"Oh, you are morbid then. Is there anybody ever born who has not a fight
on his hands?"

"No; only I have known men tired out, unfairly, before life had declared
war on them."

"Just what do you mean?"

"Oh, something about fair play--what our popular idol summarises as a
'square deal'." He laughed again, easily, his face clearing.

"Nobody worth a square deal ever laments because he hasn't had it," she
said.

"I dare say that's true, too," he admitted listlessly.

"Mr. Siward, exactly what did you mean?"

"I was thinking of men I knew; for example a man who through generations
has inherited every impulse and desire that he should not harbour--a man
with intellect enough to be aware of it, with decency enough to desire
decency. . What chance has he with the storms which have been brewing
for him even before he opened his eyes on earth? Is that a square deal?"

The troubled concentration of her face was reflected now in his own; the
wind came whipping and flicking at them from league-wide tossing wastes;
the steady thunder of the sea accented the silence.

She said: "I suppose everybody has infinite capacity for decency or
mischief. I know that I have. And I fancy that this capacity always