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iercely. "Well, you can see for yourself, can't you? All there is of me--" He could not finish his sentence. It was snowing heavily. They seemed intensely, cruelly alone. It was as if all life crept off and left them by themselves in the drifting gray snow, in their silent little corner of the unconscious, unalterable world. Winn put his arm around her and drew her head down on his shoulder. "It's all right," he said rather thickly. "I won't hurt you." But he knew that he had hurt her, and that it was all wrong. She did not cry, but she trembled against his heart. He felt her shivering as if she were afraid of all the world but him. "I must stay with you," she whispered. "I must stay with you, mustn't I?" He tried not to say "always," but he thought afterward that he must have said "always." Then she lifted her curls and her little fur cap with the snow on it from his shoulder, and looked deep into his eyes. The worst of it was that hers were filled with joy. "Winn," she said, "do you love me enough for anything? Not only for happiness, but, if we had to have dreadful things, enough for dreadful things?" She spoke of dreadful things as if they were outside her, and as if they were very far away. "I love you enough for anything," said Winn, gravely. "Tell me," she whispered, "did you ever even think--you liked her as much?" Winn looked puzzled; it took him a few minutes to guess whom she meant, then he said wonderingly: "My wife, you mean?" Claire nodded. It was silly how the little word tore its way into her very heart; she had to bite her lips to keep herself from crying out. She did not realize that the word was meaningless to him. "No," said Winn, gravely; "that's the worst of it. I must have been out of my head. It was a fancy. Of course I thought it was all right, but I didn't _care_. It was fun rather than otherwise; you know what I mean? I'm afraid I gave her rather a rotten time of it; but fortunately she doesn't like me at all. It's not surprising." "Yes, it is," said Claire, firmly; "it's very surprising. But if she doesn't care for you, and you don't care for her, can't anything be done?" There is something cruel in the astonishing ease with which youth believes in remedial measures. It is a cruelty which reacts so terribly upon its possessors. Winn hesitated; then he told her that he would take her to the ends of the world. Claire pushed away the ends of the worl
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