"No. I don't think I ever loved you; I was loving a man who didn't exist, an illusion I imagined to be Ed Sorenson, not your real self. If I loved at all, which I now doubt! And you never loved me, though you may think you did and still do. But it's not so; for no man who really loved a respectable girl could at the same time do what you did. Think of it! While pretending to love me, you were secretly trying to inveigle that poor ignorant girl away from home. You're not a man; you're a beast. The shame and disgust and humiliation I suffer at the thought of my position during that time, your effort to hoodwink both Mary Johnson and me, so fills me with anger I can't talk to you. Go, go! And please don't even speak to me hereafter, on the street or anywhere else." Instead of departing the man grasped her wrist and gave her a venomous look. "It was this sneak of an engineer, after all, who told you this lie and turned you against me," he snarled. "Let me go. Mr. Weir said nothing. It was you yourself who betrayed yourself, or I should not have known as I do, thank heavens. Stop holding my wrist!" For an instant Sorenson wavered between whether he should obey her command or strike her as his rage prompted. A very devil of passion beating in his breast urged him to show her her place, deal with her as he would like to do and as she deserved--throw her down and drag her by the hair until she crawled forward and clasped his knees in subjection. But the look in her eyes cooled this half-insane, whiskey-inspired desire. He took his hand off her wrist, picked up his hat. "You can't throw me down this way," he sneered. "You're going to marry me just the same, whether you think so or not. I have a voice in this engagement, and you can't break your word and promise to me because it happens to strike your fancy. Not for a single minute!" "If you were a gentleman and a decent man you wouldn't say that." "I'm not either, by your judgment, so I do say it. I say it again: you're going to marry me, willingly or unwillingly. Now if after thinking it over, you want to forget all this and go on as before, all right. If not, our engagement still holds just the same. You may release me, but I haven't released you. Remember that. And keep away from that engineer if you know what's best for you!" With a scowl he stalked out of the house, leaving a very angry, very tremulous and very heart-sick girl. The fellow was in truth not a man, she perceived, but a creature so conscienceless and loathsome that she seemed contaminated through and through by his touch, his words, and their previous relations. How grossly he had deceived her as to his real character! What a horrible future as his wife she had escaped! Nor was she yet free, for he promised to make an infinity of trouble. That day she could do nothing. Her father noting her face asked what was the trouble, and she told him the whole affair.