These stones are of my own
piling; these utensils I framed with my own hands; and with this"--and
he laid his hand with a fierce smile on the long dagger which he always
wore beneath his garment, and unsheathed it so far that the blade
glimmered clear in the fire-light--"with this," he pursued, as he thrust
the weapon back into the scabbard, "I can, if necessary, defend the
vital spark enclosed in this poor trunk, against the fairest and
strongest that shall threaten me with injury."
It was with difficulty Isabella refrained from screaming out aloud; but
she DID refrain.
"This," continued the Recluse, "is the life of nature, solitary,
self-sufficing, and independent. The wolf calls not the wolf to aid him
in forming his den; and the vulture invites not another to assist her in
striking down her prey."
"And when they are unable to procure themselves support," said Isabella,
judiciously thinking that he would be most accessible to argument
couched in his own metaphorical style, "what then is to befall them?"
"Let them starve, die, and be forgotten; it is the common lot of
humanity.
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