"I will go!"
"There are twenty reporters waiting for just that," Said Mrs. Kildair. Then, raising her voice, she said impressively: "Elise, there is something you must do—something ten times more terrible."
"What?"
"Return home—and at once."
"Never!" The cry burst from her as her whole body was shaken with indignation. "Never in the world—never again!"
"Listen," said Mrs. Kildair, seizing her arm, and Beecher was struck with the savageness of her energy. "Things are no longer the same. You are alone—absolutely alone. Do you understand what that means—without a cent—alone?"
"What do I care?"
"Not now; but in a week, in a month— You think you know the greatest suffering in the world; you don't—the greatest is poverty. Whatever has happened, you are Mrs. Enos Bloodgood. Only yourself can destroy that. One life is ended in you. You have loved. That will never come again—not the same. Life is long and terrible."
"What, you can suggest such a thing?" said Mrs. Bloodgood, raising her head indignantly. "Such an infamy?"
"Yes—because I know. The world is not an equal one. A woman can not fight as a man can. A year from now, when you can suffer no further, do you want to wake up in a dingy boarding-house, cut off from all you have lived in? For a great love—perhaps—but to be alone? No, no! Elise, you will do as I say because I can see better than you. You are Mrs. Enos Bloodgood—you have everything that a million women covet. It is your life; you will go back."