this, Kate:  a man’s love can make him do foolish things.  Please talk with your mother when you go home—­and take her advice.  If you do, it will be better for all of us.”  He trembled with the restraint he had put upon himself.  “You can see that I have been punished, Kate.  I am a different man—­you ought to be able to see it.  Awful trouble has come to me.  I need your love to help me through it.”

She gazed at him with level, cold eyes.

“You don’t understand.  I can’t explain, dear!  But I’m telling you the truth.  Kate, if you don’t forget that folly I was guilty of last night and be to me what you have been—­if you don’t marry me very soon you will be sorry.”

“Are you threatening me, Richard?”

“No, I didn’t mean it to sound like that.  But I know that with your appreciation of what sacrifice means you will be very unhappy if you toss me away and then find out certain things.”

“This is not the time for riddles, Richard.  What do you mean?”

“I have said all I can say.”

“I do not love you well enough to be your wife.  I have not meant to play the coquette.  I have not known myself.  You and my mother—­Oh, why rehearse?  You know the story.  You have understood that my love for you was not what you should have.  We may as well end it here and now, Richard.  I will forget last night.  I will forget all the rest—­for it is ended!”

“It cannot be ended,” he retorted.  “Understand!  It cannot be ended.  I am trying to hold myself together, Kate.  Don’t provoke me.  I call on you to keep your promise.  No other man shall have you.”  He leaned close.  “Do you love any other man?”

She looked up at him and spoke slowly and gravely.  “I do not think I do, Richard.”

He scowled at her.  “You don’t think you do!  What in the name of Judas do you mean by a remark like that?”

“It’s because I’m trying to tell the truth,” she returned, with simple earnestness.

“This is a sort of new mood you’re in?” he persisted.

“Yes.”

He hesitated.  He started to speak and then was silent for a long time.  “Damnation!  I won’t insult you!” he blurted at last.

“I hope not, Richard.”

“It’s preposterous!”

“What is preposterous?” Her tone was calm.

“I saw you look at a man last evening.”

“Very well!”

“I have seen women look at me like that in my life.”

“I was not conscious that I looked at any man in any especial manner.”

“You couldn’t see yourself.  Perhaps you did not realize that you looked at that man with any meaning in your eyes.  But the women who looked at me as you looked at him told me that they loved me.  I am talking it right out!  But if I should hint that you’re in love with a tramp I should insult you.  I am crazy, that’s all.  My troubles are affecting my mind.  Forgive me, Kate.”

“You are, of course, referring to the young man who broke in on our prospective business last evening.”  There was just a touch of contempt in her demeanor; but her air was coldly business-like; sitting there at her desk she held him, physically and mentally, at arm’s-length.  Her poise was sure.  It seemed perfectly natural for her to be discussing a young man in an impersonal manner.