"It is easy for a woman to act on it," replied Keith; "with a man things are different."
"They ought not to be," said Mollie, with passion. "It is, I firmly believe, the right and the only right thing to do. Now you to-day--"
"Ah, I understand; you must have thought me inconsistent. I was, doubtless, in your opinion too--cordial."
"I could not have done otherwise. Kitty would have been amazed. Whatever one's inclinations, one has to think of the feelings of others."
Before Mollie could reply to this Mrs. Keith entered the room.
"Why has not John lit the lamp in the small drawing-room?" was her first remark.
At these words Kitty softly opened the seldom-used door and fled. She rushed to her room.
"Now I know; now I know!" she panted. "Yes, I know everything. Mollie thought him too cordial, and he said that he did not wish to hurt my feelings, whatever his own inclinations might be. Oh, can it be possible that Mollie is false to me? But there! hearing is believing."
The dinner gong sounded, and Kitty was forced to go downstairs. Her cheeks were bright, and she looked remarkably pretty; but her head ached badly. She sat in her accustomed place, close to Captain Keith. He began to talk to her in the light, bantering, and yet affectionate style he generally adopted when in her presence. She gave him a quick glance and shrugged her shoulders.
"I have a headache," she said abruptly; "I would rather not speak."
"My dear child," exclaimed Mrs. Keith, "I hope you are not going to have influenza!"
"And I trust I am," replied Kitty, in a defiant voice. Then seeing by the astonished pause that she had said something even more _outré_ than usual, she looked round the company and gave a ghastly smile. "I mean it," she said; "it would be such a good opportunity for Molly to nurse me."
"But you can have the horrid thing half a dozen times," said Keith. "Come, Kit, do be pleasant. It won't do you any harm, even if you have a headache, to laugh at my jokes."
"You are like all men--horridly selfish," retorted Kitty. And then she added, as if to put the final cap on her rudeness, "And your jokes are never worth laughing at. You descend to puns; could any human being sink lower? Oh, talk to Mollie, if you must talk to any one. I mean what I say--I would rather be silent."
