"But, mother, I am not sure,—how can you say that I am in love with him when I don't know it myself?" cried Viola.
"When you came, Kenneth, I knew that my days were numbered," went on the older woman, leaning forward in her chair. "The truth would have to come out. A force I could not stand up against had entered the field. For want of a better word we will call it Fate. It is useless to fight against Fate. If I had never told you two the truth about yourselves, you would have found it out anyway. You would have found it out in the touch of your hands, in the leap of the blood, in the strange, mysterious desire of the flesh over which the soul has no control. You began loving him, Viola,—without knowing it,—that night at Phineas Striker's. You—"
"How can you say such a thing, mother?" cried Viola hotly. "I was in love with Barry Lapelle at that—"
"You were never in love with Barry," broke in her mother calmly.
"I think I ought to know when I am in love and when I am not!"
"Be that as it may, you now know that you were never in love with him,—so it comes to the same thing."
Kenneth's heart gave a joyous bound. "I—I wish I could believe that. I wish I knew that you are not thinking of him now, Viola, and wanting him back in spite of all he has done."
Viola arose suddenly. "I am going in the house," she said haughtily. "Neither of you seems to think I have a grain of sense. First mother says I am in love with you without knowing it, and now you are wondering if I am in love with Barry without knowing it, I suppose. Don't you give me credit for having a mind of my own? And, mother, I've just got to say it, even if it is insolent,—I will be very much obliged to you if you will allow me to make up my own mind about Kenny. It is not for you or anybody else to say I am in love with him."
"Oh, don't go away angry, Viola," cried Kenneth, distressed. "Let's forget all we've said and—"
"I don't want to forget all we've said," she exclaimed, stamping her foot. "How dare you come over here and tell me you love me and then ask me to forget—Oh, if that's all it amounts to with you, Kenneth, I dare say I can make up my mind right now. I—"