Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. II.djvu/82

 tossing of a boat on the heaviest sea could not have brought about such a state of sinking sickness as that with which my body was then convulsed. Nor could Macbeth, upon seeing Banquo's murdered ghost, have been more terrified than I was.

"What was I to do? To be proclaimed a sodomite in the face of the world, or to give up the man who was dearer to me than my life itself? No, death was preferable to either."

"And still, you said just now that you would have liked the whole world to know your love for the pianist."

"I admit that I did, and I do not deny it; but have you ever understood the contradictions of the human heart?"

"Moreover, you did not consider sodomy a crime?"

"No; had I done society any harm by it?"

"Then why were you so terrified?"

"Once a lady on her reception day asked her little boy—a lisping child of three—where his papa was?

In his room,' said he.