“If they are rabbits, you are the most repulsive of them all, because you are a mixture of rabbit and...Satan. You are a coward! The fact that you are a crook, a thief, a liar, a murderer is not important. But you are a coward! That is important. I expected something more of you. I hoped your mind would lift you above the greatest crime, but you lift crime itself into some base philanthropy. You are as much of a lackey as the others. The only difference between you and them is that you have a perverted idea of service!”
Magnus sighed.
“No, that’s not it. You understand nothing, Wondergood.”
“And what you lack is daring, my friend. If you are Magnus Ergo...what audacity: Magnus Ergo!—then why don’t you go the limit? Then, I, too, would follow you...perhaps!”
“Will you really come?”
“And why should I not come? Let me be Contempt, and you—Hatred. We can go together. Do not fear lest I hang on to your coat tails. You have revealed much to me, my dear putridity, and I shall not seize your hand even though you raise it against yourself.”
“Will you betray me?”
“And you will kill me. Is that not enough?”
But Magnus shook his head doubtfully and said:
“You will betray me. I am a living human being, while you smell like a corpse. I do not want to have contempt for myself. If I do, I perish. Don’t you dare to look at me! Look upon the others!”