[_Pa.s.sionately, on her knees to him._] How could I ever be against you?
If anything happens I will die with you!
CARLYON.
There is no question of dying. And if you are ready to judge me and desert me on your first impulse, without caring to understand, it is just as well for me that there is not.
VERA.
Oh! I ought not to judge you! Father, I don"t judge you. But make me understand.
CARLYON.
Did you think me right about the poisoning of the well?
VERA.
No, not at first. But I began quickly to see----
CARLYON.
Will you take that as a lesson to show you how to trust me? Vera, I am a man greater than other men. I see my way clearly. I shrink from nothing, and I strike hard. Another man cannot keep pace with me: he cannot criticise me: he must either stand out of my path, or follow me with perfect devotion.
VERA.
Yes, yes; I know. I always feel it. Only that is why I cannot hear you to be plotting. I want always to say what the Bhojalis said: "He has no fear, and his justice is the justice of a G.o.d."
CARLYON.
Do you know what they meant by the justice of a G.o.d? That is the very thing you dare not face. A G.o.d has his great ends which men know not of, and woe to the men or the nations that block those ends! And so it is with me. So it has been with all great rulers and conquerors of men. You cannot judge them, you cannot judge me, step by step, detail by detail.
You need only know that ultimately, taken all in all, what I will is good, and I have never yet failed.
VERA.
[_Moved._] Oh, it is true; I always knew it.
CARLYON.
You want to think me purer and juster than other men? So I am. I have a high and clear standard, and never swerve from it without cause. I am merciful, because I have seldom needed to be cruel; I speak the truth, because I am seldom afraid. But, once or twice, here and there, when things were different, I have never been turned from my purpose by the mere nervous horror of a crime that most men feel; and where the first step led to a second and a third, I have gone on without flinching.
VERA.
I can understand you, father. You have broken ordinary laws, because you listened to higher laws. You have followed your own conscience.
CARLYON.
Conscience? I don"t know what it means. I tell you I have seldom, very seldom, broken through what people call justice. But when I did--where other men would flinch and prevaricate, I lied and swore false oaths.
Where they would connive at wrong occurring, I did the wrong with my own hands, and cleared away the evidence of it. My own people in Bhojal knew me; they told in their songs how I could give the tiger fresh hunger and the cobra poison; but they said too, "Best to be in the hand of G.o.d, next best in the hand of Kal[^y]ona Sahib."
VERA.
Yes, yes. I am bewildered, but I can see some great right and truth coming out through it all. You saved your own people and all Rajpoor.
One man had gone mad with fear----
[_She is going over it, to convince herself._
CARLYON.
[_With swift contempt._] Do you think mere danger made me poison the Bhojali waters?
VERA.
You told me how it was. Any one who knew all would forgive you!
CARLYON.
Forgive me! I want no forgiveness! I did what I did because it was the right thing to do; not because I was afraid. [_She looks up bewildered._] I did it to make the Bhojalis rebel, and then to crush them.
VERA.
[_Aghast._] To make them rebel? You poisoned the water to make them----?
CARLYON.
Yes, and all fell out exactly as I meant. They were panicstricken, paralysed, stung to fury, all at one blow. And they struck when they were weak and I was strong!
VERA.
But you said--you said---- I can"t believe it!
CARLYON.
Only one thing went wrong. I had too much power over Koreb. The man loved me like a dog, and somehow couldn"t fight against me.
VERA.
I know. Oh, I know! Poor Koreb!
CARLYON.
[_His hand on her shoulder._] He fled from his own people and came to me. He was half crazy by that time, and went babbling like a fool right and left. I thought of having him shot. I thought of one thing after another. Selim was with me; and that night Selim fell upon him in his sleep, and made sure of his silence!
VERA.
[_Recoils in horror and puts her hand over her mouth._] You never----
CARLYON.
I never spoke a word, but my thought somehow drilled its way into his brain, and when I woke in the morning the thing was done.--Rouse yourself! You are the daughter of a man born for greatness, a man who does what others dream of! You love me, and you dare not disobey! [_She raises her eyes to his in a fascinated, half-stupefied way._] Read that letter!