that I am free; that it is my intention to care for you all
I please, to make you return my feeling for you if I can. There is just
one question for you to decide, and it is not triangular. It is between
us. May I remain? May I love you? Will you give me the chance to prove
what I think of you?"

"You speak very plainly," said Elnora.

"This is the time to speak plainly," said Philip Ammon. "There is no use
in allowing you to go on threshing out a problem which does not exist.
If you do not want me here, say so and I will go. Of course, I warn
you before I start, that I will come back. I won't yield without the
stiffest fight it is in me to make. But drop thinking it lies in your
power to send me back to Edith Carr. If she were the last woman in the
world, and I the last man, I'd jump off the planet before I would give
her further opportunity to exercise her temper on me. Narrow this to us,
Elnora. Will you take the place she vacated? Will you take the heart she
threw away? I'd give my right hand and not flinch, if I could offer you
my life, free from any contact with hers, but that is not possible. I
can't undo things which are done. I can only profit by experience and
build better in the future."

"I don't see how you can be sure of yourself," said Elnora. "I don't see
how I could be sure of you. You loved her first, you never can care for
me anything like that. Always I'd have to be afraid you were thinking of
her and regretting."

"Folly!" cried Philip. "Regretting what? That I was not married to a
woman who was liable to rave at me any time or place, without my being
conscious of having given offence? A man does relish that! I am likely
to pine for more!"

"You'd be thinking she'd learned a lesson. You would think it wouldn't
happen again."

"No, I wouldn't be 'thinking,'" said, Philip. "I'd be everlastingly
sure! I wouldn't risk what I went through that night again, not to save
my life! Just you and me, Elnora. Decide for us."

"I can't!" cried Elnora. "I am afraid!"

"Very well," said Philip. "We will wait until you feel that you can.
Wait until fear vanishes. Just decide now whether you would rather have
me go for a few months, or remain with you. Which shall it be, Elnora?"

"You can never love me as you did her," wailed Elnora.

"I am happy to say I cannot," replied he. "I've cut my matrimonial
teeth. I'm cured of wanting to swell in society. I'm over being proud of
a woman for her looks alone. I h