m all. Miss Du Prel,
he added, had already made up her mind to go abroad, and he hoped to
come across her somewhere in Italy. She had given him all news. He
looked anxiously at Hadria. The flush had left her face now, and the
altered lines were but too obvious.

"You ought to have change too," he said, "you are not looking well."

She laughed nervously. "Oh, I am all right."

"Let's sit down a moment, if you were not discussing anything very
important----"

"Indeed, we were, my dear Fortescue," said Professor Theobald, drawing
his colleague on to the seat, "and your clear head would throw much
light on the philosophy of the question."

"Oh, a question of abstract philosophy," said Professor Fortescue. "Are
you disagreeing?"

"Not exactly. The question that turned up, in the course of discussion,
was this: If a man stands in a position which is itself the result of an
aggression upon his liberty and his human rights, is he in honour bound
to abide by the laws which are laid down to coerce him?"

"Obviously not," replied Professor Fortescue.

"Is he morally justified in using every means he can lay hold of to
overcome the peculiar difficulties under which he has been tyrannously
placed?"

"Not merely justified, but I should say he was a poor fool if he
refrained from doing so."

"That is exactly what _I_ say."

"Surely Mrs. Temperley does not demur?"

"No; I quite agree as to the _right_. I only say that the means which
the situation may make necessary are sometimes very hateful."

"Ah, that is among the cruelest of the victim's wrongs," said Professor
Fortescue. "He is reduced to employ artifices that he would despise,
were he a free agent. Take a crude instance: a man is overpowered by a
band of brigands. Surely he is justified in deceiving those gentlemen of
the road, and in telling and acting lies without scruple."

"The parallel is exact," said Theobald, with a triumphant glance at
Hadria.

"Honour departs where force comes in. No man is bound in honour to his
captor, though his captor will naturally try to persuade his prisoner to
regard himself as so bound. And few would be our oppressions, if that
persuasion did not generally succeed!"

"The relations of women to society for instance----" began Theobald.

"Ah, exactly. The success of that device may be said to constitute the
history of womanhood. Take my brigand instance and write it large, and
you have the whole case in a nutshell."

"Then