Some mystic virtue had flowed
into me. Among those men and women, instead of being the selfish beast
I've been all these years, I can forget myself. Death seems
nothing--brotherhood--liberty!--everything! And yet--"
His face relaxed, became ironical, reflective. But he held the hands
close, his grasp of them hidden by the folds of fur which hung about
her.
"And
yet--I can say to you without a qualm--put this marriage which
has already come to naught behind you--and come with me! Ashe cramps
you. He blames you--you blame yourself. What
reality has all that? It
makes you miserable--it wastes life.
I accept your nature--I don't ask
you to be anything else than yourself--your wild, vain, adorable self!
Ashe asks you to put restraint on yourself--to make painful efforts--to
be good for his sake--the sake of something outside.
I say--come and
look at the elemental things--death and battle--hatred, solitude, love.
They'll sweep us out of ourselves!--no need to strive and cry for
it--into the great current of the world's being--bring us close to the
forces at the root of things--the forces which create--and destroy.
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