"Ah, Kathy, you never loved any one like that."
Her colour changed. "No. It isn't every one who can love like that."
"What would you do if you were in my case—if you'd given yourself away like me? Supposing you went and lost your little heart to some man-fiend who was, we'll say, about as bad a lot as I am, and who had the execrable taste not to care a rap for you,—wouldn't you feel ashamed of him and yourself too?"
Katherine's white face flushed; she looked away from him, and answered steadily—
"No, I wouldn't."
He thought he had hurt her feelings, and was about to change the subject when she turned a beaming face to him.
"But then, you see, I don't love anything much."
"Good as you are, you'd be a better woman if you did."
"Of course there are exceptions. I've some sort of affection for the Witch and Ted."
"Ted is a very fine boy, and the Witch is a very fine picture, but—well, some day you'll have an affection for something else; it won't be a boy, and it won't be a picture. Then, Sis, you'll know what it is to feel, and your art will go pop."