“Von Plaanden wanted to challenge him, if he could find him. I suggested that he leave me to deal with Mr. Perkins. After some discussion, he agreed.”
“Oh! And what are you going to do with him?”
“Find him first, if I can.”
“I can tell you where.” Carroll stared at her, astonished. “But I don’t think I will.”
“He announced his intention of keeping out of my way. The man has no sense of shame.”
“You probably scared the poor lamb out of his wits, fire-eater that you are.”
Carroll would have liked to think so, but an innate sense of justice beneath his crust of prejudice forbade him to accept this judgment.
“The strange part of it is that he doesn’t impress me as being afraid. But there is certainly something very wrong with the fellow. A man who will deliberately desert a woman in distress”—Carroll’s manner expanded into the roundly rhetorical—“whatever else he may be, cannot be a gentleman.”
“There might have been mitigating circumstances.”
“No circumstances could excuse such an action. And, after that, the fellow had the effrontery to send you a message.”