"Is there any other way?"
"I guess you haven't considered that you're inviting me to stand by while you get yourself killed," he said stiffly. "I'm not an educated man. I never heard the names you mentioned this morning of people who used to study out things like this. I never heard of any worlds except earth and heaven and hell. But then I couldn't explain how an electric car runs. I know the car does run; and I know you nearly died last night. If you go back and stay alone in that room, we both know what you are going to meet."
I turned away from him because I sickened at the prospect he evoked. The memory of that death-tide was too near and rolled too coldly across the future. If the trial had been hard when mercifully unanticipated, what would it be to meet my enemy now that I knew myself conquered? Would It not deliberately forestall Desire's coming, tonight?
"Mightn't you help the lady more if you went away now, and came back?" he urged.
The deserter's argument, time without end! Was I to fall as low as that?
Phillida's voice called to Vere from the veranda, summoning him to some need of farm or household.
"In a moment, Pretty," he called assent.
But he did not move. I guessed that he hoped much from my silence and would not disturb me lest my decision be hindered or changed.
By and by I stood up.
"Vere, in your varied experiences in peace and war, did you ever chance to meet a coward?"