desire. "Can you ask a poor girl like me, born in a tenement
house, but with tastes and ambitions such as are usually only
given to those who can gratify them? I want to be the rich Mr.
Sutherland's daughter; acknowledged or unacknowledged, the wife of
one who can enter any house in Boston as an equal. With a position
like that I can rise to anything. I feel that I have the natural
power and aptitude. I have felt it since I was a small child."

"And for that---" he began.

"And for that," she broke in, "I am quite willing to overlook a
blot on your record. Confident that you will never repeat the risk
of last night, I am ready to share the burden of your secret
through life. If you treat me well, I am sure I can make that
burden light for you."

With a quick flush and an increase of self-assertion, probably not
anticipated by her, he faced the daring girl with a desperate
resolution that showed how handsome he could be if his soul once
got control of his body.

"Woman," he cried, "they were right; you are little less than a
devil."

Did she regard it as a compliment? Her smile would seem to say so.

"A devil that understands men," she answered, with that slow dip
of her dimples that made her smile so dangerous. "You will not
hesitate long over this matter; a week, perhaps."