Kitty's face had grown whiter and whiter.
"You blame me very much for what I am not to be blamed for," she said after a pause.
"That's what you think. You're an Irish girl, and you think nothing of a promise. You promised Elma you would not tell. You lent her the money, and you promised you would not tell about it. You broke your promise, and you have ruined her for life. There! that's what has happened. I wish you joy of the nice state your conscience must be in."
"You are very bitter to me, Carrie; but you cannot quite see my side of the question. I would not have told about Elma if Elma had been in the least true to me, but she was not, not a bit. All the same, I am terribly, terribly sorry for her. I would not have got her into this scrape if I had known."
"Ay, you had no thought, you see. You just blurted out everything."
"I am very miserable," said poor Kitty. She clasped her trembling hands together, and tears slowly welled into her beautiful dark-blue eyes. Carrie watched her with anxiety.
"There, now I like you," she said, after a pause "You look awfully pretty with those tears in your eyes, and----"
"Pretty, do I?" said Kitty. For a moment a pleased smile flitted across her face, but then it faded; the present anxiety was too intense for her to give much thought to her personal appearance.
"Ah, that's the dreadful part. I don't know. She went out of the house with your money. She evidently never took it to you. I am sure I cannot think what has happened to her."
"So it seems--that is, unless we can find Elma. It is all very dreadful, very horrible. I suppose the plain English of the matter is this"--here Carrie gulped something down in her throat--"that she--she stole your money and has run away with it."
"It is what I have to think," answered Carrie. "It is a mighty unpalatable truth, I can tell you. I suppose, now, your next step will be to prosecute her to send the police after her, and have her locked up. Then you will ruin me too, for Sam Raynes--not that he is overparticular, nor that he cares twopence about refinement, or anything of that sort--would not care to marry a girl whose--whose sister was put in prison. That's your next step isn't it, Kitty Malone?"