"My courage was there, but my point of view was warped; I was out of focus on duty," he quietly asserted. "She married the other fellow, and it developed too late that his life was a shabby muss. Now her eyes are heavy with an endless sorrow. I think that was when I tried--well, when I began drinking some." "Wouldn't you have done that anyway?" she asked. "Perhaps," he slowly answered. "If he had not married her, and she were here now, would you?" "Not since you are here," he debonairly smiled. She might not have heard this from the way she sat, looking down and thinking. "I suppose," she said at last, "that all men's lives are shabby musses. You may think me unkind, but without a shadow of doubt you would have made her unhappy, too. You are that type." "I'm very much obliged to you," he murmured. "It seems that I've come to a friend, and found a judge; that my search for sympathy has brought me to a sentence. You're most encouraging, Jane. Perhaps it would be interesting to know how you've found all this out!" "Oh, I can't say just how," she answered, feeling that his rebuke held more than a share of justice. "It comes from so many small things, which, apart, might be immaterial, but, together, speak volumes and make you quite an impossible quantity in the scheme of domesticity. For instance, the other day, when you had someone's gun in your hands, you deliberately fired at an overflying woodpecker to test your skill. The dead bird was useless. That showed the instinct of a wanton destroyer, and a wanton destroyer, my friend, is not just the safest place for a girl's happiness." "How do you know I wasn't keeping in practice, in order to become a good protector?" he murmured, but she was not in the mood for flippancy, and continued: "You shirk responsibilities, and have that dear old Colonel drinking more than he has done in years; while your own hedonism is shocking." "Well, why not?" he looked up suddenly. "If pleasure's my god, whose business is it?" "Pride's," she softly answered. "It's the business of Pride, that makes all male human beings men. Girls know, without having to reason, that a man who is lacking in pride is lacking in self respect, and is unworthy of himself; which means he is unworthy of anyone else. That may not be very clear, but it's what I mean. If Dale, now, had the surveying of your road, we could feel certain of it; or if you had more self control like him--though I suppose he was born with it!" He frowned, and she saw his teeth press hard upon his lower lip. Perhaps that was why she added: "See what a dependable man he is going to be!--what strength of character!"