't believe I
could give up everything. I have found that all this money does not give
me happiness. It does provide me with comfort, with independence, with a
certain amount of power. It does not bring me the thing I want more than
anything else in the world, however. Still I cannot say to you now that I
would willingly give it up, Braden. You would not ask it of me, of course.
You are too fair and big--"

"But it is exactly what I would ask of you, Anne," he said earnestly, "if
it came to an issue. You could not be anything more to me than you are now
if you retained a dollar of that money."

She drew a long, deep breath. "Would you take me back, Braden,--would you
let me be your wife if I--if I were to give up all that I received from Mr.
Thorpe?" She was watching his face closely, ready to seize upon the
slightest expression that might direct her course, now or afterwards.

"I--I--Oh, Anne, we must not harass ourselves like this," he groaned. "It is
all so hopeless, so useless. It never can be, so what is the use in
talking about it?"

She now appeared to be a little more sure of her ground. There was a note
of confidence in her voice as she said: "In that event, it can do no harm
for me to say that I do not believe I could give it up, Braden."

"You _wouldn't_?"

"If I were to give up all this money, Braden dear, I would prove myself to
be the most selfish creature in the world."

"Selfish? Good Lord! It would be the height of self-denial. It--"

"When a woman wants something so much that she will give up everything in
the world to get it, I claim that she is selfish to the last degree. She
gratifies self, and there is no other way to look at it. And I will admit
to you now, Braden, that if there is no other way, I will give up all this
money. That may represent to you just how much I think of _self_. But,"
and she smiled confidently, "I don't intend to impoverish myself if I can
help it, and I don't believe you are selfish enough to ask it of me."

"Would you call Lutie selfish?" he demanded. "She gave up everything for
George."

"Lutie is impulsive. She did it voluntarily. No one demanded it of her.
She was not obliged to give back a penny, you must remember. My case is
different. You would demand a sacrifice of me. Lutie did not sell herself
in the beginning. She sold George. She bought him back. If George was
worth thirty thousand dollars to her, you are worth two millions to me.
She gave her _all_, a