The things we do!

"
"By the Lord! girl, if I thought that would be true--if I thought
for one moment that it were true--" in a half-frenzy he threw out
his arm, rigid. An instant later he had lapsed into one of the
moods new to him. "There is no punishment I don't deserve," he
said. "All the time I have hurt you, when I'd rather cut my tongue
out than hurt you. I've seen you, these few days. God knows, at
the hardest--me at the worst--you at the worst. But your worst is
better than the best of any other woman I ever saw. I'm going to
have you. It's you or nothing for me, and I'm going to have you.
Choose your own title here, then, Madam. This is your home or your
prison, as you like."
For a moment Josephine paused, looking around her at the
surrounding hills. He seemed to catch her thought, and smiled at
her.
"Twenty miles to the nearest house that way, Madam. None at all
that other way. Every path known and guarded by my people. No
paths at all in these hills out yonder.


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