nt's eyes blazed suddenly.

"Great God, you talk as if she were to marry the canal!" he exclaimed.
He glowered for a time. "I see now what you mean. You believe she
would marry me if I win out with the ditch. Being practical, she would
accept money as a substitute for love. That reminds me: she herself
once declared that if circumstances necessitated she could take a rich
man for his riches." Bryant uttered a harsh laugh. "My Lord, I was
frightened lest in a fit of anguish at losing my love she should go to
the devil!" Again he yielded to an outburst of laughter that made
Imogene shudder. "I fancied that at finding herself out of money,
unable to work, disinclined to work, unloved, miserable, she would
recklessly hurl herself into perdition. And I was going to save her
from that, marry her at once, sacrifice myself! Like an egotistical
fool! When all the while there was never the slightest danger or need,
when all the while she held the string, not I. And love isn't a
consideration whatever. And she will marry me when I've completed the
project. And complete it I must, of course. Not a way out, not a
single loop-hole. Oh, my Lord, my Lord, Imogene, did you ever know of
anything so devilishly laughable!" And his bitter, sardonic merriment
broke forth anew.

The girl was appalled. All she could do was to gasp, "Oh, Lee, Lee!
Don't laugh like that, don't think of it like that. You make it out
worse than it is."

He stopped short. By his look he might have detested her.

"I state it as it is," he said. "Wherein is the actual situation
better?"

"You could break your engagement; certainly she has given you
sufficient cause."

"Yes, break with her, as might you. Why don't you?"

Imogene put out a hand in protest.

"You know why, Lee; I've told you," she said, earnestly.

"No more can I, for the same reason," was his reply. He turned and
lifted his hat and gloves from the table. "I will have no act of mine
cut her adrift and push her under. Much better to stand the gaff. I
suppose one hardens to anything in time." His look wandered about the
room. "And the diabolic part of it all is that this squeamish feeling
of responsibility for another may achieve as much harm in the long run
as its lack. Who knows?"

He glanced at her as if expecting an answer. Imogene remained silent;
indeed, nothing need be said to so evident an enigma. For that matter,
nothing more said at all. Bryant drew on his gloves and bade her
good-