"You're all taken up with her now," Kathie continued. "You used to like
me, but now it's all that baby. I'm much obliged to you for inviting me
to supper, but I can't stay any longer if she's coming."
If anybody could make me understand whether Kathie is sane or not I
should have more confidence in attempting to deal with her. To-day I
felt as if I were dealing with a mad creature, and that it was idle to
try to do anything. It seemed to me it would be a pity to treat the
matter too seriously, and I tried to act as if I thought she was merely
joking. I laughingly told her that the idea was one of the funniest I
ever heard, and that we must tell baby when she came in, to see if we
could make the small person laugh. Kathie received my remarks with
unmoved seriousness.
"It isn't a joke at all, Miss Ruth," she said, with an uncanny air which
was most uncomfortable, but which in some indefinable way gave me for
the first time in all my dealings with the girl a sort of hint that she
was partly acting. "It is just my wicked heart. I hate"--