The moment she was seated, he removed his spectacles, drew a chair close to hers and sat down, leaning far forward. "Now, my dear, foolish girl," said the master thief, smiling benevolently upon her, "what have you been doing tonight to make us all miserable?"
She knew at once that he was aware of every move she had made, from the first to the last. It gave her firmness to tell the lie with suavity. "It's a queer yarn, John," she said.
"I'm used to queer yarns," he answered. "But where have you been all this time? It was only to take five minutes, I thought."
She made herself laugh. "That's because you don't know Ronicky Doone, John."
"I'm getting to know him, however," said the master. "And, before I'm done, I hope to know him very well indeed."
"And, when he told me how poor Bill Gregg had come clear across the continent--"
"No wonder you were touched, my dear. New Yorkers won't travel so far, will they? Not for a girl, I mean."
"Hardly! But Ronicky Doone made it such a sad affair that I promised I'd go across and see Bill Gregg."
"I knew you wouldn't let him come to see me here."
"Never presuppose what I'll do. But go on--I'm interested--very. Just as much as if Ronicky Doone himself were telling me."
She eyed him shrewdly, but, if there were any deception in him, he hid it well. She could not find the double meaning that must have been behind his words. "I went there, however," she said, "because I was sorry for him, John. If you had seen you'd have been sorry, too, or else you would have laughed; I could hardly keep from it at first."
"I suppose he took you in his arms at once?"
"I think he wanted to. Then, of course, I told him at once why I had come."
"Simply that it was absurd for him to stay about and persecute me; that the letters I wrote him were simply written for fun, when I was doing some of my cousin's work at the correspondence schools; that the best thing he could do would be to take my regrets and go back to the West."
"Did you tell him all that?" asked John Mark in a rather changed voice.
"Naturally not; you're a gentle girl, Caroline. I suppose he took it very hard."
"Very, but in a silly way. He's full of pride, you see. He drew himself up and gave me a lecture about deceiving men."