THE AMATEUR LOVER
Driven almost distracted by this final appeal to all the chivalrous love in his nature, Drew jumped up and paced the floor. Perplexity, com- bativeness, and ultimate defeat flared already in his haggard face.
The girl sensed instantly the advantage that she had gained. "Of course," she persisted, "of course I see now, all of a sudden, that I'm not offering you very much in offering you a wife who does n't love you. You are quite right; of course I should n't make you a very good wife at first maybe not for quite a long, long time. Probably it would all be too hard and miserable for you"
Drew interrupted her fiercely. "Great heav ens !" he cried out, "my part would be easy, com fortable, serene, interesting, compared to yours. Don't you know it's nothing except sad to be shut up in the same house, in the same life, with a per son you love who does n t love you? Nothing but sad, I tell you ; and there's no special nervous strain about being sad. But to be shut up day and night as long as life lasts with a person who takes the impudent liberty of loving you against your wish to be loved oh, the spiritual distaste fulness of it, and the physical enmity, and the ghastly, ghastly ennui ! That's your part of
it. Flower or book or jewel or caress, no agoniz-
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