Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/236

 something like that," said Nora. But you see that might involve you, if harm came of it, and I don't believe Ian would consent, even if I would. While you were in your room—just while the waiter was clearing the table, I scribbled a few words in pencil, and sent them off. I told Ian to meet me in the garden at the back of the hotel, at a quarter past ten."

Then I think you were very imprudent," exclaimed Terry. "As for involving me, that doesn't matter." She was tempted to add that her complicity in the plan of disguise had already involved her almost as deeply as she could be involved in the affair; but she would not point this out to the girl, who did not realize it fully.

"Oh, wait, dear Miss Ricardo, before you've made up your mind, until I've explained a little more," Nora pleaded. "I thought I could run down soon and sit on the balcony. Then, after awhile, say about ten, I could go into the garden and walk about as if to take a little exercise before bedtime. You see, it will be just too late for many people to be about, and too early for it to look odd that I should be out of doors, especially if I'd been sitting for awhile on the balcony already. Then, I don't need to speak with Ian more than three or four minutes. I've thought it all over, and there can't be any danger, can there—in a place like this? I begin to feel now that there's nobody watching us. I believe we've thrown off suspicion."