In that swift, vivid moment he saw something of the truth.

He saw himself losing all his virility, the tool and plaything of this woman who had bewitched him, a poor, fond creature living only for the kind words and glances she might throw him at her pleasure.

In those few seconds he knew the true from the false.
Without hesitation, he gripped with all the colossal selfishness of his unthinking sex at the rope which was thrown to him.
"Well, then, I do," he said firmly.

"Will you marry me, Beatrice ?" She threw her head back and laughed, laughed long and softly, and Tavernake, simple and unversed in the ways of women, believed that she was indeed amused.
"Neither you nor any one else, dear Leonard!" she exclaimed.
"But I want you to," he persisted.

"I think that you will." There was coquetry now in the tantalizing look she flashed him.
"Am I, too, then, one of these things to be attained in your life ?" she asked.