ecause I was certain that, if
I gave nature a little time in which to work, there would be no need
to argue the matter with you. I was certain that, now that love had
entered your life, your deeper woman's instincts would assert
themselves and you would naturally desire to withdraw from the case.
In fact, I was certain that your wish to practise law, your ambition
for a career outside the home, would sink into insignificance--and
that you would have no desire other than to become a true woman of the
home, where I want my wife to be, where she belongs. Oh, come now,
Katherine," he added with a rush of his dominating confidence, taking
her hand again, "you know that's just what you're going to do!"

She sat throbbing, choking. She realized that the long-feared battle
was now inevitably at hand. For the moment she did not know whether
she was going to yield or fight. Her love of him, her desire to please
him, her fear of what might be the consequence if she crossed him, all
impelled her toward surrender; her deep-seated, long-clung-to
principles impelled her to make a stand for the life of her dreams.
She was a tumult of counter instincts and emotions. But excited as she
was, she found herself looking on at herself in a curious detachment,
palpitantly wondering which was going to win--the primitive woman in
her, the product of thousands of generations of training to fit man's
desire, or this other woman she contained, shaped by but a few brief
years, who had come ardently to believe that she had the right to be
what she wanted to be, no matter what the man required.

"Oh, come now, dear," Bruce assured her confidently, yet half
chidingly, "you know you are going to give it all up and be just my
wife!"

She gazed at his rugged, resolute face, smiling at her now with that
peculiar forgiving tenderness that an older person bestows upon a
child that is about to yield its childish whim.

"There now, it's all settled," he said, smoothing her hand. "And we'll
say no more about it."

And then words forced their way up out of her turbulent indecision.

"I'm afraid it isn't settled."

His eyebrows rose in surprise.

"No?"

"No. I want to be your wife, Arnold. But--but I can't give up the
other."

"What! You're in earnest?" he cried.

"I am--with all my heart!"

He sank back and stared at her. If further answer were needed, her
pale, set face gave it to him. His quick anger began to rise, but he
forced it down.

"T