Beth Norvell

"And now?" he interrupted gently.

She lifted her head, with one swift glance upward.

"You will think me wrong, quixotic, unnatural," she acknowledged

soberly. "Yet I am not absolved, not free--this man remains my

husband, wedded to me by the authority of the church. I--I must bear

the burden of my vows; not even love would long compensate for

unfaithfulness in the sight of God."

In the intense silence they could hear each other's strained breathing

and the soft notes of a bird singing gleefully without. Winston, his

lips compressed, his eyes stern with repressed feeling, neither moved

nor spoke. Beth Norvell's head sank slowly back upon her arm.

"He took me with him from city to city," she went on wearily, as though

unconsciously speaking to herself, "staying, I think, in each as long

as the police would permit. He was seldom with me, seldom gave me

money. We did not quarrel, for I refused to be drawn into any exchange

of words. He never struck me excepting twice, but there are other ways

of hurting a woman, and he knew them all. I was hungry at times and

ill clad. I was driven to provide for myself, and worked in factories

and stores. Whenever he knew I had money he took it. Money was always

the cause of controversy between us. It was his god, not to hoard up,

but to spend upon himself. My steady refusal to permit his bleeding my

father enraged him; it was at such times he lost all control, and--and

struck me. God! I could have killed him! There were times when I

could, when I wonder I did not. Yet in calm deliberation I durst not

break my vows. Three years ago he left me in Denver without a word,

without a suggestion that the desertion was final. We had just reached

there, and I had nothing. Friends of my family lived there, but I

could not seek them for help. I actually suffered, until finally I

found employment in a large department store. I expected he would

return, and kept my rooms where he left me. I wrote home twice,

cheerful letters, saying nothing to lower him in the estimation of my

people, yet concealing my address for fear they might seek me out.

Then there unexpectedly came to me an opportunity to go out with

Albrecht, and I accepted it most thankfully. It gave me a chance to

think of other things, to work hard, to forget myself in a growing

ambition. I had already thrown off the old, and was laying ever firmer

hands upon the new, when you came into my life, and then he came back

also. It is such a small world, such a little world, all shadowed and

full of heartaches!"

In the silence she glanced aside at him, her eyes clear, her hair held

back by one hand.