You may divine
that I trust no man. I have had my own sad lessons of life-lessons
learned in bitterness and tears. I go out to your burning jungle
land, with neither hope to allure, nor fear to repel. The whole
world is the same to me. That I have a purpose, I admit; and even
you may know me better by and bye! Till then, no professions, no
promises, no pledges. I use you for my own selfish purposes, that
is all; and you can frankly study your own self-interest. We are
two clay jars swept along down the Ganges of life. For a few threads
of the dark river's current, we travel on, side by side! You have
frankly taken me at my word! I have taken you at yours! There
is a written order to settle my affairs and remove my luggage. Of
course, should you meet with any accident, telegraph to the Vittorio
Emmanuele, at Brindisi. Money," she said, almost bitterly, "would
be telegraphed; and so, I say"--he listened breathlessly--"au
revoir--at Brindisi!" she concluded, giving him her hand, with a
frank smile.
As Alan Hawke descended the stair, he growled. "A woman without a
heart, and--not without a head!" As he calmly answered the manager's
polite inquiry for Madame's health, the "heartless woman" whom he
had left was lying sobbing in the dark room above--crying, in her
anguish, "Valerie! My poor, dead Valerie! I go to your child!"
But, none suspected her departure, when the trimly-clad woman
glided out of the entrance of the Hotel Faucon, at eleven o'clock.
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