the limb of the tree
and when she wouldn't give it to him he pushed her off. She was almost
killed and was crippled for life. But nobody, except him and her and
me, has ever known that it was not an accident. He surrendered to
selfishness and cowardice and for the first time in his life denied
his conscience. That was the beginning of me, and of all that has
happened since."

Dr. Annister was leaning forward, almost out of his chair, and so
intense was the interest with which he was listening that his pale
face was alight and its lines of anxiety and fatigue smoothed out.

"I see!" he exclaimed eagerly. "I begin to understand how it was. The
shock, the struggle within himself and the revulsion of his conscience
from the victory won by the worse side of his nature started up a new
center, or threw off a new nebula, of consciousness--we can only
vaguely guess at the process. It proved strong enough to form within
his brain the embryo of another individuality.

"I have thought sometimes--" the doctor stopped for a moment, his
attention turning inwards again, while his elbows sought the arms of
the chair and his finger-tips came together. "I am beginning to
believe," he went on, his gaze fixed high up on the wall, "that even
in apparently normal human beings there may exist two or more of these
nebulae of consciousness in process of formation, but bound up so
closely with the dominating consciousness that they never quite
separate themselves. The case never becomes that of complete dual
personality, although such a person may have within himself two widely
different sets of ideals and principles of living.

"Strangely enough, these cases seem always to be evolved out of the
person's attitude toward the ethical problems of life. There, for
instance, are the officers of powerful corporations who may be
rapacious, ruthless, brutal, criminal, in their business methods, but
in private life the kindest, most sympathetic and generous of men.
Yes, I am beginning to think it may be that such men have set going
within themselves some such physiological and psychological process as
this which has nearly overwhelmed Felix Brand.

"Who can tell what a few more years of investigation and study of this
problem will give us!" The finger-tips were rhythmically tapping and
the physician's face was alight with interest, although he seemed for
the moment to have forgotten his companion. "Perhaps in another
generation or two we shall hav