far as was necessary; and beneath his attempts at
self-control she was conscious of a dynamic desire that betrayed
itself in many acts and signs,--as when he brushed against her; and
occasionally when he gave evidence with his subordinates of a certain
shortness of temper unusual with him she experienced a vaguely alarming
but delicious thrill of power. And this, of all men, was the great Mr.
Ditmar! Was she in love with him? That question did not trouble her
either. She continued to experience in his presence waves of antagonism
and attraction, revealing to her depths and possibilities of her nature
that frightened while they fascinated. It never occurred to her to
desist. That craving in her for high adventure was not to be denied.

On summer evenings it had been Ditmar's habit when in Hampton to
stroll about his lawn, from time to time changing the position of
the sprinkler, smoking a cigar, and reflecting pleasantly upon his
existence. His house, as he gazed at it against the whitening sky, was
an eminently satisfactory abode, his wife was dead, his children gave
him no trouble; he felt a glow of paternal pride in his son as the boy
raced up and down the sidewalk on a bicycle; George was manly, large and
strong for his age, and had a domineering way with other boys that gave
Ditmar secret pleasure. Of Amy, who was showing a tendency to stoutness,
and who had inherited her mother's liking for candy and romances, Ditmar
thought scarcely at all: he would glance at her as she lounged, reading,
in a chair on the porch, but she did not come within his range of
problems. He had, in short, everything to make a reasonable man
content, a life nicely compounded of sustenance, pleasure, and
business,--business naturally being the greatest of these. He
was--though he did not know it--ethically and philosophically right
in squaring his morals with his occupation, and his had been the
good fortune to live in a world whose codes and conventions had been
carefully adjusted to the pursuit of that particular brand of happiness
he had made his own. Why, then, in the name of that happiness, of the
peace and sanity and pleasurable effort it had brought him, had he
allowed and even encouraged the advent of a new element that threatened
to destroy the equilibrium achieved? an element refusing to be
classified under the head of property, since it involved something he
desired and could not buy? A woman who was not property, who resisted
the