“In the old days you used to call me Sadie.”
“But the old days are gone forever.”
These words were his last effort against the silken web which he felt entangling him, and he knew himself to be a brute for uttering them. Their effect upon the girl was instantaneous. She sank down by the table, flung her arms upon it, lowering her face upon them in a storm of weeping.
“Oh! not for me! not for me!” she cried between sobs. “You may forget the old days, and I see you have forgotten them. Leave me, then! leave me to my memories! Why, oh why did you seek to see me again?”
That settled it. He placed his hand upon her heaving shoulders and spoke soothingly to her.
Half an hour later Steele came out of the hotel and went direct to the American Consulate.
“Hullo, old man! what’s the matter with you?” cried James Stokes. “You are white as a ghost.”
“I’m all right. Didn’t sleep very well last night. See here, Stokes! I just called to say that I wish you would forget part of the conversation we had yesterday.”
“Easily done! Which part, for instance?”
“What I said with reference to Colonel Beck. I was mistaken about him. He has convinced me of that.”