, but the tenderness,
the passion, the yearning appeal of her voice were more than he could
resist. A wave of desperate longing convulsed his being. He seized her
hand with cruel force.

"Look into my eyes, Nan!" he cried, "and let me see the bottom of your
soul!"

She lifted her dark lustrous eyes, devouring him with love.

"You'll find only your image there, Jim."

He looked at her sternly.

"Before I take you into my arms and smother you with kisses," he
whispered fiercely, "there mustn't be any mistake this time. I've got
to know that your love for me is the biggest thing in your life--the
only thing in your life!"

"I swear it!" she gasped.

"You've got to prove it; I'm going to put you to the test."

"Any test!" she broke in quickly.

"I warn you," he went on, with increasing seriousness, "the test will
be a real one. You and I, Nan, could never be happy with the shadow of
Bivens's fortune over us."

"But, its shadow can't be over us! It's going to be yours. He has given
it to me--his death is only a question of a year or two--and I'm going
to give it all to you."

The strong jaws closed with sudden energy.

"There's not a dollar of his millions that isn't smirched. I'd sooner
wear the rags of a leper than soil my hands with it."

"Then I'll have to hold it in trust for you," she laughed.

"There's where the test comes--you can't do it. If you love me you will
have to give up these millions."

"Jim, you're not serious?"

"Never more serious in my life."

Nan gazed at him in astonishment and broke into a low laugh.

"Of course, you're teasing me. You can't be in earnest in such an
absurd dime-novel idea! Give away this enormous fortune, this power
equal to the sway of kings which you can wield with a strength and
dignity the man who made it never knew? You can't be in earnest?"

"I am," was the firm answer.

The woman placed her hand tenderly in his and nestled close to his
side.

"Come, Jim, dear, this is a practical world, you have some common sense
even if you are a man of genius; you're not insane!"

"I think not," he answered, soberly.

"You can not make this absurd demand on me," she repeated slowly,
"knowing the awful price I paid for these millions?"

"It's because I know it that I make the demand," he went on,
passionately. "We are face to face now, you and I, with all the little
subterfuges and lies of life torn from our eyes. The fact that the
price at which he bought you