Some answer was imperatively
necessary, and no answer could evolve itself. Hesitation would be
interpreted as the sign of a guilty conscience. And in this dreadful
arrest of his faculties, the sense of bodily fatigue accentuated
itself till it seemed that it would absolutely crush him.
"Gentlemen, as I was venturing to say--" Really the pause had been
imperceptible: "From the vicar downwards, there's many would have
spoke to my credit--if I'd asked them. And I did not ask them--and for
why?"
"Well, why?"
"Because," said Dale, with a brave effort, "I relied implicitly on the
fair play that would be meted out here. From the hour I knew I was to
be heard at headquarters, I said this is now between me and
headquarters, and I don't require any one--be it the highest in the
land--coming between us."
"Ah, I understand," said the Colonel, with great politeness.
"Such was my confident feeling, sir--my full confidence that, having
heard me, you'd bear me out as doing my duty, and no more nor no less
than my duty."
Yet, even as he said so, his whole brain seemed as if fumes from some
horrid corrosive acid were creeping through and through it. In truth,
all his confidence had gone, and only his courage remained.
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