of the world. She forgot her vital hatred
of the South Seas; she forgot that McClintock's would not differ a
jot from the old island she had for ever left behind her; she
forgot all the doctor's lessons and warnings.

She would marry him. Because of the thought of love and
companionship? No. Because here was the haven for which she had
been blindly groping: the positive abolition of all her father's
rights in her--the right to drag her back. The annihilation of the
Terror which fascinated her and troubled her dreams o' nights.

"You want me, then?" she said.

"Oh, yes!--for always!"

He took her hands and pressed them upon his thrumming heart; and in
this attitude they remained for some time.

Something forbade him to draw her toward him and seal the compact
with a kiss. Down under the incalculable selfishness of the
penitent child there was the man's uneasy recollection of Judas. He
could not kiss Ruth.

CHAPTER XVII

After the Ten Commandments have been spoken, conscience becomes
less something inherent than something acquired. It is now a point
of view, differing widely, as the ignorant man differs from the
educated. You and I will agree upon the Ten Commandments; but
perhaps we will refuse to accept the other's interpretation of the
ramifications. I step on my neighbour's feet, return and apologize
because my acquired conscience orders me to do so; whereas you
might pass on without caring if your neighbour hopped about on one
foot. The inherent conscience keeps most of us away from jail, from
court, from the gallows; the acquired conscience helps us to
preserve the little amenities of daily life. So then, the acquired
is the livelier phase, being driven into action daily; whereas the
inherent may lie dormant for months, even years.

To Spurlock, in this hour, his conscience stood over against the
Ten Commandments, one of which he had broken. He became primitive,
literal in his conception; the ramifications were, for the nonce,
fairly relegated to limbo. He could not kiss Ruth because the
acquired conscience--struggling on its way to limbo--made the idea
repellant. Analysis would come later, when the primitive
conscience, satisfied, would cease to dominate his thought and
action.

Since morning he had become fanatical; the atoms of common sense no
longer functioned in the accustomed groove. And yet he knew clearly
and definitely what he purposed to do, what the future would be.
This species of mad