One moment he hesitated, and then he pointed politely to the sofa.
"Go and sit down, please," he suggested. It was no more then a
courteous suggestion. "I shall remain here. I have no desire to
approach you--if you'll pardon my saying so."
But she would not leave the window.
"It is natural that you should be overwrought," he said.
"This is a damnable thing. You are too young to know the worst of
it."
"You are the worst of it!" she cried. "You."
"No" as the chill of his even voice struck her, she wondered if
he were really human. "Von Hillern would have been the worst of
it. I stopped him at the front door and knew how to send him away.
Now, listen, my good child. Hate me as ferociously as you like.
That is a detail. You are in the house of a woman whose name
stands for shame and infamy and crime."
"What are YOU doing in it--" she cried again, "--in a place where
girls are trapped-and locked up in top rooms--to be killed?"
"I came to take you away. I wish to do it quietly. It would be
rather horrible if the public discovered that you have spent some
hours here. If I had not slipped in when they were expecting von
Hillern, and if the servants were not accustomed to the quiet
entrance of well dressed men, I could not have got in without an
open row and the calling of the policemen,--which I wished to avoid.
Also, the woman downstairs knows me and realized that I was not
lying when I said the house was surrounded and she was on the
point of being 'run in'.
Pages:
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335