VERA. You spoke of giving him a later address---- [_Her manner is cowed._ CARLYON. You knew I did not wish it. VERA. Yes, I am sorry. CARLYON. You preferred to disobey me; perhaps you mean to disobey me now? I make no appeal because of my danger; I can defend myself without you--or even against you. [_Sits on settee._ VERA. [_Passionately, on her knees to him._] How could I ever be against you? If anything happens I will die with you! CARLYON. There is no question of dying. And if you are ready to judge me and desert me on your first impulse, without caring to understand, it is just as well for me that there is not. VERA. Oh! I ought not to judge you! Father, I don't judge you. But make me understand. CARLYON. Did you think me right about the poisoning of the well? VERA. No, not at first. But I began quickly to see---- CARLYON. Will you take that as a lesson to show you how to trust me? Vera, I am a man greater than other men. I see my way clearly. I shrink from nothing, and I strike hard. Another man cannot keep pace with me: he cannot criticise me: he must either stand out of my path, or follow me with perfect devotion. VERA. Yes, yes; I know. I always feel it. Only that is why I cannot hear you to be plotting. I want always to say what the Bhojalis said: "He has no fear, and his justice is the justice of a god." CARLYON. Do you know what they meant by the justice of a god? That is the very thing you dare not face. A god has his great ends which men know not of, and woe to the men or the nations that block those ends! And so it is with me. So it has been with all great rulers and conquerors of men. You cannot judge them, you cannot judge me, step by step, detail by detail. You need only know that ultimately, taken all in all, what I will is good, and I have never yet failed. VERA. [_Moved._] Oh, it is true; I always knew it. CARLYON. You want to think me purer and juster than other men? So I am. I have a high and clear standard, and never swerve from it without cause. I am merciful, because I have seldom needed to be cruel; I speak the truth, because I am seldom afraid. But, once or twice, here and there, when things were different, I have never been turned from my purpose by the mere nervous horror of a crime that most men feel; and where the first step led to a second and a third, I have gone on without flinching. VERA. I can understand you, father. You have broken ordinary laws, because you listened to higher laws. You have followed your own conscience. CARLYON.