She
returned to the charge the next evening, and requested her niece to
lean upon her--to unburden her heart. Perhaps she should be able to
explain certain things that now seemed dark, and that she knew more
about than Catherine supposed. If Catherine had been frigid the
night before, to-day she was haughty.
"You are completely mistaken, and I have not the least idea what you
mean. I don't know what you are trying to fasten on me, and I have
never had less need of any one's explanations in my life."
In this way the girl delivered herself, and from hour to hour kept
her aunt at bay. From hour to hour Mrs. Penniman's curiosity grew.
She would have given her little finger to know what Morris had said
and done, what tone he had taken, what pretext he had found. She
wrote to him, naturally, to request an interview; but she received,
as naturally, no answer to her petition. Morris was not in a writing
mood; for Catherine had addressed him two short notes which met with
no acknowledgment. These notes were so brief that I may give them
entire. "Won't you give me some sign that you didn't mean to be so
cruel as you seemed on Tuesday?"--that was the first; the other was a
little longer. "If I was unreasonable or suspicious on Tuesday--if I
annoyed you or troubled you in any way--I beg your forgiveness, and I
promise never again to be so foolish. I am punished enough, and I
don't understand.
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