re
materialists naturally, and that the soil from which the grape came is
the soil that's in us; that it is the body feeding on itself all the
time; that like returns to like, and we live a little together, and
then mould together for ever and ever, amen. If it isn't a natural
craving--like to like--it's a proof of immortality, for it represents
the wild wish to forget the world, to be in another medium.

"I am only myself when I am drunk. Liquor makes me human. At other times
I'm merely Charley Steele! Now isn't it funny, this sort of talk here?"

"I don't know about that," she answered, "if, as you say, it's natural.
This tavern's the only place I have to think in, and what seems to you
funny is a sort of ordinary fact to me."

"Right again, ma belle Suzon. Nothing's incongruous. I've never felt so
much like singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs as when I've been
drinking. I remember the last time I was squiffy I sang all the way home
that old nursery hymn:

"'On the other side of Jordan,
In the sweet fields of Eden,
Where the tree of life is blooming,
There is rest for you.
There is rest for the weary,
There is rest for the weary,
There is rest for the weary,
There is rest for you!'"

"I should have liked to hear you sing it--sure!" said Suzon, laughing.

Charley tossed off a quarter-tumbler of brandy, which, instead of
flushing the face, seemed only to deepen the whiteness of the skin,
showing up more brightly the spots of colour in the cheeks, that white
and red which had made him known as Beauty Steele. With a whimsical
humour, behind which was the natural disposition of the man to do
what he listed without thinking of the consequences, he suddenly began
singing, in a voice shaken a little now by drink, but full of a curious
magnetism:

"On the other side of Jordan--"

"Oh, don't; please don't!" said the girl, in fear, for she saw two
river-drivers entering the door, one of whom had sworn he would do for
Charley Steele if ever he crossed his path.

"Oh, don't--M'sieu' Charley!" she again urged. The "Charley" caught his
ear, and the daring in his eye brightened still more. He was ready
for any change or chance to-night, was standing on the verge of any
adventure, the most reckless soul in Christendom.

"On the other side of Jordan,
In the sweet fields of Eden,
Where the