"Even to the point of giving you away, if you don't play fairly," she answered, in deadly earnest. "At your suggestion, he consented to a truce for a week—"
"It was Collins who suggested it."
"No matter; it is all the same; the proposal came from your side. One can't honourably employ a truce in laying mines for one's enemy."
Lord Vernon was looking straight ahead. There was now no trace of amusement in his face.
"You are quite right, Miss Rushford," he said. "I release you from any engagement with either me or Collins to keep our secret. Let me tell you, I've protested more than once, but I'm no longer a free agent in regard to this thing, and I have to see it through. The very worst moment of all was when Markeld came up to my rooms and apologised for suspecting me. I tell you, I felt like a worm, and a particularly nasty one, at that. It will be my turn to apologise before long; and I won't feel quite easy in my conscience till I do."
Susie had listened wide-eyed, and had stolen a glance, once or twice, at his set face. There could be no doubting his utter sincerity, and it softened her, as sincerity always softens a woman.
"Of course," she said, more gently, "I shan't give you away unless I see that the Prince is being treated unfairly. Let things drift for a week, since he has consented to a truce—don't do anything against him." The words were spoken almost pleadingly.
"Oh, it isn't I who will do anything," retorted Lord Vernon, sharply. "I'm not quite such a cur as that. Don't you understand, Miss Rushford—the thing is out of my hands—is quite beyond my control. I'm not the one responsible for the undercurrent, if there is one. If anything happens, it won't be through any act of mine—it will be in spite of me."
"But I thought—"
"You thought the foreign secretary was the whole thing? Well, he isn't! There's a dozen other members of the cabinet, more or less, to mix in, and, when all's said, the premier has to approve, and after that the Queen. And all of us are more or less afraid of the press, to say nothing of the House of Commons, where the opposition is always trying to put us in an awkward corner. So our motives are usually pretty mixed, and it's very rarely that we can do just as we'd like to do."