He's kind--" "You hate him," insisted Ronicky.

"And he's to have you, that cold-eyed snake, that devil of a man ?" He moved a little, and she turned toward him, smiling faintly and allowing the light to come more clearly and fully on her face.

"You're meant for a king o' men, lady; you got the queen in you--it's in the lift of your head.

When you find the gent you can love, why, lady, he'll be pretty near the richest man in the world!" The ghost of a flush bloomed in her cheeks, but her faint smile did not alter, and she seemed to be hearing him from far away.

"The man with the sneer," she said at length, "will never talk to me like that, and still--I shall marry him." "Tell me your name," said Ronicky Doone bluntly.
"My name is Ruth Tolliver." "Listen to me, Ruth Tolliver: If you was to live a thousand years, and the gent with the smile was to keep going for two thousand, it'd never come about that he could ever marry you." She shook her head, still watching him as from a distance.
"If I've crossed the country and followed a hard trail and come here tonight and stuck my head in a trap, as you might say, for the sake of a gent like Bill Gregg--fine fellow though he is--what d'you think I would do to keep a girl like you from life-long misery ?" And he dwelt on the last word until the girl shivered.
"It's what it means," said Ronicky Doone, "life-long misery for you.
And it won't happen--it can't happen." "Are you mad--are you quite mad ?" asked the girl.