"When I accepted my commission in the army did I lose my rights as a human being, sir?" "Don’t talk to me about losing your rights. In the face of duty an officer loses father and mother, wife and child. According to the King’s regulations, you are a soldier first, remember." "No, sir; according to the King’s regulations I am first of all a man." The General bridled his gathering anger and answered— "Of course you can ask for a written order—if you wish to avoid the danger of blame." "I wish to avoid the danger of doing wrong, sir," said Gordon, and then, glancing towards his father, he added, "Let me feel that I’m fighting for the right. An English soldier cannot fight without that." "Then I ask you as an English soldier if you refuse to obey my order?" repeated the General. But Gordon, still with his face towards his father, said— "Wherever the English flag flies men say, ’Here is justice.’ That’s something to be proud of. Don’t let us lose it, sir." "I ask you again," said the General, "if you refuse to obey my order?" "I have done wrong things without knowing them," said Gordon, "but when you ask me to——" "England asks you to obey your General—will you do it?" said General Graves, and then Gordon faced back to him, and in a voice that rang through the room he said— "No, not for England will I do what I _know_ to be wrong." At that the Consul-General waved his hand and said, "Let us have done," whereupon General Graves, who was now violently agitated, touched a hand-bell on the desk, and when his servant appeared, he said— "Tell my daughter to come to me." Not a word more was spoken until light footsteps were heard approaching and Helena came into the room, with a handkerchief in her hand, pale as if she had been crying and breathless as if she had been running hard. The three old gentlemen rose and bowed to her as she entered, but Gordon, whose face had frowned when he heard the General’s command, rose and sat down again without turning in her direction. "Sit down, Helena," said the General, and Helena sat. "Helena, you will remember that I asked you if you could marry an officer who for disobedience to his General—and that General your father—had been court-martialled and perhaps degraded?" In a scarcely audible voice Helena answered, "Yes." "Then tell Colonel Lord what course you will take if by his own deliberate act that misfortune should befall him." A hot blush mounted to Helena’s cheeks, and looking at the hem of her handkerchief she said— "Gordon knows already what I would say, father. There is no need to tell him." Then the General turned back to Gordon. "You hear?" he said. "I presume you understand Helena’s answer. For the sake of our mutual peace and happiness I wished to give you one more chance. The issue is now plain. Either you obey your General’s order or you renounce all hope of his daughter—which is it to be?" The young man swallowed his anger and answered—