waiting for him to say something. He tiptoed away and went to his
room to write down some ideas. Against the wide challenge of that
blue hemisphere, where half the world lay open and free to the
eye, the Bishop's prohibition lost weight. He was resolved to
preach a sermon.

At dusk he met Miss Airedale on the high balcony that runs around
the reading-room of the hotel. They were quite alone up there.
Along the Boardwalk, in the pale sentimental twilight, the
translucent electric globes shone like a long string of pearls.
She was very tempting in a gay evening frock, and reproached him
for having neglected her. She shivered a little in the cool wind
coming off the darkening water. The weakness of the hour was upon
him. He put his arm tenderly round her as they leaned over the
parapet.

"See those darling children down on the sand," she said. "I do
adore puppies, don't you?"

He remembered Groups, Bunks, and Yelpers. Nothing is so potent as
the love of children when you are away from them. She gazed
languishing at him; he responded with a generous pressure. But
his alarmed soul thrilled with panic.

"You must excuse me a moment, while I dress for dinner," he said.
He was strangely terrified by the look of secret understanding in
her beautiful eyes. It seemed to imply some subtle, inexpressible
pact. As a matter of truth, she was unconscious of it: it was
only the old demiurge speaking in her; the old demiurge which was
pursuing him just as ardently as he was trailing the dissolving