He said she had the game in her hands,
and that a case could be put up that would discredit me with jury or
judge, so there it is. . . . Well, bad as she is, she's fond of me
in her way. I don't think she's ever gone loose with any man; this is
only a craze, I'm sure. She wanted me, and she meant to have me."
His mother protested: "No pure, straight, honest girl would--"
Carnac laughed bitterly, and interrupted. "Don't talk that way, mother.
The girl was brought up among exiles and political criminals in the
purlieu of Montmartre. What's possible in one place is impossible in
another. Devil as she is, I want to do her justice."
"Did she wear a wedding-ring?"
"No, but she used my name as her own: I saw it on the paper door-plate.
She said she would wait awhile longer, but if at the end of six months I
didn't do my duty, she'd see the thing through here among my own people."
"Six months--it's overdue now!" she said in agitation.
He nodded helplessly. "I'm in hell as things are. There's only this to
be said: She's done naught yet, and she mayn't do aught!"
They were roused by the click of the gate. "That's your father--that's
John Grier," she said.
They heard the front door open and shut, a footstep in the hall, then the
door opened and John Grier came into the room.
Preoccupation, abstraction, filled his face, as he came forward.
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