"I'm dizzy," she moaned. "My head aches, and--I'm scared!" "Pat, darling! You can't go out alone like this--and," he added miserably, "I can't take you!" He slipped his arm around her tenderly, supporting her to the couch. "Honey, what'll we do?" "I'll be--all right," she murmured. "I'll go in a moment." The dizziness was leaving her; strength was returning. "You must!" he said dolefully. "What a parting, Pat! Never to see you again, and then having this to remember as farewell!" "I know, Nick. You see, I love you too." She turned her dark, troubled eyes on him. "Honey, kiss me good-bye! We'll have that to remember, anyway!" Tears were again on her cheeks. "Do I dare?" he asked despondently. "After the things these lips of mine have said, and what these arms have done to you?" "But you didn't, Nick! Could I blame you for--that _other_?" "God! You're kind, Pat! Honey, if ever I win out in this battle, if ever I know I'm the final victor, I'll--No," he said his tones dropping abruptly. "I'll never come back to you, Pat. It's far too dangerous, and--can I ever be certain? Can I?" "I don't know, Nick. Can you?" "I can't be, Pat! I'll never be sure that _he_ isn't just dormant, as he was before, waiting for my weakness to betray me! I'll never be certain, Honey! It _has_ to be good-bye!" "Then kiss me!" She clung to him; the room that had been so recently a chamber of horrors was transformed. As she held him, as her lips were pressed to his, she thought suddenly of the words of the demon, that Heaven and Hell were always the same place. They had taken on a new meaning, those words; she drew away from Nick and turned her tear-bright eyes tenderly on his. "Honey," she murmured, "I don't want you to leave me. I don't want you to go!" "Nor do I want to, Pat! But I must." "You mustn't! You're to stay, and we'll fight it out together--be married, or any way that permits us to fight it through together." "Pat! Do you think I'd consent to that?" "Nick," she said. "Nick darling--It's worth it to me! I'm realizing it now; I thought it wasn't--but it is! I can't lose you, Nick--anything, even that _other_, is better than losing you." "You're sweet, Pat! You know I'd trade my very soul for that, but--No. I can't do it! And don't Honey, torture me by suggesting it again." "But I will, Nick!" She was speaking softly, earnestly. "You're worth anything to me! If _he_ should kill me, you'd still be worth it!" She gazed tenderly at him. "I'd want to die anyway without you!" "No more than I without you," he muttered brokenly. "But I won't do it, Pat! I won't do that to you!" "I love you, Nick!" she said in a low voice. "I don't want to live without you. Do you understand me, dear? I don't want to live without you!" He stared at her somberly. "I've thought of that too," he said. "Pat--if I only believed that we'd be together after, together _anywhere_, I'd say yes. If only I believed there _were_ an afterwards!"