"And a nice sort of a blackguard he must be," added indignant brotherhood. "Not want to marry him indeed! I should like to know why?" unconscious of anything contradictory in his explosive phrases.
But enlightenment had visited his wife, and her eyes brimmed with tears.
"Oh, poor Katty ... poor darling! I must go to her at once. Neddy, can't you see——" She paused on her hurrying mission of comfort to fling an aphorism of unwonted daring and brilliance at the head of her liege lord.
"It takes two to make a pair," said Nelly, and departed.
Slowly Edward Morrison grasped her meaning. Slowly, too, he grasped the fact that here was a perfectly unsubtle problem, to be attacked with a delightfully simple weapon—the horsewhip. And the soul of Edward Morrison was glad within him. That his sister should have sinned was terrible indeed; but not so terrible as that his sister should have new-fangled notions.
"'Pon my word, Nelly is a remarkable woman!"
The remarkable woman was at the moment mounting the stairs towards the bedrooms. Nelly Morrison, when unwed, had been known as the "Belle of Clapton," which over and beyond its reminiscence of pleasure-steamer, had also had a deteriorating effect upon her brains. Otherwise, she was a good-natured little soul, genuinely fond of her sister-in-law, and very anxious always that Kathleen should "feel that this is really her home." In furtherance of which desire, it was her habit to make Kathleen's room bright with flowers; flowers everywhere, on the dressing-table, amongst the ink and pens, on the window-sills, in the washstand-basin. She held now in her hand some half-wilted marguerites, symbols of comfort about as adequate as her husband's contemplated horsewhip of righteousness.
The room was in darkness when Nelly entered on tiptoe—and without knocking:
"Katty, are you in bed?"
Kathleen did not reply; drew the sheet close up to her burning cheeks. What a mess, what an unendurable mess these people were making of her days of enchantment. Perhaps if she did not move, Nelly would think her asleep, and go away. But a slight catch in the breath betrayed her wakefulness.