"No. Because I know that you, in believing that, are mistaken."
She was silent a moment; her brown eyes never left his face. "Won't you let him go because I, a friend, ask it as a favour?"
"You are making it very hard for me," he said in genuine distress. "You know it's a duty to society to put such men where they can do no harm."
"Nothing can prevent your arresting him?" she asked slowly.
"It's my duty," he said.
Her face was turning gray with despair, when her eyes began to widen and her lips to part, and she drew in a long, slow breath and one hand crept up to her bosom. She looked about at David.
"Will you please wait for me in the library," she said; and she added immediately to Allen, "I'll give you bond for his return when you want him."
David bowed and left the room.
Helen caught the back of a chair. The hand above her heart pressed tightly. "You have left me but one thing more to say for him," she said in a low voice.
"And that?" asked Allen.