He drew away from her.
"I shall do this for you," he said firmly. "I intend to do this. And then we must not see each other again. I hope that when you marry, as you must, you will marry a good, clean man—a man who can stand out among his fellow-creatures, and need not shrink away from them, as I must. I want you to be very happy and bring happy children to the world...." His voice shook. "And forget there are unfortunate people in it ... who may only gaze hungrily over the gulf that they can never cross."
He left her sobbing, and went to his writing table.
"No one will know," he said. "I will draw it to myself. The bank is quite close here. I will walk there and cash it at once."
He wrote the check, and rose.
"Wait for me here," he said. "I shall only be a few minutes." And he went out with the face of a stricken man.
CHAPTER XXVI
Providing for the Worst