No!
Never!! He would fight first. He would go down fighting. Never! Never!
Never!

His brain seethed.

"I can't do it," he said, getting up again, for he had sat down after
his previous tirade. "I can't do it. You are asking something that is
utterly impossible. It can never be done. God help me, I'm insane, I'm
wild over her. Go and do anything you want to, but I must have her and I
will. She's mine! She's mine! She's mine!"

His thin, lean hands clenched and he clicked his teeth.

"Mine, mine, mine!" he muttered, and one would have thought him a
villain in a cheap melodrama.

Mrs. Dale shook her head.

"God help us both!" she said. "You shall never, never have her. You are
not worthy of her. You are not right in your mind. I will fight you with
all the means in my power. I am desperate! I am wealthy. I know how to
fight. You shall not have her. Now we will see which will win." She rose
to go and Eugene followed her.

"Go ahead," he said calmly, "but in the end you lose. Suzanne comes to
me. I know it. I feel it. I may lose many other things, but I get her.
She's mine."

"Oh," sighed Mrs. Dale wearily, half believing him and moving towards
the door. "Is this your last word?"

"It is positively."

"Then I must be going."

"Good-bye," he said solemnly.

"Good-bye," she answered, white faced, her eyes staring.

She went out and Eugene took up the telephone; but he remembered that
Suzanne had warned him not to call, but to depend on her. So he put it
down again.

CHAPTER XV

The fire and pathos of Mrs. Dale's appeal should have given Eugene
pause. He thought once of going after her and making a further appeal,
saying that he would try and get a divorce eventually and marry Suzanne,
but he remembered that peculiar insistency of Suzanne on the fact that
she did not want to get married. Somehow, somewhere, somewhy, she had
formulated this peculiar ideal or attitude, which whatever the world
might think of it, was possible of execution, providing he and she were
tactful enough. It was not such a wild thing for two people to want to
come together in this way, if they chose, he thought. Why was it? Heaven
could witness there were enough illicit and peculiar relationships in
this world to prevent society from becoming excited about one more,
particularly when it was to be conducted in so circumspect and subtle a
way. He and Suzanne did not intend to blazon their relationship to the
world. As a distin