In one sense these had already slain him. His individuality was gone. He would be no more what once he was. His pride, so strong, so vivid, as essential an element of his being as his breath, as his soul, had been done to death. It had been a noble endowment, despite its exactions, and maintained high standards and sought finer issues. It had died with the woe of a thousand deaths, that calumny should touch his name; that accusation could ever find a foothold in his life; that treachery should come to investigation in his deeds. She rather wondered at his calmness, the self-possession expressed in his manner, his face. He had himself well in hand. He was not nervous. His haggard pallor told what the sleepless hours of self-communing brought to him, yet he was strong enough to confront the future. He would give battle to the false charge, the lying circumstance, the implacable phalanxes of the probabilities. The truth was intrinsically worth fighting for, in any event, and even now his heart could swell with the conviction that the truth could only demonstrate the impeccancy of his official record. He met her with that grave, conventional, inexpressive courtesy which had always characterized him, and it was a little difficult, in her unusual flutter and agitation, to find a suitable beginning. She had seated herself in the library at the table where she had written the note, and she was mechanically trifling with an ivory paper-knife, the portfolio and paper still lying before her. He took a chair near at hand and waited, not seeking to inaugurate the conversation. "I sent for you, Captain Baynell, because I have heard something--there are rumors--" He did not take the word from her, nor help her out. He sat quietly waiting. "In short, I think you ought to know that I overheard all that passed between you and Julius Roscoe on the stairs that morning." Captain Baynell's rejoinder surprised her. "Then he was really in the house?" he said meditatively. "Oh, yes,--though I did not know it till he dashed past me in the hall. Two minutes had not elapsed since you had left me here standing by the table." She detailed the circumstances, and when she had finished speaking he thanked her simply, and said that the facts would be of value to him. "I thought you ought to know them, hearing Colonel Ashley describe the various rumors afloat--but, but these--they--they will soon die out?" She looked at him appealingly. He did not answer immediately. Then-- "I shall be court-martialled," he said succinctly. Her heart seemed almost to stand still in the presence of this great threat, yet she strove against its menace. "Of course I know this is serious, and must trouble all your friends," she said vaguely. "But doubtless--doubtless there will be an acquittal."