"No, I wouldn't be 'thinking,'" said Ammon. "I'd be everlastingly sure! I wouldn't risk what I went through that night again, not to save my life! Just you and me, Elnora. Decide for us."
"I can't!" cried Elnora. "I am afraid!"
"Very well," said Ammon. "We will wait until you feel that you can. Wait until fear vanishes. Just decide now whether you would rather have me go for a few months, or remain with you. Which shall it be, Elnora?"
"You can never love me as you did her," wailed Elnora.
"I am happy to say I cannot," replied Ammon. "I've cut my matrimonial teeth. I'm cured of wanting to swell in society. I've gotten over being proud of a woman for her looks alone. I have no further use for lavishing myself on a beautiful, elegantly dressed creature who thinks only of self. I have come to the surface. I have learned that I am just a common man. I admire beauty and beautiful clothing just as much as I ever did; but, first, I want an understanding, deep as the lowest recess of my soul, with the woman I marry. I want to work for you, to plan for you, to build you a home with every comfort, to give you all good things I can, to shield you from every evil. I want to interpose my body between yours and fire, flood, or famine. I want to give you everything; but I hate the idea of getting nothing at all on which I can depend in return. Edith Carr had only good looks to offer, and when anger overtook her, beauty went out like a snuffed candle.
"I want you to love me. I want some consideration.
