I can defend myself against everything but calumny.

Have I made a laughing stock of you?
It is nothing to me.

It would not have altered my--" She was very white, and she stroked her forehead.
"Well ?" said I.
"It would not have altered my determination to take the sword in hand again." She put her hand to her throat as though something there had tightened.
"Ah, I am a woman, for I believe that I am about to faint! No!" imperiously, as I threw out my arms to catch her.

"I can reach the door alone, without assistance." And so we went along.

I did not know what to do, nor yet what to say.
A conflict was raging in my heart between shame and love; shame, that a woman had fought for me and won where I should have lost; love, that strove to spring from my lips in exultation.