Katherine wrote and jokingly asked Edith if she and Ned had quarreled . Edith wrote back and said , `` What nonsense . '' She and Ned were as good friends as ever , but he was getting acquainted in Riverton now and was n't so dependent on her society , etc. . Katherine sighed and went on a fern hunt with Professor Keith . It was getting near the end of her vacation and she had only two weeks more . They were sitting down to rest on the side of the road when she mentioned this fact inconsequently . The professor prodded the harmless dust with his cane . Well , he supposed she would find a return to work pleasant and would doubtless be glad to see her Riverton friends again . `` I 'm dying to see Edith , '' said Katherine . `` And Ned ? '' suggested Professor Keith . `` Oh yes . Ned , of course , '' assented Katherine without enthusiasm . There did n't seem to be anything more to say . One can not talk everlastingly about ferns , so they got up and went home . Katherine wrote a particularly affectionate letter to Ned that night . Then she went to bed and cried . When Professor Keith came up to bid Miss Rangely good-bye on the eve of her departure from Harbour Hill , he looked like a man who was being led to execution without benefit of clergy . But he kept himself well in hand and talked calmly on impersonal subjects . After all , it was Katherine who made the first break when she got up to say good-bye .
She was XXXXX the middle of some conventional sentence when she suddenly stopped short , and her voice trailed off in a babyish quiver .
After as if in of on so to with without