but sacrifice involves renunciation, and i have never renounced any woman for your sake.i have never been engagednor wanted to be.but you ought to, she told him violently.you ought to, and you would if you hadnt unconsciously put the idea away from you so many times.you ought to have a home and wife and children.oh, i know that you should, and the knowledge has made me desperate.a dawning suspicion showed in his eyes and then they grew hard.it must have, he said coldly.it must have made you very desperate indeedif you have been considering glover as a way out.she met the charge without resentment.what other way is there for me? you see, there wouldnt be any danger of mycaring more for somebody else afterward.that is quite beyond the range of possibility now, so it would be safer for me than for some women.and physical disability, the thing that made methat would have made me refuse a man of a different type, wouldnt count at all with him.his ambitions are purely material, and i could capitalize them.thats all he wants.it would really be quite a fair bargain.clinton morgan rose slowly and stood looking down at his sister as though she were a stranger to whom he had just been introduced.well, by gad! he breathed, and for a moment was bereft of further speech.and then his words came slowly, and more as the detached fragments of a soliloquy than a response to her own.crete, of all women in the world! you, with your temperament! with an idealism that i and most other men couldnt touch with a tenfoot poleand yet youd work out a proposition like that! i didnt know that you saw through glover.i made that excuse for you, that you were too unsophisticated to see through him.but sizing him up for an adventurer, you frame up a contract thatwhy, ill be hanged if i can believe it, crete.i simply cant believe it.she made no defense, and he went on in the same dazed tone.go out on the street and pick up the first girl you meet and bring her in here.if i should make love to her and try to get her to marry me, and succeed, id have a much better chance of happiness than this adventure would ever give you.for, at least, id be swimming with both hands free.now listen.he seemed to become suddenly aware of her presence again.when i fall in love, ill begin to think about getting married.but im not going to be hurried into it by you or anybody else.and when i decide to marry, not you nor anybody else shall stand in my way.she reached for him with a convulsive gesture.clinton, do you mean that? do you mean that nobody should? i pledge you my word.but this has got to be a bargain.you have demonstrated that you know how to make one.now dont you ever let that man cross this threshold again.ive got to, clint.after what happened this afternoon, ive got to let him comefor a while.why? sit down and let me tell you about it.ill have to tell you, or it will eat up my heart.but the thing will seem incredible.not to me.i think after what ive just heard that i can believe anything.well, you remember that i told you he had promised to read me something that he had written? yes, advertising matter for the new carlsbad.i thought it was going to be that but i was mistaken.it _was_ advertising matter, but not for carlsbad.for what, then? for richard glover.clinton grunted.i see