mstances that I wasn't after your money."

"Don't worry about that," replied he. "I understand you better than
you understand yourself."

"Let's stop talking about it," said she impatiently. "I want to explain
to you the business side of this." She took her purse from the table.
"Here are the papers." She handed him a check and a note. "I made
them out at the bank this morning. The note is for what I owe you--and
draws interest at four per cent. The check is for all the money I have
left except about four hundred dollars. I've some bills I must pay,
and also I didn't dare quite strip myself. The note may not be worth
the paper it's written on, but I hope--"

Before she could prevent him he took the two papers, and, holding them
out of her reach, tore them to bits.

Her eyes gleamed angrily. "I see you despise me--as much as I've
invited. But, I'll make them out again and mail them to you."

"You're a silly child," said he gruffly. "We're going to be married."

She eyed him with amused exasperation. "It's too absurd!" she cried.
"And if I yielded, you'd be trying to get out of it." She hesitated
whether to tell him frankly just how she felt toward him. She decided
against it, not through consideration--for a woman feels no
consideration for a man she does not love, if he has irritated her--but
through being ashamed to say harsh things to one whom she owed so much.
"It's useless for you to pretend and to plead," she went on. "I shall
not yield. You'll have to wait until I'm free and independent."

"You'll marry me then?"

"No," replied she, laughing. "But I'll be able to refuse you in such a
way that you'll believe."

"But you've got to marry, Mildred, and right away." A suspicion entered
his mind and instantly gleamed in his eyes. "Are you in love with
someone else?"

She smiled mockingly.

"It looks as if you were," he went on, arguing with himself aloud. "For
if you weren't you'd marry me, even though you didn't like me. A woman
in your fix simply couldn't keep herself from it. Is THAT why you're
so calm?"

"I'm not marrying anybody," said she.

"Then what are you going to do?"

"You'll see."

Once more the passionate side of his nature showed--not merely
grotesque, unattractive, repellent, as in the mood of longing, but
hideous. Among men Stanley Baird passed for a man of rather arrogant
and violent temper, but that man who had seen him at his most violent
would have been amazed