The next morning she bought a small typewriter, of the sort which one can carry traveling, and took up Cynthia Gail’s correspondence. Neither the mail of that day nor the telephone presented to her any difficult problem; and she had no new callers. Indeed, except for Hubert Lennon, who “looked by”—as he spoke of it—just before noon, she encountered no one who had anything to say to her until, walking out early in the afternoon, she met upon the street the woman in gray who had given her the order about Gerry Hull on yesterday afternoon.
Ruth went a little weak with fright when the woman caught step beside her; but the woman at once surprised her with reassurance.
“Gerry Hull returns to France from here,” the woman informed abruptly. “He will be transferred to the American air service there; he will sail from New York probably on the Ribot next week. That is a passenger vessel, carrying cargo, of course; but not yet used for troop shipments. Passengers proceed as individuals. You will probably be allowed a certain amount of choice in selecting your ship. So you shall report at New York and endeavor to secure passage upon the Ribot. Understand?”
“Perfectly,” Ruth said.
“Your friendship with Gerry Hull will prove invaluable in France! Do nothing to jeopardize it! You have done with him, well! But you are in too much danger here; go East tonight; wait there.”
The woman went away. How much did she know about what had passed with Gerry Hull, Ruth wondered. She had seen, probably, that Ruth was with him again in the conservatory after his speech and that they had stayed there a long time together. She had done with him, well! She smiled woefully to herself; at least it seemed to have aided her that the Germans thought so.
It would have puzzled her more, certainly, if she had known that after the time when Gerry Hull and she forgot to whisper and forgot, indeed, everyone but themselves, the woman had heard almost every word which was said; and that the woman’s opinion of the girl who was playing the part of Cynthia Gail was that she was a very clever one to know enough and dare enough to take single and violent opposition to Gerry Hull. For the Germans, in preparation for this war, had made a most elaborate and detailed study of psychology of individuals and of nations. That study of nations has not shown conspicuously successful results; but their determination of factors which are supposed to influence individuals is said to have fared far better.
Their instructions to a woman—or a girl—who is commanded to make an impression upon a man inform that a girl in dealing with a weak character progresses most certainly and fastest by agreeing and complying; but when one has to do with a man of strong character, opposition and challenge to him bring the surest result.
Of course that is not an exclusively German discovery; and to act in accordance with it, one is not obliged to be truly a German spy and to know it from the tutorings of a German psychologist. Indeed, one does not have to know it at all; one need merely be a young girl, thoughtful and honest, as well as impulsive and of quick but deep passions, who admires and cares so very much for a young man who has talked serious things with her, that she cannot just say yes to his yes and no to his no, but must try at once to work out the difference between them.
Not to know it is hard on that girl, particularly when she is setting out upon an adventure which at once cuts her off from everyone whom she has known.