This last shaft accomplished Miss Bernard's presumable object. Eugene lost his temper.
"Forgive me for saying so, Kate," he said, "but really at times your mind seems to me positively vulgar."
"I am not going to quarrel. I am quite aware of what you want."
"What's that?"
"An opportunity for quarreling."
"If that's all, I might have found several. But come, Kate, it's no use, and not very dignified, to squabble. We haven't got on so well as we might. But I dare say it's my fault."
"Do you want to throw me over?" asked Kate scornfully.
"For Heaven's sake, don't talk like a breach-of-promise plaintiff! I am and always have been perfectly ready to fulfill my engagement. But you don't make it easy for me. Unless you 'throw me over,' as you are pleased to phrase it, things will remain as they are."
"I have been taught to consider an engagement as binding as a marriage."
"No warrant for such a view in Holy Scripture."