w like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!'

"And I should answer,--

"'What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of
man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little
lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and
honor.'

"David or Hamlet, it comes to the same thing. Where are the crowns
now, and how can we say Solomon was not right when he said the end of
it all was vanity? What is Nature, and on what compulsion must we obey
her? The imperative mandates of our own hearts? But what if our hearts
are at war with our heads? Are we to follow no higher law than the
blind instinct that moves the house-fly? Or will we aspire to the
indomitable soul of the mocking-birds that feed their young in
captivity until they see they are prisoners for life, and then bring
them poisonous spiders that they may die rather than live under such
conditions? Shall we give hostages to Nature when she has given
nothing to us?"

She was standing now and speaking with more vehemence than was her
wont. Adam caught her hands, as she flung them out with a gesture full
of scorn.

"Do you really think we have nothing? How many million lovers have
envied Adam and Eve their paradise? This Nature against which you
bring so railing an accusation,--has she taken away more than she has
given us? We had ambitions, you and I, but the way of ambition is full
of weariness and disappointment and bitterness of spirit. We did not
expect peace and comfort and joy, but work and turmoil. Our slates
were set with a sum--"

"Yes, a sum in vulgar fractions," answered Robin.

"Perhaps; it was a sum in which the unknown and unknowable quantity
determined the result. We had seen a good deal of what is called
life,--it is a good name to distinguish it from the death it so much
resembles,--and I am half inclined to think Nature has been merciful."

"But if she was merciful to them," said Robin, quickly, "why were we
omitted?"

"She gave them oblivion, the hereafter, whatever comes hereafter. She
gave us each other. We were going to miss one another in the careers
we had mapped out. We might have lost each other forever, or for aeons
of years. Nothing but a general breaking up of everything would ever
have flung us into each other's arms. We were too much interested in
my career, my vast influence on the political situation, to consider
any existence apart from the setting we had chosen for the play. And,
a