“It's that, and it's nothing but that! It never is anything but that! It's because I am a poor boy, and couldn't help myself! You told me that you loved me, and I believed you. You were so beautiful, and I thought that you must be good! Why, I worshiped the very ground you walked on. I would have done anything in the world for you--I would have died for you! I went about thinking about you all day--I made you into a dream of everything that was good and perfect! And now--now--you say that you were only playing with me! Using me for your selfish pleasure--just as you do all the other poor people!” “Samuel!” she gasped. “Just as your father does the children in his mill! Just as your cousin does the poor girls he seduces! Just as you do everything in life that you touch!” The girl had turned scarlet with anger. “How dare you speak to me that way?” she cried. “I dare to speak the truth to anyone! And that is the truth about you! You are like all the rest of them--the members of your class. You are parasites--vampires--you devour other people's lives! And you are the worst, because you are a woman! You are beautiful, and you ought to be all the things that I imagined you were! But you use your beauty for a snare--you wreck men's lives with it--” “Stop, Samuel!” “I won't stop! You shall hear me! You drew me on deliberately--you wanted to amuse yourself with me, to see what I would do. And you had never a thought about me, or my rights, or the harm you might be doing to me! And now you've got tired--and you tell me to end it! You tell me about my 'place!' What am I in the world for, but to afford you amusement? What are all the working people for but to save you trouble and keep you beautiful and happy? What are the children for but to spin clothes for you to wear? And you--what do you do for them, to pay for their wasted lives, for all their toil and suffering?” “Samuel Prescott!” cried the outraged girl. “I will not hear another word of this!” “Yes, that's just what your father said! And what your cousin said! And what your clergyman said! And you can send for the butler and have me put out--but let me tell you that will not be the end of it. We shall find some way to get at you! The people will not always be your slaves--they will not always give their lives to keep you in idleness and luxury! You were born to it--you've had everything in the world that you wanted, from the first hour of your life. And you think that will go on forever, that nothing can ever change it! But let me tell you that it seems different to the people underneath! We are tired of being robbed and spit upon! And we mean to fight! We mean to fight! We don't intend to be starved and tormented forever!”