together,'" he quoted, "'breathe and ride. So, one day more am I deified; who knows but the world may end to-night?'" The moonlight showed the girl's eyes shining through the veil, and regarding him steadily. "If you don't stop this car quick," she said, "the world WILL end for all of us." He shot a look ahead, and so suddenly threw on the brake that Sam and the chauffeur tumbled awake. Across the road stretched the great bulk of a touring-car, its lamps burning dully in the brilliance of the moon. Around it, for greater warmth, a half-dozen figures stamped upon the frozen ground, and beat themselves with their arms. Sam and the chauffeur vaulted into the road, and went toward them. "It's what you say, and the way you say it," the girl explained. She seemed to be continuing an argument. "It makes it so very difficult for us to play together." The young man clasped the wheel as though the force he were holding in check were much greater than sixty horse-power. "You are not married yet, are you?" he demanded. The girl moved her head. "And when you are married, there will probably be an altar from which you will turn to walk back up the aisle?" "Well?" said the girl. "Well," he answered explosively, "until you turn away from that altar, I do not recognize the right of any man to keep me quiet, or your right either. Why should I be held by your engagement? I was not consulted about it. I did not give my consent, did I? I tell you, you are the only woman in the world I will ever marry, and if you think I am going to keep silent and watch some one else carry you off without making a fight for you, you don't know me." "If you go on," said the girl, "it will mean that I shall not see you again." "Then I will write letters to you." "I will not read them," said the girl. The young man laughed defiantly. "Oh, yes, you will read them!" He pounded his gauntleted fist on the rim of the wheel. "You mayn't answer them, but if I can write the way I feel, I will bet you'll read them."
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