The Branding Iron

Again Joan gave the laugh and the gesture of disdain.

"That doesn't matter ... your loving or not loving. You made use of me

for your own ends, and when you saw fit, you left me. But that's not

my complaint. I don't say I didn't deserve that. I was easy to use.

But it was all based on what wasn't true. I was married, my man was

living, and I had dealings with you. That was sin. That was horrible.

That was what my mother did. She was a ----" Joan used the coarse and

ugly word her father had taught her, and Prosper laid a hand over her

mouth.

"Joan! No! Never say it, never think it. You are clean."

Joan twisted herself free, stood up, and walked away. "I am that!"

she said grimly; "and it was you that made me. You took lots of

trouble to make me see things in a way where nothing a person wants is

either right or wrong. You made me thirsty with your talk and your

books and your music, and when I was tormented with thirst, you came

and offered me a drink of water. That was it. I don't care about your

not marrying me. I still don't see that that has much to do with it

except, perhaps, that a man would be caring to give any woman he

rightly loves whatever help or cherishing or gifts the world has

decided to give her. But, you see, Prosper, we didn't start fair. You

knew that Pierre was alive."

"But, Joan, you say yourself that marrying--"

She stopped him with so fierce a gesture that he flinched. "Yes.

Pierre did rightly love me. He gave me his best as he knew it. Oh, he

was ignorant, a savage, I guess, like I was. But he did rightly love

me. He was not trying to break my spirit nor to tame me, nor to amuse

himself with me, nor to give me a longing for beauty and easiness and

then leave me to fight through my own rough life without any of those

things. Did you really think, Prosper Gael, that I would stay in your

house and live on your money till you should be caring to come back to

me--if ever you would care? Did you honestly think that you would be

coming back--as--as my lover? No. Whatever it was that took you away,

it was likely to keep you from me for always, wasn't it?"

"Yes," said Prosper in a muffled voice, "it was likely to. But, Joan,

Fate was on your side. Since I have been yours, I haven't belonged to

any one but you. You've put your brand on me."