Royson. Something
told me that long ago. And that is why I was vexed with you for leaving
me this afternoon."
Dick's heart gave a great throb of joy, and his voice was somewhat
husky as he answered:
"I could not help myself. The Italian whom you and Captain Stump
noticed in the street was Alfieri. Mrs. Haxton saw him, too, and I
would never have believed that terror could alter a woman's face as it
altered hers. She begged of me to find von Kerber, and warn him, and I
thought, perhaps foolishly, that if I obeyed her wishes it might bring
about the very thing you and I most desire."
Irene did not reply immediately. She felt unaccountably timid.
"It is stupid of me, but I do not quite follow your meaning," she
volunteered at last.
"Well, you are anxious that this expedition should be abandoned, and I
ought to return to England, where I am in great demand, it seems, after
some years of scandalous neglect."
"Oh!" she said. "Is that it?"
There was another pause.
"But the fact that Mrs. Haxton, and not I, should be sitting here so--
so confidentially--does not explain how it comes about, does it?" she
went on.
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