y._] Father and I are going to try our luck
together. We're going to start with a small fruit farm. It will give me a
chance to experiment....

CATHERINE. It will seem very strange when I come back home.... Uncle gone
... and you, James. [_Her voice trembling._

JAMES. I hope you'll be happy, Catherine.

CATHERINE. James, Uncle died smiling at me--thinking of me ... and just
before he went, he gave me his mother's wedding ring and asked me to marry
Frederik. I shall never forget how happy he was when I promised. That was
all he wanted. His last smile was for me ... and there he sat--still
smiling after he was gone ... the smile of a man leaving the world
perfectly satisfied--at peace. It's like a hand on my heart--hurting it--
when I question anything he wanted. I couldn't meet him in the hereafter
if I didn't do everything he wished; I couldn't say my prayers at night; I
couldn't speak his name in them.... He trusted me; depended upon me; did
everything for me; so I must do this for him.... I wanted you to know
this, James, because ...

JAMES. Why haven't you told Frederik the truth?

CATHERINE. I have.

JAMES. That you don't love him? [CATHERINE _doesn't answer, but_ JAMES
_knows._] ... And he's willing to take you like that?--a little girl like
you--in _that_ way.... God! He's rotten all the way through. He's even
worse than I thought. Katie, I didn't mean to say a word of this to-day--
not a word; but a moment since--something made me change my mind--I don't
know what!... [PETER _smiles._] I felt that I _must_ talk to you. You
looked so young, so helpless, such a child. You've never had to think for
yourself--you don't know what you're doing. You _couldn't_ live under it,
Catherine. You're making the greatest mistake possible, if you marry where
you don't love. Why should you carry out your uncle's plans? You're going
to be wretched for life to please a dead man who doesn't know it; or, if
he does know it, regrets it bitterly.

PETER. I agree with you now, James.

CATHERINE. You musn't say that, James.

JAMES. But I will say it--I will speak my mind. I don't care how fond you
were of your uncle or how much he did for you--it wasn't right to ask this
of you. It wasn't fair. The whole thing is the mistake of a _very_
obstinate old man.

CATHERINE. James!

JAMES. I loved him, too; but he _was_ an obstinate old man. Sometimes I
think it was the Dutch blood in his veins.

PETER. A very frank, outspoken fel