have to give way." Winston waved aside
Elijah's attempt to interrupt. "When these times come, I may be the one
to give up, but if I am, it will be because your way appeals to my
reason as being better than my own."

Winston's meaning was clear to Elijah. The "word" that he reverenced,
the voice to which he listened and which he followed, meant not the
weight of a feather to the man before him. Elijah moistened his nervous
lips with his tongue. He had been guided to seek Winston--Winston he
must have. Impatiently he put Winston's words aside.

"All this is not to the point."

"What is?" Winston asked curtly.

"This. Will you accept my offer?"

"An equal partnership with yourself?"

"Yes."

"I suppose you realize that if I accept, the management is no longer
yours alone, but yours and mine?"

"Yes."

"And that it is my right to put forth every effort to compel you to my
way of thinking?" Winston deliberately used the word compel, instead of
persuade.

"Yes, yes!"

"Then I will think it over, Elijah, and will give you my final answer
the next time you are in Ysleta."

"Suppose I come tomorrow?" Elijah's voice was assured.

"My answer will be ready."

CHAPTER TWO

"I am so happy!" This had been the unbroken song of Amy Berl for the
five years of her married life. Maternity had not altered a line of her
girlish figure, neither had it crowned her with the rounded, satisfying
glory of womanhood. The ceaseless, parching winds had not dimmed the
lustre of her clear blue eyes, nor deadened the gloss of her soft flaxen
hair. Even the hot, dry air, so trying to most, only heightened the
beauty of her complexion, as the peach reveals the rich glow of its
color by diffusion through the meshes of its downy veil. Delicate in
face and figure, there was no suggestion of frailty, neither was there a
suggestion of strength. There was the glow of perfect health. In the
eyes that looked fearlessly and frankly into the eyes of others, there
was unmistakably a capacity for infinite happiness and infinite
suffering. This was all. The eyes were frank because they had nothing to
conceal; nor did they dream that other eyes differed from themselves.
They were fearless because they knew no sin in themselves or in others.
There was not strength of mind or of intellect to compel the fruition of
her desire for love. It must come to her without her volition or not at
all. As the flowers of the field unfold in beauty under s