You shall know who I am, since it is only a question
of to-night or to-morrow at the most. Sally, you can go."
Sally looked from one to the other with sharp, suspicious old eyes.
"Won't the young lady want me, sir? Is she able to 'tend to herself?"
"Quite able, Sally; she's not so bad as you think. Go away, like a good
soul. I have a soothing draught to administer to my patient."
"Your patient!" said Mollie, turning the flashing light of her great
blue eyes full upon him.
The man laughed.
"I had to invent a little fable for these good people. Didn't you notice
they looked rather afraid of you? Of course you did. Well, my dear
Mollie, they think you're mad."
"Mad?"
"Exactly. You are, a little, you know. They think you've come here under
medical orders to recruit by the sea-shore. I told them so. One hate's
to tell lies, but, unfortunately, white ones are indispensable at
times."
The blue eyes shone full upon him, blazing with magnificent disdain.
"You are a poorer creature than even I took you to be, and you have
acted a mean and dastardly part from the first--the part of a schemer
and a coward.
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