“You have endured everything but death for me since last night,” she said, looking up at him. She spoke so low Masterson could not hear it above the beat of the rain on the window. But he could see the slight bend of Monroe’s head and the smile with which he said:
“Well––since it was for you!”
“Oh, do not jest now, and do not think I shall allow it to go on,” she said, appealingly. “I have been waiting for help, but I shall wait no longer;” she pointed to the paper on the table, “Colonel McVeigh will have a written statement of who did the work just as soon as I can write it, and you shall be freed.”
“Take care!” he said, warningly; “an avowal now might only incriminate you––not free me. There are complications you can’t be told––”
“But I must be told!” she interrupted. “What is there concerning me which you both conspire to hide? He shall free you, no matter what the result is to me; did you fancy I should let you go away under suspicion? But, that picture! You must make that clear to me. Listen, I will confess 382 to you, too! I have wronged him––Colonel McVeigh––it has been all a mistake. I can never atone, but”––and her voice sank lower, “it was something about that picture made him angry just now, the thought I had given you some picture. I––I can’t have him think that––not that you are my lover.”
“Suppose it were so––would that add to the wrongs you speak of?” His voice was almost tender in its gentleness, and his face had a strange expression, as she said: “Yes, it would, Captain Jack.”
“You mean, then––to marry him?”
Something in the tenseness of his tones, the strange look of anxiety in his eyes, decided her answer.
“I mean that I have married him.”
She spoke so softly it was almost a whisper, but if it had been trumpet-like he could not have looked more astonished. His face grew white, and he took a step backward from her. Masterson, who noticed the movement, walked down to the desk, where he could hear. Margeret was nearer to them than he. All he heard was Madame Caron asking if Captain Monroe would not now agree that she should see the picture since it was necessary to defend herself.