If only the absent
one would return and save her from this new dilemma! If she did not
speak, Mr. Ruthven Smith would think her harsh and unforgiving, yet she
could not answer unless she gave the name adopted temporarily for
convenience. She hesitated, her eyes on the door; but the darkness and
silence outside sent a doubt into her heart, cold and sickly as a bat
flapping in from the night.
_What if he never came back?_ What if the watchers had been hiding out
there, lying in wait and, two against one--both bigger men physically
than he, and perhaps armed--they had overpowered him? What if she were
never to see him again, and this hour which had seemed the beginning of
hope were to be its end?
CHAPTER VII
THE COUNTESS DE SANTIAGO
"You don't wish to tell me the name?" Ruthven Smith was saying.
The repetition irritated the girl, whose nerves were strained to snapping
point. She could not parry the man's questions. She could not bear his
grieved or offended reproaches. If he persisted, through these moments of
suspense, she would scream or burst out crying. Trembling, with tears in
her voice, she heard herself answer.
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