“Oh, Leslie, isn’t it awful? I never deliberately committed an act of deception before.”
“Why are you so sure that Landon is innocent?”
Avice’s eyes fell. “I’m not,” she said in a low tone. “But I want him cleared, anyway.”
“I wished you loved me like that!”
“I wish I did! But I don’t and never shall.”
“But I shall have you, darling and I’ll make you so happy you can’t help loving me. Avice, my only excuse for taking you this way, is my positive conviction that I can make you happy.”
“But you haven’t freed Kane yet—”
“He isn’t indicted yet, dear. Perhaps he never will be. Not if I can prevent it. But his freedom, sooner or later, will mean our marriage, so I shall accomplish it, somehow. With the boy out of the way, I ought to manage it. But that little chap is so shrewd, he might even see through that note you made up. You know he has an eye for details, and the paper is different from the sort your uncle used and McGuire might easily notice that. And if the least question were raised about that note’s genuineness, I fear it would go hard with us.”
“How clever, Leslie, to think of these things.”
“And you do love me a little, don’t you, my girl?”