Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/204

194 you I shall make no new affections. Why have you turned against me? The loneliness is horrible."

There was silence for a moment, then one man leant forward to strike a match, and, shielding it with his fingers to keep it alight, he turned his shoulder to the young man. Edward thought he meant it as a snub. The truth was, the man was trying to break an awkward silence, and his movement was only to hide from the gaze he felt fasten on his face.

"You, General! do not turn away from me. For God's sake, what have I done?"

The old man knocked the dead ashes from his pipe.

"What have you done?" He looked round at his companions as if for an answer. "I don't know that you have exactly done anything."

Edward flushed with fresh anger.

"Out with it! What have I done?" He spoke roughly. "Why have you all avoided me?"

"Have the others avoided you?" The old man looked around him. "I did not know. If I avoided you it was unknown to myself—at