"Lust only," he answered, "and there is no shame to which Woman cannot
drag Man. Love and there is nothing possible but what is manly and true."

As he spoke, along the terraced path below them came Nellie, advancing
towards them with her free swinging walk and tall lissom figure,
noticeable even at a distance among the Sunday promenaders.

"See?" said Geisner, smiling, laying his hand on Ned's arm. "This is
Paradise and there comes Eve."

PART II. HE KNEW HIMSELF NAKED.

In yesterday's reach and to-morrow's,
Out of sight though they lie of to-day,
There have been and there yet shall be sorrows
That smite not and bite not in play.

The life and the love thou despisest,
These hurt us indeed and in vain,
O wise among women, and, wisest,
Our Lady of Pain.--SWINBURNE.

CHAPTER I.

THE SLAUGHTER OF AN INNOCENT.

Mrs. Hobb's baby was dying.

"It had clung to its little life so long, in the close Sydney streets, in
the stuffy, stifling rooms which were its home; it had battled so
bravely; it was being vanquished at last.

"The flame of its life had flickered from its birth, had shrunk to a
bluish wreathing many a time, had never once leapt upward in a strong red
blaze. Again and again it had lain at its mother's breast, half-dead;
again and again upon its baby face Death had laid the tips of its
pinching fingers; again and again it had struggled moaning from the verge
of the grave and beaten Lack the grim Destroyer by the patient filling of
its tiny lungs. It wanted so to live, all unconsciously. The instinct to
exist bore it up and with more than Spartan courage stood for it time and
again in the well-nigh carried breach. Now, it was over, the battling,
the struggling. Death loitered by the way but the fight was done.

"The poor little baby! Poor unknown soldier! Poor unaided heroic life
that was spent at last! There were none to help it, not one. In all the
world, in all the universe, there was none to give it the air it craved,
the food it needed, the living that its baby-soul faded for not having.
It had fought its fight alone. It lay dying now, unhelped and helpless,
forsaken and betrayed."

* * * * *

So thought Nellie, sitting there beside it, her head thrown back, over
her eyes her hands clasped, down her cheeks the tears of passionate pity
streaming.

* * * * *

"What had its mother done for it? The best she could, indeed, but what
was that? The worst she could when she gave it life