"I talked the matter over with the girl, and she is undecided."
Sir Donald responds, "About what?"
"She does not understand what you mean by your references to some one who may be suspected of murder and to some loved one whose happiness might be promoted by disclosures."
Sir Donald replies:
"These are matters I will not discuss further."
The man irritably responds:
"Then we decline to talk any more upon the subject. You are welcome to your delusion."
Here Sir Donald grows indignant.
"Alice Webster is alive and subject to your control. Through your advice she has left this house, intending to evade discovery. You are both watched. I know facts which would overjoy Alice. I may not confide them to either until her identity is confessed and her conduct explained. I have no desire to reveal a single fact about her escape from the Thames or her strange concealment, until she can be protected. I doubt not Alice feels regrets for the past. It is positively known that she had nothing to do with the assault upon Oswald Langdon. An eye-witness to this crime saw Alice and Oswald both fall into the river. Fully confide in me, and I will aid you in recovery of the big estate taken from Alice by Pierre Lanier. Do this without explicit pledges of any kind. I make no promises."
The stranger hesitates.