Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/244

232 "Have you—have you had many friends among women?"

"Never one; unless I may count you as a friend."

"Oh yes, you may count me—as a friend. Do you care for women?"

"I did not know it until now."

She laughed. I was glad to have lightened her mood.

"You are odd—you are really very quaint." She leaned out of the cab. "Where are we? I have not the least idea where you are taking me.

"To Victoria; to try to catch the Ostend boat."

"Ostend? Are we going there?"

"I think we'd better."

"But Well, I suppose it doesn't matter, but I really was not anticipating a trip to Ostend quite so soon. Just now you talked of Paris."

"And it may be Paris after all; only the Ostend boat goes first."

"And time's the essence of the matter. I see. Between this and the departure of the Paris train I run a risk of being arrested. That is to bring it very close."

I was still, hardly knowing what to say. What she said was true; this was a case in which, at any moment, truth might decline to be trifled