With that, as a panther falls asleep, his claw blood-red, Judas nodded and left her to her thoughts.
“In Eternity there is room for everything,” she said, when he came to her again.
“Eternity is an abyss which the tomb uses for a sewer,” he answered. “Its flood is corruption. The day only exists, but in it is that freedom which waves possess. Mary, if you would but taste it with me! Oh, to mix with you as light with day, as stream with sea, I would [pg 163]suck the flame that flickers on the walls of sepulchres.”
She shuddered, and he saw it.
“You have taught me to love,” he hissed; “do not teach me now to hate.”
Mary mastered her revolt. “Judas, the day will come when you will cease to speak as you do.”
“You believe, then, still?”
“Yes, surely; and so do you.”
“The day will come,” he muttered, “when you will cease to believe.”
“And you too,” she answered. “For then you will know.”