Katherine’s pale cheeks flushed. "I’m not a fool, Mrs. Slawson. There are some things I can do, as it is. I can learn to do more." "Certaintly. There’s lots o’ lovely things you can do in this world—_if you don’t charge anythin’ for’m_." Katherine rose. "I came to you, Mrs. Slawson, because I felt you were my friend." "So I am." "I came to you because I knew what you’d done for the Hinckley girl. I want you to do the same for me. There’s a train leaves Burbank Junction for Boston at eleven-thirty-three. Will you take me over there in your motor?" "No, ma’am!" Katherine stared at her, out of astonished eyes. "No, ma’am!" repeated Martha. "When I took Ellen Hinckley to Burbank, it was outa harm’s way. If I took _you_ it’d be into it. Ellen Hinckley was a poor, weak sister, which runnin’ away was all there was _for_ her. _You_ are strong as they make’m, an’ stayin’ ’s all there is for you. Ellen owed it to herself to leave her mother. You owe it to yourself to stand by yours." "Then I’ll go to Mr. Ronald. He’ll take me—when I tell him." "Don’t you believe it. An’ you won’t tell’m either, Miss Katherine. You’re too proud, an’ he’s too _fair_. It wouldn’t take him a minute to tell you, ’Stay by the poor little ol’ lady, till she’s no need o’ you no more, which it won’t be long, now, anyhow.’ It wouldn’t take’m a minute to tell you that, Miss Katherine—not for Madam Crewe’s sake—but for yours." "I’ll never go back," the girl reiterated determinedly. "Whatever I do, I’ll never go back. If you won’t take me to Burbank, I’ll wait here at the station, for the trolley. There’ll be another train out sometime. I’ll get to Boston somehow." "Miss Katherine," Martha pleaded, but the girl stopped her with an impatient gesture. "It’s no use, Mrs. Slawson. I feel as if there were nothing but ugliness and horror in all the world. It’s come out—even in _you_!" Martha turned her face away quickly, as if she had been struck. "I’ve not gone back on you, Miss Katherine. Take my word for it, till you can see for yourself what I say’s true. You think everything’s ugly now. That’s because you got knocked, same as if it was, flat on your back. You’re just bowled clean over. You’re lookin’ at things upside down. But let me tell you somethin’—there’s been good in all the knocks ever I got in my life, if I had the sense to see." "I don’t believe it!" said Katherine passionately. Martha smiled. "Certaintly you don’t, at the present moment. But you will, in the course o’ time. Why, the hardest knock a party’d land you, right between the eyes, you’d see _stars_." Katherine turned quickly away, stooped to pick up her bag, and without another word, passed to the door. "Say, Miss Katherine," called Martha, "I want to tell you somethin’. Now, listen! Dr. Ballard, he tol’ me oncet——" she was talking to empty air. Katherine had gone.