CHAPTER XIV 175
" They are, Miss Eyre, though they absolutely require a new statute: unheard-of combinations of circumstances demand unheard-of rules."
" That sounds a dangerous maxim, sir; because one can see at once that it is liable to abuse."
" Sententious sage! so it is: but I swear by my household gods not to abuse it."
" You are human and fallible." " I am: so are you-- what then?"
" The human and fallible should not arrogate a power with which the divine and perfect alone can be safely intrusted."
" What power?"
" That of saying of any strange, unsanctioned line of action,-- ' Let it be right.'"
"' Let it be right '-- the very words: you have pronounced them."
" MAY it be right then," I said, as I rose, deeming it useless to continue a discourse which was all darkness to me; and, besides, sensible that the character of my interlocutor was beyond my penetration; at least, beyond its present reach; and feeling the uncertainty, the vague sense of insecurity, which accompanies a conviction of ignorance.
" Where are you going?" " To put Adele to bed: it is past her bedtime." " You are afraid of me, because I talk like a Sphynx."