“With a motion swift as the glide of a serpent, she reached towards the revolver, which I had left on the bed. I was barely in time to catch her arm. The look in the girl’s face at that moment was terrible.
“‘Let me!—I will!’
“‘Hush, Kate! You never shall.’
“‘Oh, what shall I do!’ she murmured again slipping down on her knees and running both hands through her thick black hair. ‘Tom, if you loved me you would kill me!’
“‘Kate, everyone in the house is asleep. You can go back to your room, and no one know. Only be calm.’
“‘And no one know? You think that?’
“‘I am sure of it!’
“‘I know better! Someone knows it now: he made it happen!’
“‘Don’t kneel there, dear. You’re not yourself yet. You don’t know what you’re saying.’ I said this reassuringly, but her words had inspired me with a vague alarm that I ventured not to define. I brought a chair and made her sit upon it, and sat down beside her.