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 Kate sank back with the sense of having passed again into a region of leaden shadow. &quot;Is that all he told you?&quot;

Mrs. Peyton gazed at her with arch raillery. &quot;All? Isn't it everything—to him?&quot;

&quot;Did he give you my reason, I mean?&quot;

&quot;He said you felt that, after this shocking tragedy, there ought, in decency, to be a delay; and I quite understand the feeling. It does seem too unfortunate that the woman should have chosen this particular time! But you will find as you grow older that life is full of such sad contrasts.&quot; Kate felt herself slowly petrifying under I the warm drip of Mrs. Peyton's platitudes.

&quot;It seems to me,&quot; the elder lady continued, &quot;that there is only one point from which we ought to consider the question—and that is, its effect on Denis. But for that we ought to refuse to know anything about it. But it has made my boy so unhappy. The law-suit was a cruel ordeal to