Without clearly understanding her meaning, and with only a wish to quiet
her, Arthur answered, at random:
'Certainly. Have you never heard of people who gave life for another's?
So, why not be a substitute, and go to prison, if necessary?'
'Yes,' Jerry answered, with a long-drawn breath, and the cloud lifted a
little from her face.
After a moment, however, she asked, abruptly:
'Suppose the one who took the diamonds will not give them up, and
somebody else knows where they are, ought that somebody else tell?'
'Certainly, or be an accessory to the crime,' was Arthur's reply.
Jerry did not at all know what an accessory was, but it had an awful
sound to her, and she asked:
'What do they do to an accessory? Punish her--him, I mean--just the
same?'
'Yes, of course,' Arthur said, scarcely heeding what she was asking him,
and never dreaming of the wild fancy which had taken possession of her.
That one could go to prison in another's stead, and that an accessory
would be punished equally with the criminal, were the two ideas distinct
in her mind when she at last arose to go, saying to Arthur, as she stood
in the door:
'You are sure you are not afraid to have them come here again, if they
take it into their heads to do so?'
'Not in the least; they can search my rooms every day and welcome, if
they like,' was Arthur's reply.
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