It is this room and two or
three others. D'Arcambal House is our barrier. When strangers
come, they see D'Arcambal House; plain rooms, of rough wood;
quarters such as you have seen at posts and stations; the mask
which gives no hint of what is hidden within. It is there that we
live to the world; it is here that we live to ourselves. Jeanne
has my permission to tell you whatever she wishes, a little later.
But I am curious, and being an old man must be humored first. I am
still trembling. You must tell me what happened to Jeanne."
For an hour they talked, and Philip went over one by one the
events as they had occurred since the fight on the cliff, omitting
only such things as he thought that Jeanne and Pierre might wish
to keep secret to themselves. At the end of that hour he was
certain that D'Arcambal was unaware of the dark cloud that had
suddenly come into Jeanne's life. The old man's brow was knitted
with deep lines, and his powerful jaws were set hard, as Philip
told of the ambush, of the wounding of Pierre, and the flight of
his assailants with his daughter. It was to get money, the old man
thought. The half-breed had suggested that, and Jeanne herself had
given it as her opinion.
Pages:
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226