“I want to be unspeakable. Go away.”
“Yes, perhaps you do. You are, anyway. But do you want Aunt Katherine to be ashamed? Could you ever forgive yourself for treating her so? She knows Mrs. Van Vorst-Smith has been rude to you, and she herself just now has come very near being rude to Mrs. Van Vorst-Smith on your account. Whatever all the fuss is about—honestly and truly I haven’t an idea what it is about myself—Aunt Katherine is all for you, Elsie. She’s your champion. You can’t go back on her now, right before everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re having a good time, not a bit. If you’re any good at all you’ll get dressed in a jiffy and go back down with me. You can pretend you’re having a good time.”
Kate finished. Her argument had exhausted her strangely. She found herself trembling with the intenseness of her conviction that Aunt Katherine must be saved from all embarrassment.
For a few minutes Elsie made no visible response to the harangue but lay perfectly still, her eyes shut, her head turned away. Kate stood in the middle of the room, the fairy green dress at her feet, waiting. “I’ve done all I can,” she told herself. “Now we’ll just see whether she has any sense at all.”
After a space of utter stillness Elsie stirred, threw back the coverlet, and sat up. “You’re right, I suppose,” she said, sulkily. “I’m just a pig, that’s all. I was only thinking of myself.”
She did not look at Kate but busied herself picking up her scattered clothes. When Kate started to leave the room, however, she called her back. “Do you mind helping me with these?” she asked almost humbly. “I don’t want to ring for Bertha. Do you mind?”
“Of course not. Let’s hurry. Everybody’ll be wondering.”
But now when Kate’s hands were needed she was recalled to the note still clutched in her fingers.
“Oh, I entirely forgot,” she exclaimed, dismayed. “Here is a note for you.”
Elsie unfolded the paper. If she had looked miserable before, when she had finished reading the few words on that paper she looked tragic. “Who gave it to you? How did you get it?”