6/19 "Why, child, you can't mean that. That would have hurt your mother." For the moment Katie did not speak. "If mother had understood just what I meant--understood all about it--I don't believe it would." A second time she was silent, as it struggled. "And if it had"-- she spoke it as a thing not to be lightly spoken--"I should be very deeply sorry, but I would not be able to help it." "Why, child!" murmured her mother's friend. "You're talking strangely. |