Page:War; or, What happens when one loves one's enemy, John Luther Long, 1913.djvu/155

THE TAPESTRY OF PENELOPE at me—you unconsciously betrayed me to enemies—or fixed it so that some brute would come and beat me, put me in prison, kill me, and then, when you repented and loved me again, and tried to get the brute to stop coming to beat and kill me, you couldn't! You had gone too far—told too much—brought the danger too near!"

"Again!" says I. "You are talking in parables. I never read 'em, because I do not understand 'em. The Psalmist might as well have made a translation for fellers like me—if he wanted us to know what he was talking about. What's the English of it, Evelyn?"

"—And you had to keep on doing things to please the brute—even letting him take you to keep him from taking me!"

"Me?" says I. "I'd shoot the brute and be done with it! I wouldn't stand no such hell! Not for a minute!"

"But if he were so big and impervious that you couldn't injure him—just shoot and shoot and shoot and be laughed at—while he, with 139