“Indeed!” McLeod sneered, wheeling in his chair.
“I always knew that you were a moral leper”—
“Of course, Doctor, of course, but don’t get excited,” laughed McLeod enjoying the marks of anguish on his face.
“But that your lecherous body should dream of invading the sanctity of my home, and your tongue attempt to smirch its honour, was beyond my wildest dream of your effrontery. How dare you?”—
“Dare? Dare, Preacher?” interrupted McLeod still sneering. “Why, by ‘The Higher Law,’ of course. You have been teaching all your life that there are higher laws than paper-made statutes. You have trained this county in crime under this beautiful ideal. Surely I may follow the teachings of a master in Israel?”
“What do you mean, you red-headed devil?”
“Softly, Preacher,” smiled McLeod. “Simply this. You expound ‘The Higher Law,’ for political consumption. I apply it to all life.
“There are but two real laws of man’s nature, hunger and love—all others change with time and progress. These are the higher laws, in fact they are the highest laws. The stupid conventions that superstition has built around them may hold back the weak, but the powerful have always defied them. Your brilliant exposition of the higher law in politics first set my mind to work, and led me to a complete emancipation from the slavery of conventionalism in which fools have held society for centuries. There are conventional laws and superstitions about the little ceremony called marriage cherished by the weak-minded. There is a higher law of nature. The brave live this life of daring freedom, while cowards cling to forms. Do I make myself clear?”
“Perfectly so, you mottled leper. You think that because I am a preacher, I am a poltroon, and that you can play with me without danger to your skin. Well, I was a man before I was a preacher. There are some things deeper than the forms of religion, if you wish to push the higher law to its last application. You have found that quick in my soul, mine enemy! I have resigned my church—to kill you. There is not room for you and me on this earth”—