Betty read the small, sharp, careful writing, very familiar to her.

I have instructed your maid to pack your things and to return at

once to your husband's house. He is a much too merciful man. You

have treated him shamelessly. I can find no excuse for you. My

house is definitely closed to you. I will send you no money,

allow you no support, countenance you in no way. This is final.

You have only one course, to return humbly and with penitence to

your husband, submit yourself to him, and learn to love and

honor and obey him as he deserves. The evidence of your guilt is

incontrovertible. I utterly disbelieve your story against him.

It is part of your sin, and it is easily to be explained in the

light of my present knowledge of your real character. Whether

you return to Morena or not, I emphatically reassert that I will

not see you or speak to you again. You are to my mind a woman of

shameless life, such a woman as I should feel justified in

turning out of any decent household.

Woodward Kane The room turned giddily about Betty. She saw the whole roaring city

turn about her, and she knew that there was no home in it for her. She

could go to Prosper Gael, but at what horrible sacrifice of pride,

and, if Jasper now refused to bring suit, could she ask this man, who

no longer loved her, to keep her as his mistress? What could she do?

Where could she turn? How could she keep herself alive? For the first

time, life, stripped of everything but its hard and ugly bones, faced

her. She had always been sheltered, been dependent, been loved. Once

before she had lost courage and had failed to venture beyond the

familiar shelter of custom and convention. Now, she was again most

horribly afraid. Anything was better than this feeling of being lost,

alone. She looked at Jasper. At that moment he was nothing but a

protector, a means of life, and he knew it.

"Will you come home with me now?" he asked her bitterly.

Betty forced the twisted mouth to speech. "What else is there for me

to do?" she said.




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