And in that which was most remote in his being he was conscious that he was for the moment relieved because even worldly wisdom was not strong enough to overcome his desire to believe in a certain thing which was--that the boy would have played fair even when his brain whirled and all his fierce youth beset him.
As he regarded her he saw that it would be difficult to reach her mind which was so torn and stunned.

But by some method he must reach it.
"You must answer all the questions I ask," he said.

"It is for Donal's sake." She did not lift her face and made no protest.
He began to ask such questions as a sane man would know must be answered clearly and as he heard her reply to each he gradually reached the realisation of what her empty-handed, naked helplessness confronted.
That he himself comprehended what no outsider would, was due to his memories of heart-wrung hours, of days and nights when he too had been unable to think quite sanely or to reason with a normal brain.

Youth is a remorseless master.

He could see the tempest of it all--the hours of heaven--and the glimpses of hell's self--on whose brink the two had stood clinging breast to breast.