go--yesterday--she had wondered, dreamily,
if she were in love with him! But that was when he was in the city, at
home in his own wilderness. But now! She was in a trap. This man had
made it, cunningly using in his work all that he knew of Gloria Gaynor.
There was no way out, save through the gate of matrimony. And--in her
heart she laughed at him--through that other wider gate beyond, the
gate of divorce. She would accept his name; the name of Gratton stood
high in San Francisco. Then she would tell him how she loathed him; she
would laugh at him, for physically she had no fear of him. And he would
never have her for his own, despite all of his money and his position
and his hideous trickery. Gratton, with all of his shrewdness, had not
taken into consideration one thing: how in the city, on his native
heath, he attracted Gloria; how in the woods he impressed her, in his
unbecoming outdoor togs, as contemptible.

"You know how I love you," he was repeating. And he was sincere; she saw
that in his eyes, in the unaccustomed colour in his face. He loved her
as such an unclean animal could love. Oh, how he sickened her! "Will you
marry me, Gloria? Will you forgive me for having, however
unintentionally, placed you in a wrong light? Will you give me the right
to protect you, to defend your good name? Oh, Gloria----"

Strange that the man had never revolted her as he did now! She wanted to
get up and run from him. Meantime she was telling herself, almost
calmly: "Yes, you'll marry him. The little beast!" She did get to her
feet; he followed her into the hall.

"Let me be alone for a little while," she said quietly. She went to the
stairway. "I am going upstairs; wait here for me----"

"You will come to me? You will marry me?"

"I--think--so. Don't!" she cried sharply as he moved to come to her.
"Wait----"

He swallowed nervously. "I--I hoped you would. And I saw how terribly
the events of the last few hours might be misconstrued. So, Gloria,
daring to hope, I sent word for a justice of the peace. He will be here
this afternoon or this evening----"

"Justice of the peace!" Gloria's nerves jangled loose in her
irrepressible laughter.

"We'll have a priest later, of course," he ran on hurriedly. "But I
couldn't arrange for one so soon."

Gloria went slowly upstairs, walking backward, looking down on him with
unfathomable eyes.

"Tell me, Gloria. I'll promise not to come near you until you say I
may. Is it _yes_?"