If Bathurst had been killed when he
was standing up, a target for the Sepoys, I should have held you
morally responsible for his death."
"You would have shared the responsibility, anyhow, Doctor, for it
was you who repeated my words to him."
"We will not go over that ground again," said the Doctor quietly.
"I gave you my reasons for doing so, and those reasons are to
my mind convincing. Now I will tell you how this constitutional
nervousness on his part arose. He told me the story; but as at
that time there had been no occasion for him to show whether he
was brave or otherwise, I considered my lips sealed. Now that his
weakness has been exhibited, I consider myself more than justified
in explaining its origin."
And he then repeated the story Bathurst had told him.
"You see," he said, when he had finished, "it is a constitutional
matter beyond his control; it is a sort of antipathy. I have known
a case of a woman courageous in all other respects, who, at the
sight of even a dead cockroach, would faint away. I have seen one
of the most gallant officers of my acquaintance turn pale at the
sight of a spider. Certainly no one would think of calling either
one or the other coward; and assuredly such a name should not be
applied to a man who would face a tiger armed only with a whip in
defense of a native woman, because his nerves go all to pieces at
the sound of firearms."
"If you had told me all this before I should never have spoken as
I did," Isobel pleaded.
Pages:
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293