"It wasn't very bad.

There's hardly any scar at all--or won't be, when it's fully healed.

But all this is trifling, compared to what _you've_ suffered and are suffering.

Oh, what a horrible affair! What frightful accusations! Tell me the truth, Boy--how, why could-- ?" He looked at her a moment, in silence, noting her splendid hair and eyes and mouth, the firm, well-moulded chin, the confident and self-reliant poise of the shapely head; and as he looked, he knew he loved this woman.

He understood, at last, how dear she was to him--dearer than anything else in all the world save just his principles and stern life work.