tared. "You don't mince words, do you?" he said, frowning.

"No," she said. "Percy will tell you that, I fancy," she added, and
smiled. "He can't understand my not marrying him. He will be worth fifteen
or twenty millions, you know." The irony in her voice was directed
inwardly, not outwardly. "Perhaps it would be safer for him to wait before
taking too much for granted. You see, I haven't actually refused him. I
merely refused to give him an option. He--"

"Oh, Anne, don't jest about--" he began, and then as her eyes fell suddenly
under his gaze and her lip trembled ever so slightly,--"By Jove, I--I
sha'n't misjudge you in that way again. Good-bye." This time he held out
his hand to her.

She shook her head. "I've changed my mind. I'm never going to say good-bye
to you again."

"Never say good-bye? Why, that's--"

"Why should I say good-bye to you when you are always with me?" she broke
in. Noting the expression in his eyes she went on ruthlessly,
breathlessly. "Do you think I ought to be ashamed to say such a thing to
you? Well, I'm not. It doesn't hurt my pride to say it. Not in the least."
She paused for an instant and then went on boldly. "I fancy I am more
honest with myself than you are with yourself, Braden."

He looked steadily into her eyes. "You are wrong there," he said quietly.
Then bluntly: "By God, Anne, if it were not for the one terrible thing
that lies between us, I could--I could--"

"Go on," she said, her heart standing still. "You can at least _say_ it to
me. I don't ask for anything more."

"But why say it?" he cried out bitterly. "Will it help matters in the
least for me to confess that I am weak and--"

She laughed aloud, unable to resist the nervous excitement that thrilled
her. "Weak? You weak? Look back and see if you can find a single thing to
prove that you are weak. You needn't be afraid. You are strong enough to
keep me in my place. You cannot put yourself in jeopardy by completing
what you started out to say. 'If it were not for the one terrible thing
that lies between us, I could--I could--' Well, what could you do? Overlook
my treachery? Forget that I did an even more terrible thing than you did?
Forgive me and take me back and trust me all over again? Is that what
you would have said to me?"

"That is what I might have said," he admitted, almost savagely, "if I had
not come to my senses in time."

Her eyes softened. The love-light glowed in their depths. "I am not as I
was