" But be in
no doubt about it," he concluded. "If Terence knows of Dick's
presence at Monsanto he has no choice. He must deliver him up to a
firing party - or to a court-martial which will inevitably sentence
him to death, no matter what the defence that Dick may urge. He is
a man prejudged, foredoomed by the necessities of war. And Terence
will do this although it will break his heart and ruin all his life.
Understand me, then, that in enjoining you never to allow Terence
to suspect that Dick is present, I am pleading not so much for you
or for Dick, but for Terence himself - for it is upon Terence that
the hardest and most tragic suffering must fall. Now do you
understand?"
"I understand that men are very stupid," was her way of admitting it.
"And you see that you were wrong in judging Terence as you did?"
"I - I suppose so."
She didn't understand it all. But since Tremayne was so insistent
she supposed there must be something in his point of view. She had
been brought up in the belief that Ned Tremayne was common sense
incarnate; and although she often doubted it - as you may doubt the
dogmas of a religion in which you have been bred - yet she never
openly rebelled against that inculcated faith.
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