h, steady, buttoned-up in success; a
brass pot, a pillar of society! Once, as a boy, he had been within an
ace of killing Keith, for sneering at him. Once in Southern Italy he had
been near killing a driver who was flogging his horse. And now, that
dark-faced, swinish bully who had ruined the girl he had grown to
love--he had done it! Killed him! Killed a man!

He who did not want to hurt a fly. The chemist's window comforted him
with the sudden thought that he had at home that which made him safe, in
case they should arrest him. He would never again go out without some of
those little white tablets sewn into the lining of his coat. Restful,
even exhilarating thought! They said a man should not take his own life.
Let them taste horror--those glib citizens! Let them live as that girl
had lived, as millions lived all the world over, under their canting
dogmas! A man might rather even take his life than watch their cursed
inhumanities.

He went into the chemist's for a bromide; and, while the man was mixing
it, stood resting one foot like a tired horse. The "life" he had
squeezed out of that fellow! After all, a billion living creatures gave
up life each day, had it squeezed out of them, mostly. And perhaps not
one a day deserved death so much as that loathly fellow. Life! a
breath--aflame! Nothing! Why, then, this icy clutching at his heart?

The chemist brought the draught.

"Not sleeping, sir?"

"No."

The man's eyes seemed to say: 'Yes! Burning the candle at both ends--I
know!' Odd life, a chemist's; pills and powders all day long, to hold the
machinery of men together! Devilish odd trade!

In going out he caught the reflection of his face in a mirror; it seemed
too good altogether for a man who had committed murder. There was a sort
of brightness underneath, an amiability lurking about its shadows;
how--how could it be the face of a man who had done what he had done?
His head felt lighter now, his feet lighter; he walked rapidly again.

Curious feeling of relief and oppression all at once! Frightful--to long
for company, for talk, for distraction; and--to be afraid of it! The
girl--the girl and Keith were now the only persons who would not give him
that feeling of dread. And, of those two--Keith was not...! Who could
consort with one who was never wrong, a successful, righteous fellow; a
chap built so that he knew nothing about himself, wanted to know nothing,
a chap all solid actions?