“Ay, but——”
“They will know that it will not affect you.”
He did not deny the statement, but for some time he drummed on the window with his fingers.
“That may be,” he said at length. “Yet I’ll not do it! And I’ll not let you do it. Instead, do you tell me where the man is and I will go to him myself. And I will tell no tales.”
“You will keep his secret?”
“I will.”
“But I will not do that!” she answered. And she laughed gaily in the reaction of her spirits. She knew in some subtle way that she was reinstated; that he would never think very badly of her again. And the knowledge that he trusted her was joy; she scarcely knew why. But, “I shall not do that!” she repeated. “Have you thought what will be the consequence to you if he be guilty? They will be three to one, and they will murder you.”
“And you think that I can let you run the risk?”
“There will be no risk for me. I am different.”
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I wish”—despairingly—“I wish to God I could believe it!”