"'You broke off the engagement, Honora, because of his escapades,' finally hinted Mrs. Lathrop, with claws behind the velvety tone of the remark. 'And yet—'
"Mrs. Wilford interrupted here. 'It is a far more important thing, Vina, that a woman should keep herself clean than for a man—far more important for the race. Not that I would excuse things in any man.' McCabe says that remark went right home to Mrs. Lathrop. She flared up.
"'Oh, tush, Honora—more of your highbrow philosophy. You talking about the race! Where are your children? I've been studying you, Honora. You may think you're a highbrow. I guess you are. They all—you—are like the rest of us, with the same passions—no better, no worse. Remember—it's you have the soul scar—you!'"
"The cat," I could not help but mutter.
Again, recalling Kennedy's instructions, I wondered whether consciously Honora had rejected Shattuck while at the same time she unconsciously accepted him as a lover?
Evidently now each was accusing the other—and over Shattuck. I recalled Honora's dreams which she had told willingly. There was the dream of the bull and the serpent. That was sex. Again I recalled the dream of the forest and the hill she had been struggling to get up. In this dream I recalled the fire, the climbing, the explosion, and her dream of the other woman, with her unwillingness to admit to us that the other woman might be no other than Vina. Then there was the unexplained dream she had about Doctor Lathrop, the lion in the path. Evidently Honora had been betrayed into some dangerous admissions in her dreams, I thought.
"What's next?" came Kennedy's voice. "I get the drift of what was really back of it all. Let's go on."
Doyle eyed Kennedy quizzically for a moment. Kennedy's explanation of the psychology of the thing had been much over Doyle's head and had left him in doubt. He turned back to McCabe's notes.
"It's Mrs. Lathrop speaking next, and she was very angry. 'If you don't leave him alone, Honora—I'll tell Kennedy all that I know.'"
Doyle shot a glance of inquiry.