ayers at her knee till I
was twelve years old. We were never apart a day till I went away to
school."

She paused, breathless.

"Doesn't that prove what I say?" he said, bending toward her. "She loves
you far better than herself. She wants _your_ happiness."

"Could that mean hers?" she demanded, her bosom heaving. "To see us
together--always--always! To be reminded in everything--the lines of
your face--the tones of your voice, maybe,--of _that_! Oh, you don't
know how women feel--how they remember--how they grieve! I've gone over
all you can say till my soul cries out, but it can't change it. It
can't!"

Valiant felt as though he were battering with bruised knuckles at a
stone wall. A helpless anger simmered in him. "Suppose," he said
bitterly, "that your mother one day, perhaps after long years, learns of
your sacrifice. She is likely to guess in the end, I think. Will it add
to her pleasure, do you fancy, to discover that out of this conception
of filial loyalty--for it's that, I suppose!--you have spoiled your own
life?"

She shuddered. "She will never learn," she said brokenly. "Oh, I know
she would not have spoken. She would suffer anything for my happiness.
But I wouldn't have her bear any more for my sake."

His anger faded suddenly, and when he looked at her again, tears were
burning in his eyes.

"Shirley!" he said. "It's _my_ heart, too, that you are binding on the
wheel! I love you. I want nothing but you! I'd rather beg my bread from
door to door with your hand in mine than sit on a throne without you!
What can there be in life for me unless you share it? Think of our love!
Think of the fate that brought me here to find you in Virginia! Think of
our garden--where I thought we would live and work and dream, till we
were old and gray--_together_, darling! Don't throw our love away like
this!"

His entreaties left her only whiter, but unmoved. She shook her head,
gazing at him through great clear tears that welled over and rolled down
her cheeks.

"I can't fight," she said. "I have no strength left." She put out her
hand as she spoke and dropped it with a little limp gesture that had in
it tired despair, finality and hopelessness. It caught at his heart more
strongly than any words. He felt a warm gush of pity and tenderness.

He took her hand gently without speaking, and pressed it hard against
his lips. It seemed to him very small and cold.

They passed together through the wet bracken, his s