d gathered both
her hands into his, holding them closely imprisoned.

"You _must_ love!" he said almost roughly.

"My dear! I've told you that I do love you."

"And I tell you you don't! Your calm and cheerful friendship for me
isn't love!"

"Oh. What else is it, please?"

He kissed her on the mouth. She suffered his lips again without
flinching, then drew back laughingly to avoid him.

"Why are you becoming so very demonstrative?" she asked. "If you are
not careful it will become a horrid habit with you."

"Does it mean nothing more than a habit to you?" he asked,
unsmilingly.

"It means that I care enough for you to let you do it more than once,
doesn't it?"

He shrugged and turned his face toward the window:

"And you believe that you love me," he said, sullenly and partly to
himself.

"You amazingly sulky man, _what_ are you muttering to yourself?" she
demanded, bending forward and across his shoulder to see his face
which was still turned from her. He swung about and caught her
fiercely in his arms; and the embrace left her breathless and flushed.

"Clive--please--"

"_Can't_ you care for me! For God's sake show it if you can!"

"Please, dear--I--"

"_Can't_ you!" he repeated unsteadily, drawing her closer. "You know
what I am asking. Answer me!"

She bent her head and rested it against his shoulder a moment,
considering; she then looked away from him, troubled:

"I don't want to be your--mistress," she said. Truth disconcerts the
vast majority. It disconcerted him--after a ringing silence through
which the beating of rain on the window came to him like the steady
tattoo of his own heart.

"I did not ask that," he said, very red.

"You meant that.... Because I've been everything to you except that."

"I want you for my wife," he interrupted sharply.

"But you are married, Clive. So what more can I be to you, unless I
become--what I don't want to become--"

"I merely want you to love me--until I can find some way out of this
hell on earth I'm living in!"

"Dear, I'm sorry! I'm sorry you are so unhappy. But you can't get
free,--can you? She won't let you, will she?"

"I've got to have my freedom! I can't stand this. Good God! Must a man
do life for being a fool once? Isn't there any allowance to be made
for a first offence? I've always wanted to marry you. I was a
miserable, crazy coward to do what I did! Haven't I paid for it? Do
you know what I've been through?"

She said very swe