silent, both awkwardly conscious of the other.
Finally he stammered: "I asked Doris to thank you--for getting my bag
ready and--and your message."

"Oh, Bojo," she said impulsively and the spots of red on her cheek
spread like names, "I want to speak to you so much. I have been thinking
over so many things that I ought to say."

"You can say anything," he said gently.

"Bojo, you must marry Doris!" she said brokenly, joining her hands.

"Why?" he said, too startled to notice the absurdity of the question.

"She needs you. She loves you. If you could have seen her all Sunday
night when we--when she was afraid you had been ruined. You don't know
how she cares. I didn't. I was terribly mistaken--unjust. You mustn't
let her go off and marry some one she doesn't care about, like Boskirk,
the way Dolly did."

"But I must do what is right for me too," he said desperately, moved by
the radiance in her eyes that seemed to flow out and envelope him
irresistibly. "I have a right to love too, to find a woman who knows
what love means--"

"Don't--don't," she said, turning away miserably, too young to make the
pretense of not understanding him.

"Listen, Drina," he said, catching her hand. "I am up against a
decision, the greatest decision in my life, which means whether I am to
have the right to my own self-respect and yours and others. One way
means money, an easy way to everything people want in this world, and no
blame attached except what I myself might feel. The other means standing
on my own feet, no favors, taking a loss of thousands of dollars, and a
fight of perhaps five, ten years to get where I am now. Which would you
do? No, you don't even need to answer," he said joyfully, carried away
by the look in her eyes as she swung fearlessly around. "I know you."

In his fervor he caught her hand and pressed it against his heart.
"Drina dear, you ring true, true as a bell. You, I know, will understand
whatever I do." He was rushing on when suddenly a thought stopped him.
If he did what he had planned, what right would he have to hope of
marrying her even after years of toil? He dropped her hands, his face
going so blank that, forgetting the mingled joy and terror his words had
brought her, she cried:

"Bojo--what's wrong--what are you thinking of?"

He turned away, shaking his head, drawing a deep breath.

But at this moment, before Patsie could escape, Doris came down the
stairs and directly to him.

"Bojo--I'v