Suddenly Nancy Ellen began to cry bitterly; between sobs she could hear Kate as she walked from closet and bureau to her trunk which she was packing.  The lid slammed heavily and a few minutes later Kate entered the room dressed for the street.

“Why are you weeping?” she asked casually.

Her eyes were flaming, her cheeks scarlet, and her lips twitching.  Nancy Ellen sat up and looked at her.  She pointed to the letter:  “I read that,” she said.

“Well, what do I care?” said Kate.  “If he has no more respect for me than to write me such an insult as that, why should I have the respect for him to protect him in it?  Publish it in the paper if you want to.”

“Kate, what are you going to do?” demanded Nancy Ellen.

“Three things,” said Kate, slowly putting on her long silk gloves.  “First, I’m going to telegraph John Jardine that I never shall see him again, if I can possibly avoid it.  Second, I’m going to send a drayman to get my trunk and take it to Walden.  Third, I’m going to start out and walk miles, I don’t know or care where; but in the end, I’m going to Walden to clean the schoolhouse and get ready for my winter term of school.”

“Oh, Kate, you are such a fine teacher!  Teach him!  Don’t be so hurried!  Take more time to think.  You will break his heart,” pleaded Nancy Ellen.

Kate threw out both hands, palms down.

“P-a-s-h, a-u-g-h, h-a-r-t, d-o-u-t, d-e-r-e,” she slowly spelled out the letters.  “What about my heart and my pride?  Think I can respect that, or ask my children to respect it?  But thank you and Robert, and come after me as often as you can, as a mercy to me.  If John persists in coming, to try to buy me, as he thinks he can buy anything he wants, you needn’t let him come to Walden; for probably I won’t be there until I have to, and I won’t see him, or his mother, so he needn’t try to bring her in.  Say good-bye to Robert for me.”

She walked from the house, head erect, shoulders squared, and so down the street from sight.  In half an hour a truckman came for her trunk, so Nancy Ellen made everything Kate had missed into a bundle to send with it.  When she came to the letters, she hesitated.

“I guess she didn’t want them,” she said.  “I’ll just keep them awhile and if she doesn’t ask about them, the next time she comes, I’ll burn them.  Robert must go after her every Friday evening, and we’ll keep her until Monday, and do all we can to cheer her; and this very day he must find out all there is to know about that George Holt.  That is the finest letter I ever read; she does kind of stand up for him; and in the reaction, impulsive as she is and self-confident —­ of course she wouldn’t, but you never can tell what kind of fool a girl will make of herself, in some cases.”

Kate walked swiftly, finished two of the errands she set out to do, then her feet carried her three miles from Hartley on the Walden road, before she knew where she was, so she proceeded to the village.