"But one thing I will say,"--the unhappy young man added, after a long time; "it's the one thing I can claim for an excuse. _My_ price was love for you, and _good_ love. It was the whole love of man for woman--I never knew before what that meant! It wasn't for money, but for you. That great, mysterious second current--what you yourself said was the one vast power of all the universe--that belonged to _everybody_--love--love--I thought _that_ belonged to me, too. I can't see even now where that is wrong. I can't think, I don't know. If it is wrong, then I've been wrong. We're down in the mire together! I dragged you there. And once I dreamed of doing something to lift people up--that was why I mutinied and tore up the motors. And I had my own selfish price.... I can never lift up my head again. But I love you!" VIII She looked at him, her lips parted, her bosom agitated now, her eyes large, her color slowly increasing. "You must not!--Stop, we must think! Charley--" "But why didn't you?" he demanded fiercely. "Why didn't you finish your work as you promised?" "I never promised. I didn't finish it--because I knew I _could_. I told you--it was--Charley--yes--it was--love!" "For me?" He half started up now, but she raised a hand to restrain him. "The servants!" she whispered. Indeed, even as she spoke she saw the livery of the butler disappearing at the tall glass doors letting out to the gallery. She did not know that the butler had seen much and heard somewhat; that being a butler he was wise. "But it's got to be--we've got to go through now!" he went on savagely. "Why did you start this, then? Why did you let me know?" "It was he who started it in me--ambition! No, I always had it. From the day I was born I wanted to climb, to win, to be rich, to have things in my hands. All girls want that, I suppose, till they know how little it is. So I married him--I tried to, and I did. I knew he had money.... But then there was more I wanted, after all. I only wanted that something _else_, too, that any woman wants--what she's got to have, once in her life, rich or poor, because she's a woman--some one who truly loves her for herself as she is, because she is what she is--because she's a woman! "Oh, I looked all around me here, a long time after I came here, for what I'd missed. I've never been happy here. I didn't have it. I wanted it. At last I saw it. I wanted it. Its price is ruin--for two, you and me. I'm like you. If it's wrong, I don't know where the wrong began! I didn't mind, so far as I was concerned. Let a woman love you, and she'll do anything, no matter how it hurts--herself. But not _you_--not the man she loves and wants to respect, Charley." "But--me? I am not good enough for you!"