“And what honorable enterprise is it which you propose?”

“To make it short, Madam, I propose to take you home with me.  Now you have heard it.”  He spoke in a desperate, icy calm.

[Illustration:  I propose to take you home with me.]

“You flatter me!  But how, if I may ask, do you intend to accomplish all that?”

“I have not thought so far along.  In peace, if you please:  it would be much better.”

“But, my God!” she exclaimed, pausing in her walk up and down.  “You speak as though you meant these things!  Could it be there, out there—­beyond the great river—­yes, my other jailer told me that we were not to stop this side!  I suppose you are my new keeper, then, and not my friend?  Duty again, and not chivalry!  Is that what you mean?”

“I hardly know what I mean,” he answered miserably.  “I like all this no better than yourself.  But let us begin with what is certain.  Each hour, each day I may be able to hold you here is that much gained.  I can’t let you go.”

“Most excellent!  You begin well.  But I shall not submit to such insults longer.  Such treatment is new to me.  It shall not go unrevenged.  Nor shall it continue now.”

“It is too late!” he broke in.  “I know how much I have taken leave of my own self-respect, but there are times when one takes leave of everything—­cares for nothing that lies between him and one purpose.  It would do no good for you to claim the protection of others—­even if I had to fight all the boat’s officers, I might win.  But in that case you could only lose.  You would have to explain who you are, why you are here.  You would not be believed.”

“What I wish to know is only one thing,” she rejoined.  “Not offering terms, I want to know what is the alternative you have proposed.  Let us see if we can not reason calmly over this matter.”  She also was suddenly cold and pale.  The hand of a swift terror was upon her now.

“You ask me to reason, and I answer I have no reason left.  You ask me what I propose, ask what we should do, and I answer I do not know.  But also I know that if you left me, I should never see you again.”

“But what difference, then?  You are, I presume, only my new constable.”

“There could be no social chance for me—­I’ve ruined that.  You would exact defeat of me as surely as you met me, there.”

“Social chance?—­Social—!  Well, the bon Dieu!  And here you exact defeat for yourself.  But what defeat?  Come, your speech sounds more personal than professional.  What can you possibly think yourself to be, but my new jailer?”

“I’m not so sure.  Look, each turn of the wheels takes us farther away from the places where society goes on in its own grooves.  Out here we manage the world in our own ways.”

Unconsciously the eyes of both of them turned down the river, along which the boat now steadily continued its course.  He went on somberly.