“Your son, sir, was perhaps more fool than knave.”
“Indeed!”
“It seems to me, Mr. Strong,” said the soldier, with admirable magnanimity, “that we are both waxing hot over a matter which has passed beyond our control. Let us talk more calmly. What has been done has been done, and we are all of us human. You are aware, of course, that no legal readjustment can be made.”
“Fully aware.”
The soldier smiled again.
“Then I am to understand that your chief desire is to drag me down into the mud.”
“Exactly.”
“My dear sir, you are mistaken. Your vengeance would not fall upon me, nor should I be the one to suffer.”
“You insinuate—”
“I make no insinuations, sir. I repeat the suggestion that you only would sacrifice a woman.”