re's the guilty
secret to be unloaded. There is no excuse for keeping it to myself any
longer, now Jim has it; sooner or later she must know that I've known
all along what was not meant for me, and it may as well be done now,
whatever the result. It will not please her, but I can't help that. I
will not break my word and keep a thing from her, except as there is
reason; to tell it can do no great harm now, unless to me--and that is a
minor matter.

At the hour appointed I was on deck: no one ever interrupts the
Princess, and we were undisturbed. "Robert, I had better hear your
report. Cut it short, please; give me a condensed outline merely."

What did I tell you? This was said with an air as if she were
discharging an unwelcome duty, so that I might not feel neglected. She
evidently resents the impertinence of circumstances in forcing her to
allow me to have a hand in her private matters: it will be as much as I
can expect if she forgives me for meddling. Obeying orders, I endeavored
to be brief and business-like.

"He has had a bad time of it, Clarice. He was a changed man when I got
there--rough and morose and unmanageable; kept hinting at some
mysterious crime he had committed. It was a day or two before I could
bring him to book, by methods on which I need not dwell. Detective work
is not a nice business; the means has to take its justification from the
end. He made his confession as if it were another's; said how superior
you were, and how basely he had repaid your condescension. He thought
that ended the affair, except for his lifelong remorse; hoped he might
die soon; impossible to be forgiven, or regarded by you in any light but
that of a loathsome object--regular stage part, you know, but perfectly
sincere: if you like innocence, he can supply a first-class article. I
put a head on him by saying his behavior had been much more flagrant
than he realized, and the worst part of it was interfering with your
plans and going off in such a hurry; that ladies like to be consulted in
such cases, and sometimes to administer divine forgiveness, or at least
punish the transgressor in their own way, and not leave it all to
him.--You need not look at me like that, Princess. I know nothing of
your feelings, and told him so. Of course I maintained your dignity:
what else was I there for? And so, to do him justice, did he, as far as
he knows how. He is just where you like to have them--or would if you
cared enough about the