No, no; I can't remain and play with fire--any longer." An intense stillness rested in the room after these words.

He doubted if Louise even breathed.
"Would it be that ?" she asked, at last.
"Of course.

Haven't you seen ?" "I--I----" Her voice failed her.
"I could no more help loving you, Louise, after I came to know you, than can the earth its blooming under a summer sun.

The thing was inevitable." He was speaking now in a slow, fixed attempt at restraint.

"And this love coming when it did, after I was betrothed to Ruth Gardner, is the capping madness of the whole nightmarish situation in which I find myself.