t."

"How much would it require?"

"Two thousand dollars."

The young wife gave a sigh as she answered:

"I'm afraid that's a day dream. Only your father could give you such an
amount and you wouldn't go to him, would you?"

"Not if we hadn't another crust in the house," snapped Howard savagely.
"You don't want me to, do you?" he asked looking up at her quickly.

"No, dear," she answered calmly. "I have certainly no wish that you
should humble yourself. At the same time I am not selfish enough to want
to stand in the way of your future. Your father and stepmother hate me,
I know that. I am the cause of your separation from your folks. No doubt
your father would be very willing to help you if you would consent to
leave me."

Howard laughed as he replied:

"Well, if that's the price for the $2,000 I guess I'll go without it. I
wouldn't give you up for a million times $2,000!"

Annie stretched her hand across the table.

"Really," she said.

"You know I wouldn't Annie," he said earnestly. "Not one second have I
ever regretted marrying you--that's honest to God!"

A faint flush of pleasure lit up the young wife's face. For all her
assumed lightheartedness she was badly in need of this reassurance. If
she thought Howard nourished secret regrets it would break her heart.
She could stand anything, any hardship, but not that. She would leave
him at once.

In a way she held herself responsible for his present predicament. She
had felt a deep sense of guilt ever since that afternoon in New Haven
when, listening to Howard's importunities and obeying an impulse she
was powerless to resist, she had flung aside her waitress's apron,
furtively left the restaurant and hurried with him to the minister who
declared them man and wife.

Their marriage was a mistake, of course. Howard was in no position to
marry. They should have waited. They both realized their folly now. But
what was done could not be undone. She realized, too, that it was worse
for Howard than it was for her. It had ruined his prospects at the
outset of his career and threatened to be an irreparable blight on his
entire life. She realized that she was largely to blame. She had done
wrong to marry him and at times she reproached herself bitterly. There
were days when their union assumed in her eyes the enormity of a crime.
She should have seen what a social gulf lay between them. All these
taunts and insults from his family which she now endured she had