And the instance in her mind was more fruitful than her knowledge
allowed her to perceive.
Kate appeared shortly after midnight. She had very red cheeks and
very bright eyes, and her mood was quarrelsome. She sat down on the
bed and began to talk of Daniel Dabbs, as she had often done
already, in a maundering way. Emma kept silence; she was beginning
to undress.
'There's a man with money,' said Kate, her voice getting louder;
'money, I tell you, and you've only to say a word. And you won't
even be civil to him. You've got no feeling; you don't care for
nobody but yourself. I'll take the children and leave you to go your
own way, that's what I'll do!'
It was hard to make no reply, but Emma succeeded in commanding
herself. The maundering talk went on for more than an hour. Then
came the wretched silence of night.
Emma did not sleep. She was too wobegone to find a tear. Life stood
before her in the darkness like a hideous spectre.
In the morning she told her sister that Daniel had asked her to
marry him and that she had refused. It was best to have that
understood. Kate heard with black brows. But even yet she knew
something of shame when she remembered her return home the night
before; it kept her from giving utterance to her anger.
There followed a scene such as had occurred two or three times
during the past six months.
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