“And what may that remedy be, mademoiselle?”
“Non-resistance—absolute non-resistance,” said the girl, earnestly, bending her pretty head toward me.
“That is not human nature,” I said, laughing.
“Is the justification of human nature our aim in this world?”
“Nor is it possible for mankind to submit to violence,” I added.
“I believe otherwise,” she said, gravely.
As we mounted the hill along a sandy road, bordered with pines and with cool, green thickets of broom and gorse, I looked up at her and said: “In spite of your theories, mademoiselle, you yourself refused to accompany me.”
“But I did not resist your violence,” she replied, smiling.
After a moment’s silence I said: “For a disciple of a stern and colorless creed, you are very human. I am sorry that you believe it necessary to reform the world.”
She said, thoughtfully: “There is nothing joyless in my creed—above all, nothing stern. If it be fanaticism to desire for all the world that liberty of thought and speech and deed which I, for one, have assumed, then I am, perhaps, a fanatic. If it be fanaticism to detest violence and to deplore all resistance to violence, 31 I am a very guilty woman, monsieur, and deserve ill of the Emperor’s Military Police.”