Pagina 281 van 483

"You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the

interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you

alone can do, and I demand it of you as a right which you must

not refuse to concede."

The latter part of his tale had kindled anew in me the anger that

had died away while he narrated his peaceful life among the

cottagers, and as he said this I could no longer suppress the

rage that burned within me.

"I do refuse it," I replied; "and no torture shall ever extort a

consent from me. You may render me the most miserable of men, but

you shall never make me base in my own eyes. Shall I create

another like yourself, whose joint wickedness might desolate the

world. Begone! I have answered you; you may torture me, but I

will never consent."