Page:Anna Katharine Green - Leavenworth Case.djvu/128

118 Rejoiced to hear this acknowledgment from her lips, I hastened to comply. I began by placing before her the whole case as it appeared to an unprejudiced person; enlarged upon the causes of suspicion, and pointed out in what regard some things looked dark against her, which perhaps to her own mind were easily explainable and of small account; tried to make her see the importance of her decision, and finally wound up with an appeal. Would she not confide in me?

"But I thought you were satisfied?" she tremblingly remarked.

"And so I am; but I want the world to be so, too."

"Ah; now you ask too much! The finger of suspicion never forgets the way it has once pointed," she sadly answered. "My name is tainted forever."

"And you will submit to this, when a word"

"I am thinking that any word of mine now would make very little difference," she murmured.

I looked away, the vision of Mr. Fobbs, in hiding behind the curtains of the opposite house, recurring painfully to my mind.

"If the affair looks as bad as you say it does," she pursued, "it is scarcely probable that Mr. Gryce will care much for any interpretation of mine in regard to the matter."

"Mr. Gryce would be glad to know where you procured that key, if only to assist him in turning his inquiries in the right direction."

She did not reply, and my spirits sank in renewed depression.

"It is worth your while to satisfy him," I pursued; "and though it may compromise some one you desire to shield"

She rose impetuously. "I shall never divulge to any