“Short coorting's the best coorting, and ours has been long enough anyway,” said Pete. They had drawn up at the porch, and Pete's laugh came in at the window.
“But think how weak she is,” said Philip. “She hasn't even-left her bed yet, has she?”
“Well, yes, of coorse, sartenly,” said Pete, in a steadier voice, “if the girl isn't fit——”
“It's so sudden, you see,” said Philip. “Has she—has she—consented?”
“Not to say consented——” began Pete; and Philip took him up and said quickly, eagerly, hotly—
“She can't—I'm sure she can't.”
There was silence again, broken only by the horse's impatient pawing, and then Philip said more calmly, “Let Dr. Mylechreest see her first, at all events.”
“I'm not a man for skinning the meadow to the sod, no——” said Pete, in a doleful tone; but Kate heard no more.
She was trembling with a new thought. It was only a shadowy suggestion as yet, and at first she tried to beat it back. But it came again, it forced itself upon her, it mastered her, she could not resist it.
The way to break the fate that was pursuing her was to make Philip speak out! The way to stop the marriage with Pete was to compel Philip to marry her! He thought she would never consent to marry Pete—what if he were given to understand that she had consented. That was the way to gain the victory over Philip, the way to punish him!