RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE
"Oh, Lassiter—no—no—you don't love me that way!" Jane cried.
"If that's what love is, then I do."
"Forgive me! I didn't mean to make you love me like that. Oh, what a tangle of our lives! You—Milly Erne's brother! And I—heedless, mad to melt your heart toward Mormons. Lassiter, I may be wicked, but not wicked enough to hate. If I couldn't hate Tull, could I hate you?"
"After all, Jane, mebbe you're only blind—Mormon blind. That only can explain what's close to selfishness—"
"I'm not selfish. I despise the very word. If I were free—"
"But you're not free. Not free of Mormonism. An' in playin' this game with me you've been unfaithful."
"Un-faithful!" faltered Jane.
"Yes, I said unfaithful. You're faithful to your Bishop an' unfaithful to yourself. You're false to your womanhood, an' true to your religion. But for a savin' innocence you'd have made yourself low an' vile—betrayin' yourself, betrayin' me—all to bind my hands an' keep me from snuffin' out Mormon life. It's your damned Mormon blindness."
"Is it vile—is it blind—is it only Mormonism to save human life? No, Lassiter, that's God's law, divine, universal for all Christians."
"The blindness I mean is blindness that keeps you from seein' the truth. I've known many good Mormons. But some are blacker than hell. You won't see that even when you know it. Else, why all this blind passion to save the life of that—that. . . ."
Jane shut out the light, and the hands she held over her eyes trembled and quivered against her face.
"Blind—yes, an' let me make it clear an' simple to you," Lassiter went on, his voice losing its tone of anger. "Take for instance that idea of yours last night
156
