it has
brought me up again." She looked at him with eyes that
appealed, without yielding. "And I'll ride that way to the
end--up or down," said she. "I can't help it."

"Then you want to break with me?" he asked--and he began to
look dangerous.

"No," replied she. "I want to go on as we are. . . . I'll not
be interfering in your social ambitions, in any way. Over
here it'll help you to have a mistress who--" she saw her
image in the glass, threw him an arch glance--"who isn't
altogether unattractive won't it? And if you found you could
go higher by marrying some woman of the grand world--why,
you'd be free to do it."

He had a way of looking at her that gave her--and himself--the
sense of a delirious embrace. He looked at her so, now. He said:

"You take advantage of my being crazy about you--_damn_ you!"

"Heaven knows," laughed she, "I need every advantage I can find."

He touched her--the lightest kind of touch. It carried the
sense of embrace in his look still more giddily upward.
"Queenie!" he said softly.

She smiled at him through half closed eyes that with a gentle
and shy frankness confessed the secret of his attraction for
her. There was, however, more of strength than of passion in
her face as a whole. Said she:

"We're getting on well--as we are aren't we? I can meet the
most amusing and interesting people--my sort of people. You
can go with the people and to the places you like and you'll
not be bound. If you should take a notion to marry some woman
with a big position--you'd not have to regret being tied
to--Queenie."

"But--I want you--I want you," said he. "I've got to have you."

"As long as you like," said she. "But on terms I can
accept--always on terms I can accept. Never on any
others--never! I can't help it. I can yield everything
but that."

Where she was concerned he was the primitive man only. The
higher his passion rose, the stronger became his desire for
absolute possession. When she spoke of terms--of the
limitations upon his possession of her--she transformed his
passion into fury. He eyed her wickedly, abruptly demanded:

"When did you decide to make this kick-up?"

"I don't know. Simply--when you asked me to sign, I found I
couldn't."

"You don't expect _me_ to believe that."

"It's the truth." She resumed brushing her hair.

"Look at me!"

She turned her face toward him, met his gaze.

"Have you fallen in love with that young Jew?"

"