"I--I scarcely
expected to see you here with no one----"
"Oh," she interrupted, "there was no one I cared to have. My friends
have been very kind--have offered to do anything--but I felt that I
wanted to be just alone and think. I should have liked to have my
maid, but----"
"She's one of the witnesses, I suppose," explained Mr. Royce. "Well,
now that I'm here, I shall stay until I've proved how utterly
ridiculous this charge against you is."
She sank back into her chair and looked up at him with dark, appealing
eyes.
"You think you can?" she asked.
"Can! Certainly I can! Why, it's too preposterous to stand for a
moment! We've only to prove an alibi--to show that you were somewhere
else, you know, at the time the crime was committed--and the whole
business falls to pieces in an instant. You can do that easily, can't
you?"
The color had gone from her cheeks again, and she buried her face in
her hands.
"I don't know," she murmured indistinctly. "I must think. Oh, don't
let it come to that!"
I was puzzled--confounded. With her good name, her life, perhaps, in
the balance, she wanted time to think! I could see that my chief was
astonished, too.
"I'll try to keep it from coming to that, since you wish it," he said
slowly. "I'll not be able to call you, then, to testify in your own
behalf--and that always hurts.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25