"No, it's what I've decided!"

"But this is the wrong decision," Allan answered steadily.

"It's made!"

"Not yet, it isn't, not to-night. We won't talk of it now, you're in no
condition." Deborah's wide sensitive lips began to quiver suddenly:

"We _will_ talk of it now, or never at all! I want it settled--done with!
I've had enough--it's killing me!"

"No," was Allan's firm reply, "in a few days things will change. Edith's
child will be out of danger, your other troubles will clear away!"

"But what of next winter, and the next? What of Edith's children? Can't you
see what a load they are on my father? Can't you see he's ageing fast?"

"Suppose he dies," Baird answered. "It will leave them on your hands.
You'll have _these_ children, won't you, whether you marry or whether you
don't! And so will I! I'm their guardian!"

"That won't be the same," she cried, "as having children of our own--"

"Look into my eyes."

"I'm looking--" Her own eyes were bright with tears.

"Why are you always so afraid of becoming a mother?" Allan asked. In his
gruff low voice was a fierce appeal. "It's this obsession in your mind that
you'll be a mother like Edith. And that's absurd! You never will! You say
you're afraid of not keeping school the first thing in your life! But you
always do and you always will! You're putting it ahead of me now!"

"Yes, I can put it ahead of _you_! But I couldn't put it ahead of _my
child_!" He winced at this and she noticed it. "Because you are strong, and
the child would be weak! The child would be like Bruce to-night!"

"Are you sure if you marry you must have a child?"

"Yes," she answered huskily, "if I married you I'd want a child. And that
want in me would grow and grow until it made both of us wretched. I'm that
kind of a woman. That's why my work has succeeded so far--because I've a
passion for children! They're not my work, they're my very life!" She bowed
her head, her mouth set hard. "But so are you," she whispered. "And since
this is settled, Allan, what do you think? Shall we try to go on--working
together side by side--seeing each other every day as we have been doing
all these months? Rather hard on both of us, don't you think? I do, I feel
that way," she said. Again her features quivered. "The kind of feeling I
have--for you--would make that rather--difficult!"

His grip tightened on her hands.

"I won't give you up," he said. "Later you will change your mind."

He left the