"You cannot be in earnest in asking," replied Kathleen.
"You will soon find out that I am if you refuse!" was the angry response.
Mr. Torrance looked furious and menacing, and Kathleen was determined not to yield.
"The sum you allude to is equally out of my power and yours. When, after I had given you all else, you refused to secure to my boy his rightful heritage, I resolved the trifle left should never be alienated. I put it out of my own power, and placed it in trust for Kenneth."
"Do you dare to tell me this?" shouted Mr. Torrance.
"I do. I rejoice to think that this money cannot be touched even by you or me. Kenneth will not be penniless, though it is dreadful to think that what came from my dear father has been squandered in a few years by a—"
"You had better finish your sentence, madam."
The pause gave Kathleen time to overcome her first anger, and to substitute other words for those which might, without it, have been spoken.
"By a man whom experience has failed to teach or improve. A man who having twice trod the road to ruin, finds it more attractive than any other, whose promises were uttered only to be forgotten, on whose honour I relied, to find it but a broken reed."
Kathleen rose from the breakfast-table and left the room, feeling nearly broken-hearted. She had borne much, but the attempt to get possession of the last fragment of her fortune tried her beyond endurance.