In a long letter to Violet Travilla, Kate Ross gave the details of the
whole affair.
A strange, sad story it seemed to Vi and her sister. They could not in the
least understand how Gertrude could feel or act as she had done, and
feared she would find, as Kate expressed it, "even a gold lined sty, but a
hard bed to lie in, with no love to soften it."
"Still," they said to each other, "it was better, a thousand times better,
than marrying that dreadful Mr. Larrabee."
For Kate had assured them Mr. Hogg was "an honest, honorable man, and not
ill-tempered; only an intolerable bore--so stupid and uninteresting."
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH.
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
--GAL. vi. 7.
Elsie and her children returned home healthful and happy, with scarce any
but pleasing recollections of the months that had just passed.
Not so with Mrs. Conly and Virginia. They seemed soured and disappointed;
nothing had gone right with them; their finery was all spoiled, and they
were worn out--with the journey they said, but in reality far more by late
hours and dissipation of one sort and another.
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