hom I pictured an infidel, keeping her in
memory by a bronze statuette. I saw it on a table in his room, a tiny
thing of delicate art, the exquisite creature depicted at the supreme
moment of death and passion. For of course the lover would not adopt
that extreme view of his obligations toward love. Full of regret he
would continue a mediocre existence....

"And yet," said Mr. Spenlove, standing up and looking out from under
bent brows at the faint lifting of the darkness beyond the headland,
"and yet, my friends, as I picked my way down toward the port, it
occurred to me to wonder whether our Western views are so full of
ultimate wisdom as we imagine; whether there may not be something in
life which we miss because we are so careful of life. At this moment we
are vigorously striving to impose our Occidental conceptions of
happiness and justice and government upon a good many millions to whom
our arrogant assumptions of the Almighty's prerogatives is becoming an
incomprehensible infliction. It wouldn't do, I suppose, to suggest that
so far from being a matter of mathematical progression, life has a
secret rhythm of its own. And while I was working away at this alarming
line of thought, I was passing along narrow streets crammed with
evidences of desires other than ours. I passed women veiled save for
their sombre, enigmatic eyes. I passed the doors of temples where men
lay prostrate upon strips of carpet, the saffron-coloured soles of their
bare feet gleaming distinct in the sunlight. I was assailed by troops of
children whose tremendous vitality and unabashed enterprise made me
tremble with forebodings for the future. Was it possible, I wondered, if
our system didn't give the less admirable and the cunning among us a
long advantage? Which they were beginning to take, I added. I found
myself endeavouring to take soundings and find out, so to speak, how far
we were off shore. Mind you, it wasn't simply that as far as I could see
we were busily producing an inferior social order. I was trying to
think out what the ultimate consequences would be if we continued to
dilute and rectify and sterilize our emotions. I wanted to see beyond
that point, but I found I couldn't. I hadn't the power, and I'm afraid
that nowadays I lack the courage as well.

"And then I lost myself awhile in a bazaar where I saw sundry gentlemen
from the country hurriedly disposing of short, blunt rifles at a
reckless discount for cash, and eventually