“I had ambitions,” she murmured; “such splendid ambitions! Ever since I have been old enough to understand, I have known how dis--dishonestly much of the money was made in the contracting, and it has hurt me--oh, you don’t know how it has hurt me! Father doesn’t see; he simply can’t see. And then my ambition came. A year ago I saw how father felt toward you; first because you were Adam Vallory’s son, and afterward because you were yourself--just such a son as he would have given worlds to have for his own. I whispered to myself then that I would make you love me and marry me; and then there would be two of us to fight for honesty and fair-dealing and the--the righteousness that cares for something more than merely keeping clear of the law. You would have helped me, wouldn’t you, David?” He bent and kissed the pulse in the throbbing temple. “You could have made of me anything that you wished, dear. You know that.” “I didn’t wish to make anything of you but what you were; what you had always been until father tied you hand and foot with that horrible debt of gratitude. Then he sent you out here, and I knew what would happen--what simply _must_ happen; how your gratitude to him would break you down, first in the little things, and then in the terrible ones. And that was why I persuaded him to come, and to bring me. Was it all very--unwomanly, David?” “It was the finest thing a woman ever did for the man she loved. But you have always done the fine things.” “Even when I made you fall in love with me when you didn’t want to?” “I outdistanced you by many miles in that,” he said with sober gravity. “I think it went back to the kiddie days in old Middleboro.” “In spite of Judith?” He held her closer. “That is the one thing that I have to confess, Vinnie. I did go about a good bit with Judith, in my college years and before. We were just good chums, and I never thought for a moment----” “Of course you didn’t! But I don’t blame Judith, either; I can’t, when I’ve done the same thing myself. But you were saying it went back to the kiddie days with--with me.” “Yes; but I didn’t realize it until we met in Florida. I was full of hope then: I meant to make a success of myself so that I might go to your father like a man and say, ‘I want to marry your daughter.’ Then the big debt fell on me, and I couldn’t say anything while I owed your father more than I could ever hope to repay.”