Elaine looked at him involuntarily. The little hollows in her cheeks darkened; and her eyes became liquid with bitter mirth. She laughed shakily, unaware that she was laughing; paused as if startled by the sound; and resumed in her former toneless voice: “From the first moment that I saw you in the field at Piping Rock I was lost. It was your damned insolence. In half a glance you knew you had me.” “Insolence was your line,” said Joe laughing. “Then it was a kind of retribution,” she said darkly. “You looked at me as if I was something dirty in the road.” “You knew you had me!” “Well, you had me, too.” She shook her head. “There was triumph in your eyes.” “All a bluff,” said Joe; “a man’s supposed to look like that. . . . Why, for weeks after that whenever we met, you went out of your way to insult me.” “A fat lot you cared!” murmured Elaine. “And the first night I tried to kiss you,” said Joe chuckling; “Gee! . . . Remember? Cave woman act. No man ever took worse punishment for a kiss.” “You knew you had me,” murmured Elaine. “You laughed. . . . Oh, God! why does it have to be so one-sided!” “Now who’s agonizing?” said Joe, going to her. “One-sided nothing! We’re both crazy. It’s just as it ought to be. We would be as happy as kids if it wasn’t for outside interference . . . I can see exactly what has happened. Your folks have been keeping after you about me, until you’re half hysterical. Well, it’s nobody’s business but our own. I am able to take care of you. Let’s steal away by ourselves and get married. We are free, white and twenty-one. That’s the way to stop the uproar. Nobody bothers about a thing once it’s done. To-morrow, Princess—or to-day! now! My car is at the door. Then good-bye to all worries. Nothing but happiness—Oh, my God! think of it. . . . Go get your hat and coat!” Elaine shook her head. Joe drew her back from the window. Holding her within one arm, he roughly pressed her hair back from her forehead, and kissed her eyelids. “You can’t fight against this thing, sweetheart,” he whispered. “It’s stronger than we are. The more you try to fight it, the stronger it gets!” “Oh, don’t!” she whispered between his kisses. “I know it. . . . Oh, if I could stay like this forever! Oh, God! if I didn’t have to think!” “Stop thinking, dearest dear. Come with me and stay with me forever. Come now! . . .” She withdrew herself from his arm. “I will not,” she murmured. Joe returned to the fireplace and flung himself into one of the big chairs. “Oh God! you do try a man’s patience!” he exclaimed. “You want me, and you don’t want me! Where is this going to end?” “I’m afraid of you,” Elaine said suddenly. She had turned, and was looking at him somberly. The fear she spoke of was not evident in her glance. Joe laughed softly. “That’s flattering,” he said: “for you’re the bravest woman I know.”