“That is why I have told you! I swore never to tell! Find out, Ommony! Tell the truth to me before I die. I am an old man, Ommony. If I have been a devil, I will eat—eat—eat the shame to the last crumb! Ommony, I swear—by my fathers I swear, I believe—I am almost positively sure—”
He buried his face in his hands, and there was silence, in which Ommony could hear Diana’s quiet breathing and his own heart-beats and the ticking of the watch in his vest-pocket.
[11] There is the notorious instance of the news of Lord Roberts’ relief of Kandahar reaching Bombay long before the government in Simla knew the facts. See Forty Years in India, by Lord Roberts.
[12] Nirvana. The ultimate object of attainment for the Buddhist. The word has been translated “nothingness,” and the non-Buddhist missionaries are responsible for the commonly accepted and totally false belief that it means “extinction.” The truth is that by “Nirvana” the Buddhist means a condition which it is utterly impossible for the human mind to comprehend, but which can be attained, after thousands of reincarnations, by strict adherence to the Golden Rule—that is, by deeds and abstaining from deeds not by words and self-indulgence. It is said that the understanding of what is meant by “Nirvana” will dawn gradually on the mind of him who is tolerant and strives unselfishly.
[13] Merchant.
[14] Promissory notes.
When the actor, having thrown aside the costume and the wig, departs—is he a villain? Shall we take stones and murder him because for our amusement he enacted villainy?
If he should act death in the play because decency demands that, do we therefore burn him afterward and curse his memory? And is his wife a widow?