anyhow, I made up my mind five years ago that I would not live on my
wife. I haven't done so, and I don't mean to 'do so. I don't mean to
take a penny of your money. I should curse it to damnation if I was
living on it. I'm not, and I don't mean to do so."

"Then I'll stay here and work too, without it," she urged, with a light
in her eyes which they had never known.

He laughed mirthlessly. "What could you do--you never did a day's work
in your life!"

"You could teach me how, Shiel."

His jaw jerked in a way it had when he was incredulous. "You used to say
I was only--mark you, only a dreamer and a sportsman. Well, I'm no
longer a dreamer and a sportsman; I'm a practical man. I've done with
dreaming and sportsmanship. I can look at a situation as it is, and--"

"You are dreaming--but yes, you are dreaming still," she interjected.
"And you are a sportsman still, but it is the sport of a dreamer, and a
mad dreamer too. Shiel, in spite of all my faults in the past, I come to
you, to stay with you, to live on what you earn if you like, if it's only
a loaf of bread a day. I--I don't care about my money. I don't care
about the luxuries which money can buy; I can do without them if I have
you. Am I not to stay, and won't you--won't you kiss me, Shiel?"

She came close to him-came round the table till she stood within a few
feet of him.

There was one trembling instant when he would have taken her hungrily