"It does not follow that no one is ever in the right!" returned
Donal. "Does your lordship think you were in the right--either
towards me or the poor animal who could not obey you because he was
in torture?"
"I don't say I do."
"Then everybody does not think himself in the right! I take your
lordship's admission as an apology."
"By no means: when I make an apology, I will do it; I will not sneak
out of it."
He was evidently at strife with himself: he knew he was wrong, but
could not yet bring himself to say so. It is one of the poorest of
human weaknesses that a man should be ashamed of saying he has done
wrong, instead of so ashamed of having done wrong that he cannot
rest till he has said so; for the shame cleaves fast until the
confession removes it.
Forgue walked away a step or two, and stood with his back to Donal,
poking the point of his stick into the grass. All at once he turned
and said:
"I will apologize if you will tell me one thing."
"I will tell you whether you apologize or not," said Donal. "I have
never asked you to apologize."
"Tell me then why you did not return either of my blows yesterday."
"I should like to know why you ask--but I will answer you: simply
because to do so would have been to disobey my master."
"That's a sort of thing I don't understand. But I only wanted to
know it was not cowardice; I could not make an apology to a coward.
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