I did not!"

"And you love me now!" he went on insistingly.

"No, no!" Mary's denial came like a cry for escape.

"You love me now!" There was a masterful quality in his declaration,
which seemed to ignore her negation.

"I don't," she repeated bitterly.

But he was inexorable.

"Look me in the face, and say that."

He took her face in his hands, lifted it, and his eyes met hers
searchingly.

"Look me in the face, and say that," he repeated.

There was a silence that seemed long, though it was measured in the
passing of seconds. The three watchers dared not interrupt this drama
of emotions, but, at last, Mary, who had planned so long for this hour,
gathered her forces and spoke valiantly. Her voice was low, but without
any weakness of doubt.

"I do not love you."

In the instant of reply, Dick Gilder, by some inspiration of love,
changed his attitude. "Just the same," he said cheerfully, "you are my
wife, and I'm going to keep you and make you love me."

Mary felt a thrill of fear through her very soul.

"You can't!" she cried harshly. "You are his son!"

"She's a crook!" Burke said.

"I don't care a damn what you've been!" Dick exclaimed. "From now
on you'll go straight. You'll walk the straightest line a woman ever
walked. You'll put all thoughts of vengeance out of your heart, because
I'll fill it with something bigger--I'm going to make you love me."

Burke, with his rousing voice, spoke again:

"I tell you, she's a crook!"

Mary moved a little, and then turned her face toward Gilder.

"And, if I am, who made me one? You can't send a girl to prison, and
have her come out anything else."

Burke swung himself around in a movement of complete disgust.

"She didn't get her time for good behavior."

Mary raised her head, haughtily, with a gesture of high disdain.

"And I'm proud of it!" came her instant retort. "Do you know what goes
on there behind those stone walls? Do you, Mr. District Attorney, whose
business it is to send girls there? Do you know what a girl is expected
to do, to get time off for good behavior? If you don't, ask the
keepers."

Gilder moved fussily.

"And you----"

Mary swayed a little, standing there before her questioner.

"I served every minute of my time--every minute of it, three full, whole
years. Do you wonder that I want to get even, that some one has got to
pay? Four years ago, you took away my name--and gave me a number....
Now, I've given up the number-