“Can’t you guess?” murmured Jason Otter. “It was I⁠ ⁠… I⁠ ⁠… I⁠ ⁠… You’re surprised. Well, anyone would be. You wouldn’t have thought of that, though you are Mr. Urquhart’s secretary and have come from a college! But you needn’t look like that; for it’s true! Darnley sentimentalizes about his death, which was unfortunate, of course, but perfectly natural⁠—he died of pneumonia, as any of us might!⁠—but what drove me to distraction was this playing upon a person’s pity. He always did it⁠—from the very first day. Darnley yielded to it at once, though he never liked the boy. I resisted it. I am of iron in these things. I know too much. But by degrees, can’t you understand, though I didn’t yield to it, it began to bother my mind. Pity’s the most cruel trap ever invented. You can see that, I suppose? Take it that there were only one unhappy person left, why, it might spoil all the delight in the world! That is why I’d like to kill pity⁠—why I’d like to make people see what madness it is.”