The other lifted his face.
"Comfort yourself, my friend. In your place I should have done the same."
"I swear to you—" gasped the Parson, broken and blubbering.
The other took his fingers.
"Friend," he said, "you won; but I didn't lose."
The old flicker of swords was in his eyes.
"Defeat can't touch the man who won't admit it. Look at Sailor there! He was impregnable. So am I."
II
A robin sang outside.
The trill fell sweetly on the silence.