"Oh, Carolina!" almost screamed Kate. "Do be careful how you blaspheme! Goodness knows I am not religious, but I am a member of the Church and I am not wicked!"
"You have never suffered, Kate, or you could bear, not only to hear, but to say worse things than I am saying. If you only knew how much worse my thoughts are!"
"But you will be punished for them, Carolina! I--I don’t like to preach, but God always sends afflictions to those who defy Him!"
"I wouldn’t care if He killed me!" cried Carolina, furiously. "I have nothing left to live for. I hope I shall never come back alive from this ride!"
When she had rushed from the room, leaving that terrible wish in Kate’s memory, Kate shivered with apprehensions.
"Something awful will happen to Carolina!" she muttered. "I never knew it to fail!" But her eyes filled with tears. "What if I had to bear what she has!" she thought. "Loss of father, mother, home, and fortune! Poor girl! Poor girl!"
She had intended to go out, but some inner voice told her to wait. Carolina’s dreadful mood and reckless words haunted her. She went restlessly from room to room, and anxiously listened for sounds of her return. And so keenly was she expecting a misfortune that when the telephone-bell rang sharply, it calmed her at once.
"It has happened!" she said to herself, as she flew to answer.
The message was that Carolina had been thrown from her horse and dragged. They were bringing her home.
"I knew it!" said Kate. "She was in too awful a mood to wear spurs with Astra. I ought to have made her take them off."
Carolina was still unconscious when they brought her in. Kate caught a glimpse of her still, white face as they carried her up-stairs. She waited with feverish impatience for the doctor’s verdict, with her mind full of Carolina’s awful words. "I knew it!" she kept whispering to herself through a rain of tears. "God always gets even with people who dare Him to do His worst!"
It seemed hours before Doctor Colfax finally came out, with his refined face full of pain.
"Is she dead?" whispered Kate, catching at his arm. He shook his head.
"Disfigured?" continued Kate, with growing anxiety.
"Worse!" said the doctor. "She has broken her hip badly. Even if she recovers, she will be lamed for life!"