“Would it not be wrong in me to abandon the poor old man to the mercy of Miss Brandon and her accomplices?”
“You will never be able to rescue him, my dear fellow.”
“I ought at least to try. You thought so yesterday, and even this morning, not two hours ago.”
Maxime could scarcely hide his impatience.
“I did not know then what I know now,” he said.
Daniel had risen, and was walking up and down the small room, replying to his own objections, rather than to those raised by Brevan.
“If I were alone master,” he said, “I might, perhaps, agree to a capitulation. But could Henrietta accept it? Never, never! Her father knows her well. She is as weak as a child; but at the proper moment she can develop a masculine energy and an iron will.”
“Why should you tell her at all who Miss Brandon is?”
“I have pledged my word of honor to tell her every thing.”
Brevan again shrugged his shoulders, and there was no mistaking what he meant by that gesture. He might just as well have said aloud, “Can one conceive such stupidity?”