re mine, mine! By God!" He waved a vigorous
gesture of defiance. "I'll take you away from him at any cost. I'll see
that he gives you up, somehow. You're all I have."

"Of course the law provides a way, but you wouldn't, couldn't,
understand how I feel about divorce." The mere mention of the word was
difficult and caused Alaire to clench her hands. "We're both too shaken
to talk sanely now, so let's wait--"

"There's something you must understand before we go any further," Dave
insisted. "I'm poor; I haven't a thing I can call my own, so I'm not
sure I have any right to take you away from all this." He turned a
hostile eye upon their surroundings. "Most people would say that I've
simply wasted my life. Perhaps I have--that depends upon the way you
look at it and upon what you consider worth while--anyhow, all I can
offer you is love--" He broke off momentarily as if his breath had
suddenly failed him. "Greater love, it seems to me, than any woman ever
had."

"Money means so little, and it's so easy to be happy without it,"
Alaire told him. "But I'm not altogether poor. Of course, everything
here is Ed's, but I have enough. All my life I've had everything except
the very thing you offer--and how I've longed for that! How I've envied
other people! Do you think I'll be allowed, somehow, to have it?"

"Yes! I've something to say about that. You gave me the right when you
gave me that kiss."

Alaire shook her head. "I'm not sure. It seems easy now, while you are
here, but how will it seem later? I'm in no condition at this minute to
reason. Perhaps, as you say, it is all a dream; perhaps this feeling I
have is just a passing frenzy."

Dave laughed softly, confidently. "It's too new yet for you to
understand, but wait. It is frenzy, witchery--yes, and more. To-morrow,
and every day after, it will grow and grow and grow! Trust me, I've
watched it in myself."

"So you cared for me from the very first?" Alaire questioned. It was
the woman's curiosity, the woman's hunger to hear over and over again
that truth which never fails to thrill and yet never fully satisfies.

"Oh, even before that, I think! When you came to my fire that evening
in the chaparral I knew every line of your face, every movement of your
body, every tone of your voice, as a man knows and recognizes his
ideal. But it took time for me to realize all you meant to me."

Alaire nodded. "Yes, and it must have been the same with me." She met
his eyes frank