He caught her by one arm, and, bracing himself with the other against the headboard of the bed, thrust her back from him with all his might. "Keep away from me, I tell you; keep back! You shall do as I say! I have always carried my point, and I shall not fail now. Believe me, I shall not. You--you--" he panted as he struggled with her, ashamed of his weakness, humiliated beyond words that she should know it. "I--you shall--you will compel me to use force. Don't let it come to that." Calmly Lloyd took both his wrists in the strong, quiet clasp of one palm, and while she supported his shoulders with her other arm, laid him down among the pillows again as though he had been a child. "I'm--I'm a bit weak and trembly just now," he admitted, panting with his exertion; "but, Lloyd, listen. I know how you must dislike me now, but will you please go--go, go at once!" "No." What a strange spinning of the wheel of fate was here! In so short a time had their mutual positions been reversed. Now it was she who was strong and he who was weak. It was she who conquered and he who was subdued. It was she who triumphed and he who was humiliated. It was he who implored and she who denied. It was her will and no longer his that must issue victorious from the struggle. And how complete now was Bennett's defeat! The very contingency he had fought so desperately to avert and for which he had sacrificed Ferriss--Lloyd's care of so perilous a disease--behold! the mysterious turn of the wheel had brought it about, and now he was powerless to resist. "Oh!" he cried, "have I not enough upon my mind already--Ferriss and his death? Are you going to make me imperil your life too, and after I have tried so hard? You must not stay here." "I shall stay," she answered. "I order you to go. This is my house. Send the doctor here. Where's Adler?" Suddenly he fainted. An hour or two later, in the gray of the morning, at a time when Bennett was sleeping quietly under the influence of opiates, Lloyd found herself sitting at the window in front of the small table there, her head resting on her hand, thoughtful, absorbed, and watching with but half-seeing eyes the dawn growing pink over the tops of the apple-trees in the orchard near by.