companionship. I ask
to see you every day that it is possible, to know that you are wearing
my gifts, surrounded by my flowers, the rough places in your life made
smooth by my efforts. I am your suppliant, Violet. I ask only for the
crumbs that fall from your table, so long as no other man sits by your
side. Violet, can't you give me as much as this?"

His hand, hot and trembling, sought hers, touched and gripped it. She
drew her fingers away. It was curious how in those few moments she
seemed to be gifted with an immense clear-sightedness. She knew very
well that nothing about the man was honest save the passion of which he
did not speak. She rose to her feet.

"Well," she said, "I have listened to you very patiently. If I owe you
any excuse for having appeared to encourage any one of those thoughts of
which you speak, here it is. I am like thousands of other women. I
absolutely don't know until the time comes what sort of a creature I am,
how I shall be moved to act under certain circumstances. I tried to
think last night. I couldn't. I felt that I had gone half-way. I had
taken your money. I had taken it, too, understanding what it means to be
in a man's debt. And still I waited. And now I know. I won't even
question your sincerity. I won't even suggest that you would not be
content with what you ask for--"

"I have sworn it!" he interrupted hoarsely. "To be your favoured friend,
to be allowed near you--your guardian, if you will--"

The words failed him. Something in her face checked his eloquence.

"I can tell you this now and for always," she continued. "I have nothing
to give you. What you ask for is just as impossible as though you were
to walk in your picture gallery and kneel before your great masterpiece
and beg Beatrice herself to step down from the canvas. I began to wonder
yesterday," she went on, rising abruptly and moving across the room,
"whether I really was that sort of woman. With your money in my pocket
and the gambling fever in my pulses, I began even to believe it. And now
I know that I am not. Good-bye, Mr. Draconmeyer. I don't blame you. On
the whole, perhaps, you have behaved quite well. I think that you have
chosen to behave well because that wonderful brain of yours told you
that it gave you the best chance. That doesn't really matter, though."

He took a quick, almost a threatening step towards her. His face was
dark with all the passions which had preyed upon the man.

"There is a m