ok oath
before man and higher than man--"

The woman interrupted him shortly.

"Another took oath with me and broke it." She leaned gracefully
forward in the big chair until their eyes met. "I'm no longer bound."

"But I--"

"I love you!" she interjected.

The man's eyebrows lifted.

"Love?" he inflected.

"Yes, love. What is love but good friendship--and sex?"

The man was silent.

A strong white hand slid under the woman's chin and her elbow met the
desk.

"I meant what you thought," she completed slowly.

"But I cannot--"

"Why?"

"It destroys all my ideas of things. Your promise to another--"

"I say he's broken his promise to me."

"But your being a woman--"

"Why do you expect more of me because I'm a woman? Haven't I feelings,
rights, as well as you who are a man?" She waited until he looked up.
"I ask you again, won't you come?"

The man arose and walked slowly back and forth across the narrow room.
At length he stopped by her chair.

"I cannot."

In swift motion his companion stood up facing him.

"Don't you wish to?" she challenged.

The hand of the man dropped in outward motion of deprecation.

"The question is useless. I'm human."

"Why shouldn't we do what pleases us, then?" The voice was insistent.
"What is life for if not for pleasure?"

"Would it be pleasure, though? Wouldn't the future hold for us more
of pain than of pleasure?"

"No, never." The words came with a slowness that meant finality. "Why
need to-morrow or a year from now be different from to-day unless we
make it so?"

"But it would change unconsciously. We'd think and hate ourselves."

"For what reason? Isn't it Nature that attracts us to each other and
can Nature be wrong?"

"We can't always depend upon Nature," commented the man absently.

"That's an artificial argument, and you know it." A reprimand was in
her voice. "If you can't depend upon Nature to tell you what is right,
what other authority can you consult?"

"But Nature has been perverted," he evaded.

"Isn't it possible your judgment instead is at fault?"

"It can't be at fault, here." The voice was neutral as before.
"Something tells us both it would be wrong--to do--as we want to
do."

Once more they sat down facing each other, the desk between them as at
first.

"Artificial convention, I tell you again." In motion graceful as
nature the woman extended her hand, palm upward, on the polished desk
top. "How could we be other than ri