serve we must renounce something."

They locked arms and began to pace the empty room.

"What should I renounce?" asked Palla faintly.

Ilse smiled that wise, wholesome smile of hers:

"Suppose you renounce your own omniscience, darling," she suggested.

"I do not think myself omniscient," retorted the girl, colouring.

"No? Well, darling, from where then do you derive your authority to
cancel the credentials of the Most High?"

"What!"

"On what authority except your own omniscience do you so confidently
preach the non-existence of omnipotence?"

Palla turned her flushed face in sensitive astonishment under the
gentle mockery.

Ilse said: "Love has many names; and so has God. And all are good. If,
to you, God means that little flame within you, then that is good. And
so, to others, according to their needs.... And it is the same with
love.... So, if for the man you love, love can be written only as a
phrase--if the word love be only one element in a trinity of which the
other two are Law and Wedlock--does it really matter, darling?"

"You mean I--I am to renounce my--creed?"

Ilse shook her head: "Who cares? The years develop and change
everything--even creeds. Do you think your lover would care whether,
at twenty-odd, you worship the flaming godhead itself, or whether
you guard in spirit that lost spark from it which has become
entangled with your soul?--whether you really do believe the man-made
law that licenses your mating; or whether you reject it as a silly
superstition? To a business man, convention is merely a safe
procedure which, ignored, causes disaster--he knows that whenever
he ignores it--as when he drives a car bearing no license; and the
police stop him."

"I never expected to hear this from you, Ilse."

"Why?"

"You are unmarried."

"No, Palla."

The girl stared at her: "Did you _marry_ Jack?" she gasped.

"Yes. In the hospital."

"Oh, Ilse!----"

"He asked me."

"But--" her mouth quivered and she bent her head and placed her hand
on Ilse's arm for guidance, because the starting tears were
blinding her now. And at last she found her voice: "I meant I am so
thankful--darling--it's been a--a nightmare----"

"It would have been one to me if I had refused him. Except that Jack
wished it, I did not care.... But I have lately learned--some
things."

"You--you consented because he wished it?"

"Of course. Is not that our law?"

"Do you so construe the Law of Love and Service