No other woman shall dwell in my Lord's thoughts; my empire
shall be all my own. She hath had her day, let her be content; for
better is an hour with love than a century of loneliness--now the night
shall swallow her."
"Nay, nay," I cried, "it would be a wicked crime; and from a crime
naught comes but what is evil. For thine own sake, do not this deed."
"Is it, then, a crime, oh foolish man, to put away that which stands
between us and our ends? Then is our life one long crime, my Holly,
since day by day we destroy that we may live, since in this world none
save the strongest can endure. Those who are weak must perish; the earth
is to the strong, and the fruits thereof. For every tree that grows a
score shall wither, that the strong one may take their share. We run to
place and power over the dead bodies of those who fail and fall; ay, we
win the food we eat from out of the mouths of starving babes. It is
the scheme of things. Thou sayest, too, that a crime breeds evil, but
therein thou dost lack experience; for out of crimes come many good
things, and out of good grows much evil.
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