“And so I am; but I want the world to be so, too.”
“Ah; now you ask too much! The finger of suspicion never forgets the way it has once pointed,” she sadly answered. “My name is tainted forever.”
“And you will submit to this, when a word—”
“I am thinking that any word of mine now would make very little difference,” she murmured.
I looked away, the vision of Mr. Fobbs, in hiding behind the curtains of the opposite house, recurring painfully to my mind.
“If the affair looks as bad as you say it does,” she pursued, “it is scarcely probable that Mr. Gryce will care much for any interpretation of mine in regard to the matter.”
“Mr. Gryce would be glad to know where you procured that key, if only to assist him in turning his inquiries in the right direction.”
She did not reply, and my spirits sank in renewed depression.
“It is worth your while to satisfy him,” I pursued; “and though it may compromise some one you desire to shield——”
She rose impetuously. “I shall never divulge to any one how I came in possession of that key.” And sitting again, she locked her hands in fixed resolve before her.