m, her voice shaking with anger, she
went on:

"All my life, since the day you first took me away, you've planned and
planned and planned to keep me, and to trick me and bring me down with
you. When you came to me I was happy. I didn't have much, just a little
salary and some hard work."

He shrugged his shoulders, and smiled skeptically. Ironically, he said:

"But, like all the rest, you found that wouldn't keep you, didn't you?"

Ignoring his taunt, she went on:

"You say I'm bad, but who's made me so? Who took me out night after
night? Who showed me what these luxuries were? Who put me in the habit
of buying something I couldn't afford? You did."

"Well, you liked it, didn't you?"

"Who got me in debt, and then, when I wouldn't do what you wanted me
to, who had me discharged from the company, so I had no means of
living? Who followed me from one place to another? Who, always
entreating, tried to trap me into this life? I didn't know any better."

"Didn't know better?" he echoed derisively.

"I knew it was wrong--yes; but you told me everybody in this business
did that sort of thing, and I was just as good as any one else. Finally
you got me and you kept me. Then, when I went away to Denver, and for
the first time found a gleam of happiness, for the first time in my
life----"

"You're crazy," he said contemptuously.

"Yes, I am crazy!" she cried hysterically.

Her patience was at an end. She felt that if he stayed there another
minute to taunt and torture her, she would go stark, raving mad. A
choking sensation rose in her throat. Seized with a sudden fury, she
swept the table cover off the table, and, making one stride to the
dresser, knocked all the bottles off. Then she turned on him furiously.
Almost screaming, she shouted:

"You've made me crazy! You followed me to Denver, and then when I got
back you bribed me again. You pulled me down, and you did the same old
thing until this happened. Now, I want you to get out, you understand?
I want you to get out!"

He turned to pacify her. More gently, he said:

"Laura, you can't do this."

But she refused to listen. Walking up and down the room, gesticulating
wildly, she kept crying:

"Go--do you hear--go!"

He took a seat on a trunk. Instantly she turned on him like an
infuriated tigress, attempting to push him off by sheer strength.

"No, you won't," she screamed; "you won't stay here! You're not going
to do this thing again. I tell you, I'm go