She rose to her feet; he could see her, in the beauty of her height, silhouetted against the bright firelight. Her breast was rising and falling quickly with emotion.
"I don't believe it," she cried. "There is nothing that will make me believe it! Why, you're not afraid of anything! You to turn coward!"
She paused, waiting for his denial, and remained standing.
He rose too; came from out of the shadows and sat down in the Captain's big chair by the fire, where she could see and read his face.
"I was afraid," he repeated.
It was as if he knew no other word.
She went over to him and dropped down by the chair, and looked up at him.
"Tell me that it isn't true," she said. "If you tell me that it isn't true, I'll believe you against the world."
"It is true," he said.
The girl pressed the palms of her hands against her cheeks and drew them slowly down, away from her face.