"You think I want to give you what's good for you?" she asked.

"I hope so; but love should give a sense of freedom, not of prison. Miriam made me feel tied up like a donkey to a stake. I must feed on her patch, and nowhere else. It's sickening!"

"And would you let a woman do as she likes?"

"Yes; I'll see that she likes to love me. If she doesn't—well, I don't hold her."

"If you were as wonderful as you say—," replied Clara.

"I should be the marvel I am," he laughed.

There was a silence in which they hated each other, though they laughed.

"Love's a dog in the manger," he said.

"And which of us is the dog?"

"Oh well, you, of course."