"Oh, why did you do it, Kattie?" he said, more gently.
And Kattie, shaken out of herself by his news and his manner, sobbed out her secret.
"Jim, Jim, don't be so hard to me! It was for you, you, you----"
"Kattie," he cried, aghast.
"Yes," she choked on in a passion of surrender and self-revelation. "It was you I wanted--you--always. And I thought if I could only get to London where you were----"
"Oh, Kattie!" And he could say no more for the feeling that was in him, and Kattie hung on to his arm and he did not shake her off.
"Kattie," he said at last, in a deep hoarse voice, "has it been my fault? I did not know----"
"No no, no! It was not your fault. But I could not help it."
"I am very sorry, dear. If I had known--but I never dreamt of it. How did you get here?"
She hesitated, and then said, briefly: