ave believed
that she would stoop to another method of retaliation? As she stood
before him the light in her eyes still wet with tears--transfigured her.

"I love you, Janet," he said. "I want you to marry me."

"You don't understand," she answered. "You never did. If I had married
you, I'd feel just the same--but it isn't really as bad as if we had
been married."

"Not as bad!" he exclaimed.

"If we were married, you'd think you had rights over me," she explained,
slowly. "Now you haven't any, I can go away. I couldn't live with you. I
know what happened to me, I've thought it all out, I wanted to get
away from the life I was leading--I hated it so, I was crazy to have a
chance, to see the world, to get nearer some of the beautiful things I
knew were there, but couldn't reach.... And you came along. I did love
you, I would have done anything for you--it was only when I saw that
you didn't really love me that I began to hate you, that I wanted to get
away from you, when I saw that you only wanted me until you should get
tired of me. That's your nature, you can't help it. And it would have
been the same if we were married, only worse, I couldn't have stood it
any more than I can now--I'd have left you. You say you'll marry me now,
but that's because you're sorry for me--since I've said I'm not going
to trouble you any more. You'll be glad I've gone. You may--want me now,
but that isn't love. When you say you love me, I can't believe you."

"You must believe me! And the child, Janet,--our child--"

"If the world was right," she said, "I could have this child and nobody
would say anything. I could support it--I guess I can anyway. And when
I'm not half crazy I want it. Maybe that's the reason I couldn't do
what I tried to do just now. It's natural for a woman to want a
child--especially a woman like me, who hasn't anybody or anything."

Ditmar's state of mind was too complicated to be wholly described. As
the fact had been gradually brought home to him that she had not come
as a supplicant, that even in her misery she was free, and he helpless,
there revived in him wild memories of her body, of the kisses he had
wrung from her--and yet this physical desire was accompanied by a
realization of her personality never before achieved. And because he
had hitherto failed to achieve it, she had escaped him. This belated,
surpassing glimpse of what she essentially was, and the thought of the
child their child--permeating his