"What have you ever done to make yourself beloved?"
"By Beelzebub—you—the runaway mistress of a fop—dares to question me—her rightful lord?"
"Who made the laws that bound me to your keeping? They are man-made, and God knows as little of them as he knows of you. It was your measureless conceit, your boundless egotism, that whispered to you that any woman should feel honored, should deem it the height of glory, to be your wife."
"And is it not?"
She shuddered.
"You never dreamed there might be something in the depths of my soul that cried out for more than the mere comforts and exigencies of existence! Something that craved love, companionship, and, above all, friendship. What have you done to waken this little slumbering voice which died in the shadow of your tremendous egotism?"
He stared at her.
"He has taught you this speech, by God!"
"He has awakened my true self! What was I to you but part of your magnificence, a thing to make your fellows envious—"
He roared. She continued: