to stay here. You must leave this place. You have had hell
enough. I insist that you--"

"No use arguing," she said, shaking her head. "I can love you here as well
as anywhere else, and that is all I care for,--just my love for you."

"God, what a cruel thing love is, after all. If there was no such thing as
love, we could--"

"Don't say that!" she cried out sharply. "Love is everything. It conquers
everything. It is both good and evil. It makes happiness and it makes
misery. Braden,--oh, my dearest!--see what it has made for us? Love! Why,
don't you know it is Love that we love? _We love Love._ I would not love
you if you were not Love itself. I treated you abominably, but you still
love me. You performed an act of mercy for the man you loved, and he loved
you. You cursed me in your heart, and I still love you. We cannot escape
love, my friend. It rules us,--it rules all of us. The thing that you say
stands between us--that act of mercy, dearest,--what effect has it had upon
either of us? I would come to you to-morrow, to-day,--this very hour if you
asked me to do so, and not in all the years that are left to me would I
see the shadow you shrink from."

"The shadow extends back a great deal farther, Anne," he said, closing his
eyes as if in pain. "It began long before my grandfather found the peace
which I have yet to find. It began when you sold yourself to him."

She shrank slightly. "But even that did not kill your love for me," she
cried out, defensively. "I did not sell my love,--just my soul, if you must
have a charge against me. I've got it back, thank God, and it is worth a
good deal more to me to-day than it was when Mr. Thorpe bargained for it.
Two million dollars!" She spoke ironically, yet with great seriousness.
"If he could have bought my love for that amount, his bargain would have
been a good one. If I were to discover now that you do not care for me,
Braden, and if I could buy your love, which is the most precious thing in
the world to me, I would not hesitate a second to pay out every dollar I
have in--"

"Stop!" he cried eagerly, drawing a step nearer and fixing her with
a look that puzzled and yet thrilled her. "Would you give up
everything--everything, mind you,--if I were to ask you to do so?"

"You said something like that a few months ago," she said, after a
moment's hesitation. There was a troubled, hunted look in her eyes, as of
a creature at bay. "You make it hard for me, Braden. I don