Her figure straightened, and her hands clenched.
"On the cross! Will you swear it ?" she cried.
"On the sacred body of Jesus Himself, if I could face Him," answered Dannie.

"Anything! Everything is fra ye first, Mary!" "Then why ?" she panted between gasps for breath.

"Tell me why?
If you have cared for me enough to stay here all these years and see that I had the bist tratemint you could get for me, why didn't you care for me enough more to save me this?
Oh, Dannie, tell me why ?" And then she shook with strangled sobs until she scarce could stand alone.

Dannie Macnoun cleared the space between them and took her in his arms.

Her trembling hands clung to him, her head dropped on his breast, and the perfume of her hair in his nostrils drove him mad.