“Don’t talk such nonsense,” said Marsh violently.

“You think I don’t mean it?  D’you think I’m going to stay here and be put upon?  Why should I?”

“Don’t you—­love me any more?”

“Haven’t I shown that I love you?  Have you forgotten, Ed?”

“We’ve gone through so much together, darling,” he said huskily.

“Yes, we have that,” she said in a softened tone.

“Won’t you forgive her, for—­for my sake?”

Gertie’s face hardened once more.

“No, I can’t.  You’re a man, you don’t understand.  If she won’t apologize, either she must go or I shall.”

“I can’t lose you, Gertie.  What should I do without you?”

“I guess you know me well enough by now.  When I say a thing, I do it.”

“Eddie!”

Nora had buried her face in her hands.  He looked at her a moment without speaking.

“She’s my wife.  After all, if it weren’t for her I should be hiring out now at forty dollars a month.”

Nora lifted her face.  For a long moment, brother and sister exchange a sad regard.

“Very well,” she said huskily, “I’ll do what you want.”

He made one last appeal: 

“You do insist on it, Gertie?”

“Of course I do.”

“I’ll go and call the men.”  He looked vacantly about the room, searching for his hat.

“Frank Taylor needn’t come, need he?” asked Nora timidly.

“Why not?”

“He’s going away almost immediately.  It can’t matter about him, surely.”

“Then why are you so particular about it?”

“The others are English——­” She knew she had made an unfortunate speech the moment the words had left her lips and hastened to modify it.  “He’ll like to see me humiliated.  He looks upon women as dirt.  He’s——­ Oh, I don’t know, but not before him!”

“It’ll do you a world of good to be taken down a peg or two, my lady.”

“Oh, how heartless, how cruel!”

“Go on, Ed. I want to get on with my work.”

“Why do you humiliate me like this?” asked Nora after the door had closed on her brother.  Gertie had seated herself, very erect and judicial, in one of the rocking chairs.

“You came here and thought you knew everything, I guess.  But you didn’t know who you’d got to deal with.”

“I was a stranger and homeless.  If you’d had any kindness, you wouldn’t have treated me so.  I wanted to be fond of you.”

“You,” scoffed Gertie.  “You despised me before you ever saw me.”

Nora made a despairing gesture.  Even now the men might be on the way, but she had a more unselfish motive for wishing to placate Gertie.  Anything rather than bring that look of pain she had seen for the first time that day into her brother’s eyes.  She staked everything on one last appeal.

“Oh, Gertie, can’t we be friends?  Can’t we let bygones be bygones and start afresh?  We both love Eddie—­Ed I mean.  He’s your husband and he’s the only relation I have in the world.  Won’t you let me be a real sister to you?”