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u to return to America. Keep clear of entanglement in these events which are beginning to happen in such rapid succession in Europe. They do not concern you; you have nothing to do with them, no interest in them. Your entry into affairs which can not concern you would be insulting effrontery and foolish bravado. I beg you to heed this warning. I know you to be personally courageous; I suppose that fear of consequences would not deter you from intrusion into any affair, however dangerous; but I dare hope that perhaps in your heart there may have been born a little spark of friendliness--a faint warmth of recognition for a woman who took some slight chance with death to prove to you that her word of honour is not lightly given or lightly broken. So, if you please, our ways part here with this letter sent to you by hand. I shall not forget the rash but generous boy I knew who called me Scheherazade. CHAPTER XXVIII TOGETHER He sat there, holding the letter and looking absently over it at the little dog who had gone to sleep again. There was no sound in the room save the faint whisper of the tea-kettle. The sunny garden outside was very still, too; the blackbird appeared to doze on his peach twig; the kitten had settled down with eyes half closed and tail tucked under flank. The young man sat there with his letter in his hand and eyes lost in retrospection for a while. In his hand lay evidence that the gang which had followed him, and through which he no longer doubted that he had been robbed, was now in Paris. And yet he could not give this information to the Princess Naia. Here was a letter which he could not show. Something within him forbade it, some instinct which he did not trouble to analyse. And this instinct sent the letter into his breast pocket as a light sound came to his ears; and the next instant Rue Carew entered the further drawing-room. The little West Highland terrier looked up, wagged that section of him which did duty as a tail, and watched her as Neeland rose to seat her at the tea-table. "Sandy," she said to the little dog, "if you care to say 'Down with the Sultan,' I shall bestow one lump of sugar upon you." "Yap-yap!" said the little dog. "Give it to him, please----" Rue handed the sugar to Neeland, who delivered it gravely. "That's because I want Sandy to like you," she added. Neeland regarded t
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