“Kate, dear, you are overdoing it. It is quite right that woman should be a mystery to man, but she should not aspire to become a mystery to her sister woman. Are you just making fun, or is there something in all this more serious than your words imply?”
“Like the steel strengthening in the cement, it may be there, but you can’t see it, and you can’t touch it, but it makes—oh, such a difference to the slab. Heigho, Dorothy, let us forsake these hard-headed subjects, and turn to something human. What have your lawyers been bothering you about? No trouble over the money, is there?”
Dorothy shook her head.
“No. Of course, there are various matters they have to consult me about, and get my consent to this project or the other.”
“Read the letter. Perhaps my mathematical mind can be of assistance to you.”
Dorothy had concealed the letter, and did not now produce it.
“It is with reference to your assistance, and your continued assistance, that I wish to speak to you. Let us follow the example of the cement and the steel, and form a compact. In one respect I am going to imitate the ‘Consternation.’ I leave Bar Harbor next week.”
Katherine sat up in her chair, and her eyes opened wide.
“What’s the matter with Bar Harbor?” she asked.
“You can answer that question better than I, Kate. The Kempt family are not visitors, but live here all the year round. What do you think is the matter with Bar Harbor?”