he pier or in the narrow streets of the town. His
smile, his voice, his face, his showy dress and hectoring manner,
all fed in Liot's heart that bitter hatred which springs from a
sense of being personally held in contempt; he felt, also, that
even among his fellow-townsmen he was belittled and injured by
this plausible, handsome stranger. For Bele said very much what it
pleased him to say, covering his insolences with a laugh and with
a jovial, jocular air, that made resentment seem ridiculous. Bele
was also a gift-giver, and for every woman, old or young, he had a
compliment or a ribbon.

If Liot had been less human, if he had come from a more mixed race,
if his feelings had been educated down and toned to the level of
modern culture, he could possibly have looked forward to Uphellya
night, and found in the joy and triumph that Karen would then give
him a sufficient set-off to all Bele's injuries and impertinences.
But he was not made thus; his very blood came to him through the
hearts of vikings and berserkers, and as long as one drop of this
fierce stream remained in his veins, moments were sure to come in
the which it would render all the tide of life insurgent.

It is true Liot was a Christian and a good man; but it must be noted,
in order to do him full justice, that the form of Christianity
which was finally and passionately accepted by his race was that
of ultra-Calvinism; it spoke to their inherited tendencies as no
other creed could have done. This uncompromising theology, with its
God of vengeance and inflexible justice, was understood by men
who considered a blood-feud of centuries a duty never to be
neglected; and as for the doctrine of a special election, with
all its tremendous possibilities of damnation, they were not
disposed to object to it. Indeed, they were such good haters that
Tophet and everlasting enmity were the bane and doom they would have
unhesitatingly chosen for their enemies. This grim theology Liot
sucked in with his mother's milk, and both by inheritance and by a
strong personal faith he was a child of God after the order of John
Calvin.

Therefore he constantly brought his enemy to the ultimate and
immutable tribunal of his faith, and just as constantly condemned
him there. Nothing was surer in Liot's mind than that Bele Trenby
was the child of the Evil One and an inheritor of the kingdom of
wrath; for Bele did the works of his father every day, and every
hour of the day, and Liot