They solemnly held it up between them, and white lips and black lips caressed opposite ends of the big stick.
In the Gaitskill home, Captain Kerley Kerlerac entered and asked for Virginia. This was his tenth call since the night of the dinner ten days before. But now, for the first time, the bandage was removed from his face.
A long red scar marked the face from the point of the chin to the lobe of the ear.
For the first time Virginia saw that mark which he would carry to his grave. Kerlerac noticed that look of distress, but he had a little question which he often asked, and it always had the effect of diverting her mind from anything, however important, to something which was vastly more important.
“Do you love me as much as ever?” he asked quietly.
But the girl could not take her eyes from the long red scar. Her chin quivered with emotion and her lips drooped with the pain of the thought of that night of comedy when he had to suffer this wound.
“Stoop over and I’ll tell you,” she whispered.
He bent his head to hear the whisper from her fragrant lips.
She put both arms around his neck and kissed the scar upon his cheek.