The next day Doctor Sloper called Mrs Penniman into his study. "I don't want Catherine, or you," he said coldly, "to see young Townsend again. And I expect you to obey me."

"No. I wish to make her live and be happy."

"Do you wish to murder your child?" Mrs Penniman asked.

"What, then, were you waiting for?"

"You will kill her: she had a terrible night."

"She won't die of one bad night, nor of several."

It was true that Catherine had had a terrible, sleepless night. But though her heart was breaking, she tried not to show her pain to the world. Mrs Penniman was very disappointed to see that there were no tears in her niece's eyes when she came down to breakfast.

"Oh, Morris," she cried, "I never thought of giving you up!"

"Why have you made me wait so long?" he asked. "Every hour has seemed like years. Have you decided whether you will keep me or give me up?"

That afternoon Catherine wrote to Morris, and the next day he came into the front parlour and stood before her. She thought that he looked more beautiful than ever.

She stood staring at him. "Isn't there any other way?"

Morris watched her for a moment. "Will you marry me tomorrow?" he asked, suddenly.

She did not know for what, but she felt afraid. "Until we have thought about it a little more."

"Next week, then -- any time in the next month."

"Isn't it better to wait?" said Catherine.

"Tomorrow?"

Catherine blushed, and her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, how can you say that?" she murmured.

"I have chosen you," she said.

"Then marry me next week!"

"I thought my father might -- might look at it differently. But he -- he looks at it still in the same way."

"Because I wanted to see you," cried Catherine.

"Then why have you sent for me?"

"You must take me or leave me," said Morris. "You can't please your father and me. You must choose between us."

"To wait for what?"

He shook his head sadly. "I thought you had been thinking about it these three weeks. Do you want to go on doing that for five years? My poor girl," he added, "you are not faithful to me."

"None that I know of." He turned away, walked to the window and stood looking out. "You are very afraid of your father," he said at last.

Catherine suddenly felt lonely and afraid. "Oh, Morris," she cried, putting her head on his shoulder, "you must love me very much. I will marry you as soon as you want!"

"It will make a difference -- in many things. But it will not change my love for you."

After a while she told Morris what her father had said. "If I marry without his consent, I shall not inherit any of his fortune. He told me to tell you that. He seemed to think --"

Morris was silent for a while. "Do you think that he will be cruel to you for ever? That he will never change his mind about disinheriting you?"

"If I marry you, he will think I am not good."

"We shall not want the money," said Catherine. "You know that I have my own fortune."

"Your fear of him seems greater than your love for me."

"My dear good girl!" he cried, looking down at her. She had given him her promise, but he was not quite sure what he would do with it.

"I suppose I must be," she said simply.

"That it would make a difference."

"Oh, Morris," she said, going to him.

Morris blushed angrily. "What did he seem to think?"

"Then he will never forgive you!" cried Morris.

"Extremely," said the Doctor.

Mrs Almond looked serious. "Would you really like that?"

"It is not very kind of you," said Mrs Almond, "to find amusement in your daughter's situation."

"He will forget her, then."

"Catherine loves you so much that you can do anything," said Mrs Penniman. "You can change your plans, this way or that way, and she will not be upset with you."

"I think you should wait for a while before you marry," she told Morris. "Wait until my brother is less angry."

"I will take her to Europe," said the Doctor, "to give her some new ideas."

The young man was very annoyed. "Last week you advised me to marry immediately!" he said. "Catherine has already agreed to this, so what can I do?"

"She won't forget him in Europe."

Mrs Penniman, meanwhile, arranged another secret meeting with Morris Townsend outside a church. She had been a little alarmed by her brother's coldness towards her.

For about a week, life in Washington Square continued much as before, and Doctor Sloper waited to see what would happen. He told his sister Elizabeth that he had never expected Catherine to give him so much excitement.

Morris looked at her, but said nothing, and soon after that they parted.

Catherine, of course, knew nothing of her aunt's meeting with Morris, and she had not spoken to her father since the evening she went to see him in his study. At last, however, she told him that she had seen Morris Townsend again.

"I think we shall marry -- before very long," she said.

"Not at all. Once you marry, it is the same to me when, or where, or why you do it."

Catherine turned away for a moment; there were tears in her eyes. "Oh, father," she cried, "don't you care?"

The Doctor looked at her coldly from head to foot. "Why do you tell me that? It is of no interest to me."

But the next day he spoke to her in a different way. "Are you going to marry in the next four or five months?"

"Wait, then, for six months, and meanwhile I will take you to Europe. I would very much like you to go."

"I don't know, father," said Catherine. "It is not very easy for us to decide."

This sign of her father's interest in her gave Catherine great happiness. "It would be delightful to go to Europe," she said. But her happiness soon disappeared when she realized that she would not see Morris for several months.

"He thinks I will forget you," said Catherine.

Catherine could not decide whether to obey her father's wishes or not. She wrote to Morris and asked him to meet her in the Square. They met the next day, and during a long walk she told him about her father's invitation.

"You should go," said Morris. "It will please your father, and perhaps he will forgive you and change his mind about disinheriting you."

Mrs Penniman was not invited, and she understood very well why the Doctor had made this plan. "He thinks the journey will make you forget Morris," she told her niece.

"Well, my dear, perhaps you will. There are so many exciting things to see in Europe."

"And not get married for so long?"

"Please don't say that," Catherine answered, gently. "I am not interested in seeing Europe."

"We can marry when you come back," said Morris. "You can buy your wedding clothes in Paris."

They were away, in fact, for a year and during the first six months the name of Morris Townsend was not mentioned. The Doctor found much to interest him in Europe, but although Catherine was always quiet and obedient, she was, her father thought, a very unintelligent companion.

Doctor Sloper did not speak of Morris again until the night before they sailed to New York. "What are you going to do when you get home?" he asked suddenly.

"One day he will leave you," said the Doctor. "Alone and hungry, in a place like this. That's what he will do."

"Does he write to you?" he asked.

"I am sorry," Catherine murmured. She felt lonely and frightened in this wild place.

The question was unexpected, but Catherine did not hesitate. "No, father," she answered.

He looked at her for some moments without speaking.

"Yes, about twice a month."

He shook his head slowly. "No, it's not right, because you won't believe it. But it is true."

The Doctor looked up and down the mountain, and said in a low voice, "I am very angry."

"Have you given him up?" he asked.

"That's not true, father, and you should not say it," she cried. "It's not right!"

One day, at the end of the summer, they were walking together in a lonely valley in the mountains. It was beginning to get dark and the air was cold and sharp.

Suddenly the Doctor stopped and looked at Catherine.

"Do you mean about Mr Townsend?"

"We shall probably marry."

"If I am going to lose my only child, I would like to know before it happens."

"So you will go off with him as soon as you arrive?"

"Oh father! You will not lose me," said Catherine.

Catherine did not like the way he said this. "I cannot tell you until we arrive," she said.

"About Mr Townsend."