the brutal sports. But I teach lions how to prey, and I make them pay
for the lessons." He laughed with an effervescing of young vitality and
self-confidence that made him look handsome and powerful. "In the future
they'll have to pay still higher prices."

She was looking at him with weary, wondering, pathetic eyes that gazed
from the pallor of her dead-white face mysteriously.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"I was listening," replied she.

"Doesn't it make you happy--what you are going to have?"

"No," replied she. "But it makes me content."

With eyes suddenly suffused, he took her hand--so gently. "Dorothy," he
said, "you will try to love me?"

"I'll try," said she. "You'll be kind to me?"

"I couldn't be anything else," he cried. And in a gust of passion he
caught her to his breast and kissed her triumphantly. "I love you--and
you're mine--mine!"

She released herself with the faint insistent push that seemed weak, but
always accomplished its purpose. Her lip was trembling. "You said you'd
be kind," she murmured.

He gazed at her with a baffled expression. "Oh--I understand," he said.