“She will tell me to go. The tribes are as much her people as mine—more so, indeed. I am going to tell her now.”
He clambered down the ruined staircase, found Fitz and told him briefly what he wanted of him, and then went to Georgia’s room, where he set himself to catch her with guile—a process which, as he ought to have known, had not the faintest chance of success.
“Do you remember the last time I went away, Georgie?” he asked, as he sat down beside her.
Georgie looked up at him with a thrill of alarm. “Do you think I could ever forget it, Dick? Not if I lived for hundreds of years.”
“We almost quarrelled, didn’t we? You were in the right, of course—I knew it all along, but I had to go. You don’t like me to go out treaty-breaking, do you?”
“No.” Her voice was almost inaudible.
“But it’s all right if I go treaty-making, isn’t it? just to get the tribes to feel what fools they’ve been, and make them see reason?”
“Oh, Dick, must you go? so soon? and you have been away so long!”
“You jump at things so suddenly,” lamented Dick. “I wanted to break it gently to you.”
“My dear stupid boy, do you think I don’t know your way of breaking things gently yet?”