“I can have no confidence in one who holds me enslaved as you do.”
“And yet I have come here at considerable risk and personal inconvenience to give you warning.”
“Because you fear discovery yourself.”
“No,” he laughed; “I’m quite safe. I merely came here to make two suggestions to you. One I have already made, namely, that you should marry Chetwode without delay. And the other—”
He paused, as though to accurately gauge the extent of his power over her.
“Well? Go on. I am all attention.”
“The other is that you should, as before, render me a trifling assistance in a little matter I have in hand which, if successfully carried out, will place both of us for ever beyond the reach of La Gioia’s vengeance.”
“Another scheme?” she cried wearily. “Well, what is it? Some further dastardly plot or other, no doubt. Explain it.”
“No; you are under a misapprehension,” he responded quickly. “The affair is no dastardly plot, but merely a little piece of ingenuity by which we may outwit La Gioia.”
“Outwit her!” she cried. “The very devil himself could not outwit La Gioia.”