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Aunt Betsy did not rest well after her return from the opera Novelty and excitement always kept her awake, while her ard to what she had done Not that she really felt she had coht be bad, but she feared the result, should it ever reach the orthodox church at Silverton

"There's no telling what Deacon Bannister would do--send a subpoena after ht, as she laid her tired head upon her pillow and went off into that weary state halfway between sleep and wakefulness, a state in which operas, play actors, Katy in full dress, Helen and Mark Ray, choruses, uilty of beating her foot, Deacon Bannister and the whole offended brotherhood, with constable and subpoenas, were pretty equally blended together--the music which she liked, and the subpoena which she feared taking the precedence of the others

But with the daylight her fears subsided, and at the breakfast table she was hardly less enthusiastic over the opera than Mattie herself, averring, however; that "once would do her and she had no wish to go again"

The sight of Katy looking so frail and delicate, but so beautiful withal, had awakened all the olden intense love she had felt for her darling, and she could not waither blessed voice"

"Hannah, and Lucy ast 'e that I o if I don't stay more than an hour"

"Of course I should," Mattie answered, herself anxious to stand beneath Wilford Cameron's roof and see Mrs Wilford at home "She don't look as proud as Helen, and you are her aunt, her blood kin, so why shouldn't you go there if you like?"

"I shall--I a that to take Mattie with her was not quite the thing, and not exactly knowing how to irl must of course pilot the way "I'll risk it and trust to Providence," was her final decision, and so after an early lunch she started out with Mattie as her escort, suggesting that they visit Wilford's office first and get that affair out of her an to look upon herself as aat the depths of iniquity to which she had fallen The opera was the least of her offenses, for she was not harboring pride and contriving how to be rid of 'Tilda Tubbs, as clever a girl as ever lived, hoping that if she found Wilford he would see her home, and so save 'Tilda the trouble? Playhouses, pride, vanity, subterfuge and deceit--it was a long catalogue she would have to confess to Deacon Bannister, if confess she did, and with a groan the conscience-s the street, and at last into the stage which took them to Wilford's office