There wasn't, Alford protested, simple-heartedly. Then he recollected his sophistication to say: Unless its being of that particular shade between brown and red was wrong.

“I accept the universe” is reported to have been a favorite utterance of our New England transcendentalist, Margaret Fuller; and when some one repeated this phrase to Thomas Carlyle, his sardonic comment is said to have been: “Gad! she'd better!”

No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

The depth of Rome's bestialness lies in her worship of the Cross instead of the Christ — and when a vile one like the Lopez, described in our last chapter, is crucified, the very prophecy of all appropriate symbolism is fulfilled!