"And why won't you have any money?" he said. "We are partners."
She laughed lightly. "And you give me board and lodging. I am not
worth more."
He looked her in the eyes. "Are you afraid to take too much--lest
I should want too much in return?"
She did not answer. She was trembling a little in his hold, but
her eyes met his fearlessly.
He put up a hand and took the cigarette very gently from her lips.
"Sylvia, I'm going to tell you something--if you'll listen."
He paused a moment. She was suddenly throbbing from head to foot.
"What is it?" she whispered.
He snuffed out the cigarette with his fingers and put it in his
pocket. Then he bent to her, his hand upon her shoulder.
His lips were open to speak, and her silence waited for the words,
when like the sudden rending of the heavens there came an awful
sound close to them, so close that is shook the windows in their
frames and even seemed to shake the earth under their feet.
Sylvia started back with a cry, her hands over her face. "Oh,
what--what--what is that?"
Burke was at the window in a second. He wrenched it open, and as
he did so there came the shock of a thudding fall. A man's
figure, huddled up like an empty sack lay across the threshold. It
sank inwards with the opening of the window, and Guy's face white
as death, with staring, senseless eyes, lay upturned to the
lamplight.
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