, she had blamed
Gratton, she had laid the responsibility upon her mother for having
allowed her to drift; but always she had looked upon herself as the
victim. Now, in her agitation, which had risen close to hysteria, it was
suddenly Mark King whom she blamed for everything; he, in the guise of
fate, had betrayed her!

"You saw that I was half dead with terror; that I hardly knew what I was
doing; that all I could think of was escape from the horrible trap that
had been set for me; you----"

"So that was it?" But still his tone was utterly devoid of any emotion
save that of incredulity. "You mean you didn't love me, Gloria?"

"When did you ever ask me if I loved you?"

"But you ... you married me.... Great God!" He ran his hand across his
brow as though to brush away an obsession. "Not loving me, you married
me just to save yourself from possible scandal?"

"What girl wouldn't?" she cried wildly. "Driven as I was?"

He tried to think with all of that calm deliberation which this moment
so plainly required. In mind he went back stage by stage through all of
last night's events. And so he came in retrospect in due time to the
moment when he had come to the porch and had looked in through the
window to take his last farewell of her; when he had seen her standing
at Gratton's side. She had drooped so like a figure of despondency; she
had lifted her head slowly at the "judge's" question. And then there had
occurred that sudden change in her bearing and in her voice alike, when
abruptly she had cried out: "No. No and no and no!"

"Tell me," said King heavily, "when you refused to marry Gratton last
night--did you know that I was outside?"

"Yes," she answered. She wondered why he asked. "There was a mirror; I
saw your reflection in it."

"If I had not come--would you have gone on with the thing?" He
hesitated, then said harshly: "Would you have married him?"

"I don't know. Oh," she exclaimed, twisting at her hands, "how can I
tell what I would have done? driven one way, torn another----"

"You might have married him? You but chose me as the lesser of two
evils? Was that it?"

"I tell you I don't know! I only know that I was hideously compromised;
I would never have dared show my face again in San Francisco--anywhere--it
would have killed me----"

And even yet there was in King's face only a queer tortured incredulity.
For a long time neither moved nor spoke. His eyes were on her, hers
intently on him. When h