He bent a little closer to her. “Did you say that you loved me?” he asked. “I thought you looked upon me as a human monster.” After all, there was a note of pathos in the question. Carmen laid her hand upon his.
“It’s the real you that I love,” she answered gently. “The monster is only human thought––the thought that has seemed to mesmerize you. But you are going to throw off the mesmerism, aren’t you? I’ll help you,” she added brightly. “You’re going to put off the ‘old man’ completely––and you’re going to begin by opening yourself and letting in a little love for those poor people down at Avon, aren’t you? Yes, you are!”
At the mention of the people of Avon his face became stern and dark. And yet she spoke of them alone. She had not mentioned the Beaubien, Miss Wall, the Express, nor herself. He noted this, and wondered.
“You see, you don’t understand, Mr. Ames. You’ll be, oh, so surprised some day when you learn a little about the laws of thought––even the way human thought operates! For you can’t possibly do another person an injury without that injury flying back and striking you. It’s a regular boomerang! You may not feel the effects of its return right away––but it does return, and the effects accumulate. And then, some day, when you least expect it, comes the crash! But, when you love a person, why, that comes back to you too; and it never comes alone. It just brings loads of good with it. It helps you, and everybody. Oh, Mr. Ames,” she cried, suddenly rising and seizing both his hands, “you’ve just got to love those people down there! You can’t help it, even if you think you can, for hate is not real––it’s an awful delusion!”
It was not so much an appeal which the girl made as an affirmation of things true and yet to come. The mighty Thou shalt not! which Moses laid upon his people, when transfused by the omnipotent love of the Christ was transformed from a clanking chain into a silken cord. The restriction became a prophecy; for when thou hast yielded self to the benign influence of the Christ-principle, then, indeed, thou shalt not desire to break the law of God.
Carmen returned to her chair, and sat eagerly expectant. Ames groped within his thought for a reply. And then his mental grasp closed upon the words of Hood.
“They are very bitter against me––they hate me!” he retorted lamely.
“Ah, yes,” she said quickly. “They reflect in kind your thought of them. Your boomerangs of greed, of exploitation, of utter indifference which you have hurled at them, have returned upon you in hatred. Do you know that hatred is a fearful poison? And do you know that another’s hatred resting upon you is deadly, unless you know how to meet and neutralize it with love? For love is the neutralizing alkaloid.”
“Love is––weakness,” he said in a low tone. “That kind, at least.”