Her sobs ceased, she turned her head and regarded him strangely, her eyes wet and brilliant seemed to pierce him. Then she laughed the most terrible little laugh in the world. 'Why, you do love me after all!' she said. He fell back against the wall, utterly undone, his eyes seemed the only living part of him. 'I didn't believe him,' she continued in the same tone. 'Who?' his lips said, after a long pause. 'Larrie.' 'My God!' he cried. He could hardly breathe, the figure kneeling by the window was only a confused blur to him. The choking sobs began again. He walked up and down, wildly. 'Where is your child?' he said, stopping at the end of the room. She sobbed, and laughed and choked. 'He took it, he has taken everything, and isn't it queer, I don't care in the very least?' He stayed at the end of the room, the table and several chairs between them. 'He thinks I love you?' he said. 'Oh yes.' She began to beat her head again. 'Stop--how can you--for God's sake, stop!' he was at her side, trying to draw her from the cruel wood. 'I believe you love me as much as he did at first,' she said--he was offering her a handkerchief for the little bleeding wound on her head, and had to look at her--'Don't you?' 'My God, _no_,' he burst out, 'what are you dreaming of?' 'Oh, but you do,' she cried, and laughed again. He had moved her from the wall and she could not beat her head. She got up from her knees, and went nearer to him. 'I wish you would take me away,' she said. 'Remember you have a husband,' he answered, very coldly. There was a scarlet colour on her cheeks, a very fire in her eyes. 'No, I have not, he has cast me off, I have no one, no one, oh, you _might_ take me away,' her voice broke into a cry. 'Where?' he said, and trembled violently. 'Anywhere, _anywhere_, just so I can never, never see him again as long as I live.' He moved towards her, all his strength had gone, he was shaking like a leaf. A minute ago he had been one of the best men on God's earth. Now, the suddenness and awfulness of the temptation swept everything away for the time but overmastering love for this woman. He put out his hand. 'Come,' he whispered. Two minutes later they were fleeing together down the long Red Road that Larrie was coming up. They passed him half way, he was carrying his hat, and going straight forward, not looking to right or left. The meeting only added fuel to Dot's fire. 'Hurry,' she cried, pressing on breathlessly, 'hurry.' When they neared the cottage she was limping wretchedly. He stopped suddenly and looked down at her little house shoes. 'The heel has come off,' she said dismayedly. It was really a catastrophe, for they were to have gone two miles further, and then tried to get a conveyance of some sort. 'Perhaps I could walk without them,' she said, and slipped one off, 'Oh, do come on.' There was a light burning in the dining-room window of the cottage.