“Ours is!” cried Maurice. “The plot thickens. Go on.”
“I believe she is a Scythian spy,” said Zoe calmly.
“Oh, draw it mild! That girl? I say, this fitting people with imaginary characters is all very well, but you have no right—— Do spies generally go about chaperoned by elderly aunts?”
“If it is her aunt. Why, Maurice, don’t you see? She has designs upon the document which the King’s messenger is in charge of, of course, and even the very youngest and greenest of King’s messengers would be suspicious of a fascinating unchaperoned young lady by this time.”
“Well, I should have said if she had designs on any one, it was on you.”
“Oh, that’s only a blind. No; I see it! She isn’t sure about the King’s messenger. He has effaced himself so carefully that she is wavering between you and him. My presence may be intended to divert suspicion from you, as the aunt’s is from her, and she will try to attack you by getting round me. Then in the night I shall catch her, with a dark lantern, ransacking my dressing-bag, because she will think I have the document concealed in it. There, Maurice!”
“If you must make up these idiotic things, you might as well try to put just a touch of probability into them.”
“Probability! Why, it’s all but certainty. Of course, she’s not a professional spy. She is some one of very high rank who has got herself into the power of the Scythian Government, either by gambling or by being mixed up in political movements. That explains why, with all her anxiety for our acquaintance, she was determined to keep me in my place. Don’t you know how gratified a City lady feels when she has been presented to Royalty at a bazaar? She tells all her friends how affable the dear Princess was, but that no one would dream of taking a liberty with her. I don’t in the least want to take liberties with Miss Edith Emily Smith, but she is afraid I might, and so she adopts this superior tone. Oh, Maurice, if she only knew! Isn’t it perfectly lovely to think of?”
“The waiter has been watching despairingly for your plate for some time,” said Maurice. “When you have quite finished, I shall be glad to go and get a smoke.”
“And you are to be sure and make friends with the King’s messenger, mind,” said Zoe, hastily finishing her dessert; but Maurice replied darkly, as he turned towards the smoking-car, that he would not promise.