g to marry! Sally
jerked her head. She remembered suddenly that Miss Summers had said
earlier in the day. "_You'll_ think twice before you marry for just
love, and nothing else," Miss Summers had said. "You're right, my dear,"
thought Sally. And then there came galloping into her memory a
recollection that made Sally blanch. "It's not the first man who makes
the best husband," Miss Summers had said. Not the first man! The reason
for Sally's fear was explained. She had known all along why she was
afraid and had pressed back the knowledge from her attention, so that it
should not interfere with her actions. The first man was Toby; and it
was of Toby that she was afraid--of Toby and his love for her; and, more
than all, of her strangely smouldering love for Toby.

xix

What had she been doing to forget Toby? Had she forgotten him at all?
Somehow Toby had a little faded from her mind in these days, because he
was on a voyage longer than usual, and she had not heard from him. Toby,
her lover! Only when she had been a little frightened or distressed had
she longed for his protective arms. Otherwise he had slipped into a sure
place in her self-knowledge. He was the man she loved, strong and rough,
the first to capture her heart, and until now the only man to hold her
imagination. At the thought of deserting him Sally shrank. She belonged
to Toby. Toby belonged to her. She had been going to marry him. If she
had not loved Toby she would ruthlessly have shouldered him aside; but
she could not do that, because he was her lover. And she was afraid. If
once she betrayed him, Toby might kill her. She became terrified at the
idea. Men killed their girls for jealousy's sake. She had often read in
the papers of what were called "love tragedies."

Sally did not want to die. She wanted to rise to power, to riches. And
Gaga offered her the way to attain her ambition. Married to him she
could have all, or almost all, she wanted. If she refused him she might
lose everything. She might lose her place with Madame Gala, she
might.... How harassed she was! It was such a temptation! Gaga, with
money, and everything that he could offer; and Toby, with love that she
craved, and years of waiting, and a poky house, and his opposition to
all she might want to do upon her own account. She had a vision of his
lowering face, his savage mouth. She remembered all her joys in his
arms. A shudder shook Sally at thought of his vengefulness, his fierce
s