5/65 He could not bear to face the survivors. In the course of the retreat, he volunteered to go on this forlorn hope, which might equally well have been led by an officer of lower rank; and he was permitted to do so by Sir Colin in command, as a means of retrieving his lost military character. He carried his point, but he carried it recklessly, taking care to be shot through the heart himself in the first onslaught. That was virtual suicide--honourable suicide to avoid disgrace, at a moment of supreme remorse and horror." "You are right," I admitted, after a minute's consideration. "I see it now--though I should never have thought of it." "That is the use of being a woman," she answered. |