He laughed.
"If I do, my dear, you don't think I shall be such a fool as to tell you who she is. Do you suppose that no woman has ever fallen in love with me before you? But then, my pretty, you see I don't talk about them; and do you suppose—oh, Lotty, are you such a fool as to suppose that you are the first girl I ever fell in love with?"
"What do you want me to do? Tell me again."
"I have told you already. I want you to become, for the time, the daughter of the man who died in America; you will claim your inheritance; I will provide you with all the papers; I will stand by you; I will back you up with such a story as will disarm all suspicion. That is all."
"Yes. I understand. Haven't people been sent to prison for less, Joe?"
"Foolish people have. Not people who are well advised and under good management. Mind you, this business is under my direction. I am boss."
She made no reply, but took her candle and went off to bed.
In the dead of night she awakened her husband.
"Joe," she said, "is it true that you know another girl who would do this for you?"