peace, if you please: it
would be much better."

"But, my God!" she exclaimed, pausing in her walk up and down.
"You speak as though you meant these things! Could it be there,
out there--beyond the great river--yes, my other jailer told me
that we were not to stop this side! I suppose you are my new
keeper, then, and not my friend? Duty again, and not chivalry! Is
that what you mean?"

"I hardly know what I mean," he answered miserably. "I like all
this no better than yourself. But let us begin with what is
certain. Each hour, each day I may be able to hold you here is
that much gained. I can't let you go."

"Most excellent! You begin well. But I shall not submit to such
insults longer. Such treatment is new to me. It shall not go
unrevenged. Nor shall it continue now."

"It is too late!" he broke in. "I know how much I have taken leave
of my own self-respect, but there are times when one takes leave of
everything--cares for nothing that lies between him and one
purpose. It would do no good for you to claim the protection of
others--even if I had to fight all the boat's officers, I might
win. But in that case you could only lose. You would have to
explain who you are, why you are here. You would not be believed."

"What I wish to know is only one thing," she rejoined. "Not
offering terms, I want to know what is the alternative you have
proposed. Let us see if we can not reason calmly over this
matter." She also was suddenly cold and pale. The hand of a swift
terror was upon her now.

"You ask me to reason, and I answer I have no reason left. You ask
me what I propose, ask what we should do, and I answer I do not
know. But also I know that if you left me, I should never see you
again."

"But what difference, then? You are, I presume, only my new
constable."

"There could be no social chance for me--I've ruined that. You
would exact defeat of me as surely as you met me, there."

"Social chance?--Social--! Well, the _bon Dieu_! And here you
exact defeat for yourself. But what defeat? Come, your speech
sounds more personal than professional. What can you possibly
think yourself to be, but my new jailer?"

"I'm not so sure. Look, each turn of the wheels takes us farther
away from the places where society goes on in its own grooves. Out
here we manage the world in our own ways."

Unconsciously the eyes of both of them turned down the river, along
which the boat now steadily co