"I say—I can't marry—Dr. Ballard." The girl rose and stood holding on to the back of her chair with two cold, trembling hands.
Her grandmother fairly raised herself up in her seat. "What do you mean——? 'You can't marry Dr. Ballard?'" Her voice rose to a sharp falsetto.
Katherine shook her head.
"Nonsense! Whim!" The old woman spoke with unaccountable passion.
Dr. Ballard laid a firm, warm hand on Katherine's cold ones. His face was rather pale, but his tone, when he spoke, was quite composed.
"Forgive me," he said. "I see I've got in all wrong on this. I didn't mean to distress you. Let us drop it now, and later, some time, when we two are alone together, we'll thresh it out, eh?"
Again Katherine shook her head. "No, I want never to talk about it again," she said tremulously.
"Why?" The old woman asked the question almost fiercely, bending forward to peer searchingly into her granddaughter's face.
For a moment it looked as if Katherine were in danger of being swept off her feet by the intensity of her hidden feeling. She opened her lips, then resolutely closed them again. Her grandmother did not seem to see, or, at all events, did not regard her effort at self-control.
"Have you no tongue in your head?"