Never!
* * * * *
It is a ghastly thing to be judge and jury and executioner all in one, and for a private and personal wrong—to condemn and strike and kill.
Pity comes after—when it is too late, fortunately—the wretched weakness of pity! Pooh! no Calcraft will ever pity me, and I do not want him to.
* * * * *
He had his long, snaky knife against my stick; he, too, was a big strong man, well skilled in self-defence! Down he went, and I struck him again and again. “O my God! O Christ!” he shrieked….
“It will ring in my heart and my ears till I die—till I die!”
* * * * *
There was no time to lose—no time to think for the best. It is all for the best as it is. What might he not have said if he had lived!
* * * * *
Thank Heaven, pity is not remorse or shame; and what crime could well
