tion!"

He relaxed his grasp on her arms, and she let them drop from his
shoulders. She turned aside, with a little droop of the head, as if she
felt it useless to argue with one so stubbornly set on his own
destruction.

He looked after her. "A big brute, am I not? Didn't know me before, did
you? Thought I was all fine, warm heart and blarneying words. Well, I'm
not. When a thing like this gets hold of me I'm--well, I won't shock your
pretty ears by putting it into words."

He walked out of the room, leaving her standing looking after him with a
strange expression on her face. Before she had moved, however, the door
burst open again, and he was striding across the floor to her, to seize
her in his arms.

"I _am_ a brute, and I know it, but I'm not so far gone as not to realize
I'm wreaking my temper on the one I love best in the world. Forget it,
darling, and don't worry about me. I've been through this sort of thing
times enough before. Best not try to reform me--let me have my fling. I'm
no Job nor Moses,--I wasn't built that way."

She lifted her head, and the action was full of spirit. "I don't want you
a Job or a Moses, but a man! It's not manly to act as you are acting
now."

He threw up his head. "Not manly! That's a new one. According to your
code is there no just anger in the world?"

"Just anger, but not sane rage. You have reason to be angry but there's
no reason in the world why you should let it consume you. Red, dear, why
not--_bank the fires_?"

He stared down into her upturned face. He had thought he knew her,
heart and soul, but he found himself thoroughly astonished by this new
attitude. He was so accustomed to a charming compliance in her, he could
hardly realize that he was being brought to book in a manner at once so
felicitous yet so firm. She gave him back his scrutiny without flinching,
and somehow, though she put him in the wrong, he had never loved her
better. Here was a comrade who could understand and influence him!

"Bank the fires, eh?" he growled. "Not put them out? I should suppose you
would have wanted them drowned out in a flood of tears of repentance for
letting them burn."

"No! You are you, and the fires are warming--when they are kept under
control. You're fighting the harder for your patient's life because the
fight's a hard one. But when you let the Devil fan the flame--"

He burst into a great, unexpected laugh and caught her to his breast
again. "That's what I'm d