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have ever been in danger of doing. I have not led a dangerous life—that’s all the difference, perhaps. I have had shelter.’

‘If I pretend to get angry with you, it’s only because you are so dear to me,’ said Ingpen. ‘And I want if possible to get some comfort out of you before we part. It’s a little comfort to know that you mind parting, almost as much as I do.—But I’m really not being personal. I wasn’t that day—in spite of the other side of it;—that was the difference, with you; one reached something else.—And we did agree that the only real thing was suffering; that all the rest was youth and froth and illusion; that all the rest fades. We did agree, I am sure of it, that the sort of happiness that Hester and her friends believed in is a sheer will-o’-the-wisp. Happiness for the race, you know, when we have got rid of our greed and cruelty and become hygienic and rational and orderly.’

‘Yes; but it’s worth while to get rid of greed and cruelty if we can. I know what they mean. I admire it.’

‘You never will get rid of them; they are life; part of life. You will get them in more surreptitious forms; that’s all. We shall go on devouring each other—because life can only maintain itself so;