It took her a number of seconds to get the fact that they must know
each other.
And even then she could get no grip on the situation. She was too shaken
by having jumped--as though she were some vulgar housemaid!
And why was Ann looking like that! She looked dreadful--huddled up that
way as if some one was going to beat her!
"Why you can't know each other," said Katie wildly. "How could you know
each other? Where would you know each other? And if you _do_ know each
other,"--turning upon him furiously--"need we all act like thieves?"
He tried to speak, but seemed unable to. He had lost command of himself,
save in so far as standing very straight was concerned.
She wished Ann would stand up! It gave her such an awful sense of shame
to see Ann huddled like that.
"Katie," Ann whispered, "you told me--"
"I never told you I'd shut the door in Major Darrett's face!" said Katie
harshly. "And what are you talking about? What does this all mean?"
He had recovered himself. "Why it merely means, Katie, that we--as you
surmised--at one time--knew each other. The--the acquaintance
terminated--not pleasantly. That's all. A slight surprise for the
moment. No harm done."
Then Ann did stand straight. "It means," she said shrilly, "that if I had
never known him"--pointing at him--"you would never have found me there."
She pointed down toward the river. "Oh no, no harm done, of course--No
harm done--"
"Please let us try and keep very quiet," said Katie coldly. "It is--it is
vulgar enough at best. Let us be as quiet--as decent as we can."
Ann crouched down again as though struck.
Then Katie laughed, bitterly. "Why really, it's quite as good as a play,
isn't it? It's quite a scene, I'm sure."
"It needn't be," said he soothingly, and relaxing a little. "I own I was
startled for the moment, and--discomfited. But you were quite
right--we'll go into no hysterics. What I can't understand"--looking from
one to the other--"is what she's doing _here_."
Katie's head went up. "She's here, I'll have you know, as my friend. Just
as you're here as my friend."
She thought Ann was going to fall, and her heart softened a little.
"Suppose you go up to my room, Ann. Lie down. Just--just lie down. Keep
quiet. Why did you come home? Is something wrong?"
Ann whispered that Worth had a sore throat. She had a chance to come down
in an automobile. She thought she had better. She was sorry she had.
"All right," said Katie. "It's all right. Just go lie down. I'll look
after Worth--and you--in a minute."
Ann left the room and Katie turned to the Major. "Well?"
"You're so sensible, Katie," he said hurriedly, "in feeling the thing to
do is make no fuss about things. Nothing is to be gained--But for God's
sake, Katie, what is she doing here? Where did _you_ know her?"
"Oh you tell first," said Katie, smiling a hard smile. "You tell where
you found her, then I'll tell where I found her."
"Really--really," he said stiffly, "I must refuse to discuss such a
matter with _you_. I can only repeat--she has no business here."
"Then pray why have you any business here?"
He flushed angrily. But restrained himself and said persuasively: "Why,
Katie, she's not one of us."
"She's one of _me_," said Katie. "She's my friend."
"I can only say again," he said shortly, "that she has no business to
be."
"As I am to be kept so safe from the wicked world," said Katie
stingingly, "I presume it is not proper you discuss the matter with me. I
take it, however, that she was one of those 'excursions' into the great
outer world?"
"Well," he said defiantly, "and what if she was? She was willing to be, I
guess. She wasn't knocked down with a club."
"Oh, no! Oh, my no! That wouldn't be your method. And when one is tired
of exursions--I suppose one is at perfect liberty to abandon them--?"
"Nonsense! You can't trump up anything of that sort. She wasn't
'abandoned.' She left in the night."
He colored. "I beg your pardon. But as long as we're speaking
frankly--"
"Oh pray," said Katie, "let's not be overly delicate in this delicate
little matter!"
"Very well then. Her coming was her own choice. Her going away was her
own choice. I can see that I have no great responsibility in the matter."
"Why how clever you must be," said Katie, all the while smiling that hard
smile, "to be able to argue it like that."
He was standing there with folded arms. "I think I was very decent to
her. All things considered--in view of the nature of the affair--I
consider that I was very decent."
Katie laughed. "Maybe you were. I found her in the very act of
committing suicide."
He paled, but quickly recovered himself. "That was not my affair. There
must have been--something afterward."
"Maybe. I'm sure I don't know. But you were the beginning, weren't you?"
Suddenly she buried her face in her hands. "Oh I didn't think--I didn't
think it could get in here! It's everywhere! It's everywhere! It's
_getting_ me!"
"Katie--dear Katie," he murmured, "don't. We'll get you out of this. You
wanted to be kind. It was just a mistake of yours. We'll fix it up. Don't
cry." And he put an arm about her.
She stood before him with clenched hands, eyes blazing. "Don't touch me!
Don't you touch me!" And she left him.
In the hall Nora stopped her to say there were not enough champagne
glasses. She made no reply. Champagne glasses--!
She looked after Worth. Then she went to Ann.
"Well, Ann," she began, her voice high pitched and unsteady, "this is
about the limit, isn't it?"
"Oh Katie," moaned Ann, "you told me--you told me--you understood. Why,
Katie--you must have known there was some one."
"Oh I knew there was some one, all right," said Katie, her voice getting
higher and higher, her cheeks more and more red--"only I just hadn't
figured, you see, on its being some one I knew! Why how under the sun,"
she asked, laughing wildly, "did you ever meet Major Darrett?"
"I--I'll try to tell you," faltered Ann miserably. "I want to. I want to
make you understand. Katie!--I'll die if you don't understand!"
She looked so utterly wretched that Katie made heroic effort to get
herself under control--curb that fearful desire to laugh. "I will try,"
she said quietly as she could. "I _will_ try."
"Why, Katie," Ann began, "does it make so much difference--just because
you know him?"
"It makes all the difference! Can't you see--why it makes it so vulgar."
Ann threw back her head. "Just the same--it wasn't vulgar. What I felt
wasn't vulgar. Why, Katie," she cried appealingly, "it was my Something
Somewhere! You didn't think that vulgar!"
"Oh no," laughed Katie, "not before I knew it was Major Darrett! But tell
me--I've got to know now. What is it? Where did you meet him? Just how
bad is it, anyhow?"
It must have been desperation led Ann to spare neither Katie nor herself.
"I met him," she said baldly, "one night as I was standing on the corner
waiting for a car. He had an automobile. He asked me to get in it--and I
did. And that--began it."
Katie stepped back from her in horror, the outrage she felt stamped all
too plainly on her face. "And you call _that_ not vulgar? Why it was
_common_. It was _low_."
Then Ann turned. "Was it? Oh I don't know that you need talk. I wouldn't
say much--if I were you. I guess I saw the look on his face when I came
in. Don't think for a minute I don't know that look. _You got it there_.
And let me tell you another thing. Just let me tell you another thing!
Whatever I did--whatever I did--I know I never had the look you did when
I came in! I never had that look of fooling with things!"
Katie was white--powerless--with rage. "_You_ dare speak to _me_ like
that!" she choked. "You--!"
And all control gone she rushed blindly from the room.