"Oh," gasped Elaine, "why did he do it? Why did he do it?"
The mirror recognized the question as one which every woman has asked at least once in her lifetime. But somehow this did not swerve her from her insistence.
"You must judge him from what you yourself have seen of him," the mirror harped back to Donaldson's own words.
"He acted bravely before me--before Ben. He did do bravely," cried the girl.
"And yet below these acts he had a craven heart?" hinted she of the mirror.
"No. No. It isn't possible! It isn't possible!"
"But he admitted the dreadful thing he tried to do."
"That was the folly of a moment. He has grown through it. He asked no mercy--asked no pardon. Did n't you see the expression upon his haggard face as he left the room?"
"Were you looking?" queried she of the mirror in surprise. "Your eyes were away from him."
The woman in the mirror found herself suddenly put upon the defensive.
"Where has he gone?" cried the girl. "What is he going to do now?"
"Will he do bravely whatever lies before him?"
"The shame of what I told him yesterday!"
"Was it not a bit brave of him to turn away from you?"
"He should have explained to me at that time why he was going. He needed me then."
"Do you not suppose that he knew it? Do you not suppose that it took the strength of a dozen men to go alone to what he thought was waiting for him?"
"And yet you saw his eyes as he stood before you then? And you saw his eyes as he left you five minutes ago?"
Once again the flaming scarlet in her cheeks. Her lips trembled. She turned away from the mirror.
"He did so bravely--he spoke so bravely, yet--"
"He learned. If, of all the world of men, you were to choose one to stand by your side when hardest pressed, whom would you choose?"
"I would choose him," answered the girl without hesitation.
"After all, is n't that enough? You would trust him to fight an eternity as he has fought for you these few days. Twice he staked his life for you--once his good name."
"All the more precious the time that was left."
"Yet he did this and further risked what was left to save an unknown messenger boy."
"Then he came to you like a man and told what you might never have discovered, just because he wished to stand clean before you."