Won't you go and persuade the
others to consent to run for it, Eleanor? It is simply the height of
folly for you to hold the _Nadia_ here. If I could have had ten words
with your father this morning before he went out to the mine, you would
all have been in Copah, long ago. Even now, if I could get word to him,
I'm sure he would order the car out at once."
She nodded.
"Perhaps he would; quite likely he would--and he would stay here
himself." Then, suddenly: "You may send the _Nadia_ back to Copah on one
condition--that you go with it."
At first he thought it was a deliberate insult; the cruelest indignity
she had ever put upon him. Knowing his weakness, she was good-natured
enough, or solicitous enough, to try to get him out of harm's way. Then
the steadfast look in her eyes made him uncertain.
"If I thought you could say that, realizing what it means--" he began,
and then he looked away.
"Well?" she prompted, and the hand slipped from his shoulder.
His eyes were coming back to hers. "If I thought you meant that," he
repeated; "if I believed that you could despise me so utterly as to
think for a moment that I would deliberately turn my back upon my
responsibilities here--go away and hunt safety for myself, leaving the
men who have stood by me to whatever----"
"You are making it a matter of duty," she interrupted quite gravely.
Pages:
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386