“You have—well, if he is on a secret mission, as I expect he is, it may be that you may have placed those who desire to thwart its success in a position to do so.”
“Ah! Heaven! I never thought of that,” she cried in despair. “Now, I remember, the man spoke with a rather foreign accent.”
“Yes,” I said, severely. “By disobeying his injunctions you may have placed him in the hands of his enemies!” She sat silent, her hands clasped before her, and sighing heavily, she shuddered.
Then rising slowly she left me. I did not follow, for I saw she walked unevenly with bent head, in order to hide her emotion.
Chapter Fourteen.
The Deeper Indiscretion.
During a quarter of an hour I sat alone smoking a cigarette in thoughtful silence under the trellis, when suddenly I heard the sound of passionate voices on the other side of the ivy. Two persons had evidently seated themselves in close proximity to myself, and I was, so to speak, in the middle of a scene before I realised that I was listening.
“You shall not do this thing,” cried a woman’s voice. “By God! you shan’t—you shall listen to reason. He has been murdered, foully done to death, and—”