"Why don't you go on?" asked St. Quentin. He looked at her flushed face and quivering lips in surprise. "Why, I didn't think she had it in her to show such feeling!" he said to himself.
"I am the m-more afraid," she went on, looking straight before her, "b-because Carol doesn't care for any other m-man, so she is f-free to fall in l-love with Colonel Yancey, if she wants to. He is only a little over forty, is quite the most fascinating man I ever m-met, and he owns Guildford."
If Kate expected St. Quentin to betray any violent emotion on hearing these statements, she was doomed to disappointment. However, she seemed satisfied at Noel's utter silence. A smile quivered at the corners of her mouth.
"Well?" said St. Quentin at last.
"C-can't you picture the rest? Can't you see Carol and Mrs. Goddard going there d-day after day, until Mrs. Goddard got permission to move Gladys to her house? I b-believe they were to t-take her there this morning."
"Is there any improvement in the child?" asked St. Quentin.
"A little. She is old enough to understand and help herself, and she knows she is g-going to get well, or as she puts it, 'I know that I am well.' Her ankles have become flexible and her little feet can b-be put straight with the hand, b-but, as yet, they don't stay straight. S-she has not gained c-control over them."
"Can she stand at all?"
"J-just barely. But she s-sinks right down."
"Do you believe she will be cured?"