Then his meaning became clear to her.
"You did not kill him ?" she asked scarce above a whisper.
"I let him go," he replied.
"You did not fight him--why ?" There was scorn in her tone.
"And if I had killed him that way ?" he asked with terrible logic, as he thought.
"There was little chance of that," she replied scornfully, and steadied herself against a chair; for, now that the suspense was over, she felt as though she had been passed between stones which ground the strength out of her.
A flush of fierce resentment crossed over his face.

"It is not everything to be big," he rejoined.

"The greatest men in the world have been small like me, but they have brought the giant things to their feet." She waved a hand disdainfully.

"What are you going to do now ?" she asked.
He drew himself up.

He seemed to rearrange the motions of his mind with a little of the old vanity, which was at once grotesque and piteous.
"I am going to forgive you and to try to put things right," he said.