第70章

GO, WOMAN!

THEN followed a silence of a minute or so, during which _i_ She _i_ appeared, if one might judge from the almost angelic rapture of her facefor she looked angelic sometimesto be plunged in a happy ecstasy.

Suddenly, however, a new thought struck her, and her expression became the very reverse of angelic.

"Almost had I forgotten," she said, "that woman, Ustane.What is she to Kallikrateshis servant, or"and she paused, and her voice trembled.

I shrugged my shoulders."I understand that she is wed to him according to the custom of the Amahagger," Ianswered; "but I know not."

Her face grew dark as a thundercloud.Old as she was, Ayesha had not outlived jealousy.

"Then there is an end," she said; "she must die, even now!""For what crime?" I asked, horrified."She is guilty of naught that thou art not guilty of thyself, OAyesha.She loves the man, and he has been pleased to accept her love: where, then, is her Sin?""Truly, O Holly, thou art foolish," she answered, almost petulantly."Where is her sin? Her sin is that she stands between me and my desire.Well I know that I can take him from herfor dwells there a man upon this earth, O Holly, who could resist me if I put out my strength? Men are faithful for so long only as temptations pass them by.If the temptation be but strong enough, then will the man yield, for every man, like every rope, hath his breaking strain, and passion is to men what gold and power are to womenthe weight upon their weakness.Believe me, ill will it go with mortal women in that heaven of which thou speakest, if only the spirits be more fair, for their lords will never turn to look upon them, and their heaven will become their hell.For man can be bought with woman's beauty, if it be but beautiful enough; and woman's beauty can be ever bought with gold, if only there be gold enough.So was it in my day, and so it will be to the end of time.The world is a great mart, my Holly, where all things are for sale to him who bids the highest in the currency of our desires."These remarks, which were as cynical as might have been expected from a woman of Ayesha's age and experience, jarred upon me, and I answered, testily, that in our heaven there was no marriage or giving in marriage.

"Else would it not be heaven, dost thou mean?" she put in."Fie upon thee, Holly, to think so ill of us poor women! Is it, then, marriage that marks the line between thy heaven and thy hell? But enough of this.

This is no time for disputing and the challenge of our wits.Why dost thou always dispute? Art thou also a philosopher of these latter days? As for this woman, she must die; for though I can take her lover from her, yet, while she lived, might he think tenderly of her, and that I cannot away with.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 lonelinessnow 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, O foolish man, to put away that which stands between us and our ends? Then is our life one long crime, my Holly; for 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 ones 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 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.The cruel rage of the tyrant may prove a blessing to thousands who come after him, and the sweet-heartedness of a holy man may make a nation slaves.

Man doeth this and doeth that from the good or evil of his heart; but he knoweth not to what end his moral sense doth prompt him; for when he striketh he is blind to where the blow shall fall, nor can he count the airy threads that weave the web of circumstance.

Good and evil, love and hate, night and day, sweet and bitter, man and woman, heaven above and earth beneathall these things are necessary one to the other, and who knows the end of each? I tell thee that there is a hand of Fate that twines them up to bear the burden of its purpose, and all things are gathered in that great rope to which all things are needful.Therefore doth it not become us to say this thing is evil and this good, or the dark is hateful and the light lovely; for to other eyes than ours the evil may be the good and the darkness more beautiful than the day, or all alike be fair.Hearest thou, my Holly?"I felt it was hopeless to argue against casuistry of this nature, which, if it were carried to its logical conclusion, would absolutely destroy all morality, as we understand it.But her talk gave me a fresh thrill of fear; for what may not be possible to a being who, unconstrained by human law, is also absolutely unshackled by a moral sense of right and wrong, which, however partial and conventional it may be, is yet based, as our conscience tells us, upon the great wall of individual responsibility that marks off mankind from the beasts.

But I was deeply anxious to save Ustane, whom I liked and respected, from the dire fate that overshadowed her at the hands of her mighty rival.So I made one more appeal.