13/23 Of course, out of six shots, fired at all distances from forty paces to fifteen, one may hit him: but as for being killed!... He all but believes that he bears a charmed life. All the miraculous escapes of his past years, instead of making him believe in a living, guiding, protecting Father, have become to that proud hard heart the excuse for a deliberate, though unconscious, atheism. His fall is surely near. Stangrave is haggard, not from fear, but from misery, and rage, and self-condemnation. |