"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?"