e, dear. I'll worry
through the pain in time, or grow accustomed to it. It's tough just at
first, but I'll pull through somehow. It shall not spoil my life
either, although it must mar it; a man must be a pitiful fellow who
lets himself go to the bad because the woman he loves won't have him.
God means every man to hold up his own weight in this world. I'd as
soon knock a woman down as throw the blame of a wasted life upon her."

Plain words, poorly arranged and simply spoken, for the man who uttered
them was not clever; but brave, manly words, for all that. The girl
turned from the unwelcome memory with a sharp, impatient sigh that was
almost a groan. It pained her.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The next day Thorne quietly returned to New York, without making any
attempt to see or communicate with Pocahontas again. He had considered
the situation earnestly, and decided that it would be his wisest
course. Like a skilled general, he recognized the value of delay.
Failing to carry the citadel by assault, he resorted to strategy. In
the girl's love for him, he possessed a powerful ally; there was a
traitor in the camp of his adversary, and sooner or later it would be
betrayed into his hands; of this he was convinced, and the conviction
fortified him to trust the result to time. Pride and principle were in
arms now, holding love in check, but it would not be so always; soon
her woman's heart would speak, would wield an influence more powerful
and resistless, from the concentration engendered by repression. Now,
too, she was braced by the excitement of personal resistance; she was
measuring her will, with his will, her strength with his strength. Let
him withdraw for a time, and what would follow? The outside pressure,
the immediate need of concentrated effort removed, there would
inevitably ensue a state of collapse; purpose and prejudice would sink
exhausted, the strain on the will relax, the weapons fall from the
nerveless hands. Then the heart would rally its forces, would collect
its strength for the field; external conflict suspended, internal
strife would commence, fierce, cruel and relentless as internecine
struggles ever are. Was there any doubt of the result of the battle?
It only needed time. Time, quietude, and earnest thought, free from
the disturbing, stimulating power of his presence.

He could wait; every affection of her loving, constant heart, every
fiber of her self-sacrificing nature, would f