e went on, "if a man where
I live had done the hundredth part of what you have done, society would
shun him as it would a pariah!"

"Or a leper," he added good humoredly, quick to recognize the
disadvantage at which the loss of her temper placed her. "They must be a
poor lot where you live," he continued. "I think we had better pass them
by without further comment." She was suffocated--she could have bitten
her tongue off!

"Have you no consideration for others' feelings--for what they might
want?" she cried.

"Ah! I see, Miss Van Ashton," he answered, regarding her
compassionately. "You quite overlook the true facts of the case. This is
not at all a question of what you may want, but of what is best for you.
I have merely been trying to tell you in my awkward way that it is not
good for one to live alone." She laughed hysterically. The colossal
impudence of the man took her breath away. She gasped--attempted to
speak, but words failing her, turned her back upon him and began tearing
into shreds the end of the silken gauze Indian scarf which she wore over
her shoulders.

"Can't you think of what you want, Miss Van Ashton?" he asked gently,
in the tone of one addressing a refractory child.

"No!" she screamed, without at all realizing what she was saying. To
think that this man was able to play with her like a worm on the end of
a pin! It was too much! "How dare you! I--I hate you!" she cried,
without turning round and quite beside herself. There was no mistaking
her attitude; he had gone far enough. The limit of her endurance had
been reached, and he suddenly became serious. Again there was silence
between them.

"Miss Van Ashton," he said, drawing himself up, "it really doesn't
matter what you or the rest of the world may think of me so long as I
can see you. Can you imagine what it would be like if you were never to
see the sun again? What could be more absurd than to allow such a trifle
as convention to come between you and me? Three feet of wretched adobe
wall between me and heaven!" he burst forth. "The idea's preposterous!
Why, if you shut yourself up in that miserable hovel again, I'll set
fire to the place!" She knew he would.

"Can't you understand," he went on, his voice softening, "that your
attitude has aroused the savage, the primeval man in me--that, had I met
you here fifty or a hundred years ago, I would have picked you up and
quietly carried you away? I know I've been a brute by driving you int