All duties have become as shadows: all rules and
restraints have snapped their bonds. O love, my love, I could
set fire to all the world outside this land on which you have set
your dainty feet, and dance in mad revel over the ashes ...
These are mild men. These are good men. They would do good to
all--as if this all were a reality! No, no! There is no reality
in the world save this one real love of mine. I do you
reverence. My devotion to you has made me cruel; my worship of
you has lighted the raging flame of destruction within me. I am
not righteous. I have no beliefs, I only believe in her whom,
above all else in the world, I have been able to realize."
Wonderful! It was wonderful, indeed. Only a minute ago I had
despised this man with all my heart. But what I had thought to
be dead ashes now glowed with living fire. The fire in him is
true, that is beyond doubt. Oh why has God made man such a mixed
creature? Was it only to show his supernatural sleight of hand?
Only a few minutes ago I had thought that Sandip, whom I had once
taken to be a hero, was only the stage hero of melodrama.
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