During these remarks, Odd felt himself shaking with rage. If Katherine had been a man he would have knocked her down; as it was, his voice was the equivalent of a blow as he said, clenching his hand on the back of a chair—
“You despicable creature!”
He and Katherine glared at one another.
“Only the higher nature can put itself so hideously in the power of the lower,” Odd went on; “and you dare!”
“No, no; all she says may be true!” moaned Hilda. She dropped upon the sofa and hid her face in her hands, adding brokenly: “And how can you be so cruel? so cruel to her? She loves you too!”
Katherine turned savagely upon her sister, and then, impulse nipped by quick reflection—
“You need not allow for a woman’s jealousy, Mr. Odd. Don’t, no indeed you must not, flatter yourself with my broken heart. I don’t like humiliation for myself or for others. I don’t like to scorn my sister whom I trusted, whom I loved. I could have killed the person who had told me this of her! My humiliation, my scorn, make me too bitter for charity. But I give you back your word without one regret for myself. You have killed my love very effectually.”
“Was there ever much to kill, Katherine?”
“That is ignoble, quite as ignoble as I could predict of you. Hilda’s lesson must necessarily make the past look pale.”
“I can only hope that you do yourself an injustice by such base speeches, Katherine.”