“Then it is for you to find the solution.”
“I can probably do that if I can communicate with him.”
“Shall I order the carriage again?”
Checkmate again, and I tossed up my hands in hopeless perplexity.
She was obviously resolved that I should hear all she had to say, and I was equally determined, knowing the worse than futility of the thing, not to listen to her; and there we sat, in a contest of wills and wits, until the absurd side of the position began to appeal to me.
“It seems to me you are resolved to make me a prisoner.”
“On the contrary, monsieur, the door is open, and a carriage ready at your instant command. If you remain, it is by your own desire, and of your own free will.”
“Free will, when you place an impossible barrier in the way of my going? So long as I remain here you will not part with those papers?”
“So long as the hope remains that you will hear me and do me justice.”
“The thing is so preposterous.”