"Yes, I am mad--I must be mad to have done this thing!" she muttered to herself with impatient fury. "With my own hands I have ruined the Cause. It is all over. I am mad." As the time of the appointment drew near, the repugnance she felt to entering into a personal explanation with the Sisters intensified. No! she dare not meet them--she would write to them; so she put on her bonnet and cloak, and was just about to leave the house when a ring came at the street bell, and the maid-servant announced Sisters Susan and Eliza. "Good-evening, Sisters," said the Chief, "I did not expect you so soon; you are before your time." "I think we are," said Sister Eliza. "The fact is, we were anxious to learn how you fared at the cottage yesterday." "Fared!" exclaimed Catherine bitterly. "Yes, Sister Catherine," Susan said, "we are very anxious to get that girl up here as soon as possible. For my part, I cannot feel safe as long as she is away." "Then I am afraid you will never feel happy again, Sister Susan," Catherine replied with a mocking ring in her voice. "What do you mean?" exclaimed Susan. "Sit down--sit down, Sisters! I think you had better hear the worst at once," said the Chief with a reckless laugh. The other two women looked at each other when they heard these discouraging words; Susan's face turned very pale. Catherine observed her and laughed again. "No, no! Susan, it is not so bad as _you_ think--we are not betrayed--your pretty neck is not endangered _yet_." The strange manner of the Chief--the savage despair of her tones were so different from anything they had ever noticed with her before, that the women were too startled to question her. They sat in awed silence while Catherine paced up and down the room restlessly. Suddenly she stopped, and turning to the elder of her two accomplices said, "Sister Eliza! I will tell you what I have done--I will hide nothing from you--I am too maddened to care what you may think. I know after this, all my influence will be lost, but it matters not now. I have seen Mary Grimm. I have done exactly the reverse of what I went down to do. I did not invite her to town--but I made her swear to keep out of our way. I have given her her freedom. I told her the Society was broken up, that we should need her no longer, I did all this--What do you think of it? Eh! What do you think of it?" She spoke very rapidly and wildly; then she sat down in the chair by the fire and turned her head away from them. For several minutes there was a complete silence in the room, none of them made the slightest movement. At last Catherine turned abruptly and exclaimed with passionate vehemence, "Are you both dumb? Can you not say anything?"