ion.

CHAPTER XVII. THE SURRENDER

How long she gazed into the convulsed face of the man who had squared
himself before her, mattered little measured by the tick of the watch
in her belt. Into the mental anguish endured a life's agony had been
pressed. It could not have been more than twenty seconds, and yet it
marked the birth of a new being within the soul of a woman. She had been
searching only for her own happiness. The search had entangled another
in the meshes of her life. Too much had been lived in the past two
weeks to be undone by a word and forgotten in a day. She had attempted,
coward-like, to run.

She saw now in the consuming flame of a great sorrow that the man before
her had some rights which the purest woman must reckon with. He might be
a burglar. At least it was her duty to try to save him from himself. Her
surrender of the past weeks was a tie that would bind them through all
eternity. There was no chemistry of earth or heaven or hell that could
erase its memories. Her life was no longer her own--this man's was bound
with hers. She must face the facts. She would make one honest,
brave effort to save him. To do this she would give all without
reservation--pride must be cast to the winds.

Her voice suddenly changed to tears.

"Oh, Jim, you do love me, don't you?"

His body slowly relaxed, his eyes shifted, and he shrugged his square
shoulders.

"What'ell did I marry you for?"

"Tell me--do you?" she demanded.

"You know that I love you. What do you ask me such a fool question for?
I love you with a love that can kill. Do you hear me? That's why you're
not going anywhere without me."

There was no mistaking the depth of his passion. She trembled to realize
its power and yet it was the lever by which she must move him.

"Then you've got to give this life up. You're young and brave and
strong. You can earn an honest living. You haven't been in this long--I
feel it, I know it. Have you?"

"No!"

"How long?"

"Eight months."

"Oh, Jim, dear, you must give it up now for my sake. I'll work with you
and work for you. I'll teach, I'll sew, I'll scrub, I'll slave for you
day and night--if you're only clean and honest."

He turned on her fiercely.

"Cut it, Kid--cut it! I'm out for the stuff now. I'm going to get rich
and I'm going to get rich QUICK--that's all that's the matter with me!"

"But, Jim," she broke in tenderly--"you did earn an honest living. Your
workshop proves that."