re right; figuratively speaking, I _have_
said good-by to the others--to Broadway, and all it stands for. You
alone know of my going. I am making no promises. If I fail no one will
know--nor care. When I make good I will return--and then----"

The girl looked up. Their glances met, and in the depths of the steady
gray eyes the soft blue ones read purpose--unflinching purpose to fight
and win for the glory of an infinite love.

Her eyes dropped. She felt the hot blood mount to her face under the
compelling magnetism of his gaze. She loved this man. In all the world
no other could so move her. She loved--yet feared him. The very
strength of him--the overmastering force of his personality--his
barbaric disregard of conventionality at once attracted and frightened
her.

In that moment she knew, deep down in her heart, that if this man
should take her in his arms and hold her close against the throbbing of
his great heart, his lips find hers, and should he pour into her ears
the pent-up torrent of his love, her surrender would be complete.

His was the master mind, and in all the years to come that mind would
rule, and she, the weaker one, would be forced under the yoke of its
supremacy. She prayed for strength.

Let those who believe that once the living flesh has turned to clay the
spirit dies, ascribe to a trick of memory the vision of her dying
mother that flashed before the eyes of the girl, and the whispered
words: "Look after Charlie as long as he shall need you."

But those there are who know that in that momentary vision spoke in
faint memory-whispers the gentle spirit-mother, who--ranking high in
that vast army which, in the words of the immortal Persian,

"Before us passed the door of Darkness through,"

--would guide the footsteps of her loved ones.

Thus strength came and steeled the heart of one great little woman who
battled alone against love for her right to rule and shape the destiny
of lives. The momentary flush receded from her face, and when her eyes
again sought the man's, their glance was coldly repellent. She even
forced a smile.

"Is it so amusing, then--my going?" he asked a little grimly.

"Yes, rather amusing to consider where a man would go and what he would
do. A man, I mean, whose sole recommendation seems to be that he can
'lick' most anybody, and can 'drink more and stay soberer than any of
the sports he travels with.'"

The dull red flooded the man's face at her words. Unco