"Yes, I give you credit for that too," the girl admitted. "Though I confess the secret of your infatuation for that hulking brute has always been one of the black mysteries of life to me."
"When you're older," again the round lips quivered with a smile, "perhaps you will understand. And now, my child, I've been patient with you. But don't you ever again call Herman a brute in my presence."
"Take care he doesn't prove it to you!" the girl warned.
Catherine suddenly paled.
"What do you mean by that?" she whispered, glancing about the room.
"Nothing! nothing! nothing! Only that in every deed of the devil there is the seed of death. You have planted the seed. The harvest is sure."
"My dear——"
"Don't call me that again! I hate you!" Barbara spoke with deliberate passion.
"Have you gone mad?" Catherine cried, with impatience.
"Yes, mad with hatred. From to-day we are enemies, and I'll hate you forever!"