The being finished speaking and fixed his looks upon
me in the expectation of a reply. But I was bewildered,
perplexed, and unable to arrange my ideas sufficiently to
understand the full extent of his proposition. He
continued,
‘You must create a female for me with whom I can live
in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my
being. This you alone can do, and I demand it of you as a
right which you must not refuse to concede.’
The latter part of his tale had kindled anew in me the
anger that had died away while he narrated his peaceful
life among the cottagers, and as he said this I could no
longer suppress the rage that burned within me.
‘I do refuse it,’ I replied; ‘and no torture shall ever
extort a consent from me. You may render me the most
miserable of men, but you shall never make me base in my
own eyes. Shall I create another like yourself, whose joint
wickedness might desolate the world. Begone! I have
answered you; you may torture me, but I will never
consent.’