"But, its shadow can't be over us! It's going to be yours. He has given it to me--his death is only a question of a year or two--and I'm going to give it all to you." The strong jaws closed with sudden energy. "There's not a dollar of his millions that isn't smirched. I'd sooner wear the rags of a leper than soil my hands with it." "Then I'll have to hold it in trust for you," she laughed. "There's where the test comes--you can't do it. If you love me you will have to give up these millions." "Jim, you're not serious?" "Never more serious in my life." Nan gazed at him in astonishment and broke into a low laugh. "Of course, you're teasing me. You can't be in earnest in such an absurd dime-novel idea! Give away this enormous fortune, this power equal to the sway of kings which you can wield with a strength and dignity the man who made it never knew? You can't be in earnest?" "I am," was the firm answer. The woman placed her hand tenderly in his and nestled close to his side. "Come, Jim, dear, this is a practical world, you have some common sense even if you are a man of genius; you're not insane!" "I think not," he answered, soberly. "You can not make this absurd demand on me," she repeated slowly, "knowing the awful price I paid for these millions?" "It's because I know it that I make the demand," he went on, passionately. "We are face to face now, you and I, with all the little subterfuges and lies of life torn from our eyes. The fact that the price at which he bought you was high--say a hundred millions--does not change the fact. I refuse to share with the woman I love the price for which she sold herself, whether the sum be a hundred dollars or a hundred millions! I can forgive and have forgiven the wrong you've done me, but I could never share its conscious degradation." A flush of anger overspread Nan's face. "Jim, this is stupid pride, the stupidest of all pride, the vainest and the meanest, the pride of the poor man. It's detestable. I thought you were greater. There's some excuse for the pride of wealth, but there's none for the pride of poverty!" "It's a question of character," was the firm answer. "It cuts to the deepest issues of life between us. There can be no compromise." Nan looked at him in despair, her eyes suddenly clouding with tears. [Illustration: "Nan looked at him in despair"] "What do you mean when you say give up these millions?" "Just what I say," he answered quickly. "But I couldn't throw them into the street, what would I do with them?"