The Streets of Ascalon Part 60

"This--what I have told you--is a very close bond between us, isn't it?"

she said.

"Very close, Strelsa."

"Was I much to blame?"

"No."

"How much?"

"You should have left him long before."

"Why, he was my husband! I had made a contract; I had to keep it and make the best of it."

"Is that your idea?"

"That was all I could see to do about it."

"Don't you believe in divorce?"

"Yes; but I thought he'd be killed; I thought he was a little insane. If he'd been well mentally and merely cruel and brutal I would have left him. But one can't abandon a helpless person."

"Every word you utter," he said, "forges a new link in my love for you."

"You don't mean--love?"

"We mean the same I think--differing only in degree."

"Thank you. That is nice of you."

He nodded, smiling to himself; then, graver:

"Is your little fortune quite gone, Strelsa?"

"All gone--all of it."

"I see.... And something has got to be done."

"You know it has.... And I'm old before my time--tired, worn out. I can't work--I have no heart, no courage. My heart and strength were burnt out; I haven't the will to struggle; I have no capacity to endure.

What am I to do?"

"Not what you plan to do."

"Why not? As long as I need help--and the best is offered----"

"Wouldn't you take less--and me?"

"Oh, Rix! I couldn't _use you_!"

She turned and looked up at him, blushed, and dis-engaged herself from his arm.

"I--I--you are my _friend_. I couldn't do that. I have nothing to give anybody--not even you." She smiled, tremulously--"And I suspect that as far as your fortune is concerned, you can offer me little more.... But it's sweet of you. You _are_ generous, having so little and wishing to share it with me----"

"Could you wait for me, Strelsa?"

"Wait? You mean until you become wealthy? Why, you dear boy, how can I?--even if it were a certainty."

"Can't you hold on for a couple of years?"

"Please tell me how? Why, I can't even pay my attorneys until I sell my house."

He bit his lip and frowned at the sunlit water.

"Besides," she said, "I haven't anything to offer you that I haven't already given you----"

"I ask no more."

"Oh, but you _do_!"

"No, I want only what you want, Strelsa--only what you have to offer of your own accord."

They fell silent, leaning forward on their knees, eyes absent, remote.

"I don't see how it can be done; do you?" she said.

"If you could wait----"

"But Rix; I've told him that I would marry him."

"Does that count?"

"Yes--I don't know. I don't know how dishonest I might be.... I don't know what is going to happen. I'm so poor, Rix--you don't realise--and I'm tired and sad--old before my time--perplexed, burnt out----"

She rested her head on one slender curved hand and closed her eyes.

After a while she opened them with a weary smile.

"I'll try to think--after you are gone.... What time does your train leave?"

He glanced at his watch and rose; and she sprang up, too:

"_Have_ I kept you too long?"

"No; I can make it. We'll have to walk rather fast----"

"I'd rather you left me here."

"Would you? Then--good-bye----"