at he did not feel called upon to combat, his
protecting love for her which was always considerate but never
obsequious, which was unrestraining yet restrained her in the end.
Against his cynical stoicism the waves of her childish rage beat
themselves to calm, or, hurt and wounded, she wept out her childish
sorrows in his comforting arms. The protecting value of it she did not
know, but in Zephyr, and that was the only name by which she knew him,
was the only untrammelled outlet for every passion of her childish as
well as for her maturing soul.

Zephyr alone would have thwarted Morrison's designs on Elise. But
Morrison despised Zephyr, even though he feared him. Zephyr in a neutral
way had preserved Elise from herself and from her surroundings. Neutral,
because his efforts were conserving, not developmental. Neutral, for,
while he could keep her feet from straying in paths of destruction, he
had through ignorance been unable to guide them in ways that led to a
higher life.

This mission had been left to Firmstone. Not that Zephyr's work had been
less important, for the hand that fallows ground performs as high a
mission as the hand that sows the chosen seed. Unconsciously at first,
Firmstone had opened the eyes of Elise to vistas, to possibilities which
hitherto had been undreamed of. It mattered little that as yet she saw
men as trees, the great and saving fact remained, her eyes were opened
and she saw.

Morrison's eyes were also opened. He saw first the growing influence of
Firmstone and later the association of Elise with Miss Hartwell. He
could not see that Elise, with the influence of Firmstone, was an
impossibility to him. Like a venomous serpent that strikes blindly at
the club and not at the man who wields it, Morrison concentrated the
full strength of his rage against Firmstone.

Perhaps no characterisation of Elise could be stronger than the bald
statement that as yet she was entirely oblivious of self. The opening
vistas of a broader, higher life were too absorbing, too intoxicating in
themselves, to permit the intrusion of the disturbing element of
personality. Her eager absorption of the minutest detail, her keen
perception of the slightest discordant note, pleased Miss Hartwell as
much as it delighted Firmstone.

Elise was as spontaneous and unreserved with the latter as with the
former. She preferred Firmstone's company because with him was an
unconscious personality that met her own on even terms