He touched her hair reproachfully with his firm hand.
“Why, what's this? My little soldier has disobeyed orders?”
“I don't want to live now,” she sobbed.
“And why not?”
“I—I—am going to be a mother,” she whispered.
“So?”
“The mother of a criminal! Oh, Doctor, it's horrible! Why did you let me live? The hell I passed through that night was enough—God knows! This will be unendurable. I've made up my mind—I'll die first——”
“Rubbish, child! Rubbish!” he answered with a laugh. “Where did you get all this misinformation?”
“You know what my husband was. How can you ask?”
“Because I happen to know also his wife—the mother-to-be of this supposed criminal who has just set sail for the shores of our planet—and I know that she is one of the purest and sweetest souls who ever lost her way in the jungles of the world. If you were the criminal, dear heart, the case might be hopeless. But you're not. You are only the innocent victim of your own folly. That doesn't count in the game of Nature——”