"Yes. I'll take proof of them from no other, and even if he confirmed your words I'd never live with you again. I would live alone till I died!" "That's all very foolish high tragedy, but if you're not careful there may be some real tragedy. If you care for this Holcroft, as you say, you had better go quietly away with me." "What do you mean?" she faltered tremblingly. "I mean I'm a desperate man whom the world has wronged too much already. You know the old saying, 'Beware of the quiet man!' You know how quiet, contented, and happy I was with you, and so I would be again to the end of my days. You are the only one who can save me from becoming a criminal, a vagabond, for with you only have I known happiness. Why should I live or care to live? If this farmer clod keeps you from me, woe betide him! My one object in living will be his destruction. I shall hate him only as a man robbed as I am can hate." "What would you do?" she could only ask in a horrified whisper. "I can only tell you that he'd never be safe a moment. I'm not afraid of him. You see I'm armed," and he showed her a revolver. "He can't quietly keep from me what I feel is my own." "Merciful Heaven! This is terrible," she gasped. "Of course it's terrible--I mean it to be so. You can't order me off as if I were a tramp. Your best course for his safety is to go quietly with me at once. I have a carriage waiting near at hand." "No, no! I'd rather die than do that, and though he cannot feel as I do, I believe he'd rather die than have me do it." "Oh, well! If you think he's so ready to die--" "No, I don't mean that! Kill me! I want to die." "Why should I kill you?" he asked with a contemptuous laugh. "That wouldn't do me a particle of good. It will be your own fault if anyone is hurt." "Was ever a woman put in such a cruel position?" "Oh, yes! Many and many a time. As a rule, though, they are too sensible and kind-hearted to make so much trouble." "If you have legal rights, why don't you quietly enforce them instead of threatening?" For a moment he was confused and then said recklessly, "It would come to the same thing in the end. Holcroft would never give you up." "He'd have to. I wouldn't stay here a moment if I had no right." "But you said you would not live with me again?" "Nor would I. I'd go back to the poorhouse and die there, for do you think I could live after another such experience? But my mind has grown clearer. You are deceiving me again, and Mr. Holcroft is incapable of deceiving me. He would never have called me his wife unless I was his wife before God and man." "I'm not deceiving you in regard to one thing!" he said tragically. "O God, what shall I do?" "If you won't go with me you must leave him," he replied, believing that, if this step were taken, others would follow. "If I leave him--if I go away and live alone, will you promise to do him no harm?"