A man, particularly one of Boyce's temperament, who
was eager for the possession of a passionately loved woman, would
have carried her off to a little Eden of their own. A calm
consideration of the facts leads to the suggestion of a half-
hearted acquiescence on the part of an entangled man in the
romantic scheme of an inexperienced girl to whom he had suddenly
become all in all.
Such is my plea in extenuation of Boyce's conduct (if plea there
can be), seeing that he raised not a shadow of one of his own. You
may say that my plea is no excuse for his betrayal; that no man,
even if he is tempted, can be pardoned for non-control of his
passions. But I am asking for no pardon; I am trying to obtain
your understanding. Remember what I have told you about Boyce, his
great bull-neck, his blood-sodden life-preserver, the physical
repulsion I felt when he carried me in his arms. In such men the
animal instinct is stronger at times than the trained will.
Whether you give him a measure of your sympathy or not, at any
rate do not believe that his short-lived liaison with Althea was a
matter of deliberate and dastardly seduction. Nor must you think
that I am setting down anything in disparagement of a child whom I
once loved.
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