say good-bye."

"_Good-bye?_"

"I said--good-bye. I would not spoil your life. You know how proud I am,
how sensitive. I would not give you such as I. Once I would have given
myself to you gladly, but now--please go away."

"Impossible."

"No, the other is impossible. You don't know what these things mean to a
woman. Leave me, please."

"Leave you--to what?"

"To death, ruin--I don't know what. If I'm strong enough I will die. If
I am weak I will sink in the mire. Oh, and I am only a girl too, a young
girl!"

"Berna, will you marry me?"

"No! No! No!"

"Berna, I will never leave you. Here I tell you frankly, plainly, I
don't know whether or not you still love me--you haven't said a word to
show it--but I know I love you, and I will love you as long as life
lasts. I will never leave you. Listen to me, dear: let us go away, far,
far away. You will forget, I will forget. It will never be the same, but
perhaps it will be better, greater than before. Come with me, O my love!
Have pity on me, Berna, have pity. Marry me. Be my wife."

She merely shook her head, sitting there cold as a stone.

"Then," I said, "if you call yourself dishonoured, I too will become
dishonoured. If you choose to sink in the mire, I too will sink. We will
go down together, you and I. Oh, I would rather sink with you, dear,
than rise with the angels. You have chosen--well, I too have chosen. We
stand on the edge of the vortex, now will we plunge down. You will see
me steep myself in shame, then when I am a hundred shades blacker than
you can ever hope to be, my angel, you will stoop and pity me. Oh, I
don't care any more. I've played the fool too long; now I'll play the
devil, and you'll stand by and watch me. Sometimes it's nice to make
those we love suffer, isn't it? I would break my arm to make you feel
sorry for me. But now you'll see me in the vortex. We'll go down
together, dear. Hand in hand hell-ward we'll go down, we'll go down."

She was looking at me in a frightened way. A madness seemed to have
gotten into me.

"Berna, you're on the dance-halls. You're at the mercy of the vilest
wretch that's got an ounce of gold in his filthy poke. They can buy you
as they buy white flesh everywhere on earth. You must dance with them,
drink with them, go away with them. Berna, I can buy you. Come, dance
with me, drink with me. We'll live, live. We'll eat, drink and be merry.
On with the dance! Oh, for the joy of life! Since you'll not be