"Because I don't love you. No other reason is necessary."
"I'll make you love me; if not to-night, then to-morrow; if not to-morrow, then next day. Oh, I can do it. You know I can do it."
He leaned across the table toward her and continued:
"We'll go away from here. This is only a pest-hole anyway. We'll go away. We'll live in luxury. Oh, we can do it. I have enough. These fools don't know it, but I haven't worked for 'em all these years just for the love o' the thing. There's been money in it."
He laughed a little, mechanically, as though at his own shrewdness, and again continued:
"So it's all right. You'll go. You've got to go. I can't live without you. I won't live without you."
Again his voice rose excitedly, his mouth twitched, his face took on a strange and evil expression. She began to fear him. She decided that she must, for her own safety, bring the interview to a close, and do it in so peremptory a manner as to silence him. Rising to her feet she said:
"It's only a waste of breath to discuss it, Steve. I cannot and shall not do what you wish. I don't want to see you again nor talk to you again. And I don't want you ever again to come near me. Now, I'm going home."
"Not yet. Just a moment. It happens, for instance, that you're in love with some one else?"
"That is none of your business."
"By God, it is my business! Oh, I know! I saw you. I heard you, when you thought his damned skull was cracked, and you whined over him as if he were a sick baby. What right have you got, anyway, to love this married priest?"
He was bellowing like a mad beast now; but she did not cower, nor tremble, nor show any sign of fear. In the face of danger it was her place to be resolute.
