Kathleen received her pleasantly enough, but the old girlish heartiness was absent, and Hetty could not help feeling that they met again on different terms from those which existed when they last parted.
They talked of many things. Hetty's journeyings and new experiences, of Kathleen's own, of Ralph's illness and present condition, and of the family at Oakwood. Then, in a quiet fashion, Hetty stepped on forbidden ground, and began to speak of John Torrance. She hardly knew how she found courage, but she did begin a story with which few beside herself were acquainted, and which need not be, repeated here.
Kathleen at first listened quietly, but at length she exclaimed, "How dare you repeat such falsehoods? Shame on you to attack a fallen man behind his back! But I have learned that hopeless love will sometimes turn to hate, and that a girl will leave no stone unturned to revenge a slight! But I thought better things of you, Hetty Stapleton."
"What do you mean, Kathleen? Never did I entertain anything like affection for John Torrance, or even respect; but till now I should have thought him incapable of inventing an untruth to prejudice you. I have spoken in your interests, vainly, I can see. Some day you will know the falsehood lies not with me; and for myself, I would die sooner than share the lot of such a man as John Torrance, and with such a past!"
"He did not say you had—" Kathleen paused.
"Been in love with him," said Hetty. "Perhaps not in so many words, but there are ways of conveying impressions apart from speech. You are angry, and I am sharing the fate of those who, with a right motive, give unwelcome information. I have often dared to do it, and earned gratitude thereby. To-day I have lost my friend in the effort to save her from the effects of her too generous, trustful nature. Farewell, Kitty. May God preserve you from yourself! I cannot."
Hetty left the room and the house, without waiting for a reply, feeling unhappy, but no more so than did Kathleen. A shrug of the shoulders, an indirect sentence, a meaning look which, as used by John Torrance, might have applied to anybody. On this foundation Kathleen had insulted Hetty, accused her of a vile motive in speaking, and as good as told her that she had, in unmaidenly fashion, flung herself at John Torrance's feet, to be repulsed and scorned!
When the passion was over, Kathleen thought of what she really knew about Hetty. She saw in her a girl, true to her friends, helpful to the weak, wise to advise, cheer, comfort and strengthen others, and always incapable of falsehood or meanness.
What had John Torrance been by his own confession?
She shrank from the picture, but said to herself, "How different will the future be from the past, which I will help him to forget!"