ng again; never, never, never! And that is
a false note."

"Why is it?"

"Because it leaves out the common sex-factor; the one that is shared
alike by the _Fidelias_ and the _Joans_ and all the rest of us."

"And that is----"

"Just plain, every-day inconsistency--our dearest heritage from good old
Mother Eve. Being a mere man, you can't understand that, so you neglect
to put it into your women."

"But I can't let that stand," he objected. "You must allow the ideal
some little latitude. _Fidelia_ was not inconsistent, either in striving
with _Fleming_, or in betraying him."

Miss Grierson's perfect shoulders twitched in a little shrug of
impatience.

"Not that time, maybe; with _Fleming_ standing by to tell her that she
must be true to herself at whatever cost to him. But the next time--if
she should happen to fall in love with the gentleman who was breaking
into her father's house-safe...." She laughed in sheer mockery and
misquoted a couplet from Riley for him:

"'There, little boy, don't cry;
I have broken your doll, I know!'"

"Break some more of them if you can," he urged. "A few more casualties
won't make any difference."

"There is only the boy-doll left; and I don't like to break boy-dolls."

"_Fleming_, you mean? I give you leave. Hammer him until he bleeds
sawdust, if the spirit moves you."

Miss Grierson had been curled up like a comfortable kitten in the depths
of a great lounging chair--her favorite attitude while he was reading to
her. But now she sat up and locked her fingers over one knee.

"I said a little while ago that I'd never met _Fleming_, and I haven't.
But I like him, and I'm sorry to see him putting himself in for such a
savage hereafter. He is a good man, like other good men, with the single
difference that he thinks he isn't bound by the traditions. He believes
he can commit what the traditionary people call a crime without paying
the penalties. He can't: nobody can."

Griswold's smile was the superior smile of the writing craftsman. "That
is merely a matter of invention," he asserted. "He can escape the
penalties if he is smart enough."

"You mistake me," she interposed. "I don't mean the physical penalties;
though as to these the old saying that murder will out must have some
foundation in fact. Let that go: we'll suppose him clever enough to make
his escape and to outwit or outfight his enemies. I don't say he
couldn't do it successfully; but I do say that, with