"You are the same; but all the rest of it is strange. I do not see how such a thing could be."
"Can you not conceive of one wild act in a man not inevitably always a sinner?"
"Oh, yes; but not that act. I cannot understand the impulse to take a life."
"I did not think of his miserable life; I only meant to stop his talking. He tried to take mine. I wish he had. But no, no; I should have missed this glimpse of you. Just when it is too late I learn what life is worth."
"Do men truly do those things for the sake of women? Were you thinking of your friend's wife when you struck him?"
"I was thinking of the man—what a foul-mouthed fool he was—not fit to"—He stopped, seeing the look on Phebe's face.
"Oh, I'm impossible, I know, to one like you! It's rather hard I should have to be compared, in your mind, to a race of men like your father. Have you never known any other men?"
"I have read of all the men other people read of. I have some imagination."
"I suppose you read your Bible."
"Yes: the men in the Bible were not all of the Spirit; but they worshiped the Spirit—they were humble when they did wrong."