Had Maggie, too, been a spellbound witness of that elfin spring into the river? Had she seen all? And what was the significance of Karl’s weary cry: “I knew it had ended?” I glanced at him again, but his head was bowed, his face hidden by his hands. Silence was best, just then. CHAPTER XV THE OTHER WOMAN Where grown men are concerned--men of the Anglo-Saxon breed, that is--emotion cannot be other than spasmodic. I have seen a gentlemanly convict conduct himself with great dignity during the march to the scaffold. It was not, poor devil, that he did not fear death, nor that it was a grateful thing to be dropped ignominiously out of life on a June morning, but rather that he, after breaking many of his country’s laws, obeyed the one inflexible social edict which regulates good and bad “form.” Therefore, with a wry grimace when he emerged from the whitewashed corridor, and saw that his earthly pilgrimage would end near the further wall of a small courtyard, he carried himself with a composure far beyond that manifested by any other member of the melancholy procession. A criminal in one instinct, he was a man in all the rest. I suppose the real wrench had come and gone weeks before. Now, I had no knowledge of the torture Karl had undergone until he turned towards me again, and I found a gravity in his face which had not been there before. Since that morning two little lines had developed between his eyebrows at the junction of nose and forehead. That is nature’s way of minting her crude gold--just a touch of the finger of experience, no matter if the agony be of soul or body, and there is no machine can stamp its token more indelibly. “Maggie’s message is her last word to me,” he said. “She means that she will endeavor never to see or hear from me again.” Even his father was troubled by the marked restraint in his voice, but I felt that the mere effort of discussion would be helpful. “That is a blank impossibility,” I cried. “You two will find each other whether you like it or not. You did so before and you will do it again. The settlement is not in your hands, unless I err greatly.” “You do not understand,” said Karl. “Perhaps you may meet her sometime. Please tell her what I have said. Let it rest at that.” “If you mean that all this tomfoolery is going to stop here and now I am heartily glad of it,” broke in his father. “Had I been aware of what was going on it would have been ended long since. Good gracious! what was this unfortunate fellow, Constantine, to us that we should bother our heads about him? I assure you, Karl, that the only thing which troubles me is the fear lest this latter-day witchcraft of yours may not be interfering with your work if not actually undermining your health.”