He retreated a little, again grasping the back of the chair with one
hand, but there was no restraint in his voice.

"Laugh, Nance, laugh! You know what laughing does to them!"

"Not to this one, Bernal--oh, not to this one!"

"But it's only a Gratcher, Nance! I've been asleep all these years. Now
I'm awake. I'm in the world again--here, do you understand, before you.
And it's a glad, good world. I'm full of its life--and I've money--think
of that! Yesterday I didn't know what money was. I was going to throw it
away--throw it away as lightly as I threw away all those good, precious
years. How much it seems now, and what fine, powerful stuff it is! And
I, like a sleeping fool, was about to let it go at a mere suggestion
from Allan."

He stopped, as if under the thrust of a cold, keen blade.

[Illustration: "He gazed long and exultingly into the eyes yielded so
abjectly to his."]

"Allan--Allan!" he repeated dazedly while the look of pain deepened in
the woman's eyes. He stared back at her dumbly. Then another awakening
became visible in him and he laughed awkwardly.

"It's funny, Nance--funny--and awful! Do you know that not until I spoke
his name then had a thought of Allan come to me? Can you comprehend it?
I can't now. But it's the truth. I woke up too suddenly.
Allan--Allan--." It sounded as if he were trying to recall some