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+The Project Gutenberg Etext The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon
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+The Foolish Virgin
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+by Thomas Dixon
+
+February, 1999  [Etext #1634]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon
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+
+
+THE FOOLISH VIRGIN
+
+by THOMAS DIXON
+
+
+
+
+TO
+GERTRUDE ATHERTON
+WITH GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+I.      A FRIENDLY WARNING
+II.     TEMPTATION
+III.    FATE
+IV.     DOUBTS AND FEARS
+V.      WINGS OF STEEL
+VI.     BESIDE THE SEA
+VII.    A VAIN APPEAL
+VIII.   JIM'S TRIAL
+IX.     ELLA'S SECRET
+X.      THE WEDDING
+XI.     "UNTIL DEATH"
+XII.    THE LOTOS-EATERS
+XIII.   THE REAL MAN
+XIV.    UNWELCOME GUESTS
+XV.     A LITTLE BLACK BAG
+XVI.    THE AWAKENING
+XVII.   THE SURRENDER
+XVIII.  TO THE NEW GOD
+XIX.    NANCE'S STOREHOUSE
+XX.     TRAPPED
+XXI.    THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE
+XXII.   DELIVERANCE
+XXIII.  THE DOCTOR
+XXIV.   THE CALL DIVINE
+XXV.    THE MOTHER
+XXVI.   A SOUL IS BORN
+XXVII.  THE BABY
+XXVIII. WHAT IS LOVE?
+XXIX.   THE NEW MAN
+
+
+
+
+LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY
+
+MARY ADAMS, An Old-Fashioned Girl.
+JIM ANTHONY, A Modern Youth.
+JANE ANDERSON, An Artist.
+ELLA, A Scrubwoman.
+NANCE OWENS, Jim Anthony's Mother.
+A DOCTOR, Whose Call was Divine.
+THE BABY, A Mascot.
+
+
+
+
+THE FOOLISH VIRGIN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A FRIENDLY WARNING
+
+Mary Adams, you're a fool!"
+
+The single dimple in a smooth red cheek smiled in
+answer.
+
+"You're repeating yourself, Jane----"
+
+"You won't give him one hour's time for just three
+sittings?"
+
+"Not a second for one sitting----"
+
+"Hopeless!"
+
+Mary smiled provokingly, her white teeth gleaming
+in obstinate good humor.
+
+"He's the most distinguished artist in America----"
+
+"I've heard so."
+
+"It would be a liberal education for a girl of your
+training to know such a man----"
+
+"I'll omit that course of instruction."
+
+The younger woman was silent a moment, and a flush
+of anger slowly mounted her temples.  The blue eyes
+were fixed reproachfully on her friend.
+
+"You really thought that I would pose?"
+
+"I hoped so."
+
+"Alone with a man in his studio for hours?"
+
+Jane Anderson lifted her dark brows.
+
+"Why, no, I hardly expected that!  I'm sure he
+would take his easel and palette out into the square in
+front of the Plaza Hotel and let you sit on the base of
+the Sherman monument.  The crowds would cheer and
+inspire him--bah!  Can't you have a little common-
+sense?  There are a few brutes among artists, as there
+are in all professions--even among the superintendents
+of your schools.  Gordon's a great creative genius.  If
+you'd try to flirt with him, he'd stop his work and
+send you home.  You'd be as safe in his studio as in
+your mother's nursery.  I've known him for ten years. 
+He's the gentlest, truest man I've ever met.  He's
+doing a canvas on which he has set his whole heart."
+
+"He can get professional models."
+
+"For his usual work, yes--but this is the head of
+the Madonna.  He saw you walking with me in the Park
+last week and has been to my studio a half-dozen times
+begging me to take you to see him.  Please, Mary dear,
+do this for my sake.  I owe Gordon a debt I can never
+pay.  He gave me the cue to the work that set me on
+my feet.  He was big and generous and helpful when I
+needed a friend.  He asked nothing in return but the
+privilege of helping me again if I ever needed it.  You
+can do me an enormous favor--please."
+
+Mary Adams rose with a gesture of impatience,
+walked to her window and gazed on the torrent of
+humanity pouring through Twenty-third Street from the
+beehives of industry that have changed this quarter of
+New York so rapidly in the last five years.  She turned
+suddenly and confronted her friend.
+
+"How could you think that I would stoop to such a
+thing?"
+
+"Stoop!"
+
+"Yes," she snapped, "--pose for an artist!  I'd as
+soon think of rushing stark naked through Twenty-third
+Street at noon!"
+
+The older woman looked at her flushed face,
+suppressed a sharp answer, broke into a fit of laughter
+and threw her arms around Mary's neck.
+
+"Honey, you're such a hopeless little fool, you're
+delicious!  You know that I love you--don't you?"
+
+The pretty lips quivered.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Could I possibly ask you to do a thing that would
+harm a single brown hair of your head?"
+
+The firm hand of the older girl touched a
+rebellious lock with tenderness.
+
+"Of course not, from your point of view, Jane
+dear," the stubborn lips persisted.  "But you see it's
+not my point of view.  You're older than I----"
+
+Jane smiled.
+
+"Hoity toity, Miss!  I'm just twenty-eight and
+you're twenty-four.  Age is not measured by calendars
+these days."
+
+"I didn't mean that," the girl apologized.  "But
+you're an artist.  You're established and
+distinguished.  You belong to a different world."
+
+Jane Anderson laid her hand softly on her friend's.
+
+"That's just it, dear.  I do belong to a different
+world--a big new world of whose existence you are not
+quite conscious.  You are living in the old, old world
+in which women have groped for thousands of years.  I
+don't mind confessing that I undertook this job of
+getting you to pose for Gordon for a double purpose.  I
+wished to do something to repay the debt I owe him--but
+I wished far more to be of help to you.  You're living
+in the Dark Ages, and it's a dangerous thing for a
+pretty girl to live in the Dark Ages and date her
+letters from New York to-day----"
+
+"I don't understand you in the least."
+
+"And I'm afraid you never will."
+
+She paused suddenly and changed her tone.
+
+"Tell me now, are you happy in your work?"
+
+"I'm earning sixty dollars a month--my position is
+secure----"
+
+"But are you happy in it?"
+
+"I don't expect to teach school all my life," was
+the vague answer.
+
+"Exactly.  You loathe the sight of a school-room. 
+You do the task they set you because your father's a
+clergyman and can't support his big family.  You're
+waiting and longing for the day of your deliverance--
+isn't it so?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"And that day of deliverance?"
+
+"Will come when I meet my Fate!"
+
+"You'll meet him, too!"
+
+"I will----"
+
+Jane Anderson shook her fine head.
+
+"And may the Lord have mercy on your poor little
+soul when you do!"
+
+"And why, pray?"
+
+"Because you're the most helpless and defenseless
+of all the things He created."
+
+Mary smiled.
+
+"I've managed to take pretty good care of myself
+so far."
+
+"And you will--until the thunderbolt falls."
+
+"The thunderbolt?"
+
+"Until you meet your Fate."
+
+"I'll have someone to look after me then."
+
+"We'll hope so anyhow," was the quick retort.
+
+"But can't you see, Jane dear, that we look at life
+from such utterly different angles.  You glory in your
+work.  It's your inspiration--the breath you breathe. 
+I don't believe in women working for money.  I don't
+believe God ever meant us to work when He made us
+women.  He made us women for something more wonderful. 
+I don't see anything good or glorious in the fact that
+half the torrent of humanity you see down there pouring
+through the street from those factories and offices is
+made up of women.  They are wage-earners--so much the
+worse.  They are forcing the scale of wages for men
+lower and lower.  They are paying for it in weakened
+bodies and sickly, hopeless children.  We should not
+shout for joy; we should cry.  God never meant for
+woman to be a wage-earner!"
+
+A sob caught her voice and she paused.
+
+The artist watched her emotion with keen
+interest.
+
+"Neither do I believe that God means to force woman
+at last to do the tasks of man.  But she's doing them,
+dear--and it must be so until a brighter day dawns for
+humanity.  The new world that opens before us will
+never abolish marriage, but it has opened our eyes to
+know what it means.  You refuse to open yours.  You
+refuse to see this new world about you.  I've begged
+you to join one of my clubs.  You refuse.  I beg you to
+meet and know such men of genius as Gordon----"
+
+"As an artist's model!"
+
+"It's the only way on earth you can meet him.  You
+stick to your narrow, hide-bound conventional life and
+dream of the Knight who will suddenly appear some day
+out of the mists and clouds.  You dream of the Fate God
+has prepared for you in His mysterious Providence. 
+It's funny how that idea persists even today in novels. 
+As a matter of fact we know that the old-fashioned girl
+met her Fate because her shrewd mother planned the
+meeting--planned it with cunning and stratagem.  You're
+alone in a great modern city, with all the conditions
+of the life of the old regime reversed or blotted out. 
+Your mother is not here.  And if she were, her schemes
+to bring about the mysterious meeting of the Fates
+would be impossible.  You outgrew the limits of your
+village life.  Your highly trained mind landed you in
+New York.  You've fought your way to a competent living
+in five years and kept yourself clean and unspotted
+from the world.  Granted.  But how many men have you
+met who are your equals in culture and character?"
+
+Jane paused and held Mary's gaze with steady
+persistence.
+
+"How many--honest?"
+
+"None as yet," she confessed.
+
+"But you live in the one fond, imperishable hope! 
+It's the only thing that keeps you alive and going--
+this idea of your Fate.  It's an obsession--this
+mysterious Knight somewhere in the future riding to
+meet you----"
+
+"I'll find him, never fear," the girl laughed.
+
+"Of course you will.  You'll make him out of whole
+cloth if it's necessary.  Our ideals are really the
+same when you come to analyze my wider outlook."
+
+The artist paused and laughed softly.
+
+"The same?" the girl asked incredulously.
+
+"Certainly.  Mine is based on intelligence,
+however--yours on blind instinct perverted and twisted
+by the idiotic fiction you read morning, noon and
+night."
+
+"I don't see it," Mary answered emphatically. 
+"Your ideal is fame, achievement, the applause of the
+world--mine just a home and a baby----"
+
+Jane laughed softly.
+
+"And that's all you know about me?"
+
+"Isn't it true?"
+
+"You've been in this room five years, haven't you?"
+the older girl asked musingly.
+
+"Yes----"
+
+"And though you've kept your lamp trimmed and
+burning, you haven't yet seen a man whom you could
+recognize as your equal."
+
+"I'm only twenty-four."
+
+"In these five years I've met a hundred men my
+equal."
+
+"And smashed the conventions of Society whenever
+you saw fit."
+
+"Without breaking a single law of reason or common-
+sense.  In the meantime I've met two men who have
+really made love to me.  I thought I loved one of
+them--until I met the other.  The second proved himself
+to be an unprincipled scoundrel.  If I had held your
+views of life and hated my work, I would have married
+this man and lived to awake in a prison whose only door
+was Death.  But I loved my work.  Life meant more than
+one man who was not worth an hour's tears.  I turned
+to my studio and he slipped back into the gutter where
+he belonged.  I'll meet MY Fate some day, too,
+dear.  I'm waiting and watching--but with clear eyes
+and unafraid.  I'll know mine when he comes, I shall
+not be blinded by passion or the fear of drudgery. 
+Can't you see this bigger world of realities?"
+
+The dimple flashed again in the smooth red cheek.
+
+"It's not for me, Jane.  I'm just a modest little
+home body.  I'll bide my time----"
+
+"And eat your foolish heart out here between the
+narrow walls of this cell you've built for yourself.  I
+should think you'd die living here alone."
+
+The girl flushed.
+
+"I'm not lonely----"
+
+"Don't fib!  I know better.  Your birds and kitten
+occupy daily about thirty minutes of the time that's
+your own.  What do you do with the rest of it?"
+
+"Sit by my window, watch the crowds stream through
+the streets below, read and dream and think----"
+
+"Yes--read love stories and dream about your
+Knight."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"It's morbid and unhealthy.  You've hedged 
+yourself about with the old conventions and imagine
+you're safe--and you are--until you meet HIM!"
+
+"I'll know how to behave--never fear."
+
+"You mean you'll know how instantly to blindfold,
+halter and lead him to the Little Church Around the
+Corner?"
+
+Mary moved uneasily.
+
+"And what else should I do with him?"
+
+"Compare him with other men.  Weigh him in the
+balances of a remorseless common-sense.  Study him
+under a microscope and keep your reason clear.  The
+girl who rushes into marriage in a great city under the
+conditions in which you and I live is a fool.  More
+girls are ruined in New York by marriage than by any
+other process.  The thunderbolt out of the blue hasn't
+struck you yet, but when it does----"
+
+"I'll tell you, Jane."
+
+"Will you, honestly?"
+
+The question was asked with wistful tenderness.
+
+"I promise.  And you mustn't think I don't
+appreciate this visit and the chance you've given again
+to enter the `big world' you're always telling me
+about.  I just can't do it, dear.  It's not my world."
+
+"All right, my little foolish virgin, have it your
+own way.  When you're lonely, run up to my studio
+to see me.  I won't ask you to pose or meet any of the
+dangerous men of my circle.  We'll lock the doors and
+have a snug time all by ourselves."
+
+"I'll remember."
+
+The clock in the Metropolitan Tower chimed the hour
+of five, and Jane Anderson rose with a quick, business-
+like movement.
+
+"Don't hurry," Mary protested.  "I know I've been
+stubborn, but I've been so happy in your coming.  I do
+get lonely--frightfully lonely, sometimes--don't think
+I'm ungrateful----"
+
+"You're dangerously beautiful, child," the artist
+said, with enthusiasm.  "And remember that I love you--
+no matter how silly you are--good-by."
+
+"You won't stay for a cup of tea?  I meant to ask
+you an hour ago."
+
+"No, I've an engagement with a dreadful man whom
+I've no idea of ever marrying.  I'm going to dinner
+with him--just to study the animal at dose range."
+
+With a jolly laugh and quick, firm step she was
+gone.
+
+Mary snatched the kitten from his snug bed between
+the pillows of the window-seat and pressed his fuzzy
+head under her chin.
+
+"She tempted us terribly, Kitty darling, but we
+didn't let her find out--did we?  You know deep down in
+your cat's soul that I was just dying to meet the
+distinguished Gordon--but such high honors are not for
+home bodies like you and me----"
+
+She dropped on the seat and closed her eyes for a
+long time.  The kitten watched her wonderingly sure of
+a sudden outbreak with each passing moment.  Two soft
+paws at last touched her cheeks and two bright eyes
+sought in vain for hers.  The little nose pressed
+closer and kissed the drooping eyelids until they
+opened.  He curled himself on her bosom and began to
+sing a gentle lullaby.  For a long while she lay and
+listened to the music of love with which her pet sought
+to soothe the ache within.
+
+The clock in the tower chimed six.
+
+She lifted her body and placed her head on a pillow
+beside the window.  The human torrent below was now at
+its flood.  Two streams of humanity flowed eastward
+along each broad sidewalk.  Hundreds were pouring in
+endless procession across Madison Square.  The cars in
+Broadway north and South were jammed.  Every day she
+watched this crowd hurrying, hurrying away into the
+twilight--and among all its hundreds of thousands not
+an eye was ever lifted to hers--not one man or
+woman among them cared whether she lived or died.
+
+It was horrible, this loneliness of the desert in
+an ocean of humanity!  For the past year it had become
+an increasing horror to look into the silent faces of
+this crowd of men and women and never feel the touch of
+a friendly hand or hear the sound of a human voice in
+greeting.
+
+And yet this endless procession held for her a
+supreme fascination.  Somewhere among its myriads of
+tramping feet, walked the one man created for her.  She
+no more doubted this than she doubted God Himself.  It
+was His law.  He had ordained it so.  She had grown so
+used to the throngs below her window and so loved the
+little park with its splashing fountain that she had
+refused to follow her landlady uptown when the
+brownstone boarding-house facing the Square had been
+turned into a studio building.
+
+Instead of moving she had wheedled the landlord
+into allowing her to cut off a small space from her
+room for a private bath and kitchenette, built a box
+couch across the window large enough for a three-
+quarter mattress and covered it with velour.  For five
+dollars a week she had thus secured a little home in
+which was combined a sitting-room, bed-room, bath and
+kitchenette.
+
+It had its drawbacks, of course.  The Professor
+downstairs who taught music sometimes gave a special
+lesson at night, and the Italian sculptor who worked on
+the top floor used a hammer at the most impossible
+hours.  But on the whole she liked it better than the
+tiresome routine of boarding.  She was not afraid at
+night.  The stamp-and-coin man who occupied the first
+floor, lived with his wife and baby in the rear.  The
+janitress had a room on the floor above hers.  Two
+elderly women workers of ability in the mechanical arts
+occupied the rear of her floor, and a dear little fat
+woman of fifty who drew designs for the New England
+weavers of cotton goods lived in the room adjoining
+hers.
+
+She had never spoken to any of these people, but
+Ella, the janitress, who cleaned up her place every
+morning, had told her their history.  Ella was a
+sociable soul, her face an eternal study and an
+inscrutable mystery.  She spoke both German and English
+and yet never a word of her own life's history passed
+her lips.  She had loved Mary from the moment she
+cocked her queer drawn face to one side and looked at
+her with the one good eye she possessed.  She was
+always doing little things for her comfort--and never
+asked tips for it.  If Mary offered to pay she smiled
+quietly and spoke in the softest drawl:  "Oh,
+that's nothing, child-- Ach, Gott im Himmel--nein!"
+
+This one-eyed, homely woman who cleaned up her room
+for three dollars a month, and Jane Anderson, were the
+only friends she had among the six million people whose
+lives centered on Manhattan Island.
+
+Man had yet to darken her door.  The little room
+had been carefully fitted, however, to receive her
+Knight when the great event of his coming should be at
+hand.
+
+The box couch was built of hard wood paneling and
+was covered with pillows of soft leather and silk.  The
+bed-clothes were carefully stored in the locker beneath
+the mattress cushion.  No one would ever suspect its
+use as a bed.  The bathroom was fitted with a bureau
+and no signs of a sleeping apartment disfigured the
+effect of her one library, parlor, and reception-room. 
+A desk and bookcase stood at either end of the box
+couch.  The bookcase was filled with fiction--love
+stories exclusively.
+
+A large birdcage swung from a staple in the window
+and two canaries peered cautiously from their perches
+at the kitten in her lap.  She had trained him to
+ignore this cage.
+
+The crowds below were thinning down.  A light
+snow was falling.  The girl lifted her pet and kissed
+his cold nose.
+
+"We must get our own dinner tonight, Mr.
+Thomascat--it's snowing outside.  And did you hear what
+she said, Kitty dear--`More girls are ruined by
+marriage in New York than by any other process!'  A
+good joke, Kitty!--You and I know better than that if
+we do live in our own tiny world!  We'll risk it some
+day, anyhow, won't we?"
+
+The kitten purred his assent and Mary bustled over
+the little gas stove humming an old love song her
+mother had taught her in a far-off village in Kentucky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+
+Her kitchenette was a model of order and cleanliness. 
+The carpenter who built its neat cupboard and fitted
+the drawers beneath the tiny gas range, had outdone
+himself in its construction.  He had given the wood-
+work four coats of immaculate white paint without extra
+charge.  Mary had insisted on paying for it, but he
+waved the proffered money aside with a gesture that
+spoke louder than words:
+
+"Pooh!  That's nothing to what I'd like to do for
+you."
+
+She was not surprised when he called the following
+Saturday and stood at her door awkwardly fumbling his
+hat, trying to ask her to spend the afternoon and
+evening at Coney Island with him.  There was no
+mistaking the manner in which he made this request.
+
+She had refused him as gently as possible--a big,
+awkward, good-natured, ignorant boy he was, with
+the eyes of a St. Bernard dog.  He apologized for his
+presumption and never repeated the offense.
+
+Somehow her conquests had all been in this class.
+
+The tall, blushing German youth from the butcher's
+around the corner had been slipping extra cuts into her
+bundle and making awkward advances until she caught him
+red-handed with a pound of lamb chops which he failed
+to explain.  She read him a lecture on honesty that
+discouraged him.  It was not so much what she said, as
+the way she said it, that wounded his sensitive nature.
+
+The ice man she had not yet entirely subdued.  Tony
+Bonelli had the advantage of pretending not to
+understand her orders of dismissal.  He merely smiled
+in his sad Italian way and continued to pack her ice-
+box so full the lid would never close.
+
+She was reminded at every turn tonight of these
+futile conquests of the impossible.  They all smelled
+of the back stairs and the kitchen.  Her people had
+been slaveholders in the old regime of southern
+Kentucky.  A kindly tolerant contempt for the
+pretensions of a servant class was bred in the bone of
+her being.
+
+And yet their tribute to her beauty had its
+compensations.  It was the promise of triumph when he
+for whom she waited should step from the throng and
+lift his hat.  Just how he was going to do this without
+a breach of the proprieties of life, she couldn't see. 
+It would come.  It must come.  It was Fate.
+
+In twenty minutes her coffee-pot was boiling, the
+lamb chops broiled to perfection and she was seated
+before the dainty, snow-white table, the kitten softly
+begging at her feet.  Half an hour later, every dish
+and pot and pan was back in its place in perfect order. 
+She prided herself on her mastery of the details of
+cooking and the most economical administration of every
+dollar devoted to housekeeping.  She studied cooking in
+the best schools the city afforded.  She meant to show
+her Knight a thing or two in this line when the time
+came.  His wife would not be an ignorant slattern, the
+victim of incompetent servants.  No servant could fool
+her.  She would know the business of the house down to
+its minutest detail.
+
+Not that she loved dish-washing and pot-polishing
+and scrubbing.  It was simply a part of the Game of
+Life she must play in the ideal home she would build. 
+There was no drudgery in it for this reason.  She was a
+soldier on the drill grounds preparing for the battle
+on the successful issue of which hung her happiness and
+the happiness of the one of whom she dreamed.  She
+might miss some of the dangerous fun which Jane
+Anderson could enjoy without a scratch, but she would
+make sure of the fundamental things which Jane would
+never stop to consider.
+
+She threw herself on the couch in her favorite
+position against the pillows, drew the kitten into her
+arms and hugged him violently.
+
+"It's all right, Mr. Thomascat; we'll show them,"
+she purred softly.  "We'll see who wins at last, the
+eagle who soars or the little wren in the hedge close
+beside the garden wall--we'll see, Kitty--we'll see!"
+
+The room was still, the noise of the street-cars
+below muffled with the first soft blanket of snow.  The
+street lamps flickered in the wind with a pale subdued
+light that scarcely brought out the furnishings of her
+nest.  She was in the habit of dreaming in this window
+for hours with only the light from the lamps on the
+street.
+
+The Square, deserted by its tramp lovers, lay white
+and still and cold.  The old battle with the Blue
+Devils was on again within.  The fight with Jane had
+been easy.  She had always found it easy to face
+temptation in the concrete.  The moment Satan appeared
+in human shape she was up in arms and ready for the
+fray.  It was this silent hour she dreaded when the
+defenses of the soul were down.
+
+There was no use to lie to herself.  She was
+utterly lonely and heartsick.
+
+She had guarded the portals of life with religious
+care--with a care altogether unnecessary as events had
+proved.  There had been no crush of rude men to assault
+her.  Only an awkward carpenter, a butcher's boy and
+the ice man!  It was incredible.  Of all the men whose
+restless feet pressed the pavements of New York, not
+one, save these three, had apparently cared whether she
+lived or died.
+
+The men whom she met in her duties in the
+schoolroom she had found utterly devoid of imagination
+and beneath contempt.  They had each been obviously on
+guard against the machinations of the female of the
+species.  They had, each of them, shown plainly their
+fear and hatred of women teachers.  The feeling was
+mutual.  God knows she had no desire to encroach on
+their domain any longer than absolutely necessary.
+
+Perhaps she was making a mistake.  The thought was
+strangling.  Only the girl who waived conventions in
+the rushing tide of the modern city's life seemed to
+live at all.  The others merely existed.  Jane
+Anderson lived!  There could be no mistake about that. 
+She had mastered the ugly mob.  Its cruel loneliness
+was to her a thing unknown.  But Jane was an
+exception--the one woman in a thousand who could defy
+conventions and yet keep her soul and body clean.
+
+The offer she had made had proved a terrible
+temptation.  The artist who had asked with such
+eagerness to use her head for his portrait of the
+Madonna on the canvas he was executing for the new
+cathedral, had long appealed to her vivid imagination. 
+Two prints of his famous work hung on her walls.  She
+had always wished to know him.  He had married a
+Southern girl.
+
+That was just the point--he WAS married!
+
+No girl could afford to be shut up alone in a
+studio with a fascinating married man for three hours--
+or half an hour.  What if she should fall in love with
+him at first sight!  Such things had happened.  They
+could happen again.  Only tragedy could be the end of
+such an event.  It was too dangerous to consider for a
+moment.
+
+She would have consented had it been possible for
+Jane to chaperon her.  That would have been obviously
+ridiculous.  No artist with any self-respect would
+tolerate such a reflection on his honesty.  No girl
+could afford to confess her fears in this brazen
+fashion.
+
+The necessity for her refusal had depressed her
+beyond any experience she had passed through in the
+dreary desert of the past five years.
+
+She lifted the sleeping kitten and whispered
+passionately:
+
+"Am I a silly fool, Kitty?  Am I?"
+
+The tears came at last.  She lay back on the
+pillows and let them pour down her cheeks without
+protest or effort at self-control.  Every nerve of her
+strong, healthy body ached for the love and
+companionship of men which she had denied herself with
+an iron will.  At nineteen it had been easy.  The sheer
+animal joy in life had been enough.  With the growth of
+each year the ache within had become more and more
+insistent.  With each ripening season of body and mind,
+the hunger of love had grown more and more maddening. 
+How long could she keep up this battle with every
+instinct of her being?
+
+She rose at last, determined to go to Jane, confess
+that she had been a fool, and step out into the new
+world, New York's world, and begin to live.
+
+She seized her hat and furs and put them on with
+feverish haste.
+
+"God knows it's time I began--I'll be an old maid
+in another year and dry up--ugh!"
+
+She looked in the quaint oval mirror that hung
+beside her door and lifted her head with a touch of
+pride.
+
+She had reached the street and started for the
+Broadway car before she suddenly remembered that Jane
+was "dining with a dangerous man."
+
+She couldn't turn back to that little room tonight
+without new courage.  Her decision was instantaneous. 
+She couldn't surrender to the flesh and the devil by
+yielding to Jane.
+
+She would go to prayer-meeting!
+
+Religion had always been a very real thing in her
+life.  Her father was a Methodist presiding elder.  She
+would have gone to the meeting tonight in the first
+place but for the snow.  Dr. Craddock, the new
+sensational pastor of the Temple, was giving a series
+of Wednesday-night talks that had aroused wide interest
+and drawn immense crowds.
+
+His theme tonight was one that promised all sorts
+of sensations--"The Woman of the Future."  The only
+trouble with the Doctor was that the substance of his
+discourses sometimes failed to make good the startling
+suggestions of his titles.  No matter--she would go. 
+She felt a sense of righteous pride infighting her
+way to the church through the first storm of the
+winter.
+
+In spite of the snow the church was crowded.  The
+subject announced had evidently touched a vital spot in
+modern life.  More people were thinking about "The
+Woman of the Future" than she had suspected.  The crowd
+sat with eager, upturned faces.
+
+The first half-hour's prayer and song service had
+just begun.  Mary joined in the singing of the stirring
+evangelistic hymns with enthusiasm.  Something in their
+battle-cry melody caught her spirit instantly tonight
+and her whole being responded.  In ten minutes she was
+a good shouting Methodist and supremely happy without
+knowing why.  She never paused to ask.  Her nature was
+profoundly religious and she had been born and bred in
+the atmosphere of revivals.  Her father was an
+aggressive evangelist both in his character and methods
+of work, and she was his own daughter--a child of
+emotion.
+
+The individuals in the eager crowd which packed the
+popular church meant nothing to her personally.  They
+had passed before her unseeing eyes Sunday after Sunday
+the past five years as mere shadows of an unknown world
+which swallowed them up the moment they reached the
+street.  She had never seen the inside of one of their
+homes.  Not one of them had drawn close enough to her
+to venture an invitation.
+
+Two of the stewards she knew personally--one a
+bricklayer, the other a baker on Eighth Avenue.  The
+preacher she had met in a purely formal way as the
+bishop of the flock.  She liked Dr. Craddock.  He was
+known in the ministry as a live wire.  He was a man of
+vigorous physique--just turning fifty, magnetic,
+eloquent and popular with the masses.
+
+Mary was curious tonight as to what the preacher
+would say on "The Woman of the Future."  The Methodist
+Church had been a pioneer in the modern Feminist
+movement, having long ago admitted women to the full
+ordination of the ministry.  Craddock, however, had
+been known for his conservatism in the woman movement. 
+He abhorred the idea of woman's suffrage as a dangerous
+revolution and the fact that he consented to treat the
+topic at all was a reluctant confession of its menacing
+importance.
+
+With keen interest, the girl saw him rise at last. 
+A breathless hush fell on the crowd.  He walked
+deliberately to the edge of the platform and gazed into
+the faces of the people.
+
+"I have often been asked," he slowly began, "where
+I get my sermons."  He paused and laughed.  "I'll be
+perfectly honest with you.  Sometimes I get them from
+the Bible--sometimes from the book of life.  The
+genesis of this talk tonight is very definite.  I found
+it in the liquid depths of a little girl's eyes.  She
+asked a simple question that set me thinking--not only
+about the subject of her query but on the vaster issues
+that grew out of it.  She looked up into my face the
+other night after my call for volunteers for the new
+mission we are beginning in the slums of the East Side,
+and asked me if the girls were not going to be given
+the chance to do something worth while in this church's
+work.
+
+"I couldn't honestly answer her off-hand and in my
+groping I forgot the child and her question.  I saw a
+vision--a vision of that broader, nobler future toward
+which human civilization is now swiftly moving.
+
+"I say deliberately that it is swiftly moving,
+because the progress of the world during the last fifty
+years has been greater than in any five hundred years
+of the past.
+
+"The older I grow the stronger becomes my
+conviction that the problems of the age in which we now
+live cannot be solved by masculine brain and brawn
+alone.  The problems of the city and the nation and the
+great fundamental social questions that involve the
+foundations of modern life will find no solution until
+the heart and brain of woman are poured into the
+crucible of our test.
+
+
+"They talk about a woman's sphere
+As though it had a limit:
+There's not a place in earth or heaven,
+There's not a task to mankind given,
+There's not a blessing or a woe,
+There's not a whisper yes or no,
+There's not a life, or death, or birth
+That has a feather's weight of worth
+Without a woman in it!
+
+
+
+"The difference between a man and a woman is one
+that makes them the complementary parts of a perfect
+unit.  God made man in His own image--male and female. 
+The person of God therefore combines these two elements
+unseparated.  The mind of God is both male and female. 
+In man we have the strength which lifts and tugs and
+fights the elements.  This is the aspect turned
+primarily toward matter.  In woman we have the finer
+qualities of the Spirit turned toward the source of all
+spirit in God.  The idea of a masculine deity is a
+false assumption of the Dark Ages.  God is both male
+and female.
+
+"I used to wonder why Jesus Christ was a man, until
+I realized that the Incarnation expressed the depth of
+human need.  God stooped lower in assuming the form of
+man.  The form of the divine revelation through Jesus
+Christ was determined solely by this depth of human
+need----"
+
+For half an hour in impetuous eloquence, in telling
+incidents wet with tears and winged with hope, he held
+his listeners in a spell.  It was not until the burst
+of applause which greeted his closing sentence had died
+away that Mary Adams realized that another landmark had
+toppled before the onrushing flood of modern Feminism. 
+The conservatism of Doctor Craddock had yielded at last
+to the inevitable.  He, too, had joined the ranks of
+the prophets who preach of a Woman's Day of
+Emancipation.
+
+And yet it never occurred to her that this fact had
+the slightest bearing on her personal outlook on life. 
+On the contrary she felt in the spiritual elation of
+the triumphant eloquence of her favorite preacher a
+renewal of her simple religious faith.  At the bottom
+of that religion lay the foundation of life itself--her
+conception of marriage as the supreme and only
+expression of woman's power in the world.
+
+She walked back to her home on the Square, in a
+glow of ecstatic emotion.
+
+Surely God had miraculously saved her this night
+from the wiles of the Devil!  No matter what this
+eloquent discourse had meant to others, it had renewed
+her faith in the old-fashioned woman and the old-
+fashioned ways of the old-fashioned home.  Her vision
+was once more clear.  She was glad Jane Anderson had
+come to put her to the test.  She had been tried in the
+fires of hell and came forth unscorched.
+
+She stood beside her window dreaming again of the
+home she would build when her Knight should stand
+before her revealed in beauty no words could describe. 
+The moon was shining now in solemn glory on the white-
+shrouded Square.  Temptation had only strengthened the
+fiber of her soul.  She knelt in the moonlight beside
+her couch and prayed that God should ever keep her
+faith serene.  She rose with a sense of peace and joy. 
+God would hear and answer the cry of her heart.  The
+City might be the Desert--it was still God's world and
+not a sparrow that twittered in those bare trees or
+chattered on her window-ledge in the morning could fall
+to the ground without His knowledge.  God had put this
+deathless passion in her heart; He could not deny
+it expression.  She could bide His time.  If the day of
+her deliverance were near, it was good.  If God should
+choose to try her faith in loneliness and tears, it was
+His way to make the revelation of glory the more
+dazzling when it came.
+
+She drew the covering about her warm young body
+with the firm faith that her hour was close at hand,
+and fell asleep to dream of her Knight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+FATE
+
+Mary waked next morning with the delicious sense of
+impending happiness.  A wonderful dream had come to
+thrill her half-conscious moments, repeating itself in
+increasing vividness and beauty with each awakening. 
+The vision had been interrupted by the unusual noise of
+the snow machines on the car tracks, and yet she had
+fallen asleep after each break and picked up the
+rapturous scene at the exact moment of its
+interruption.
+
+She was married and madly in love with her husband. 
+His face she could never see quite clearly.  His
+business kept him away from home on long trips.  But
+his baby was always there--a laughing, wonderful boy
+whose chubby hands persisted in pulling her hair down
+into her face each time she bent over his cradle to
+kiss him.
+
+Ella was chattering in German to someone on the
+stairs.  She wondered again for the hundredth time
+how this poor, slovenly, one-eyed, ill-kempt creature,
+scrub-woman and janitress, could speak two languages
+with such ease.  Her English, except in excitement,
+seemed equally fluent with her German.  How did such a
+woman fall so low?  She was industrious and untiring in
+her work.  She never touched liquor or drugs.  She was
+kind and thoughtful and watched over her tenants with a
+motherly care for which no landlord could pay in
+dollars and cents.  She was on her knees on the stairs
+now, scrubbing down the steps to be crowded again with
+muddy feet from the street below.
+
+Mary lay for half an hour snuggling under the warm
+blankets, weaving a romance about Ella's life.  A great
+love for some heroic man who died and left her in
+poverty could alone explain the mystery that hung about
+her.  She never spoke of her life or people.  Mary had
+ventured once to ask her.  A wan smile flitted across
+the haggard face for a moment, and she answered in low
+tones that closed the subject.
+
+"I haven't any people, dear," she said slowly. 
+"They are dead long ago."
+
+The girl wondered if it were really true.  In her
+joy this morning she felt her heart go out to the
+pathetic, drooping figure on the stairs.  She
+wished that every living creature might share the
+secret joy that filled her soul.
+
+She drew the kitten from his nest beside her pillow
+and rubbed her cheek against his little cold nose.  He
+always waked her with a kiss on her eyelids and then
+coiled himself back for a tiny cat-nap until she could
+make up her mind to rise.
+
+She sprang from the couch with sudden energy and
+stretched her dainty figure with a prodigious yawn.
+
+"Gracious, Kitty, we must hurry!" she cried,
+thrusting her bare feet into a pair of embroidered
+slippers and throwing her blue flannel kimono on over
+her night-dress.
+
+The coffee-pot was boiling busily when she had
+bathed and dressed.  Each detail of her domestic
+schedule was given an extra care this morning.  The
+stove was carefully polished, each pot and pan placed
+in its rack with a precision that spoke an unusual joy
+within the heart of the housewife.
+
+And through it all she hummed a lullaby that
+haunted her from the memories of a happy childhood.
+
+Breakfast over, the kitten fed, the birds given
+their bath, their sand and seed, she couldn't stop
+until the whole place had been thoroughly cleaned
+and dusted.  Exactly why she had done this on Thursday
+morning it was impossible to say.  Some hidden force
+within had impelled her.
+
+Then back into the dream world her mind flew on
+joyous wings.  It was a sign from God in answer to
+prayer.  Why not?  The Bible was full of such
+revelations in ancient times.  God was not dead because
+the world was modern and we had steam and electricity. 
+The routine of school was no longer dull.  Around each
+commonplace child hung a halo of romance.  They were
+love-children today.  She wove a dream of tenderness,
+of chivalry, and heroic deeds about them all.  She
+searched each face for some line of beauty caught in
+the vision of her own baby who had looked into her
+heart from the mists of eternity.
+
+Three days passed in a sort of trance.  Never had
+she felt surer of life and the full fruition of every
+hope and faith.  Just how this marvelous blossoming
+would come, she could not guess.  Her chances of
+meeting her Fate were no better than at any moment of
+the past years of drab disillusionment, and yet, for
+some reason, her foolish heart kept singing.
+
+Why?
+
+There could be but one answer.  The event was
+impending.  Such things could be felt--not reasoned
+out.
+
+She applied herself to her teaching with a new
+energy and thoroughness.  She must do this work well
+and carry into the real life that must soon begin the
+consciousness of every duty faithfully performed.
+
+A boy asked her a question about a little flower
+which grew in a warm crevice of the stone wall on which
+the iron fence of the school yard rested.  She blushed
+at her failure to enlighten him and promised to tell
+him on Monday.
+
+Botany was not one of her tasks but she felt the
+tribute to her personality in his question, and she
+would take pains to make her answer full and
+interesting.
+
+Saturday afternoon she hurried to the Public
+Library, on Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street, to
+look up every reference to this flower.
+
+The boulevard of the Metropolis was thronged with
+eager thousands.  Handsome men and beautifully dressed
+women passed each other in endless procession on its
+crowded pavements.  The cabs and automobiles, two
+abreast on either side, moved at a snail's pace, so
+dense were the throngs at each crossing.  Her fancy was
+busy weaving about each throbbing tonneau and
+limousine a story of love.  Not a wheel was turning in
+all that long line of shining vehicles that didn't
+carry a woman or was hurrying to do a woman's bidding.
+
+Her hero was coming, too, somewhere in the crowd
+with his gloved hand on one of those wheels.  She could
+feel his breath on her cheek as he handed her into the
+seat by his side and then the sudden leap of the car
+into space and away on the wings of lightning into the
+future!
+
+She ascended the broad steps of the majestic
+building with quick, springing strength.  She loved
+this glorious library, with its lofty, arched ceilings. 
+The sense of eternity that brooded over it and filled
+the stately rooms rested and inspired her.
+
+Besides, she forgot her poverty in this temple of
+all time.  Within its walls she belonged to the great
+aristocracy of brains and culture of which this palace
+was the supreme expression.  And it was hers.  Andrew
+Carnegie had given the millions to build it and the
+city of New York granted the site on land that was
+worth many millions more.  But it was all built for her
+convenience, her comfort and inspiration.  Every volume
+of its vast and priceless collection was hers--hers to
+hold in her hands, read and ponder and enjoy.  Every
+officer and manager in its inclosure was her
+servant--to come at her beck and call and do her
+bidding.  The little room on Twenty-third Street was
+the symbol of the future.  This magnificent building
+was the realization of the present.
+
+She smiled pleasantly to the polite assistant who
+received her order slip, and took her seat on the
+waiting line until her books were delivered.
+
+This magnificent room with its lofty ceilings of
+golden panels and drifting clouds had always brought to
+her a peculiar sense of restful power.  The
+consciousness of its ownership had from the first been
+most intimate.  No man can own what he cannot
+appreciate.  He may possess it by legal documents, but
+he cannot own it unless he has eyes to see, ears to
+hear, and a heart to feel its charm.  This appreciation
+Mary Adams possessed by inheritance from her student
+father who devoured books with an insatiate hunger. 
+Nowhere in all New York's labyrinth did she feel as
+perfectly at home as in this reading-room.  The quiet
+which reigned without apparent sign or warning seemed
+to belong to the atmosphere of the place.  It was
+unthinkable that any man or woman should be rude or
+thoughtless enough to break it by a loud word.
+
+This room was hers day or night, winter or
+summer, always heated and lighted, and a hundred
+swift, silent servants at hand to do her bidding. 
+Around the room on serried shelves, dressed in leather
+aprons, stood twenty-five thousand more servants of the
+centuries of the past ready to answer any question her
+heart or brain might ask of the world's life since the
+dawn of Time.
+
+In the stack-room below, on sixty-three miles of
+shelves, stood a million others ready to come at her
+slightest nod.  She loved to dream here of the future,
+in the moments she must wait for these messengers she
+had summoned.  In this magic room the past ceased to
+be.  These myriads of volumes made the past a myth.  It
+was all the living, throbbing present--with only the
+golden future to be explored.
+
+Her number flashed in red letters on the electric
+blackboard.
+
+She rose and carried her books to the seat number
+assigned her near the center of the southern division
+of the room on the extreme left beside the bookcases
+containing the dictionaries of all languages.
+
+Her seat was on the aisle which skirted the
+shelves.  She found the full description of the flower
+in which she was interested, made her notes and
+closed the volume with a lazy movement of her slender,
+graceful hand.
+
+She lifted her eyes and they rested on a
+remarkable-looking young man about her own age who
+stood gazing in an embarrassed, helpless sort of way at
+the row of ponderous volumes marked "The Century
+Dictionary."
+
+He was evidently a newcomer.  By his embarrassment
+she could easily tell that it was the first time he had
+ever ventured into this room.
+
+He looked at the books, apparently puzzled by their
+number.  He raised his hand and ran his fingers
+nervously through the short, thick, red hair which
+covered his well-shaped head.
+
+The girl's attention was first fixed by the strange
+contrast between his massive jaw and short neck which
+spoke the physical strength of an ox, and the slender
+gracefully tapering fingers of his small hand.  The
+wrist was small, the fingers almost feminine in their
+lines.
+
+He caught her look of curious interest and to her
+horror, smiled and walked straight to her seat.
+
+There was no mistaking his determination to speak. 
+It was useless to drop her eyes or turn aside.  He
+would certainly follow.
+
+She blushed and gazed at him in a timid,
+helpless fashion while he bent over her seat and
+whispered awkwardly:
+
+"You look kind and obliging, miss--could you help
+me a little?"
+
+His tone was so genuine in its appeal, so
+distressed and hesitating, it was impossible to resent
+his question.
+
+"If I can--yes," was the prompt answer.
+
+"You won't mind?" he asked, fumbling his hat.
+
+"No--what is it?"
+
+Mary had recovered her composure as his distress
+had increased and looked steadily into his steel blue
+eyes inquiringly.
+
+"You see," he went on, in low hurried tones, "I'm
+all worked up about the mountains of North Carolina--
+thinkin' o' goin' down there to Asheville in a car, an'
+I want to look the bloomin' place up and kind o' get my
+bearin's before I start.  A lawyer friend o' mine told
+me to come here and I'd find all the maps in the
+Century Dictionary.  The man at the desk out there told
+me to come in this room and look in the shelves on the
+left and take it right out.  Gee, the place is so big,
+I get all rattled.  I found the Century Dictionary on
+that shelf----"
+
+He paused and smiled helplessly.
+
+"I thought a dictionary was one book--there's a
+dozen of 'em marked alike.  I'm afraid to pull 'em all
+down an' I don't know where to begin-- COULD you
+help me--please?"
+
+"Certainly, with pleasure," she answered, quickly
+rising and leading the way back to the shelf at which
+he had been gazing.
+
+"You want the atlas volume," she explained, drawing
+the book from the shelf and returning to the seat.
+
+He followed promptly and bent over her shoulder
+while she pointed out the map of North Carolina, the
+position of Asheville and the probable route he must
+follow to get there.
+
+"Thanks!" he exclaimed gratefully.
+
+"Not at all," she replied simply.  "I'm only too
+glad to be of service to you."
+
+Her answer emboldened him to ask another question.
+
+"You don't happen to know anything about that
+country down there, do you?"
+
+"Why, yes.  I know a great deal about it----"
+
+"Sure enough?"
+
+"I've been through Asheville many times and spent a
+summer there once."
+
+"Did you?"
+
+His tones implied that he plainly regarded her
+as a prodigy of knowledge.  His whole attitude
+suggested at once the mind of an alert, interested boy
+asking his teacher for information on a subject near to
+his heart.  It was impossible to resist his appeal.
+
+"Why, yes," Mary went on in low, rapid tones.  "My
+people live in the Kentucky mountains."
+
+He bent low and gently touched her arm.
+
+"Say, we can't talk in here--I'm afraid.  Would it
+be asking too much of you to come out in the park, sit
+down on a bench and tell me about it?  I'll never know
+how to thank you, if you will?"
+
+It was absurd, of course, such a request, and yet
+his interest was so keen, his deference to her superior
+knowledge so humble and appealing, to refuse seemed
+ungracious.  She hesitated and rose abruptly.
+
+"Just a moment--I'll return my books and then we'll
+go.  You can replace this volume on the shelf where we
+got it."
+
+"Thank yoo, miss," he responded gratefully. 
+"You're awfully kind."
+
+"Don't mention it," she laughed.
+
+In a moment she was walking by his side down the
+smooth marble stairs and out through the grand entrance
+into Fifth Avenue.  The strange part about it was, she
+was not in the least excited over a very unconventional
+situation.  She had allowed a handsomely groomed,
+young, red-haired adventurer to pick her up without the
+formality of an introduction, in the Public Library. 
+She hadn't the remotest idea of his name--nor had he of
+hers--yet there was something about him that seemed
+oddly familiar.  They must have known one another
+somewhere in childhood and forgotten each other's
+faces.
+
+The sun was shining in clear, steady brilliancy in
+a cloudless sky.  The snow had quickly melted and it
+was unusually warm for early December.  They turned
+into the throng of Fifth Avenue and at the corner of
+Forty-second Street he paused and hesitated and looked
+at her timidly:
+
+"Say," he began haltingly, "there's an awful crowd
+of bums on those seats in the Square behind the
+building--you know Central Park, don't you?"
+
+Mary smiled.
+
+"Quite well--I've spent many happy hours in its
+quiet walks."
+
+"You know that place the other side of the Mall--
+that ragged hill covered with rocks and trees and
+mountain laurel?"
+
+"I've been there often."
+
+"Would you mind going there where it's quiet--I've
+such a lot o' things I want to ask you--you won't mind
+the walk, will you?"
+
+"Certainly not--we'll go there," Mary responded in
+even, business-like tones.
+
+"Because, if you don't want to walk I'll call a
+cab, if you'll let me----"
+
+"Not at all," was the quick answer.  "I love to
+walk."
+
+It was impossible for the girl to repress a smile
+at her ridiculous situation!  If any human being had
+told her yesterday that she, Mary Adams, an old-
+fashioned girl with old-fashioned ideas of the
+proprieties of life, would have allowed herself to be
+picked up by an utter stranger in this unceremonious
+way, she would have resented the assertion as a
+personal insult--yet the preposterous and impossible
+thing had happened and she was growing each moment more
+and more deeply interested in the study of the
+remarkable youth by her side.
+
+He was not handsome in the conventional sense.  His
+features were too strong for that.  An enemy might have
+called them coarse.  Their first impression was of
+enormous strength and exhaustless vitality.  He walked
+with a quick, military precision and planted his small
+feet on the pavement with a soft, sure tread that
+suggested the strength of a young tiger.
+
+The one feature that puzzled her was the size of
+his hands and feet.  They were remarkably small and
+remarkable for their slender, graceful lines.
+
+His eyes were another interesting feature.  The
+lids drooped with a careless Oriental languor, as
+though he would shut out the glare of the full
+daylight, and yet the pupils flashed with a cold steel-
+blue fire.  One look into his eyes and there could be
+no doubt that the man behind them was an interesting
+personality.
+
+She wondered what his business could be.  Not a
+lawyer or doctor or teacher certainly.  His timidity in
+handling books was clear proof on that point.  He was
+well groomed.  His clothes were made by a first-class
+tailor.
+
+Her heart thumped with a sudden fear.  Perhaps he
+was some sort of criminal.  His questions may have been
+a trick to lure her away. . . .
+
+They had just crossed the broad plaza at Fifty-
+ninth Street and entered the walkway that leads to the
+Mall.
+
+She stopped suddenly.
+
+"It's too far to the hill beyond the Mall," she
+began hesitatingly.  "We'll find a seat in one of the
+little rustic houses along the Fifty-ninth Street
+side----"
+
+"Sure, if you say so," he agreed.
+
+He accepted the suggestion so simply, she regretted
+her suspicions, instantly changed her mind and said,
+smiling:
+
+"No, we'll go on where we started.  The long walk
+will do me good."
+
+"All right," he laughed; "whatever you say's the
+law.  I'm the little boy that does just what his
+teacher says."
+
+She blushed and shot him a surprised look.
+
+"Who told you that I was a teacher?" she asked,
+with a smile.
+
+"Lord, nobody!  I had no idea of such a thing.  It
+never popped into my head that you do anything at all. 
+You know, I was awful scared when I spoke to you?"
+
+"Were you?" she laughed.
+
+"Surest thing you know!  I'd 'a' never screwed up
+my courage to do it if you hadn't 'a' looked so kind
+and gentle and sweet.  I just knew you couldn't turn me
+down----"
+
+There was no mistaking the genuineness of the
+apology for his presumption.  She smiled a gracious
+answer, and threw the last ugly suspicion to the winds.
+
+He broke into a laugh and lifted his hand in the
+sudden gesture of a traffic policeman commanding a
+halt.
+
+"What is it?" she asked.
+
+"You know I was so excited I clean forgot to
+introduce myself!  What do you think o' that?  You'll
+excuse me, won't you?  My name's Jim Anthony.  I'm
+sorry I can't give you any references to my folks.  I
+haven't any--I'm a lost sheep in New York--no father or
+mother.  That's why I'm so excited about this trip I'm
+plannin' down South.  I hear I've got some people down
+there."
+
+He stopped suddenly as if absorbed in the thought. 
+Her heart went out to him in sympathy for this
+confession of his orphaned life.
+
+"I'm Mary Adams," she smiled in answer.  "I'm a
+teacher in the public schools."
+
+"Gee--that accounts for it!  I thought you looked
+like you knew everything in those books.  And you've
+been to Asheville, too?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Suppose it's not as big a burg as New York?"
+
+"Hardly--it's just a hustling mountain town of
+about twenty-five thousand people."
+
+"Lot o' swells from around New York live down
+there, they tell me."
+
+"Yes, the Vanderbilts have a beautiful castle just
+outside."
+
+"Some mountains near Asheville?"
+
+"Hundreds of square miles."
+
+"Mountains in every direction?"
+
+"As far as the eye can reach, one blue range piled
+above another until they're lost in the dim skies on
+the horizon."
+
+"Gee, it may be pretty hard to find your folks if
+they just live in the mountains near Asheville?"
+
+"Unless your directions are more explicit--I should
+think so."
+
+"You know, I thought the mountains near Asheville
+was a bunch o' hills off one side like the Palisades,
+that you couldn't miss if you tried.  I've never been
+outside of New York--since I can remember.  I'd love to
+see real mountains."
+
+The last sentence was spoken in a wistful pathos
+that touched Mary with its irresistible appeal.  Her
+mother instincts responded to it in quick sympathy.
+
+"You've missed a lot," she answered gravely.
+
+"I'll bet I have.  It's a rotten old town, this New
+York----"
+
+He paused, and a queer light flashed from his steel
+eyes.
+
+"Until you get your hand on its throat," he added,
+bringing his square jaws together.
+
+Mary lifted her face with keen interest.
+
+"And you've got it by the throat?"
+
+"That's just what--little girl!" he cried, with a
+ring of pride.  "You see, I'm an inventor and I won a
+little pile on my first trick.  I've got a machine-shop
+in a room eight-by-ten over on the East Side."
+
+"A machine-shop all your own?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"I'd like to see it some day."
+
+He shook his head emphatically.
+
+"It's too dirty.  I couldn't let a pretty girl like
+you in such a place."  He paused and resumed the tone
+of his narrative where she interrupted him.  "You see,
+I've just put a new crimp in a carburetor for the
+automobile folks.  They're tickled to death over it and
+I've got automobiles to burn.  Will you go to ride with
+me tomorrow?"
+
+The teacher broke into a joyous laugh.
+
+"Why do you laugh?" he asked awkwardly.
+
+"Well, in the language of New York, that would be
+going some, wouldn't it?"
+
+"And why not, I'd like to know?" he cried with
+scorn.  "Who's to tell us we can't?  You've no kids to
+bother you tomorrow.  I'm my own boss.  You've seen
+Asheville, but you've never seen New York until you sit
+down beside me in a big six-cylinder racing car I'm
+handlin' next week.  Let me show it to you.  I'll swing
+her around to your door at eight o'clock.  In twenty-
+five minutes we'll clear the Bronx and shoot into New
+Rochelle.  There'll be no cops out to bother us, and
+not a wheel in sight.  It'll do you good.  Let me take
+you!  I owe you that much for bein' so nice to me
+today.  Will you go with me?"
+
+Mary hesitated.
+
+"I'll think it over and let you know."
+
+"Got a telephone?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you'll have to tell me before I go--won't
+you?"
+
+"I suppose so," she answered demurely.
+
+They passed the big fountain beyond the Mall and
+skirted the lake to the bridge, crossed, walked along
+the water's edge to the laurel-covered crags and found
+a seat alone in the summer house that hides among the
+trees on its highest point.
+
+The roar of the city was dim and far away.  The
+only sounds to break the stillness were the laughter of
+lovers along the walks below and the distant cry of
+steamers in the harbor and rivers.
+
+"You'd almost think you're in the mountains up
+here, now wouldn't you?" he asked, after a moment's
+silence.
+
+"Yes.  I call this park my country estate.  It
+costs me nothing to keep it in perfect order.  The city
+pays for it all.  But I own it.  Every tree and shrub
+and flower and blade of grass, every statue and bird
+and animal in it is mine.  I couldn't get more joy out
+of them if I had them inclosed behind an iron fence,
+and the deed to the land in my pocket--not half as
+much, for I'd be lonely and miserable without someone
+to see and enjoy it all with me."
+
+"Gee, that's so, ain't it? I never looked at it
+like that before."
+
+He gazed at her a long time in silent admiration,
+and then spoke briskly.
+
+"Now tell me about this North Carolina and all
+those miles and square miles of mountains."
+
+"You've a piece of paper and pencil?"
+
+He lifted his hand school-boy fashion:
+
+"Johnny on the spot, teacher!"
+
+A blank-book and pencil he threw in her lap and
+leaned close.
+
+"Tear the leaves out, if you like."
+
+"No, I'll just draw the maps on the pages and leave
+them for you to study."
+
+With deft touch she outlined in rough on the first
+page, the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
+Virginia and North Carolina, tracing his possible route
+by Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Dover, Norfolk
+and Raleigh, or by Washington, Richmond, and Danville
+to Greensboro.
+
+"Either route you see," she said softly, "leads to
+Salisbury, where you strike the foothills of the
+mountains.  It's about two hundred miles from there to
+Asheville and `The Land of the Sky.'"
+
+For two hours she answered his eager, boyish
+questions about the country and its people, his eyes
+wide with admiration at her knowledge.
+
+The sun was sinking in a sea of scarlet and purple
+clouds behind the tall buildings beside the Park before
+she realized that they had been talking for more than
+two hours.
+
+She sprang to her feet, blushing and confused.
+
+"Mercy, I had no idea it was so late."
+
+"Why--is it late?" he asked incredulously.
+
+"We must hurry----"
+
+She brushed the stray ringlets of hair from her
+forehead, laughed and hurried down the pathway.
+
+They crossed the Park and took the Madison Avenue
+line to Twenty-third Street.  They were silent in the
+car.  The roar of the traffic was deafening after the
+quiet of the summer house among the trees.
+
+"I can see you home?" he inquired appealingly.
+
+"We get off at Twenty-third Street."
+
+They stood on the steps at her door beside the
+Square and there was a moment's awkward silence.
+
+He lifted his hat with a little chivalrous bow.
+
+"Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock in my car?"
+
+She smiled and hesitated.
+
+"You'll have a bully time!"
+
+"It's Sunday," she stammered.
+
+"Sure, that's why I asked you."
+
+"I don't like to miss my church."
+
+"You go to church every Sunday?" he asked in
+amazement.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, just this once then.  It'll do you good. 
+And I'll drive as careful as a farmer."
+
+"All right," she said in low tones, and extended
+her hand:
+
+"Good night----"
+
+"Good night, teacher!" he responded with a
+boyish wave of his slender hand and quickly
+disappeared in the crowd.
+
+She rushed up the stairs, her cheeks aflame, her
+heart beating a tattoo of foolish joy.
+
+She snatched the kitten from sleep and whispered in
+his tiny ear:
+
+"Oh, Kitty dear, I've had such an adventure!  I've
+spent the happiest, silliest afternoon of my life!  I'm
+going to have a more wonderful day tomorrow.  I just
+feel it.  In a big racing automobile if you please, Mr.
+Thomascat!  Sorry I can't take you but the dust would
+blind you, Kitty dear.  I'm sorry to tell you that
+you'll have to stay at home all day alone and keep
+house.  It's too bad.  But I'll fix your milk and bread
+before I go and you must promise me on your sacred
+Persian cat's honor not to look at my birds!"
+
+She hugged him violently and he purred his soft
+answer in song.
+
+"Oh, Kitty, I'm so happy--so foolishly happy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+DOUBTS AND FEARS
+
+Mary attempted no analysis of her emotions.  It was all
+too sudden, too stunning.  She was content to feel and
+enjoy the first overwhelming experience of life.  Hour
+after hour she lay among the pillows of her couch in
+the dim light of the street lamps and lazily watched
+the passing Saturday evening crowds.
+The world was beautiful.
+
+She undressed at last and went to bed, only to toss
+wide-eyed for hours.
+
+A hundred times she reenacted the scene in the
+Library and recalled her first impression of Jim's
+personality.  What could such an utterly unforeseen and
+extraordinary meeting mean except that it was her Fate? 
+Certainly he could not have planned it.  Certainly she
+had not foreseen such an event.  It had never occurred
+to her in the wildest flights of fancy that she could
+meet and speak to a man under such conditions, to say
+nothing of the walk in the Park and the hours she
+spent in the little summer house.
+
+And the strangest part of it all was that she could
+see nothing wrong in it from beginning to end.  It had
+happened in the simplest and most natural way
+imaginable.  By the standards of conventional propriety
+her act was the maddest folly; and yet she was still
+happy over it.
+
+There was one disquieting trait about him that made
+her a little uneasy.  He used the catch-words of the
+street gamins of New York without any consciousness of
+incongruity.  She thought at first that he did this as
+the Southern boy of culture and refinement
+unconsciously drops into the tones and dialect of the
+negro, by daily association.  His constant use of the
+expressive and characteristic "Gee" was startling, to
+say the least.  And yet it came from his lips in such a
+boyish way she felt sure that it was due to his
+embarrassment in the unusual position in which he had
+found himself with her.
+
+His helplessness with the dictionary was proof, of
+course, that he was no scholar.  And yet a boy might
+have a fair education in the schools of today and be
+unfamiliar with this ponderous and dignified
+encyclopedia of words.  It was impossible to believe
+that he was illiterate.  His clothes, his carriage,
+even his manners made such an idea preposterous.
+
+Besides, no inventor could be really illiterate. 
+He may have been forced to work and only attended night
+schools.  But if he were a mechanic, capable of making
+a successful improvement on one of the most delicate
+and important parts of an automobile, he must have
+studied the principles involved in his inventions.
+
+His choice of a profession appealed to her
+imagination, too.  It showed independence and
+initiative.  It opened boundless possibilities.  He
+might be an obscure and poorly educated boy today.  In
+five years he could be a millionaire and the head of
+some huge business whose interests circled the world.
+
+The tired brain wore itself out at last in eager
+speculations, and she fell into a fitful stupor.  The
+roar of the street-cars waked her at daylight, and
+further sleep was out of the question.  She rose,
+dressed quickly and got her breakfast in a quiver of
+nervous excitement over the adventure of the coming
+automobile.
+
+As the hour of eight drew nearer, her doubts of the
+propriety of going became more acute.
+
+"What on earth has come over me in the past twenty-
+four hours?" she asked of herself.  "I've known
+this man but a day.  I don't KNOW him at all, and
+yet I'm going to put my life in his hands in that
+racing machine.  Have I gone crazy?"
+
+She was not in the least afraid of him.  His face
+and voice and personality all seemed familiar.  Her
+brain and common-sense told her that such a trip with
+an utter stranger was dangerous and foolish beyond
+words.  In his automobile, unaccompanied by a human
+soul and unacquainted with the roads over which they
+would travel, she would be absolutely in his power.
+
+She set her teeth firmly at last, her mind made up.
+
+"It's too mad a risk.  I was crazy to promise.  I
+won't go!"
+
+She had scarcely spoken her resolution when the
+soft call of the auto-horn echoed below.  She stood
+irresolute for a moment, and the call was repeated in
+plaintive, appealing notes.
+
+She tried to hold fast to her resolutions, but the
+impulse to open the window and look out was resistless. 
+She turned the old-fashioned brass knob, swung her
+windows wide on their hinges and leaned out.
+
+His keen eyes were watching.  He lifted his cap and
+waved.  She answered with the flutter of her
+handkerchief--and all resolutions were off.
+
+"Of course, I'll go," she cried, with a laugh. 
+"It's a glorious day--I may never have such a chance
+again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+WINGS OF STEEL
+
+She threw on her furs and hurried downstairs.  Her
+surrender was too sudden to realize that she was being
+driven by a power that obscured reason and crushed her
+will.
+
+Reason made one more vain cry as she paused at the
+door below to draw on her gloves.
+
+"You have refused every invitation to see or know
+the unconventional world into which thousands of women
+in New York, clear-eyed and unafraid, enter daily. 
+You'd sooner die than pose an hour in Gordon's studio,
+and on a Sabbath morning you cut your church and go on
+a day's wild ride with a man you have known but fifteen
+hours!"
+
+And the voice inside quickly answered:
+
+"But that's different!  Gordon's a married man.  My
+chevalier is not!  I have the right to go, and he has
+the right."
+
+It was settled anyhow before this little
+controversy arose at the street door, but the ready
+answer she gave eased her conscience and cleared
+the way for a happy, exciting trip.
+
+He leaped from the big, ugly racer to help her in,
+stopped and looked at her light clothing.
+
+"That's your heaviest coat?"
+
+"Yes.  It isn't cold."
+
+"I've one for you."
+
+He drew an enormous fur coat from the car and held
+it up for her arms.
+
+"You think I'll need that?" she asked.
+
+His white teeth gleamed in a friendly smile.
+
+"Take it from me, Kiddo, you certainly will!"
+
+She winced just a little at the common expression,
+but he said it with such a quick, boyish enthusiasm,
+she wondered whether he were quoting the expression
+from the Bowery boy's vocabulary or using it in a
+facetious personal way.
+
+"I knew you'd need it.  So I brought it for you,"
+he added genially.
+
+"Thanks," she murmured, lifting her arms and
+drawing the coat about her trim figure.
+
+He helped her into the car and drew from his pocket
+a light pair of goggles.
+
+"Now these, and you're all hunky-dory!"
+
+"Will I need these, too?" she asked incredulously.
+
+"Will you!" he cried.  "You wouldn't ask
+that question if you knew the horse we've got
+hitched to this benzine buggy today.  He's got wings--
+believe me!  It's all I can do to hold him on the
+ground sometimes."
+
+"You'll drive carefully?" she faltered.
+
+He lifted his hand.
+
+"With you settin' beside me, my first name's
+`Caution.'"
+
+She fumbled the goggles in a vain effort to lift
+her arms over her head to fasten them on.  He sprang
+into the seat by her side and promptly seized them.
+
+"Let me fix 'em."
+
+His slender, skillful fingers adjusted the band and
+brushed a stray ringlet of hair back under the furs. 
+The thrill of his touch swept her with a sudden dizzy
+sense of excitement.  She blushed and drew her head
+down into the collar of the shaggy coat.
+
+He touched the wheel, and the gray monster leaped
+from the curb and shot down the street.  The single
+impulse carried them to the crossing.  He had shut off
+the power as the machine gracefully swung into Fourth
+Avenue.  The turn made, another leap and the car swept
+up the Avenue and swung through Twenty-sixth Street
+into Fifth Avenue.  Again the power was off as he made
+the turn into Fifth Avenue at a snail's pace.
+
+"Can't let her out yet," he whispered
+apologetically.  "Had to make these turns.  There's no
+room for her inside of town."
+
+Mary had no time to answer.  He touched the wheel,
+and the car shot up the deserted Avenue.  She gasped
+for breath and braced her feet, her whole being
+tingling with the first exhilarating consciousness that
+she too was possessed of the devil of speed madness. 
+It was glorious!  For the first time in her life, space
+and distance lost their meaning.  She was free as the
+birds in the heavens.  She was flying on the wings of
+this gray, steel monster through space.  The palaces on
+the Avenue whirled by in dim ghost-like flashes.  They
+flew through Central Park into Seventy-second Street
+and out into the Drive.  The waters of the river, broad
+and cool, flashing in the morning sun, rested her eyes
+a moment and then faded in a twinkling.  They had
+leaped the chasm beyond Grant's Tomb, plunged into
+Broadway and before she could get her bearings, swept
+up the hill at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street,
+slipped gracefully across the iron bridge and in a
+jiffy were lost in a gray cloud of dust on the Boston
+Turnpike.
+
+When the first intoxicating joy of speed had spent
+itself, she found herself shuddering at the daring
+turns he made, missing a curb by a hair's breadth--
+grazing a trolley by half an inch.  Her fears were soon
+forgotten.
+
+The hand on the wheel was made of steel, too.
+
+The throbbing demon encased within the hood obeyed
+his slightest whim.  She glanced at the square, massive
+jaw with furtive admiration.
+
+Without turning his head he laughed.
+
+"You like it, teacher?"
+
+"I'm in Heaven!"
+
+"You won't worry about church then, will you?"
+
+"Not today."
+
+They stopped at a road-house, and he put in more
+gasoline, lifted the casing from the engine, touched
+each vital part, examined his tires, and made sure that
+his machine was at its best.
+
+She watched him with a growing sense of his
+strength of character, his poise and executive ability. 
+He was an awkward, stammering boy in the Library
+yesterday.  Today with this machine in his hand he was
+the master of Time and Space.
+
+She yielded herself completely to the delicious
+sense of his protection.  The extraordinary care he was
+giving the machine was a plain avowal of his deep
+regard for her comfort and happiness.  She had been in
+one or two moderately moving cars driven by careful
+chauffeurs through Central Park.  She had always felt
+on those trips with Jane Anderson like a poor relation
+from the country imposing on a rich friend.
+
+This trip was all her own.  The car and its master
+were there solely for her happiness.  Her slightest
+whim was law for both.  It was sweet, this sense of
+power.  She began to lift her body with a touch of
+pride.
+
+She laughed now at fears.  What nonsense!  No
+Knight of the Age of Chivalry could treat her with more
+deference.  He had tried already to get her to stop for
+a bite of lunch.
+
+"Don't you want a thing to eat?" he persisted.
+
+"Not a thing.  I've just had my breakfast.  It's
+only nine o'clock----"
+
+"I know, but we've come thirty miles and the air
+makes you hungry.  We ought to eat about six good meals
+a day."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No--not yet.  I'm too happy with these new wings. 
+I want to fly some more--come on----"
+
+He lifted his hand in his favorite gesture of
+obedience.
+
+"'Nuff said--we'll streak it back now by another
+road, hump it through town and jump over the
+Brooklyn Bridge.  I'll show you Coney Island and then I
+know you'll want a hot dog anyhow."
+
+He crossed the country and darted into Broadway. 
+Before she could realize it, the last tree and field
+were lost behind in a cloud of dust, and they were
+again in the crowded streets of the city.  The deep
+growl of his horn rang its warnings for each crossing
+and Mary watched the timid women scramble to the
+sidewalks five and six blocks ahead.
+
+It was delicious.  She had always been the one to
+scramble before.  Her heart went out in a wave of
+tenderness to the man by her side, strong, daring,
+masterful, her chevalier, her protector and admirer.
+
+Yes, her admirer!  There was no doubt on that
+point.  The moment he relaxed the tension of his hand
+on the wheel, his deep, mysterious eyes beneath the
+drooping lids were fixed on hers in open, shameless
+admiration.  Their cold fire burned into her heart and
+thrilled to her finger-tips.
+
+In spite of his deference and his obedience to her
+whim, she felt the iron grip of his personality on her
+imagination.  Whatever his education, his origin or his
+environment, he was a power to be reckoned with.
+
+No other type of man had ever appealed to her. 
+Her conception of a real man had always been one who
+did his own thinking and commanded rather than asked
+the respect of others.
+
+She had thrown the spell of her beauty over this
+headstrong, masterful man.  He was wax in her hands.  A
+delicious sense of power filled her.  She had never
+known what happiness meant before.  She floated through
+space.  The spinning lines of towering buildings on
+Broadway passed as mists in a dream.
+
+As the velvet feet of the car touched the great
+bridge she lazily opened her eyes for a moment and
+gazed through the lace-work of steel at the broad sweep
+of the magnificent harbor.  The dark blue hills of
+Staten Island framed the picture.
+
+He was right.  She had never seen New York before. 
+Never before had its immense panorama been swept within
+two hours.  Never before had she realized its
+dimensions.  She had always felt stunned and crushed in
+the effort to conceive it.  Today she had wings.  The
+city lay at her feet, conquered.  She was mistress of
+Time and Space.
+
+Again her sidelong glance swept the lines of Jim
+Anthony's massive jaw.  She laughed softly.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing.  I'm just happy."
+
+She blushed and wondered if he had read her
+thoughts by some subtle power of clairvoyance.  She was
+speculating on the effects of love at first sight on
+such a man.  Would he hesitate, back and fill and hang
+on for months trying in vain to gain the courage to
+speak?  Or would he spring with the leap of a young
+tiger the moment he realized what he wanted?
+
+Her own attitude was purely one of joyous
+expectancy.  It would, of course, be a long time before
+her feelings could take any definite attitude toward a
+man.  For the moment she was supremely happy.  It was
+enough.  She made no effort to probe her feelings.  She
+might return to earth tomorrow.  Today she was in
+Heaven.  She would make the most of it.
+
+They skimmed the wooded cliffs of Bay Ridge, her
+heart beating in ecstasy at the revelation of beauty of
+whose existence she had not dreamed.
+
+"I bet you never saw this drive before, now did
+you?" he asked with boyish enthusiasm.
+
+"No--it's wonderful."
+
+"Some view--eh?"
+
+"Entrancing!"
+
+"You know when I make my pile, I'd like a palace of
+white marble perched on this cliff with the windows
+on the south looking out over Sandy Hook, and the
+windows on the west looking over that fort on the top
+of Staten Island with its black eyes gazing over the
+sea.  How would you like that?"
+
+She turned away to mask the smile she couldn't
+repress.
+
+"That would be splendid, wouldn't it?"
+
+"I like the water, don't you?"
+
+"I love it."
+
+"Water and hills both right together!  I reckon my
+father must 'a' been a sea-captain and my mother from
+the mountains----"
+
+He said this with a pathos that found the girl's
+heart.  What a pitiful, lonely life, a boy's without
+even the memory of a mother or father!  The mother
+instinct rose in a resistless flood of pity.  Her eyes
+grew suddenly dim.
+
+"Well," he said briskly, "now for the dainty job! 
+I've got to jump my way through that Coney Island
+bunch.  You see my low speed's a racing pace for an
+everyday car.  All I can do in a crowd is to jump from
+one crossing to the next and cut her power off every
+time.  You can bet I'll make a guy or two jump with
+me----"
+
+"You won't hurt anyone?" she pleaded.
+
+"Lord, no!  I wouldn't dare to put her
+through that mob in the afternoon.  I'd kill a
+regiment of 'em.  But it's early--just the shank of the
+morning.  There's nobody down here yet."
+
+The car suddenly leaped into the Avenue that runs
+through the heart of Coney Island, the deep-throated
+horn screaming its warning.  The crowd scattered like
+sheep before a lion.
+
+The girl laughed in spite of her effort at self-
+control.
+
+"Watch 'em hump!" Jim grunted.
+
+"It's funny, isn't it?"
+
+"When you're in the car--yes.  It don't seem so
+funny when you're on foot.  Well, some people were made
+to walk and some to ride.  I had to hoof it at first. 
+I like riding better--don't you?"
+
+"To be perfectly honest--yes!"
+
+The car leaped forward again, the horn screaming. 
+The wheel passed within a foot of a fat woman's skirt. 
+With a cry of terror she fled to the sidewalk and shook
+her fist at Jim, her face purple with anger.
+
+He waved his hand back at her:
+
+"Never touched you, dearie!  Never touched you!"
+
+Mary lost all fear of accident and watched him
+handle the machine with the skill of a master.  She
+could understand now the spirit of deviltry in a
+chauffeur who knows his business.  It seemed a wicked,
+cruel thing from the ground--this swift plunge of a car
+as if bent on murder.  But now that she felt the sure,
+velvet grip of the brake in a master's hand, she saw
+that the danger was largely a myth.
+
+It was fun to see people jump at the approach of an
+avalanche of steel that always stopped just short of
+harm.  Of course, it took a steady nerve and muscle to
+do the trick.  The man by her side had both.  He was
+always smiling.  Nothing rattled him.
+
+Her trust was now implicit.  She relaxed the
+tension of the first two hours of doubt and fear, and
+yielded to the spell of his strength.  It seemed
+inseparable from the throbbing will of the giant
+machine.  He was its incarnate spirit.  She was being
+swept through space now on the wings of omnipotent
+power--but power always obedient to her whim.
+
+With steady, even pulse they glided down the long,
+broad Avenue to Prospect Park, swung through its
+winding lanes, on through the streets of Brooklyn and
+once more into the open road.
+
+"Now for Long Beach and a good lunch!" he cried. 
+"I'll show you something--but you'll have to shut your
+eyes to see it."
+
+With a sudden bound, the car leaped into the air,
+and shot through the sky with the hiss and shriek of a
+demon.
+
+The girl caught her breath and instinctively
+gripped his arm.
+
+"Look out, Kiddo!" he shouted.  "Don't touch me--or
+we'll both land in Kingdom Come.  I ain't ready for a
+harp just yet.  I'd rather fool with this toy for a
+while down here."
+
+She braced her feet and gripped the sides of the
+car, gasping for breath, steadied herself at last and
+crouched low among the furs to guard her throat from
+the icy daggers of the wind.
+
+The landscape whirled in a circle of trees and sky,
+while above the dark line of hills hung the boiling
+cauldron of cloud-banked heavens.
+
+"Are you game?" he called above the roar.
+
+"Yes," she gasped.  "Don't stop----"
+
+Her soul had risen at last to the ecstasy of the
+mania for speed that fired the man's spirit and nerved
+his hand.  It was inconceivable until experienced--this
+awful joy!  Her spirit sank with childish
+disappointment as he slowly lowered the power.
+
+"Got to take a sharp curve down there," he
+explained.  "We turn to the right for the meadows and
+the Beach--how was that?"
+
+"Wonderful," she cried, with dancing eyes.  "Let
+her go again if you want to--I'm game--now."
+
+Jim laughed.
+
+"A little rattled at first?"
+
+"Yes----"
+
+"Well, we can't let her out on this road.  It's too
+narrow--have to take a ditch sometimes to pass.  That
+wouldn't do for an eighty-mile clip, you know--now
+would it?"
+
+"Hardly."
+
+"I might risk it alone--but my first name's `Old
+Man Caution' today--you get me?"
+
+Mary nodded and turned her head away again.
+
+"I got you the first time, sir," she answered
+playfully taking his tone.
+
+He ran the car into the garage at the Beach, sprang
+out and lifted Mary to the ground with quick, firm
+hand.  They threw off their heavy coats and left them.
+
+"Look out for this junk now, sonny," he cried to
+the attendant, tossing him a half dollar.
+
+"Sure, Mike!"
+
+"Fill her up to the chin by the time we get
+back."
+
+"Righto!"
+
+Quickly they walked to the hotel and in five
+minutes were seated beside a window in the dining-room,
+watching the lazy roll of the sea sweep in on the sands
+at low tide.
+
+"I'm hungry as a wolf!" he whispered.
+
+"So am I----"
+
+"We'll eat everything in sight--start at the top
+and come down."
+
+He handed her the menu card and watched her from
+the depths beneath the drooping eyelids.
+
+Conscious of his gaze and rejoicing in its frank
+admiration, she ordered the dinner with instinctive
+good taste.  No effort at conversation was made by
+either.  They were both too hungry.  As Jim lighted his
+cigarette when the coffee was served, he leaned back in
+his chair and watched the breakers in silence.
+
+"That's the best dinner I ever had in my life," he
+said slowly.
+
+"It was good.  We were hungry."
+
+"I've been hungry before, many a time.  It was
+something else, too."  He paused and rose abruptly. 
+"Let's walk up the Beach."
+
+"I'd love to," she answered, slowly rising.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+BESIDE THE SEA
+
+They strolled leisurely along the board-walk, found the
+sand, walked in the firm, dry line of the high-water
+mark for a mile to the east, and sat down on a clump of
+sea-grass on the top of a sand dune.
+
+"I like this!" she cried joyously.
+
+"So do I," he answered soberly, and lapsed into
+silence.
+
+The sun was warm and genial.  The wind had died,
+and the waves of the rising tide were creeping up the
+long, sloping stretches of the sand with a lazy,
+soothing rush.  A winter gull poised above their heads
+and soared seaward.  The smoke of an ocean liner
+streaked the horizon as she swept toward the channel
+off Sandy Hook.
+
+Jim looked at the girl by his side and tried to
+speak.  She caught the strained expression in his
+strong face and lowered her eyes.
+
+He began to trace letters in the sand.
+
+She knew with unerring instinct that he had made
+his first desperate effort to speak his love and
+failed.  Would he give it up and wait for weeks and
+possibly months--or would he storm the citadel in one
+mad rush at the beginning?
+
+He found his voice at last.  He had recovered from
+the panic of his first impulse.
+
+"Well, how do you like my idea of a good day as far
+as you've gone?" he asked lightly.
+
+She met his gaze with perfect frankness.  "The
+happiest day I ever spent in my life," she confessed.
+
+"Honest?"
+
+"Honest."
+
+"Oh, shucks--what's the use!" he cried, with sudden
+fierce resolution.  "You've got me, Kiddo, you've got
+me!  I've been eatin' out of your hand since the minute
+I laid my eyes on you in that big room.  I'm all yours. 
+You can do anything you want with me.  For God's sake,
+tell me that you like me a little."
+
+The blood slowly mounted to her cheeks in red waves
+of tremulous emotion.
+
+"I like you very much," she said in low tones.
+
+He seized her hand and held it in a desperate grip.
+
+"I love you, Kiddo," he went on passionately.  "You
+don't mind me calling you Kiddo? You're so dainty
+and pretty and sweet, and that dimple keeps coming in
+your cheek, it just seems like that's the word--you
+don't mind?"
+
+"No----"
+
+"You don't know how I've been starvin' all my life
+for the love of a pure girl like you.  You're the first
+one I ever spoke to.  I was scared to death yesterday
+when I saw you.  But I'd 'a' spoke to you if it killed
+me in my tracks.  I couldn't help it.  It just looked
+like an angel had dropped right down out of the gold
+clouds from that ceilin'.  I was afraid I'd lose you in
+the crowd and never see you again.  It didn't seem you
+were a stranger anyhow--I didn't seem strange to you,
+did I?"
+
+Her lips quivered, and she was silent.
+
+"Didn't you feel like you'd known me somewhere
+before?" he pleaded.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I just felt you did, and that's what give me
+courage.  Oh, Kiddo, you've got to love me a little--
+I've never been loved by a human soul in all my life. 
+The first thing I remember was hidin' under a stoop
+from a brute who beat me every night.  I ran away and
+slept in barrels and crawled into coal shutes till I
+was big enough to earn a livin' sellin' papers.  For
+years I never knew what it meant to have enough to
+eat.  I just scratched and fought my way through the
+streets like a little hungry wolf till I got in a
+blacksmith's shop down on South Street and learned to
+handle tools.  I was quick and smart, and the old man
+liked me and let me sleep in the shop.  I had enough to
+eat then and got strong as an ox.  I went to the night
+schools and learned to read and write.  I don't know
+anything, but I'm quick and you can teach me--you will,
+won't you?"
+
+"I'll try," was the low answer.
+
+"You do like me, Kiddo?  Say it again!"
+
+She rose to her feet and looked out over the sea,
+her face scarlet.
+
+"Yes, I do," she said at last.
+
+With a sudden resistless sweep he clasped her in
+his arms and kissed her lips.
+
+Her heart leaped in mad response to the first kiss
+a lover had ever given.  Her body quivered and relaxed
+in his embrace.  It was sweet--it was wonderful beyond
+words.
+
+He kissed her again, and she clung to him, lifting
+her eyes to his at last in a long, wondering gaze and
+then pressed her own lips to his.
+
+"Oh, my God, Kiddo, you love me!  It beats the
+world, don't it?  Love at first sight for both of
+us!
+
+I've heard about it, but I didn't think it would
+ever happen to me like this--did you?"
+
+She shook her head and bit her lips as the tears
+slowly dimmed her eyes.
+
+"It takes my breath," she murmured.  "I can't
+realize what it all means.  It seems too wonderful to
+be true."
+
+"And you won't turn me down because I don't know
+who my father and mother was?"
+
+"No--my heart goes out to you in a great pity for
+your lonely, wretched boyhood."
+
+"I couldn't help that--now could I?"
+
+"Of course not.  It's wonderful that you've made
+your way alone and won the fight of life."
+
+He gripped her hands and held her at arms' length,
+devouring her with his deep, slumbering eyes.
+
+"Gee, but you're a brick, little girl!  I thought
+you were an angel when I first saw you.  Now I know it. 
+Just watch me work for you!  I'll show you a thing or
+two.  You'll marry me right away, won't you?"
+
+He bent close, his breath on her lips.
+
+Her eyes drooped under his passionate gaze, and the
+tears slowly stole down her cheeks.  Her hour of life
+had struck!  So suddenly, so utterly unexpectedly, it
+rang a thunderbolt from the clear sky.
+
+"You will, won't you?" he pleaded.
+
+She smiled at him through her tears and slowly
+said:
+
+"I can't say yes today."
+
+"Why--why?"
+
+"You've swept me off my feet--I--I can't think."
+
+"I don't want you to think--I want you to marry me
+right now."
+
+"I must have a little time."
+
+His face fell in despair.
+
+"Say, little girl, don't turn me down--you'll kill
+me."
+
+"I'm not turning you down," she protested tenderly. 
+"I only want time to see that I'm not crazy.  I have to
+pinch myself to see if I'm awake.  It all seems a
+dream"--she paused and lifted her radiant face to his--
+"a beautiful dream--the most wonderful my soul has ever
+seen.  I must be sure it's real!"
+
+He drew her into his arms, and her body again
+relaxed in surrender as his lips touched hers.
+
+"Isn't that the real thing?" he laughed.
+
+She lay very still, her eyes closed, her face a
+scarlet flame.  She was frightened at the swift
+realization of its overwhelming reality.  The touch of
+his hand thrilled to the last fiber and nerve of her
+body.  Her own trembling fingers clung to him with
+desperate longing tenderness.  She roused herself with
+an effort and drew away.
+
+"That's enough now.  I must have a little common-
+sense.  Let's go----"
+
+He clung to her hand.
+
+"You'll let me come to see you, tomorrow night?"
+
+"Yes----"
+
+"And the next night--and every night this week--
+what's the difference?  There's nobody to say no, is
+there?"
+
+"No one."
+
+"You'll let me?"
+
+"Tomorrow sure.  Maybe you won't want to come the
+next night."
+
+"Maybe I won't!  Just wait and see!"
+
+He seized both hands again and held her at arms'
+length.
+
+"Don't go yet--just let me look at you a minute
+more!  The only girl I ever had in my life--and she's
+the prettiest thing God ever made on this earth.  Ain't
+I the lucky boy?"
+
+"We must go now," she cried, blushing again under
+his burning eyes.
+
+He dropped her hands suddenly and saluted military
+fashion.
+
+"All right, teacher!  I'm the little boy that does
+exactly what he's told."
+
+They strolled leisurely along the shining sands in
+silence.  Now and then his slender hand caught hers and
+crushed it.  The moment he touched her a living flame
+flashed through her body--and through every moment of
+contact her nerves throbbed and quivered as if a
+musician were sweeping the strings of a harp.  If this
+were not love, what could it be?
+
+Her whole being, body and soul, responded to his. 
+Her body moved instinctively toward his, drawn by some
+hidden, resistless power.  Her hands went out to meet
+his; her lips leaped to his.
+
+She must test it with time, of course.  And yet she
+knew by a deep inner sense that time could only fan the
+flame that had been kindled into consuming fire that
+must melt every barrier between them.
+
+She had asked him nothing of himself, his business
+or his future, and knew nothing except what he had told
+her in the first impetuous rush of his confession of
+love.  No matter.  The big thing today was the fact of
+love and the new radiance with which it was beginning
+to light the world.  The effect was stunning.  Their
+conversation had been the simplest of commonplace
+questions and answers--and yet the day was the one
+miracle of her life--her happiness something
+unthinkable until realized.
+
+She had not asked time in order to know him better. 
+She had only asked time to see herself more clearly in
+the new experience.  Not for a moment did she raise the
+question of the worthiness of the man she loved.  It
+was inconceivable that she should love a man not worthy
+of her.  The only questions asked were soul-searching
+ones put to herself.
+
+Through the sweet, cool drive homeward, a hundred
+times she asked within:
+
+"Is this love?"
+
+And each time the answer came from the depths:
+
+"Yes--yes--a thousand times yes.  It's the voice of
+God.  I feel it and I know it."
+
+He throttled the racer down to the lowest speed and
+took the longest road home.
+
+Again and again he slipped his left hand from the
+wheel and pressed hers.
+
+"You won't let anybody knock me behind my back, now
+will you, little girl?"
+
+She pressed his hand in answer.
+
+"I ain't got a single friend in all God's world to
+stand up for me but just you."
+
+"You don't need anyone," she whispered.
+
+"You'll give me a chance to get back at 'em if any
+of your friends knock me, won't you?"
+
+"Why should they dislike you?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Well, I ain't exactly one o' the high-flyers now
+am I?"
+
+"I'm glad you're not."
+
+"Sure enough?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then it's me for you, Kiddo, for this world and
+the next."
+
+The car swung suddenly to the curb and Mary lifted
+her eyes with a start to find herself in front of her
+home.
+
+Jim sprang to the ground and lifted her out.
+
+"Keep this coat," he whispered.  "We'll need it
+tomorrow.  What time is your school out?"
+
+"At three o'clock."
+
+"I can come at four?"
+
+"You don't have to work tomorrow?"
+
+He hesitated a moment.
+
+"No, I'm on a vacation till after Christmas. 
+They're putting through my new patent."
+
+He followed her inside the door and held her hand
+in the shadows of the hall.
+
+"All right, at four," she said.
+
+"I'll be here."
+
+He stooped and kissed her, turned and passed
+quickly out.
+
+She stood for a moment in the shadows and listened
+to the throb of the car until it melted into the roar
+of the city's life, her heart beating with a joy so new
+it was pain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+A VAIN APPEAL
+
+A week passed on the wings of magic.
+
+Every day at four o'clock the car was waiting at
+her door.  The drab interior of the school-room had
+lost its terror.  No annoyance could break the spell
+that reigned within.  Her patience was inexhaustible,
+her temper serene.
+
+Walking with swift step down the Avenue to her home
+she wondered vaguely how she could have been lonely in
+all the music and the wonder of New York's marvelous
+life.  The windows of the stores were already crowded
+with Christmas cheer, and busy thousands passed through
+their doors.  Each man or woman was a swift messenger
+of love.  Somewhere in the shadows of the city's
+labyrinth a human heart would beat with quickened joy
+for every step that pressed about these crowded
+counters.  Love had given new eyes to see, new ears to
+hear and a new heart to feel the joys and sorrows of
+life.
+
+She hadn't given her consent yet.  She was
+still asking her silly heart to be sure of herself. 
+Of her lover, the depth and tenderness, the strength
+and madness of his love, there could be no doubt.  Each
+day he had given new tokens.
+
+For Saturday afternoon she had told him not to
+bring the car.
+
+When they reached Fifth Avenue, across the Square,
+he stopped abruptly and faced her with a curious,
+uneasy look:
+
+"Say, tell me why you wanted to walk?"
+
+"I had a good reason," she said evasively.
+
+"Yes, but why?  It's a sin to lay that car up a day
+like this.  Look here----"
+
+He stopped and tried to gulp down his fears.
+
+"Look here--you're not going to throw me down after
+leading me to the very top of the roof, are you?"
+
+She looked up with tender assurance.
+
+"Not today----"
+
+"Then why hoof it?  Let me run round to the garage
+and shoot her out.  You can wait for me at the Waldorf. 
+I've always wanted to push my buzz-wagon up to that big
+joint and wait for my girl to trip down the steps."
+
+"No.  I've a plan of my own today.  Let me have my
+way."
+
+"All righto--just so you're happy."
+
+"I am happy," she answered soberly.
+
+At the foot of the broad stairs of the Library she
+paused and looked up smilingly at its majestic front.
+
+"Come in a moment," she said softly.
+
+He followed her wonderingly into the vaulted hall
+and climbed the grand staircase to the reading-room. 
+She walked slowly to the shelf on which the Century
+Dictionary rested and looked laughingly at the seat in
+which she sat Saturday afternoon a week ago at exactly
+this hour.
+
+Jim smiled, leaned close and whispered:
+
+"I got you, Kiddo--I got you!  Get out of here
+quick or I'll grab you and kiss you!"
+
+She started and blushed.
+
+"Don't you dare!"
+
+"Beat it then--beat it--or I can't help it!"
+
+She turned quickly and they passed through the
+catalogue room and lightly down the stairs.
+
+He held her soft, round arm with a grip that sent
+the blood tingling to the roots of her brown hair.
+
+"You understand now?" she whispered.
+
+"You bet!  We walk the same way up the Avenue,
+through the Park to the little house on the laurel
+hill.  And you're goin' to be sweet to me today, my
+Kiddo--I just feel it.  I----"
+
+"Don't be too sure, sir!" she interrupted,
+solemnly.
+
+He laughed aloud.
+
+"You can't fool me now--and I'm crazy as a June
+bug!  You know I like to walk--if I can be with you!"
+
+At the Park entrance she stopped again and smiled
+roguishly.
+
+"We'll find a seat in one of the summer houses
+along the Fifty-ninth Street side."
+
+"All right," he responded.
+
+"No--we'll go on where we started!"
+
+With a laugh, she slipped her hand through his arm.
+
+"You were a little scared of me last Saturday about
+this time, weren't you?"
+
+"Just a little----"
+
+"It hurt me, too, but I didn't let you know."
+
+"I'm sorry."
+
+"It's all right now--it's all right.  Gee I but
+we've traveled some in a week, haven't we?"
+
+"I've known you more than a week," she protested
+gayly.
+
+"Sure--I've known you since I was born."
+
+They walked through the stately rows of elms on the
+Mall in joyous silence.  Crowds of children and
+nurses, lovers and loungers, filled the seats and
+thronged the broad promenade.
+
+Scarcely a word was spoken until they reached the
+rustic house nestling among the trees on the hill.
+
+"Just a week by the calendar," she murmured.  "And
+I've lived a lifetime."
+
+"It's all right then--little girl?  You'll marry me
+right away?  When--tonight?"
+
+"Hardly!"
+
+"Tomorrow, then?"
+
+She drew the glove from her hand and held the
+slender fingers up before him.
+
+"You can get the ring----"
+
+"Gee!  I do have to get a ring, don't I?"
+
+"Yes----"
+
+"Why didn't you tell me?  You know I never got
+married before."
+
+"I should hope not!"
+
+He seized her hand and kissed it, drew her into his
+arms, held her crushed and breathless and released her
+with a quick, impulsive movement.
+
+"You'll help me get it?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"If you like."
+
+"A big white sparkler?"
+
+"No--no----"
+
+"No?"
+
+"A plain little gold band."
+
+"Let me get you a big diamond!"
+
+"No--a plain gold band."
+
+"It's all settled then?"
+
+"We're engaged.  You're my fiance."
+
+"But for God's sake, Kiddo--how long do I have to
+be a fiance?"
+
+A ripple of laughter rang through the trees.
+
+"Don't you think we've done pretty well for seven
+days?"
+
+"I could have settled it in seven minutes after we
+met," he answered complainingly.  "You won't tell me
+the day yet?"
+
+"Not yet----"
+
+"All right, we'll just have to take blessings as
+they come, then."
+
+Through the beautiful afternoon they sat side by
+side with close-pressed hands and planned the future
+which love had given.  A modest flat far up among the
+trees on the cliffs overlooking the Hudson, they
+decided on.
+
+"We'll begin with that," he cried enthusiastically,
+"but we won't stay there long.  I've got big plans. 
+I'm going to make a million.  The white house down by
+the sea for me, a yacht out in the front yard and a
+half-dozen thundering autos in the garage.  If this
+deal I'm on now goes through, I'll make my pile in a
+year----"
+
+They rose as the shadows lengthened.
+
+"I must go home and feed my pets," she sighed.
+
+"All right," he responded heartily.  "I'll get the
+car and be there in a jiffy.  We'll take a spin out to
+a road-house for dinner."
+
+She lifted her eyes tenderly.
+
+"You can come right up to my room--now that we're
+engaged."
+
+He swept her into his arms again, and held her in
+unresisting happiness.
+
+It was dark when he swung the gray car against the
+curb and sprang out.  He didn't blow his horn for her
+to come down.  The privilege she had granted was too
+sweet and wonderful.  He wouldn't miss it for the
+world.
+
+The stairs were dark.  Ella was late this afternoon
+getting back to her work.  His light footstep scarcely
+made a sound.  He found each step with quick,
+instinctive touch.  The building seemed deserted.  The
+tenants were all on trips to the country and the
+seashore.  The day was one of rare beauty and warmth. 
+Someone was fumbling in the dark on the third floor
+back.
+
+He made his way quickly to her room, and softly
+knocked, waited a moment and knocked again.  There was
+no response.  He couldn't be mistaken.  He had seen her
+lean out of that window every day the past week.
+
+Perhaps she was busy in the kitchenette and the
+noise from the street made it impossible to hear.
+
+He placed his hand on the doorknob.
+
+From the darkness of the hall, in a quick, tiger
+leap, Ella threw herself on him and grappled for his
+throat.
+
+"What are you doing at that door, you dirty thief?"
+she growled.
+
+"Here!  Here!  What'ell--what's the matter with
+you?" he gasped, gripping her hands and tearing them
+from his neck.  "I'm no thief!"
+
+"You are!  You are, too!" she shrieked.  "I heard
+you sneak in the door downstairs--heard you slippin'
+like a cat upstairs!  Get out of here before I call a
+cop!"
+
+She was savagely pushing him back to the landing of
+the stairs.  With a sudden lurch, Jim freed himself and
+gripped her hands.
+
+"Cut it!  Cut it!  Or I'll knock your block off! 
+I've come to take my girl to ride----"
+
+He drew a match and quickly lighted the gas as
+Mary's footstep echoed on the stairs below.
+
+"Well, she's coming now--we'll see," was the sullen
+answer.
+
+Ella surveyed him from head to foot, her one eye
+gleaming in angry suspicion.
+
+Mary sprang up the last step and saw the two
+confronting each other.  She had heard the angry voices
+from below.
+
+"Why, Ella, what's the matter?" she gasped.
+
+"He was trying to break into your room----"
+
+Jim threw up his hands in a gesture of rage, and
+Mary broke into a laugh.
+
+"Why, nonsense, Ella, I asked him to come!  This is
+Mr. Anthony,"--her voice dropped,--"my fiance."
+
+Ella's figure relaxed with a look of surprise.
+
+"Oh, ja?" she murmured, as if dazed.
+
+"Yes--come in," she said to Jim.  "Sorry I was out. 
+I had to run to the grocer's for the Kitty."
+
+Ella glared at Jim, turned and began to light the
+other hall lamps without any attempt at apology.
+
+Jim entered the room with a look of awe, took in
+its impression of sweet, homelike order and recovered
+quickly his composure.
+
+"Gee, you're the dandy little housekeeper!  I could
+stay here forever."
+
+"You like it?"
+
+"It's a bird's nest " He glanced in the mirror and
+saw the print of Ella's fingers on his collar.  "Will
+you look at that?" he growled.
+
+"It's too bad," she said, sympathetically.
+
+"You know I thought a she-tiger had got loose from
+the Bronx and jumped on me."
+
+"I'm awfully sorry," she apologized.  "Ella's very
+fond of me.  She was trying to protect me.  She
+couldn't see who it was in the dark."
+
+"No; I reckon not," Jim laughed.
+
+"I've changed our plans for the evening," she
+announced.  "We won't go to ride tonight.  I want you
+to bring my best friend to dinner with us at Mouquin's. 
+Go after her in the car.  I want to impress her----"
+
+"I got you, Kiddo!  She's goin' to look me over--
+eh?  All right, I'll stop at the store and get a clean
+collar.  I wouldn't like her to see the print of that
+tiger's claw on my neck."
+
+"There's her address the Gainsborough Studios. 
+Drop me at Mouquin's and I'll have the table set in one
+of the small rooms upstairs.  I'll meet you at the
+door."
+
+Jim glanced at the address, put it in his pocket
+and helped her draw on her heavy coat.
+
+"You'll be nice to Jane?  I want her to like you. 
+She's the only real friend I've ever had in New York."
+
+"I'll do my best for you, little girl," he
+promised.
+
+He dropped her at the wooden cottage-front on Sixth
+Avenue near Twenty-eighth Street, and returned in
+twenty minutes with Jane.
+
+As the tall artist led the way upstairs, Jim
+whispered:
+
+"Say, for God's sake, let me out of this!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She's a frost.  If I have to sit beside her an
+hour I'll catch cold and die.  I swear it; save me! 
+Save my life!"
+
+"Sh!  It's all right.  She's fine and generous when
+you know her."
+
+They had reached the door and Mary pushed him in. 
+There was no help for it.  He'd have to make the most
+of it.
+
+The dinner was a dismal failure.
+
+Jane Anderson was polite and genial, but there was
+a straight look of wonder in her clear gray eyes that
+froze the blood in Jim's veins.
+
+Mary tried desperately for the first half-hour to
+put him at his ease.  It was useless.  The attack of
+Ella had upset his nerves, and the unexpressed
+hostility of Jane had completely crushed his spirits. 
+He tried to talk once, stammered and lapsed into a
+sullen silence from which nothing could stir him.
+
+The two girls at last began to discuss their own
+affairs and the dinner ended in a sickening failure
+that depressed and angered Mary.
+
+The agony over at last, she rose and turned to Jim:
+
+"You can go now, sir--I'll take Jane home with me
+for a friendly chat."
+
+"Thank God!" he whispered, grinning in spite of his
+effort to keep a straight face.
+
+"Tomorrow?" he asked in low tones.
+
+"At eight o'clock."
+
+Jim bowed awkwardly to Jane, muttered something
+inarticulate and rushed to his car.
+
+The two girls walked in silence through Twenty-
+eighth Street to Broadway and thence across the Square.
+
+Seated in her room, Mary could contain her pent-up
+rage no longer.
+
+"Jane Anderson, I'm furious with you!  How could
+you be so rude--so positively insulting!"
+
+"Insulting?"
+
+"Yes.  You stared at him in cold disdain as if he
+were a toad under your feet!"
+
+"I assure you, dear----"
+
+"Why did you do it?"
+
+The artist rose, walked to the window, looked out
+on the Square for a moment, extended her hand and laid
+it gently on Mary's shoulder.
+
+"You've made up your mind to marry this man,
+honey?"
+
+"I certainly have," was the emphatic answer.
+
+Jane paused.
+
+"And all in seven days?"
+
+"Seven days or seven years--what does it matter? 
+He's my mate--we love--it's Fate."
+
+"It's incredible!"
+
+"What's incredible?"
+
+"Such madness."
+
+"Perhaps love is madness--the madness that makes
+life worth the candle.  I've never lived before the
+past week."
+
+"And you, the dainty, cultured, pious little saint,
+will marry this--this----"
+
+"Say it!  I want you to be frank----"
+
+"Perfectly frank?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"This coarse, ugly, illiterate brute----"
+
+"Jane Anderson, how dare you!"  Mary sprang to her
+feet, livid with rage.
+
+"I asked if I might be frank.  Shall I lie to you? 
+Or shall I tell you what I think?"
+
+"Say what you please; it doesn't matter," Mary
+interrupted angrily.
+
+"I only speak at all because I love you.  Your
+common-sense should tell you that I speak with
+reluctance.  But now that I have spoken, let me beg of
+you for your father's sake, for your dead mother's
+sake, for my sake--I'm your one disinterested friend
+and you know that my love is real--for the sake of your
+own soul's salvation in this world and the next--don't
+marry that brute!  Commit suicide if you will--jump off
+the bridge--take poison, cut your throat, blow your
+brains out--but, oh dear God, not this!"
+
+"And why, may I ask?" was the cold question.
+
+"He's in no way your equal in culture, in
+character, in any of the essentials on which the
+companionship of marriage must be based----"
+
+"He's a diamond in the rough," Mary staunchly
+asserted.
+
+"He's in the rough, all right!  The only diamond
+about him is the one in his red scarf--`Take it from
+me, Kiddo!  Take it from me!'"
+
+Her last sentence was a quotation from Jim, her
+imitation of his slang so perfect Mary's cheeks flamed
+anew with anger.
+
+"I'll teach him to use good English--never fear. 
+In a month he'll forget his slang and his red scarf."
+
+"You mean that in a month you'll forget to use good
+English and his style of dress will be yours.  Oh,
+honey, can't you see that such a man will only drag you
+down, down to his level?  Can it be possible that you--
+that you really love him?"
+
+"I adore him and I'm proud of his love!"
+
+"Now listen!  You believe in an indissoluble
+marriage, don't you?"
+
+"Yes----"
+
+"It's the first article of your creed--that
+marriage is a holy sacrament, that no power on earth or
+in hell can ever dissolve its bonds?  Fools rush in
+where angels fear to tread, my dear!  They always
+have--they always will, I suppose.  This is peculiarly
+true of your type of woman--the dainty, clinging girl
+of religious enthusiasm.  You're peculiarly susceptible
+to the physical power of a brutal lover.  Your soul
+glories in submission to this force.  The more coarse
+and brutal its attraction the more abject and joyful
+the surrender.  Your religion can't save you because
+your religion is purely emotional--it is only
+another manifestation of your sex emotions."
+
+"How can you be so sacrilegious!" the girl
+interrupted with a look of horror.
+
+"It may shock you, dear, but I'm telling you one of
+the simplest truths of Nature.  You'd as well know it
+now as later.  The moment you wake to realize that your
+emotions have been deceived and bankrupted, your faith
+will collapse.  At least keep, your grip on common-
+sense.  Down in the cowardly soul of every weak woman--
+perhaps of every woman--is the insane desire to be
+dominated by a superior brute force.  The woman of the
+lower classes--the peasant of Russia, for example,
+whose sex impulses are of all races the most violent--
+refuses with scorn the advances of the man who will not
+strike her.  The man who can't beat his wife is beneath
+contempt--he is no man at all----"
+
+Mary broke into a laugh.
+
+"Really, Jane, you cease to be serious you're a
+joke.  For Heaven's sake use a little common-sense
+yourself.  You can't be warning me that my lover is
+marrying me in order to use his fists on me?"
+
+"Perhaps not, dear,"--the artist smiled; "there
+might be greater depths for one of your training and
+character.  I'm just telling you the plain truth
+about the haste with which you're rushing into
+this marriage.  There's nothing divine in it.  There's
+no true romance of lofty sentiment.  It's the simplest
+and most elemental of all the brutal facts of animal
+life.  That it is resistless in a woman of your culture
+and refinement makes it all the more pathetic----"
+
+The girl rose with a gesture of impatience.
+
+"It's no use, Jane dear; we speak a different
+language.  I don't in the least know what you're
+talking about, and what's more, I'm glad I don't.  I've
+a vague idea that your drift is indecent.  But we're
+different.  I realize that.  I don't sit in judgment on
+you.  You're wasting your breath on me.  I'm going into
+this marriage with my eyes wide open.  It's the
+fulfillment of my brightest hopes and aspirations. 
+That I shall be happy with this man and make him
+supremely happy I know by an intuition deeper and truer
+than reason.  I'm going to trust that intuition without
+reservation."
+
+"All right, honey," the artist agreed with a smile. 
+"I won't say anything more, except that you're fooling
+yourself about the depth of this intuitive knowledge. 
+Your infatuation is not based on the verdict of your
+deepest and truest instincts."
+
+"On what, then?"
+
+"The crazy ideals of the novels you've been
+reading--that's all."
+
+"Ridiculous!"
+
+"You're absolutely sure, for instance, that God
+made just one man the mate of one woman, aren't you?"
+
+"As sure as that I live."
+
+"Where did you learn it?"
+
+"So long ago I can't remember."
+
+"Not in your Bible?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The Sunday school?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Craddock didn't tell you that, did he?"
+
+"Hardly----"
+
+"I thought not.  He has too much horse-sense in
+spite of his emotional gymnastics.  You learned it in
+the first dime-novel you read."
+
+"I never read a dime-novel in my life," she
+interrupted, indignantly.
+
+"I know--you paid a dollar and a quarter for it--
+but it was a dime-novel.  The philosophy of this school
+of trash you have built into a creed of life.  How can
+you be so blind?  How can you make so tragic a
+blunder?"
+
+"That's just it, Jane:  I couldn't if your
+impressions of his character were true.  I
+couldn't make a mistake about so vital a question.  I
+couldn't love him if he really were a coarse,
+illiterate brute.  What you see is only on the surface. 
+He hasn't had his chance yet----"
+
+"Who is he?  What does he do?  Who are his people?"
+
+"He has no people----"
+
+"I thought not."
+
+"I love him all the more deeply," she went on
+firmly, "because of his miserable childhood.  I'll do
+my best to make up for the years of cruelty and hunger
+and suffering through which he passed.  What right have
+you to sit in judgment on him without a hearing? 
+You've known him two hours----"
+
+Jane shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Two minutes was quite enough."
+
+"And you judge by what standard?"
+
+"My five senses, and my sixth sense above all.  One
+look at his square bulldog jaw, his massive neck and
+the deformity of his delicate hands and feet!  I hear
+the ignorant patois of the East Side underworld.  I
+smell the brimstone in his suppressed rage at my
+dislike.  There's something uncanny in the sensuous
+droop of his heavy eyelids and the glitter of his
+steel-blue eyes.  There's something incongruous in
+his whole personality.  I was afraid of him the moment
+I saw him."
+
+Mary broke into hysterical laughter.
+
+"And if my five senses and my intuitions contradict
+yours?  Who is to decide?  If I loved him on sight---- 
+If I looked into his eyes and saw the soul of my mate? 
+If their cold fires thrill me with inexpressible
+passion?  If I see in his massive neck and jaw the
+strength of an irresistible manhood, the power to win
+success and to command the world?  If I see in his
+slender hands and small feet lines of exquisite
+beauty--am I to crush my senses and strangle my love to
+please your idiotic prejudice?"
+
+Jane threw up her hands in despair.
+
+"Certainly not!  If you're blind and deaf I can't
+keep you from committing suicide.  I'd lock you up in
+an asylum for the insane if I had the power to save you
+from the clutches of the brute."
+
+Mary drew herself erect and faced her friend.
+
+"Please don't repeat that word in my hearing--
+there's a limit to friendship.  I think you'd better
+go----"
+
+Jane rose and walked quickly to the door, her lips
+pressed firmly.
+
+"As you like--our lives will be far apart from
+tonight.  It's just as well."
+
+She closed the door with a bang and reached the
+head of the stairs before Mary threw her arms around
+her neck.
+
+"Please, dear, forgive me--don't go in anger."
+
+The older woman kissed her tenderly, glad of the
+dim light to hide her own tears.
+
+"There, it's all right, honey--I won't remember it. 
+Forgive me for my ugly words."
+
+"I love him, Jane--I love him!  It's Fate.  Can't
+you understand?"
+
+"Yes, dear, I understand, and I'll love you
+always--good-by."
+
+"You'll come to my wedding?"
+
+"Perhaps----"
+
+"I'll let you know----"
+
+Another kiss, and Jane Anderson strode down the
+stairs and out into the night with a sickening,
+helpless fear in her heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+JIM'S TRIAL
+
+The quarrel had left Mary in a quiver of exalted rage. 
+How dare a friend trample her most sacred feelings! 
+She pitied Jane Anderson and her tribe--these modern
+feminine leaders of a senseless revolution against
+man--they were crazy.  They had all been disappointed
+in some individual and for that reason set themselves
+up as the judges of mankind.
+
+"Thank God my soul has not been poisoned!" she
+exclaimed aloud with fervor.  "How strange that these
+women who claim such clear vision can be so stupidly
+blind!"
+
+She busied herself with her little household, and
+made up her mind once and for all time to be done with
+such friendships.  The friendship of such women was a
+vain thing.  They were vicious cats at heart--not like
+her gentle Persian kitten whose soul was full of sleepy
+sunlight.  These modern insurgents were wild, half-
+starved stray cats that had been hounded and
+beaten until they had lapsed into their elemental brute
+instincts.  They were so aggravating, too, they
+deserved no sympathy.
+
+Again she thanked God that she was not one of
+them--that her heart was still capable of romantic
+love--a love so sudden and so overwhelming that it
+could sweep life before it in one mad rush to its
+glorious end.
+
+She woke next morning with a dull sense of
+depression.  The room was damp and chilly.  It was
+storming.  The splash of rain against the window and
+the muffled roar from the street below meant that the
+wind was high and the day would be a wretched one
+outside.
+
+They couldn't take their ride.
+
+It was a double disappointment.  She had meant to
+have him dash down to Long Beach and place the ring on
+her finger seated on that same bright sand-dune
+overlooking the sea.  Instead, they must stay indoors. 
+Jim was not at his best indoors.  She loved him behind
+the wheel with his hand on the pulse of that racer. 
+The machine seemed a part of his being.  He breathed
+his spirit into its steel heart, and together they
+swept her on and on over billowy clouds through the
+gates of Heaven.
+
+There was no help for it.  They would spend
+the time together in her room planning the future. 
+It would be sweet--these intimate hours in her home
+with the man she loved.
+
+Should she spend a whole day alone there with him? 
+Was it just proper?  Was it really safe?  Nonsense! 
+The vile thoughts which Jane had uttered had poisoned
+her, after all.  She hated her self that she could
+remember them.  And yet they filled her heart with
+dread in spite of every effort to laugh them off.
+
+"How could Jane Anderson dare say such things?" she
+muttered angrily.  "`A coarse, illiterate brute!'  It's
+a lie! a lie! a lie!"  She stamped her foot in rage. 
+"He's strong and brave and masterful--a man among men--
+he's my mate and I love him!"
+
+And yet the frankness with which her friend had
+spoken had in reality disturbed her beyond measure. 
+Through every hour of the day her uneasiness increased. 
+After all she was utterly alone and her life had been
+pitifully narrow.  Her knowledge of men she had drawn
+almost exclusively from romantic fiction.
+
+It was just a little strange that Jim persisted in
+living so completely in the present and the future.  He
+had told her of his pitiful childhood.  He had
+told her of his business.  It had been definite--the
+simple statement he made--and she accepted it without
+question until Jane Anderson had dropped these ugly
+suspicions.  She hated the meddler for it.
+
+In the light of such suspicions the simplest,
+bravest man might seem a criminal.  How could her
+friend be blind to the magnetism of this man's powerful
+personality?  Bah!  She was jealous of their perfect
+happiness.  Why are women so contemptible?
+
+She began a careful study of every trait of her
+lover's character, determined to weigh him by the
+truest standards of manhood.  Certainly he was no
+weakling.  The one abomination of her soul was the type
+of the city degenerate she saw simpering along Broadway
+and Fifth Avenue at times.  Jim was brave to the point
+of rashness.  No man with an ounce of cowardice in his
+being could handle a car in every crisis with such cool
+daring and perfect control.  He was strong.  He could
+lift her body as if it were a feather.  His arms
+crushed her with terrible force.  He could earn a
+living for them both.  There could be no doubt about
+that.  His faultless clothes, the ease with which he
+commanded unlimited credit among the automobile
+manufacturers and dealers--every supply store on
+Broadway seemed to know him--left no doubt on that
+score.
+
+There was just a bit of mystery and reserve about
+his career as an inventor.  His first success that had
+given him a start he had not explained.  The big deal
+about the new carburetor she could, of course,
+understand.  He had a workshop all his own.  He had
+told her this the first day they met.  She would ask
+him to take her to see it this afternoon.  The storm
+would prevent the trip to the Beach.  She would ask
+this, not because she doubted his honesty, but because
+she really wished to see the place in which he worked. 
+It was her workshop now, as well as his.
+
+For a moment her suspicions were sickening. 
+Suppose he had romanced about his workshop and his
+room?  Supposed he lived somewhere in the squalid slums
+of the lower East Side and his people, after all, were
+alive?  Perhaps a drunken father and a coarse, brutal
+mother--and sisters----
+
+She stopped with a frown and clenched her fists.
+
+She would ask Jim to show her his workshop.  That
+would be enough.  If he had told her the truth about
+that she would make up to him in tender abandonment of
+utter trust for every suspicion she harbored.
+
+The car was standing in front of her door.  He
+waved for her to come down.
+
+"Jump right in!" he called gayly.  "I've got an
+extra rubber blanket for you."
+
+"In the storm, Jim?" she faltered.
+
+"Surest thing you know.  It's great to fly through
+a storm.  You can just ride on its wings.  Throw on
+your raincoat and come on quick!  I'm going to run down
+to the Beach.  Who's afraid of an old storm with this
+thing under us?"
+
+Her heart gave a bound.  Her longing had reached
+her lover and brought him through the storm to do her
+bidding.  It was wonderful--this oneness of soul and
+body.
+
+She was happy again--supremely, divinely happy. 
+The man by her side knew and understood.  She knew and
+understood.  She loved this daring spirit that rose to
+the wind--this iron will that brooked no interference
+with his plans, even from Nature, when it crossed his
+love.
+
+The sting of the raindrops against her cheek was
+exhilarating.  The car glided over the swimming roadway
+like a great gray gull skimming the beach at low tide. 
+Her soul rose.  The sun of a perfect faith and love was
+shining now behind the clouds.
+
+She nestled close to his side and watched him
+tenderly from the corners of her half-closed eyes, her
+whole being content in his strength.  The idea of
+dashing through a blinding rain to the Beach on such a
+day would have been to her mind an unthinkable piece of
+madness.  She was proud of his daring.  It would be
+hers to shield from the storms of life.  She loved the
+rugged lines of his massive jaw in profile.  How could
+Jane be such a fool as to call him ugly!
+
+The weather, of course, prevented them from walking
+up the Beach to their sand-dune.  The walk would have
+been all right--but it was out of the question to sit
+down there and give her the ring in the pouring rain. 
+She knew this as well as he.  She knew, too, that he
+had the ring in his pocket, though he had carefully
+refrained from referring to it in any way.
+
+He led her to a secluded nook behind a pillar in
+the little parlor.  The hotel was deserted.  They had
+the building almost to themselves.  A log fire crackled
+in the open fireplace, and he drew a settee close.  The
+wind had moderated and the rain was pouring down in
+straight streams, rolling in soft music on the roof.
+
+He drew the ring from his pocket.
+"Well, Kiddo, I got it.  The fellow said this was all
+right."
+
+He held the tiny gold band before her shining
+eyes.
+
+"Slip it on!" she whispered.
+
+"Which one?"
+
+"This one, silly!"
+
+She extended her third finger, as he pressed the
+ring slowly on.
+
+"Seems to me a mighty little one and a mighty cheap
+one, but he said it was the thing."
+
+"It's all right, dear," she whispered.  "Kiss me!"
+
+He pressed his lips to hers and held them until she
+sank back and lifted her hand in warning.
+
+"Be careful!"
+
+"Whose afraid?" Jim muttered, glancing over his
+shoulder toward the door.  "Now tell me what day--
+tomorrow?"
+
+"Nonsense, man!" she cried.  "Give me time to
+breathe----"
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Just to realize that I'm engaged--to plan and
+think and dream of the wonderful day."
+
+"We're losing time----"
+
+"We'll never live these wonderful hours over again,
+dear."
+
+Jim's face fell and his voice was pitiful in its
+funereal notes:  "Lord, I thought the ring settled it."
+
+"And so it does, dear--it does-----"
+
+"Not if that long-legged spider that took dinner
+with us the other night gets in her fine work.  I'll
+bet that she handed me a few when you got home?"
+
+Mary was silent.
+
+"Now didn't she?"
+
+"To the best of her ability--yes--but I didn't mind
+her silly talk."
+
+"Gee, but I'd love to give her a bouquet of poison
+ivy!"
+
+"We had an awful quarrel----"
+
+"And you stood up for me?"
+
+"You know I did!"
+
+"All right, I don't give a tinker's damn what
+anybody says if you stand by me!  In all this world
+there's just you--for me.  There's never been anybody
+else--and there never will be.  I'm that kind."
+
+"And I love you for it!" she cried, with rapture
+pressing his hand in both of hers.
+
+"What did she say about me, anyhow?"
+
+"Nothing worth repeating.  I've forgotten it."
+
+Jim held her gaze.
+
+"It's funny how you love anybody the minute you lay
+eyes on 'em--or hate 'em the same way.  I wanted to
+choke her the minute she opened her yap to me."
+
+"Forget it, dear," she broke in briskly.  "I want
+you to take me to see your workshop tomorrow--will
+you?"
+
+A flash of suspicion shot from the depths of his
+eyes.
+
+"Did she tell you to ask me that?"
+
+"Of course not!  I'm just interested in everything
+you do.  I want to see where you work."
+
+"It's no place for a sweet girl to go--that part of
+town."
+
+"But I'll be with you."
+
+"I don't want you to go down there," he sullenly
+maintained.
+
+"But why, dear?"
+
+"It's a low, dirty place.  I had to locate the shop
+there to get the room I needed for the rent I could
+pay.  It's not fit for you.  I'm going to move uptown
+in a little while."
+
+"Please let me go," she pleaded.
+
+He shook his head emphatically.
+
+"No."
+
+She turned away to hide the tears.  The first real,
+hideous fear she had ever had about him caught her
+heart in spite of every effort to fight it down.  His
+workshop might be a myth after all.  He had failed in
+the first test to which she had put him.  It was
+horrible.  All the vile suggestions of Jane Anderson
+rushed now into her memory.
+
+She struggled bravely to keep her head and not
+break down.  It was beyond her strength.  A sob
+strangled her, and she buried her face in her hands.
+
+Jim looked at her in helpless anguish for a moment,
+started to gather her in his arms and looked around the
+room in terror.
+
+He leaned over her and whispered tensely:
+
+"For God's sake, Kiddo--don't--don't do that!  I
+didn't mean to hurt you--honest, I didn't.  Don't cry
+any more and I'll take you right down to the black
+hole, and let you sleep on the floor if you want to. 
+Gee!  I'll give you the whole place, tools, junk and
+all----"
+
+She lifted her head.
+
+"Will you, Jim?"
+
+"Sure I will!  We start this minute if you want to
+go."
+
+She glanced over his shoulder to see that no one
+was looking, threw her arms around his neck and kissed
+him again and again.
+
+"It was the first time you ever said no, dear, and
+it hurt.  I'm happy again now.  If you'll just let me
+see you in the shop for five minutes I'll never ask you
+again."
+
+"All right--tomorrow when you get out of school. 
+I'll take you down.  Holy Mike, that was a dandy kiss! 
+Let's quarrel again--start something else."
+
+She rose laughing and brushed the last trace of
+tears from her eyes.
+
+"Let's eat dinner now--I'm hungry."
+
+"By George, I'd forgot all about the feed!"
+
+By eight o'clock the storm had abated; the rain
+suddenly stopped, and the moon peeped through the
+clouds.
+
+He drove the big racer back at a steady, even
+stride on her lowest notch of speed--half the time with
+only his right hand on the wheel and his left gripping
+hers.
+
+As the lights of Manhattan flashed from the hills
+beyond the Queensborough Bridge, he leaned close and
+whispered:
+
+"Happy?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+The car was waiting the next day at half-past
+three.
+
+"It's not far," he said, nodding carelessly.  "You
+needn't put on the coat.  Be there in a jiffy."
+
+Down Twenty-third Street to Avenue A, down the
+avenue to Eighteenth Street, and then he suddenly swung
+the machine through Eighteenth into Avenue B and
+stopped below a low, red brick building on the corner.
+
+He set his brakes with a crash, leaped out and
+extended his hands.
+
+"I didn't like to take you up these stairs at the
+back of that saloon, little girl, but you would come. 
+Now don't blame me----"
+
+She pressed his arm tenderly.
+
+"Of course I won't blame you.  I'm proud and happy
+to share your life and help you.  I'm surprised to see
+everything so quiet down here.  I thought all the East
+Side was packed with crowded tenements."
+
+"No," he answered, in a matter-of-fact way.  "About
+the only excitement we have in this quarter is an
+occasional gas explosion in the plant over there, and
+the noise of the second-hand material men unloading
+iron.  The tenements haven't been built here yet."
+
+He led her quickly past the back door of the saloon
+and up two narrow flights of stairs to the top of the
+building, drew from his pocket the key to a heavy
+padlock and slipped the crooked bolt from the double
+staples.  He unlocked the door with a second key and
+pushed his way in.
+
+"All righto," he cried.
+
+The straight, narrow hall inside was dark.  He
+fumbled in his pocket and lit the gas.
+
+"The workshop first, or my sleeping den?"
+
+"The workshop first!" she whispered excitedly.
+
+She had made the reality of this shop the supreme
+test of Jim's word and character.  She was in a fever
+of expectant uncertainty as to its equipment and
+practical use.
+
+He unlocked the door leading to the front.
+
+"That's my den--we'll come back here."
+
+He passed quickly to the further end of the hall
+and again used two keys to open the door, and held it
+back for her to enter.
+
+"I'm sorry it's so dirty--if you get your pretty
+dress all ruined--it's not my fault, you know."
+
+Mary surveyed the room with an exclamation of
+delight.
+
+"Oh, what a wonderful place!  Why, Jim, you're a
+magician!"
+
+There could be no doubt about the practical use to
+which the shop was being put.  Its one small window
+opened on a fire escape in the narrow court in the
+rear.  A skylight in the middle opened with a hinge on
+the roof and flooded the space with perfect light.  An
+iron ladder swung from the skylight and was hooked up
+against the ceiling by a hasp fastened to a staple
+over a work-bench.  On one side of the room was a tiny
+blacksmith's forge, an anvil, hammers and a complete
+set of tools for working in rough iron.  A small
+gasoline engine supplied the power which turned his
+lathe and worked the drills, saw and plane.  On the
+other side of the room was arranged a fairly complete
+chemical laboratory with several retorts, and an
+oxyhydrogen blow-pipe capable of developing the
+powerful heat used in the melting and brazing of
+metals.  Beneath the benches were piled automobile
+supplies of every kind.
+
+"You know how to use all these machines, Jim?" she
+asked in wonder.
+
+"Sure, and then some!" he answered with a wave of
+his slender hand.
+
+"You're a wizard----"
+
+"Now the den?" he said briskly.
+
+She followed him through the hall and into the
+large front corner room overlooking Avenue B and
+Eighteenth Street.  The morning sun flooded the front
+and the afternoon sun poured into the side windows. 
+The furniture was solid mahogany--a bed, bureau,
+chiffonier, couch and three chairs.  The windows were
+fitted with wood-paneled shutters, shades and heavy
+draperies.  A thick, soft carpet of faded red covered
+the floor.
+
+"It's a nice room, Jim, but I'd like to dust it for
+you," she said with a smile.
+
+"Sure.  I'm for giving you the right to dust it
+every morning, Kiddo, beginning now.  Let's find a
+preacher tonight!"
+
+She blushed and moved a step toward the door.
+
+"Just a little while.  You know it's been only ten
+days since we met----"
+
+"But we've lived some in that time, haven't we?"
+
+"An eternity, I think," she said reverently.
+
+"I want to marry right now, girlie!" he pleaded
+desperately.  "If that spider gets you in her den
+again, I just feel like it's good night for me."
+
+"Nonsense.  You can't believe me such a silly
+child.  I'm a woman.  I love you.  Do you think the
+foolish prejudice of a friend could destroy my love for
+the man whom I have chosen for my mate?"
+
+"No, but I want it fixed and then it's fixed--and
+they can say what they please.  Marry me tonight! 
+You've got the ring.  You're going to in a little
+while, anyhow.  What's the use to wait and lose these
+days out of our life?  What's the sense of it?  Don't
+you know me by this time?  Don't you trust me by this
+time?"
+
+She slipped her hand gently into his.
+
+"I trust you utterly.  And I feel that I've known
+you since the day I was born----"
+
+"Then why--why wait a minute?"
+
+"You can't understand a girl's feelings, dear--only
+a little while and it's all right."
+
+He sat down on the couch in silence, rose and
+walked to the window.  She watched him struggling with
+deep emotion.
+
+He turned suddenly.
+
+"Look here, Kiddo, I've got to leave on that trip
+to the mountains of North Carolina.  I've got to get
+down there before Christmas.  I must be back here by
+the first of the year.  Gee--I can't go without you! 
+You don't want to stay here without me, do you?"
+
+A sudden pallor overspread her face.  For the first
+time she realized how their lives had become one in the
+sweet intimacy of the past ten days.
+
+"You must go now?" she gasped.
+
+"Yes.  I've made my arrangements.  I've business
+back here the first of the year that can't wait.  Marry
+me and go with me.  We'll take our honeymoon down
+there.  By George, we'll go together in the car!  Every
+day by each other's side over hundreds and hundreds of
+miles!  Say, ain't you game?  Come on!  It's a
+crime to send me away without you.  How can you do it?"
+
+"I can't--I'm afraid," she faltered.
+
+"You'll marry me, then?"
+
+"Yes!" she whispered.  "What is the latest day you
+can start?"
+
+"Next Saturday, if we go in the car----"
+
+"All right,"--she was looking straight into the
+depths of his soul now--"next Saturday."
+
+He clasped her in his arms and held her with
+desperate tenderness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+ELLA'S SECRET
+
+The consummation of her life's dream was too near, too
+sweet and wonderful for Jane's croakings to distress
+Mary Adams beyond the moment.  She had, of course,
+wished her friend to be present at the wedding--yet the
+curt refusal had only aroused anew her pity at stupid
+prejudices.  It was out of the question to ask her
+father to leave his work in the Kentucky mountains and
+come all the way to New York.  She would surprise him
+with the announcement.  After all, she was the one
+human being vitally concerned in this affair, and the
+only one save the man whose life would be joined to
+hers.
+
+In five minutes after the painful scene with Jane
+she had completely regained her composure, and her face
+was radiant with happiness when she waved to Jim.  He
+was standing before the door in the car, waiting to
+take her to the City Hall to get the marriage
+license.
+
+"Gee!" he cried, "you're the prettiest, sweetest
+thing that ever walked this earth, with those cheeks
+all flaming like a rose!  Are you happy?"
+
+"Gloriously."
+
+She motioned him to keep his seat and sprang
+lightly to his side.
+
+"Aren't you happy, sir?" she added gayly.
+
+"I am, yes--but to tell you the truth, I'm
+beginning to get scared.  You know what to do, don't
+you, when we get before that preacher?"
+
+"Of course, silly----"
+
+"I never saw a wedding in my life."
+
+She pressed his hand tenderly.
+
+"Honestly, Jim?"
+
+"I swear it.  You'll have to tell me how to
+behave."
+
+"We'll rehearse it all tonight.  I'll show you. 
+I've seen hundreds of people married.  My father's a
+preacher, you know."
+
+"Yes, I know that," he went on solemnly; "that's
+what gives me courage.  I knew you'd understand
+everything.  I'm counting on you, Kiddo--if you fall
+down, we're gone.  I'll run like a turkey."
+
+"It's easy," she laughed.
+
+"And this license business--how do we go about
+that?  What'll they do to us?"
+
+"Nothing, goose!  We just march up to the clerk and
+demand the license.  He asks us a lot of questions----"
+
+"Questions!  What sort of questions?"
+
+"The names of your father and mother--whether
+you've been married before and where you live and how
+old you are----"
+
+"Ask you about your business?" he interrupted,
+sharply.
+
+"No.  They think if you can pay the license fee you
+can support your wife, I suppose."
+
+"How much is it?"
+
+"I don't know, here.  It used to be two dollars in
+Kentucky."
+
+"That's cheap--must come higher in this burg.  I
+brought along a hundred."
+
+"Nonsense."
+
+"There's a lot of graft in this town.  I'll be
+ready.  I've got to get 'em--don't care how high they
+come."
+
+"There'll be no graft in this, Jim," she protested
+gayly.
+
+"Well, it'll be the first time I ever got by
+without it--believe me!"
+
+The ease with which the license was obtained was
+more than Jim could understand.  All the way back from
+the City Hall he expected to be held up at every
+corner.  He kept looking over his shoulder to see if
+they were being followed.
+
+Arrived in her room, they discussed their plans for
+the day of days.
+
+"I'll come round soon in the morning, and we'll
+spend the whole day at the Beach," he suggested.
+
+She lifted her hands in protest.
+
+"No--no!"
+
+"No?"
+
+"Not on our wedding-day, Jim!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"It's not good form.  The groom should not see the
+bride that day until they meet at the altar."
+
+"Let's change it!"
+
+"No, sir, the old way's the best.  I'll spend the
+day in saying good-by to the past.  You'll call for me
+at six o'clock.  We'll go to Dr. Craddock's house and
+be married in time for our wedding dinner."
+
+The lover smiled, and his drooping eyelids fell
+still lower as he watched her intently.
+
+"I want that dinner here in this little place,
+Kiddo----"
+
+She blushed and protested.
+
+"I thought we'd go to the Beach and spend the night
+there."
+
+"Here, girlie, here!  I love this little place--
+it's so like you.  Get the old wild-cat who cleans up
+for you to fix us a dinner here all by ourselves--
+wouldn't she?"
+
+"She'd do anything for me--yes."
+
+"Then fix it here--I want to be just with you--
+don't you understand?"
+
+"Yes," she whispered.  "But I'd rather spend that
+first day of our new life in a strange place--and the
+Beach we both love--hadn't you just as leave go there,
+Jim?"
+
+"No.  The waiters will stare at us, and hear us
+talk----"
+
+"We can have our meals served in our room.
+
+"This is better," he insisted.  "I want to spend
+one day here alone with you, before we go--just to feel
+that you're all mine.  You see, if I walk in here and
+own the place, I'll know that better than any other
+way.  I've just set my heart on it, Kiddo--what's the
+difference?"
+
+She lifted her lips to his.
+
+"All right, dear.  It shall be as you wish. 
+Tomorrow I will be all yours--in life, in death, in
+eternity.  Your happiness will be the one thing for
+which I shall plan and work."
+
+Ella was very happy in the honor conferred
+on her.  She was given entire charge of the place,
+and spent the day in feverish preparation for the
+dinner.  She insisted on borrowing a larger table from
+the little fat woman next door, to hold the extra
+dishes.  She dressed herself in her best.  Her raven
+black hair was pressed smooth and shining down the
+sides of her pale temples.
+
+The work was completed by three o'clock in the
+afternoon, and Mary lay in her window lazily watching
+the crowds scurrying home.  The offices closed early on
+Saturday afternoons.
+
+Ella was puttering about the room, adding little
+touches here and there in a pretense of still being
+busy.  As a matter of fact, she was watching the girl
+from her one eye with a wistful tenderness she had not
+dared as yet to express in words.  Twice Mary had
+turned suddenly and seen her thus.  Each time Ella had
+started as if caught in some act of mischief and asked
+an irrelevant question to relieve her embarrassment.
+
+Mary could feel her single eye fixed on her now in
+a deep, brooding look.  It made her uncomfortable.
+
+She turned slowly and spoke in gentle tones.
+
+"You've been so sweet to me today, Ella--father and
+mother and best friend.  I'll never forget your
+kindness.  You'd better rest awhile now until we go to
+Dr. Craddock's.  I want you to be there, too----"
+
+"To see the marriage--ja?" she asked softly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, no, my dear, no--I stay here and wait for you
+to come.  I keep the lights burning bright.  I welcome
+the bride and groom to their little home--ja."
+
+A quick glance of suspicion shot from Mary's blue
+eyes.  Could it be possible that this forlorn
+scrubwoman would carry her hostility to her lover to
+the same point of ungracious refusal to witness the
+ceremony?  It was nonsense, of course.  Ella would feel
+out of place in the minister's parlor, that was all. 
+She wouldn't insist.
+
+"All right, Ella; you can receive us here with
+ceremony.  You'll be our maid, butler, my father, my
+mother and my friends!"
+
+There was a moment's silence and still no move on
+Ella's part to go.  The girl felt her single eye again
+fixed on her in mysterious, wistful gaze.  She would
+send her away if it were possible without hurting her
+feelings.
+
+Mary lifted her eyes suddenly, and Ella stirred
+awkwardly and smiled.
+
+"I hope you are very happy, meine liebe--ja?"
+
+"I couldn't be happier if I were in Heaven," was
+the quick answer.
+
+"I'm so glad----"
+
+Again an awkward pause.
+
+"I was once young and pretty like you, meine
+liebe," she began dreamily, "--slim and straight and
+jolly--always laughing."
+
+Mary held her breath in eager expectancy.  Ella was
+going to lift the veil from the mystery of her life,
+stirred by memories which the coming wedding had
+evoked.
+
+"And you had a thrilling romance--Ella?  I always
+felt it."
+
+Again silence, and then in low tones the woman told
+her story.
+
+"Ja--a romance, too.  I was so young and
+foolish--just a baby myself--not sixteen.  But I was
+full of life and fun, and I had a way of doing what I
+pleased.
+
+"The man was older than me--Oh, a lot older--with
+gray hairs on the side of his head.  I was wild about
+him.  I never took to kids.  They didn't seem to like
+me----"
+
+She paused as if hesitating to give her full
+confidence, and quickly went on:
+
+"My folks were German.  They couldn't speak
+English.  I learned when I was five years old.  They
+didn't like my lover.  We quarrel day and night.  I say
+they didn't like him because they could not speak his
+language.  They say he was bad.  I fight for him, and
+run away and marry him----"
+
+Again she paused and drew a deep breath.
+
+"Ah, I was one happy little fool that year!  He
+make good wages on the docks--a stevedore.  They had a
+strike, and he got to drinking.  The baby came----"
+
+She stopped suddenly.
+
+"You had a little baby, Ella?" the girl asked in a
+tender whisper.
+
+"Ja--ja" she sobbed--"so sweet, so good--so
+quiet--so beautiful she was.  I was very happy--like a
+little girl with a doll--only she laugh and cry and coo
+and pull my hair!  He stop the drink a little while
+when she come, and he got work.  And then he begin
+worse and worse.  It seem like he never loved me any
+more after the baby.  He curse me, he quarrel.  He
+begin to strike me sometimes.  I laugh and cry at first
+and make up and try again----"
+
+Again she paused as if for courage to go on, and
+choked into silence.
+
+"Yes--and then?" the girl asked.
+
+"And then he come home one night wild drunk.  He
+stumble and fall across the cradle and hurt my baby so
+she never cry--just lie still and tremble--her eyes
+wide open at first and then they droop and close and
+she die!
+
+"He laugh and curse and strike me, and I fight him
+like a tiger.  He was strong--he throw me down on the
+floor and gouge my eye out with his big claw----"
+
+"Oh, my God," Mary sobbed.
+
+Ella sprang to her feet and bent over the girl with
+trembling eagerness.
+
+"You keep my secret, meine liebe?"
+
+"Yes--yes----"
+
+"I never tell a soul on earth what I tell you now--
+I just eat my heart out and keep still all the years, I
+can tell you--ja?"
+
+"Yes, I'll keep it sacred--go on----"
+
+"When I know he gouge my eye out, I go wild.  I get
+my hand on his throat and choke him still.  I drag him
+to the stairs and throw him head first all the way down
+to the bottom.  He fall in a heap and lie still.  I run
+down and drag him to the door.  I kick his face and he
+never move.  He was dead.  I kick him again--and again. 
+And then I laugh--I laugh--I laugh in his dead
+face--I was so glad I kill him!"
+
+She sank in a paroxysm of sobs on the floor, and
+the girl touched her smooth black hair tenderly,
+strangled with her own emotions.
+
+Ella rose at last and brushed the tears from her
+hollow cheeks.
+
+"Now, you know, meine liebe!  Why I tell you
+this today, I don't know--maybe I must!  I dream once
+like you dream today----"
+
+The girl slipped her arms around the drooping,
+pathetic figure and stroked it tenderly.
+
+"The sunshine is for some, maybe," Ella went on
+pathetically; "for some the clouds and the storms.  I
+hope you are very, very happy today and all the
+days----"
+
+"I will be, Ella, I'm sure.  I'll always love you
+after this."
+
+"Maybe I make you sad because I tell you----"
+
+"No--no!  I'm glad you told me.  The knowledge of
+your sorrow will make my life the sweeter.  I shall be
+more humble in my joy."
+
+It never occurred to the girl for a moment that
+this lonely, broken woman had torn her soul's deepest
+secret open in a last pathetic effort to warn her of
+the danger of her marriage.  The wistful, helpless
+look in her eye meant to Mary only the anguish of
+memories.  Each human heart persists in learning the
+big lessons of life at first hand.  We refuse to learn
+any other way.  The tragedies of others interest us as
+fiction.  We make the application to others--never to
+ourselves.
+
+Jim's familiar footstep echoed through the hall,
+and Mary sprang to the door with a cry of joy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+THE WEDDING
+
+Ella hurried into the kitchenette and busied herself
+with dinner.  Jim's unexpectedly early arrival broke
+the spell of the tragedy to which Mary had listened
+with breathless sympathy.  Her own future she faced
+without a shadow of doubt or fear.
+
+Her reproaches to Jim were entirely perfunctory, on
+the sin of his early call on their wedding-day.
+
+"Naughty boy!" she cried with mock severity.  "At
+this unseemly hour!"
+
+He glanced about the room nervously.
+
+"Anybody in there?"
+
+He nodded toward the kitchenette.
+
+"Only Ella----"
+
+"Send her away."
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Quick, Kiddo--quick!"
+
+Mary let Ella out from the little private hall
+without her seeing Jim, and returned.
+
+"For heaven's sake, man, what ails you?" she asked
+excitedly.
+
+"Say--I forgot that thing already.  We got to go
+over it again.  What if I miss it?"
+
+"The ceremony?"
+
+"Yep----"
+
+He mopped his brow and looked at his watch.
+
+"By the time we get to that preacher's house, I
+won't know my first name if you don't help me."
+
+Mary laughed softly and kissed him.
+
+"You can't miss it.  All you've got to do is say,
+`I will' when he asks you the question, put the ring on
+my finger when he tells you, and repeat the words after
+him--he and I will do the rest."
+
+"Say my question over again."
+
+"`Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to
+live together after God's ordinance, in the holy estate
+of matrimony?  Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor,
+and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking
+all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both
+shall live?'"
+
+She looked at him and laughed.
+
+"Why don't you answer?"
+
+"Now?"
+
+"Yes--that's the end of the question.  Say, `I
+will.'"
+
+"Oh, I will all right!  What scares me is that I'll
+jump in on him and say `I will' before he gets halfway
+through.  Seems to me when he says, `Wilt thou have
+this woman to be thy wedded wife?'  I'll just have to
+choke myself there to keep from saying, `You bet your
+life I will, Parson!'"
+
+"It won't hurt anything if you say, `I will'
+several times," she assured him.
+
+"It wouldn't queer the job?"
+
+"Not in the least.  I've often heard them say, `I
+will' two or three times.  Wait until you hear the
+words, `so long as ye both shall live----'"
+
+"`So long as ye both shall live,'" he repeated
+solemnly.
+
+"The other speech you say after the minister."
+
+"He won't bite off more than I can chew at one
+time, will he?"
+
+"No, silly--just a few words----"
+
+"Because if he does, I'll choke."
+
+Jim drew his watch again, mopped his brow, and
+gazed at Mary's serene face with wonder.
+
+"Say, Kiddo, you're immense--you're as cool as a
+cucumber!"
+
+"Of course.  Why not?  It's my day of joy and
+perfect peace--the day I've dreamed of since the dawn
+of maidenhood.  I'm marrying the man of my
+choice--the one man God made for me of all men on
+earth.  I know this--I'm content."
+
+"Let me hang around here till time--won't you?" he
+asked helplessly.
+
+"We must have Ella come back to fix the table."
+
+"Sure.  I just didn't want her to hear me tell you
+that I had cold feet.  I'm better now."
+
+Ella moved about the room with soft tread, watching
+Jim with sullen, concentrated gaze when he was not
+looking.
+
+The lovers sat on the couch beside the window,
+holding each other's hands and watching in silence the
+hurrying crowds pass below.  Now that his panic was
+over, Jim began to breathe more freely, and the time
+swiftly passed.
+
+As the shadows slowly fell, they rang the bell at
+the parson's house beside the church, and his good wife
+ushered them into the parlor.  The little Craddocks
+crowded in--six of them, two girls and four boys, their
+ages ranging from five to nineteen.
+
+Sweet memories crowded the girl's heart from her
+happy childhood.  She had never missed one of these
+affairs at home.  Her father was a very popular
+minister and his home the Mecca of lovers for miles
+around.
+
+Craddock, like her father, was inclined to be
+conservative in his forms.  Marriage he held with
+the old theologians to be a holy sacrament.  He never
+used the new-fangled marriage vows.  He stuck to the
+formula of the Book of Common Prayer.
+
+When she stood before the preacher in this
+beautiful familiar scene which she had witnessed so
+many times at home, Mary's heart beat with a joy that
+was positively silly.  She tried to be serious, and the
+dimple would come in her cheek in spite of every
+effort.
+
+As Craddock's musical voice began the opening
+address, the memory of a foolish incident in her
+father's life flashed through her mind, and she
+wondered if Jim in his excitement had forgotten his
+pocket-book and couldn't pay the preacher.
+
+"Dearly beloved," he began, "we are gathered
+together here in the sight of God----"
+
+Mary tried to remember that she was in the sight of
+God, but she was so foolishly happy she could only
+remember that funny scene.  A long-legged Kentucky
+mountain bridegroom at the close of the ceremony had
+turned to her father and drawled:
+
+"Well, parson, I ain't got no money with me--but I
+want to give ye five dollars.  I've got a fine dawg. 
+He's worth ten.  I'll send him to ye fur five--if it's
+all right?"
+
+The children had giggled and her father blushed.
+
+"Oh, that's all right," he had answered.  "Money's
+no matter.  Forget the five.  I hope you'll be very
+happy."
+
+Two weeks later a crate containing the dog had come
+by express.  On the tag was scrawled:
+
+
+Dear Parson:--I like Nancy so well, I send ye the
+hole dawg, anyhow.
+
+
+She hadn't a doubt that Jim would feel the same
+way--but she hoped he hadn't forgotten his pocketbook.
+
+The scene had flashed through her mind in a single
+moment.  She had bitten her lips and kept from laughing
+by a supreme effort.  Not a word of the solemn
+ceremonial, however, had escaped her consciousness.
+
+"And in the face of this company," the preacher's
+rich voice was saying, "to join together this Man and
+this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is commended of St.
+Paul to be honorable among all men: and therefore is
+not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly;
+but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in
+the fear of God.  Into this holy estate these two
+persons present come now to be joined.  If any man
+can show just cause, why they may not lawfully be
+joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter
+for ever hold his peace."
+
+Craddock paused, and his piercing eyes searched the
+man and woman before him.
+
+"I require to charge you both, as ye will answer at
+the dreadful day of judgment, when the secrets of all
+hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know
+any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined
+together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it----"
+
+Again he paused.  The perspiration stood in beads
+on Jim's forehead, and he glanced uneasily at Mary from
+the corners of his drooping eyes.  A smile was playing
+about her mouth, and Jim was cheered.
+
+"For be ye well assured," the preacher continued,
+"that if any persons are joined together otherwise than
+as God's Word doth allow, their marriage is not
+lawful."
+
+He turned with deliberation to Jim and transfixed
+him with the first question of the ceremony.  The groom
+was hypnotized into a state of abject terror.  His ears
+heard the words; the mind recorded but the vaguest idea
+of what they meant.
+
+"Wilt thou have this Woman to thy wedded wife,
+to live together after God's ordinance in the holy
+estate of Matrimony?  Wilt thou love her, comfort her,
+honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and,
+forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long
+as ye both shall live?"
+
+Jim's mouth was open; his lower jaw had dropped in
+dazed awe, and he continued to stare straight into the
+preacher's face until Mary pressed his arm and
+whispered:
+
+"Jim!"
+
+"I will--yes, I will--you bet I will!" he hastened
+to answer.
+
+The children giggled, and the preacher's lips
+twitched.
+
+He turned quickly to Mary.
+
+"Wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded husband, to
+live together after God's ordinance, in the holy estate
+of Matrimony?  Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love,
+honor, and keep him in sickness and in health; and,
+forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long
+as ye both shall live?"
+
+With quick, clear voice, Mary answered:
+
+"I will."
+
+"Please join your right hands and repeat after
+me:"
+
+He fixed Jim with his gaze and spoke with
+deliberation, clause by clause:
+
+"I, James, take thee, Mary, to my wedded wife, to
+have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for
+worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in
+health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part,
+according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight
+thee my troth."
+
+Jim's throat at first was husky with fear, but he
+caught each clause with quick precision and repeated
+them without a hitch.
+
+He smiled and congratulated himself:  "I got ye
+that time, old cull!"
+
+The preacher's eyes sought Mary's:
+
+"I, Mary, take thee, James, to my wedded husband,
+to have and to hold from this day forward, for better
+for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in
+health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death do us
+part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I
+give thee my troth."
+
+In the sweetest musical voice, quivering with
+happiness, the girl repeated the words.
+
+Again the preacher's eyes sought Jim's:
+
+AND THE MAN SHALL GIVE UNTO THE WOMAN A RING----
+
+The groom fumbled in his pocket and found at
+last the ring, which he handed to Mary.  The minister
+at once took it from her hand and handed it back to
+Jim.
+
+The bride lifted her left hand, deftly extending
+the fourth finger, and the groom slipped the ring on,
+and held it firmly gripped as he had been instructed.
+
+"With this ring I thee wed----"
+
+"With this ring I thee wed----" Jim repeated
+firmly.
+
+"----and with all my worldly goods I thee
+endow----"
+
+"----and with all my worldly goods I thee
+endow----"
+
+"In the Name of the Father----"
+
+"In the Name of the Father----"
+
+"----and of the Son----"
+
+"----and of the Son----"
+
+"----and of the Holy Ghost----"
+
+"----and of the Holy Ghost----"
+
+"Amen!"
+
+"Amen!"
+
+The voice of the preacher's prayer that followed
+rang far-away and unreal to the heart of the girl.  Her
+vivid imagination had leaped the years.  Her spirit did
+not return to earth and time and place until the
+minister seized her right hand and joined it to Jim's.
+
+"Those whom God hath joined together let no man put
+asunder!
+
+"Forasmuch as James Anthony and Mary Adams have
+consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed
+the same before God and this company, and thereto have
+given and pledged their troth, each to the other, and
+have declared the same by giving and receiving a Ring,
+and by joining hands; I pronounce that they are Man and
+Wife, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
+the Holy Ghost.  Amen."
+
+The preacher lifted his hands solemnly above their
+heads.
+
+"God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost,
+bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with
+His favor look upon you, and fill you with all
+spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live
+together in this life, that in the world to come ye may
+have life everlasting.  AMEN."
+
+The preacher took Mary's hand.
+
+"Your father is my friend, child.  This is for
+him----"
+
+He bent quickly and kissed her lips, while Jim
+gasped in astonishment.
+
+The minister's wife congratulated them both.  The
+two older children smilingly advanced and added their
+voices in good wishes.
+
+Mary whispered to Jim:
+
+"Don't forget the preacher's fee!"
+
+"Lord, how much?  Will fifty be enough?  It's all
+I've got."
+
+"Give him twenty.  We'll need the rest."
+
+It was not until they were seated in the waiting
+cab and sank back among the shadows, that Jim crushed
+her in his arms and kissed her until she cried for
+mercy.
+
+"The gall of that preacher, kissing you!" he
+muttered savagely.  "You know, I come within an ace of
+pasting him one on the nose!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"UNTIL DEATH"
+
+The lights burned in the hall with unusual brightness. 
+Ella stood in the open door of the room, through which
+the light was streaming.  With its radiance came the
+perfume of roses--the scrub-woman's gift of love.  The
+room was a bower of gorgeous flowers.  She had spent
+her last cent in this extravagance.
+Mary swept the place with a look of amazement.
+
+"Oh, Ella," she cried, "how could you be so silly!"
+
+"You like them, ja?" Ella asked softly.
+
+"They're glorious--but you should not have made
+such a sacrifice for me."
+
+"For myself, maybe, I do it--all for myself to make
+me happy, too, tonight."
+
+She dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand
+and placed the chairs beside the beautifully set table.
+
+"Dinner is all ready," she announced
+cheerfully.  "And shall I go now and leave you? 
+Or will you let me serve your dinner first?"
+
+A sudden panic seized the bride.
+
+"Stay and serve the dinner, Ella, if you will," she
+quickly answered.
+
+Jim frowned, but seated himself in business-like
+fashion.
+
+"All right; I'm ready for it, old girl!"
+
+With soft tread and swift, deft touch, Ella served
+the dinner, standing prim and stiff and ghost-like
+behind Jim's chair between the courses.
+
+The bride watched her, fascinated by the pallor of
+her haggard face and the queer suggestion of Death
+which her appearance made in spite of the background of
+flowers.  She had dressed herself in a simple skirt and
+shirtwaist of spotless white.  The material seemed to
+be draped on her tall figure, thin to emaciation.  The
+chalk-like pallor of her face brought out with
+startling sharpness the deep, hollow caverns beneath
+her straight eyebrows.  Her single eye shone unusually
+bright.
+
+Gradually the grim impression grew that Death was
+hovering over her bridal feast--a foolish fancy which
+persisted in her highly-wrought nervous state.  Yet the
+idea, once fixed, could not be crushed.  In vain she
+used her will to bring her wandering mind back to
+the joyous present.  Each time she lifted her eyes they
+rested upon the silent, white figure with its single
+eye piercing the depths of her soul.
+
+She could endure it no longer.  She nodded and
+smiled wanly at Ella.
+
+"You may go now!"
+
+The woman gazed at the bride in surprise.
+
+"I shall come again--yes?"
+
+"Tomorrow morning, Ella, you may help me."
+
+The white figure paused uncertainly at the door,
+and her drawling voice breathed her parting word
+tenderly:
+
+"Good night!"
+
+The bride closed her eyes and answered.
+
+"Good night, Ella!"
+
+The door closed.  Jim rose quickly and bolted it.
+
+"Thank God!" he exclaimed fervently.  He fixed his
+slumbering eyes on his wife for a moment, saw the
+frightened look, walked quickly back to the table and
+took his seat.
+
+"Now, Kiddo, we can eat in peace."
+
+"Yes, I'd rather be alone," she sighed.
+
+"I must say," Jim went on briskly, "that parson of
+yours did give us a run for our money."
+
+"I like the old, long ceremony best."
+
+"Well, you see, I ain't never had much choice--
+but do you know what I thought was the best thing
+in it?"
+
+"No--what?"
+
+"UNTIL DEATH DO US PART!  Gee how he did ring
+out on that!  His voice sounded to me like a big bell
+somewhere away up in the clouds.  Did you hear me sing
+it back at him?"
+
+Mary smiled nervously.
+
+"You had found your voice then."
+
+"You bet I had!  I muffed that first one, though,
+didn't I?"
+
+"A little.  It didn't matter." She answered
+mechanically.
+
+He fixed his eyes on her again.
+
+"Hungry, Kiddo?"
+
+"No," she gasped.
+
+"What's the use!" he cried in low, vibrant tones,
+springing to his feet.  "I don't want to eat this
+stuff--I just want to eat you!"
+
+Mary rose tremblingly and moved instinctively to
+meet him.
+
+He clasped her form in his arms and crushed with
+cruel strength.
+
+"Until death do us part!" he whispered
+passionately.
+
+She answered with a kiss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+THE LOTOS-EATERS
+
+It was eleven o'clock next morning before Ella ventured
+to rap softly on the door.  They had just finished
+breakfast.  The bride was clearing up the table,
+humming a song of her childhood.
+
+Jim caught her in his arms.
+
+"Once more before she comes!"
+
+"Don't kill me!" she laughed.
+
+Jim lounged in the window and smoked his cigarette
+while Ella and Mary chattered in the kitchenette.
+
+In half an hour the scrub-woman had made her last
+trip with the extra dishes, and the little home was
+spick and span.
+
+Mary sprang on the couch and snuggled into Jim's
+arms.
+
+"I've changed our plans----" he began thoughtfully.
+
+"We won't give up our honeymoon trip?"
+she cried in alarm.  "That's one dream we MUST
+live, Jim, dear.  I've set my heart on it."
+
+"Sure we will--sure," he answered quickly.  "But
+not in that car."
+
+"Why?"
+
+Jim grinned.
+
+"Because I like you better--you get me, Kiddo?"
+
+She pressed close and whispered:
+
+"I think so."
+
+"You see, that fool car might throw a tire or two. 
+Believe me, it'll be a job to have her on my hands for
+a thousand miles.  Of course, if I didn't know you,
+little girl, it would be all sorts of fun.  But, honest
+to God, this game beats the world."
+
+He bent low and kissed her again.
+
+"Where'll we go, then?" she murmured.
+
+"That's what I'm tryin' to dope out.  I like the
+sea.  It lulls me just like whisky puts a drunkard to
+sleep.  I wish we could get where it's bright and warm
+and the sun shines all the time.  We could stay two
+weeks and then jump on the train and be in Asheville
+the day before Christmas."
+
+Mary sprang up excitedly.
+
+"I have it!  We'll go to Florida--away down to the
+Keys.  It's the dream of my life to go there!"
+
+"The Keys what's that?" he asked, puzzled.
+
+"The Keys are little sand islands and reefs that
+jut out into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 
+The railroad takes us right there."
+
+"It's warm and sunny there now?"
+
+"Just like summer up here.  We can go in bathing in
+the surf every day."
+
+Jim sprang to his feet.
+
+"Got a bathing suit?"
+
+Yes--a beauty.  I've never worn it here."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"It seemed so bold."
+
+"All right.  Maybe we can get a Key all by
+ourselves for two weeks."
+
+"Wouldn't it be glorious!"
+
+"We'll try it, anyhow.  I'll buy the doggoned thing
+if they don't ask too much.  Pack your traps.  I'll go
+down to the shop and get my things.  We'll be ready to
+start in an hour."
+
+By four o'clock they were seated in the drawing-
+room of a Pullman car on the Florida Limited, gazing
+entranced at the drab landscape of the Jersey meadows.
+
+Three days later, Jim had landed his boat on a tiny
+sand reef a half-mile off the coast of Florida with a
+tent and complete outfit for camping.  Like two romping
+children, they tied the boat to a stake and rushed
+over the sand-dunes to the beach.  They explored their
+domain from end to end within an hour.  Not a tree
+obscured the endless panorama of sea and bay and waving
+grass on the great solemn marshes.  Piles of soft, warm
+seaweed lay in long, dark rows along the high-tide
+mark.
+
+Mary selected a sand-dune almost exactly the height
+and shape of the one on which they sat at Long Beach
+the day he told her of his love.
+
+"Here's the spot for our home!" she cried.  "Don't
+you recognize it?"
+
+"Can't say I've ever been here before.  Oh, I got
+you--I got you!  Long Beach--sure!  What do you think
+of that?"
+
+He hurried to the boat and brought the tent.  Mary
+carried the spade, the pole and pegs.
+
+In half an hour the little white home was shining
+on the level sand at the foot of their favorite dune. 
+The door was set toward the open sea, and the stove
+securely placed beneath an awning which shaded it from
+the sun's rays.
+
+"Now, Kiddo, a plunge in that shining water the
+first thing.  I'll give you the tent.  I'll chuck my
+things out here."
+
+In a fever of joyous haste she threw off her
+clothes and donned the dainty, one-piece bathing suit. 
+She flew over the sand and plunged into the water
+before Jim had finished changing to his suit.
+
+She was swimming and diving like a duck in the
+lazy, beautiful waters of the Gulf when he reached the
+beach.
+
+"Come on!  Come on!" she shouted.
+
+He waved his hand and finished his cigarette.
+
+"It's glorious!  It's mid-summer!" she called.
+
+With a quick plunge he dived into the water,
+disappeared and stayed until she began to scan the
+surface uneasily.  With a splash he rose by her side,
+lifting her screaming in his arms.  Her bathing-cap was
+brushed off, and he seized her long hair in his mouth,
+turned and with swift, strong beat carried her
+unresisting body to the beach.
+
+He drew her erect and looked into her smiling face.
+
+"That's the way I'd save you if you had called for
+help.  How'd you like it?"
+
+"It was sweet to give up and feel myself in your
+power, dear!"
+
+His drooping eyes were devouring her exquisite
+figure outlined so perfectly in the clinging suit.
+
+"I was afraid to wear this in New York," she said
+demurely.
+
+"I can't blame you.  If you'd ever have gone
+on the beach at Coney Island in that, there'd have
+been a riot."
+
+He lifted her in his arms and kissed her.
+
+"And you're all mine, Kiddo!  It's too good to be
+true!  I'm afraid to wake up mornings now for fear I'll
+find I've just been dreaming."
+
+They plunged again in the water, and side by side
+swam far out from the shore, circled gracefully and
+returned.
+
+Hours they spent snuggling in the warm sand.  Not a
+sound of the world beyond the bay broke the stillness. 
+The music of the water's soft sighing came on their
+ears in sweet, endless cadence.  The wind was gentle
+and brushed their cheeks with the softest caress.  Far
+out at sea, white-winged sails were spread--so far away
+they seemed to stand in one spot forever.  The deep cry
+of an ocean steamer broke the stillness at last.
+
+"We must dress for dinner, Jim!" she sighed.
+
+"Why, Kiddo?"
+
+"We must eat, you know."
+
+"But why dress?  I like that style on you.  It's
+too much trouble to dress."
+
+"All right!" she cried gayly.  "We'll have a little
+informal dinner this evening.  I love to feel the sand
+under my feet."
+
+He gathered the wood from the dry drifts above the
+waterline and kindled a fire.  The salt-soaked sticks
+burned fiercely, and the dinner was cooked in a jiffy--
+a fresh chicken he had bought, sweet potatoes, and
+delicious buttered toast.
+
+They sat in their bathing suits on camp-stools
+beside the folding table and ate by moonlight.
+
+The dinner finished, Mary cleared the wooden dishes
+while Jim brought heaps of the dry, spongy sea grass
+and made a bed in the tent.  He piled it two feet high,
+packed it down to a foot, and then spread the sheets
+and blankets.
+
+"All ready for a stroll down the avenue, Kiddo?" he
+called from the door.
+
+"Fifth Avenue or Broadway?" she laughed.
+
+"Oh, the Great White Way--you couldn't miss it! 
+Just look at the shimmer of the moon on the sands! 
+Ain't it great?"
+
+Hand in hand, they strolled on the beach and bathed
+in the silent flood of the moonlit night--no prying
+eyes near save the stars of the friendly southern
+skies.
+
+"The moon seems different down here, Jim!" she
+whispered.
+
+"It is different," he answered with boyish
+enthusiasm.  "It's all so still and white!"
+
+"Could we stay here forever?"
+
+He shook his head emphatically.
+
+"Not on your life.  This little boy has to work,
+you know.  Old man John D. Rockefeller might, but it's
+early for a young financier to retire."
+
+"A whole week, then?"
+
+"Sure!  For a week we'll forget New York."
+
+They sat down on the sand-dune behind the tent and
+watched the waters flash in the silvery light, the
+world and its fevered life forgotten.
+
+"You're the only thing real tonight, Jim!" she
+sighed.
+
+"And you're the world for me, Kiddo!"
+
+She waked at dawn, with a queer feeling of awe at
+the weird, gray light which filtered through the cotton
+walls.  A sense of oneness with Nature and the beat of
+Her eternal heart filled her soul.  The soft wash of
+the water on the sands seemed to be keeping time to the
+throb of her own pulse.
+
+She peered curiously into the face of her sleeping
+lover.  She had never seen him asleep before.  She
+started at the transformation wrought by the closing of
+his heavy eyelids and the complete relaxation of his
+features.  The strange, steel-blue coloring of his eyes
+had always given his face an air of mystery and charm. 
+The complete closing of the heavy lids and the
+slight droop of the lower jaw had worked a frightful
+change.  The romance and charm had gone, and instead
+she saw only the coarse, brutal strength.
+
+She frowned like a spoiled child, put her dainty
+hand under his chin and pressed his mouth together.
+
+"Wake up, sir!" she whispered.  "I don't like your
+expression!"
+
+He refused to stir, and she drew the tips of her
+fingers across his ears and eyelids.
+
+He rubbed his eyes and muttered:
+
+"What t'ell?"
+
+"Let's take a bath in the sea before sunrise--come
+on!"
+
+The sleeper groaned heavily, turned over, and in a
+moment was again dead to the world.
+
+Mary's eyes were wide now with excitement.  The
+hours were too marvelous to be lost in sleep.  She
+could sleep when they must return to the tiresome world
+with its endless crowds of people.
+
+She rose softly, ran barefoot to the beach, threw
+her night-dress on the sand and plunged, her white,
+young body trembling with joy, into the water.
+
+It was marvelous--this wonderful hush of the dawn
+over the infinite sea.  The air and water melted into a
+pearl gray.  Far out toward the east, the waters
+began to blush at the kiss of the coming sun.  The
+pearl gray slowly turned into purple.  So startling was
+the vision, she swam in-shore and stood knee-deep in
+the shallows to watch the magic changes.  In breathless
+wonder she saw the sea and sky and shore turn into a
+trembling cloud of dazzling purple.  A moment before,
+she had caught the water up in her hand and poured it
+out in a stream of pearls.  She lifted a handful and
+poured it out now, each drop a dazzling amethyst.  And
+even while she looked, the purple was changing to
+scarlet--the amethyst into rubies!
+
+A great awe filled her in the solemn hush.  She
+stood in Nature's vast cathedral, close to God's
+heart--her life in harmony with His eternal laws.
+
+How foolish and artificial were the ways of the
+far-away, drab, prosaic world of clothes and houses and
+furnishings!  If she could only live forever in this
+dream-world!
+
+Even while the thought surged through her heart,
+she lifted her head and saw the red rim of the sun
+suddenly break through the sea, and started lest the
+white light of day had revealed her to some passing
+boatman hurrying to his nets.
+
+Her keen eye quickly swept the circle of the wide,
+silent world of sand-dunes, marsh and waters.  No
+prying eye was near.  Only the morning star still
+gleaming above saw.  And they were twin sisters.
+
+Four days flew on velvet wings before the first
+cloud threw its shadow across her life.  Jim always
+slept until nine o'clock, and refused with dogged good-
+natured indifference to stir when she had asked him to
+get the wood for breakfast.  It was nothing, of course,
+to walk a hundred yards to the beach and pick up the
+wood, and she did it.  The hurt that stung was the
+feeling that he was growing indifferent.
+
+She felt for the first time an impulse to box his
+lazy jaws as he yawned and turned over for the dozenth
+time without rising.  He looked for all the world like
+a bulldog curled up on his bed of grass.
+
+She shook him at last.
+
+"Jim, dear, you must get up now!  Breakfast is
+almost ready and it won't be fit to eat if you don't
+come on."
+
+He opened his heavy eyelids and gazed at her
+sleepily.
+
+"All righto----!  Just as you say--just as you
+say."
+
+"Hurry!  Breakfast will be ready before you can
+dress."
+
+"Gee!  Breakfast all ready!  You're one smart
+little wifie, Kiddo."
+
+The compliment failed to please.  She was sure that
+he had been fully awake twice before and pretended to
+be asleep from sheer laziness and indifference.
+
+The thought hurt.
+
+When they sat down at last to breakfast, she looked
+into his half-closed eyes with a sudden start.
+
+"Why, Jim, your eyes are red!"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"You're ill--what is it?"
+
+He grinned sheepishly.
+
+"You couldn't guess now, could you?"
+
+"You haven't been drinking!" she gasped.
+
+"No," he drawled lazily, "I wouldn't say drinking--
+I just took one big swallow last night--makes you sleep
+good when you're tired.  Good medicine!  I always carry
+a little with me."
+
+A sickening wave went over her.  Not that she felt
+that he was going to be a drunkard.  But the utter
+indifference with which he made the announcement was a
+painful revelation of the fact that her opinion on such
+a question was not of the slightest importance. 
+That he was now master of the situation he evidently
+meant that she should see and understand at once.
+
+She refused to accept the humiliating position
+without a struggle and made up her mind to try at once
+to mold his character.  She would begin by getting him
+to cut the slang from his conversation.
+
+"You remember the promise you made me one day
+before we were married, Jim?" she asked brightly.
+
+"Which one?  You know a fellow's not responsible
+for what he promises to get his girl.  All's fair in
+love and war, they say----"
+
+"I'm going to hold you to this one, sir," she
+firmly declared.
+
+"All right, little bright eyes," he responded
+cheerfully as he lit a cigarette and sent the smoke
+curling above his red head.
+
+She sat for a while in silence, studying the man
+before her.  The task was delicate and difficult.  And
+she had thought it a mere pastime of love!  As her
+fiance, he had been wax in her hands.  As her husband,
+he was a lazy, headstrong, obstinate young animal
+grinning good-naturedly at her futile protests.  How
+long would he grin and bear her suggestions with
+patience?  The transition from this lazy grin to the
+growl of an angry bulldog might be instantaneous.
+
+She would move with the utmost caution--but she
+would move and at once.  It would be a test of
+character between them.  She edged her chair close to
+his, drew his head down in her lap and ran her fingers
+through his thick, red hair.
+
+"Still love me, Jim?" she smiled.
+
+"Crazier over you every day--and you know it, too,
+you sly little puss," he answered dreamily.
+
+"You WILL make good your promises?"
+
+"Sure, I will--surest thing you know!"
+
+"You see, Jim dear," she went on tenderly, "I want
+to be proud of you----"
+
+"Well, ain't you?"
+
+"Of course I am, silly.  I know you and understand
+you.  But I want all the world to respect you as I do." 
+She paused and breathed deeply.  "They've got to do it,
+too, they've got to----"
+
+"Sure, I'll knock their block off--if they don't!"
+he broke in.
+
+She raised her finger reprovingly and shook her
+head.
+
+"That's just the trouble: you can't do it with your
+fists.  You can't compel the respect of cultured
+men and women by physical force.  We've got to win with
+other weapons."
+
+"All right, Kiddo--dope it out for me," he
+responded lazily.  "Dope it out----"
+
+Her lips quivered with the painful recognition of
+the task before her.  Yet when she spoke, her voice was
+low and sweet and its tones even.  She gave no sign to
+the man whose heavy form rested in her arms.
+
+"Then from today we must begin to cut out every
+word of slang--it's a bargain?"
+
+"Sure, Mike--I promised!"
+
+"Cut `Sure Mike!'"
+
+She raised her finger severely.
+
+"All right, teacher," he drawled.  "What'll we put
+in Sure Mike's place?  I've found him a handy man!"
+
+"Say `certainly.'"
+
+Jim grinned good-naturedly.
+
+"Aw hell, Kiddo--that sounds punk!"
+
+"And HELL, Jim, isn't a nice word----"
+
+"Gee, Kid, now look here--can't get along with out
+HELL--leave me that one just a little while."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No."
+
+"No?"
+
+"And PUNK is expressive, but not suited to
+parlor use."
+
+"All right--t'ell with PUNK!"  He turned and
+looked.  "What's the matter now?" he asked.
+
+"Don't you realize what you've just said?"
+
+"What did I say?"
+
+She turned away to hide a tear.
+
+He threw his arms around her neck and drew her lips
+down to his.
+
+"Ah, don't worry, Kiddo--I'll do better next time. 
+Honest to God, I will.  That's enough for today.  Just
+let's love now.  T'ell with the rest."
+
+She smiled in answer.
+
+"You promise to try honestly?"
+
+He raised his hand in solemn vow.
+
+"S'help me!"
+
+Each day's trial ended in a laugh and a kiss until
+at last Jim refused to promise any more.  He grinned in
+obstinate, good-natured silence and let her do the
+worrying.
+
+She watched him with growing wonder and alarm.  He
+gradually lapsed into little coarse, ugly habits at the
+table.  She tried playfully to correct them.  He took
+it good-naturedly at first and then ignored her
+suggestions as if she were a kitten complaining at his
+feet.
+
+She studied him with baffling rage at the mystery
+of his personality.  The long silences between them
+grew from hour to hour.  She could see that he was
+restless now at the isolation of their sand-island
+home.  The queer lights and shadows that played in his
+cold blue eyes told only too plainly that his mind was
+back again in the world of battle.  He was fighting
+something, too.
+
+She was glad of it.  She could manage him better
+there.  She would throw him into the company of
+educated people and rouse his pride and ambition.  She
+heard his announcement of their departure on the eighth
+day with positive joy.
+
+"Well, Kiddo," he began briskly, "we've got to be
+moving.  Time to get back to work now.  The old town
+and the little shop down in Avenue B have been calling
+me."
+
+"Today, Jim?" she asked quickly.
+
+"Right away.  We'll catch the first train north,
+stop two days, Christmas Eve and Christmas, in
+Asheville, and then for old New York!"
+
+The journey along the new railroad built on
+concrete bridges over miles of beautiful waters was one
+of unalloyed joy.  They had passed over this stretch of
+marvelous engineering at night on their trip down and
+had not realized its wonders.  For hours the train
+seemed to be flying on velvet wings through the ocean.
+
+She sat beside her lover and held his hand.  In
+spite of her enthusiasm, he would doze.  At every turn
+of entrancing view she would pinch his arm:
+
+"Look, Jim!  Look!"
+
+He would lift his heavy eyelids, grunt good-
+naturedly and doze again.
+
+In the dining-car she was in mortal terror at first
+lest he should lapse into the coarse table manners into
+which he had fallen in camp.  She laid his napkin
+conspicuously on his plate and saw that he had opened
+and put it in place across his lap before ordering the
+meals.
+
+The moment he found himself in a crowd, the lights
+began to flash in his eyes, his broad shoulders lifted
+and his whole being was at once alert and on guard.  He
+followed his wife's lead with unerring certainty.
+
+She renewed her faith in his early reformation,
+though his character was a puzzle.  He seemed to be
+forever watching out of the corners of his slumbering
+eyes.  She wondered what it meant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+THE REAL MAN
+
+They arrived in Asheville the night before Christmas
+Eve.  Jim listened to his wife's prattle about the
+wonderful views with quiet indifference.
+
+They stopped at the Battery Park Hotel, and she
+hoped the waning moon would give them at least a
+glimpse of the beautiful valley of the French Broad and
+Swannanoa rivers and the dark, towering ranges of
+mountains among the stars.  She made Jim wait on the
+balcony of the room for half an hour, but the clouds
+grew denser and he persisted in nodding.
+
+His head dipped lower than usual, and she laughed.
+
+"Poor old sleepy-head!"
+
+"For the love o' Mike, Kiddo--me for the hay. 
+Won't them mountains wait till morning?"
+
+"All right!" she answered cheerily.  "I'll pull you
+out at sunrise.  The sunrise from our window will be
+glorious."
+
+He rose and stretched his body like a young, well
+fed tiger.
+
+"I think it's prettier from the bed.  But have it
+your own way--have it your own way.  I'll agree to
+anything if you lemme go to sleep now."
+
+She rose as the first gray fires of dawn began to
+warm the cloud-banks on the eastern horizon, stood
+beside her window and watched in silent ecstasy.  Jim
+was sleeping heavily.  She would not wake him until the
+glory of the sunrise was at its height.  She loved to
+watch the changing lights and shadows in sky and valley
+and on distant mountain peaks as the light slowly
+filtered over the eastern hills.
+
+She had recovered from the depression of the last
+days of their camp.  The journey back into the world
+had improved Jim's manners.  There could be no doubt
+about his ambitions.  His determination to be a
+millionaire was the lever she now meant to work in
+raising his social aspirations.
+
+Why should she feel depressed?
+
+Their married life had just begun.  The two weeks
+they had passed on their honeymoon had been happy
+beyond her dreams of happiness.  Somehow her
+imagination had failed to give any conception of the
+wonder and glory of this revelation of life.  His
+little lapses of selfishness on their sand island
+no doubt came from ignorance of what was expected of
+him.
+
+For one thing she felt especially thankful.  There
+had been no ugly confessions of a shady past to cloud
+the joy of their love.  Her lover might be ignorant of
+the ways of polite society.  He was equally free of its
+sinister vices.  She thanked God for that.  The soul of
+the man she had married was clean of all memories of
+women.  The love he gave was fierce in its unrestrained
+passion--but it was all hers.  She gloried in its
+strength.
+
+She made up her mind, standing there in the soft
+light of the dawn, that she would bend his iron will to
+her own in the growing, sweet intimacy of their married
+life and threw her fears to the winds.
+
+The thin, fleecy clouds that hung over the low
+range of the eastern foreground were all aglow now,
+with every tint of the rainbow, while the sun's bed
+beyond the hills was flaming in scarlet and gold.
+
+She clapped her hands in ecstasy.
+
+"Jim!  Jim, dear!"
+
+He made no response, and she rushed to his side and
+whispered:
+
+"You must see this sunrise--get up quick, quick,
+dear.  It's wonderful."
+
+"What's the matter?" he muttered.
+
+"The sunrise over the mountains--quick--it's
+glorious."
+
+His heavy eyelids drooped and closed.  He dropped
+on the pillow and buried his face out of sight.
+
+"Ah, Jim dear, do come--just to please me."
+
+"I'm dead, Kiddo--dead to the world," he sighed. 
+"Don't like to see the sun rise.  I never did.  Come on
+back and let's sleep----"
+
+His last words were barely audible.  He was
+breathing heavily as his lips ceased to move.
+
+She gave it up, returned to the window and watched
+the changing colors until the white light from the
+sun's face had touched with life the last shadows of
+the valleys and flashed its signals from the farthest
+towering peaks.
+
+Her whole being quivered in response to the beauty
+of this glorious mountain world.  The air was wine. 
+She loved the sapphire skies and the warm, lazy,
+caressing touch of the sun of the South.
+
+A sense of bitterness came, just for a moment, that
+the man she had chosen for her mate had no eye to see
+these wonders and no ear to hear their music.  During
+the madness of his whirlwind courtship she had gotten
+the impression that his spirit was sensitive to
+beauty--to the waters of the bay, the sea and the
+wooded hills.  She must face the facts.  Their stay on
+the island had convinced her that he had eyes only for
+her.  She must make the most of it.
+
+It was ten o'clock before Jim could be persuaded to
+rise and get breakfast.  She literally pulled him up
+the stairs to the observatory on the tower of the
+hotel.
+
+"What's the game, Kiddo?  What's the game?" he
+grumbled.
+
+"Ask me no questions.  But do just as I tell you;
+come on!"
+
+Her face was radiant, her hair in a tangle of
+riotous beauty about her forehead and temples, her eyes
+sparkling.
+
+"Don't look till I tell you!" she cried, as they
+emerged on the little minaret which crowns the tower.
+
+"Now open and see the glory of the Lord!" she cried
+with joyous awe.
+
+The day was one of matchless beauty.  The clouds
+that swung low in the early morning had floated higher
+and higher till they hung now in shining billows above
+the highest balsam-crowned peaks in the distance.
+
+In every direction, as far as the eye could
+reach, north, south, east, west, the dark ranges
+mounted in the azure skies until the farthest dim lines
+melted into the heavens.
+
+"Oh, Jim dear, isn't it wonderful!  We're lucky to
+get this view on our first day.  It's such a good
+omen."
+
+Jim opened his eyes lazily and puffed his cigarette
+in a calm, patronizing way.
+
+"Tough sledding we'd have had with an automobile
+over those hills," he said.  "We'll try it after lunch,
+though."
+
+"We'll go for a ride?" she cried joyfully.
+
+"Yep.  Got to hunt up the folks.  The mountains
+near Asheville!" he said with disgust.  "I should say
+they are near--and far, too.  Holy smoke, I'll bet we
+get lost!"
+
+"Nonsense----"
+
+"Where's the Black Mountains, I wonder?" he asked
+suddenly.
+
+"Over there!"  She pointed to the giant peaks
+projecting here and there in dim, blue waves beyond the
+Great Craggy Range in the foreground.
+
+"Holy Moses!  Do we have to climb those crags
+before we start?"
+
+"To go to Black Mountain?"
+
+"Yes.  That's where the lawyer said they
+lived, under Cat-tail Peak in the Black Mountain
+Range--wherever t'ell that is."
+
+"No, no!  You don't climb the Great Craggy; you go
+around this end of it and follow the Swannanoa River
+right up to the foot of Mount Mitchell, the highest
+peak this side of the Rockies.  The Cat-tail is just
+beyond Mount Mitchell."
+
+"You've been there?" he asked in surprise.
+
+"Once, with a party from Asheville.  We spent three
+days and slept in caves."
+
+"Suppose you'd know the way now?"
+
+"We couldn't miss it.  We follow the bed of the
+Swannanoa to its source-----"
+
+"Then that settles it.  We'll go by ourselves.  I
+don't want any mutt along to show us the way.  We
+couldn't get lost nohow, could we?"
+
+"Of course not--all the roads lead to Asheville. 
+We can ask the way to the house you want, when we reach
+the little stopping place at the foot of Mount
+Mitchell."
+
+"Gee, Kid, you're a wonder!" he exclaimed
+admiringly.  "Couldn't get along without you, now could
+I?"
+
+"I hope not, sir!"
+
+"You bet I couldn't!  We'll start right away.  The
+roads will give us a jolt----"
+
+He turned suddenly to go.
+
+"Wait--wait a minute, dear," she pleaded.  "You
+haven't seen this gorgeous view to the southwest, with
+Mount Pisgah looming in the center like some vast
+cathedral spire--look, isn't it glorious?"
+
+"Fine!  Fine!" he responded in quick, businesslike
+tones.
+
+"You can look for days and weeks and not begin to
+realize the changing beauty of these mountains, clothed
+in eternal green!  Just think, dear, Mount Pisgah,
+there, is forty miles away, and it looks as if you
+could stroll over to it in an hour's walk.  And there
+are twenty-three magnificent peaks like that, all of
+them more than six thousand feet high----"
+
+She paused with a frown.  He was neither looking
+nor listening.  He had fallen into a brown study; his
+mind was miles away.
+
+"You're not listening, Jim--nor seeing anything,"
+she said reproachfully.
+
+"No--Kiddo, we must get ready for that trip.  I've
+got a letter for a lawyer downtown.  I'll find him and
+hire a car.  I'll be back here for you in an hour. 
+You'll be ready?"
+
+"Right away, in half an hour----"
+
+"Just pack a suit-case for us both.  We'll
+stay one night.  I'll take a bag, too, that I have
+in my trunk."
+
+It was noon before he returned with a staunch
+touring car ready for the trip.  He opened the little
+steamer trunk which he had always kept locked and took
+from it a small leather bag.  He placed it on the
+floor, and, in spite of careful handling, the ring of
+metal inside could be distinctly heard.
+
+"What on earth have you got in that queer black
+bag?" she asked in surprise.
+
+"Oh, just a lot o' junk from the shop.  I thought I
+might tinker with it at odd times.  I don't want to
+leave it here.  It's got one of my new models in it."
+
+He carried the bag in his hand, refusing to allow
+the porter who came for the suit-case to touch it.
+
+He threw the suit-case in the bottom of the
+tonneau.  The bag he stowed carefully under the
+cushions of the rear seat.  The moment he placed his
+hand on the wheel of the machine, he was at his best. 
+Every trace of the street gamin fell from him.  Again
+he was the eagle-eyed master of time and space.  The
+machine answered his touch with more than human
+obedience.  He knew how to humor its mood.  He
+conserved its power for a hill with unerring accuracy
+and threw it over the grades with rarely a pause
+to change his speeds.  He could turn the sharp curves
+with such swift, easy grace that he scarcely caused
+Mary's body to swerve an inch.  He could sense a rough
+place in the road and glide over it with velvet touch.
+
+A tire blew out, five miles up the stream from
+Asheville, and the easy, business-like deliberation
+with which he removed the old and adjusted the new, was
+a revelation to Mary of a new phase of his character.
+
+He never once grunted, or swore, or lost his poise,
+or manifested the slightest impatience.  He set about
+his task coolly, carefully, skillfully, and finished it
+quickly and silently.
+
+His long silences at last began to worry her.  An
+invisible barrier had reared itself between them.  The
+impression was purely mental--but it was none the less
+real and distressing.
+
+There was a look of aloof absorption about him she
+had never seen before.  At first she attributed it to
+the dread of meeting his kinsfolk for the first time,
+his fear of what they might be like or what they might
+think of him.
+
+He answered her questions cheerfully but
+mechanically.  Sometimes he stared at her in a cold,
+impersonal way and gave no answer, as if her
+questions were an impertinence and she were not of
+sufficient importance to waste his breath on.
+
+Unable at last to endure the strain, she burst out
+impatiently:
+
+"What on earth's the matter with you, Jim?"
+
+"Why?" he asked softly.
+
+"You haven't spoken to me in half an hour, and I've
+asked you two questions."
+
+"Just studying about something, Kiddo, something
+big.  I'll tell you sometime, maybe--not now."
+
+Slowly a great fear began to shape itself in her
+heart.  The real man behind those slumbering eyes she
+had never known.  Who was he?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+UNWELCOME GUESTS
+
+While she was yet puzzling over the strange mood of
+absorbed brooding into which Jim had fallen, his face
+suddenly lighted, and he changed with such rapidity
+that her uneasiness was doubled.
+
+They had reached the stretches of deep forest at
+the foot of the Black Mountain ranges.  The Swannanoa
+had become a silver thread of laughing, foaming spray
+and deep, still pools beneath the rocks.  The fields
+were few and small.  The little clearings made scarcely
+an impression in the towering virgin forests.
+
+"Great guns, Kiddo!" he exclaimed, "this is some
+country!  By George, I had no idea there was such a
+place so close to New York!"
+
+She looked at him with uneasy surprise.  What could
+be in his mind?  The solemn gorge through which they
+were passing gave no entrancing views of clouds or sky
+or towering peaks.  Its wooded cliffs hung
+ominously overhead in threatening shadows.  The scene
+had depressed her after the vast sunlit spaces of sky,
+of shining valleys and cloud-capped, sapphire peaks on
+which they had turned their backs.
+
+"You like this, Jim?" she asked.
+
+"It's great--great!"
+
+"I thought that waterfall we just passed was very
+beautiful."
+
+"I didn't see it.  But this is something like it. 
+You're clean out of the world here--and there ain't a
+railroad in twenty miles!"
+
+The deeper the shadows of tree and threatening
+crag, the higher Jim's strange spirit seemed to rise.
+
+She watched him with increasing fear.  How little
+she knew the real man!  Could it be possible that this
+lonely, unlettered boy of the streets of lower New
+York, starved and stunted in childhood, had within him
+the soul of a great poet?  How else could she explain
+the sudden rapture over the threatening silences and
+shadows of these mountain gorges which had depressed
+her?  And yet his utter indifference to the glories of
+beautiful waters, his blindness at noon before the most
+wonderful panorama of mountains and skies on which she
+had ever gazed, contradicted the theory of the poetic
+soul.  A poet must see beauty where she had seen
+it--and a thousand wonders her eyes had not found.
+
+His elation was uncanny.  What could it mean?
+
+He was driving now with a skill that was
+remarkable, a curious smile playing about his drooping,
+Oriental eyelids.  A wave of fierce resentment swept
+her heart.  She was a mere plaything in this man's
+life.  The real man she had never seen.  What was he
+thinking about?  What grim secret lay behind the
+mysterious smile that flickered about the corners of
+those eyes?  He was not thinking of her.  The mood was
+new and cold and cynical, for all the laughter he might
+put in it.
+
+She asked herself the question of his past, his
+people, his real life-history.  The only answer was his
+baffling, mysterious smile.
+
+A frown suddenly clouded his face.
+
+"Hello!  Ye're running right into a man's yard!"
+
+Mary lifted her head with quick surprise.
+
+"Why yes, it's the stopping place for the parties
+that climb Mount Mitchell.  I remember it.  We stayed
+all night here, left our rig, and started next morning
+at sunrise on horseback to climb the trail."
+
+"Pretty near the jumping-off place, then," he
+remarked.  "We'll ask the way to Cat-tail Peak."
+
+He stopped the car in front of the low-pitched,
+weather-stained frame house and blew the horn.
+
+A mountain woman with three open-eyed, silent
+children came slowly to meet them.
+
+She smiled pleasantly, and without embarrassment
+spoke in a pleasant drawl:
+
+"Won't you 'light and look at your saddle?"
+
+The expression caught Jim's fancy, and he broke
+into a roar of laughter.  The woman blushed and laughed
+with him.  She couldn't understand what was the matter
+with the man.  Why should he explode over the simple
+greeting in which she had expressed her pleasure at
+their arrival?
+
+Anyhow, she was an innkeeper's wife, and her
+business was to make folks feel at home--so she laughed
+again with Jim.
+
+"You know that's the funniest invitation I ever got
+in a car," he cried at last.  "We fly in these things
+sometimes.  And when you said, `Won't you 'light,'"--he
+paused and turned to his wife--"I could just feel
+myself up in the air on that big old racer's back."
+
+"Won't you-all stay all night with us?" the soft
+voice drawled again.
+
+"Thank you, not tonight," Mary answered.
+
+She waited for Jim to ask the way.
+
+"No--not tonight," he repeated.  "You happen to
+know an old woman by the name of Owens who lives up
+here?"
+
+"Nance Owens?"
+
+"That's her name."
+
+"Lord, everybody knows old Nance!" was the smiling
+answer.
+
+"She ain't got good sense!" the tow-headed boy
+spoke up.
+
+"Sh!" the mother warned, boxing his ears.
+
+"She's a little queer, that's all.  Everybody knows
+her in Buncombe and Yancey counties.  Her house is
+built across the county line.  She eats in Yancey and
+sleeps in Buncombe----"
+
+"Yes," broke in the boy joyously, "an' when the
+Sheriff o' Yancey comes, she moves back into Buncombe. 
+She's some punkin's on a green gourd vine, she is--if
+she ain't got good sense."
+
+His mother struck at him again, but he dodged the
+blow and finished his speech without losing a word.
+
+"Could you tell us the way to her house?"
+
+"Keep right on this road, and you can't miss it."
+
+"How far is it?"
+
+"Oh, not far."
+
+"No; right at the bottom o' the Cat's-tail," the
+boy joyfully explained.
+
+"He means the foot o' Cat-tail Peak!" the mother
+apologized.
+
+"How many miles?"
+
+"Just a little ways--ye can't miss it; the third
+house you come to on this road."
+
+"You'll be there in three shakes of a sheep's
+tail--in that thing!" the boy declared.
+
+Jim waved his thanks, threw in his gear, and the
+car shot forward on the level stretch of road beyond
+the house.  He slowed down when out of sight.
+
+"Gee!  I'd love to have that kid in a wood-shed
+with a nice shingle all by ourselves for just ten
+minutes."
+
+"The people spoil him," Mary laughed.  "The people
+who stop there for the Mount Mitchell climb.  He was a
+baby when I was there six years ago"--she paused and a
+rapt look crept into her eyes--"a beautiful little
+baby, her first-born, and she was the happiest thing I
+ever saw in my life."
+
+Her voice sank to a whisper.
+
+A vision suddenly illumined her own soul, and she
+forgot her anxiety over Jim's queer moods.
+
+Deeper and deeper grew the shadows of crag,
+gorge, and primeval forest.  The speedometer on the
+foot-board registered five miles from the Mount
+Mitchell house.  They had passed two cabins by the way,
+and still no sign of the third.
+
+"Why couldn't she tell us how many miles, I'd like
+to know?" Jim grumbled.
+
+"It's the way of the mountain folk.  They're
+noncommittal on distances."
+
+He stopped the car and lighted the lamps.
+
+"Going to be dark in a minute," he said.  "But I
+like this place," he added.
+
+He picked his way with care over the narrow road. 
+They crossed the little stream they were trailing, and
+the car crawled over the rocks along the banks at a
+snail's pace.
+
+An owl called from a dead tree-top silhouetted
+against an open space of sky ahead.
+
+"Must be a clearing there," Jim muttered.
+
+He stopped the car and listened for the sounds of
+life about a house.
+
+A vast, brooding silence filled the world.  A wolf
+howled from the edge of a distant crag somewhere
+overhead.
+
+"For God's sake!" Jim shivered.  "What was that?"
+
+"Only a mountain wolf crying for company."
+
+"Wolves up here?" he asked in surprise.
+
+"A few--harmless, timid, lonesome fellows.  It
+makes me sorry for them when I hear one."
+
+"Great country!  I like it!" Jim responded.
+
+Again she wondered why.  What a queer mixture of
+strength and mystery--this man she had married!
+
+He started the car, turned a bend in the road, and
+squarely in front, not more than a hundred yards away,
+gleamed a light in a cabin window--four tiny panes of
+glass.
+
+"By Geeminy, we come near stopping in the front
+yard without knowing it!" he exclaimed.  "Didn't we?"
+
+"I'm glad she's at home!" Mary exclaimed.  "The
+light shines with a friendly glow in these deep
+shadows."
+
+"Afraid, Kiddo?" he asked lightly.
+
+"I don't like these dark places."
+
+"All right when you get used to 'em--safer than
+daylight."
+
+Again her heart beat at his queer speech.  She
+shivered at the thought of this uncanny trait of
+character so suddenly developed today.  She made an
+effort to throw off her depression.  It would vanish
+with the sun tomorrow morning.
+
+He picked his way carefully among the trees and
+stopped in front of the cabin door.  The little house
+sat back from the road a hundred feet or more.
+
+He blew his horn twice and waited.
+
+A sudden crash inside, and the light went out.  He
+waited a moment for it to come back.
+
+Only darkness and dead silence.
+
+"Suppose she dropped dead and kicked over the
+lamp?" Jim laughed.
+
+"She probably took the lamp into another room."
+
+"No; it went out too quick--and it went out with a
+crash."
+
+He blew his horn again.
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"Hello!  Hello!" he called loudly.
+
+Someone stirred at the door.  Jim's keen ear was
+turned toward the house.
+
+"I heard her bar the door, I'll swear it."
+
+"How foolish, Jim!" Mary whispered.  "You couldn't
+have heard it."
+
+"All the same I did.  Here's a pretty kettle of
+fish!  The old hellion's not even going to let us in."
+
+He seized the lever of his horn and blew one
+terrific blast after another, in weird, uncanny
+sobs and wails, ending in a shriek like the last
+cry of a lost soul.
+
+"Don't, Jim!" Mary cried, shivering.  "You'll
+frighten her to death."
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"Go up and speak to her--and knock on the door."
+
+He waited again in silence, scrambled out of the
+car, and fumbled his way through the shadows to the
+dark outlines of the cabin.  He found the porch on
+which the front door opened.
+
+His light foot touched the log with sure step, and
+he walked softly to the cabin wall.  The door was not
+yet visible in the pitch darkness.  His auto lights
+were turned the other way and threw their concentrated
+rays far down into the deep woods.
+
+He listened intently for a moment and caught the
+cat-like tread of the old woman inside.
+
+"I say--hello, in there!" he called.
+
+Again the sound of her quick, furtive step told him
+that she was on the alert and determined to defend her
+castle against all comers.  What if she should slip an
+old rifle through a crack and blow his head off?
+
+She might do it, too!
+
+He must make her open the door.
+
+"Say, what's the matter in there?" he asked
+persuasively.
+
+A moment's silence, and then a gruff voice slowly
+answered:
+
+"They ain't nobody at home!"
+
+"The hell they ain't!" Jim laughed.
+
+"No!"
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+She hesitated and then growled back:
+
+"None o' your business.  Who are you?"
+
+"We're strangers up here--lost our way.  It's
+cold--we got to stop for the night."
+
+"Ye can't--they's nobody home, I tell ye!" she
+repeated with sullen emphasis.
+
+Jim broke into a genial laugh.
+
+"Ah!  Come on, old girl!  Open up and be sociable. 
+We're not revenue officers or sheriffs.  If you've got
+any good mountain whiskey, I'll help you drink it."
+
+"Who are ye?" she repeated savagely.
+
+"Ah, just a couple o' gentle, cooing turtle-doves--
+a bride and groom.  Loosen up, old girl; it's Christmas
+Eve--and we're just a couple o' gentle cooin'
+doves----"
+
+Jim kept up his persuasive eloquence until the
+light of the candle flashed through the window,
+and he heard her slip the heavy bar from the door.
+
+He lost no time in pushing his way inside.
+
+Nance threw a startled look at his enormous, shaggy
+fur coat--at the shining aluminum goggles almost
+completely masking his face.  She gave a low,
+breathless scream, hurled the door-bar crashing to the
+floor and stared at him like a wild, hunted animal at
+bay, her thin hands trembling, the iron-gray hair
+tumbling over her forehead.
+
+"Oh, my God!" she wailed, crouching back.
+
+Jim gazed at her in amazement.  He had forgotten
+his goggles and fur coat.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked in high-keyed tones
+of surprise.
+
+Nance made no answer but crouched lower and
+attempted to put the table between them.
+
+"What t'ell Bill ails you--will you tell me?" he
+asked with rising wrath.
+
+"I THOUGHT you wuz the devil," the old woman
+panted.  "Now I KNOW it!"
+
+Jim suddenly remembered his goggles and coat, and
+broke into a laugh.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+He removed his goggles and cap, threw back his big
+coat and squared his shoulders with a smile.
+
+"How's that?"
+
+Nance glowered at him with ill-concealed rage,
+looked him over from head to foot, and answered with a
+snarl:
+
+"'Tain't much better--ef ye ax ME!"
+
+"Gee!  But you're a sociable old wild-cat!" he
+exclaimed, starting back as if she had struck him a
+blow.
+
+His eye caught the dried skin of a young wildcat
+hanging on the log wall.
+
+"No wonder you skinned your neighbor and hung her
+up to dry," he added moodily.
+
+He took in the room with deliberate insolence while
+the old woman stood awkwardly watching him, shifting
+her position uneasily from one foot to the other.
+
+In all his miserable life in New York he could not
+recall a room more bare of comforts.  The rough logs
+were chinked with pieces of wood and daubed with red
+clay.  The door was made of rough boards, the ceiling
+of hewn logs with split slabs laid across them.  An
+old-fashioned, tall spinning wheel, dirty and unused,
+sat in the corner.  A rough pine table was in the
+middle of the floor and a smaller one against the wall. 
+On this side table sat two rusty flat-irons, and
+against it leaned an ironing board.  A dirty piece
+of turkey-red calico hung on a string for a portiere at
+the opening which evidently led into a sort of kitchen
+somewhere in the darkness beyond.
+
+The walls were decorated at intervals.  A huge
+bunch of onions hung on a wooden peg beside the wild-
+cat skin.  Over the window was slung an old-fashioned
+muzzle-loading musket.  The sling which held it was
+made of a pair of ancient home-made suspenders fastened
+to the logs with nails.  Beneath the gun hung a cow's
+horn, cut and finished for powder, and with it a dirty
+game-bag.  Strings of red peppers were strung along
+each of the walls, with here and there bunches of
+popcorn in the ears.  A pile of black walnuts lay in
+one corner of the cabin and a pile of hickory nuts in
+another.
+
+A three-legged wooden stool and a split-bottom
+chair stood beside the table, and a haircloth couch,
+which looked as if it had been saved from the Ark, was
+pushed near the wall beside the door.
+
+Across this couch was thrown a ragged patchwork
+quilt, and a pillow covered with calico rested on one
+end, with the mark of a head dented deep in the center.
+
+Jim shrugged his shoulders with a look of disgust,
+stepped quickly to the door and called:
+
+"Come on in, Kid!"
+
+Nance fumbled her thin hands nervously and spoke
+with the faintest suggestion of a sob in her voice.
+
+"I ain't got nothin' for ye to eat----"
+
+"We've had dinner," he answered carelessly.
+
+He stepped to the door and called:
+
+"Bring that little bag from under the seat, Kiddo."
+
+He held the door open, and the light streamed
+across the yard to the car.  He watched her steadily
+while she raised the cushion of the rear seat, lifted
+the bag and sprang from the car.  His keen eye never
+left her for an instant until she placed it in his
+hands.
+
+"Mercy, but it's heavy!" she panted, as she gave it
+to him.
+
+He took it without a word and placed it on the
+table in the center of the room.
+
+Nance glared at him sullenly.
+
+"There's no place for ye, I tell ye----"
+
+Jim faced her with mock politeness.
+
+"For them kind words--thanks!"
+
+He bowed low and swept the room with a mocking
+gesture.
+
+"There ain't no room for ye," the old woman
+persisted.
+
+Jim raised his voice to a squeaking falsetto with
+deliberate purpose to torment her.
+
+"I got ye the first time, darlin'!" he exclaimed,
+lifting his hands above her as if to hold her down. 
+"We must linger awhile for your name--anyhow, we
+mustn't forget that.  This is Mrs. Nance Owens?"
+
+The old woman started and watched him from beneath
+her heavy eyebrows, answering with sullen emphasis:
+
+"Yes."
+
+Again Jim lifted his hands above his head and waved
+her to earth.
+
+"Well!  Don't blame me!  I can't help it, you
+know----"
+
+He turned to his wife and spoke with jolly good
+humor.
+
+"It's the place, all right.  Set down, Kiddo--take
+off your hat and things.  Make yourself at home."
+
+Nance flew at him in a sudden frenzy at his
+assumption of insolent ownership of her cabin.
+
+"There's no place for ye to sleep!" she fairly
+shrieked in his face.
+
+Again Jim's arms were over her head, waving her
+down.
+
+"All right, sweetheart!  We're from New York.  We
+don't sleep.  We've come all the way down here to the
+mountains of North Carolina just to see you.  And we're
+goin' to sit up all night and look at ye----"
+
+He sat down deliberately, and Nance fumbled her
+hands with a nervous movement.
+
+Mary's heart went out in sympathy to the forlorn
+old creature in her embarrassment.  Her dress was dirty
+and ragged, an ill-fitting gingham, the elbows out and
+her bare, bony arms showing through.  The waist was too
+short and always slipping from the belt of wrinkled
+cloth beneath which she kept trying to stuff it.
+
+Mary caught her restless eye at last and held it in
+a friendly look.
+
+"Please let us stay!" she pleaded.  "We can sleep
+on the floor--anywhere."
+
+"You bet!" Jim joined in.  "Married two weeks--and
+I don't care whether it rains or whether it pours or
+how long I have to stand outdoors--if I can be with
+you, Kid."
+
+The old woman hesitated until Mary's smile melted
+its way into her heart.
+
+Her lips trembled, and her watery blue eyes
+blinked.
+
+"Well," she began grumblingly, "thar's a little
+single bed in that shed-room thar for you--ef he'll
+sleep in here on the sofy."
+
+Jim leaped to his feet.
+
+"What do ye think of that?  Bully for the old gal! 
+Kinder slow at first.  As the poet sings of the little
+bed-bug, she ain't got no wings--but she gets there
+just the same!"
+
+He drew the electric torch from his pocket and
+advanced on Nance.
+
+"By Golly--I'll have another look at you."
+
+Nance backed in terror at the sight of the
+revolver-like instrument.
+
+"What's that?" she gasped.
+
+"Just a little Gatlin' gun!" he cried jokingly.  He
+pressed the button, and the light flashed squarely in
+the old woman's eyes.
+
+"God 'lmighty--don't shoot!" she screamed.
+
+Jim doubled with laughter.
+
+"For the love o' Mike!"
+
+Nance leaned against the side table and wiped the
+perspiration from her brow.
+
+"Lord!  I thought you'd kilt me!" she panted, still
+trembling.
+
+"Ah, don't be foolish!" Jim said persuasively.  "It
+can't hurt you.  Here, take it in your hand--I'll
+show you how to work it.  It's to nose round dark
+places under the buzz-wagon."
+
+He held it out to Nance.
+
+"Here, take it and press the button."
+
+The old woman drew back.
+
+"No--no--I'm skeered!  No----"
+
+Jim thrust the torch into her hand and forced her
+to hold it.
+
+"Oh, come on, it's easy.  Push your finger right
+down on the button."
+
+Nance tried it gingerly at first, and then laughed
+at the ease with which it could be done.  She flashed
+it on the floor again and again.
+
+"Why, it's like a big lightnin' bug, ain't it?"
+
+She turned the end of it up to examine more
+closely, pushed the button unconsciously, and the light
+flashed in her eyes.  She jumped and handed it quickly
+to Jim.
+
+"Or a jack o' lantern--here, take it," she cried,
+still trembling.
+
+Jim threw his hands up with a laugh.
+
+"Can you beat it!"
+
+Backing quickly to the door, Nance called nervously
+to Mary:
+
+"I'll get your room ready in a minute, ma'am."  She
+paused and glanced at Jim.
+
+"And thar's a shed out thar you can put your devil
+wagon in----"
+
+She slipped through the dirty calico curtains, and
+Mary saw her go with wondering pity in her heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+A LITTLE BLACK BAG
+
+Mary watched Nance, with a quick glance at Jim.  Again
+he had forgotten that he had a wife.  She had studied
+this strange absorption with increasing uneasiness. 
+During the long, beautiful drive of the afternoon
+beside laughing waters, through scenes of unparalleled
+splendor, through valleys of entrancing peace, the
+still, sapphire skies bending above with clear,
+Southern Christmas benediction, he had not once pressed
+her hand, he had not once bent to kiss her.
+
+Each time the thought had come, she fought back the
+tears.  She had made excuses for him.  He was absorbed
+in the memories of his miserable childhood in New York,
+perhaps.  The approaching meeting with his relatives
+had awakened the old hunger for a mother's love that
+had been denied him.  The scenes through which they
+were passing had perhaps stirred the currents of his
+subconscious being.
+
+And yet why should such memories estrange his
+spirit from hers?  The effect should be the opposite. 
+In the remembrance of his loneliness and suffering, he
+should instinctively turn to her.  The love with which
+she had unfolded his life should redeem the past.
+
+He was standing now with his heavy chin silhouetted
+against the flickering light of the candle on the
+table.  His hand closed suddenly on the handle of the
+bag with the swift clutch of an eagle's claw.  She
+started at the ugly picture it made in the dim rays of
+the candle.
+
+What were the thoughts seething behind the mask of
+his face?  She watched him, spellbound by his complete
+surrender to the mood that had dominated him from the
+moment he had touched the deep forests of the Black
+Mountain range.  A grim elation ruled even his
+silences.  The man standing there rigid, his face a
+smiling, twitching mask, was a stranger.  This man she
+had never known, or loved.  And yet they were bound for
+life in the tenderest and strongest ties that can hold
+the human soul and body.
+
+She tossed her head and threw off the ugly thought. 
+It was morbid nonsense!  She was just hungry for a
+kiss, and in his new environment he had forgotten
+himself as many thoughtless men had forgotten before
+and would forget again.
+
+"Jim!" she whispered tenderly.
+
+He made no answer.  His thick lips were drawn in
+deep, twisted lines on one side, as if he had suddenly
+reached a decision from which there could be no appeal.
+
+She raised her voice slightly.
+
+"Jim?"
+
+Not a muscle of his body moved.  The drawn lines of
+the mouth merely relaxed.  His answer was scarcely
+audible.
+
+"Yep----"
+
+"She's gone!"
+
+"Yep----"
+
+She moved toward him wistfully.
+
+"Aren't you forgetting something?"
+
+His square jaw still held its rigid position
+silhouetted in sharp profile against the candle's
+light.  He answered slowly and mechanically.
+
+"What?"
+
+His indifference was more than the sore heart could
+bear.  The pent-up tears of the afternoon dashed in
+flood against the barriers of her will.
+
+"You--haven't--kissed--me--today," she stammered,
+struggling with each word to save a break.
+
+Still he stood immovable.  This time his answer was
+tinged with the slightest suggestion of amusement.
+
+"No?"
+
+She staggered against the table beside the door and
+gripped its edge desperately.
+
+"Oh--" she gasped.  "Don't you love me any more?"
+
+With his sullen head still holding its position of
+indifference, his absorption in the idea which
+dominated his mind still unbroken, he threw out one
+hand in a gesture of irritation.
+
+"Cut it, Kid!  Cut it!"
+
+His tones were not only indifferent; they were
+contemptuously indifferent.
+
+With a sob, she sank into the chair and buried her
+face in her arms.
+
+"You're tired!  I see it now; you've tired of me. 
+Oh--it's not possible--it's not possible!"
+
+The torrent came at last in a flood of utter
+abandonment.
+
+Jim turned, looked at her and threw up his hands in
+temporary surrender.
+
+"Oh, for God's sake!" he muttered, crossing
+deliberately to her side.  He stood and let her
+sob.
+
+With a quick change of mood, he drew her to her
+feet, swept her swaying form into his arms, crushed her
+and covered her lips with kisses.
+
+"How's that?"
+
+She smiled through her tears.
+
+"I feel better----"
+
+Jim laughed.
+
+"For better or worse--`until Death do us part'--
+that's what you said, Kid, and you meant it, too,
+didn't you?"
+
+He seized both of her arms, held them firmly and
+gazed into her eyes with steady, stern inquiry.
+
+She looked up with uneasy surprise.
+
+"Of course--I meant it," she answered slowly.
+
+He held her arms gripped close and said:
+
+"Well--we'll see!"
+
+His hands relaxed, and he turned away, rubbing his
+square chin thoughtfully.
+
+She watched him in growing amazement.  What could
+be the mystery back of this new twist of his elusive
+mind?
+
+He laid his hand on the black bag again, smiled,
+and turned and faced her with expanding good humor.
+
+"Great scheme, this marryin', Kid!  And you believe
+in it exactly as I do, don't you?"
+
+"How do you mean?" she faltered.
+
+"That it binds and holds both our lives as only
+Almighty God can bind and hold?"
+
+"Yes--nothing else IS marriage."
+
+"That's what I say, too!"
+
+He placed his hands on her shoulders.
+
+"Great scheme!" he repeated.  "I get a pretty girl
+to work for me for nothing for the balance of my life." 
+He paused and lifted the slender forefinger of his
+right hand.  "And you pledged your pious soul--I
+memorized the words, every one of them:  `I, Mary, take
+thee, James, to my wedded husband--TO HAVE AND TO HOLD 
+from this day forward, FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE,
+for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to
+love, cherish AND OBEY, TIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING 
+TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE; AND THEREUNTO I GIVE THEE MY 
+TROTH ----'"
+
+He paused, lifted his head and smiled grimly: 
+"That's some promise, believe me, Kiddo!  `AND OBEY'--you 
+meant it all, didn't you?"
+
+She would have hedged lightly over that ugly old
+word which still survived in the ceremony Craddock had
+used, but for the sinister suggestion in his voice back
+of the playful banter.  He had asked it half in jest,
+half in earnest.  She had caught by the subtle sixth
+sense the tragic idea in that one word that he was
+going to hold her to it.  The thought was too absurd!
+
+"OBEY--you meant it, didn't you?" he repeated
+grimly.
+
+A smile played about the corners of her mouth as
+she answered dreamily:
+
+"Yes--I--I--PROMISED!"
+
+"That's why I set my head on you from the first--
+you're good and sweet--you're the real thing."
+
+Again she caught the sinister suggestion in his
+tone and threw him a startled look.
+
+"What has come over you today, Jim?" she asked.
+
+He hesitated and answered carelessly.
+
+"Oh, nothing, Kiddo--just been thinking a little
+about business.  Got to go to work, you know."  He
+returned to the table and touched the bag lightly.
+
+"Watch out now for this bag while I put up the
+car--and don't forget that curiosity killed the
+cat."
+
+Quick as a flash, she asked:
+
+"What's in it?"
+
+Jim threw up his hands and laughed.
+
+"Didn't I tell you that curiosity killed a cat?" 
+He pointed to the skin on the wall.  "That's what
+stretched that wild-cat's hide up there!  She got too
+near the old musket!"
+
+"Anyhow, I'm not afraid of her end--what's in it?"
+
+Jim scratched his red head and looked at her
+thoughtfully.
+
+"You asked me that once before today, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes----"
+
+"Well, it's a little secret of mine.  Take my
+advice--put your hand on it, but not in it."
+
+Again the sinister look and tone chilled her.
+
+"I don't like secrets between us, Jim," she said.
+
+She looked at the bag reproachfully, and he watched
+her keenly--then laughed.
+
+"I'd as well tell you and be done with it; you'll
+go in it anyhow."
+
+She tossed her head with a touch of angry pride. 
+He took her hand, led her across the room and placed it
+on the valise.
+
+"I've got five thousand dollars in gold in that
+bag."
+
+She drew back, surprised beyond the power of
+speech.
+
+"And I'm going to give it to this old woman----"
+
+To her--why?" she gasped.
+
+"She's my mother."
+
+"Your MOTHER?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I--I--thought--you told me she was dead."
+
+"No.  I said that I didn't know who she was."
+
+He paused, and a queer brooding look crept into his
+face.
+
+"I haven't seen her since I was a little duffer
+three years old.  This room and these wild crags and
+trees come back to me now--just a glimpse of them here
+and there.  I've always remembered them.  I thought I'd
+dreamed it----"
+
+"You remember--how wonderful!" she breathed
+reverently.  She understood now, and the clouds lifted.
+
+"The skunk I called my daddy," Jim went on
+thoughtfully, "took me to New York.  He said that my
+mother deserted me when I was a kid.  I believed him at
+first.  But when he beat me and kicked me into the
+streets, I knew he was a liar.  When I got grown I
+began to think and wonder about her.  I hired a lawyer
+that knew my daddy, and he found her here----"
+
+With a cry of joy, she seized his arms:
+
+"Tell her quick!  Oh, you're big and fine and
+generous, Jim--and I knew it!  They said that you were
+a brute.  I knew they lied.  Tell her quick!"
+
+He lifted his hand in protest.
+
+"Nope--I'm going to put up a little job on the old
+girl--show her the money tonight, get her wild at the
+sight of it--and give it to her Christmas morning. 
+We've only a few hours to wait----"
+
+"Oh, give it to her now--Jim!  Give it to her now!"
+
+He shook his head and walked to the door.
+
+"I want to say something to her first and give her
+time to think it over.  Look out for the bag, and I'll
+bring in the things."
+
+He swung the rough board door wide, slammed it and
+disappeared in the darkness.
+
+The young wife watched the bag a moment with
+consuming curiosity.  She had fiercely resented his
+insulting insinuations at her curiosity, and yet she
+was wild to look at that glowing pile of gold inside
+and picture the old woman's joyous surprise.
+
+Her hand touched the lock carelessly and drew back
+as if her finger had been burned.  She put her hands
+behind her and crossed the room.
+
+"I won't be so weak and silly!" she cried fiercely.
+
+She heard Jim cranking the car.  It would take him
+five minutes more to start it, get it under the shed
+and bring in the suit-case and robes.
+
+"Why shouldn't I see it!" she exclaimed.  "He
+has told me about it."  She hesitated and struggled for
+a moment, quickly walked back to the bag and touched
+the spring.  It yielded instantly.
+
+"Why, it's not even locked!" she cried in tones of
+surprise at her silly scruples.
+
+Her hand had just touched the gold when Nance
+entered.
+
+She snapped the bag and smiled at the old woman
+carelessly.     What a sweet surprise she would have
+tomorrow morning!
+
+Nance crossed slowly, glancing once at the girl
+wistfully as if she wanted to say something friendly,
+and then, alarmed at her presumption, hurried on into
+the little shed-room.
+
+Mary waited until she returned.
+
+"Room's all ready in thar, ma'am," she drawled,
+passing into the kitchen without a pause.
+
+"All right--thank you," Mary answered.
+
+She quickly opened the bag, thrust her hand into
+the gold and withdrew it, holding a costly green-
+leather jewelry-case of exquisite workmanship.  There
+could be no mistake about its value.
+
+With a cry of joy, she started back, staring at the
+little box.
+
+"Another surprise!  And for me!  Oh, Jim, man,
+you're glorious!  My Christmas present, of course!  I
+mustn't look at it--I won't!"
+
+She pushed the case from her toward the bag and
+drew it back again.
+
+"What's the difference?  I'll take one little, tiny
+peep."
+
+She touched the spring and caught her breath.  A
+string of pearls fit for the neck of a princess lay
+shining in its soft depths.  She lifted them with a
+sigh of delight.  Her eye suddenly rested on a stanza
+of poetry scrawled on the satin lining in the trembling
+hand of an old man she had known.
+
+She dropped the pearls with a cry of terror.  Her
+face went white, and she gasped for breath.  The jewel-
+case in her hand she had seen before.  It had belonged
+to the old gentleman who lived in the front room on the
+first floor of her building in the days when it was a
+boarding house.  The wife he had idolized was long ago
+dead.  This string of pearls from her neck the old man
+had worshiped for years.  The stanza from "The Rosary"
+he had scrawled in the lining one day in Mary's
+presence.  He had moved uptown with the landlady.  Two
+months ago a burglar had entered his room, robbed and
+shot him.
+
+"It's impossible--impossible!" she gasped. 
+"Oh, dear God--it's impossible!  Of course the
+burglar pawned them, and Jim bought them without
+knowing.  Of course!  My nerves are on edge today--how
+silly of me----"
+
+Jim's footsteps suddenly sounded on the porch, and
+she thrust the jewel-case back into the bag with
+desperate effort to pull herself together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE AWAKENING
+
+For a moment she felt the foundations of the moral and
+physical world sinking beneath her feet.  Dizziness
+swept her senses.  She gripped the table, leaning
+heavily against it, her eye watching the door with
+feverish terror for Jim's appearance.
+
+She had never fainted in her life.  It was absurd,
+but the room was swimming now in a dim blur.  Again she
+gripped the table and set her teeth.  She simply would
+not give up.  Why should she leap to the worst possible
+explanation of the jewels?  The hatred of old Ella for
+Jim and the furious antagonism of Jane Anderson had
+poisoned her mind, after all.  It was infamous that she
+could suspect her husband of crime merely because two
+silly women didn't like him.
+
+He could explain the jewels.  He, of course, asked
+no questions of the pawn-broker.  They were probably
+sold at auction and he bought them.
+
+It seemed an eternity from the time Jim's foot step
+echoed on the little porch until he pushed the door
+open and hastily entered, his arms piled with lap-
+robes, coats and the dress-suit case in his hand.
+
+He walked with quick, firm step, threw the coats
+and robes on the couch and placed the suit-case at its
+head.  He hadn't turned toward her and his face was
+still in profile while he removed the gloves from his
+pockets, threw them on the robes, and drew the scarlet
+woolen neckpiece from his throat.
+
+She was studying him now with new terror-stricken
+eyes.  Never had she seen his jaw look so big and
+brutal.  Never had the droop of his eyelids suggested
+such menace.  Never had the contrast of his slender
+hands and feet suggested such hideous possibilities.
+
+"Merciful God!  No!  No!" she kept repeating in her
+soul while her dilated eyes stared at him in sheer
+horror of the suggestion which the jewels had roused.
+
+She drew a deep breath and strangled the idea by
+her will.
+
+"I'll at least be as fair as a jury," she thought
+grimly.  "I'll not condemn him without a hearing."
+
+Jim suddenly became aware of the menace of her
+silence.  She had not moved a muscle, spoken or made
+the slightest sound since he had entered.  He had
+merely taken in the room at a glance and had seen her
+standing in precisely the same place beside the table.
+
+He saw now that she was leaning heavily against it.
+
+He raised his head and faced her with a sudden,
+bold stare, and his voice rang in tones of sharp
+command.
+
+"Well?"
+
+She tried to speak and failed.  She had not yet
+sufficiently mastered her emotions.
+
+"What's the matter?" he growled.
+
+"Jim----" she gasped.
+
+He took a step toward her with set teeth.
+
+"You've been in that bag--Well?"
+
+Her face was white, her voice husky.
+
+"Those jewels, Jim----"
+
+A cunning smile played about his mouth and he shook
+his head.
+
+"I tried to keep my little secret from you till
+Christmas morning; but you're on to my curves now,
+Kiddo, and I'll have to 'fess up----"
+
+"You bought them for me?" she asked with trembling
+eagerness.
+
+"Who else do you reckon I'd buy 'em for?  I was
+going to surprise you, too, tomorrow morning.  You've
+spoiled the fun."
+
+She had slipped close to his side and he could hear
+her quick intake of breath.
+
+"That's--so--sweet of you, Jim.  I'm sorry--I--
+spoiled the surprise--you'd--planned----"
+
+"Oh, what's the difference!" he broke in
+carelessly.  "It's all the same five minutes after,
+anyhow.  Well, don't you like 'em?  Why don't you say
+something?"
+
+"They're wonderful, Jim.  Where--where--did you buy
+them?"
+
+He held her gaze in silence for an instant and
+fenced.
+
+"Isn't that a funny question, Kiddo?" he said in
+low tones.  "I once heard the old man I worked with in
+the shop say that you shouldn't look a gift horse in
+the mouth."
+
+"I just want to know," she insisted.
+
+"I'm not going to tell you!" he said with a dry
+laugh.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because you keep asking."
+
+"You wish to tease me?"
+
+"Maybe."
+
+"Please!"
+
+"Why do you want to know?  Are you afraid they're
+fakes?"
+
+"No, they're beautiful--they're wonderful."
+
+"Well, if you don't want them," he broke in
+angrily, "I'll keep them.  I'll sell them."
+
+"Don't tease me, Jim!" she begged.  "I don't mind
+if you bought them at a pawn-shop--if that's why you
+won't tell me.  That is the reason, isn't it? 
+Honestly, isn't it?"
+
+She asked the question with eager intensity.  She
+had persuaded herself that it was so and the horror had
+been lifted.  She pressed close with smiling, trembling
+lips:
+
+"I don't mind that, Jim!  You got them from a pawn-
+broker, of course, didn't you?"
+
+He looked at her with a puzzled expression and
+hesitated.
+
+"Didn't you?" she repeated.
+
+"No--I didn't!" was the curt answer.
+
+"You didn't?" she echoed feebly.
+
+"No!"
+
+With a quick breath she unconsciously drew back and
+he glared at her angrily.
+
+"Say, what'ell's the matter with you, anyhow?  Have
+you gone crazy?"
+
+"You--won't--tell me--where you bought them?" she
+asked slowly.
+
+He faced her squarely and spoke with deliberate
+contempt:
+
+"It's--none--of your business!"
+
+She held his gaze with steady determination.
+
+"That string of pearls belongs to the man who once
+lived in the front room of my old building in New York. 
+He moved uptown with my landlady.  A few months ago a
+burglar robbed and shot him----"
+
+She stopped, seized his arm and cried with
+strangling horror:
+
+"Jim!  Jim!  Where did you get them?"
+
+"Now I know you've gone crazy!  You don't suppose
+that's the only string of pearls in the world, do you? 
+Did you count 'em?  Did you weigh 'em?"
+
+"Where did you get them?" she demanded.
+
+"What put it into your head that that string of
+pearls belonged to your old boarder?"
+
+"I saw him write the stanza of poetry on the satin
+lining of that case.  I've heard him recite it over and
+over again in his piping voice:  `Each bead a pearl--my
+rosary!' I KNOW that they belonged to him!"
+
+His mouth twitched angrily and he faced her,
+speaking with cold, brutal frankness.
+
+"I might keep on lying to you, Kiddo, and get away
+with it.  But what's the use?  You've got to know. 
+It's just as well now--I did that job----Yes!"
+
+Her face blanched.
+
+"You--a--burglar--a murderer!"
+
+Jim followed her with quick, angry gestures.
+
+"All I wanted was his money!  He fought--it was his
+life or mine----"
+
+"A murderer!"
+
+"I just went after his money--I tell you--besides,
+he didn't die; he got well.  If he'd kept still he
+wouldn't have lost his pearls and he wouldn't have been
+hurt----"
+
+"And I stood up for you against them all!" she
+answered in a dazed whisper.  "They told me--Jane
+Anderson with brutal frankness, Ella with the heart-
+rending, timid confession of her own tragic life--they
+told me that you were bad.  I said they were liars.  I
+said that they envied our happiness.  I believed that
+you were big and brave and fine.  I stood by you and
+married you!"
+
+She paused and looked at him steadily.  In a rush
+of suppressed passion she seized his arm with a
+violence that caused his heavy eyelids to lift in
+amused surprise.
+
+"Oh, Jim--it's not true!  It's not true--it's not
+true!  For God's sake, tell me that you're joking!--
+that you're teasing me!  You can't mean it!  I won't
+believe it--I won't believe it!"
+
+Her head sank until it rested piteously against his
+breast.  He stood with his face turned awkwardly away
+and then moved his body until she was forced to stand
+erect.
+
+He touched her shoulder gently and spoke
+soothingly:
+
+"Come, now, Kid, don't take on so.  I'll quit the
+business when I make my pile."
+
+She drew back instinctively and he followed:
+
+"I'll never touch another penny of yours.  There's
+blood on it!"
+
+"Rot!" he went on soothingly.  "It's good Wall
+Street cash--got it exactly like they got theirs--got
+it because I was quicker and smarter than the fellow
+that had it.  I use a jimmy, they use a ticker--that's
+all the difference."
+
+She drew her figure to its full height.
+
+"I'm going--Jim----"
+
+"Where?"
+
+His voice rasped like a file against steel.
+
+"Home!"
+
+"Your home's with me."
+
+"I won't live with a thief!"
+
+He stepped squarely before her and spoke with
+deliberate menace.
+
+"You're--not--going!"
+
+"Get out of my way!" she cried defiantly.
+
+His big jaw closed with a snap and his figure
+became rigid.  The candle's yellow light threw a
+strange glare on his face, convulsed.  The blue flames
+of hell were in the glitter of his steel eyes.
+
+Her heart sank in a dull wave of terror.  She tried
+to gauge the depth of his brutal rage.  There was no
+standard by which to measure it.  She had never seen
+that look in his face before.  His whole being was
+transformed by some sinister power.
+
+She was afraid to move, but her mind was alert in
+this moment of supreme trial.  She hadn't used her last
+weapon yet.  The fact that he held her with such
+terrible determination was proof of the spell she had
+cast over him.  She might save him.  He couldn't have
+been a criminal long.  She formed her new battle-line
+with quick decision.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE SURRENDER
+
+How long she gazed into the convulsed face of the man
+who had squared himself before her, mattered little
+measured by the tick of the watch in her belt.  Into
+the mental anguish endured a life's agony had been
+pressed.  It could not have been more than twenty
+seconds, and yet it marked the birth of a new being
+within the soul of a woman.  She had been searching
+only for her own happiness.  The search had entangled
+another in the meshes of her life.  Too much had been
+lived in the past two weeks to be undone by a word and
+forgotten in a day.  She had attempted, coward-like, to
+run.
+
+She saw now in the consuming flame of a great
+sorrow that the man before her had some rights which
+the purest woman must reckon with.  He might be a
+burglar.  At least it was her duty to try to save him
+from himself.  Her surrender of the past weeks was a
+tie that would bind them through all eternity. 
+There was no chemistry of earth or heaven or hell that
+could erase its memories.  Her life was no longer her
+own--this man's was bound with hers.  She must face the
+facts.  She would make one honest, brave effort to save
+him.  To do this she would give all without
+reservation--pride must be cast to the winds.
+
+Her voice suddenly changed to tears.
+
+"Oh, Jim, you do love me, don't you?"
+
+His body slowly relaxed, his eyes shifted, and he
+shrugged his square shoulders.
+
+"What'ell did I marry you for?"
+
+"Tell me--do you?" she demanded.
+
+"You know that I love you.  What do you ask me such
+a fool question for?  I love you with a love that can
+kill.  Do you hear me?  That's why you're not going
+anywhere without me."
+
+There was no mistaking the depth of his passion. 
+She trembled to realize its power and yet it was the
+lever by which she must move him.
+
+"Then you've got to give this life up.  You're
+young and brave and strong.  You can earn an honest
+living.  You haven't been in this long--I feel it, I
+know it.  Have you?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"How long?"
+
+"Eight months."
+
+"Oh, Jim, dear, you must give it up now for my
+sake.  I'll work with you and work for you.  I'll
+teach, I'll sew, I'll scrub, I'll slave for you day and
+night--if you're only clean and honest."
+
+He turned on her fiercely.
+
+"Cut it, Kid--cut it!  I'm out for the stuff now. 
+I'm going to get rich and I'm going to get rich
+QUICK--that's all that's the matter with me!"
+
+"But, Jim," she broke in tenderly--"you did earn an
+honest living.  Your workshop proves that."
+
+"I've used that to improve my tools and melt the
+swag the past year.  The shop's all right."
+
+"But you did make a successful invention?"
+
+"You bet I did," he answered savagely, "and that's
+why I quit the business.  Three years ago I took down a
+big automobile and worked out an improvement in the
+transmission that settled the question of heavy draft
+machines.  I took it to a lawyer in Wall Street and he
+took it to a man that had money.  Between the two of
+'em, they didn't do a thing to me!  They were going to
+put my patent on the market and make me a millionaire. 
+God, I was crazy----"
+
+He paused and squared his shoulders with a deep
+breath.
+
+"They put it on the market all right and they made
+some millionaires--but I wasn't one of 'em, Kiddo! 
+They got me to sign a paper that skinned me out of
+every dollar as slick as you can pull an eel through
+your fingers.  I hired another lawyer
+and gave him half he could get to beat 'em.  He fought
+like a tiger and two days before I met you he got his
+verdict and they paid it--just ten thousand dollars. 
+Think of it--ten thousand dollars!  And each of them
+got a million cash.  They sold it outright for two
+millions and a half.  My lawyer got five thousand
+dollars, and I got five thousand dollars.  That's mine,
+anyhow.  It's in that bag there.  I'm working on a new
+set of tools now in my shop.  I'm going to get that
+money back from the two thieves who stole it from me by
+law.  I'll take it by force, the way they took it.  If
+I can croak them both in the fight--well, there'll be
+two thieves less to rob honest men and women, that's
+all."
+
+"Oh, Jim!" Mary gasped, lifting a trembling hand to
+her throat as if to tear open her collar.  "You're mad. 
+You don't know what you're saying----"
+
+"Don't fool yourself, Kiddo," he interrupted
+fiercely.  "My eyes are open now, and I've got a
+level head back of 'em, too.  I've doped it all out. 
+You ought to 'a' heard that lawyer give me a few
+lessons in business when he'd skinned me and salted
+my hide.  He was good-natured and confidential.  He
+seemed to love me.  `Business is war, sonny,' he piped,
+between the puffs of the big Havana cigar he was
+smoking--`war! war to the knife!  We got you off your
+guard and put the knife into you at the right minute--
+that's all.  Don't take it so hard!  Invent something
+else and keep your eyes peeled.  You ought to love us
+for giving you an education in business early in life. 
+You're young.  You won't have to learn your lesson
+again.  Go to work, sonny, in your shop, and turn out
+another new tool for the advancement of trade!'"
+
+He paused and smiled grimly.
+
+"I've done it, too!  I've just finished a little
+invention that'll crack any safe in New York in twenty
+minutes after I touch it."
+
+He broke into a dry laugh, sat down and
+deliberately lighted a fresh cigarette.
+
+She studied his face with beating heart.  Was he
+lost beyond all hope of reformation?  Or was this the
+boyish bravado of an amateur criminal poisoned by the
+consciousness of wrong?  She tried to think.  She felt
+the red blood pounding through her heart and
+beating against her brain in suffocating waves
+of despair.
+
+In vivid flashes the scene of her marriage but two
+weeks ago, came back in tormenting memories.  The
+solemn words she had spoken kept ringing like the throb
+of a funeral bell far up in the star-lit heavens----
+
+
+"I, MARY ADAMS, TAKE THEE, JAMES ANTHONY, TO MY 
+WEDDED HUSBAND, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD . . . FOR BETTER 
+FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN 
+HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH, AND TO OBEY, TILL DEATH DO US 
+PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE; AND THERETO 
+I GIVE THEE MY TROTH."
+
+
+The last solemn prayer kept ringing its deep-toned
+message over all----
+
+
+"GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, GOD THE HOLY GHOST, 
+BLESS, PRESERVE, AND KEEP YOU; THE LORD MERCIFULLY 
+WITH HIS FAVOR LOOK UPON YOU, AND FILL YOU WITH ALL 
+SPIRITUAL BENEDICTION AND GRACE; THAT YE MAY SO LIVE 
+TOGETHER IN THIS LIFE, THAT IN THE WORLD TO COME 
+YE MAY HAVE LIFE EVERLASTING.  AMEN."
+
+
+In a sudden rush of desperate pity for herself and
+the man to whom she was bound, she dropped on her
+knees by his side, slipped her arms about his neck and
+clung to him, sobbing.
+
+"Oh, Jim, Jim, man," she whispered hoarsely.  "I
+can't see you sink into hell like this!  Have you no
+real love in your heart for the woman who has given
+all?  Have mercy on me!  Have mercy!  You can't mean
+the hideous things you've just said!  You've been
+crazed by your losses.  You're just a boy yet.  Life is
+all before you.  You're only twenty-four.  I'm just
+twenty-four.  We can both begin anew.  I've never lived
+until these past weeks--neither have you.  You couldn't
+drag me down into a life of crime----"
+
+Her head sank and her voice choked into silence. 
+He made no movement of his hand to soothe her.  His
+voice was not persuasive.  It was hard and cold.
+
+"I'm not asking you to help me on any of my jobs,"
+he said.  "I'm the financier of the family.  You can
+say the prayers and keep house."
+
+"Knowing that you are a criminal?  That your hands
+are stained with human blood?"
+
+"Why not?" he snapped, the blue blaze flashing
+again in his eyes.  "Suppose you were the wife of the
+gentlemanly lawyer-thief who robbed me, using the law
+instead of a jimmy--would you bother your little head
+about my business?  Does his wife ask him where he
+got it?  Does anybody know or care?  He lives on Fifth
+Avenue now.  He bought a palace up there the day after
+he got my money.  We passed it on the way to the Park
+the day I met you.  A line of carriages was standing in
+front and finely dressed women were running up the red
+carpet that led down the stoop and under the canopy to
+the curb.  Did any of the gay dames who smiled and
+smirked at that thief's wife ask how he got the money
+to buy the house?  Not much.  Would they have cared if
+they had known?  They'd have called him a shrewd
+lawyer--that's all!  Do you reckon his wife worries
+about such tricks of trade?  Why should mine worry?"
+
+She gripped his hand with desperate pleading.
+
+"Oh, Jim, dear, you can't be a criminal at heart! 
+I wouldn't have loved you if it had been true.  I can't
+believe it!  I won't believe it.  You're posing.  You
+don't mean this.  You can't mean it.  You're going to
+return every dishonest dollar that you've taken."
+
+"You don't know what you're talking about!"
+
+He closed his jaw with a snap and leaned close in
+eager, tense excitement.
+
+"Do you know how much junk I've piled into a little
+box in my shop the past three months?"
+
+"I don't care--I don't want to know!"
+
+"You've got to care--you've got to know now!  It's
+worth a hundred thousand dollars, do you hear?  A
+hundred thousand dollars!  It would take me a life-time
+to earn that on a salary.  In two weeks after we get
+back to New York with my new invention that lawyer
+advised me to make, I'll go through his house--I'll
+open his safe, I'll take every diamond, every pearl and
+every scrap of stolen jewelry his wife's wearing.  And
+I won't leave a fingerprint on the window sill.  I've
+got two of his servants working for me.
+
+"In six months I'll be worth half a million.  In a
+year I'll pull off the big haul I'm planning and I'll
+be a millionaire.  We'll retire from business then--
+just like they did.  We'll build our marble palace down
+at Bay Ridge and our yacht will nod in the harbor. 
+We'll spend our summers in Europe when we like and
+every snob and fool in New York will fall over himself
+to meet me.  And every woman will envy my wife.  I'm
+young, Kiddo, but I've cut my eye teeth.  You've just
+been born.  I'm running the business end of this thing. 
+You think you can reform me.  You can--AFTER I'VE MADE 
+OUR PILE.  I'll join the church then and sing
+louder than that lawyer.  But if you think you're going
+to stop my business career at this stage of the
+game--forget it, forget it!"
+
+He sprang up with a quick movement of his tense
+body and threw her off.  She rose and watched his
+restless steps as he paced the floor.  Her mind was
+numb as if from a mortal blow.  She brushed the tangled
+ringlets of brown hair back from her forehead, drew the
+handkerchief from her belt and wiped the perspiration
+from her brow.
+
+Before she could gather the strength to speak, he
+wheeled suddenly and confronted her:
+
+"I've known from the first, Kiddo, that you're not
+the kind to help in this business.  I don't expect it. 
+I don't ask it.  I need a ranch like this down here for
+storage.  I'm going to take the old woman into
+partnership with me."
+
+She started back in an instinctive recoil of
+horror.
+
+"Your MOTHER?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Yep!"
+
+She drew a step nearer and peered into his set
+face.
+
+"YOU WILL MAKE YOUR OWN MOTHER A CRIMINAL?"
+
+"Sure!" he growled.  "That's what I came down here
+for."
+
+"She won't do it!"
+
+"She won't, eh?" he sneered.  "Look at this hog
+pen!"
+
+He swept the bare, wretched cabin with a gesture of
+contempt and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Look at the rags she's wearing," he went on
+savagely.  "When we talk it over tonight with that five
+thousand dollars in gold shining in her eyes--I'm going
+to show her a lot o' things she never saw before,
+Kiddo--take it from me!"
+
+She answered in slow, even tones:
+
+"I can't live with you, Jim."
+
+The blue flames beneath the drooping eyelids were
+leaping now in the yellow glare of the candle's rays. 
+The muscles of his body were knotted.  His voice came
+from his throat a low growl.
+
+"Do you know who you're fooling with?"
+
+The blood of a clean life flamed in her cheeks and
+nerved her with reckless daring.  Her figure stiffened
+and her voice rang with defiant scorn:
+
+"Yes.  I know at last--a thief who would drag his
+own mother down to hell with him!"
+
+Not a muscle of his powerful body moved; his face
+was a stolid mask.  He threw his words slowly through
+his teeth:
+
+"Now you listen to me.  You're my wife.  I didn't
+invent this marriage game.  I played it as I found
+it.  And that's the way you're going to play it. 
+You're good and sweet and clean--I like that kind, and
+I won't have no other.  You're mine.  MINE, do you
+hear!  Mine for life--body and soul--`FOR BETTER FOR
+WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN
+HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH'----"
+
+He paused and thrust his massive jaw squarely into
+her face:
+
+"`----AND OBEY!'" he hissed, "`UNTIL DEATH DO US 
+PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE'--you
+said it, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes----"
+
+"Well?"
+
+She turned from him with sudden aversion:
+
+"I didn't know what you were----"
+
+"Nobody ever knows BEFORE they're married!" he
+broke in savagely.  "You took your chances.  I took
+mine--`FOR BETTER FOR WORSE.'  We'll just say now
+it's for worse and let it go at that!"
+
+The little body stiffened.
+
+"I'll die first!"
+
+He held her gaze without words, searching the
+depths of her being with the cold, blue flame in his
+drooping eyes.  If she were bluffing, it was easy.  She
+could talk her head off for all he cared.  If she meant
+it, he might have his hands full unless he
+mastered the situation at once and for all time.
+
+There was no sign of yielding to his iron will.  An
+indomitable soul had risen in her frail body and defied
+him.  His decision was instantaneous.
+
+"Oh, you'll die sooner than live with me--eh?"
+
+There was something hideous in the cold venom with
+which he drawled the words.  Her heart fairly stopped
+its beating.  With the last ounce of courage left, she
+held her place and answered:
+
+"Yes!"
+
+With the sudden crouch of a tiger he drew his
+clenched fist to strike.
+
+"Forget it!"
+
+She sprang back with terror, her body trembling in
+pitiful weakness.
+
+"You snivelling little coward!" he growled.
+
+"Oh, Jim, Jim," she faltered,--"you--you--couldn't
+strike me!"
+
+A step nearer and he stood over her, his big, flat
+head thrust forward, his eyes gleaming, his muscles
+knotted in blind rage.
+
+"No--I won't STRIKE you," he whispered.  "I'll
+just KILL you--that's all!"
+
+With the leap of an infuriated beast he sprang on
+her and his sharp fingers gripped her throat.
+
+
+The world went black and she felt herself sinking
+into a bottomless abyss.  With maniac energy she tore
+his hands from her throat and the warm blood streamed
+from the gash his nails had torn.
+
+Jim!  Jim!  For God's sake!" she moaned in abject
+terror.
+
+With a sullen growl, his fingers, sharp as a
+leopard's claw, found her neck again and closed with a
+grip that sent the blood surging to her brain and her
+eyes starting from their sockets.
+
+The one hideous thought that flashed through her
+mind was that he was going to plunge his claws into her
+eyes and blind her for life.  He could hold her his
+prisoner then.  She made a last desperate struggle for
+breath, her hands relaxed, she drooped and sank to the
+couch toward which he had hurled her in the first rush
+of his assault.
+
+He lifted her and choked the slender neck again to
+make sure, loosed his hands and the limp body dropped
+on the couch and was still.
+
+He stood watching her in silence, his arms at his
+side.
+
+"Damned little fool!" he muttered.  "I had to give
+you that lesson.  The sooner the better!"
+
+He waited with contemptuous indifference until
+she slowly recovered consciousness.  She lay motionless
+for a long time and then slowly opened her eyes.
+
+Thank God!  They had not been gouged out as poor
+Ella's.  She didn't mind the warm blood that soaked her
+collar and ran down her neck.  If he would only spare
+her eyes.  Blindness had been her one unspeakable
+terror.  She closed her eyes again and silently prayed
+for strength.  Her strength was gone.  Wave after wave
+of sickening, cowardly terror swept her prostrate soul. 
+She could feel his sullen presence--his body with its
+merciless strength towering above her.  She dared not
+look.  She knew that he was watching her with cruel
+indifference.  A single cry, a single word and he might
+thrust his claw into her eyes and the light of the
+world would go out forever.
+
+Her terror was too hideous; she could endure it no
+longer.  She must move.  She must try to save herself. 
+She lifted her head and caught his steady, venomous
+gaze.
+
+A quick, sliding movement of abject fear and she
+was erect, facing him and backing away silently.
+
+He followed with even step, his gaze holding her as
+the eyes of a snake its victim.  She would not let him
+know her terror of blindness.  She preferred death
+a thousand times.  If he would only kill her outright
+it was all the mercy she would ask.
+
+"You--won't--kill--me--Jim!" she sobbed.  "Please--
+please, don't kill me!"
+
+He lifted his sharp finger and followed her toward
+the shed-room door, his voice the triumphant cry of an
+eagle above his prey.
+
+"`FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE--UNTIL DEATH DO US PART!'"
+
+Her heart gave a bound of cowardly joy.  He had
+relented.  He would not blind her.  She could live. 
+She was young and life was sweet.
+
+She tried to smile her surrender through her tears
+as she backed slowly away from his ominous finger.
+
+"Yes, I'll try--Jim.  I'll try--`UNTIL DEATH DO
+US PART--UNTIL DEATH--UNTIL DEATH----'"
+
+Her voice broke into a flood of tears as she
+blindly felt her way through the door and into the
+darkened room.
+
+He paused on the threshold, held the creaking board
+shutter in his hand and broke into a laugh.
+
+"The world ain't big enough for you to get away
+from me, Kiddo.  Good night--a good little wife now and
+it's all right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+TO THE NEW GOD
+
+Jim closed the door of the little shed-room with a
+bang, and stood listening a moment to the sobs inside.
+
+"`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART,' Kiddo!" he laughed grimly.
+
+He turned back into the room and saw Nance standing
+at the opposite entrance between the calico curtains,
+an old, battered, flickering lantern in her hand.  A
+white wool shawl was thrown over the gray head and fell
+in long, filmy waves about her thin figure.  Her deep-
+sunken eyes were exaggerated in the dim light of
+lantern and candle.  She smiled wanly.
+
+He stopped short at the apparition; a queer shiver
+of superstitious fear shook him.  The white form of
+Death suddenly and noiselessly appearing from the
+darkness could not have been more uncanny.  He had
+wondered vaguely while the quarrel with his wife was
+progressing, what had become of his mother.  As
+the fight had reached its height, he had forgotten her.
+
+She looked at him, blinking her eyes and trying to
+smile.
+
+"Where the devil have you been, old gal?" he asked nervously.
+
+"Nowhere," she answered evasively.
+
+"You've been mighty quiet on the trip anyhow.  I
+see you've brought something back from nowhere."
+
+Nance glanced down at the jug she carried in her
+left hand and laughed.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"Nothin'----"
+
+"Nothin' from nowhere sounds pretty good to me when
+I see it in a brown jug on Christmas Eve.  You're all
+right, old gal!  I was just going to ask if you had a
+little mountain dew.  You're a mind reader.  I'll bet
+the warehouse you keep that stored in is some snug
+harbor--eh?"
+
+"They ain't never found it yit!" she giggled.
+
+"And I'll bet they won't--bully for you!"
+
+She took down a tin cup from a shelf and placed it
+beside the jug.
+
+"Another glass, sweetheart----"
+
+The old woman stared at him in surprise, walked to
+the shelf and brought another tin cup.
+
+"What do ye want with two?" she asked in surprise.
+
+Jim moved toward the stool beside the table.
+
+"Sit down."
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Sure.  Let's be sociable.  It's Christmas Eve,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Yeah!" Nance answered cheerfully, taking her seat
+and glancing timidly at her guest.
+
+Jim seized the jug, poured out two drinks of corn
+whiskey, handed her one and raised his:
+
+"Well, here's lookin' at you, old girl."
+
+He paused, lowered his cup and smiled.
+
+"But say, give me a toast."  He nodded toward the
+shed-room.  "I'm on my honeymoon, you know."
+
+His hostess laughed timidly and glanced at him from
+the corners of her eyes.  She wished to be sociable and
+make up as best she could for her rudeness on their
+arrival.
+
+"I ain't never heard but one fur honeymooners," she
+said softly.
+
+"Let's have it.  I've never heard a toast for
+honeymooners in my life.  It'll be new to me--fire
+away!"
+
+Nance fumbled her faded dress with her left hand
+and laughed again.
+
+"'May ye live long and prosper an' all yer troubles
+be LITTLE ONES!'"
+
+She laughed aloud at the old, worm-eaten joke and
+Jim joined.
+
+"Bully!  Bully, old girl--bully!"
+
+He lifted his cup and drained it at one draught and
+Nance did the same.
+
+He seized the jug and poured another drink for each.
+
+"Once more----"
+
+He leaned across the table.
+
+"And here's one for you."  He squared his body and
+lifted his cup:
+
+"To all your little ones--no matter how big they
+are!"
+
+Jim drained his liquor without apparently noticing
+her agitation, though he was watching her keenly from
+the corner of his eye.
+
+The cup she held was lowered slowly until the
+whiskey poured over her dress and on the floor.  Her
+thin figure drooped pathetically and her voice was the
+faintest sob:
+
+"I--I--ain't got--none!"
+
+"I heard you had a boy," Jim said carelessly.
+
+The drooping figure shot upright as if a bolt of
+lightning had swept her.  She stared at him in
+tense silence, trying to gather her wits before
+she answered.
+
+"Who told you anything about me?" she demanded
+sternly.
+
+"A fellow in New York," Jim continued with studied
+carelessness--"said he used to live down here."
+
+"He LIVED down here?" she repeated blankly.
+
+"Yep--come now, loosen up and tell us about the
+kid."
+
+"There ain't nuthin' ter tell--he's dead," she
+cried pathetically.
+
+"He said you deserted the child and left him to
+starve."
+
+"He said that?" she growled.
+
+"Yep."
+
+He was silent again and watched her keenly.
+
+She fumbled her dress and glanced nervously across
+the table as if afraid to ask more.  Unable to wait for
+him to speak, she cried nervously at last:
+
+"Well--well--what else did he say?"
+
+"That he took the little duffer to New York and
+raised him."
+
+"RAISED him?"
+
+She fairly screamed the words, springing to her
+feet trembling from head to foot.
+
+"Till he was big enough to kick into the streets to
+shuffle for himself."
+
+"The scoundrel said he was dead."
+
+Her voice was far away and sank into dreamy
+silence.  She was living the hideous, lonely years
+again with a heart starved for love.
+
+Jim's voice broke the spell:
+
+"Then you didn't desert him?"  The man's eyes held
+hers steadily.
+
+She stared at him blankly and spoke with rushing
+indignation:
+
+"Desert him--my baby--my own flesh and blood? 
+There's never been a minute since I looked into his
+eyes that I wouldn't 'a' died fur him."
+
+She paused and sobbed.
+
+"He had such pretty eyes, stranger.  They looked
+like your'n--only they wuz puttier and bluer."
+
+She lifted her faded dress, brushed the tears from
+her cheeks and went on rapidly:
+
+"When I found his drunken brute of a daddy was a
+liar and had another wife, I wouldn't live with him. 
+He tried to make me but I kicked him out of the house--
+and he stole the boy to get even with me."  Her voice
+broke, she dropped her head and choked back the tears. 
+"He did get even with me, too--he did," she
+sobbed.
+
+Jim watched her in silence until the paroxysm had
+spent itself.
+
+"You think you'd know this boy now if you found
+him?"
+
+She bent close, her breath coming in quick gasps.
+
+"My God, mister, do you think I COULD find
+him?"
+
+"He lives in New York; his name is Jim Anthony."
+
+"Yes--yes?" she said in a dazed way.  "He called
+hisself Walter Anthony--he wuz a stranger from the
+North and my boy's name was Jim."  She paused and bent
+eagerly across the table.  "New York's an awful big
+place, ain't it?"
+
+"Some town, old gal, take it from me."
+
+"COULD I find him?"
+
+"If you've got money enough.  You said you'd know
+him.  How?"
+
+"I'd know him!" she answered eagerly. "The last
+quarrel we had was about a mark on his neck.  He wuz a
+spunky little one.  You couldn't make him cry.  His
+devil of a daddy used to stick pins in him and laugh
+because he wouldn't cry.  The last dirty trick he tried
+was what ended it all.  He pushed a live cigar agin his
+little neck until I smelled it burnin' in the next
+room.  I knocked him down with a chair, drove him from
+the house and told him I'd kill him if he ever put
+his foot inside the door agin.
+
+He stole my boy the next night--but he'll carry
+that scar to his grave."
+
+"You'd love this boy now if you found him in New
+York as bad as his father ever was?" Jim asked with a
+curious smile.
+
+"Yes--he's mine!" was the quick, firm answer.
+
+Jim watched her intently.
+
+"I looked Death in the face for him," she went on
+fiercely.  "I'd dive to the bottom o' hell to find him
+if I knowed he wuz thar----  But what's the use to
+talk; that devil killed him!  I've waked up many a
+night stranglin' with a dream when I seed the drunken
+brute burnin' an' beatin' an' torturin' him to death. 
+The feller you've heard about ain't him.  'Tain't no
+use to make me hope an' then kill me----"
+
+"He's not dead, I tell you.  I know."
+
+Jim's voice rang with conviction so positive the
+old woman's breath came in quick gasps and she smiled
+through her eager tears.
+
+"And I MIGHT find him?"
+
+"IF you've got money enough!  Money can do
+anything in this world."
+
+He opened the black bag, thrust both hands into it
+and threw out a handful of yellow coin which
+he allowed to pour through his fingers and rattle
+into a tin plate which had been left on the table.
+
+Her eyes sparkled with avarice.
+
+"It's your'n--all your'n?" she breathed hungrily.
+
+"I'm taking it down South to invest for a fool who
+thinks"--he stopped and laughed--"who thinks it's bad
+luck to keep money that's stained with blood----"
+
+Nance started back.
+
+"Got blood on it?"
+
+Jim spoke in confidential appeal.
+
+"That wouldn't make any difference to you, would
+it?"
+
+She shook her gray locks and glanced at the pile of
+yellow metal, hungrily.
+
+"I--I wouldn't like it with blood marks!"
+
+He lifted a handful of coin, clinked it musically
+in his hands and held it in his open palms before her.
+
+"Look!  Look at it close!  You don't see any blood
+marks on it, do you?"
+
+Her eyes devoured it.
+
+"No."
+
+He seized her hand, thrust a half-dozen pieces into
+it and closed her thin fingers over it.
+
+"Feel of it--look at it!"
+
+Her hands gripped the gold.  She breathed quickly,
+broke into a laugh, caught herself in the middle of it,
+and lapsed suddenly into silence.
+
+"Feels good, don't it?" he laughed.
+
+Nance grinned, her uneven, discolored gleaming
+ominously in the flicker of the candle.
+
+"Don't it?" he repeated.
+
+"Yeah!"
+
+He lifted another handful and threw it in the air,
+catching it again.
+
+"That's the stuff that makes the world go 'round. 
+There's your only friend, old girl!  Others promise
+well--but in the scratch they fail."
+
+"Yeah--when the scratch comes they fail!" Nance
+echoed.
+
+"Money never fails!"  Jim continued eagerly.  "It's
+the god that knows no right or wrong----"
+
+He touched the pile in the plate and drew the bag
+close for her to see.
+
+"How much do you guess is there?"
+
+Nance gazed greedily into the open bag and looked
+again at the shining heap in the plate.
+
+"I dunno--a million, I reckon."
+
+The man laughed.
+
+"Not quite that much!  But enough to make you rich
+for life--IF you had it."
+
+The old woman turned away pathetically and shook
+her gray head.
+
+"I wouldn't have to work no more, would I?"
+
+Her thin hands touched the faded, dirty dress.
+
+"And I could buy me a decent dress," her voice sank
+to a whisper, "and I could find my boy."
+
+"You bet you could!" Jim exclaimed.  "There's just
+one god in this world now, old girl--the Almighty
+Dollar!"
+
+He paused and leaned close, persuasively:
+
+"Suppose now, the man that got that money had to
+kill a fool to take it--what of it?  You don't get big
+money any other way.  A burglar watches his chance,
+takes his life in his hands and drills his way into a
+house.  He finds a fool there who fights.  It's not his
+fault that the man was born a fool, now is it?"
+
+"Mebbe not----"
+
+"Of course not.  A burglar kills but one to get his
+pile, and then only because he must, in self-defence. 
+A big gambling capitalist corners wheat, raises the
+price of bread and starves a hundred thousand children
+to death to make his.  It's not stained with blood. 
+Every dollar is soaked in it!  Who cares?"
+
+"Yeah--who cares?" Nance growled fiercely.
+
+Jim smiled at his easy triumph.
+
+"It's dog eat dog and the devil take the hindmost
+now!"
+
+"That's so--ain't it?" she agreed.
+
+"You bet!  Business is business and the best man's
+the man that gets there.  Steal a hundred dollars, you
+go to the penitentiary--foolish!  Don't do it.  Steal a
+million and go to the Senate!"
+
+"Yeah!" Nance laughed.
+
+"Money--money for its own sake," he rushed on
+savagely--"right or wrong.  That's all there is in it
+today, old girl--take it from me!"
+
+He paused and his smile ended in a sneer.
+
+"Man shall eat bread in the sweat of his brow? 
+Only fools SWEAT!"
+
+Nance turned her face away, sighed softly, glancing
+back at Jim furtively.
+
+"I reckon that's so, too.  Have another drink,
+stranger?"
+
+She poured another cup of whiskey and one for
+herself.  She raised hers as if to drink and deftly
+threw the contents over her shoulder.
+
+Jim seized the jug and poured again.
+
+"Once more.  Come, I've another toast for you. 
+You'll drink this one I know."
+
+He lifted his cup and rose a little unsteadily. 
+Nance stood with uplifted cup watching him.
+
+"As the poet sings," he began with a bow to the old
+woman:
+
+
+"France has her lily, England the rose,
+
+Everybody knows where the shamrock grows--
+
+Scotland has her thistle flowerin' on the hill,
+
+But the American Emblem--is a One Dollar Bill!"
+
+
+
+He broke into a boisterous laugh.
+
+"How's that, old girl?"
+
+"That's bully, stranger!"
+
+He lifted high his cup.
+
+"We drink to the Almighty Dollar!"
+
+"To the Almighty Dollar!" Nance echoed, clinking
+her cup against his."
+
+He drained it while she again emptied hers over her
+shoulder.
+
+"By golly, you're all right, old girl.  You're a
+good fellow!" he cried jovially.
+
+"Yeah--have another?" she urged.
+
+She filled his cup and placed it on his side of the
+table.  His eye had rested on the gold.  He ignored the
+invitation, lifted a handful of gold and dropped it
+with musical clinking into the plate.
+
+"Blood marks--tommyrot!" he sneered.
+
+"Yeah--tommyrot!" she echoed. "That's what I say,
+too!"
+
+Jim wagged his head sagely:
+
+"Now you're talking sense, old girl!"
+
+He leaned across the table and pointed his finger
+straight into her face.
+
+"And don't you forget what I'm tellin' ye tonight--
+get money, get money!"
+
+He stopped suddenly and a sneer curled his lips.
+
+"Oh I Get it `fairly'--get it `squarely'--but
+whatever you do--by God!--GET IT!"
+
+His uplifted hand crashed downward and gripped the
+gold.  His fingers slowly relaxed and the coin clinked
+into the plate.
+
+Nance watched him eagerly.
+
+"Yeah, that's it--get it," she breathed slowly.
+
+Jim lifted his drooping eyes to hers.
+
+"If you've GOT it, you're a god--you can do no
+wrong.  Nobody's goin' to ask you HOW you got it;
+all they want to know is HAVE you got it!"
+
+"Yeah, nobody's goin' to ask you HOW you got
+it, Nance repeated, "they just want to know HAVE
+you got it!  Yeah--yeah!"
+
+"You bet!"
+
+Jim's head sank in the first stupor of liquor and
+he dropped into the chair.
+
+The old woman leaned eagerly over the plate of gold
+and clutched the coin with growing avarice.  Her
+fingers opened and closed like a bird of prey.  She
+touched it lovingly and held it in her hands a long
+time watching Jim's nodding head with furtive glances. 
+She dropped a handful of coin into the plate and
+watched its effect on the drooping head.
+
+He looked up and his eyes fell again.
+
+"Bed-time, I reckon," Nance said.
+
+"Yep--pretty tired.  I'll turn in."
+
+The old woman glided sidewise to the table near the
+kitchen door, picked up the lantern and started to feel
+her way backwards through the calico curtains.
+
+"See you in the mornin', old gal," Jim drawled--
+"Christmas mornin'--an' I got somethin' else to tell ye
+in the mornin'----"
+
+Again his head sank to the table.
+
+"All right, mister--good night!" Nance answered,
+slowly feeling her way through the opening, watching
+him intently.
+
+Jim lifted his head and nodded heavily for a
+moment.  His hand slipped from the table and he drew
+himself up sharply and rose, holding to the table for
+support.
+
+He picked up the plate of coin, poured it back in
+the bag, snapped the lock and walked with the bag
+unsteadily to the couch.  He placed the bag under
+the pillow and pressed the soft feathers down over it,
+turned back to the table and extinguished the candle by
+a quick, square blow of his open palm on the flame.
+
+He staggered to the couch, pushed the coats to the
+floor, dropped heavily, drew the lap-robe over him and
+in five minutes was sound asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+NANCE'S STOREHOUSE
+
+
+The cabin was still.  Only the broken sobbing of the
+woman in the little shed-room came faint and low on old
+Nance's ears.
+
+She slipped from the kitchen into the shadows of a
+tree near the house and listened until the sobbing
+ceased.
+
+She crept close to the shed and stood silent and
+ghost-like beside its daubed walls.  Immovable as a cat
+crouching in the hedge to spring on her prey, she
+waited until the waning moon had sunk behind the crags. 
+She laid her ear close to a crack in the logs from
+which she had once pushed the red mud to let in the
+light.  All was still at last.  The sobbing had
+stopped.  The young wife was sound asleep.
+
+She had wondered vaguely at first about the crying,
+but quickly made up her mind that it was only a lover's
+quarrel.  She was glad of it.  The girl would bar her
+door and sulk all night.  So much the better. 
+There would be no danger of her entering the living-
+room where Jim slept.
+
+She would wait a little longer to make sure she was
+asleep.  A half hour passed.  The white-shrouded figure
+stood immovable, her keen ears tuned for the slightest
+sounds from within.
+
+The stars were shining in unusual brilliance.  She
+could see her way through the shadows even better than
+in full moon.  A wolf was crying again for his mate
+from a distant crag.  She had grown used to his howls. 
+He had come close to her cabin once in the day-time. 
+She had tried to creep on him and show her
+friendliness.  But he had fled in terror at the first
+glimpse of her dress through the parting underbrush.
+
+An owl was calling from his dead tree-top down the
+valley.  She smiled at his familiar, tremulous call. 
+Her own eyes were wide as his tonight.  No sight or
+sound of Nature among the crags about her cabin had for
+her spirit any terror.  The night was her mantle.
+
+She added to the meager living which she had wrung
+from her mountain farm by trading with the illicit
+distillers of the backwoods of Yancey County.  Too
+ignorant to run a distillery of her own, she had stored
+their goods with such skill that the hiding-place
+had never been discovered.  She loved good
+whiskey herself.  She had tried to find in its fiery
+depths the dreams of happiness life had so cruelly
+denied her.
+
+The hiding-place of this whiskey had puzzled the
+revenue officers of every administration for years. 
+They had watched her house day and night.  Not one of
+them had ever struck the trail to her storehouse.
+
+The game had excited her imagination.  She loved
+its daring and danger.  That there was the slightest
+element of wrong or crime in her association with the
+moonshiners of her native heath had never for a moment
+entered her mind.  It was no crime to make whiskey. 
+This was the first article of the creed of the true
+North Carolina mountaineer.  They had from the first
+declared that the tax levied by the Federal Government
+on the product of their industry was an infamous act of
+tyranny.  They had fought this tyranny for two
+generations.  They would fight it as long as there was
+breath in their bodies and a single load of powder and
+buckshot for their rifles.
+
+Nance considered herself a heroine in the pride of
+her soul for the shrewd and successful defiance she had
+given the revenue officers for so many years.
+
+She had been too cunning to even allow one of
+her own people to know the secret of her store house. 
+For that reason it had never been discovered.  She
+always stored the whiskey temporarily in the potato
+shed or under the cabin floor until night and then
+alone carried it to the place she had discovered.
+
+She laughed softly at the thought of this deep
+hiding-place tonight.  Its temperature never varied
+winter or summer.  Not a track had ever been left at
+its door.  She might live a hundred years and, unless
+some spying eye should see her enter, its existence
+could never be suspected.
+
+She tipped softly into the kitchen, walked to the
+door of the living-room and listened to the even, heavy
+breathing of the man on the couch.
+
+Once more the faint echo of a sob in the shed
+beyond came to her keen ears.  She stood for five
+minutes.  It was not repeated.  She had only imagined
+it.  The girl was still asleep.
+
+She turned noiselessly back into the kitchen, put a
+box of matches in her pocket, felt her way to the low
+shelf on which she had placed the battered lantern,
+picked it up and shook it to make sure the oil was
+sufficient.
+
+She stepped lightly into the yard, pushed open the
+gate of the split-board garden fence, walked
+along the edge to the corner and selected a spade
+from the tools that leaned against the boards.
+
+Carrying the spade and unlighted lantern in her
+left hand, she glided from the yard into the woods. 
+Her right hand before her to feel for underbrush or
+overhanging bough, she made her way rapidly to the
+swift-flowing mountain brook.
+
+Arrived at the water whose musical ripple had
+guided her steps, she removed her shoes and placed them
+beside a tree.  She wore no stockings.  The faded skirt
+she raised and tucked into her belt.  She could wade
+knee deep now without hindrance.
+
+Seizing the spade and lantern, she made her way
+slowly and carefully downstream for three hundred yards
+and paused beside a shelving ledge which projected
+half-way across the brook.
+
+She paused and listened again for full ten minutes,
+immovable as the rock on which her thin, bony hand
+rested.  The stars were looking, but they could only
+peep through the network of overhanging trees.
+
+Feeling her way along the rock until the ledge rose
+beyond her reach, she bent low and waded through a
+still pool of eddying water straight under the
+mountain-side for more than a hundred feet.  Her
+extended right hand had felt for the stone ceiling
+above her head until it ran abruptly out of reach.
+
+She straightened her body and took a deep breath. 
+Ten steps she counted carefully and placed her bare
+feet on the dry rock beyond the water.
+
+Carefully picking her way up the sloping bank until
+she reached a stretch of soft earth, she sank to her
+hands and knees and crawled through an opening less
+than three feet in height.
+
+"Thar now!" she laughed.  "Let 'em find me if they
+can!"
+
+She lighted her lantern and seated herself on a
+boulder to rest--one hundred and fifty feet in the
+depths of a mountain.  The cavern was ten feet in
+height and fifty feet in length.  The projecting ledges
+of rock made innumerable shelves on which a merchant
+might have displayed his wares.
+
+The old woman was too shrewd for that.  Her jugs
+were carefully planted in the ground behind two fallen
+boulders, and their hiding-place concealed by a layer
+of drift which she had gathered from the edge of the
+water.  She had taken this precaution against the day
+when some curious explorer might stumble on her secret
+as she had found it hunting ginsing roots in the woods
+overhead.  Her foot had slipped suddenly through a hole
+in the soft mould.  She peered cautiously below and
+could see no bottom.  She dropped a stone and heard it
+strike in the depths.  She made her way down the
+side of the crag and found the opening through the
+still eddying waters.  The hole through the roof she
+had long ago plugged and covered with earth and dry
+leaves.
+
+She carried her lantern and spade to the further
+end of her storehouse and dug a hole in the earth about
+two feet in depth.  The earth she carefully placed in a
+heap.
+
+"That's the place!" she giggled excitedly.
+
+She left her lantern burning, dropped again on the
+soft, mould-covered earth and quickly emerged on the
+stone banks of the wide, still pool.  Her hand high
+extended above her head, she waded through the water
+until she touched the heavy ceiling, lowered her body
+again to a stooping position and rapidly made her way
+out into the bed of the brook.
+
+She passed eagerly along the babbling path and
+stopped with sure instinct at the tree beside whose
+trunk she had placed her shoes.
+
+In five minutes she had made her way through the
+woods and reached the house.  She tipped into the
+kitchen and stood in the doorway or the living-room
+watching her sleeping guest.  The even breathing
+assured her that all was well.  Her plan couldn't
+fail.  She listened again for the sobs in the shed-
+room.
+
+She was sure once that she heard them.  Five
+minutes passed and still she was uncertain.  To avoid
+any possible accident she tipped back through the
+kitchen, circled the house and placed her ear against
+the crack in the logs.
+
+The girl was sobbing--or was she praying?  She
+crouched beside the wall, waited and listened.  The
+night wind stirred the dead leaves at her feet.  She
+lifted her head with a sudden start, laughed softly and
+bent again to listen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+TRAPPED
+
+The sobbing in the little room was the only sound that
+came from one of the grimmest battle-fields from which
+the soul of a woman ever emerged alive.
+
+To the first rush of cowardly tears Mary had
+yielded utterly.  She had fallen across the high-puffed
+feather mattress of the bed, shivering in humble
+gratitude at her escape from the horror of blindness. 
+The grip of his claw-like fingers on her throat came
+back to her now in sickening waves.  The blood was
+still trickling from the wound which his nails had made
+when she tore them loose in her first mad fight for
+breath.
+
+She lifted her body and breathed deeply to make
+sure her throat was free.  God in heaven!  Could she
+ever forget the hideous sinking of body and soul down
+into the depths of the black abyss!  She had seen the
+face of Death and it was horrible.  Life, warm and
+throbbing, was sweet.  She loved it.  She hated
+Death.
+
+Yes--she was a coward.  She knew it now, and didn't
+care.
+
+She sprang to her feet with sudden fear.  He might
+attack her again to make sure that her soul had been
+completely crushed.
+
+She crept to the door and felt its edges.
+
+"Yes, thank God, there's a place for the bar!"  She
+shivered.
+
+She ran her trembling fingers carefully along the
+rough logs and found it in the corner.  She slipped it
+cautiously into the iron sockets, staggered to the bed
+and dropped in grateful assurance of safety for the
+moment.  She buried her face in the pillow to fight
+back the sobs.  How great her fall!  She could crawl on
+her hands and knees to Jane Anderson now and beg for
+protection.  The last shred of pretense was gone.  The
+bankrupt soul stood naked and shivering, the last rag
+torn from pride.
+
+What a miserable fight she had made, too, when put
+to the test!  Ella had at least proved herself worthy
+to live.  The scrub-woman had risen in the strength of
+desperation and killed the beast who had maimed her. 
+She had only sunk a limp mass of shivering, helpless
+cowardice and fled from the room whining and pleading
+for mercy.
+
+She could never respect herself again.  The
+scene came back in vivid flashes.  His eyes,
+glowing like two balls of blue fire, froze the blood in
+her veins--his voice the rasping cold steel of a file. 
+And this coarse, ugly beast had held her in the spell
+of love.  She had clung to him, kissed him in rapture
+and yielded herself to him soul and body.  And he had
+gripped her delicate throat and choked her into
+insensibility, dropping her limp form from his hands
+like a strangled rat.  She could remember the half-
+conscious moment that preceded the total darkness as
+she felt his grip relax.
+
+He would choke and beat her again, too.  He had
+said it in the sneering laughter at the door.
+
+"A good little wife now and it's all right!"
+
+And if you're not obedient to my whims I'll choke
+you until you are!  That was precisely what he meant. 
+That he was capable of any depth of degradation, and
+that he meant to drag her with him, there could be no
+longer the shadow of a doubt.
+
+She could not endure another scene like that.  She
+sprang to her feet again, shivering with terror.  She
+could hear the hum of the conversation in the next
+room.  He was persuading his mother to join in his
+criminal career.  He was busy with his oily tongue
+transforming the simple, ignorant, lonely old
+woman into an avaricious fiend who would receive his
+blood-stained booty and rejoice in it.
+
+He was laughing again.  She put her trembling hands
+over her ears to shut out the sound.  He had laughed at
+her shame and cowardice.  It made her flesh creep to
+hear it.
+
+She would escape.  The mountain road was dark and
+narrow and crooked.  She would lose her way in the
+night, perhaps.  No matter.  She could keep warm by
+walking.  At dawn she would find her way to a cabin and
+ask protection.  If she could reach Asheville, a
+telegram would bring her father.  She wouldn't lose a
+minute.  Her hat and coat were in the living-room.  She
+would go bareheaded and without a coat.  In the morning
+she could borrow one from the woman at the Mount
+Mitchell house.
+
+She crept cautiously along the walls of the room
+searching for a door or window.  There must be a way
+out.  She made the round without discovering an opening
+of any kind.  There must be a window of some kind high
+up for ventilation.  There was no glass in it, of
+course.  It was closed by a board shutter--if she could
+reach it.
+
+She began at the door, found the corner of the room
+and stretched her arms upward until they touched the
+low, rough joist.  Over every foot of its surface
+she ran her fingers, carefully feeling for a window. 
+There was none!
+
+She found an open crack and peered through.  The
+stars were shining cold and clear in the December sky. 
+The twinkling heavens reminded her that it was
+Christmas Eve.  The dawn she hoped to see in the woods,
+if she could escape, would be Christmas morning.  There
+was no time for idle tears of self-pity.
+
+The one thought that beat in every throb of her
+heart now was to escape from her cell and put a
+thousand miles between her body and the beast who had
+strangled her.  She might break through the roof!  As a
+rule the shed-rooms of these rude mountain cabins were
+covered with split boards lightly nailed to narrow
+strips eighteen inches apart.  If there were no
+ceiling, or if the ceiling were not nailed down and she
+should move carefully, she might break through near the
+eaves and drop to the ground.  The cabin was not more
+than nine feet in height.
+
+She raised herself on the footrail of the bed and
+felt the ceiling.  There could be no mistake.  It was
+there.  She pressed gently at first and then with all
+her might against each board.  They were nailed hard
+and fast.
+
+She sank to the bed again in despair.  She had
+barred herself in a prison cell.  There was no escape
+except by the door through which the beast had driven
+her.  And he would probably draw the couch against it
+and sleep there.
+
+And then came the crushing conviction that such
+flight would be of no avail in a struggle with a man of
+Jim's character.  His laughing words of triumph rang
+through her soul now in all their full, sinister
+meaning.
+
+"The world ain't big enough for you to get away
+from me, Kiddo!"
+
+It wasn't big enough.  She knew it with tragic and
+terrible certainty.  In his blind, brutal way he loved
+her with a savage passion that would halt at nothing. 
+He would follow her to the ends of the earth and kill
+any living thing that stood in his way.  And when he
+found her at last he would kill her.
+
+How could she have been so blind!  There was no
+longer any mystery about his personality.  The slender
+hands and feet, which she had thought beautiful in her
+infatuation, were merely the hands and feet of a thief. 
+The strength of jaw and neck and shoulders had made him
+the most daring of all thieves--a burglar.
+
+His strange moods were no longer strange.  He
+laughed for joy at the wild mountain gorges and crags
+because he saw safety for the hiding-place of priceless
+jewels he meant to steal.
+
+There could be no escape in divorce from such a
+brute.  He was happy in her cowardly submission.  He
+would laugh at the idea of divorce.  Should she dare to
+betray the secrets of his life of crime, he would kill
+her as he would grind a snake under his heel.
+
+A single clause from the marriage ceremony kept
+ringing its knell--"until DEATH DO US PART!"
+
+She knelt at last and prayed for Death.
+
+"Oh, dear God, let me die, let me die!"
+
+Suicide was a crime unthinkable to her pious mind. 
+Only God now could save her in his infinite mercy.
+
+She lay for a long time on the floor where she had
+fallen in utter despair.  The tears that brought relief
+at first had ceased to flow.  She had beaten her
+bleeding wings against every barrier, and they were
+beyond her strength.
+
+Out of the first stupor of complete surrender, her
+senses slowly emerged.  She felt the bare boards of the
+floor and wondered vaguely why she was there.
+
+The hum of voices again came to her ears.  She
+lay still and listened.  A single terrible sentence she
+caught.  He spoke it with such malignant power she
+could see through the darkness the flames of hell
+leaping in his eyes.
+
+"Nobody's going to ask you HOW you got it--all
+they want to know is HAVE you got it!"
+
+She laughed hysterically at the idea of reformation
+that had stirred her to such desperate appeal in the
+first shock of discovery.  As well dream of reforming
+the Devil as the man who expressed his philosophy of
+life in that sentence!  Blood dripped from every word,
+the blood of the innocent and the helpless who might
+consciously or unconsciously stand in his way.  The man
+who had made up his mind to get rich quick, no matter
+what the cost to others, would commit murder without
+the quiver of an eyelid.  If she had ever had a doubt
+of this fact, she could have none after her experience
+of tonight.
+
+She wondered vaguely of the effects he was
+producing on his ignorant old mother.  Her words were
+too low and indistinct to be heard.  But she feared the
+worst.  The temptation of the gold he was showing her
+would be more than she could resist.
+
+She staggered to her feet and fell limp across
+the bed.  The iron walls of a life prison closed about
+her crushed soul.  The one door that could open was
+Death and only God's hand could lift its bars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE
+
+
+Hour after hour Nance stood beside the wall of the
+shed-room and with the patience of a cat waited for the
+sobs to cease and the girl to be quiet.
+
+Mary had risen from the bed once and paced the
+floor in the dark for more than an hour, like a
+frightened, wild animal, trapped and caged for the
+first time in life.  With growing wonder, Nance counted
+the beat of her foot-fall, five steps one way and five
+back--round after round, round after round, in
+ceaseless repetition.
+
+"Goddlemighty, is she gone clean crazy!" she
+exclaimed.
+
+The footsteps stopped at last and the low sobs came
+once more from the bed.  The old woman crouched down on
+a stone beside the log wall and drew the shawl about
+her shoulders.
+
+A rooster crowed for midnight.  Still the restless
+thing inside was stirring.  Nance rose uneasily. 
+Her lantern was still burning in her storehouse under
+the cliff.  The wick might eat so low it would explode. 
+She had heard that such things happened to lamps.  It
+was foolish to have left it burning, anyhow.
+
+She glided noiselessly from the house into the
+woods, entered her hidden door exactly as she had done
+before, extinguished the lantern, placed it on a
+shelving rock and put a dozen matches beside it.
+
+In ten minutes she had returned to the house and
+crouched once more against the wall of the shed.
+
+The low, pleading voice was praying.  She pressed
+her ear to the crack and heard distinctly.  She must be
+patient.  Her plan was sure to succeed if she were only
+patient.  No woman could sob and pray and walk all
+night.  She must fall down unconscious from sheer
+exhaustion before day.
+
+The old woman slipped into the kitchen, took up the
+quilt which she had spread on the floor for her bed,
+wrapped it about her thin shoulders and returned to her
+watch.
+
+Again and again she rose, believing her patience
+had won, and placed her ear to the crack only to hear a
+sound within which told her only too plainly that the
+girl was yet awake.  Sometimes it was a sigh, sometimes
+she cleared her throat, sometimes she tossed
+restlessly.  One spoken sentence she heard again and
+again:
+
+"Oh, dear God, have mercy on my lost soul!"
+
+"What can be the matter with the fool critter!"
+Nance muttered.  "Is she moanin' for sin?  To be shore,
+they don't have no revival meetings this time o' year!"
+
+She had known sinners to mourn through a whole
+summer sometimes, but never in all her experience in
+religious revivals had a mourner carried it over into
+winter.  The dancing had always eased the tension and
+brought a relapse to sinful thoughts.
+
+The hours dragged until the roosters began to crow
+for day.  It would soon be light.
+
+She must act now.  There was no time to lose.  She
+pressed her ear to the crack once more and held it five
+minutes.
+
+Not a sound came from within.  The broken spirit
+had yielded to the stupor of exhaustion at last.
+
+With swift, cat's tread Nance circled the cabin and
+entered the kitchen.  The quilt she carefully spread on
+the floor leading to the entrance to the living-room,
+crossed it softly and stood in the doorway with her
+long hands on the calico hangings.
+
+For five minutes she remained immovable and
+listened to the deep, regular breathing of the
+sleeping man.  Her wits were keen, her eyes wide. 
+She could see the dim outlines of the furniture by the
+starlight through the window.  Small objects in the
+room were, of course, invisible.  To light a candle was
+not to be thought of.  It might wake the sleeper.
+
+She knew how to make the light without a noise or
+its rays reaching his face.  He had startled her with
+the electric torch because of its novelty.  She was no
+longer afraid.  She would know how to press the button. 
+He had left the thing lying on the table beside the
+black bag.  He might have hidden the gold.  He would
+not remember in his drunken stupor to move the electric
+torch.
+
+She glided ghost-like into the room.  Her bare feet
+were velvet.  She knew every board in the floor.  There
+was one near the table that creaked.  She counted her
+steps and cleared the spot without a sound.
+
+Her thin fingers found the edge of the table and
+slipped with uncanny touch along its surface until her
+hand closed on the rounded form of the torch.
+
+Without moving in her tracks she turned the light
+on the table and in every nook and corner of the room
+beyond.  She slowly swung her body on a pivot, flashing
+the light into each shadow and over every inch of
+floor, turning always in a circle toward the couch.
+
+Satisfied that the object she sought was nowhere in
+the circle she had covered, she moved a step from the
+table and winked the light beneath it.  She squatted on
+the floor and flashed it carefully over every inch of
+its boards from one corner of the room to the other and
+under the couch.
+
+She rose softly, glided behind the head of the
+sleeping man and stood back some six feet, lest the
+flash of the torch might disturb him.  She threw its
+rays behind the couch and slowly raised them until they
+covered the dirty pillow on which Jim was sleeping. 
+There beneath the pillow lay the bag with its precious
+treasure.  He was sleeping on it.  She had feared this,
+but felt sure that the whiskey he had drunk would hold
+him in its stupor until late next morning.
+
+She crouched low and fixed the light's ray slowly
+on the bag that her hand might not err the slightest in
+its touch.  She laid her bony fingers on it with a
+slow, imperceptible movement, held them there a moment
+and moved the bag the slightest bit to test the
+sleeper's wakefulness.  To her surprise he stirred
+instantly.
+
+"What'ell!" he growled sleepily.
+
+She stood motionless until he was breathing again
+with deep, even, heavy throb.  Gliding back to the
+table, she flashed the light again on the bag and
+studied its position.  His big neck rested squarely
+across it.  To move it without waking him was a
+physical impossibility.
+
+Here was a dilemma she had not fully faced.  She
+had not believed it possible for him to place the bag
+where she could not get it.  Her only purpose up to
+this moment had been to take it and store it safely
+beneath the soft earth in the inner recess of the cave. 
+He would miss it in the morning, of course.  She would
+express her amazement.  The bar would be down from the
+front door.  Someone had robbed him.  The money could
+never be found.
+
+She had made up her mind to take it the moment he
+had convinced her that his philosophy of life was true. 
+His eloquence had transformed her from an ignorant old
+woman, content with her poverty and dirt, into a
+dangerous and daring criminal.
+
+There was no such thing as failure to be thought of
+now for a moment.  The spade in the inner room of her
+store-house could be put to larger use if necessary. 
+With the strength of the madness now on her she could
+carry his body on her back through the woods.  The
+world would be none the wiser.  He had quarreled
+with his wife, and left her in a rage that night.  That
+was all she knew.  The sheriff of neither county could
+afford to bother his head long over an insolvable
+mystery.  Besides, both sheriffs were her friends.
+
+Her decision was instantaneous when once she saw
+that it was safe.
+
+She smiled over the grim irony of the thing--his
+words kept humming in her ears, his voice, low and
+persuasive:
+
+"Suppose now the man that got that money had to
+kill a fool to take it--what of it?  You don't get big
+money any other way!"
+
+On the shelf beside the door was a butcher knife
+which she also used for carving.  She had sharpened its
+point that night to carve her Christmas turkey next
+day.
+
+She raised the torch and flashed its rays on the
+shelf to guide her hand, crept to the wall, took down
+the knife and laid the electric torch in its place.
+
+Steadying her body against the wall, her arms
+outspread, she edged her way behind the couch and bent
+over the sleeping man until by his breathing she had
+located his heart.
+
+She raised her tall figure and brought the
+knife down with a crash into his breast.  With a
+sudden wrench she drew it from the wound and crouched
+among the shadows watching him with wide-dilated eyes.
+
+The stricken sleeper gasped for breath, his
+writhing body fairly leaped into the air, bounded on
+the couch and stood erect.  He staggered backward and
+lurched toward her.  The crouching figure bent low,
+gripping the knife and waiting for her chance to strike
+the last blow.
+
+Strangling with blood, Jim opened his eyes and saw
+the old woman creeping nearer through the gray light of
+the dawn.
+
+He threw his hands above his head and tried to
+shout his warning.  She was on him, her trembling hand
+feeling for his throat, before he could speak.
+
+Struggling, in his weakened condition, to tear her
+fingers away, he gasped:
+
+"Here!  Here!  Great God!  Do you know what you're
+doing?"
+
+"I just want yer money," she whispered.  "That's
+all, and I'm a-goin' ter have it!"
+
+Her fingers closed and the knife sank into his
+neck.
+
+She sprang back and watched him lurch and fall
+across the couch.  His body writhed a moment in agony
+and was still.
+
+Holding the knife in her hand, she tore open the
+bag and thrust her itching fingers into the gold,
+gripping it fiercely.
+
+"Nobody's goin' to ask ye how ye got it--they just
+want to know HAVE ye got it--yeah!  Yeah----"
+
+The last word died on her lips.  The door of the
+shed-room suddenly opened and Mary stood before her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+DELIVERANCE
+
+The first dim noises of the tragedy in the living-room
+Mary's stupefied senses had confused with a nightmare
+which she had
+been painfully fighting.
+
+The torch in Nance's hand had flashed through a
+crack into her face once.  It was the flame of a
+revolver in the hands of a thief in Jim's den in New
+York.  She merely felt it.  Her eyes had been gouged
+out and she was blind.  A gang of his coarse companions
+were holding a council, cursing, drinking, fighting. 
+Jim had sprung between two snarling brutes and knocked
+the revolver into the air.  The flame had scorched her
+face.
+
+With an oath he had slapped her.
+
+"Get out, you damned little fool!" he growled. 
+"You're always in the way when you're not wanted. 
+Nobody can ever find you when there's work to be
+done----"
+
+"But I can't see, Jim dear," she pleaded.  "I
+do not know when things are out of place----"
+
+"You're a liar!" he roared.  "You know where every
+piece of junk stands in this room better than I do.  I
+can't bring a friend into that door that you don't know
+it.  You can hear the swish of a woman's skirt on the
+stairs four stories below----"
+
+"I only asked you who the woman was who came in
+with you, Jim----"
+
+His fingers gripped her throat and stopped her
+breath.  Through the roar of surging blood she could
+barely hear the vile words he was dinning into her
+ears.
+
+"I know you just asked me, you nosing little devil,
+and it's none of your business!  She's a pal of mine,
+if you want to know, the slickest thief that ever
+robbed a flat.  She's got more sense in a minute than
+you'll ever have in a lifetime.  She's going to live
+here with me now.  You can sleep on the cot in the
+kitchen.  And you come when she calls, if you know
+what's good for your lazy hide.  I've told her to
+thrash the life out of you if you dare to give her any
+impudence."
+
+She had cowered at his feet and begged him not to
+beat her again.  The fumes of whiskey and stale beer
+filled the place.
+
+Jim turned from her to quell a new fight at
+the other end of the room.  Another woman was
+there, coarse, dirty, beastly.  She drew a knife and
+demanded her share of the night's robberies.  She was
+trying to break from the men who held her to stab Jim. 
+They were all fighting and smashing the furniture----
+
+She sprang from the bed with a cry of horror.  The
+noise was real!  It was not a dream.  The beast inside
+was stumbling in the dark.  His passions fired by
+liquor, he was fumbling to find his way into her room.
+
+She rushed to the door and put her shoulder against
+the bar, panting in terror.
+
+She heard his strangling cry:
+
+"Here!  Here!  Great God!  Do you know what you're
+doing?"
+
+And then his mother's voice, mad with greed, cruel,
+merciless:
+
+"I just want yer money--that's all, an' I'm goin'
+to have it!"
+
+She heard the clinch in the struggle and the dull
+blow of the knife.  In a sudden flash she saw it all. 
+He had succeeded in rousing Nance's avarice and
+transforming her into a fiend.  Without knowing it she
+was stabbing her own son to death in the room in which
+he had been born!
+
+She tried to scream and her lips refused to move. 
+She tried to hurry to the rescue and her knees turned
+to water.
+
+Gasping for breath, she drew the bar from her
+prison door and walked slowly into the room.
+
+Nance's tall, bony figure was still crouched over
+the open bag, her left hand buried in the gold, her
+right gripping the knife, her face convulsed with
+greed--avarice and murder blended into perfect hell-lit
+unity at last.
+
+Jim lay on his back, limp and still, obliquely
+across the couch, his breast bared in the struggle, the
+blood oozing a widening scarlet blot on his white
+shirt.  His head had fallen backward over the edge and
+could not be seen.
+
+Without moving a muscle, her body crouching, Nance
+spoke:
+
+"You wuz awake--you heered?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+The gleaming eyes burned through the gray dawn, two
+points of scintillating, hellish light fixed in purpose
+on the intruder.
+
+She had only meant to take the money.  The fool had
+fought.  She killed him because she had to.  And now
+the sobbing, sniveling little idiot who had kept her
+waiting all night had stuck her nose into some
+thing that didn't concern her.  If she opened her
+mouth, the gallows would be the end.
+
+She would open it too.  Of course she would.  She
+was his wife.  They had quarreled, but the simpleton
+would blab.  Nance knew this with unerring instinct. 
+It was no use to offer her half the money.  She didn't
+have sense enough to take it.  She knew those pious,
+baby faces--well, there was room for two in the cave
+under the cliff.  It was daylight now.  No matter; it
+was Christmas morning.  No man or woman ever darkened
+her door on Christmas day.  She could hide their bodies
+until dark, and then it was easy.  She would be in New
+York herself before anyone could suspect the meaning of
+that automobile in the shed or the owners would trouble
+themselves to come after it.
+
+Again her decision was quick and fierce.  Her hand
+was on the bag.  She would hold it against the world,
+all hell and heaven.
+
+With the leap of a tigress she was on the girl, the
+bag gripped in her left hand, the knife in her right.
+
+To her amazement the trembling figure stood stock
+still gazing at her with a strange look of pity.
+
+"Well!" Nance growled.  "I ain't goin' ter be
+took now I've got this money--I'm goin' to New York ter
+find my boy!"
+
+She lifted the knife and stopped in sheer stupor of
+surprise at the girl's immovable body and staring eyes. 
+Had she gone crazy?  What on earth could it mean?  No
+girl of her youth and beauty could look death in the
+face without a tremor.  No woman in her right senses
+could see the body of her dead husband lying there red
+and yet quivering without a sign.  It was more than
+even Nance's nerves could endure.
+
+She lowered the knife and peered into the girl's
+set face and glanced quickly about the room.  Could she
+have called help?  Was the house surrounded?  It was
+impossible.  She couldn't have escaped.  What did it
+mean?
+
+The old woman drew back with a terror she couldn't
+understand.
+
+"What are you looking at me like that for?" she
+panted.
+
+Mary held her gaze in lingering pity.  Her heart
+went out now to the miserable creature trembling in the
+presence of her victim.  The blow must fall that would
+crush the soul out of her body at one stroke.  The gray
+hair had tumbled over her distorted features, the
+ragged dress had been torn from her throat in the
+struggle and her flat, bony breast was exposed.
+
+"You don't--have--to--go--to--New York--to--find--
+your--boy!" the strained voice said at last.
+
+Nance frowned in surprise and flew back at her in
+rage.
+
+"Yes I do, too--he lives thar!"
+
+The little figure straightened above the crouching
+form.
+
+"He's here!"
+
+Nance sank slowly against the table and rested the
+bag on the edge of the chair.  Its weight was more than
+she could bear.  She tried to glance over her shoulder
+at the body on the couch and her courage failed.  The
+first suspicion of the hideous truth flashed through
+her stunned mind.  She couldn't grasp it at once.
+
+"Whar?" she whispered hoarsely.
+
+Mary lifted her arm slowly and pointed to the
+couch.
+
+"There!"
+
+Nance glared at her a moment and broke into a
+hysterical laugh.
+
+"It's a lie--a lie--a lie!"
+
+"It's true----"
+
+"Yer're just a lyin' ter me ter get away an give me
+up--but ye won't do it--little Miss--old Nance is too
+smart for ye this time.  Who told you that?"
+
+"He told me tonight!"
+
+"He told you?" she repeated blankly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You're a liar!" she growled.  "And I'll prove it--
+you move out o' your tracks an' I'll cut your throat. 
+My boy's got a scar on his neck--I know right whar to
+look for it.  Don't you move now till I see--I know
+you're a liar----"
+
+She turned and with the quick trembling fingers of
+her right hand tore the shirt back from the neck and
+saw the scar.  She still held the bag in her left hand. 
+The muscles slowly relaxed and the bag fell endwise to
+the floor, the gold crashing and rolling over the
+boards.  She stared in stupor and threw both hands
+above her streaming gray hair.
+
+"Lord God Almighty!" she shrieked.  "Why didn't I
+think that he wuz somebody else's boy if he weren't
+mine!"
+
+The thin body trembled and crumpled beside the
+couch.
+
+The girl lifted her head in a look of awe as if in
+prayer.
+
+"And God has set me free! free! free!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+THE DOCTOR
+
+Mary stood overwhelmed by the tragedy she had
+witnessed.  For the time her brain refused to record
+sensations.  She had seen too much, felt too much in
+the past eight hours.  Soul and body were numb.
+
+The first impressions of returning consciousness
+were fixed on Nance.  She had risen suddenly from the
+floor and smoothed the hair back from Jim's forehead
+with tender touch as if afraid to wake him.  She drew
+the quilt from the kitchen floor, spread it over the
+body, and lifted her eyes to Mary's.  It was only too
+plain.
+
+Reason had gone.
+
+She tipped close and put her fingers on her lips.
+
+"Sh!  We mustn't wake him.  He's tired.  Let him
+sleep.  It's my boy.  He's come home.  We'll fix him a
+fine Christmas dinner.  I've got a turkey.  I'll bake a
+cake----" she paused and laughed softly.  "I've got
+eggs too, fresh laid yesterday.  We'll make egg-
+nog all day and all night.  I ain't had no Christmas
+since that devil stole him.  We'll have one this time,
+won't we?"
+
+The girl's wits were again alert.  She must run for
+help.  A minute to humor the old woman's delusion and
+she might return before any harm came to her.  Jim had
+not moved a muscle.  It was plain that he was beyond
+help.
+
+"Yes," Mary answered cheerfully.  "You fix the
+cake--and I'll get the wood to make a fire."
+
+Nance laughed again.
+
+"We'll have the dinner all ready for him when he
+wakes, won't we?"
+
+"Yes.  I'll be back in a few minutes."
+
+Nance hurried into the kitchen humming an old song
+in a faltering voice that sent the cold chills down the
+girl's spine.
+
+Mary slipped quietly through the door and ran with
+swift, sure foot down the narrow road along which the
+machine had picked its way the afternoon before.  The
+cabin they had passed last could not be more than a
+mile.
+
+She made no effort to find the logs for pedestrians
+when the road crossed the brook.  She plunged straight
+through the babbling waters with her shoes, regardless
+of skirts.
+
+Panting for breath, she saw the smoke curling from
+the cabin chimney a quarter of a mile away.
+
+"Thank God!" she cried.  "They're awake!"
+
+She was so glad to have reached her goal, her
+strength suddenly gave way and she dropped to a boulder
+by the wayside to rest.  In two minutes she was up and
+running with all her might.
+
+She rushed to the door and knocked.
+
+A mountaineer in shirt-sleeves and stockings
+answered with a look of mild wonder.
+
+"For God's sake come and help me.  I must have a
+doctor quick.  We spent the night at Mrs. Owens'. 
+She's lost her mind completely--a terrible thing has
+happened--you'll help me?"
+
+"Cose I will, honey," the mountaineer drawled. 
+"Jest ez quick ez I get on my shoes."
+
+"Is there a doctor near?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+He answered without looking up:
+
+"The best one that God ever sent to a sick bed.  He
+don't charge nobody a cent in these parts.  He just
+heals the sick because hit's his callin'.  Come from
+somewhar up North and built hisself a fine log house up
+on the side of the mountains.  Hit's full of all the
+medicines in the world, too----"
+
+"Will you ask him to come for me?"  Mary broke
+in.
+
+"I'll jump on my hoss an' have him thar in half a'
+hour.  You can run right back, honey, and look out for
+the po' ole critter till we get thar."
+
+"Thank you!  Thank you!" she answered grate fully.
+
+"Not at all, not at all!" he protested as he swung
+through the door and hurried to the low-pitched sheds
+in which his horse and cow were stabled.  "Be thar in
+no time!"
+
+When Mary returned, Nance was still busy in the
+kitchen.  She had built a fire and put the turkey in
+the oven.
+
+Mary was counting the minutes now until the doctor
+should come.  The old woman's prattle about the return
+of her lost boy, so big and strong and handsome, had
+become unendurable.  She felt that she should scream
+and collapse unless help came at once.  She looked at
+her watch.  It was just thirty-five minutes from the
+time she had left the cabin in the valley below.
+
+She sprang to her feet with a smothered cry of joy. 
+The beat of a horse's hoof at full gallop was ringing
+down the road.
+
+In two minutes the Doctor's firm footstep was heard
+at the kitchen door.
+
+Nance turned with a look of glad surprise.
+
+"Well, fur the land sake, ef hit ain't Doctor
+Mulford!  Come right in!" she cried.
+
+The Doctor seized her hand.
+
+"And how is my good friend, Mrs. Owens, this
+morning?" he asked cheerfully.
+
+Mary was studying him with deep interest.  She had
+asked herself the question a hundred times how much she
+could tell him--what to say and what to leave unsaid. 
+One glance at his calm, intellectual face was enough. 
+He was a man of striking appearance, six feet tall,
+forty-five years of age, hair prematurely gray and a
+slight stoop to his broad shoulders.  His brown eyes
+seemed to enfold the old woman in their sympathy.
+
+Nance was chattering her answer to his greeting.
+
+"Oh, I'm feelin' fine, Doctor--" she dropped her
+voice confidentially--"and you're just in time for a
+good dinner.  My boy that was lost has come home.  He's
+a great big fellow, wears fine clothes and come up the
+mountain all the way in a devil wagon."  She put her
+hand to her mouth.  "Sh!  He's asleep!  We won't wake
+him till dinner!  He's all tired out."
+
+The Doctor nodded understandingly and turned toward
+Mary.
+
+"And this young lady?"
+
+"Oh, that's his wife from New York--ain't she
+purty?"
+
+The Doctor saw the delicate hands trembling and
+extended his.
+
+No word was spoken.  None was needed.  There was
+healing in his touch, healing in his whole being.  No
+man or woman could resist the appeal of his
+personality.  Their secrets were yielded with perfect
+faith.
+
+"Come with me quickly," Mary whispered.
+
+"I understand," he answered carelessly.
+
+Turning again to Nance, he said with easy
+confidence:
+
+"I'll not disturb you with your cooking, Mrs.
+Owens.  Go right on with it.  I'll have a little chat
+with your son's wife.  If she's from New York I want to
+ask her about some of my people up there----"
+
+"All right," Nance answered, "but don't you wake
+HIM!  Go with her inter the shed-room."
+
+"We'll go on tip-toe!" the Doctor whispered.
+
+Nance nodded, smiled and bent again over the oven.
+
+Mary led him quickly through the living-room, head
+averted from the couch, and into the prison cell in
+which she had passed the night.  The physician
+glanced with a startled look at the gold still
+scattered on the floor.
+
+She seized his hand and swayed.
+
+He touched the brown hair of her bared head gently
+and pressed her hand.
+
+"Steady, now, child, tell me quickly."
+
+"Yes, yes," she gasped, "I'll tell you the
+truth----"
+
+He held her gaze.
+
+"And the whole truth--it's best."
+
+Mary nodded, tried to speak and failed.  She drew
+her breath and steadied herself, still gripping his
+hand.
+
+"I will," she began faintly.  "He's dead----"
+
+She paused and nodded toward the living-room.
+
+"The man--her son?"
+
+"Yes.  We came last night from Asheville.  We were
+on our honeymoon.  We haven't been married but three
+weeks.  I never knew the truth about his life and
+character until last night when he told me that this
+old woman was his mother.  I found a case of jewels in
+the bag he carried--jewels that belonged to a man in
+New York who was robbed and shot.  I recognized the
+case.  He confessed to me at last in cold, brutal words
+that he was a thief.  I couldn't believe it at first. 
+I tried to make him give up his criminal career. 
+He laughed at me.  He gloried in it.  I tried to leave
+him.  He choked me into insensibility and drove me into
+this cell, where I spent the night.  He brought the
+gold that you saw on the floor which he had honestly
+made to give to his old mother--but for a devilish
+purpose.  He showed it to her last night to rouse her
+avarice and make her first agree to hide his stolen
+goods.  He succeeded too well.  Before he had revealed
+himself she slipped into the room at daylight while he
+slept in a drunken stupor, murdered him and took the
+money.  The struggle waked me and I rushed in.  She
+gripped her knife to kill me.  I told her that she had
+murdered her own son and she went mad----"
+
+She paused for breath and her lips trembled
+piteously.
+
+"You know what to do, Doctor?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"And you'll help me?"
+
+He smiled tenderly and nodded his head.
+
+"God knows you need it, child!"
+
+The nerves snapped at last, and she sank a limp
+heap at his feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+THE CALL DIVINE
+
+The Doctor threw off his coat and took charge of the
+stricken house.  He sent his waiting messenger for a
+faithful nurse, a mountain woman whom he had trained,
+and began the fight for Mary's life.  The collapse into
+which she had fallen would require weeks of patient
+care.  There was no immediate danger of death, and
+while he awaited the arrival of help, he turned into
+the living-room to examine the body of the slain
+husband.
+
+The head had fallen backward over the side of the
+lounge and a pool of blood, still warm and red, lay on
+the floor in a widening circle beneath it.  His quick
+eye took in its significance at a glance.  He sprang
+forward, ripped the shirt wide open and applied his ear
+to the breast.
+
+"He's still alive!" he cried excitedly.
+
+He examined the ugly wound in the left side and
+found that the knife had penetrated the lung.  The
+heart had not been touched.  The blow on the neck had
+not been fatal.  The shock of the final stroke had
+merely choked the wounded man into collapse from the
+hemorrhage of the left lung.  The position into which
+the body had fallen across the couch had gradually
+cleared the accumulated blood.  There was a chance to
+save his life.
+
+In ten minutes he had applied stimulants and
+restored respiration, but the deep wheeze from the
+stricken lung told only too plainly the dangerous
+character of the wound.  It would be a bitter fight. 
+His enormous vitality might win.  The chances were
+against him.
+
+Jim's lips moved and he tried to speak.
+
+The Doctor placed his hand on his mouth and shook
+his head.  The drooping eyelids closed in grateful
+obedience.
+
+The beat of horses' hoofs echoed down the mountain
+road.  His nurse and messenger were coming.  He decided
+at once to move Mary to his own house.  She must regain
+consciousness in new surroundings or her chance of
+survival would be slender.  To awake in this miserable
+cabin, the scene of the tragedy she had witnessed,
+might be instantly fatal.  Besides she must not yet
+know that the brute who had choked her was alive and
+might still hold the power of life and death over
+her frail body.  She believed him dead.  It was best
+so.  He might be dead and buried before she recovered
+consciousness.  The fever that burned her brain would
+completely cloud reason for days.
+
+He hastily improvised a stretcher with a blanket
+and two strong quilting-poles which stood in the corner
+of the room.  Nance helped him without question.  She
+obeyed his slightest suggestion with childlike
+submission.
+
+He placed Mary on the stretcher, wrapped her body
+in another warm blanket and turned to his nurse and
+messenger:
+
+"Carry her to my house.  Walk slowly and rest
+whenever you wish.  Don't wake her.  Tell Aunt Abbie to
+put her to bed in the south room overlooking the
+valley.  Don't leave her a minute, Betty.  She's in the
+first collapse of brain fever.  You know what to do. 
+I'll be there in an hour.  You come back here, John.  I
+want you."
+
+The mountaineer nodded and seized one end of the
+stretcher.  The nurse took up the other and the Doctor
+held wide the cabin door as they passed out.
+
+For three weeks he fought the grim battle with
+Death for the two young lives the Christmas
+tragedy had thrust into his hands.  He gave his
+entire time day and night to the desperate struggle.
+
+When pneumonia had developed and Jim's life hung by
+a hair, he slept on the couch in the living-room of the
+cabin and had Nance make for herself a bed on the floor
+of the kitchen.
+
+The old woman remained an obedient child.  She
+cooked the Doctor's meals and did the work about the
+house and yard as if nothing had disturbed her habits
+of lonely plodding.  She believed implicitly all that
+was told her.  Her son had pneumonia from cold he had
+taken in the long drive from Asheville.  The house must
+be kept quiet.  John Sanders was helping her nurse him. 
+She was sure the Doctor would save him.
+
+Even the knife with which she had stabbed him made
+no impression on her numbed senses.  The Doctor had
+scoured every trace of blood from the blade and put it
+back in its place on the shelf, lest she should miss it
+and ask questions.  She used it daily without the
+slightest memory of the frightful story it might tell.
+
+Each morning before going to the cabin the Doctor
+watched with patience for the first signs of returning
+consciousness in Mary's fever-wracked body.  The day
+she lifted her grateful eyes to his and her lips
+moved in a tremulous question he raised his hand
+gently.
+
+"Sh!  Child--don't talk!  It's all right.  You're
+getting better.  I've been with you every day.  You're
+in my house now.  You'll soon be yourself again."
+
+She smiled wanly, put her delicate hand on his and
+pressed it gratefully.
+
+"I understand.  You thank me--you say that I am
+good to you.  But I'm not.  This is my life.  I heal
+the sick because I must.  I love this battle royal with
+Death.  He beats me sometimes--but I never quit.  I'm
+always tramping on his trail, and I've won this fight!"
+
+The calm brown eyes held her in a spell and she
+smiled again.
+
+"Sleep now," he said soothingly.  "Sleep day and
+night.  Just wake to take a little food--that's all and
+Nature will do the rest."
+
+He stroked her hand gently until her eyelids
+closed.
+
+Two days later Jim clung to the Doctor's hand and
+insisted on talking.
+
+"Better wait a little longer, boy," the physician
+answered kindly.  "You're not out of the woods
+yet----"
+
+"I can't wait--Doc----" Jim pleaded.  "I've just
+got to ask you something."
+
+"All right.  You can talk five minutes."
+
+"My wife, Doc, how is she?  You took her to your
+house, John told me.  She'll get well?"
+
+"Yes.  She's rapidly recovering now."
+
+"What does she say about me?"
+
+"She thinks you're dead."
+
+"You haven't told her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She had all she could stand----"
+
+Jim stared in silence.
+
+"You think she'd be sorry to know I am alive?" he
+asked slowly.
+
+"It would be a great shock."
+
+The steel blue eyes slowly filled with tears.
+
+"God!  I am rotten, ain't I?"
+
+"There's no doubt about that, my son," was the firm
+answer.
+
+"Why did you fight so hard to save me--I wonder?"
+
+"An old feud between Death and me."
+
+Jim suddenly seized the Doctor's hand.
+
+"Say, you can't fool me--you're a good one, Doc. 
+You've been a friend to me and you've got to
+help now--you've just got to.  You're the only one
+on earth who can.  You've a great big heart and you
+can't go back on a fellow that's down and out.  Give me
+a chance!  You will--won't you?"
+
+The hot fingers gripped the Doctor's hand with
+pleading tenderness.
+
+The brown eyes searched Jim's soul.
+
+"If you can show me it's worth while----"
+
+The fingers tightened their grip in silence.
+
+"Just give me a chance, Doc," he said at last, "and
+I'll show you!  I ain't never had a chance to really
+know what was right and what was wrong.  If I'd a lived
+here with my old mother she'd have told me.  You know
+what it is to be a stray dog on the streets of New
+York?  Even then, I'd have kept straight if I hadn't
+been robbed by a lawyer and his pal.  I didn't know
+what I was doin' till that night here in this cabin--
+honest to God, I didn't----"
+
+He paused for breath and a tear stole down his
+cheek.  He fought for control of his emotions and went
+on in low tones.
+
+"I didn't know--till I saw my old mother creepin'
+on me in the shadows with that big knife gleamin' in
+her hand!  I tried to stop her and I couldn't.  I tried
+to yell and strangled with blood.  I saw the flames of
+hell in her eyes and I had kindled them there--
+God!  I never knew until that minute!  I'm broken and
+bruised lyin' on the rocks now in the lowest pit---- 
+Give me your hand, Doc!  You're my only friend--I'm
+goin' straight from now on--so help me God!"
+
+He paused again for breath and sought the actor's
+eyes.
+
+"You'll stand by me, won't you?"
+
+A friendly grip closed on the trembling fingers.
+
+"Yes--I'll help you--if I can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+THE MOTHER
+
+Mary was resting in the chair beneath the southern
+windows of the sun-parlor of the Doctor's bungalow.  He
+had built his home of logs cut from the mountainside. 
+Its rooms were supplied with every modern convenience
+and comfort.  Clear spring water from the cliff above
+poured into the cypress tank constructed beneath the
+roof.  An overflow pipe sent a sparkling, bubbling and
+laughing through the lawn, refreshing the wild flowers
+planted along its edges.
+
+The view from the window looking south was one of
+ravishing beauty and endless charm.  Perched on a
+rising spur of the Black Mountain the house commanded a
+view of the long valley of the Swannanoa opening at the
+lower end into the wide, sunlit sweep of the lower
+hills around Asheville.  Upward the balsam-crowned
+peaks towered among the clouds and stars.
+
+No two hours of the day were just alike. 
+Sometimes the sun was raining showers of diamonds
+on the trembling tree-tops of the valleys while the
+blackest storm clouds hung in ominous menace around
+Mount Mitchell and the Cat-tail.  Sometimes it was
+raining in the valley--the rain cloud a level sheet of
+gray cloth stretching from the foot of the lawn across
+to the crags beyond, while the sun wrapped the little
+bungalow in a warm, white mantle.
+
+Mary had never tired of this enchanted world during
+the days of her convalescence.  The Doctor, with firm
+will, had lifted every care from her mind.  She had
+gratefully submitted to his orders, and asked no
+questions.
+
+She began to wonder vaguely about his life and
+people and why he had left the world in which a man of
+his culture and power must have moved, to bury himself
+in these mountain wilds.  She wondered if he had
+married, separated from his wife and chosen the life of
+a recluse.  He volunteered no information about
+himself.
+
+When not attending his patients he spent his hours
+in the greenhouse among his flowers or in the long
+library extension of the bungalow.  More than five
+thousand volumes filled the solid shelves.  A massive
+oak table, ten feet in length and four feet wide,
+stood in the center of the room, always generously
+piled with books, magazines and papers.  At the end of
+this table he kept the row of books which bore
+immediately on the theme he was studying.
+
+Beside the window opening on the view of the valley
+stood his old-fashioned desk--six feet long, its top a
+labyrinth of pigeon-holes and tiny drawers.
+
+He pursued his studies with boyish enthusiasm and
+chattered of them to Mary by the hour--with never a
+word passing his lips about himself.
+
+Aunt Abbie, the cook, brought her a cup of tea, and
+Mary volunteered a question.
+
+"Do you know the Doctor's people, Auntie?" she
+asked hesitatingly.
+
+"Lord, child, he's a mystery to everybody!  All we
+know is that he's the best man that ever walked the
+earth.  He won't talk and the mountain folks are too
+polite to nose into his business.  He saved my boy's
+life one summer, and when he was strong and well and
+went back to Asheville to his work, I had nothin' to do
+but to hold my hands, and I come here to cook for him. 
+He tries to pay me wages but I laugh at him.  I told
+him if he could save my boy's life for nothin' I reckon
+I could cook him a few good meals without pay----"
+
+Her eyes filled with tears.  She brushed them off,
+laughed and added:
+
+"He lets me alone now and don't pester me no more
+about money."
+
+Her tea and toast finished, Mary placed the tray on
+the table, rose with a sudden look of pain, and made
+her way slowly to the library.
+
+A warm fire of hardwood logs sparkled in the big
+stone fireplace.  The Doctor was out on a visit to a
+patient.  He had given her the freedom of the place and
+had especially insisted that she use his books and make
+his library her resting place whenever her mind was
+fagged.  She had spent many quiet hours in its
+inspiring atmosphere.
+
+She seated herself at his desk and studied the
+calendar which hung above it.  A sudden terror
+overwhelmed her; she buried her face in her arms and
+burst into tears.
+
+She was still lying across the desk, sobbing, when
+the Doctor walked into the room.
+
+He touched her hair reproachfully with his firm
+hand.
+
+"Why, what's this?  My little soldier has disobeyed
+orders?"
+
+"I don't want to live now," she sobbed.
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"I--I--am going to be a mother," she whispered.
+
+"So?"
+
+"The mother of a criminal!  Oh, Doctor, it's
+horrible!  Why did you let me live?  The hell I passed
+through that night was enough--God knows!  This will be
+unendurable.  I've made up my mind--I'll die first----"
+
+"Rubbish, child!  Rubbish!" he answered with a
+laugh.  "Where did you get all this misinformation?"
+
+"You know what my husband was.  How can you ask?"
+
+"Because I happen to know also his wife--the
+mother-to-be of this supposed criminal who has just set
+sail for the shores of our planet--and I know that she
+is one of the purest and sweetest souls who ever lost
+her way in the jungles of the world.  If you were the
+criminal, dear heart, the case might be hopeless.  But
+you're not.  You are only the innocent victim of your
+own folly.  That doesn't count in the game of
+Nature----"
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+"Simply this:  The part which the male plays in the
+reproduction of the race is small in comparison with
+the role of the female.  He is merely a supernumerary
+who steps on the stage for a moment
+and speaks one word announcing the arrival of the
+queen.  The queen is the mother.  She plays the star
+role in the drama of Heredity.  She is never off the
+stage for a single moment.  We inherit the most obvious
+physical traits from our male ancestors but even these
+may be modified by the will of the mother."
+
+"Modified by the will of the mother?" she repeated
+blankly.
+
+"Certainly.  There are yet long days and weeks and
+months before your babe will be born--at least seven
+months.  There's not a sight or sound of earth or
+heaven that can reach or influence this coming human
+being save through your eyes and ears and touch and
+soul.  Almighty God can speak His message only through
+you.  You are his ambassador on earth in this solemn
+hour.  What your husband was, is of little importance. 
+There is not a moment, waking or sleeping, day or
+night, that does not bring to you its divine
+opportunity.  This human life is yours--absolutely to
+mold and fashion in body and mind as you will."
+
+"You're just saying this to keep me from suicide,"
+Mary interrupted.
+
+"I am telling you the simplest truth of physical
+life.  You can even change the contour of your
+baby's head if you like.  You think in your silly fears
+that the bull neck and jaw of the father will reappear
+in the child.  It might be so unless you see fit to
+change it.  All any father can do is to transmit
+general physical traits unless modified by the will of
+the mother."
+
+"You mean that I can choose even the personal
+appearance of my child?" she asked in blank amazement.
+
+"Exactly that.  Choose the type of man you wish
+your babe to be and it shall be so.  Who in all the
+world would you prefer that he resemble?"
+
+"You," she answered promptly.
+
+He smiled gently.
+
+"That pays me for all my trouble, child!  No doctor
+ever got a bigger fee than that.  Banks may fail, but
+I'll never lose it.  Your choice simplifies that matter
+very much.  You won't need a picture in your room----"
+
+"A picture could determine the features of an
+unborn babe?" she asked incredulously.
+
+"Beyond a doubt, and it will determine character
+sometimes.  I knew a mother in the mountains of Vermont
+who hung the picture of a ship under full sail in her
+living-room.  She bore seven sons.  Not one of them
+ever saw the ocean until he was grown and yet all
+of them became sailors.  This was not an accident.  In
+her age and loneliness she blamed God for taking her
+children from her.  Yet she had made sailors of them
+all by the selection of a single piece of furniture in
+her room.  Nature has a way of starting her children on
+their journey through this world very nearly equal--
+each a bundle of possibilities in the hands of a
+mother.  A father may transmit physical disease, if his
+body is unsound.  Such marriages should be prohibited
+by law.  But nine-tenths of the spiritual traits out of
+which character is formed are the work of the mother. 
+A criminal mother will bring into the world only
+criminals.  A criminal male may be the father of a
+saint.  The responsibility of shaping the destiny of
+the race rests with the mother----"
+
+The Doctor sprang to his feet and paced the floor,
+his arms gripped behind his back in deep thought.  He
+paused before the enraptured listener and hesitated to
+speak the thought in his mind.
+
+He lifted his hand suddenly, his decision
+apparently made.
+
+"It is of the utmost importance to the race that
+our mothers shall be pure.  Better certainly if both
+father and mother are so.  It is indispensable that the
+mother shall be!  On this elemental fact rests the
+dual standard of sex morals.  On this fact rests the
+hope of a glorified humanity through the development of
+an intelligent motherhood.  Stay here with me until
+your child is born and I'll prove the truth of every
+word I've spoken----"
+
+"Oh, if I only could!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I couldn't impose such a burden on you!" she
+faltered.
+
+"You would confer on me the highest honor, if you
+will allow me to direct you in this experiment."
+
+There was no mistaking his honesty and earnestness. 
+There was no refusing the appeal.
+
+"You really wish me to stay?" she asked.
+
+"I beg of you to stay!  You will bring to me a new
+inspiration--new faith--new courage to fight.  Will
+you?"
+
+She extended her hand.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you will agree to follow my instructions?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"Good.  We begin from this moment.  I give you my
+first orders.  Forget that James Anthony ever lived. 
+Forget the tragedy of Christmas Eve.  You are going to
+be a mother.  All other events in life pale before this
+fact.  God has conferred on you the highest honor
+He can give to mortal.  Keep your soul serene, your
+body strong.  You are to worry about nothing----"
+
+"I must pay you for this extra expense I impose,
+Doctor.  I have a thousand dollars in bank in New
+York," she interrupted.
+
+"Certainly, if you will be happier.  My home is now
+your sanitarium.  You are my patient.  Your board will
+cost me about eight dollars a week.  All right.  You
+can pay that if you wish.
+
+"Take no thought now except on the business of
+being a mother.  I will make myself your father, your
+brother, your guardian, your physician, your friend and
+companion.  I will give you at once a course of
+reading.  You are to think only beautiful thoughts, see
+beautiful things, dream beautiful dreams, hear
+beautiful music.  I'm going to make you climb these
+mountain peaks with me for the next three months and
+live among the clouds.  I'm going to refit your room
+with new furniture and pictures and place in it a
+phonograph with the best music.  When you are strong
+enough you can work for me three hours a day as my
+secretary.  You use the typewriter?"
+
+"I'm an expert----"
+
+"Good!  I'm writing a book which I'm going to
+call `The Rulers of the World.'  It is a study of
+Motherhood.  I am one who believes that the redemption
+of humanity awaits the realization by woman of her
+divine call.  When woman knows that she is really a co-
+creator with God in the reproduction of the race, a new
+era will dawn for mankind.  You promise me faithfully
+to obey my instructions?"
+
+"Faithfully."
+
+"You're a wonderful subject on which to make an
+experiment.  You are young--in the first dawn of the
+glory of womanhood.  Your body is beautiful, your mind
+singularly pure and sweet.  You must give me at once
+the full power of your will in its concentration on
+Truth and Beauty.  The success or failure of this
+experiment will depend almost entirely on your
+mentality and the use you make of it during these
+months in which your babe is being formed.  Whatever
+the shape of the body there is one eternal certainty--
+only YOUR mind can reach the soul of this child. 
+If the father were the veriest fiend who ever existed
+and should concentrate his mind to the task, not one
+thought from his darkened soul could reach your babe! 
+YOUR mind will be the ever-brooding, enfolding
+spirit forming and fashioning character."
+
+He paused and his deep brown eyes flashed with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"Think of it!  You are now creating an immortal
+being whose word may bend a million wills to his.  And
+you are doing this mighty work solely by your mind. 
+The physical processes are simple and automatic.
+
+"The first lesson you must learn and hold with
+deathless grip is that thoughts are things.  A thought
+can kill the body.  A thought can heal the body.  If I
+am successful as a physician it is because I use this
+power with my patients.  With some I use drugs, with
+others none.  With all I use every ounce of mental
+power which God has given me.  You will remember this?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He walked to the shelves and drew down a volume of
+poetry.
+
+"Read these poems until you are tired today--then
+sleep.  I'll give you a good novel tomorrow and when
+you've read it, a volume of philosophy.  When we climb
+the peaks, I'll give you a study of these rocks that
+will tell you the story of their birth, their life, and
+their coming death.  We'll learn something of the birds
+and flowers next spring.  We'll dream great dreams and
+think great thoughts--you and I--in these
+wonderful days and weeks and months which God shall
+give us together."
+
+She looked up at him through her tears:
+
+"Oh, Doctor, you have not only saved a miserable
+life: you have saved my soul!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+A SOUL IS BORN
+
+It was more than a month after the experiment began
+before the Doctor ventured to hint of Jim's survival. 
+He had waited patiently until Mary's strength had been
+fully restored and her
+mind filled with the new enthusiasm for motherhood.  He
+could tell her now with little risk.  And yet he
+ventured on the task with reluctance.  He found her
+seated at her favorite window overlooking the deep blue
+valley of the Swannanoa, a volume of poetry in her lap.
+
+He touched her shoulder and she smiled in cheerful
+response.
+
+"You are content?" he asked.
+
+"A strange peace is slowly stealing into my heart,"
+she responded reverently.  "I shall learn to love life
+again when my baby comes to help me."
+
+"You remember your solemn promise?"
+
+"Have I not kept it?" she murmured.
+
+"Faithfully--and I remind you of it that you
+may not forget today for a moment that your work
+is too high and holy to allow a shadow to darken your
+spirit even for an hour.  I have something to tell you
+that may shock a little unless I warn you----"
+
+She lifted her eyes with a quick look of
+uneasiness, and studied his immovable face.
+
+"You couldn't guess?" he laughed.
+
+She shook her head in puzzled silence.
+
+"Suppose I were to tell you," he went on evenly,
+"that I found a spark of life in your husband's body
+that morning and drew him back from the grave?"
+
+Her eyes closed and she stretched her hand toward
+the Doctor.
+
+He clasped the fingers firmly between both his
+palms, held and stroked them gently.
+
+"You did save him?" she breathed.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Thank God his poor old mother is not a murderer! 
+But he is dead to me.  I shall never see him again--
+never!"
+
+"I thought you would feel that way," the Doctor
+quietly replied.
+
+"You won't let him come here?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"He won't try unless you consent----"
+
+Mary shuddered.
+
+"You don't know him----"
+
+The Doctor smiled.
+
+"I'm afraid you don't know him now, my child."
+
+"He has changed?"
+
+"The old, old miracle over again.  He has been
+literally born again--this time of the spirit."
+
+"It's incredible!"
+
+"It's true.  He's a new man.  I think his
+reformation is the real thing.  He's young.  He's
+strong.  He has brains.  He has personality----"
+
+Mary lifted her hand.
+
+"All I ask of him is to keep out of my sight.  The
+world is big enough for us both.  The past is now a
+nightmare.  If I live to be a hundred years old, with
+my dying breath I shall feel the grip of his fingers on
+my throat----"
+
+She paused and closed her eyes.
+
+"Forget it!  Forget it!" the Doctor laughed.  "We
+have more important things to think of now."
+
+"He wishes to see me?"
+
+"Begs every day that I ask you."
+
+"And you have hesitated these long weeks?"
+
+"Your strength and peace of mind were of greater
+importance than his happiness, my dear.  Let him wait
+until you please to see him."
+
+"He'll wait forever," was the firm answer.
+
+Jim smiled grimly when his friend bore back the
+message.
+
+"I'll never give up as long as there's breath in my
+body," he cried, bringing his square jaws together with
+a snap.
+
+"That's the way to talk, my boy," the Doctor
+responded.
+
+"Anyhow you believe in me, Doc, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you'll help me a little on the way if it gets
+dark--won't you?"
+
+"If I can--you may always depend on me."
+
+Jim clasped his outstretched hand gratefully.
+
+"Well, I'm going to make good."
+
+There was something so genuine and manly in the
+tones of his voice, he compelled the Doctor's respect. 
+A smaller man might have sneered.  The healer of souls
+and bodies had come to recognize with unerring instinct
+the true and false note in the human voice.
+
+His heart went out in a wave of sympathy for the
+lonely, miserable young animal who stood before him
+now, trembling with the first sharp pains of the
+immortal thing that had awaked within.  He slipped his
+arm about Jim's shoulders and whispered:
+
+"I'll tell you something that may help you
+when the way gets dark--the wife is going to bear
+you a child."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"God!----  That's great, ain't it?"
+
+Jim choked into silence and looked up at the Doctor
+with dimmed eyes.
+
+"Say, Doc, you hit me hard when you brought what
+she said--but that's good news!  Watch me work my hands
+to the bone--you know it's my kid and she can't keep me
+from workin' for it if she tries now can she?"
+
+"No."
+
+"There's just one thing that'll hang over me like a
+black cloud," he mused sorrowfully.
+
+"I know, boy--your mother's darkened mind."
+
+Jim nodded.
+
+"When I see that queer glitter in her eyes it goes
+through me like a knife.  Will she ever get over it?"
+
+"We can't tell yet.  It takes time.  I believe she
+will."
+
+"You'll do the best you can for her, Doc?" he
+pleaded pathetically.  "You won't forget her a single
+day?  If you can't cure her, nobody can."
+
+"I'll do my level best, boy."
+
+Jim pressed his hand again.
+
+"Gee, but you've been a friend to me!  I didn't
+know that there were such men in the world as you!"
+
+For six months the Doctor watched the transplanted
+child of the slums grow into a sturdy manhood in his
+new environment.  He snapped at every suggestion his
+friend gave and with quick wit improved on it.  He not
+only discovered and developed a mica mine on his
+mother's farm, he invented new machinery for its
+working that doubled the market output.  Within six
+weeks from the time he began his shipments the mine was
+paying a steady profit of more than five hundred
+dollars a month.  He had made just one trip to New York
+and secretly returned to the police every stolen jewel
+and piece of plunder taken, with a full confession of
+the time and place of the crime.  He had shipped his
+tools and machinery from the workshop on the east side
+before his sensational act and made good his departure
+for the South.
+
+The tools and machinery he installed in a new
+workshop which he built in the yard of Nance's cabin. 
+Here he worked day and night at his blacksmith forge
+making the iron hinges, and irons, shovels, tongs, fire
+sets and iron work complete for a log bungalow of seven
+rooms which he was building on the sunny slope of
+the mountain which overlooks the valley toward
+Asheville.
+
+The Doctor had lent Jim the blue-prints of his own
+home and he was quietly duplicating it with loving
+care.  His wife might refuse to see him but he could
+build a home for their boy.  For his sake she couldn't
+refuse it.
+
+With childlike obedience Nance followed him every
+day and watched the workmen rear the beautiful
+structure under Jim's keen eyes and skillful hands. 
+The man's devotion to his mother was pathetic.  Only
+the Doctor knew the secret of his pitiful care, and he
+kept his own counsel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+THE BABY
+
+The last roses of summer were bursting their topmost
+buds into full bloom on the lawn of the Doctor's
+bungalow.  The martins that built each year in the
+little boxes he had set on poles around his garden were
+circling and chattering far up in the sapphire skies of
+a late September day.  Their leaders had sensed the
+coming frost and were drilling for their long march
+across the world to their winter home.  The chestnut
+burrs were bursting in the woods.  The silent sun-
+wrapped Indian Summer had begun.  Not a cloud flecked
+the skies.
+
+A quiet joy filled the soul of the woman who smiled
+and heard her summons.
+
+"You are not afraid?" the Doctor asked.
+
+She turned her grateful eyes to his.
+
+"The peace of God fills the world--and I owe it all
+to you."
+
+"Nonsense.  Your sturdy will and cultivated mind
+did the work.  I merely made the suggestion."
+
+"You are not going to give me an anesthetic, are
+you?" she said evenly.
+
+"Why did you ask that?"
+
+"Because I wish to feel and know the pain and glory
+of it all."
+
+"You don't wish to take it?"
+
+"Not unless you say I should."
+
+"What a wonderful patient you are, child!  What a
+beautiful spirit!"  He looked at her intently.  "Well,
+I'm older and wiser in experience than you.  I'm glad
+you added that clause `unless you say I should.'  I'm
+going to say it.  After all my talks to you on our
+return to the truths and simplicity of Nature you are
+perhaps surprised.  You needn't be.  I'm going to put
+you into a gentle sleep.  Nature will then do her
+physical work automatically.  I do this because our
+daughters are the inheritors of the sins of their
+mothers for centuries.  The over-refinement of nerves,
+the hothouse methods of living, and the maiming of
+their bodies with the inventions of fashion have made
+the pains of this supreme hour beyond endurance.  This
+should not be.  It will not be so when our race has
+come into its own.  But it will take many generations
+and perhaps many centuries before we reach the ideal. 
+No physician who has a soul could permit a woman of
+your physique, your culture and refinement to walk
+barefoot and blindfolded into such a hell of physical
+torture.  I will not permit it."
+
+He walked quietly into his laboratory, prepared the
+sleeping powders and gave them to her.
+
+Six hours later she opened her eyes with eager
+wonder.  Aunt Abbie was busy over a bundle of fluffy
+clothes.  The Doctor was standing with his arms folded
+behind his back, his fine, clean-shaven face in profile
+looking thoughtfully over the sun-lit valley.  There
+was just one moment of agonized fear.  If they had
+failed!  If her child were hideous--or deformed!  Her
+lips moved in silent prayer.
+
+"Doctor?" she whispered.
+
+In a moment he was bending over her, a look of
+exaltation in his brown eyes.
+
+"Tell me quick!"
+
+"A wonderful boy, little mother!  The most
+beautiful babe I have ever seen.  He didn't even cry--
+just opened his big, wide eyes and grunted
+contentedly."
+
+"Give him to me."
+
+Aunt Abbie laid the warm bundle in her arms and she
+pressed it gently until the sweet, red flesh touched
+her own.  She lay still for a moment, a smile on her
+lips.
+
+"Lift him and let me look!"
+
+"What a funny little pug nose," she laughed.
+
+"Yes--exactly like his mother's!" the Doctor
+replied.
+
+She gazed with breathless reverence.
+
+"He is beautiful, isn't he?" she sighed.
+
+"And you have observed the chin and mouth?"
+
+"Exactly like yours.  It's wonderful!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+WHAT IS LOVE?
+
+Eighteen months swiftly passed with the little mother
+and her boy still in Dr. Mulford's sanitarium.  She had
+allowed herself to be persuaded that he had the right
+to be her guide and helper in the first year's training
+of the child.
+
+The boy had steadily grown in strength and beauty
+of body and mind.  The Doctor persuaded her to spend
+one more winter basking in his sun-parlor and finishing
+the final chapters of his book.  Her mind was
+singularly clever and helpful in the interpretation of
+the experiences and emotions of motherhood.
+
+She had stubbornly resisted every suggestion to see
+her husband or allow him to see the child.  The Doctor
+had managed twice to give Jim an hour with the baby
+while she had gone to Asheville on shopping trips.  He
+was rewarded for his trouble in the devotion with which
+the young father worshiped his son.  The Doctor
+watched the slumbering fires kindle in the man's deep
+blue eyes with increasing wonder at the strength and
+tenderness of his newfound soul.
+
+Jim had completed the furnishing of the bungalow
+with the advice and guidance of his friend, and every
+room stood ready and waiting for its mistress.  He had
+insisted on making every piece of furniture for Mary's
+room and the nursery adjoining.  The Doctor was amazed
+at the mechanical genius he displayed in its
+construction.  He had taken a month's instruction at a
+cabinet maker's in Asheville and the bed, bureau,
+tables and chairs which he had turned out were
+astonishingly beautiful.  Their lines were copied from
+old models and each piece was a work of art.  The iron
+work was even more tastefully and beautifully wrought. 
+He had toiled day and night with an enthusiasm and
+patience that gave the physician a new revelation in
+the possibility of the development of human character.
+
+His friend came at last with a cheering message. 
+He began smilingly:
+
+"I'm going to make the big fight today, boy, to get
+her to see you."
+
+"You think she will?"
+
+"There's a good chance.  Her savings have all
+been used up from her bank account in New York.  She is
+determined to go to her father in Kentucky.  I'll have
+a talk with her, bring her over to the bungalow, show
+her through it on the pretext of its model construction
+and then you can tell her that you built it with your
+own hands for her and the baby.  You might be loafing
+around the place about that time."
+
+Jim's hand was suddenly lifted.
+
+"I got ye, Doc, I got ye!  I'll be there--all day."
+
+"Don't let her see you until I give the signal."
+
+"Caution's my name."
+
+"We'll see what happens."
+
+Jim pressed close.
+
+"Say, Doc, if you know how to pray, I wish you'd
+send up a little word for me while you're talkin' to
+her.  Could ye now?"
+
+"I'll do my best for you, boy--and I think you've
+got a chance.  She's been watching the blue eyes of
+that baby lately with a rather curious look of unrest."
+
+"They're just like mine, ain't they?" Jim broke in
+with pride.
+
+"Time has softened the old hurt," the Doctor went
+on.  "The boy may win for you----"
+
+The square jaw came together with a smash.
+
+"Gee--I hope so.  I'll wait there all day for you
+and I'm goin' to try my own hand at a little prayer or
+two on the side while I'm waiting.  Maybe God'll think
+He's hit me hard enough by this time to give me another
+trial."
+
+With a friendly wave of his hand the Doctor hurried
+home.
+
+He found Mary seated under the rose trellis beside
+the drive, watching for his coming.  The day was still
+and warm for the end of April.  Birds were singing and
+chattering in every branch and tree.  A quail on the
+top fence-rail of the wheat field called loudly to his
+mate.
+
+The boy was screaming his joy over a new wagon to
+which Aunt Abbie had hitched his goat.  He drove by in
+style, lifted his chubby hand to his mother and
+shouted:
+
+"Dood-by, Doc-ter!"
+
+The Doctor waved a smiling answer, and lapsed into
+a long silence.
+
+He waked at last from his absorption to notice that
+Mary was day-dreaming.  The fair brow was drawn into
+deep lines of brooding.
+
+"Why shadows in your eyes a day like this, little
+mother?" he asked softly.
+
+"Just thinking----"
+
+"About a past that you should forget?"
+
+"Yes and no," she answered thoughtfully.  "I was
+just thinking in this flood of spring sunlight of the
+mystery of my love for such a man as the one I married. 
+How could it have been possible to really love him?"
+
+"You are sure that you loved him?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+"By all the signs.  I trembled at his footstep. 
+The touch of his hand, the sound of his voice thrilled
+me.  I was drawn by a power that was resistless.  I was
+mad with happiness those wonderful days that preceded
+our marriage.  I was madder still during our
+honeymoon--until the shadows began to fall that fatal
+Christmas Eve."  She paused and her lips trembled. 
+"Oh, Doctor, what is love?"
+
+The drooping shoulders of the man bent lower.  He
+picked up a pebble from the ground and flicked it
+carelessly across the drive, lifted his head at last
+and asked earnestly:
+
+"Shall I tell you the truth?"
+
+"Yes--your own particular brand, please--the truth,
+the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
+
+"I'll try," he began soberly.  "If I were a poet,
+naturally I would use different language.  As I'm
+only a prosaic doctor and physiologist I may shock your
+ideals a little."
+
+"No matter," she interrupted.  "They couldn't well
+get a harder jolt than they have had already."
+
+He nodded and went on:
+
+"There are two elemental human forces that maintain
+life--hunger and love.  They are both utterly simple,
+otherwise they could not be universal.  Hunger compels
+the race to live.  Love compels it to reproduce itself. 
+There has never been anything mysterious about either
+of these forces and there never will be--except in the
+imagination of sentimentalists.
+
+"Nature begins with hunger.  For about thirteen
+years she first applies this force to the development
+of the body before she begins to lay the foundation of
+the second.  Until this second development is complete
+the passion known as love cannot be experienced.
+
+"What is this second development?  Very simple
+again.  At the base of the brain of every child there
+is a vacant space during the first twelve or fifteen
+years.  During the age of twelve to fourteen in girls,
+thirteen to fifteen in boys, this vacant space is
+slowly filled by a new lobe of the brain and with its
+growth comes the consciousness of sex and the
+development
+of sex powers.
+
+"This new nerve center becomes on maturity a
+powerful physical magnet.  The moment this magnet comes
+into contact with an organization which answers its
+needs, as certain kinds of food answer the needs of
+hunger, violent desire is excited.  If both these
+magnets should be equally powerful, the disturbance to
+both will be great.  The longer the personal
+association is continued the more violent becomes this
+disturbance, until in highly sensitive natures it
+develops into an obsession which obscures reason and
+crushes the will.
+
+"The meaning of this impulse is again very simple--
+the unconscious desire of the male to be a father, of
+the female to become a mother."
+
+"And there is but one man on earth who could thus
+affect me?" Mary asked excitedly.
+
+"Rubbish!  There are thousands."
+
+"Thousands?"
+
+"Literally thousands.  The reason you never happen
+to meet them is purely an accident of our poor social
+organization.  Every woman has thousands of true
+physical mates if she could only meet them.  Every man
+has thousands of true physical mates if he could only
+meet them.  And in every such meeting, if mind and
+body are in normal condition, the same violent
+disturbance would result--whether married or single,
+free or bound.
+
+"Marriage therefore is not based merely on the
+passion of love.  It is a crime for any man or woman to
+marry without love.  It is the sheerest insanity to
+believe that this passion within itself is sufficient
+to justify marriage.  All who marry should love.  Many
+love who should not marry.
+
+"The institution of marriage is the great
+SOCIAL ordinance of the race.  Its sanctity and
+perpetuity are not based on the violence of the passion
+of love, but something else."
+
+He paused and listened to the call of the quail
+again from the field.
+
+"You hear that bob white calling his mate?"
+
+"Yes--and she's answering him now very softly.  I
+can hear them both."
+
+"They have mated this spring to build a home and
+rear a brood of young.  Within six months their babies
+will all be full grown and next spring a new alignment
+of lovers will be made.  Their marriage lasts during
+the period of infancy of their offspring.  This is
+Nature's law.
+
+"It happens in the case of man that the period of
+infancy of a human being is about twenty-four
+years.  This is the most wonderful fact in nature. 
+It means that the capacity of man for the improvement
+of his breed is practically limitless.  A quail has a
+few months in which to rear her young.  God gives to
+woman a quarter of a century in which to mold her
+immortal offspring.  Because the period of infancy of
+one child covers the entire period of motherhood
+capacity, marriage binds for life, and the sanctity of
+marriage rests squarely on this law of Nature."
+
+He paused again and looked over the sunlit valley.
+
+"I wish our boys and girls could all know these
+simple truths of their being.  It would save much
+unhappiness and many tragic blunders.
+
+"You were swept completely off your feet by the
+rush of the first emotion caused by meeting a man who
+was your physical mate.  You imagined this emotion to
+be a mysterious revelation which can come but once. 
+Your imagination in its excited condition, of course,
+gave to your first-found mate all sorts of divine
+attributes which he did not possess.  You were `in
+love' with a puppet of your own creation, and
+hypnotized yourself into the delusion that James
+Anthony was your one and only mate, your knight, your
+hero.
+
+"In a very important sense this was true. 
+Your intuitions could not make a mistake on so
+vital an issue.  But you immediately rushed into
+marriage and your union has been perfected by the birth
+of a child.  Whether you are happy or unhappy in
+marriage does not depend on the reality of love. 
+Happiness in marriage is based on something else."
+
+"On what?"
+
+"The joy and peace that comes from oneness of
+spirit, tastes, culture and character.  I know this
+from the deepest experiences of life and the widest
+observation."
+
+"You have loved?" she asked softly.
+
+"Twice----"
+
+A silence fell between them.
+
+"Shall I tell you, little mother?" he finally asked
+quietly.
+
+"Please."
+
+He seated himself and looked into the skies beyond
+the peaks across the valley.
+
+"Ten years ago I met my first mate.  The meeting
+was fortunate for both.  She was a woman of gentle
+birth, of beautiful spirit.  Our courtship was ideal. 
+We thought alike, we felt alike, she loved my
+profession even--an unusual trait in a woman.  She
+thought it so noble in its aims that the petty jealousy
+that sometimes wrecks a doctor's life was to her an
+unthinkable crime.  The first year was the nearest to
+heaven that I had ever gotten down here.
+
+"And then, little mother, by one of those
+inexplicable mysteries of nature she died when our baby
+was born.  For a while the light of the world went out. 
+I quit New York, gave up my profession and came here
+just to lie in the sun on this mountainside and try to
+pull myself together.  I didn't think life could ever
+be worth living again.  But it was.  I found about me
+so much of human need--so much ignorance and
+helplessness--so much to pity and love, I forgot the
+ache in my own heart in bringing joy to others.
+
+"I had money enough.  I gave up the ambitions of
+greed and strife and set my soul to higher tasks.  For
+nine years I've devoted my leisure hours to the study
+of Motherhood as the hope of a nobler humanity.  But
+for the great personal sorrow that came to me in the
+death of my wife and baby I should never have realized
+the truths I now see so clearly.
+
+"And then the other woman suddenly came into my
+life.  I never expected to love again--not because I
+thought it impossible, but because I thought it
+improbable in my little world here that I could
+ever again meet a woman I would ask to be my wife.  But
+she dropped one day out of the sky."
+
+He paused and took a deep breath.
+
+"I recognized her instantly as my mate, gentle and
+pure and capable of infinite joy or infinite pain.  She
+did not realize the secret of my interest in her.  I
+didn't expect it.  I knew that under the conditions she
+could not.  But I waited."
+
+He paused and searched for Mary's eyes.
+
+"And you married her?" she asked in even tones.
+
+"I have never allowed her to know that I love her."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She was married."
+
+Mary threw him a startled look and he went on
+evenly:
+
+"I could have used my power over mind and body to
+separate her from her husband.  I confess that I was
+tempted.  But there was a child.  Their union had been
+sealed with the strongest tie that can bind two human
+beings.  I have never allowed her to realize that she
+might love me.  Had I chosen to break the silence
+between us I could have revealed this to her, taken her
+and torn her from the man to whom she had borne a babe. 
+I had no right to commit that crime, no matter how deep
+the love that cried for its own.  Marriage is
+based on the period of infancy of the child which spans
+the maternal life of woman.  God had joined these two
+people together and no man had the right to put them
+asunder!"
+
+"And you gave her up?"
+
+"I had to, little mother.  On the recognition of
+this eternal law the whole structure of our
+civilization rests."
+
+Mary bent her gaze steadily on his face for a
+moment in silence.
+
+"And you are telling me that I should be reconciled
+to the man who choked me into insensibility?"
+
+"I am telling you that he is the father of your
+son--that he has rights which you cannot deny; that
+when you gave yourself to him in the first impulse of
+love a deed was done which Almighty God can never undo. 
+Your tragic blunder was the rush into marriage with a
+man about whose character you knew so little.  It's the
+timid, shrinking, home-loving girl that makes this
+mistake.  You must face it now.  You are responsible as
+deeply and truly as the man who married you.  That he
+happened at that moment to be a brute and a criminal is
+no more his fault than yours.  It was YOUR business
+to KNOW before you made him the father of your
+child."
+
+"I tried to appeal to his better nature that awful
+night," Mary interrupted, "but he only laughed at me!"
+
+"You owe him another trial, little mother--you owe
+it to his boy, too."
+
+Mary shook her head bitterly.
+
+"I can't--I just can't!"
+
+"You won't see him once?"
+
+She sprang to her feet trembling.
+
+"No--no!"
+
+"I don't think it's fair."
+
+"I'm afraid of him!  You can't understand his power
+over my will."
+
+"Come, come, this is sheer cowardice--give the
+devil his dues.  Face him and fight it out.  Tell him
+you're done forever with him and his life, if you
+will--but don't hedge and trim and run away like this. 
+I'm ashamed of you."
+
+"I won't see him--I've made up my mind."
+
+The Doctor threw up both hands.
+
+"All right.  If you won't, you won't.  We'll let it
+go at that."
+
+He paused and changed his tones to friendly
+personal interest.
+
+"And you're determined to leave me and take my kid
+away tomorrow?"
+
+"We must go.  I've no money to pay my board.  I
+can't impose on you----"
+
+"It's going to be awfully lonely."
+
+He looked at her with a strange, deep gaze, lifted
+his stooping shoulders with sudden resolution and
+changed his manner to light banter.
+
+"I suppose I couldn't persuade you to give me that
+boy?"
+
+She smiled tenderly.
+
+"You know his father did leave his mark on him
+after all!  The eyes are all his.  Of course, I will
+admit that those drooping lids have often been the mark
+of genius--perhaps a genius for evil in this case.  If
+you don't want to take the risk--now's your chance.  I
+will----"
+
+Mary shook her head in reproachful protest.
+
+"Don't tease me, dear doctor man.  I've just this
+one day more with you.  I'm counting each precious
+hour."
+
+"Forgive me!" he cried gayly.  "I won't tease you
+any more.  Come, we'll run over now and see our
+neighbor's new bungalow before you go.  You admire this
+one and threaten to duplicate it.  He has built a
+better one."
+
+"I don't believe it."
+
+"You'll go?"
+
+"If you wish it----"
+
+"Good.  We'll take the boy, too.  He can drive his
+new wagon the whole way.  It's only half a mile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+THE NEW MAN
+
+The door of the bungalow stood wide open.  Mary paused
+in rapture over the rich beds of wood violets that
+carpeted the spaces between the drive and the log
+walls.
+
+"Aren't they beautiful!" she cried.  "A perfect
+carpet of dazzling green and purple!"
+
+"Come right in," the Doctor urged from the steps. 
+"My neighbor's a patient of mine.  He hasn't moved in
+yet but he told me always to make myself at home."
+
+Mary lifted the boy from his wagon, tied the goat
+and led the child into the house.  The Doctor showed
+her through without comment.  None was needed.  The
+woman's keen eye saw at a glance the perfection of care
+with which the master builder had wrought the slightest
+detail of every room.  The floors were immaculate
+native hard-wood--its grain brought out through shining
+mirrors of clean varnish.  There was not one shoddy
+piece of work from the kitchen sink to the big
+open fireplace in the spacious hall and living-room.
+
+"It's exquisite!" she exclaimed at last.  "It seems
+all hand-made--doesn't it?"
+
+"It is, too.  The owner literally built it with his
+own hands--a work of love."
+
+"For himself?" Mary asked with a smile.
+
+"For the woman he loves, of course!  My neighbor's
+a sort of crank and insisted on expressing himself in
+this way.  Come, I want you to see two rooms upstairs."
+
+He led her into the room Jim had built for his
+wife.
+
+"Observe this furniture, if you please."
+
+"Don't tell me that he built that too?" she
+laughed.
+
+"That's exactly what I'm going to tell you."
+
+"Impossible!" she protested.  "Why, the line and
+finish would do credit to the finest artisan in
+America."
+
+"So I say.  Look at the perfect polish of that
+table!  It's like the finish of a rosewood piano."  He
+touched the smooth surface.
+
+"Of course you're joking?" Mary answered.  "No
+amateur could have done such work."
+
+"So I'd have said if I had not seen him do
+it."
+
+"What on earth possessed him to undertake such a
+task?"
+
+"The love of a beautiful woman--what else?"
+
+"He learned a trade--just to furnish this room with
+his own hand?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"His love must be the real thing," she mused.
+
+"That's what I've said.  Look at this iron work,
+too--the stately andirons in that big fireplace, the
+shovel, the tongs, and the massive strop-hinges on the
+doors."
+
+"He did that, too?" she asked in amazement.
+
+"Every piece of iron on the place he beat out with
+his own hand at his forge."
+
+"And all for the love of a woman?  The age of
+romance hasn't passed after all, has it?"
+
+"No."
+
+Mary paused before the window looking south.
+
+"What a glorious view!" she cried.  "It's even
+grander than yours, Doctor."
+
+"Yes.  I claim some of the credit, though, for
+that.  I helped him lay out the grounds."
+
+"Who is this remarkable man?" she asked at last.
+
+"A friend of mine.  I'll introduce him directly. 
+He should be here at any moment now."
+
+"We're intruding," Mary whispered.  "We must
+go.  I mustn't look any more.  I'll be coveting my
+neighbor's house."
+
+The doctor turned to the window and signaled to
+someone on the lawn, as Mary hurried down the stairs.
+
+She fairly ran into Jim, who was being pulled into
+the house by the boy.
+
+"'Ook, Mamma!  'Ook!  I found a Daddy!  He says he
+be my Daddy if you let him.  Please let him.  I want a
+Daddy, an' I like him.  Please!"
+
+Jim blushed and trembled and lifted his eyes
+appealingly, while Mary stood white and still watching
+him in a sort of helpless terror.
+
+The child moved on to his wagon.
+
+"Say, little girl," Jim began in low tones, "it's
+been a thousand years since I saw you.  Don't drive me
+away--just give me one chance for God's sake and this
+baby's that He sent us!  I've gone straight.  I've sent
+back every dishonest dollar.  I'm earning a clean
+living down here and a good one.  I've practiced for
+two years cutting out the slang, too."
+
+He paused for breath and she turned her head away.
+
+"Just listen a minute!  I know I was a beast that
+night.  I'm not the same now.  I've been through the
+fires of hell and I've come out a cleaner man. 
+Let me show you how much I love you!  Life's too
+short, but just give me a chance.  If I could undo that
+awful hour when I hurt you so, I'd crawl 'round the
+world on my hands and knees--and I'll show you that I
+mean it!  I built this house for you and the baby."
+
+Mary turned suddenly with wide dilated eyes.
+
+"You--YOU built this house?" she gasped.
+
+"I've worked on it every hour, day and night, the
+past two years when I wasn't earning a living in the
+mine.  I made every stick of that furniture in the
+rooms up there--for you and my boy.  The house is
+yours--whether you let me stay or not."
+
+"I--I can't take it, Jim," she faltered.
+
+"You've got to, girlie.  You can't throw a gift
+like this back in a fellow's face--it cost too much! 
+Your money's all gone.  You've got to bring up that
+kid.  He's mine, too.  I'm man enough to support my
+wife and baby and I'm going to do it.  I don't care
+what you say.  You've got to let me.  I'm going to work
+for you, live for you and die for you--whether you stay
+with me or not.  I've got the right to do that, you know."
+
+She lifted her head and faced him squarely for the
+first time, amazed at the new dignity and strength of
+his quiet bearing.
+
+"You HAVE changed, Jim----"
+
+Her eyes sought the depths of his soul in a
+moment's silence, and she slowly extended her hand:
+
+"We'll try again!"
+
+He bent and kissed the tips of her fingers reverently.
+
+They stood for a moment hand in hand and looked
+over the sunlit valley of the Swannanoa shimmering in
+peace and beauty between its sheltering walls of blue
+mountains.  The bees were humming spring music among
+the flowers at their feet and the faint odor of fruit
+trees in blossom came from the orchard Jim had planted
+two years before.
+
+"I'll show you, little girl--I'll show you!" he whispered tensely.
+
+
+
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon
+
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