would a little golden head lie upon her neck just as it had lain, for there would be a new love, a new interest between them, a love for the man whose voice she could hear now talking to her mother in the peculiar tone he always assumed when speaking to any one of them excepting Morris or Katy.
"I wish it were not wrong to hate him," she exclaimed passionately; "it would be such a relief; but if he is only kind to Katy, I do not care how much he despises us," and bathing her face in water Helen sat down by her window, gazing out upon the fresh green earth, where the young grass was springing, wondering if Mr. Cameron took her sister, when it would probably be. "Not this year or more," she said, "for Katy is so young;" but on this point she was soon set right by Katy herself, who, leaving her lover alone with her mother, stole up to tell her sister the good news.
"Yes, I know; I guessed as much when you came back from the meadows," and Helen's voice was very unsteady in its tone as she smoothed back the soft rings clustering around her sister's brow.
"Crying. Helen! oh, don't. I shall love you just the same, and you are coming to live with us in the new house on Madison Square," Katy said, forgetting Wilford's instructions in her desire to comfort Helen, who broke down again, while Katy's tears were mingled with her own.