"I am sorry to have subjected you to all this, Mr. Schmidt. We will
depart at once. I find that the cat is never away, so we can't be
mice. What a fool I've been." There was something suspiciously
suggestive of tears in her soft voice.
He laid a hand upon the small fingers that clutched the crumpled
sheet of paper. To have saved his life, he could not keep the choked,
husky tremor out of his voice.
"The day is spoiled for you. That is my only regret. As for me, Miss
Guile, I am not without sin, so I may cast no stones. Pray regard me
as a fellow culprit, and rest assured that I have no bone to pick
with you. I too am watched and yet I am no more of a criminal than
you. Will you allow me to say that I am a friend whose devotion
cannot be shaken by all the tempests in the world?"
"Thank you," she said, and turned her hand under his to give it a
quick, convulsive clasp. Her spirits seemed to revive under the
responsive grip. "You might have said all the tempests in a tea pot,
for that is really what it amounts to. My father is a very foolish
man.
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