“Precaution, I’d say. In case of trouble the Bishop could step out of the picture painlessly. Everything in readiness, don’t y’ know.”
Arnesson nodded.
“Quite a correct attitude on his part. Really decent of him, in fact. No use putting people to unnecessary bother if you’re cornered. Yes, very correct.”
Professor Dillard had sat during this sinister dialogue with one hand pressed to his eyes, as though in pain. Now he turned sorrowfully to the man he had fathered for so many years.
“Many great men, Sigurd, have justified suicide——” he began; but Arnesson cut him short with a cynical laugh.
“Faugh! Suicide needs no justification. Nietzsche laid the bugaboo of voluntary death. ‘Auf eine stolze Art sterben, wenn es nicht mehr möglich ist, auf eine stolze Art zu leben. Der Tod unter den verächtlichsten Bedingungen, ein unfreier Tod, ein Tod zur unrechten Zeit ist ein Feiglings-Tod. Wir haben es nicht in der Hand, zu verhindern, geboren zu werden: aber wir können diesen Fehler—denn bisweilen ist es ein Fehler—wieder gut machen. Wenn man sich abschafft, tut man die achtungswürdigste Sache, die es giebt: man verdient beinahe damit, zu leben.’[40]—Memorized that passage from ‘Götzen-Dämmerung’ in my youth. Never forgot it. A sound doctrine.”
“Nietzsche had many famous predecessors who also upheld suicide,” supplemented Vance. “Zeno the Stoic left us a passionate dithyramb defending voluntary death. And Tacitus, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Cato, Kant, Fichte, Diderot, Voltaire and Rousseau, all wrote apologias for suicide. Schopenhauer protested bitterly against the fact that suicide was regarded as a crime in England. . . . And yet, I wonder if the subject can be formulated. Somehow I feel that it’s too personal a matter for academic discussion.”
The professor agreed sadly.
“No one can know what goes on in the human heart in that last dark hour.”
During this discussion Markham had been growing impatient and uneasy; and Heath, though at first rigid and watchful, had begun to unbend. I could not see that Vance had made the slightest progress; and I was driven to the conclusion that he had failed signally in accomplishing his purpose of ensnaring Arnesson. However, he did not appear in the least perturbed. I even got the impression that he was satisfied with the way things were going. But I did notice that, despite his outer calm, he was intently alert. His feet were drawn back and poised; and every muscle in his body was taut. I began to wonder what the outcome of this terrible conference would be.