He took the girl's delicate hand in his big brown ones, and looked fondly into her eyes.
"So you're very, very rich, dear?" she murmured.
He released her hand, and leaned back carelessly in his chair.
"Oh, not rich; just heeled. I'm not going down to the Wall Street bargain counter and buy the Union Pacific, or anything like that; but we won't have to take the trip on tourists' tickets, and there's enough money to make us comfortable all the rest of our lives."
"How hard you must have worked and suffered!"
He smiled, and, rising from his chair, stood looking down at her from the other side of the table.
"Nobody else ever accused me of that, but I sure have to plead guilty to you. Why, dear, since the day you came into my life, hell-raising took a sneak out the back door, and God poked His toe in the front, and ever since then I think He's been coming a little closer to me. I used to be a fellow without much faith, and kidded everybody who had it, and I used to say to those who prayed and believed, 'You may be right, but show me a message.' You came along, and brought that little document in your sweet face and your dear love. Laura, you turned the trick for me, and I think I'm almost a regular man now."
She turned her head away, unwilling that he should see her face, afraid that he might read there the whole miserable truth. As he spoke, his words brought to her a full realization of all she was to this man, and she became more and more unnerved. It was more than she could bear. Feebly she murmured:
"Please, John, don't. I'm not worth it."
Rising suddenly from the sofa, she went to the window. The air of the room was hot and stifling. She felt herself growing faint.