is government lead him into such circumstances. He
felt that his chauffeur's position handicapped him in his relations with
Jane, to whom he had been strongly attracted from the beginning. The son
of a distinguished American diplomat, he had been educated for the most
part in Europe. Friends of his father, when he had offered his services
to the government, had convinced him that his knowledge of German and
French would make him most useful in the secret service. Reluctantly he
had consented to take up the work, and as he had gone further and
further into it and had realized the vast machinery for surreptitious
observation and dangerous activity that the German agents had secretly
planted in the United States, he had become fascinated with his
occupation--that is, until he met Jane Strong.
His association with her under present circumstances was fast becoming
unbearable. Even though he was aware that she knew he was no ordinary
chauffeur, he loathed the necessity of having to wear his mask in the
presence of her family. He wanted to be free to come to see her, to send
her flowers and to go about with her. For him to take any advantage of
their present intimate relations to court her seemed to him little short
of a betrayal of his government, yet at times it was all he could do to
keep from telling her that he adored her. Love's sharp instincts, too,
had made him realize that Jane was already beginning to be attracted by
the handsome young German whom they were seeking to entrap, and the
knowledge of this fact filled him with helpless rage and jealousy.
Jane, too, angered and insulted at first by Dean's outburst, had been
endeavoring to analyze her own conduct. Candor reluctantly compelled her
to admit that each time she met Frederic Hoff she had found herself
coming more and more under his spell. He had a wonderful personality,
talked entertainingly and ever exhibited an innate gallantry toward
women in general, and herself in particular, which Jane had found
delightfully interesting. Though she had undertaken wholeheartedly to
try to get evidence against him, she was forced to admit to herself now
that she was secretly delighted that there had been nothing damaging
found as yet, so far as he was concerned, beyond the one fact that he
had been in British uniform.
In vain she marshalled the circumstances about him, trying to make
herself hate him. He was a German, she told herself. He was an enemy of
her country. He
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