"
"Then there is something wrong!" exclaimed Catherine. "I feared it from
my mother's face when I saw her an hour ago. Now I am sure. Bee, are you
going to fail us at the last moment? Oh, Beatrice, you have made him so
nice, and we have all been so happy, and mother has said more than once
to me, 'Beatrice Meadowsweet has saved us,' and now, just at the very
last, just at the very end, are you going to be a coward--a deserter?"
"No," said Beatrice. "I won't desert you. I won't fail you. It is given
to me to save your brother Loftus, to really save him. Don't be
frightened, Kitty. I have a hard task to go through. I have to say some
things to your mother which will try her. Yes, I know they will try her
much, but I am doing right, and you must help me, and be brave. Yes, you
must be brave because you know I am doing right."
"I will trust you, Beatrice," said Catherine. Her dark eyes shone, over
the pallor of her face there came a glow. She opened the door of her
mother's room.
"Here is Beatrice, mother. And may I--may I--stay too?"
"No, Kate, you are unreasonable. What a long time you have kept
Beatrice. She has been in the house for ten minutes. I heard you two
gossiping in the corridor. Girls are unreasonable, and they don't
understand that the impatience of the old is the worst impatience of
all.
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