He also showed Melita the parasite plants, vines and other epiphytes that entwined themselves round other plants and shrubs, eventually strangling them.
“The law of the jungle!” the Comte said. “Even plants, like humans, live on each other and only the strongest survive.”
He spoke almost harshly and Melita said softly,
“It is all so enchanting. I cannot bear to think that where there is such beauty there must also be cruelty.”
“Nature is cruel, human beings are cruel,” the Comte replied. “They suffer and inflict suffering.”
There was a pain in his voice that was unmistakable and, as they ascended from a deep gorge, Melita glanced at him from under her eyelashes.
‘He seemed at first to be so gay and carefree,’ she thought, ‘a light-hearted man.’
But now she was not sure.
There was s
