“No! It is not true! I've been a fool to believe it for an instant. But I'm one no longer. I don't believe it.” She paused, then, very deliberately and steadily, she put her question.
“Garth—tell me, were you ever guilty of cowardice?”
“The court-martial thought so.”
Sara's foot tapped impatiently on the ground.
“Please answer my question,” she said quickly.
But he remained unmoved.
“Elisabeth Durward has surely supplied you with all the information on that subject which you require,” he said in expressionless tones, and Sara was conscious anew of the maddening feeling of impotence with which a contest of wills between herself and Garth never failed to imbue her.
“Garth”—there was appeal in her voice, yet it was still very steady and determined—“I want to know what you say about it. What Elisabeth—or any one else—may say, doesn't matter any longer.”
Something in the quiet depth of emotion in her voice momentarily broke through his guard. He made an involuntary movement towards her, then checked himself, and, with an effort, resumed his former detached manner.
“More important than anything either I, or Elisabeth, can say, is the verdict of the court,” he answered.