ll forget last night. I will forget all the rest--for it is
ended!"

"It cannot be ended," he retorted. "Understand! It cannot be ended. I am
trying to hold myself together, Kate. Don't provoke me. I call on you
to keep your promise. No other man shall have you." He leaned close. "Do
you love any other man?"

She looked up at him and spoke slowly and gravely. "I do not think I do,
Richard."

He scowled at her. "You don't _think_ you do! What in the name of Judas
do you mean by a remark like that?"

"It's because I'm trying to tell the truth," she returned, with simple
earnestness.

"This is a sort of new mood you're in?" he persisted.

"Yes."

He hesitated. He started to speak and then was silent for a long time.
"Damnation! I won't insult you!" he blurted at last.

"I hope not, Richard."

"It's preposterous!"

"What is preposterous?" Her tone was calm.

"I saw you look at a man last evening."

"Very well!"

"I have seen women look at me like that in my life."

"I was not conscious that I looked at any man in any especial manner."

"You couldn't see yourself. Perhaps you did not realize that you looked
at that man with any meaning in your eyes. But the women who looked
at me as you looked at him told me that they loved me. I am talking
it right out! But if I should hint that you're in love with a tramp I
should insult you. I am crazy, that's all. My troubles are affecting my
mind. Forgive me, Kate."

"You are, of course, referring to the young man who broke in on our
prospective business last evening." There was just a touch of contempt
in her demeanor; but her air was coldly business-like; sitting there
at her desk she held him, physically and mentally, at arm's-length. Her
poise was sure. It seemed perfectly natural for her to be discussing a
young man in an impersonal manner.

"I am referring to that low-lived vagrant we met on the road--that
iceman--that--well, I don't know what he is except that the devil
seems to be kicking him under my feet to trip me. Kate, Kate, it's too
ridiculous to talk about--that wretch!"

"Do you mean by that remark that I am taking any interest in that young
man outside of mere curiosity?"

"I don't know why you should have any curiosity about a tramp."

"You are not a good student of physiognomy, Richard."

"So you have been studying him, have you? You went away with him and
left me. What did he say to you? Where did he leave you? I haven't dared
to think ab