iful this
evening. The sky was not that pure gold which it had been every night
during this last week; there was a touch of rose in it, and this
extended across the entire vault so far as he could see from west to
east. He reflected on what he had lately read in an old book to the
effect that the abolition of smoke had certainly changed evening colours
for the worse.... There had been a couple of severe earthquakes, too, in
America--he wondered whether there was any connection.... Then his
thoughts flew back to Mabel....

It was about ten minutes before he heard her footstep on the stairs, and
as he stood up she came in.

There was something in her face that told him that she knew everything,
and his heart sickened at her pale rigidity. There was no fury
there--nothing but white, hopeless despair, and an immense
determination. Her lips showed a straight line, and her eyes, beneath
her white summer hat, seemed contracted to pinpricks. She stood there,
closing the door mechanically behind her, and made no further movement
towards him.

"Is it true?" she said.

Oliver drew one steady breath, and sat down again.

"Is what true, my dear?"

"Is it true," she said again, "that all are to be questioned as to
whether they believe in God, and to be killed if they confess it?"

Oliver licked his dry lips.

"You put it very harshly," he said. "The question is, whether the world
has a right---"

She made a sharp movement with her head.

"It is true then. And you signed it?"

"My dear, I beg you not to make a scene. I am tired out. And I will not
answer that until you have heard what I have to say."

"Say it, then."

"Sit down, then."

She shook her head.

"Very well, then.... Well, this is the point. The world is one now, not
many. Individualism is dead. It died when Felsenburgh became President
of the World. You surely see that absolutely new conditions prevail
now--there has never been anything like it before. You know all this as
well as I do."

Again came that jerk of impatience.

"You will please to hear me out," he said wearily. "Well, now that this
has happened, there is a new morality; it is exactly like a child coming
to the age of reason. We are obliged, therefore, to see that this
continues--that there is no going back--no mortification--that all the
limbs are in good health. 'If thy hand offend thee, cut it off,' said
Jesus Christ. Well, that is what we say.... Now, for any one to say that
they b