Norval gingerly handed the book back.
"You—you don't even care, now! You won't open it. I have dedicated it to you. The first copy is yours. I don't believe you'll even read it."
"I will, Kit," Norval grabbed the book back fiercely. He was so stunned that he could not think at all.
Katherine writing a book! It would be as easy to think of her riding the circus ring.
"I'll sit up nights reading it, Kit. That's what folks always do, they don't lay it down until the last word, even if it takes all night! What is it about?"
"It is called 'The Awakened Soul.'" Katherine tried to repress a sob. Her anger, too, was rising.
"Good God!" gasped Norval, forgetting his wife's hatred of profanity.
Katherine reached for the book and held it to her hurt heart.
"You are selfish, you are an egotist, Jim. Your talent, your freedom to develop it have made you callous, brutal. There are more ways of killing a woman than to—beat her. Now that I am sure I have a sacred spark that must be kept alive, I shall demand my rights; freedom equal to your own!"
"Of course, Kit, if you've gone in for this sort of thing, we'll have to shift our bases a little. I know that."