“Oh, I had forgotten you did not know that Karl has to exert many times the force in unsettled weather that he requires when the sky is clear. Hooper, he may not live days, let alone weeks.” I quailed before the American’s warning glance, and ceased speaking. The waiter was glad to close the door on us, I am sure. Hooper led me to a chair. “Sit down, partner,” he said. “I have been trying to theorize. A certain Greek gentleman named Empedocles, dated 500 B.C., believed that he had solved the puzzle of life when he defined the love and hatred of the elements. I think we have reached his track. But you know the kind of elements we have to deal with, and I do not. Discourse to me of Karl, and Maggie, and--is there another woman?” “There is,” I said. “Bully for me!” he cried delightedly. “The eternal feminine would have the shortest life on record if there weren’t two of ’em. Now, let’s have the whole yarn. I am a good listener.” So I told him everything, fact and fancy, until my voice gave out, and we were amazed to find I had been talking for nearly three hours. It was long past midnight when I noticed the clock. “Let us to bed,” I wheezed. “We must consult in the morning.” He, in his turn, looked out at the weather. “It has ceased raining and the stars are visible,” he said. “Thank goodness for that! Karl will experience some relief.” “I think not. If he and the rest of us are not qualifying for an asylum by believing the truth of what you have told me, don’t you see that the strain is cumulative? He cannot, I may almost say he dare not, sleep. He is deliberately sacrificing himself to save those women. He thinks, and we agree with him, that his death will snap the tension. They will grieve over his loss, no doubt, but their tears will be a measure of salvation. I tell you, my friend, we are up against a hard proposition. Were it not utterly selfish, I could almost wish you had left me in Paris.” “I was tempted to share the responsibility with some one whom I could trust.” “Yes, I see that. And don’t think I would shirk my duty to a comrade like Karl. Yet, I fear for him. Something must be done, and done quickly, if we would rescue him. Oh, if only I knew more of science and less of law! What is the meaning of this resistance we hear so much of? Is it the same thing in Steindal and Nora Cazenove? It seems to stir up ignoble passion in both, though the manner of it is so different to our perception. And that is strange, unless the question of sex enters largely into it.” “Affinity and repulsion are the two fundamental principles of all creation. I have heard you say, years ago, that Karl threw us back to first causes.” “We are dealing now with men and women of to-day,” he cried, pacing up and down the room.