lips,
drawing him by the hand into the little sitting-room where they were in
a measure free from other eyes.

"Now for a torrent of reproaches," he thought grimly.

But instead the next moment tears were on her cheeks, her arms about
him, and her head on his shoulder. Seeing her thus shaken, he thought
bitterly that all this grief was but for the material loss, the blow to
her ambitions. All at once she raised her head, took him firmly by the
shoulder, and said:

"Bojo, I've never loved you before--but I do now, oh, yes, now I know!"

He shook his head, unable to believe her capable of great emotions.

"Doris, you are carried away--this is not what you'll say to-morrow!"

"Yes, yes, it is!" she cried fervently. "I'll sacrifice anything
now--nothing will ever make me give you up!"

"Luckily for you," he said, his look darkening, "you'll have time enough
to come to your senses. If you heard all, you know what this
means--starting at the beginning."

"I heard-- I understand," she said, close to him, her eyes shining with
a light that blotted out the world in confused shadow. He looked at her,
thrilled by her feeling, by the thought that it belonged to him, that he
was the master of it, and yet unconvinced.

"It's just your imagination," he said quietly, "that's all. Doris, I
know you too well--what you've lived with and what you must have." He
added, with a doubting smile: "You remember what you said to me that day
on our ride, when we passed through that factory village--'ask me
anything but to be _poor_.'"

"Bojo," she said, desperately, "you don't understand what a woman is.
That was true--then. There's all that you say in me, but there's
something else which you've never called out before, which can come when
I love, when I really love." She clung to him, fighting for him, feeling
how close she had been to losing him. "Bojo, believe in me, give me one
more chance!"

"To-morrow you'll come to me with some new scheme for making money!"

"No, no."

"You'll try to persuade me that I should marry you on your money, take
the opportunities your father can shove in my way. Oh, Doris, I know you
too well!"

"No, no, I won't. I don't want--don't you see I don't want to make you
do anything? I want to follow you!"

"That has been the trouble," he said, abruptly.

He turned, walked away, and sat down, gazing out through the window,
feeling something dark and enveloping closing about him without his
being abl