Page:Earl Derr Biggers - Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913).djvu/142

124 shadows—too sweet for words. I can see you the heroine of whispering scenes on the stair. I can see you walking with a dazzled happy man on the mountain in the moonlight. Many men have loved you."

"Are you reading my palm?" she asked, laughing.

"No—your face," answered Mr. Magee. "Many men have loved you, for very few men are blind. I am sorry I was not the man on the stair, or on the mountain in the moonlight. Who knows —I might have been the favored one for my single summer of joy."

"The autumn always came," smiled the girl.

"It would never have come for me," he an swered. "Won't you believe me when I say that I have no part in this strange drama that is going on at Baldpate? Won t you credit it when I say that I have no idea why you and the professor and Mr. Bland are here—nor why the Mayor of Reuton has the fifth key? Won't you tell me what it all means?"

"I mustn't," she replied, shaking her head. "I