life that remained to him. The bottle, with its impotent message,
was gone out to sea, and the problem that it had provoked was reduced
to a simple sum in addition--one and one make two, by the rule of
arithmetic; one by the rule of romance.

There is a quaint old theory that man may have two souls--a
peripheral one which serves ordinarily, and a central one which
is stirred only at certain times, but then with activity and vigor.
While under the domination of the former a man will shave, vote, pay
taxes, give money to his family, buy subscription books and comport
himself on the average plan. But let the central soul suddenly
become dominant, and he may, in the twinkling of an eye, turn upon
the partner of his joys with furious execration; he may change his
politics while you could snap your fingers; he may deal out deadly
insult to his dearest friend; he may get him, instanter, to a
monastery or a dance hall; he may elope, or hang himself--or he may
write a song or poem, or kiss his wife unasked, or give his funds
to the search of a microbe. Then the peripheral soul will return;
and we have our safe, sane citizen again. It is but the revolt of
the Ego against Order; and its effect is to shake up the atoms only
that they may settle where they belong.

Geddie's revulsion had been a mild one--no more than a swim in
a summer sea after so inglorious an object as a drifting bottle.
And now he was himself again. Upon his desk, ready for the post,
was a letter to his government tendering his resignation as consul,
to be effective as soon as another could be appointed in his place.
For Bernard Brannigan, who never did things in a half-way manner,
was to take Geddie at once for a partner in his very profitable
and various enterprises; and Paula was happily engaged in plans for