You can go now." The girl went out, and Kate sank back in her chair, her blue eyes, tender and dreamy, still fixed on the fire.

Drifting into dream-land, she lay twisting her flashing diamond round and round on her finger, and heedless of the passing moments.

The loud ringing of the dinner-bell aroused her, and she arose with a little sigh from her pleasant reverie, shook out her lace flounces, and tripped away down stairs.
They were all in the dining-room when she entered--papa, Eeny, Grace and strangers--Doctor Danton and a clerical-looking young man, with a pale scholarly face and penetrating eyes, and who was presented as Father Francis.
"The Cure couldn't come," said the Captain.

"A sick call.

Very sorry.
Capital company, the Cure.