"Because I have a certain dislike of death and don't care to cause it myself if I can help it."
Claire laughed. "But death, you said once, is a mere stopping of animal action. Why dread that?"
"Because I myself do not care to die, I would not care to cause your death."
Philip rose and went to the fire. "I do not believe you could live by your theory," he asserted.
"I do live by it. There is but one thing I dread worse than death. I would die rather than give up my creative impulse."
"And he would sacrifice your life or mine for art's sake," merrily added Claire. "It's a good thing he doesn't think we are hindrances to art."
Philip also laughed. "Well," he said, "there might come a time when I, too, would want a thing enough to kill in order to obtain it."
"What, for example?" asked Lawrence. "That is the best way to determine your value of life."
Philip did not answer for a few minutes, then his voice vibrated.
"The things that mean more than life to me. I know that one holds his own life dear, but there are things, love, courage, honor, for example, that he holds even above life."