Violet Jacob > Irresolute Catherine

126 IRRESOLUTE CATHERINE
spinsters and toiling mothers of families,
had not a good word for her; the gulf
between them was so great.
Though Heber’s engagement to Catherine
was a staggering blow to her, its breaking
came soon enough to give her courage
again. Nay, there was a fatalism in her
that had, perhaps, preserved her from super-
stition^by taking superstition’s place ; and it
suggested to her mind, preoccupied as it
was with one idea, that larger powers than
her own were playing into her hands.
When she heard that Charles Saunders was
to marry the girl she had never seen, and
was more than ever curious to see, she re¬
solved to possess her soul in patience. She
smiled, standing before the cheap square of
looking-glass that hung on her wall. There
were lines in the face before her to which
she would fain have been blind, but there
were other things too. And all comes to
him who waits. She meant to wait—not
passively, but intelligently. Then Black