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How curiously had his face altered, how shadowy it had grown, effacing the charht amusement hich she had becorew to an interest tinged with curiosity

The interest continued, but when his silence became irksome to her she said so very frankly His absent eyes, still clouded,

"I hate the sea," he said

"You--hate it!" she repeated, too incredulous to be disappointed

"There's no rest in it; it tires A uard every second To spend a lifetiainst perpetual, brutal, inaniht--a ceaseless huainst senseless menace; and then the counter attack of the lifelessadvance, the shock--and no battle won--nothing final, nothing settled, no! only the sahtmare of surveillance, the same sleepless watch for stupid treachery"

"But--you don't have to fight it!" she said, astonished

"No; but it is no secret--what it does to those who do … Soets them That is the way some of us reach Heaven; we die too quick for the Enemy to catch us"

He was laughing when she said: "It is not a fight with the sea; it is the battle of Life itself you mean"

"Yes, in a way, the battle of Life"

"Oh, you are ht on his hands?"

"No; only I have known men tired out, unfairly, before life had declared war on the about fair play--what our popular idol suain, easily, his face clearing

"Nobody worth a square deal ever laments because he hasn't had it," she said

"I dare say that's true, too," he admitted listlessly

"Mr Siward, exactly what did youof enerations has inherited every impulse and desire that he should not harbour--a h to be aware of it, with decency enough to desire decency … What chance has he with the stor for him even before he opened his eyes on earth? Is that a square deal?"

The troubled concentration of her face was reflected now in his own; the wind ca wastes; the steady thunder of the sea accented the silence

She said: "I suppose everybody has infinite capacity for decency or mischief I know that I have And I fancy that this capacity always remains, no matter how moral one's life uilty alone, Mr Siward"