he priest or layman, if he looks upon the joys of physical love as
base and his succumbing to them a proof of the power of the beast
in himself. Because he then lives under continual degradation of
soul by acting against his conscience."

Mr. Medlicott was now silent, almost choking with perturbation. So
Count Roumovski went on:

"The wise man faces the facts of nature. Looks straight to find
God's meaning in them, and then tries to exalt and ennoble them to
their loftiest good. He does not, in his puny impotence, quarrel
with the all-powerful Creator and try to stamp out that with which
He thought fit to endow human beings."

"Your words convey a flagrant denial of original sin, and I cannot
listen to such an argument," Mr. Medlicott flashed, his anger now
at white heat. "You would do away with a whole principle of the
Christian religion."

"No; I would only do away with a faulty interpretation which man
grafted upon it," Count Roumovski answered.

Then the two men glared straight into each other's eyes for a
moment, and Eustace Medlicott quailed beneath the magnetic force
of the Russian's blue ones--he turned away abruptly. He was too
intolerant of character and too disturbed now to permit himself to
hear more of these reasonings. He could but resort to protest and
let his wrath rise to assist him.

"It cannot benefit either Miss Rawson or ourselves to continue