Blindfolded Part 37

CHAPTER XX

MAKING PROGRESS

"You really don't mean it," said Luella severely, "and it's very wrong to say what you don't mean."

"In society?" I asked blandly. "I'm afraid you're a heretic, L---- Miss Knapp."

I blushed as I stumbled over her name. She was Luella to me by night and day, but I did not consider myself on a footing to use so thrilling a word in her presence.

"Don't be rude," she said. "Everything has its place in society."

"Even prevarication," I a.s.sented.

"Even a polite consideration for the feelings of others," corrected Luella.

"Then you might have some consideration for mine," I said in an injured tone.

"But we're not in society,--not just now, that is to say. We're just friends talking together, and you're not to say what you don't mean just for the sake of pleasing my vanity."

"Well, if we're just friends talking together--" said I, looking up in her face. I was seated on the footstool before her, and it was very entertaining to look at her face, so I stopped at that.

"Yes," said Luella, bending forward in her interest.

"It was the bravest and truest and most womanly girl I ever knew or heard of. It's the kind a man would be glad to die for."

I really couldn't help it. Her hand lay very temptingly near me, and I don't think I knew what I was doing till she said:

"Please let go of my hand."

"But he'd rather live for her," I continued boldly.

"If you don't behave yourself, I'll surrender you to Aunt Julia," said Luella, rising abruptly and slipping to the curtains of the alcove in which we were sitting. She looked very graceful and charming as she stood there with one hand raised to the lace folds.

"Has she recovered?" I asked.

"What a melancholy tone! The poor dear was in bed all Tuesday, but she took advantage of her rest to amplify her emotions."

"She has acquired a subject of conversation, at least."

"To last her for the rest of her life," laughed Luella, turning back.

"'Twill be a blood-curdling tale by the time she reaches the East once more. And now do be sensible--no, you sit right where you are--and tell me how it all happened, and what it was about."

I revolved for a moment the plan of a romance that would have, at least, the merit of chaining Miss Knapp's interest. But it was gone as I looked into her serious eyes.

"That's what I should like to know myself," I confessed candidly. Then I added with pardonable mendacity: "I think I must have been taken for somebody else, if it was anything more than a desperate freak of the highbinders."

"Are you sure they had no interest in seeking you?" asked Luella gravely, with a charming tremor in her voice.

Before I could reply, Mrs. Knapp's voice was in my ear, and Mrs. Knapp's figure was in the archway of the alcove.

"Oh, you are here," she said. "I thought I heard your voices. Luella, your father wants to see you a minute. And how do you do, Mr. Wilton?"

I greeted Mrs. Knapp cordially, though I wished that she had delayed her appearance, and looked regretfully after Luella.

"I want to thank you for your heroism the other evening," she said.

"Oh, it was nothing," I answered lightly. "Any one would have done the same."

"Perhaps--but none the less we are all very grateful. If I had only suspected that anything of the kind could have happened, I should never have allowed them to go."

I felt rebelliously glad that she had not suspected.

"I blame myself for it all," I bowed. "It was very careless of me."

"I'm afraid so, after all the warning you have had," said Mrs. Knapp.

"But as it turned out, no harm was done," I said cheerfully.

"I suppose so," said Mrs. Knapp absently. Then she spoke with sudden attention. "Do you think your enemies followed you there?"

I was taken aback with the vision of the Wolf figure in the grimy pa.s.sage, a fiend in the intoxication of opium, and stammered for a reply.

"My snake-eyed friend made himself a little familiar, I'm afraid," I admitted.

"It is dreadful that these dangers should follow you everywhere," said Mrs. Knapp with feeling. "You must be careful."

"I have developed eyes in the back of my head," I said, smiling at her concern.

"I fear you need more than that. Now tell me how it all happened, just as you saw it. I'm afraid Luella was a little too hysterical to give a true account of it."

I gave her the story of the scene in the pa.s.sage, with a few judicious emendations. I thought it hardly worth while to mention Doddridge Knapp's appearance, or a few other items that were more precious to me than to anybody else.

When I had done Mrs. Knapp sighed.

"There must be an end of this some day," she said.

"I hope the day isn't far off," I confessed, "unless it should happen to be the day the coroner is called on to take a particular interest in my person."

Mrs. Knapp shuddered.

"Oh no, no--not that way."

Then after a pause, she continued: "Would you not rather attack your dangers at once, and have them over, than to wait for them to seek you?"

I felt a trifle uneasy at this speech. There seemed to be a suggestion in it that I could end the whole matter by marching on my enemies, and coming to decisive battle. I wished I knew what she was hinting at, and how it was to be done, before I answered.