She tossed her head and threw off the ugly thought. It was morbid
nonsense! She was just hungry for a kiss, and in his new environment he
had forgotten himself as many thoughtless men had forgotten before and
would forget again.

"Jim!" she whispered tenderly.

He made no answer. His thick lips were drawn in deep, twisted lines
on one side, as if he had suddenly reached a decision from which there
could be no appeal.

She raised her voice slightly.

"Jim?"

Not a muscle of his body moved. The drawn lines of the mouth merely
relaxed. His answer was scarcely audible.

"Yep----"

"She's gone!"

"Yep----"

She moved toward him wistfully.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

His square jaw still held its rigid position silhouetted in sharp
profile against the candle's light. He answered slowly and mechanically.

"What?"

His indifference was more than the sore heart could bear. The pent-up
tears of the afternoon dashed in flood against the barriers of her will.

"You--haven't--kissed--me--today," she stammered, struggling with each
word to save a break.

Still he stood immovable. This time his answer was tinged with the
slightest suggestion of amusement.

"No?"

She staggered against the table beside the door and gripped its edge
desperately.

"Oh--" she gasped. "Don't you love me any more?"

With his sullen head still holding its position of indifference, his
absorption in the idea which dominated his mind still unbroken, he threw
out one hand in a gesture of irritation.

"Cut it, Kid! Cut it!"

His tones were not only indifferent; they were contemptuously
indifferent.

With a sob, she sank into the chair and buried her face in her arms.

"You're tired! I see it now; you've tired of me. Oh--it's not
possible--it's not possible!"

The torrent came at last in a flood of utter abandonment.

Jim turned, looked at her and threw up his hands in temporary surrender.

"Oh, for God's sake!" he muttered, crossing deliberately to her side. He
stood and let her sob.

With a quick change of mood, he drew her to her feet, swept her swaying
form into his arms, crushed her and covered her lips with kisses.

"How's that?"

She smiled through her tears.

"I feel better----"

Jim laughed.

"For better or worse--`until Death do us part'--that's what you said,
Kid, and you meant it, too, didn't you?"

He seized both of her arms, held them firmly and gazed into her eyes
with steady, stern inquiry