Norah's ignorance and disregard
of moral precepts, or readiness to yield to the snares of unlicensed
joy, were summed up in the better and truer word innocence. The
greater her weakness, the greater his wickedness. If he could not save
her from others, he could save her from himself. Then if she fell, it
would at least be a natural fall. It would not be a foul betrayal of
youth by age; it would not be the sort of degraded crime that makes
angels weep, and ordinary people change into judges and executioners.
When a man has reached a certain time of life he must not crave for
forbidden delights, he must not permit himself to be eaten up with new
desire, he must not risk destroying a girl's soul for the
gratification of his own body. If he does, he commits the unpardonable
sin. And there is no excuse for him.
The Devil's reasonings to which a few minutes ago he had listened
greedily were specious, futile, utterly false. That sort of argument
might do for other men--might do for every other man in the wide
world--but it would not do for _him_, William Dale. Its acceptance
would knock the very ground from under his feet.
For, if there could be any excuse, why had he killed Everard
Barradine?
XXX
Then Dale lived again for the hundred thousandth time in the thoughts
and passions of that distant period.
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