"I don't care what they say," he flamed out. "They'd say, stay here and be killed by inches. I say you've had your share of suffering. They'd say--the liberal ones--stay and get a divorce; but how do you know we can get one after you've been dragged through the mud of a trial? We can get one as well in some other state. Why should you be worn out at thirty? What right or justice is there in making you bear all your life the consequences of our--my schoolboy folly?" As he went on his argument rose to the level of Browning's philosophy. "We can make this experience count for us yet. But we mustn't let a mistake ruin us--it should teach us. What right has any one to keep you in a hole? God don't expect a toad to stay in a stump and starve if it can get out. He don't ask the snakes to suffer as you do." She had lost the threads of right and wrong out of her hands. She was lost in a maze, but she was not moved by passion. Flesh had ceased to stir her; but there was vast power in the new and thrilling words her deliverer spoke. He seemed to open a door for her, and through it turrets shone and great ships crossed on dim blue seas. "You can't live here, Aggie. You'll die in less than five years. It would kill me to see you die here. Come! It's suicide." She did not move, save the convulsive motion of her breath and the nervous action of her fingers. She stared down at a spot in the carpet. She could not face him. He grew insistent, a sterner note creeping into his voice. "If I leave this time of course you know I'll never come back." Her hoarse breathing, growing quicker each moment, was her only reply. "I'm done," he said with a note of angry disappointment. He did not give her up, however. "I've told you what I'd do for you. Now if you think--" "Oh, give me time to think, Will!" she cried out, lifting her face. He shook his head. "No. You might as well decide now. It won't be any easier to-morrow. Come, one minute more and I go out o' that door--unless--" He crossed the room slowly, doubtful himself of his desperate last measure. "My hand is on the knob. Shall I open it?" She stopped breathing; her fingers closed convulsively on the chair. As he opened the door she sprang up. "Don't go, Will! Don't go, please don't! I need you here--I--" "That ain't the question. Are you going with me, Agnes?" "Yes, yes! I tried to speak before. I trust you, Will; you're--" He flung the door open wide. "See the sunlight out there shining on that field o' wheat? That's where I'll take you--out into the sunshine. You shall see it shining on the Bay of Naples. Come, get on your hat; don't take anything more'n you actually need. Leave the past behind you--" The woman turned wildly and darted into the little bedroom. The man listened. He whistled in surprise almost comical. He had forgotten the baby. He could hear the mother talking, cooing.