in trouble--on trial
maybe and she away! Never! What could he mean by suggesting such a
thing? Could it be that he didn't care for her as much as she did for
him? Did he really love her? she asked herself. Was he going to desert
her just when she was going to do the thing which would bring them
nearer together? Her eyes clouded, for she was terribly hurt.

"Why, how you talk!" she exclaimed. "You know I won't leave Philadelphia
now. You certainly don't expect me to leave you."

Cowperwood saw it all very clearly. He was too shrewd not to. He was
immensely fond of her. Good heaven, he thought, he would not hurt her
feelings for the world!

"Honey," he said, quickly, when he saw her eyes, "you don't understand.
I want you to do what you want to do. You've planned this out in order
to be with me; so now you do it. Don't think any more about me or
anything I've said. I was merely thinking that it might make matters
worse for both of us; but I don't believe it will. You think your father
loves you so much that after you're gone he'll change his mind. Very
good; go. But we must be very careful, sweet--you and I--really we must.
This thing is getting serious. If you should go and your father should
charge me with abduction--take the public into his confidence and tell
all about this, it would be serious for both of us--as much for you as
for me, for I'd be convicted sure then, just on that account, if nothing
else. And then what? You'd better not try to see me often for the
present--not any oftener than we can possibly help. If we had used
common sense and stopped when your father got that letter, this wouldn't
have happened. But now that it has happened, we must be as wise as we
can, don't you see? So, think it over, and do what you think best and
then write me and whatever you do will be all right with me--do you
hear?" He drew her to him and kissed her. "You haven't any money, have
you?" he concluded wisely.

Aileen, deeply moved by all he had just said, was none the less
convinced once she had meditated on it a moment, that her course was
best. Her father loved her too much. He would not do anything to hurt
her publicly and so he would not attack Cowperwood through her openly.
More than likely, as she now explained to Frank, he would plead with her
to come back. And he, listening, was compelled to yield. Why argue? She
would not leave him anyhow.

He went down in his pocket for the first time since he had known Aileen