t,
what she had been saying, save those words, was as nothing, meant
nothing, was swept from his consciousness--and only she, standing there
before him, glorious, maddening in her beauty, remained. Soul, mind and
body leaped into fiery passion--she was his, and his she always would
be--those eyes, those lips, the white throat, those perfect arms to
cling about his neck--and all of heaven and hell and earth were naught
beside her.

"I love you!"--his face was white, his words fierce-breathed, almost
incoherent--and he leaned toward her with a sudden, uncontrollable
movement, his arms sweeping out to clasp her. "I love you, Helena--I
love you. Do you understand--it's _you_! You--I love you!"

"You _love_ me!"--she retreated from him, but her head was raised now,
and her voice rang with a bitterness cold as the touch of death. "Love!
What do you know of _love_! We talk plain, you say. Love--love for me!
Passion, vice, lust, sin--and, oh, my God, degradation and misery and
shame--love! Love! That is _your_ love!"

He stood for a moment and stared at her again--and her face was as
pallid ivory. And something seemed to daze him, and he brushed his hand
across his eyes--the logic was faulty, torn and pitiful, and he groped
after the flaw.

"It's--it's your love as well as mine," he said in a stumbling way--then
his brain flashed quick into action. "My love--what other love have
_you_ known but that?" he cried. "It's _our_ love--the love we have
known together--and we're going back to it--see? I've had enough of
this. You pack your trunks--and pack them quick! We're going to beat it
out of here! We're going back to our--love. We're going back where I
don't have to sit around like a puling fool and watch Thornton chuck you
under the chin--we're going where he'll want a tombstone if he ever
shows his face there. You thought the game would hold me to the last
jackpot--did you? Well, I've got enough--and there's no game big enough
to make me stand for this. That looks like love--doesn't it?" He burst
again into a sudden, mirthless laugh--and once again swept his
hand across his eyes. "We're going to beat it out of here
now--to-night--to-morrow morning."

But now she had drawn further away from him--and there was a frightened
look in her eyes, and her lips quivered pitifully.

"No--I can't--I can't," she cried out. "No, no--I can't--I can't go back
to _that_."

"That! That--is love," he said wildly. "The only love you know.