cial consciousness. Take my
father. He thinks the submerged are lost because they are thriftless and
that all would be right if they wouldn't drink. To him they are just a
waste product of civilization.

"But can you study the life of the people without growing discontented
with the life you must lead?"

"There is a divine discontent, you know. I've got to see things for
myself. Why should all my opinions, my faith, be given to me ready-made.
Why must I live by a formula I have never examined? If it isn't true
I want to know it. And if it is true I want to know it." She had been
looking straight before them toward the rising sun but now her gaze
swept round on him. "Don't blame yourself for giving me new thoughts. I
suppose all new ideas are likely to make trouble. But I've been working
in this direction for years. Ever since I've been a little girl my
heresies have puzzled my father. Meeting you has shown me a short cut.
That's all."

Something she had said recalled to him a fugitive memory.

"Do you know, I think I saw you once when you were a little bit of a
thing?"

"Where?"

"On the doorstep of your old place. I was rather busy at the time
fighting Edward Merrill."

She stopped, looking at him in surprise. "Were you that boy?"

"I was that boy."

"You fought him to help a little ragged girl. She was a foreigner."

"I've forgotten why I fought him. The reason I remember the occasion is
that I met then for the first time two of my friends."

She claimed a place immediately. "Who was the other one?"

"Captain Chunn."

Presently she bubbled into a little laugh. "How did the fight come out?
My nurse dragged me into the house."

"Don't remember. I know the school principal licked me next day. I had
been playing hookey."

They made another turn of the deck before she spoke again.

"So we're old acquaintances, and I didn't know it. That was nearly
eighteen years ago. Isn't it strange that after so long we should meet
again only last week?"

Jeff felt the blood creep into his face. "We met once before, Miss
Frome."

"Oh, on the street. I meant to speak."

"So did I."

"When?"

With his eyes meeting hers steadily Jeff told her of the time she had
found him in the bushes and mistaken him for a sick man. He could see
that he had struck her dumb. She looked at him and looked away again.

"Why do you tell me this?" she asked at last in a low voice.

"It's only fair you should know the truth about