no freedom on the face of the earth nor above. The tiger that tears a
lamb is not free, I am not free, you are not free. All that happens must
happen; no word that is said is said in vain, in vain is raised no
hand."

"Then," Ethel retorted, eagerly, "if I attempted to wrest your victim
from you, I should also be the tool of your god?"

"Assuredly. But I am his chosen."

"Can you--can you not set him free?"

"I need him--a little longer. Then he is yours."

"But can you not, if I beg you again on my knees, at least loosen his
chains before he is utterly ruined?"

"It is beyond my power. If I could not rescue you, whom I loved, what in
heaven or on earth can save him from his fate? Besides, he will not be
utterly ruined. It is only a part of him that I absorb. In his soul are
chords that I have not touched. They may vibrate one day, when he has
gathered new strength. You, too, would have spared yourself much pain
had you striven to attain success in different fields--not where I had
garnered the harvest of a lifetime. It is only a portion of his talent
that I take from him. The rest I cannot harm. Why should he bury that
remainder?"

His eyes strayed through the window to the firmament, as if to say that
words could no more bend his indomitable will than alter the changeless
course of the stars.