"It's in my blood, I tell you! It is not all my fault. Yet there is good in me, enough good to make me go mad if I stop to think of it. I want some way to get out of this life with honor. I leave the field for you."
"She doesn't love—"
"You're a fool, Sempland—forgive me—about that woman. I know women better than you. Not so much the good as the bad, but in some things women are alike, a woman is a woman whatever she does. That girl loves the ground you walk on."
"Nonsense! It's you."
"Pshaw! She is fascinated by what she's heard on one hand, and she shuts her eyes to what she has heard on the other. The war is young. We'll be beaten, of course, but not without some hard, desperate fighting. Your chance will come, and when it does—"
"I will master it or die!"
"Of course, but don't die. Master it. Leave dying to me. I've sought ways for it, and now one is at hand."
"What is it?"
"I am going to take out the David to-night."
"What!"