“But you yourself do not think so.”

“My dear fellow, it is not for the private soldier to ask whether his sovereign has gone to war justly or unjustly.  It is his business to obey commands—­to kill, if need be—­according to his oath.”

“Why, you are taking the thing as a matter of course,” Lord Evelyn cried, indignantly.  “I cannot believe if possible yet!  And—­and if it were possible—­consider how I should upbraid myself:  it was I who led you into this affair, Brand.”

“Oh no,” said the other, absently.

He was staring into the smouldering fire; and for a second or two he sat in silence.  Then he said, slowly and thoughtfully,

“I am afraid I have led a very selfish life.  Natalie would not say so; she is generous.  But it is true.  Well, this will make some atonement.  She will know that I kept my word to her.  She gave me that ring, Evelyn.”

He held out his hand for a moment

“It was a pledge that I should never draw back from my allegiance to the Society.  Well, neither she nor I then fancied this thing could happen; but now I am not going to turn coward.  You saw me show the white feather, Evelyn, for a minute or two:  I don’t think it was about myself; it was about her—­and—­and one or two others.  You see our talking together has sent off all that nervous excitement; now we can speak about business—­”

“I will not—­I will not!” Evelyn said, still greatly moved.  “I will go to Lind himself.  I will tell him that no duty of this kind was ever contemplated by any one joining here.  It may be all very well for Naples or Sicily; it won’t do for the people on this side the Channel:  it will ruin his work:  he must appeal—­I will drive him to it!”

“My dear fellow,” Brand said, quietly, “I told you Lind has accepted the execution of this affair with reluctance.  He knows it will do our work—­well, my share in it will be soon over—­no good.  But in this business there in no appeal.  You are only a companion; you don’t know what stringent vows you have to undertake when you get into the other grades.  Moreover, I must tell you this thing to his credit.  He is not bound to take the risk of the ballot himself, but he did to-night.  It is all over and settled, Evelyn.  What is one man’s life, more or less?  People go to throw away hundreds of thousands of lives ’with a light heart.’  And even if this affair should give a slight shock to some of our friends here, the effect will not be permanent.  The organization is too big, too strong, too eager, to be really injured by such a trifle.  I want to talk about business matters now.”

“I won’t hear you—­I will not allow this,” Lord Evelyn protested, trembling with excitement.