“Oh! no, Brace; Brace, do not look like that––really––really––listen to me.”
Northrup breathed heavily.
“An accident?” he demanded. A hard note rang in his words. This turn of affairs was rather more than Kathryn had arranged for. It was like finding herself on the professional stage when she had bargained for an amateur performance.
She ran to cover, abandoning all her well-laid plans. She knew the advantage of being the first in a new situation, so she hurried there.
“Brace dear, I––you know I have been bearing it all alone and I dared not take any further responsibility even to––to shield you, dearest, and your work.”
By some dark magic Northrup felt himself a selfish brute; a deserter of duty.
“Kathryn,” he said, and his eyes fell, “please tell me. I suppose I have been unforgivable, but––well, there’s nothing to say!” Northrup bowed his head to take whatever blow might fall.
“I may be all wrong, dear. You know, when one is alone, is the confidante of another, one as precious as your mother is to you and me, it unnerves one––I did not know what to do. It may not be anything––but how could I know?”
“You went to Manly?” Northrup asked this with a sense of relief while at the same time Kathryn had risen to a plane so high that he felt humbled before her. He was still dazed and in the dark, but all was not lost!
While he had been following his selfish ends, Kathryn had 202 stood guard over all that was sacred to him. He had never before realized the strength and purpose of the pretty child near him. He reached out and laid his hand on the bowed head.