"Maybe so, Carmen, but I think now before
it is too late."
"The child loves her father as she never loved me," she declared. "She is
twelve years old. She will soon be old enough to keep house for him, and
then to marry--ah, before there is time to think she will marry!"
"It would be better then for you to wait till she marries
before--before--"
"Before I go away with you!" She gave a shrill, agonized laugh. "So that
is the end of it all! What did you think of my child when you forced your
way into my life, when you made me think of you--ah, quel bete--what a
coward and beast you are!"
"No, I am not all coward, though I may be a beast," he answered. "I
didn't think of your child when I began to talk to you as I did. I was
out for all I could get. I was the hunter. And you were the finest woman
that I'd ever met and talked with; you--"
"Oh, stop lying!" she cried with a face suddenly grown white and cold.
"It isn't lying. You're the sort of woman to drive men mad. I went mad,
and I didn't think of your child. But this morning in the flume I saved
my life by thinking of her, and I saved your life, too, maybe, by
thinking of her; and I owe her something. I'm going to try to pay back by
letting her keep her mother. I never felt towards a woman as I've felt
towards you; and that's why I want to make things not so bad for you as
they might be.
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