"
Her pleading, her attitude, her pathetic gestures, gave extraordinary
force to an appeal which, by contrast with her extreme agitation, was
almost grotesquely inconsequent. Curtis was at his wits' end to find
the line of reasoning calculated to convince this beautiful creature
that she might, indeed, begin enduring "for the sake of others" by
expressing her determination to give the police all possible assistance.
"There is no urgency for a few minutes," was the best reply he could
frame on the spur of the moment. "Shall I leave you alone for a little
while? Perhaps you would like to consult your maid? Indeed, her
services might meet all the requirements of the case. The police would
be the first to recognize that a woman who had lost her affianced
husband under such terrible----"
"Ah, but that is the wretched difficulty I am in. Poor Monsieur de
Courtois was nothing to me."
"Nothing to you!"
Probably Curtis's brain did not reel, but it assuredly felt like
reeling, and it is quite certain that his eyes blazed down on the
half-hysterical girl with an intensity that magnetized her into a
broken excuse.
"It is--quite--true," she stammered, with the diffidence of a child
explaining some lapse which, it was hoped, might not be regarded as a
real fault.
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