"You must do something which will upset his faith in you—something which will astonish him very much."
Mollie's face now indeed turned pale. She ceased to regard her sister as a weak, hysterical girl. She stared at her with her wide-open brown eyes.
"Some one has been putting you up to this," she said. "Those words are not the words of my sister. Kitty, what is the matter?"
"There is so much the matter that only by doing exactly what I ask can you put things right. There is a man in Ladysmith who loves you. No, that man is not Gavon; I speak of another. He loves you, and you must marry him. You must marry him for my sake."
"Whom am I to marry?"
"Major Strause."
"Kitty, are you mad?"
"I am not mad; I am sane, It is the only possible way out. If you will marry him, I shall be saved; if you marry him, all will be right. Gavon is not the sort of man to love you as Major Strause's wife. Gavon does not like Major Strause, and I hope he won't like his wife, and he will turn back to me. Mollie, you must marry him. O Mollie, only thus can you save me—only thus, by marrying Major Strause."
"Kitty!"
"Yes; and you must marry him now, and here."