CHAPTER XXIII.
HEROES.
The Sun Maid’s gaze into her husband’s face was a prolonged and questioning one. Before it was withdrawn she had found her answer.
There was still a silence between them, which she broke at last, and it touched him to see how pale she had become and yet how calm.
“You are going, Gaspar?”
“Yes, my love; I am going. Already I have pledged my word, as my arm and my purse.”
“But, my dear, do you consider? We are growing old, even we, who have never yet had time to realize it—till now. There are younger men, plenty of them. Your counsels at home——”
“Would be empty words as compared to my example in the field. The young of heart are never old. Besides, do you remember that once, against my stubborn will, you resisted for duty’s sake? We have never regretted it, not for a day. More than that, when our first-born came to us, do you remember how we clasped his tiny hand and resolved always to lead it onward to the right? Lead it, sweetheart. We vowed never to say to him: ‘Go!’ to this or that high duty; but rather, still holding fast to him, say: ‘Come.’ There is such a wide, wide difference between the two.”
Then, indeed, again she trembled. The mother love shook her visibly and a secret rejoicing died a sudden death.