Page:Vance--Terence O'Rourke.djvu/50

 ing to the girl, for at once she discarded the constraint which she had imposed upon their conversation, and plunged .

"Colonel O'Rourke," she began slowly, as if choosing each phrase with care, "I have a brother—a very young man: younger even than I. His wealth is great, and he is—very regrettably weak, easily influenced by others, wild, wilful, impatient of restraint, dissipated. His associates are not such as one might wish. But let that pass. You comprehend?"

"Perfectly, madame."

"Some time ago—recently, in fact—he conceived a hare-brained scheme, a mad adventure—I cannot tell you how insane! I believe it fraught with the gravest danger to him, monsieur. I have sought to dissuade him, to no effect. At the same time I discovered by accident that it would further the interests of—certain of his companions to have him out of the way—dead, in fact. I questioned my brother closely; he admitted, in the end, that it was proposed to him—this scheme—by those same persons. I made inquiries, secretly, and satisfied myself that not one of my brother's so-called friends was anything more or less than a parasite. For years they have been bleeding him systematically, for their own pockets. And now, not content with what they have stolen from him, they want his fortune in toto. In short, he consorts with sycophants of the most servile, treacherous type."

She paused, drawing her long white gloves thoughtfully through her hands, eying O'Rourke abstractedly beneath her level brows; the Irishman's gaze assured her of his sympathy.

"Proceed, madame," he said gently.

"To-night, monsieur—this morning, rather—" she