Page:Achmed Abdullah--Wings.djvu/122

106 "I ll tell you why you're going to marry him. It's because he has money, and I have no financial prospects except a couple of up-State aunts who are tough and stringy, and who have made up their minds to survive me, whatever happens."

"I must think of mother and the girls," had come her stammered admission through a blurred veil of hot tears; "and Fred—he must go to Harvard—"

"Right! You have your mother, and the girls, and Fred, and the rest of your family, and they'll all live on Dan's bounty and on the sacrifice you're making of yourself—not to mention myself!"

Then, after a pause, taking her by both her slender shoulders, he went on:

"I could make love to you now, my dear. I could crush you in my arms—and you'd marry Dan afterward, and somehow strike a compromise between your inbred, atavistic Mayflower Puritanism and the resolute Greek paganism which is making your mouth so red. But"—as she swayed and trembled—"I won't! I'm going to play the game!"

She said nothing. He laughed and spoke again:

"Confound it! You can put your foot on every decency, on every bully, splendid emotion, on the