sideration to this simple child
who came across the ocean to steal from me?"
There was still no change in Duge's face, but a little breath came
quickly through his teeth, and, as though insensibly, he moved a little
nearer to the man opposite him.
"Where is she now, Norris Vine?" he asked.
"If she is not in her rooms," Vine answered, "I do not know."
"She has given up her rooms, taken her luggage, and gone away," Duge
said. "Perhaps it is you who have driven her out of this place."
"I was not aware of it," Vine answered. "As a matter of fact I expected
her to lunch with me to-day."
Phineas Duge looked down upon the table before which he stood. He
seemed to be turning something over in his mind, and opposite to him
Norris Vine waited. When Duge looked up again, Vine seemed to notice for
the first time that his visitor was aging.
"Norris Vine," he said, "you and I have been enemies since the day when
we became aware of one another's existence. We represent different
principles. There is not a point in life on which our interests, as well
as our theories, do not clash. But there are things outside the battle
for mere existence which men with any fundamental sense of honour can
discuss, even though they are enemies. I wish to ask you once more
whether you can give me any news of my niece."
"I can give you none," Norris Vine answered. "All that I can tell you is
that I found her a charming, simple-minded girl, in terrible trouble
because of your anger, and the fear that you would impoverish her
people; and goaded on by that fear to attempt things which, in her saner
moments, she would never have dreamed of thinking of. Where she is now,
what has become of her, I do not know; but I would not like to be the
person on whom rests the responsibility of her presence here and
anything that may happen to her."
Phineas Duge took up his hat and gloves.
"I thank you, Mr. Vine," he said. "Your expression of opinion is
interesting to me. In the meantime, to revert to business, am I right in
concluding that you have nothing to say to me, that you do not wish even
to discuss a certain matter?"
"You are right in your assumption, sir," Norris Vine answered. "I see
no purpose in it. What I may do or leave undone would never be
influenced by anything that you might say."
Phineas Duge turned toward the door. Norris Vine followed him. There was
not, however, any motion on the part of either to indulge in any form of
le
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