Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/160

148 heavens fall, no one outside this room shall ever earn there is such a garment in existence—and that you'll find it difficult to do."

"You wish me to tell no one of what I've found?"

"It's not an affair of a wish."

"Ferguson, you're stark mad."

"You've told me so before. You're a specialist. You should know that a homicidal lunatic is not the sort to trifle with. Label me like that."

"But you're mad in the wrong direction."

"What's the right direction to be mad?"

"That cloak's Miss Moore's."

"You're a liar."

"Let me inform you that to save her from harm I'd give my life."

"Say that again."

"To save her from harm I'd give my life. It sounds like bombast, but it's plain truth."

"Hume, I may be mad, but I'm not so mad as you think." "You're madder, if you don't believe me I don't know why I should make a confidant of you, of all men; but there are illogical moments in which men feel constrained to strip themselves bare. Perhaps this is such a moment in my life. Miss Moore is the only woman I ever loved. That's a line from a play, but it's true, for all that."