really never anything of that sort in my life. I liked Alice, I remember
my mother talking to me a long time, and telling me how pleased everyone
would be if we came to care for each other, and--upon my honour!--I was
more surprised than anything else, to think that any one so pretty and
sweet would marry me! I don't think there's a woman in the world that I
admire more. But, Norma, I've lived her life for ten years. I want my
own now! I want my companion--my chum--my wife. I've played with women
since I was seventeen. But I never loved any woman before. Norma,
there's no life ahead for me, without you. And there's no place so
far--so lonely--so strange--but what it would be heaven for me if you
were there, looking at me as you are now, and with this little hand
where it belongs! My dear, the city is a blank--the men I meet might
just as well be wooden Indians; I can't breathe and I can't eat or
sleep. Get better? It gets worse! It can't go on!"

She was crying again. They were almost alone now. A red spring sun was
sinking, far down the river, and all the world--the opposite shores, the
running waters of the Hudson--was bathed in the exquisite glow. Norma
fumbled with her left hand for her little handkerchief, her right hand
clinging tight to Chris's hand.

"Now, Norma, I've been thinking," the man said, in a matter-of-fact
tone, after a pause. "The first consideration is, that this sort of
thing can't go on!"

"No; this can't go on!" she agreed, quickly. "Every day makes it more
dangerous, and less satisfying! I never"--her eyes watered again--"I
never have a happy second!" she said.

Chris looked at her, looked thoughtfully away.

"The great trouble with the way I feel to you, Norma," he said, quietly,
"is that it seems to blot every other earthly consideration from view. I
see nothing, I think nothing, I hear nothing--but you!"

"And is that so terrible?" Norma asked, touched, and smiling through
tears.

"No, it is so wonderful," he answered, gravely, "that it blinds me. It
blinds me to your youth, my dear, your inexperience--your faith in me!
It makes me only remember that I need you--and want you--and that I
believe I could make you the happiest woman in the world!"

The faint shadow of a frown crossed her forehead, and she slowly shook
her head.

"Not divorce!" she said, lightly, but inflexibly. They had been over
this ground before. "No, there's no use in thinking of that! Even if it
were not for Aunt