“You bore me. Be so kind as to do your work. Since the conception of duty is unknown to you⁠—”

He was silent and made a movement of his lips as though to spit. Only a little blood came, however, and clung to his chin.

“One moment!” said Gustav politely. “The conception of duty is certainly unknown to me⁠—now. Formerly I had a great deal of official concern with it. I was a professor of theology. Besides that, I was a soldier and went through the war. What seemed to me to be duty and what the authorities and my superior officers from time to time enjoined upon me was not by any means good. I would rather have done the opposite. But granting that the conception of duty is no longer known to me, I still know the conception of guilt⁠—perhaps they are the same thing. In so far as a mother bore me, I am guilty. I am condemned to live. I am obliged to belong to a State, to serve as a soldier, to kill and to pay taxes for armaments. And now at this moment the