"But you give the boy to the curate, Millie!"

"No, I didn't!" she lied. "He took the boy. He come sneaking around
here making trouble. _I_ didn't give him no boy. And I want him
back," she screamed, in a gust of passion. "I want my boy back!"

A rumble of thunder--failing, far off--came from the sea.

"Millie," the acrobat persisted, "you said you wasn't fit to bring him
up."

"I ain't," she snapped. "But I don't care. He's mine--and I'll have
him."

The man shrugged his shoulders.

"Jim," the woman said, now quiet, laying her hands on the acrobat's
shoulders, looking steadily into his eyes, "that boy's mine. I want
him--I want him--back. But I don't want him if he don't love me. And
if I can't have him--if I can't have him----"

"Millie!"

"I'll be all alone, Jim--and I'll want----"

He caught her hands. "Me?" he asked. "Will you want me?"

"I don't know."

"Millie," he said, speaking hurriedly, "_won't_ you want me? I've took
up with the little Tounson blonde. But _she_ wouldn't care. You know
how it goes, Millie. It's only for business. She and me team up.
That's all. She wouldn't care. And if you want me--if you want me,
Millie, straight and regular, for better or for worse--if you want me
that way, Millie----"

"Don't, Jim!"

He let her hands fall--and drew away. "I love you too much," he said,
"to butt in now. But if the boy goes back on you, Millie, I'll
come--again. You'll need me then--and that's why I'll come. I don't
want him to go back on you. I want him to love you still. It's
because of the way you love him that I love you--in the way I do. It
ain't easy for me to say this. It ain't easy for me to want to give
you up. But you're that kind of a woman, Millie. You're that
kind--since you got the boy. I want to give you up. You'd be better
off with him. You're--you're--_holier_--when you're with that child.
You'd break your poor heart without that boy of yours. And I want you
to have him--to love him--to be loved by him. If he comes back, you'll
not see me again. I've lived a life that makes me--not fit--to be with
no child like him. But so help me God!" the man passionately declared,
"I hope he don't turn you down!"

"You're all right, Jim!" she sobbed. "You're all right!"

"I'm going now," he said, quietly. "But I got one more thing to say.
Don't fool that boy!"

She looked up.

"Don't fool him," the man repeated. "You'll lose him if you do."