“Why should the women always suffer?” asked Felicia.
“If I were a man,” said Felicia, with a glow in her eyes, “I would think it dastardly to let a woman suffer, if I loved her.”
“There are some things that kill love,” replied Katherine bitterly.
“My dear, when you leave a cut flower in the sun you know it will be withered up. There is no need for you to watch it to make sure.”
“But--if he still loves you? He did last night--he did this morning.”
Katherine gently laid her hand on the girl's lips.
“Hush! I told you. What I have done can't be undone.”
“But you love him, Katherine,” Felicia burst out impetuously.
“Don't you see I am signing my death-warrant?” cried Katherine.
Her voice vibrated and she looked at Felicia with shining eyes--“I shall love him till I die, as the best and wisest man of men that has ever walked the earth.”
She rose, crossed the room, came back and laid her hands upon Felicia's shoulders, and looked into her young, wondering eyes.
“Dear,” she said, “I shall always remember what you have done for me to-day. When you came in, I thought my heart was broken--but your tenderness stole over me like a charm--and now you see I can talk quite sensibly, and smile, just like my own self again. You must bid me good-bye, dear. I must go soon. But what I want to tell you is this. Think kindly of me--ah, don't you cry, child--there has been enough of tears to-day--think of me, dear, as a sister-woman, who stepped aside once out of the beaten track and for whom fate has been too much. And, Felicia dear, when I am gone--it will take very, very little to make Raine love you--”
But Katherine smiled her sad, self-controlled smile.
“All, yes! He cannot help loving you--and so God give you happiness.”
“I can't bear you to go like this. I can't bear it!” cried Felicia.
“We all have to work out our destiny,” said Katherine. “Now good-bye, dear--God bless you.”
A few moments later, Katherine was alone again, finishing her preparations for departure.
“What you have learned about me,” Katherine had written to Raine, “I was to have told you last night. I had written to you a long letter, but I was too weak to send it. I resolved to tell it to your own ears. But it was impossible for me to speak to you last night for I was suffering too much.