"Six years," said Max.
"Yes, I remember. How I should like to have known him! But I was at school then. And you knew him well?"
"I was with him when he died," he said.
"Oh!" said Olga, and then with a touch of shyness, "I'm sorry, Max."
"No," he said. "You needn't be sorry. He was no shirker. His time was up."
"But wasn't it a pity?" she said.
He smiled a little. "I don't think he thought so. He was happy enough—at the last."
"But if he had only been vindicated first!" she said.
"Do you think that matters?" Max's smile became cynical.
"Surely it would have made a difference to him?" she protested. "Surely he cared!"