Part 36 (1/2)

”I was such a fool,” he replied bitterly. ”I should have known that you were not what you pretended you were. You must believe me when I tell you that I loved you from that first night we were up here in the hills. I didn't know how great my love was, though, until I knew I had lost you.”

”I thought, or tried to think, you should have known I was not a thief,”

said Pen, with a soft tone in her voice, ”but Larry said that only showed what a good actress I am. I told Larry all about it this morning, and he said no self-respecting man would ask a thief to marry him, not if he knew she was a thief before he loved her.”

”I didn't read your letter,” he said, ”until after I had seen the picture of 'The Thief' last night. So I was prepared for its contents. I read, and not entirely between the lines, that you did not care.”

”I didn't think I did--so much--” she answered, ”when I wrote that letter; but up there, Kurt, up in the clouds yesterday--something within me unlatched, and I knew that I loved you, and that my love would make you forgive me for deceiving you. You will?”

”I will. But you see there is a greater obstacle than that--or in the thought that you were a thief.”

”You mean my being a movie actress. Are you so prejudiced against the profession?”

”The obstacle is that the clerk of the hotel told me he had read somewhere that Bobbie Burr received a stupendous salary.”

”Well, don't you think she earns it?”

”You see, a poor foreman of a ranch would never have the hardihood to ask a rich girl to marry him; he'd a thousand times rather marry a poor thief.”

”Is that the only obstacle?” she asked.

”It is, and it is unsurmountable.”

He was silent, and in his deep-set eyes she read the resolve he had made.

”That is an obstacle that soon can be vanquished. I am a good spender, and I will soon make way with all I have. I am looking for a good investment.

Mr. Kingdon or Jo or some one told me Westcott's was for sale. You see, we might run it fifty-fifty. I could buy it and you run it.”