If he should succeed in breaking the engagement, it would cost her untold suffering, and Albert was tender-hearted enough to shrink from inflicting suffering on any one, and especially on Kate.

But when that heartless "he! he!" returned to his memory, and he thought of all the consequences of such a marriage, he nerved himself for a sharp and strong interference.

It was his habit to plunge into every conflict with a radical's recklessness, and his present impulse was to attempt to carry his point by storm.

If there had been opportunity, he would have moved on Katy's slender reasoning faculties at once.

But as the night of sleeplessness wore on, the substratum of practical sense in his character made itself felt.