“She threatened to have the servants throw me out!” he groaned. And her slight, tense figure rose before him, and her voice, still the voice of young girlhood, rang in his ears. As she read the threatening message from Kildare he had noted the fineness of her hands, the curve of her fair cheek, the wayward curls on her forehead, and he remembered all these things now, but more than anything else her wrath, the tiny fists, the flashing eyes as she confronted him. As he sat dejectedly on his park bench he was unaware that Miss Geraldine Dangerfield, walking hurriedly through the park on her way from the governor’s mansion to the state house, passed directly behind him. His attitude was so eloquent of despair that it could not have failed to move a much harder heart than that of Miss Dangerfield, yet she made no sign; but a few minutes later the private secretary came out on the steps of the state house, and after a brief survey of the landscape crossed the lawn and called Ardmore by name.
“I beg your pardon, but Miss Dangerfield wished me to say that she’d like to see you for a minute. She’s at the governor’s office.”
A prisoner, sentenced to death, and unexpectedly reprieved with the rope already on his neck, could not experience greater relief than that which brought Mr. Thomas Ardmore to his feet.
“You are sure of it—that there’s no mistake?”
“Certainly not. Miss Dangerfield told me I was to bring you back.”
Enthroned at the secretary’s desk, a mass of papers before her, Miss Geraldine Dangerfield awaited him. He was ready to place his head on the block in sheer contrition for his conduct, but she herself took the initiative, and her tone was wholly amiable.
“This morning, Mr. Ardmore——”
“Oh, please forget this morning!” he pleaded.
“But I was rude to you; I threatened to have you thrown out of the house; and you had come to do us a favour.”
“Miss Dangerfield, I cannot lie to you. You are one of the most difficult persons to lie to that I have ever met. I didn’t come to Raleigh just to warn your father that his life was threatened. I can’t lie to you about that——”