Shocked and distressed, good Mr. Sarrazin kissed her, and
consoled her, and told another excusable lie.

"Try to be comforted, Kitty; I'm sure you will see her again."

His conscience reproached him as he held out that false hope. It
could never be! The one unpardonable sin, in the judgment of
fallible human creatures like herself, was the sin that Sydney
Westerfield had committed. Is there something wrong in human
nature? or something wrong in human laws? All that is best and
noblest in us feels the influence of love--and the rules of
society declare that an accident of position shall decide whether
love is a virtue or a crime.

These thoughts were in the lawyer's mind. They troubled him and
disheartened him: it was a relief rather than an interruption
when he felt Kitty's hand on his arm. She had dried her tears,
with a child's happy facility in passing from one emotion to
another, and was now astonished and interested by a marked change
in the weather.

"Look for the lake!" she cried. "You can't see it."

A dense white fog was closing round them. Its stealthy advance
over the water had already begun to hide the boathouse at the end
of the pier from view. The raw cold of the atmosphere made the
child shiver. As Mr. Sarrazin took her hand to lead her indoors,
he turned and looked back at the faint outline of the boathouse,
disappearing in the fog. Kitty wondered. "Do you see anything?"