FullReads

May I go now?

MR. X.
Yes, you may go now.

MR. Y.
[Getting his things together].

Are you angry with me?

MR. X.
Yes. Would you like it better if I pitied you?

MR. Y.
[Wrathfully].

Pity! Do you consider yourself better than I am?

MR. X.
Of course I do, as I am better. I am more intelligent than you are, and of more worth to the common weal.

MR. Y
. You are pretty crafty, but not so crafty as I am. I stand in check myself, but, nevertheless, the next move you can be checkmated.

MR. X.
[Fixing Mr. Y. with his eye].

Shall we have another bout? What evil do you intend to do now?

MR. Y.
That is my secret.

MR. X.
May I look at you?–You think of writing an anonymous letter to my wife, disclosing my secret.

MR. Y.
Yes, and you cannot prevent it. You dare not have me imprisoned, so you must let me go; and when I have gone I can do what I please.

MR. X.
Ah, you devil! You’ve struck my Achilles heel–will you force me to become a murderer?

MR. Y.
You couldn’t become one! You timid creature!

MR. X.
You see, then, there is a difference in people after all, and you feel within you that I cannot commit such deeds as you, and that is your advantage. But think if you forced me to deal with you as I did with the coachman!

[Lifts his hand as if to strike. Mr. Y. looks hard at Mr. X.]

MR. Y.
You can’t do it. He who dared not take his salvation out of the case couldn’t do that.

MR. X.
Then you don’t believe that I ever took from the case?

MR. Y.
You were too cowardly, just as you were too cowardly to tell your wife that she is married to a murderer.

MR. X.
You are a different kind of being from me–whether stronger or weaker I do not know–more criminal or not–that doesn’t concern me. But you are the stupider, that’s proven. Because you were stupid when you forged a man’s name instead of begging as I have had to do; you were stupid when you stole out of my book–didn’t you realize that I read my books? You were stupid when you thought that you were more intelligent than I am and that you could fool me into becoming a thief; you were stupid when you thought, that the restoration of balance would be accomplished by the world’s having two thieves instead of one, and you were most stupid when you believed that I have built my life’s happiness without having laid the cornerstone securely. Go and write your anonymous letter to my wife about her husband being a homicide–that she knew as my fiancee. Do you give up now?

MR. Y.
Can I go?

MR. X.
Now you shall go–immediately. Your things will follow you.

CURTAIN.