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Arnold, it is a foolish fancy. You belong to different hemispheres; you are twice her age. It will be years before she can even realize what life and love may be. Give it all up. She is in safe hands now. Come back to London with me, and Monsieur Feurgeres shall go free." "Monsieur Feurgeres, Madame, thanks you!" He had entered the room softly, and stood at the end of the screen. Lady Delahaye's face darkened. "May I ask, sir, how long you have been playing the eavesdropper?" she demanded. "Not so long, Madame, as I should have desired," he answered, "yet long enough to understand this. My young friend here seems to be trying to bargain with you for my safety. Madame, I cannot allow it. If your silence is indeed to be bought, the terms must be arranged between you and me." She looked at him a trifle insolently. "I have already explained to Mr. Greatson," she remarked, "that bargaining between you and me is impossible because you have nothing to offer which could tempt me." "And Mr. Greatson has?" "That, Monsieur," she answered, "is between Mr. Greatson and myself." Monsieur Feurgeres stood his ground. "Lady Delahaye," he said, "I want you to listen to me for a moment. It is not a justification which I am attempting. It is just a word or two of explanation, to which I trust you will not refuse to listen." "If you think it worth while," she answered coldly. He shrugged his shoulders. "Who can tell! I have the fancy, however, to assure you that what took place that day at the Cafe Grand was not the impulsive act of a man inspired with a homicidal mania, but was the necessary outcome of a long sequence of events. You know the peculiar relations existing between Isobel and myself. I had not the right to approach her, or to assume any overt act of guardianship. Any association with me would at once have imperilled any chance she may have possessed of being restored to her rightful position at Waldenburg. I accordingly could only watch over her by means of spies. This I have always done." "With what object, Monsieur Feurgeres?" Lady Delahaye asked. "You could never have interfered." "The care of Isobel--the distant care of her--was a charge laid upon me by her mother," Feurgeres answered. "It was therefore sacred. I trusted to Fate to find those who might intervene where I dared not, and Fate sent me at a very critical moment Mr. Arnold Greatson. Lady Delahaye, to speak ill of a woman is no
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