"I am sure, Mrs. Allingford," he said, "that your good sense, which has carried you through so much this afternoon, will show you the necessity of acting as I have suggested. You must not forget that you are now a married woman, and can do things which before were not permissible."
"Still," she contended, "to go to a public hotel with a gentleman who is a comparative stranger, and pass the night there, seems to me not the thing at all; and if we were recognised by anybody——" She paused, hardly knowing how to complete her sentence.
"Then go alone. There are other hotels; I will put up somewhere else," he replied.
"No, no, I couldn't be left alone; I've never been alone before in my life. That would be worse than all else. You see, if you were only related to me it would be so different."
"I am quite willing to pass myself off as any relation you please, for the sake of appearances."
"But that would be deceitful."
"I think the exigencies of the case will excuse that; besides, it is my own affair, not yours. Will you have me as a brother for one night only?" he asked, laughing.
"But I have no brother," she replied.
"Then as your husband's brother," he suggested; "that would be better still, as he is an American and not known here."
"Do you really think it best?"