“Oh, there isn’t any _time_,” she went on impatiently. “If you don’t come I go alone. It will be the same thing in the end. I saw it all this afternoon. Things _can’t_ go on. I understood Mother. I know what she’s determined to do. We must escape or it will be too late. Even to-morrow it may be. I won’t trust myself if I stay; I’m afraid even to see Mother again, but I _know_ I’m right. We have only a quarter of an hour. That suit will do, and of course you mustn’t have a bag or anything. There’s that cousin of yours in the Adelphi somewhere. You can go to him. We must be at the ‘Three Pilchards’ in a quarter of an hour, and go separately, of course, or someone may stop us....” But he drew back. “No, no, no,” he said. “Katie, you’re mad! Do you think I’m going to let you do a thing like this? What do you suppose I’m made of? Why, if we were to go off now they’d never forgive you, they’d throw you off—” “Why, of course,” she broke in impatiently, “that’s exactly why we’ve got to do it. You proposed it to me yourself once, and I refused because I didn’t understand what our staying here meant. But I do now—it’s all _settled_, I tell you, Phil, and there’s only ten minutes. It’s the last chance. If we miss that train we shall never escape from Mother, from Anna, from anyone. Oh! I know it! I know it!” She scarcely realised her words; she was tugging at his sleeve, trying to drag him with her. But he shook her off. “No, Katie, I tell you I’m not such a cad. I know what all this means to you, the place, the people, everything. It’s true that I asked you once to go off, but I didn’t love you then as I do now. I was thinking more of myself then—but now I’m ready for anything here. You know that I am. I don’t care if only they let me stay with you.” “But they won’t,” Katherine urged. “You know what they’ll do. They’ll marry us, they’ll make you take a house near at hand, and if you refuse they’ll persuade you that you’re making me miserable. Oh! Phil! don’t you see—if I were sure of myself I’d never run off like this, but it’s from myself that I’m running. That’s the whole point of everything. I can’t trust myself with Mother. She has as much influence over me as ever she had. I felt it to-day more than I’ve ever felt it. There she is over both of us. You know that you’re weaker with her than I am. It isn’t that she does anything much except sit quiet, but I love her, and it’s through that she gets at both of us. No, Phil, we’ve got to go—and _now_. If not now, then never. I shan’t be strong enough to-morrow. Don’t you _see_ what she can do in the future, now that she knows about Anna....” Then, almost in a whisper, she brought out: “Don’t you see what _Anna_ can do?” “No,” he said, “I won’t go. It’s not fair. It’s not—” “Well,” she answered him, “it doesn’t matter what you do, whether you go or not. I shall go. And what are you to do then?”