But when a man finds the walls of his house about to fall on him he is apt to clutch blindly at anything which promises to prop the tottering structure.
"It is cowardly, I confess," he said.

"But what am I to do?
Besides, I love her.

You know I would not marry without love, even to avert financial ruin." "I shall not interfere between you and your intended," she answered icily.

"Neither shall I permit the circumstances which you have described to alter my determination." The car now threaded its way through the maze of traffic in the city.
Presently it drew up before a huge, ugly factory that covered a square block on the upper west side, near the river.

Ward and his sister jumped out of the tonneau and entered the building.