ried to get drunk."

She half rose, shrinking away from him. "Not--not _you!_"

"Yes. Why not? I've been drunk before--not often, but----"

"Don't tell me," she cried, hastily. "I don't want to know. It's
too----"

"But I thought it was just the sort of thing you'd be----"

"I'd be used to. So it is. But that's the reason. You're--you're
different. I can't bear to think of it--not with you."

"But I'm just like any other man."

"Oh, no, you're not."

He looked at her curiously. "How am I--how am I--different?"

"Oh, other men are just men, and you're a--a kind of prince."

"You wouldn't think so if you were to know me better."

"But I'm not goin' to know you better, and I'd rather think of you as
I see you are." She dropped this theme to say: "So the other
girl----"

"She didn't mean it at all."

"She'd be crazy if she did. But what made her let you think so?"

"She's--she's simply that sort; goes off the hooks too."

"Oh! So there'll be a pair of you."

"I'm afraid so."

"That'll be bloody murder, won't it? Momma was that way with Judson
Flack. Hammer and tongs--the both of them--till I took her in hand,
and----"

"And what happened then?"

"She calmed down and--and died."

"So that it didn't do her much good, did it?"

"It did her that much good that she died. Death was better than the
way she was livin' with Judson Flack--and it wasn't always his fault.
I do' wanta defend him, but momma got so that if he did have a quiet
spell she'd go and stir him up. There's not much hope for two married
people that lives like that, do you think?"

"But you say your mother, under your instruction, got over it."

"Yes, but it was too late. The more she got over it the more he'd
lambaste her, and when her money was all gone----"

"But do you think all--all hot-tempered couples have to go it in that
way?"

She made a little hunching movement of the shoulders. "It's mostly cat
and dog anyhow. You and her--the other girl--won't be much worse than
others."

"But you think we'll be worse, to some extent at least."

She ignored this to say, wistfully: "I suppose you're awful fond of
her."

"I think I can say as much as that."

"And is she fond of you?"

"She says so."

"If she is I don't see how she could--" Her voice trailed away. Her
eyes forsook his face to roam the shadows of the room. She added to
herself rather than to him: "I couldn't ha' done it if it was me."

"Oh, if you were in love---