“Oh, me—I do not run any risk. Your safety was the essential thing. But I’m afraid that you won’t be able to walk far.”
“I haven’t far to walk. Yesterday my father brought me to stay with one of my friends; and he is to fetch me to-morrow.”
“Is it near here?”
“Yes.”
“Well, say no more about it. Any information you give will be used against you.”
He conducted her to the door and told Leonard to unlock the padlock and open the gate.
When Leonard had done so, Ralph said to Clarice: “Be prudent, and fear nothing, absolutely nothing, either on your own account or on mine. We shall meet again when the right hour strikes; and it will not be long striking whatever be the obstacles which separate us now.”
He shut the door after her. Clarice was saved.
Then he had the cheek to say: “What an adorable creature!”