SANCTUARY
mered, panting with the exhaustion of the struggle. Oh, if only Mrs. Peyton would release her! "If you have the right to know it, why does n't he tell you?" she cried.
Mrs. Peyton stood up, quivering. "I will go home and ask him," she said. "I will tell him he has your permission to speak."
She moved toward the door, with the nervous haste of a person unaccustomed to decisive action. But Kate sprang before her.
"No, no; don't ask him! I implore you not to ask him," she cried.
Mrs. Peyton turned on her with sudden authority of voice and gesture. "Do I understand you?" she said. "You admit that you have a reason for putting off your marriage, and yet you forbid me—me, Denis's mother—to ask him what it is? My poor child, I need n't ask, for I know already. If he has offended you, and you refuse him the chance to defend himself, I
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