"He would have been shot," she cried. "It's all very well to talk like that when we're in Ruvno. But when your superior officer gives an order, and you disobey, what happens? We're not all heroes, ready to die for an idea in cold blood. Battle is different."
"But we must all try to be honest--with ourselves," he said, and with sincerity; for he found honesty hard that night.
Her bright eyes challenged him and she opened her lips to speak; but he silenced her with a gesture.
"He disapproved the Prussians. Yet he stopped with them."
"He has left them," she retorted.
"Yes. But before he can be honest with himself, or with the family, he must work out the promise he made when Roman helped him to escape."
"The Russians have not been any too good to us in the past," she objected.
"You know it is not a question of Russian, but of right. He can go to France. But I'll have nobody in my family who ends his fighting record in a Prussian uniform."
Vanda sprang up and faced him.
"You talk a lot about honesty to-night," she cried scornfully. "And now I'll begin. I would not say one word against this decision if I thought you were honest, too. I hated to think of Joseph with the Prussians as much as anybody. But that is not the honest reason why you won't let Father Constantine marry us to-morrow, here in Ruvno. That is only a pretext."