“Why not?” she asked. “It’s true you have already tried both ways—and failed; but that is no assurance of the future. The second, or some other try may win.”
A tolerant smile crossed his lips. “And meanwhile, of course, the American would wait patiently to be killed.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “You seem to have forgot that steel vests do not protect the head; and that several swords might penetrate a guard which one could not.”
“Surely,” he exclaimed, “surely, you must have loved this man!”
She put his words aside with a wave of her hand.
“My advice is quite impersonal,” she said—“and it is only trite advice at that, as you know. You have yourself considered it already scores of times, and have been deterred only by the danger to yourself.”
He laughed. “I’m glad you cannot go over to my enemies. You read my mind too accurately.”
“Nonsense,” she retorted; “Armand knows it quite as well as I, though possibly he may not yet have realized how timid you have grown.”
“Timid!”
She nodded. “Yes, timid; you had plenty of nerve at first, when the American came; but it seems to have run to water.”