How had I
managed to overlook it? It was clear to other men. Major
Carrington had pointed it out to me as I was turning away; and
now here Sir Henry Marquis was expressing in no uncertain words
how negligent a creature he considered me - to permit my guest, a
woman, to go alone, at night, with this large sum of money.
It was not a pleasant retrospect. Other men - the world - would
scarcely hold me to a lesser negligence than Sir Henry Marquis!
I could not forbear, even in our haste, to seek some consolation.
"Do you think Madame Barras has been hurt?"
"Hurt!" he repeated. "How should Madame Barras be hurt?"
"In the robbery," I said.
"Robbery!" and he repeated that word. "There has been no
robbery!"
I replied in some astonishment.
"Really, Sir Henry! You but now assured me that I would remember
this night's robbery."
The drawl got back into his voice.
"Ah, yes," he said, "quite so. You will remember it."
The man was clearly, it seemed to me, so engrossed with the
mystery that it was idle to interrogate him. And he was walking
with a devil's stride.
Still the pointed query of the affair pressed me, and I made
another effort.
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