“My darling, the disgrace exists whether it be public or private. After all, the Professor is no relation.”
“No. But everyone knows that I am his step-daughter.”
“Everyone,” echoed Archie, with an assumed lightness. “My dear, everyone in this instance only means the handful of people who live in this out-of-the-way village. Your name will not appear in the papers. And even if by chance it does, you will soon be changing it for mine. I think the best thing that can be done is for you to come with me to London next week and marry me. Then we can go to the south of France for the rest of the winter, until you recover. When we return and set up house in London—say in a year—the whole affair will be forgotten.”
“But how can you bear to marry me, when you know that I come of such a bad stock?” wept Lucy, a trifle more comforted.
“My dear, must I remind you again that you are no relation to Professor Braddock; you have not a drop of his wicked blood in your veins. And even if you had, I should still marry you. It is you I love, and you I marry, so there is no more to be said. Come, darling, say that you will become my wife next week.”
“But the Professor?”
Archie smiled grimly. He found it difficult to forgive Braddock for the disgrace he had brought on the girl.
“I don't think we'll ever be troubled again with the Professor,” he said, after a pause. “He has bolted into the unknown with that infernal Kanaka.”
“But why did he fly, Archie?”
“Because he knew that the game was up. Mrs. Jasher wrote out this confession, and told Cockatoo, when he entered the room to get the emerald, that she had written it. To save his master the Kanaka stabbed the wretched woman, and, had Random and I not arrived, he would have secured the confession. I really believe he came back again out of the mist in the small hours of the morning to steal it. But when he found that all was vain, he returned here and told the Professor that the story of the murder had been written out. Therefore there was nothing left to Braddock but to fly. Although,” added Hope, with an afterthought, “I can't imagine why those two fugitives should drag that confounded mummy with them.”