ose this life and
refused to go with you to the South Seas, I sacrificed a good deal--I
sacrificed love. Do you think I didn't realize what that meant? That
whatever the pleasure and delight my art might bring me, and the
flattery, and the fame, and the applause, there were joys I was never to
know--the happiness that every poor woman may feel, though she isn't
clever at all, and the world knows nothing about her--the happiness of
being a wife and a mother, and of holding her place in life, however
humble she is and simple and unknown, and of linking the generations each
to each. And, though the world has been so good to me, do you think I
have ever ceased to regret that? Do you think I don't remember it
sometimes when the house rises at me, or when I am coming home, or
perhaps when I awake in the middle of the night? And notwithstanding all
this success with which the world has crowned me, do you think I don't
hunger sometimes for what success can never buy--the love of a good man
who would love me with all his soul and his strength and everything that
is his?"

Out of a dry and husky throat John Storm answered: "I would rather die a
thousand, thousand deaths than touch a hair of your head, Glory.... But
God's will is his will!" he added, quivering and trembling. The
compulsion of a great passion was drawing him, but he struggled hard
against it. "And then this success--you cling to it nevertheless!" he
cried, with a forced laugh.

"Yes, I cling to it," she said, wiping away the tears that had begun to
fall. "I can not give it up, I can not, I can not!"

"Then what is the worth of your repentance?"

"It is not repentance--it is what you said it was--in this room--long
ago.... We are of different natures, John--that is the real trouble
between us, now and always has been. But whether we like it or not, our
lives are wrapped up together for all that. We can't do without each
other. God makes men and women like that sometimes."

There was a piteous smile on his face. "I never doubted your feeling for
me, Glory. No, not even when you hurt me most."

"And if God made us so----"

"I shall never forgive myself, Glory, though Heaven itself forgives me!"

"If God makes us love each other in spite of every barrier that divides
us----"

"I shall never know another happy hour in this life. Glory--never!"

"Then why should we struggle? It is our fate and we can not conquer it.
You can't give up your life, John, and I ca