your favor; but custom is stronger than law--in
these matters custom IS law. It was a great pity
that your father did not make a will. Well, my
boy, I wish you continued good luck; I imagined
you would make your way."

Warwick went away, and the old judge sat for
a moment absorbed in reflection. "Right and
wrong," he mused, "must be eternal verities, but
our standards for measuring them vary with our
latitude and our epoch. We make our customs
lightly; once made, like our sins, they grip us in
bands of steel; we become the creatures of our
creations. By one standard my old office-boy
should never have been born. Yet he is a son of
Adam, and came into existence in the way ordained
by God from the beginning of the world.
In equity he would seem to be entitled to his
chance in life; it might have been wiser, though,
for him to seek it farther afield than South
Carolina. It was too near home, even though the laws
were with him."



IV

DOWN THE RIVER