The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

“You have been wise to say and to write nothing
about it.” Whiskey had produced a voice of smooth
charity and benevolence. “People would have thought
you mad. The trust you have built up would have
collapsed.”
“Trust no longer means anything to me.”
“That’s not the point. Something else you’ve kept
hidden from me is your wisdom. No, a secret as
violent as the most violent poison, capable of
everything horrible, a secret that makes any sort of
social secret seem like nothing at all. You could tell
me that there are three lunatics in your immediate
family, you could tell me you have sexual inclinations
of a most curious sort, you could tell me the things
most people would be most ashamed to tell me. It
would be a social secret, nothing at all. Once you
know the truth then murder and suicide and rape and
forgery are easy, sloppy things. And what an irony that
a judge should be the one. You find yourself caught up
in a ring bigger than the skies, and everything else is
ordinary. You have discovered that we’ve only been
turned out to graze. Ignorant animals, out on loose
tether.” Keiko sighed. “Your story has cured me. I think
I have fought rather well, but there was no need to
fight. We are all fish in the same net.”
“But it is the final blow for a woman. A person who