"Yes, I knew!"
"And knowing you let me come here. You took me into your house, you healed me, you gave me back my life!"
And the Master replied with a firm voice:
"I knew, and I gave you back your life." In a little while he explained more softly: "You and I are no longer young men who feel hotly and settle such a matter with hate. We cannot quarrel now for the possession of a woman.... She chose: remember that!... It was twenty-six years this September. We have lived our lives, you and I; we have lived out our lives, the good and the evil. Why should we now for the second time add passion to sorrow?"
"And yet knowing all you took me in!"
"Yes!" the old man cried almost proudly. "And I have made you again what you once were.... What she loved as you," he added to himself, "a man full of Power."
Then they were speechless in face of the fact: the one had taken all and the sweet love turned to acid in his heart, and the other had lost and the bitter turned to sweet! When a long time had passed the surgeon spoke timidly:
"It might have been so different for her with you! You loved her—more."
There was the light of a compassionate smile on the Master's lips as he replied:
"Yes, I loved her, too."