The Womans Way

She sprang to her feet and moved about the room restlessly. He was

sitting there, alone, waiting for the touch of the detective's hand on

his shoulder, waiting for his doom. It was her fault; she had held him

back from the release of death, had made him promise to live, to drag

through a life of shame and humiliation, an outcast, a pariah, a

creature from whom such women as herself would shrink as from something

loathsome.

The thought was intolerable. Surely he could escape; they had not got

upon his track yet. Oh, why had he not gone, while there was time?

Then she remembered that he had said that he had not enough money even

to buy another revolver; of course, he could not hope to get away

without money. A blush rose to her face; she sprang to her desk; with a

trembling hand she unlocked it and took out a five-pound note--it was

the only one she possessed, and she had been keeping it for the day,

that might so easily come, when she should lose her work and have to

fall back upon her resources. Often enough she had regarded this

five-pound note as a barrier against the dread wolf that prowled about

so many of the doors of The Jail, against absolute destitution. But,

without a moment's hesitation, she folded it and put it in an envelope;

but now she did hesitate; she stood, biting her lip softly, her brows

knit. At last she wrote on a sheet of notepaper: "I was wrong; you ought not to wait here. There is time for escape.

I would send you more than this; but it is all I have. Don't refuse

it, or I shall feel as if I were to blame for anything that may

happen to you. Oh, please go at once. Good-bye."

She was about to sign her name, but did not do so; it was better that

they should remain strangers to each other.

She went out softly, crossed the corridor on tip-toe, pushed the

envelope under his door, then knocked very gently and darted back to her

own room. Listening, with a heart that beat like a sledge-hammer falling

on an anvil, she heard him open the door, heard it close again; she

waited almost; breathlessly, and presently his step crossed the

corridor, and a piece of paper slid to her feet. She picked it up and

read: "To refuse your generous gift, to disobey your command--for to me

it is an absolute command--would be ungrateful; would be worse. I

feel as if you had taken my life into your hands and had the right

to dispose of it. I am going. If I escape----Oh, I can't write any

more; but I know you will understand. You are the most wonderful

girl, the bravest, the most generous, in the whole world Good-bye."