There was a figure seated close to him--a woman, who reached out a hand to take his scarred and burned ones in her own,--a woman, moreover, who asked him no questions.
"Oh! Oh God!" he began, for the first time breaking silence, his burned lips twitching.

"And you,--why don't you go away?
What made you come ?" She was silent for a time.

"Am I not your friend ?" she asked, at length.
Now he could look at her.

"My friend!" said he bitterly.

"As if all the world had a friend for me! How could there be?
But you saw that,--this-- ?" She made no answer, but only drew a trifle nearer, seeing him for the first time unnerved and unstrung.