n. She had found, in
these last days, something infinitely comforting in the thought that he
cared for her. It was because he had cared that he had saved her from
herself. But, if this were true--

"I am not going back to you, Louis. I think you know that. No amount of
talking about things can change that."

"Why don't you face life and try to understand it?" he demanded,
brutally. "Men are like that. Women are like that--sometimes. You can't
measure human passions with a tape line. That's what you good women try
to do, and you make life a merry little hell." He made an effort, and
softened his voice. "I'll be true to you, Lily, if you'll come back."

"No," she said, "you would mean to be, but you would not. You have no
foundation to build on."

"Meaning that I am not a gentleman."

"Not that. I know you, that's all. I understand so much that I didn't
before. What you call love is only something different. When that was
gone there would be the same thing again. You would be sorry, but I
would be lost."

Her coolness disconcerted him. Two small triangular bits of color showed
in his face. He had been prepared for tears, even for a refusal to
return, but this clear-eyed appraisal of himself, and the accuracy of
it, confused him. He took refuge in the only method he knew; he threw
himself on her pity; he made violent, passionate love to her, but her
only expression was one of distaste. When at last he caught her to him
she perforce submitted, a frozen thing that told him, more than any
words, how completely he had lost her. He threw her away from him, then,
baffled and angry.

"You little devil!" he said. "You cold little devil!"

"I don't love you. That's all. I think now that I never did."

"You pretended damned well."

"Don't you think you'd better go?" Lily said wearily. "I don't like to
hurt you. I am to blame for a great deal. But there is no use going on,
is there? I'll give you your freedom as soon as I can. You will want
that, of course."

"My freedom! Do you think I am going to let you go like that? I'll fight
you and your family in every court in the country before I give you up.
You can't bring Edith Boyd up against me, either. If she does that I'll
bring up other witnesses, other men, and she knows it."

Lily was very pale, but still calm. She made a movement toward the bell,
but he caught her hand before she could ring it.

"I'll get your Willy Cameron, too," he said, his face distorted with