Suddenly he lifted her soft cold hands to his lips and kissed them passionately again and again; then he held them in his own against his cheek, his glance still fixed intently upon her; it held something of bitterness and reproach, but now she kept her eyes under their quivering lids from him.
"What am I to do without you ?"--his voice was almost a whisper.

"What is this thing you have done ?" Betty's heart was beating with dull sickening throbs, but she dared not trust herself to answer him.

He took both her hands in one of his, and, slipping the other under her chin, raised her face so that he could look into her eyes; then he put his arm loosely about her, holding her hands against his breast.

"If I could have had one moment out of all the years for my own--only one.

I am glad you don't care, dear; it hurts when you reach the end of something that has been all your hope and filled all your days.