as close to weeping. Then you came on the scene,--you
know what you did,--and the sorrow for her bred an indignation against
you, and--well, I worked myself into a nervous condition such as I had
never experienced in my life. It was hysteria, I suppose. Anyway, I
was not myself."

"We were neither of us ourselves."

"Now you are untrue. I did wrong, but you were yourself, as much so
then as now. But do be seated. Here we stand as though you were ready
to run away at first sign of another outbreak."

"Surely you are not so terrible!" he laughed, adroitly pulling his
chair into position so that the light fell upon her face.

"Rather, you are not such a coward. I must have been terrible
yesterday. I--I almost struck you. And you were certainly brave when
the whip hung over you. Why, you did not even attempt to raise a hand
and shield yourself."

"I notice the dogs your whip falls among come nevertheless to lick your
hand and to be petted."

"Ergo?" she queried, audaciously.

"Ergo, it all depends," he equivocated.

"And, notwithstanding, I am forgiven?"

"As I hope to be forgiven."

"Then I am glad--only, you have done nothing to be forgiven for. You
acted according to your light, and I to mine, though it must be
acknowledged that mine casts the broader flare. Ah! I have it,"
clapping her hands in delight, "I was not angry with you yesterday; nor
did I behave rudely to you, or even threaten you. It was utterly
impersonal, the whole of it. You simply stood for society, for the
type which aroused my indignation and anger; and, as its
representative, you bore the brunt of it. Don't you see?"

"I see, and cleverly put; only, while you escape the charge of
maltreating me yesterday; you throw yourself open to it to-day. You
make me out all that is narrow-minded and mean and despicable, which is
very unjust. Only a few minutes past I said that your way of looking
at it, theoretically considered, was irreproachable. But not so when
we include society."

"But you misunderstand me, Vance. Listen." Her hand went out to his,
and he was content to listen. "I have always upheld that what is is
well. I grant the wisdom of the prevailing social judgment in this
matter. Though I deplore it, I grant it; for the human is so made.
But I grant it socially only. I, as an individual, choose to regard
such things differently. And as between individuals so minded, why
should it not be so regarded? Don't y