Bel entered, shut the door, dropped upon the red plush seat a duster and cap caked with desert alkali, and stood apprehensive of his welcome, his heart in his eyes.
She fell back to the partition, breathing his name, her whole body vibrating like a smitten lute-string.
In a choking voice he cried: "Linda! for God's sake listen to me. I've been up all night, driving against time to overtake you and beg you to listen to this last appeal. I want you to promise me not to go to Reno. Not yet, at least. Give me a little more time, a little chance to prove to you that you're the only woman in the world for me, that I'm living the life you'd want your husband to live, and have been ever since you left me. Because I want you back, because I'm lost without you, because I want to make you happy ... as you were happy when you first loved me, long ago...."
She lifted shaking hands to him, cried his name again, swayed blindly into his arms.
"Take me back, Bel," she whispered. "Make me happy ... Be kind to me, Bel, be fair...."
THE END
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Joan Thursday
Alias the Lone Wolf
Red Masquerade
The Dark Mirror
The False Faces
Sheep's Clothing
The Lone Wolf
The Day of Days
Nobody
The Destroying Angel
The Bandbox
Cynthia-of-the-Minute
The Fortune Hunter
No Man's Land
The Pool of Flame
The Bronze Bell
The Black Bag
The Brass Bowl
Terence O'Rourke