Donal knew.

Donal knew everything." He was a man who had lived through tragedy but that had been long ago.
Since then he had only known the things of the world.

He had seen struggles and tricks and paltry craftiness.

He had known of women caught in traps of folly and passion and weakness and had learned how terror taught them to lie and shift and even show abnormal cleverness.

Above all he knew exactly what the world would say if a poor wretch of a girl told a story like this of a youngster like Donal--when he was no longer on earth to refute it.
And yet if these wild things were true, here in a wintry wood she sat a desolate and undefended thing--with but one thought.