s, has opened up to me the way to a new life,
a life all my own. It was almost like a physical sensation to realise
that the Mayor's verdict decided my case, too."

He described Garry and told how, despite the opposition in their views,
the descendant of Cromwell's followers, whom Charles I persecuted and
executed, had impressed him and made him think. Undoubtedly his harsh,
severe dealings had been dictated by purely humanitarian sentiment for
Ingigerd's welfare, because of the frailty of her body and still more the
frailty of her soul, all in accordance with the narrow-minded principles
of a traditional belief, of which he was a credulous follower. As for
Lilienfeld, did not victory in the struggle to possess Ingigerd body and
soul mean money to him?

"Garry may really have been a hypocrite, yet wasn't Lilienfeld a
hypocrite, too, when he spoke openly of Ingigerd Hahlstroem's honour and
chastity? I looked up in alarm, and I saw a grin glide like a malicious
shadow over the rows of reporters. Doesn't falsehood blossom everywhere?
Doesn't hypocrisy flourish equally on each side of every contest? Isn't
it a matter generally taken for granted?"

Frederick, as always, was feeling very comfortable in Miss Burns's
company. Her presence always gave him, spiritually speaking, a sense of
neatness and order. A man could tell her everything, and her replies
straightened things out, instead of muddling them, steadied things and
gave them a mooring, instead of tossing them about tempestuously. But he
was not so well satisfied by her manner as usually, she not seeming
sufficiently pleased with his release. He did not know whether he should
attribute this to lack of sympathy or to secret doubts.

"I came to you, Miss Burns, because I do not know anybody to whom I would
rather speak of this new phase of my life. Tell me frankly, was I right
in doing what I did, and do you understand how a man feels when he is no
longer in the chains of a senseless passion?"

"Perhaps I do," said Miss Burns, "but"--

"But what?"

Miss Burns did not reply.

"What you mean is, you cannot be certain of the convalescence of a man
like myself. But I assure you, I will never sit in an audience watching
that girl publicly expose her body. Still less likely am I to follow her
to the four corners of the globe, through all the music-halls in the
world. I am rid of her! I am free! I will prove to you that I am."

"If you were to prove it to yourself, it