ys--racial customs--as to whether one is or is
not immoral.

"Ethics apply to the Greek _Ethos_; morals to the Latin _Mores_--_moeurs_
in French, _sitte_ in German, _custom_ in English;--and all mean
practically the same thing--metaphysical hair-splitters to the
contrary--which is simply this: all beliefs are local, and local
customs or morals are the result. Therefore, they don't worry me."

Palla sat with her troubled eyes on the careless, garrulous,
half-smiling Russian girl, and trying to follow with an immature mind
the half-baked philosophy offered for her consumption.

She said hesitatingly, almost shyly: "I've wondered a little, Marya,
how it ever happened that such an institution as marriage became
practically universal----"

"Marriage isn't an institution," exclaimed Marya smilingly. "The
family, which existed long before marriage, is the institution,
because it has a definite structure which marriage hasn't.

"Marriage always has been merely a locally varying mode of sex
association. No laws can control it. Local rules merely try to
regulate the various manners of entering into a marital state, the
obligations and personal rights of the sexes involved. What really
controls two people who have entered into such a relation is local
opinion----"

She snapped her fingers and tossed aside her cigarette: "You and I
happen to be, locally, in the minority with our opinions, that's
all."

Palla rose and walked slowly to the door. "Have you seen Jim
recently?" she managed to say carelessly.

Marya waited for her to turn before replying: "Haven't _you_ seen
him?" she asked with the leisurely malice of certainty.

"No, not for a long while," replied Palla, facing with a painful flush
this miserable crisis to which her candour had finally committed her.
"We had a little difference.... Have you seen him lately?"

Marya's sympathy flickered swift as a dagger:

"What a shame for him to behave so childishly!" she cried. "I shall
scold him soundly. He's like an infant--that boy--the way he sulks if
you deny him anything--" She checked herself, laughed in a confused
way which confessed and defied.

Palla's fixed smile was still stamped on her rigid lips as she made
her adieux. Then she went out with death in her heart.

* * * * *

At the Red Cross his mother exchanged a few words with her at
intervals, as usual, during the seance.

The conversation drifted toward the