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I suppose that a child which is caught in the very midst of some naughtiness feels pretty much as I did at that moment. There I stood, with the pistol hanging in my hand, first staring at Rose and then gradually dropping my gaze before the shocked and startled look which I saw in her eyes. Indeed, I felt remarkably ashamed of myself now that we had been interrupted, and did not think of the affair in the same light as before. When Rose came upon the scene Gascoyne was just about to speak, and he now stood staring at her, his lips still formed in readiness to give the word which might have sent me into another world on the instant. Seeing, however, that the affair was over, he drew himself up, and muttering, "A woman is always sure to spoil sport," he went over towards his principal, who still stood covering me with his pistol. Rose came across the thicket towards us. I knew she was looking first at one and then at the other, but I dare not look at her. I pretended to be examining the lock of my pistol.
"Gentlemen," said Rose, and I knew she was standing between us and again looking from one to the other with that gaze I dare not meet, "what is this you would have done? Fie upon you! Surely you do not call it manly to steal out here at this hour, as if you were thieves, so that you might fire at each other? Why, this is a coward's action."