he world you say, Carmen, if you will come to me--if you will be
my little wife!

"I know--I know," he hastily resumed, as she halted and stood
seemingly rooted to the floor, "there is a great difference in our
ages. But that is nothing--many happy marriages are made between ages
just as far apart as ours. Think--think what it means to you! I'll
make you a queen! I'll surround you with limitless wealth! I'll make
you leader of society! I'll make Madam Beaubien rich! I'll support the
Express, and make it what you want it to be! I'll do whatever you say
for the people of Avon! Think, little girl, what depends now upon
you!"

Carmen turned and came slowly back to him. "And--you will not do these
things--unless I marry you?" she said in a voice scarcely above a
whisper.

"I will do them all, Carmen, if you will come to me!"

"But--oh, you were only deceiving me all the time! And now--if I
refuse--then what?"

"It depends upon you, entirely--and you will come? Not now--but within
the next few months--within the year--tell me that you will!"

"But--you will do these things whether I come to you or not?" she
persisted.

"I've put it all into your hands," he answered shortly. "I've named
the condition."

A strange look crossed the girl's face. She stood as if stunned. Then
she glanced about in helpless bewilderment.

"I--I--love--you," she murmured, as she looked off toward the window,
but with unseeing eyes. "I would do anything for you that was right.
I--love--everybody--everybody; but there are no conditions to _my_
love. Oh!" she suddenly cried, burying her face in her hands and
bursting into tears. "You have tried to _buy_ me!"

Ames rose and came to her. Taking her by the hand he led her,
unresisting, back to her chair.

"Listen," he said, bending toward her. "Go home now and think it
all over. Then let me know your answer. It was sudden, I admit; I
took you by surprise. But--well, you are not going to prevent the
accomplishment of all that good, are you? Think! It all depends upon
your word!"

The girl raised her tear-stained face. She had been crushed; and
another lesson in the cruelty of the human mind--that human mind which
has changed not in a thousand years--had been read to her. But again
she smiled bravely, as she wiped her eyes.

"It's all right now," she murmured. "It was all right all the
time--and I was protected."

Then she turned to him. "Some day," she said gently, and in a voice
that t