“You are a good man, Mr Harley,” she had said, “and I know you would have helped me if you could.”
“Yes, she has been most friendly ever since,” he mused, “and her behaviour last night at the party was all that could have been desired.”
Still, he argued, she was a Malay, and all this might have been to serve as a blind to her future acts. She must feel very bitter, and, with all an Eastern’s cunning, she must have been nursing up her wrath till an opportunity occurred for revenge.
This, perhaps, would be that revenge.
“No,” he said, “it was childish;” and he felt directly after that he was maligning a really amiable woman.
He ended by thinking that he could judge her by her acts. If she were innocent of all complicity in the abduction of Helen—if abduction it was—she would come and display her sympathy to her English friends in this time of trouble.
“What do you think, Miss Stuart?” he said, leading her into the opening of a window. “The Inche Maida has cause of complaint against us. Do you think she has had anything to do with getting Helen away?”
“No, I’m certain she has not,” cried Grey, flushing warmly. “She is too good and true a woman.”
“Do you think she likes Helen?” asked the Resident.
“No, I think she dislikes her,” replied Grey; “but she could not be guilty of such a crime as you suggest.”