face.

"You'll do as I say!" he exclaimed, "and when my camp up at Big Shanty
Brook is built you will come to it--come to it as any self-respecting
wife should--out of your duty to me and to your daughter."

"I will not!" she retorted, her breast heaving.

"You will do as I say, madam," he returned, lowering his voice. "This
luxury--this nonsensical life you crave is at an end. From this day
forth I intend to be master of my own house and all that it contains.
Do you understand?"

She stared at him fixedly, her hand on her throat. A certain flash of
pride in the man before her welled up in her heart. She hadn't thought
it was in him.

"Yes--and master of you," he went on, pacing before her. "I'll sell
this house if need be!" he cried with a gesture of disgust. "I don't
want it--I never did; it was your making, not mine. Tell me what life
I have had in it? There has not been a day since it was built that
I would not have given twice its cost to be out of it. From this day
forth my time is my own," and with a blow he brought his fist down
on the back of the chair. Then squaring his shoulders he looked
fearlessly into her eyes. Something of the roar of the torrent of
Big Shanty Brook was in his voice as he spoke--something, too, of the
indomitable grit and courage of the old dog.

For some seconds she did not answer. The outburst had given her time
to think, but what move should she make next? Up to now she had lived
as she pleased and had managed to be selfishly happy. She knew he
could force her into a life she loathed, and she realized, too,
that, shrewd and resourceful as her friend the doctor was, there were
obstacles that neither he nor she could overcome. Instantly her course
was determined upon.

"Sam," she began, a forced sob rising in her throat, "I want you to
listen to me." Her voice had changed to one of infinite tenderness;
now it was the voice of a penitent child, asking a favour.

Thayor looked at her in astonishment.

"Well," he said after a moment, strangely moved by the appeal in her
eyes and the sudden pathos in her tones.

"Since you intend to force me into exile, I'm going to make the best
of it. I won't promise you I'll be happy there; I'll simply tell you
I'll make the best of it." He started to speak, but she stopped him.
"I know what my life there will mean; I know how unhappy I shall
be, but I'll go because you want me to--but Sam, dear, I want you to
promise me that for one month in