“I’m so sorry — so dreadfully sorry. You must have had an awful time,” Simon tried to comfort her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rex helping Marie Lou back into the ’plane, and, realizing the immediate danger now that he knew Leshkin was somewhere on the scene, he looked apprehensively at the sky-line for signs of the big troop-carrier.
“The suspense! It was ’orrible,” Valeria Petrovna cried. “’Ow I live through the night I do not know. I wait... wait... wait in the lounge of the ’otel, praying for news. Then, at last, when I am worn out, the little one arrive! But why did you not tell me that you mean to leave me?”
“You didn’t tell me that you left my friends in prison to be shot — did you?”
“’Ow you know that?”
“Doesn’t matter much now, does it?”
“Oh, Simon, I ’ave been wrong about that. I know it! But what would you ’ave me do? I could not save you all!”
He frowned. “If only you had told me.”
“My brave one. You would ’ave run into awful danger to try an’ save your frien’s. It is you I love. I try to save you from yourself!”
“Well, let’s not say any more about it.”
“But, Simon, ’ow could you leave me without one word?”