But loyalty to Arthur conquered every
other feeling. Surely he would not suffer any wrong to come to his own
brother and niece. The letter was harmless, and must go.
'Give it to me, please. You do not mean to keep it?' she said, at last,
in a tone and manner she might have borrowed from Arthur himself, it was
so like him when on his dignity.
And Frank felt it, and knew that he had more than a child to deal with,
and must use duplicity if he would succeed. So he said to her quietly
and naturally:
'Why, how excited you are! Do you think I intend to keep the letter? It
is as safe with me as with you. It is true that when I talked with you
in the Tramp House I thought that it must not be sent, but I have
changed my mind since then, and do not care. I am going to the office,
and will take it myself. John is saddling my horse now, and if I hurry I
shall be in time for the western mail. Good-bye, and do not look so
worried. Do you take me for a villain?'
He was leaving the room as he talked, and before he had finished he was
in the hall and near the outer door, leaving Jerry stupefied, and
perplexed, and only half reassured.
'If I had not sold myself to Satan before, I have now, for sure; and
still I did not actually tell her that I would post it, though it
amounted to that,' Frank thought, as he galloped through the park toward
the highway which led to the town.
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