"Maggie, you're too good for what you're doing--it's all a terrible
mistake!" he cried passionately. Then he remembered himself, and spoke
with more composure. "Oh, I know there's not much use in talking to
you now--while you feel as you do about yourself--and while you feel
as you do about me. But you know I love you, and want to marry you--
when--" He halted.
"When?" she prompted, almost involuntarily.
"When you see things differently--and when I can go around the world a
free man, not a fugitive from Barney and his gunmen and the police."
Again Maggie was silent for a moment. It was as if she were trying to
press out of her mind what he had said about loving her. Truly this
was, indeed, different from their previous meetings. Before, there had
almost invariably been a defiant attitude, a dispute, a quarrel. Now
she had no desire to quarrel.
Finally she said with an effort to be that self-controlled person
which she had established as her model:
"You seem to have your chance here to put over what you boasted to me
about. You remember making good in a straight way."
"Yes. And I shall make good--if only they will let me alone." He
paused an instant. "But I have no illusions about the present," he
went on quietly. "I'm in quiet water for a time; I've got a period of
safety; and I'm using this chance to put in some hard work.
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