"Once I believed that I admired him--that I looked up to him--because he was a Prophet; something higher and better than myself.

Now I know that my belief was wrong and false; that it was because he is a man--because, before everything else in the world, he is a man--that I turned to him, that I relied upon him." Bale-Corphew gave a short, cruel laugh.
"So that is it?
That is the secret?
He is a man?
Well, I will strip him of his manhood! We have had our disillusioning; yours is to come.

Here, on this sacred spot where he has been so exalted, he will bite the dust." He paused triumphantly; and in the pause there rose again to Enid's mind the picture of one tall, white-robed figure confronting a sea of faces--all incensed--all passionately, vindictively unanimous in desire.
"Oh no!" she said, suddenly, faltering before the picture.

"No! No! You cannot.

You must not.