Patricia started back in real horror. This, then, was the confirmation of her very worst fears.
"But you—" she stammered. "Surely you are not one of them? You said you were a Belgian."
Virginie nodded lifelessly. "I am truly a Belgian—but I am their helpless tool."
"But your aunt?" cried Patricia, still unconvinced. "Surely Madame Vanderpoel is a Belgian too. Why does she not protect you? Is she, too, in their power?"
Virginie shuddered. "Madame Vanderpoel is no Belgian. She is a German by birth—and at heart. She married my mother's brother,—he is now dead,—and she lived for many years in our country and was to all outward appearance a Belgian. But she has been secretly, all these years, in the service of the German spy system. I never dreamed of such a thing myself, nor did my father, till she had brought me away to England and America and had me completely in her power."
A great light suddenly dawned on Patricia. Here was the explanation of many curious incidents that had happened at the hotel. But bewilderment on some points still possessed her.
"Madame Vanderpoel seemed very kind to you though, Virginie?" she ventured. "And you treated her rather abominably at times, if I must say so. Yet she never reproached you or said anything unpleasant."
"She was very kind to me in public—yes. But what she did and said to me in private, I would wish never to tell you."
"Well, but, Virginie, there is one thing I still cannot seem to understand!" cried Patricia. "You say that Madame Vanderpoel has you completely in her power. That seems unthinkable to me, especially here in free America. What is to prevent you from running away from her, from giving yourself up to the proper authorities, from informing them about her and having her and all the rest of them put in prison? You surely have had plenty of opportunity to do that. Has it never occurred to you?"
Virginie seemed fairly to shrink into herself at this suggestion. "Oh, you do not understand!" she moaned. "There is something else, something more terrible than you have any idea of. Gladly, only too gladly would I do as you suggest. Indeed, I would have done it long ago. I would have done it even had it meant my own death. But the safety of one I love depends wholly on my complete obedience to her—to them."