e. Until
this morning she has always had a rooted belief in her bank and her
daughter. If I bolt with you, her last cherished illusion will be
destroyed."

"Let me help you," he said eagerly.

"How?" and she looked at him again with that cold, hard scrutiny. "Lend
us money, do you mean?"

He fell into the trap.

"Yes," he said. "I'd do that if you'd let me."

She gave just the suggestion of a sneer and turned deliberately away.

He felt the force of the unspoken reproof:

"I beg your pardon," he said humbly.

She went on as if she had not heard the offensive suggestion: "So you
see we're both, in a way, at the crossroads."

He seized her hand fiercely: "Let me take you away out of it all!" he
cried.

She withdrew her hand slowly.

"No," she said, "not just now. I'm not in a bolting mood to-day."

He moved away. She watched him. Then she called him to her. Something
in the man attracted this strange nature. She could not analyse or
define the attraction. But the impelling force was there.

He went to her.

Ethel spoke to him for the first time softly, languorously, almost
caressingly:

"Chris! Sometime--perhaps in the dead of night--something will snap in
me--the slack, selfish, luxurious ME, that hates to be roused into
action, and the craving for adventure will come. Then I'll send for
you."

He took her hand again and this time she did not draw it away. He said
in a whisper:

"And you'll go with me?"

Ethel stretched lazily, and smiled at him through her half-closed eyes.

"I suppose so. Then Heaven help you!"

"Why should we wait?" he cried.

"It will give us the suspense of expectation."

"I want you! I need you!" he pleaded.

"Until the time comes for AMPUTATION?"

"Don't! Don't!" and he dropped her hand suddenly.

"Well, I don't want you to have any illusions about me, Chris. I have
none about you. Let us begin fair anyway. It will be so much easier
when the end comes."

"There will be no end," he said passionately. "I love you--love you
with every breath of my body, every thought in my mind, every throb of
my nerves. I love you!" He kissed her hand repeatedly. "I love you!" He
took her in his arms and pressed her to him.

She struggled with him without any anger, or disgust, or fear. As she
put him away from her she just said simply:

"Please don't. It's so hot this morning."

As she turned away from him she was struck dumb. Sitting beside the
table in the middle of the ro