Never have I
cared for anyone except you, Junia, and I could have killed anyone that
wronged you--"
"Kill yourself then," she flashed.
"Have I wronged you, Junia?"
"If you kept me waiting and prevented me from marrying a man I could have
loved, if I hated you--if you did that, and then at last told me to go my
ways, don't you think it wronging me! Don't be a fool, Carnac. You're
not the only man on earth a good girl could love. I tell you, again and
again I have been moved towards Luke Tarboe, and if he had had
understanding of women, I should now be his wife."
"You tell me what I have always known," he interposed. "I knew Tarboe
had a hold on your heart. I'm not so vain as to think I've always been
the one man for you. I lived long in anxious fear, and--"
"And now you shut the door in my face! Looked at from any standpoint,
it's ugly."
"I want you to have your due," he answered with face paler. "You're a
great woman--the very greatest, and should have a husband born in honest
wedlock."
"I'm the best judge of what I want," she declared almost sharply, yet
there was a smile at her lips. "Why, I suppose if John Grier had left
you his fortune, you'd give it up; you'd say, 'I have no right to it,'
and would give it to my brother-in-law, Fabian."
"I should."
"Yet Fabian had all he deserved from his father. He has all he should
have, and he tried to beat his father in business.
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