“Yes, because my guardian does not pay for my schooling any longer.”
“Gracious goodness! Your guardian seems to me to be a thorough scoundrel.”
“Then you know—-”
“What?”
“Oh! don’t ask me to tell you that!—but I would rather die than find myself alone with him again.”
“And why did you not write to me?”
“I was watched.”
At this instant I formed a resolve which nothing in this world could have induced me to change. I did, indeed, have some idea that I might be acting contrary to law; but I did not give myself the least concern about that idea. And, being firmly resolved, I was able to be prudent. I acted with remarkable coolness.
“Jeanne,” I asked, “tell me! does that room you are in open into the court-yard?”
“Yes.”