It was a most delightful trip, and Wilford was better satisfied with himself than he had been before in years.  His past life was not all free from error, and there were many sad memories haunting him, but with Katy at his side, seeing what he saw, admiring what he admired, and doing what he bade her do, he gave the bygones to the wind, feeling only an intense desire to clasp the young girl in his arms and bear her away to some spot where with her pure fresh life all his own he could begin the world anew, and retrieve the past which he had lost.  This was when he was with Katy.  Away from her he could remember the difference in their position, and prudential motives began to make themselves heard.  Never but once had he taken an important step without consulting his mother, and then, alas! the trouble it brought him was not ended yet, and never would be ended until death had set its seal upon the brow of one almost as dear as Katy, though in a far different way.  And this was why Katy came back to Silverton unengaged, leaving her heart with Wilford Cameron, who would first seek advice from his mother ere committing himself by word.  He had seen the white-haired man with his coarse, linen coat and coarser pants, waiting eagerly for her when the train stopped at Silverton, but standing there as he did, with his silvery locks parted in the center, and shading his honest, open face, Uncle Ephraim looked like some patriarch of old rather than a man to be despised, and Wilford felt only a respect for him until he saw Katy’s arms wound so lovingly around his neck as she kissed and called him Uncle Eph.  That sight grated harshly, and Wilford, knowing this was the uncle of whom Katy had often spoken, felt glad that he was not bound to her by any pledge.  Very curiously he looked after the couple, witnessing the meeting between Katy and old Whitey, and guessing rightly that the corn-colored vehicle was the one sent to transport Katy home.  He was very moody for the remainder of the route between Silverton and Albany, where he parted with his Canandaigua friends, they going on to the westward, while he stopped all night in Albany, where he had some business to transact for his father.  And this was why he did not reach New York until late in the afternoon of the following day.

He was intending to tell his mother everything, except indeed that he paid Katy’s bills.  He would rather keep that to himself, as it might shock his mother’s sense of propriety and make her think less of Katy, impulsive, confiding Katy, little dreaming as on that rainy afternoon she sat in the kitchen at Silverton, with her feet in the stove-oven and the cat asleep in her lap, of the conversation taking place between Wilford Cameron and his mother.  They had left the dinner table, and lighting his cigar, which for that one time the mother permitted in the parlor, Wilford opened the subject by asking her to guess what took him off so suddenly with Mrs. Woodhull.