“I am sorry I was done out of a visit from you,” he returned. He signaled to his man to wait, and followed her into the little library where only the evening before Vickers had had his interview with Nuñez.
She shut the door, and though she smiled a little as she did so, plainly it was only to relieve the effect of her fateful manner.
“It wasn’t going to be just a friendly call,” she said. “I have something to tell you, and I hate to say it.” She hesitated and then went on again. “You have been very kind to Bob, Mr. Overton.”
Overton’s conscience gave a twinge. Did she know that he had advised his escape? “Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said. “I have had an extraordinary amount of pleasure out of his company.”
“He is a pleasant companion,” said the girl, “but I do not know whether you know much about his real self.”
Overton laughed. “Why, Miss Nellie,” he said, “I was just thinking that same thing about you.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “of course it must be absurd to you for me to be offering advice, considering your knowledge of the world and my ignorance——”
“Knowledge of the world,” said Overton, “is not entirely a matter of experience. I should often prefer to trust the opinion of the most innocent women to that of experienced men. Am I to understand that you entirely distrust your cousin?”
How was it possible that she could be ignorant of Vickers’s escape? Or had it failed?
“No,” answered Nellie. “I don’t distrust him entirely. But you see in small superficial things Bob has such unusually nice qualities that one forgets. Last night when my uncle was taken ill——”