ent on himself.

"I haven't an exaggerated opinion of myself, so I know I ain't bragging
when I say I'll make a pretty good husband. You'd find I was no hand
at nagging and fault-finding. I can guess what it must be for a woman
like you to be independent. Well, you'd be independent as my wife. No
strings on you. You could follow your own sweet will, and nothing
would be too good for you. I'd give you everything your heart
desired--"

"Except yourself," she interrupted suddenly, almost sharply.

Daylight's astonishment was momentary.

"I don't know about that. I'd be straight and square, and live true.
I don't hanker after divided affections."

"I don't mean that," she said. "Instead of giving yourself to your
wife, you would give yourself to the three hundred thousand people of
Oakland, to your street railways and ferry-routes, to the two million
trees on the hills to everything business--and--and to all that that
means."

"I'd see that I didn't," he declared stoutly. "I'd be yours to
command."

"You think so, but it would turn out differently." She suddenly became
nervous. "We must stop this talk. It is too much like attempting to
drive a bargain. 'How much will you give?' 'I'll give so much.' 'I
want more,' and all that. I like you, but not enough to marry you, and
I'll never like you enough to marry you."

"How do you know that?" he demanded.

"Because I like you less and less."

Daylight sat dumfounded. The hurt showed itself plainly in his face.

"Oh, you don't understand," she cried wildly, beginning to lose
self-control--"It's not that way I mean. I do like you; the more I've
known you the more I've liked you. And at the same time the more I've
known you the less would I care to marry you."

This enigmatic utterance completed Daylight's perplexity.

"Don't you see?" she hurried on. "I could have far easier married the
Elam Harnish fresh from Klondike, when I first laid eyes on him long
ago, than marry you sitting before me now."

He shook his head slowly. "That's one too many for me. The more you
know and like a man the less you want to marry him. Familiarity breeds
contempt--I guess that's what you mean."

"No, no," she cried, but before she could continue, a knock came on the
door.

"The ten minutes is up," Daylight said.

His eyes, quick with observation like an Indian's, darted about the
room while she was out. The impression of warmth and comfort and
beauty predomi