Yes, he had counted the cost, and paid it. He had sacrificed the dearest thing on earth, he had lost the woman he loved. Nancy could never be his now. She had driven him from her mind and heart, because she believed him to be a shirker, a recreant, a coward.
He took from his pocket-book the white feather she had given him, and looked at it. Yes, that was what she thought of him. A coward! And all the time he would have given anything to be able to offer himself for the front.
A knock came at the door, and a servant entered bearing a letter.
"It's from my mother," said Bob to himself, as he broke the seal.
CHAPTER XI
Evidently some one had sent Mrs. Nancarrow an Oxford newspaper, for her letter was in the main about what Bob had done there.
"I am proud of you," she wrote. "People down here have been saying that you are a coward, and that you ran away from home because you did not dare to meet the people who knew of your action in relation to the war. What you did at Oxford at least shows that is untrue. I am delighted that you defended the poor creature, and thrashed the wretches badly. I see that one of them is still suffering from the blow you struck him. I have written to Oxford for fifty copies of the paper, and shall send them to all our friends. I cannot bear, I simply cannot bear people to think of you as a coward; and I have also arranged with our local paper to insert a full account of what you did. I was glad yesterday to see that one of the Cornish papers had a full report of it, and in its bill of contents printed the following:
"'PLUCKY CONDUCT OF A YOUNG CORNISHMAN IN OXFORD
"'MR. ROBERT NANCARROW THRASHES TWO BLACKGUARDS AND HANDS THEM OVER TO THE POLICE.'
"But, Bob, I don't understand you. In spite of your Quaker principles you felt it right to thrash these villains. What is the difference between thrashing the wretches who would harm a weak and defenceless woman, and helping your country to thrash that German bully who is a menace to Europe? If it was your duty to do one, it is surely your duty to do the other? The same principle is involved.