"I know, I know," she broke in impatiently. "That is just what you are trying to tell me, and this is just what I am trying to tell you. I do not say that you will ever come to me here, Braden. I am only saying to you that I shall wait for you. If you do not come, that is your affair, not mine. I love you. I love you with every bit of selfishness that is in my soul, every bit of goodness that is in my heart, and every bit of badness that is in my blood. I am proud to tell you that I am selfish in this one respect, if no longer in any other. I would give up everything else in the world to have you. That is how selfish I am. I want to be happy and I selfishly want you to be happy—for my sake if not for your own. Do you suppose that I am glorifying myself by living here? Do you suppose that I am justifying myself? If you do, you are very greatly mistaken. I am here because you led me to believe that—that things might be altered if I—" Her lips trembled despite the brave countenance she presented to him. In a second she had quelled the threatened weakness. "I have made this house a paradise. I have made it a place in which you may find happiness if you care to seek for it here. At night I shudder and cringe, because I am the coward you would try to reform. I hide nothing from myself. I am afraid to be alone in this house. But I shall stay—I shall stay." "Do you think that I could ever find happiness in this house—now?" he demanded hoarsely. "Do you expect to find happiness anywhere else, Braden?" she asked, a little break in her voice. "No. I shall never find happiness anywhere else,—real happiness, I mean. I cannot be happy without you, Anne." "Nor I without you," she said simply. "I don't see that it makes very much difference _where_ we choose to be unhappy, Braden, so I shall take mine here,—where it is likely to be complete." "But that is just what I don't want you to do," he cried angrily. "I don't want you to stay here. You must leave this place. You have had hell enough. I insist that you—" "No use arguing," she said, shaking her head. "I can love you here as well as anywhere else, and that is all I care for,—just my love for you." "God, what a cruel thing love is, after all. If there was no such thing as love, we could—"