"Well, I think it is nonsense of you to think of leaving the
regiment. There is work to be done here. There is the work of
punishing men who have committed the most atrocious crimes. There
is the work of winning back India for England. Every Englishman out
here, who can carry a weapon, ought to remain at his post until the
work is done.

"As to this wound of mine, that is a matter between us only. As I
have told you, I have altogether forgiven you, and am not even
disposed greatly to blame you, thinking, as you did, that I was
responsible for that poor girl's flight. I shall never mention it
to a soul. I have already put it out of my mind, therefore it is as
if it had never been done, and there is no reason whatever why you
should shrink from companionship with your comrades. I shall think
much better of you for doing your duty like a man, than if you went
home again and shrank from it."

"You are too good, sir, altogether too good."

"Nonsense, man. Besides, you have to remember that you have not
gone unpunished. Had it not been for your feeling, after you had,
as you believed, killed me, you never would have stood and let that
Sepoy shoot you; so that all the pain that you have been going
through, and may still have to go through before you are quite
cured, is a punishment that you have yourself accepted. After a man
has once been punished for a crime there is an end of it, and you
need grieve no further over it; but it will be a lesson that I hope
and believe you will never forget.