upon the sofa.

'My God,' said Zero, 'is this possible? And I so filled with
tenderness and interest! Can it be, dear Somerset, that you are
under the empire of these out-worn scruples? or that you judge a
patriot by the morality of the religious tract? I thought you were
a good agnostic.'

'Mr. Jones,' said Somerset, 'it is in vain to argue. I boast
myself a total disbeliever, not only in revealed religion, but in
the data, method, and conclusions of the whole of ethics. Well!
what matters it? what signifies a form of words? I regard you as a
reptile, whom I would rejoice, whom I long, to stamp under my heel.
You would blow up others? Well then, understand: I want, with
every circumstance of infamy and agony, to blow up you!'

'Somerset, Somerset!' said Zero, turning very pale, 'this is wrong;
this is very wrong. You pain, you wound me, Somerset.'

'Give me a match!' cried Somerset wildly. 'Let me set fire to this
incomparable monster! Let me perish with him in his fall!'

'For God's sake,' cried Zero, clutching hold of the young man, 'for
God's sake command yourself! We stand upon the brink; death yawns
around us; a man--a stranger in this foreign land--one whom you
have called your friend--'

'Silence!' cried Somerset, 'you are no friend, no friend of mine.
I look on you with loathing, like a toad: my flesh creeps with
physical repulsion; my soul revolts against the sight of you.'