But to do so I must stay here:
I must bear part in the terrible struggle there will be before this
mutiny is put down, India conquered, and Cawnpore revenged."
"I will not try to prevent you," Isobel said. "I feel it would be
wrong to do so. I could not honor you as I do, if for my sake you
turned away now. Even though I knew I should never see you again,
I would that you had died so, than lived with even the shadow of
dishonor on your name. I shall suffer, but there are hundreds of
other women whose husbands, lovers, or sons are in the fray, and
I shall not flinch more than they do from giving my dearest to the
work of avenging our murdered friends and winning back India."
So quietly had they been talking that no thought of how momentous
their conversation had been had entered the minds of the ladies
sitting working but a few paces away. One, indeed, had remarked to
another, "I thought when Dr. Wade was telling us how Mr. Bathurst
had rescued that unfortunate girl with the disfigured face at
Cawnpore, that there was a romance in the case, but I don't see
any signs of it. They are goods friends, of course, but there is
nothing lover-like in their way of talking."
So thought Dr. Wade when he came in and saw them sitting there,
and gave vent to his feeling in a grunt of dissatisfaction.
"It is like driving two pigs to market," he muttered; "they won't
go the way I want them to, out of pure contrariness."
"It is all settled, Doctor," Bathurst said, rising.
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