"I don't know what to do," she said undecidedly. "If I let you go, and your story turns out to be a lie, you'll have decamped of course when you're wanted. If I hand you over to the police, you'll be in safe keeping and——"
"It will mean a night in gaol, if you give me in charge at this hour," I interrupted, "in which case I shall certainly bring an action against you for false imprisonment."
"Yes," she said meditatively, walking over to a side-table and turning over some books as she spoke. "Yes, I suppose you would; and if your story is true I'm not sure that I should blame you if you did, for no one likes to be imprisoned when they've only told the truth. For the matter of that, I don't know that I shouldn't dislike the publicity of an action for false imprisonment more than you'd dislike the imprisonment; and my brother—there's no escape from that fact—would be furious with me for getting my name and his into the papers. I didn't believe a word of your story when I first heard it, but looking at you more closely, I must say that you don't look or talk like a liar, and I've a good mind to follow my instincts and trust you, after all."
The magnanimity of this sudden outburst of confidence in my integrity was somewhat lessened by the fact that, while affecting to turn over some books on the side-table, she had all the time been scanning an evening newspaper which lay neatly folded on the top of a pile of books. I had purchased a copy of the same journal earlier in the evening, and was well aware that a paragraph, describing the finding of the three bodies, was printed in large type at the top of the first page. Folded as the paper was, this paragraph was the most prominent item of news, and could scarcely fail to catch even a cursory eye.
Possibly the reading of the paragraph sufficiently confirmed my story to assist her to a decision.
"Come here, young man. I want to have a look at you," she said peremptorily, walking over to the light.
I obeyed, and for half a minute was subjected to the scrutiny of her keen but not unkindly eyes.
"That'll do!" she said, pushing me away testily. "I'm going to make a fool of myself; but anyhow, I'm going to trust you, fool or no fool. And now tell me what it is you want."
Some instinct told me that she was a woman to gain whose confidence one must give one's confidence. Looking her full in the face I made answer boldly:
"I want to marry your niece."