Of the little band of revellers it would be hard to say which was themost taken aback at this invasion. The excitement of the moment hadkept them from hearing the sound of the automobile which Mrs. Porter,mistrusting the rough road that led to the shack, had stopped somedistance away.

　　Perhaps, on the whole, Kirk was more surprised than either of hiscompanions. Their guilty consciences had never been quite free from theidea of the possibility of pursuit; but Kirk, having gathered fromMamie that neither Ruth nor her aunt was aware of what had happened,had counted upon remaining undisturbed till the time for return came onthe morrow.

　　He stood staring at Ruth, who had followed Mrs. Porter into the room.

　　Mrs. Porter took charge of the situation. She was in her element. Shestood with one hand resting on the table as if she were about to makean after-dinner speech--as indeed she was.

　　Lora Delane Porter was not dissatisfied with the turn events had taken.

　　On the whole, perhaps, it might be said that she was pleased. Sheintended, when she began to speak, to pulverize Kirk and the abandonedyoung woman whom he had selected as his partner in his shamefulescapade, but in this she was swayed almost entirely by a regard forabstract morality.

　　As concerned Ruth, she felt that the situation was, on the whole, thebest thing that could have happened. To her Napoleonic mind, which tooklittle account of the softer emotions, concerning itself entirely withthe future of the race, Kirk had played his part and was now laggingsuperfluous on the stage. His tendency, she felt, was to retard ratherthan to assist William Bannister's development. His influence, such asit was, clashed with hers. She did not forget that there had been atime when Ruth, having practically to choose between them, had chosento go Kirk's way and had abandoned herself to a life which could onlybe considered unhygienic and retrograde. Her defeat in the matter ofWhiskers, the microbe-harbouring dog from Ireland, still rankled.

　　It was true that in what might be called the return match she hadutterly routed Kirk; but until this moment she had always been aware ofhim as an opponent who might have to be reckoned with. She was quiteconvinced that it would be in the best interests of everybody,especially of William Bannister, if he could be eliminated. There weresigns of human weakness in Ruth which sometimes made her uneasy. Ruth,she told herself, might "bear the torch," but when it came to "notfaltering" she was less certain of her.

　　Ruth, it was true, had behaved admirably in the matter of theupbringing of William from the moment of her conversion till now,but might she not at any moment become a backslider and fill thewhite-tiled nursery with abominable long-haired dogs? Most certainlyshe might. In a woman who had once been a long-haired dogist there arealways possibilities of a relapse into long-haired dogism, just as in aconverted cannibal there are always possibilities of a return to thegods of wood and stone and the disposition to look on his fellow-manpurely in the light of breakfast-food.