“Oh, you know! He’s been keeping this whole thing quiet to shelter you. There’s something new come up—I’ve tried to deal with it, and perhaps I’ve failed; I can’t tell yet. But I wasn’t willing to take any risk, so I wired for him.”
“Do you mean you’re asking him to do something more—to sacrifice something more for my sake?”
“My dear girl, don’t worry. He answered the telegram, but he hasn’t come.”
She had risen from her seat, but now she sank back into it again with a sigh of relief.
“I’m so glad!”
He began to walk about the room in his usual restless way.
“You won’t be later on!” he muttered.
She forced herself to speak then.
“If you mean it’s about that—about what happened down there—I think I’d rather it were known. I’d rather pay for it in some way, Arthur, than to feel that any one was protecting us, saving us as an act of mercy.”
“You didn’t do it!” he retorted dryly.