"To-morrow is Sunday."
"Can you think of a better way to kill it?"
"Yes, you might have me down here for an old-fashioned midday dinner."
"Capital! Why not stay for supper, too?"
"It would be too much like spending a day with relatives," she said. "We'll go treasure hunting on Monday. I haven't the faintest notion where to look, but that shouldn't make any difference. No one else ever had. By the way, Mr. Smart, I have a bone to pick with you. Have you seen yesterday's papers? Well, in one of them, there is a long account of my—of Mr. Pless's visit to your castle, and a lengthy interview in which you are quoted as saying that he is one of your dearest friends and a much maligned man who deserves the sympathy of every law-abiding citizen in the land."
"An abominable lie!" I cried indignantly. "Confound the newspapers!"
"Another paper says that your fortune has been placed at his disposal in the fight he is making against the criminally rich Americans. In this particular article you are quoted as saying that I am a dreadful person and not fit to have the custody of a child."
"Good Lord!" I gasped helplessly.
"You also expect to do everything in your power to interest the administration at Washington in his behalf."
"Well, of all the—Oh, I say, Countess, you don't believe a word of all this, do you?"