'That I might become mad,' she interposed, 'if I don't abstain from drink.
Did he say that?'
'Well, it was something like that, Kate. You know I only just escaped with my life.'
'Only just escaped with your life, Dick! Oh, if I'd killed you, if I'd killed you! If I'd seen you lying dead at my feet!' and unable to think further she fell on her knees and reached out her arms to him. But he did not take her to his bosom, and she sobbed till, touched to the heart, he strove to console her with kind words, never forgetting, however, to introduce a hint that she was not responsible for her actions.
'Then I'm really downright mad?' said Kate, raising her tear-stained face from her arms. 'Did the doctor say so?'
This was by far too direct a question for Dick to answer; it were better to equivocate.
'Well, my dear—mad? He didn't say that you were always mad, but he said you were liable to fits, and that if you didn't take care those fits would grow upon you, and you would become—'
Then he hesitated as he always did before a direct statement.
'But what did he say I must do to get well?'
'He advised that you should go to a home where you would not be able to get hold of any liquor and would be looked after'
'You mean a madhouse. You wouldn't put me in a madhouse, Dick?'