eaten the fruit of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil."

"I hope you have," Bertram answered, in a very solemn voice; "for,
Frida, you will need it." He pressed her close against his breast; and
Frida Monteith, a free woman at last, clung there many minutes with no
vile inherited sense of shame or wrongfulness. "I can't bear to go,"
she cried, still clinging to him and clutching him tight. "I'm so happy
here, Bertram; oh, so happy, so happy!"

"Then why go away at all?" Bertram asked, quite simply.

Frida drew back in horror. "Oh, I must," she said, coming to herself: "I
must, of course, because of Robert."

Bertram held her hand, smoothing it all the while with his own, as he
mused and hesitated. "Well, it's clearly wrong to go back," he said,
after a moment's pause. "You ought never, of course, to spend another
night with that man you don't love and should never have lived with. But
I suppose that's only a counsel of perfection: too hard a saying for
you to understand or follow for the present. You'd better go back, just
to-night: and, as time moves on, I can arrange something else for you.
But when shall I see you again?--for now you belong to me. I sealed you
with that kiss. When will you come and see me?"

"I can't come here, you know," Frida whispered, half-terrified; "for if
I did, Miss Blake would see me."

Bertram smiled a bitter smile to himself. "So she would," he said,
musing. "And though she's not the least interested in keeping up Robert
Monteith's proprietary claim on your life and freedom, I'm beginning to
understand now that it would be an offence against that mysterious and
incomprehensible entity they call RESPECTABILITY if she were to allow
me to receive you in her rooms. It's all very curious. But, of course,
while I remain, I must be content to submit to it. By-and-by, perhaps,
Frida, we two may manage to escape together from this iron generation.
Meanwhile, I shall go up to London less often for the present, and you
can come and meet me, dear, in the Middle Mill Fields at two o'clock on
Monday."

She gazed up at him with perfect trust in those luminous dark eyes of
hers. "I will, Bertram," she said firmly. She knew not herself what his
kiss had done for her; but one thing she knew: from the moment their
lips met, she had felt and understood in a flood of vision that perfect
love which casteth out fear, and was no longer afraid of him.

"That's right, darling," the man answered, stoopi