"I think we are," said Sister Eliza. "The fact is, we were anxious to learn how you fared at the cottage yesterday."
"Fared!" exclaimed Catherine bitterly.
"Yes, Sister Catherine," Susan said, "we are very anxious to get that girl up here as soon as possible. For my part, I cannot feel safe as long as she is away."
"Then I am afraid you will never feel happy again, Sister Susan," Catherine replied with a mocking ring in her voice.
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Susan.
"Sit down—sit down, Sisters! I think you had better hear the worst at once," said the Chief with a reckless laugh.
The other two women looked at each other when they heard these discouraging words; Susan's face turned very pale.
Catherine observed her and laughed again. "No, no! Susan, it is not so bad as you think—we are not betrayed—your pretty neck is not endangered yet."
The strange manner of the Chief—the savage despair of her tones were so different from anything they had ever noticed with her before, that the women were too startled to question her. They sat in awed silence while Catherine paced up and down the room restlessly. Suddenly she stopped, and turning to the elder of her two accomplices said, "Sister Eliza! I will tell you what I have done—I will hide nothing from you—I am too maddened to care what you may think. I know after this, all my influence will be lost, but it matters not now. I have seen Mary Grimm. I have done exactly the reverse of what I went down to do. I did not invite her to town—but I made her swear to keep out of our way. I have given her her freedom. I told her the Society was broken up, that we should need her no longer, I did all this—What do you think of it? Eh! What do you think of it?"
She spoke very rapidly and wildly; then she sat down in the chair by the fire and turned her head away from them.