I do
not know whether it was wise of me or not, but I am quite sure that I
saved your life."
"In which case," Vine remarked, with an incredulous smile, "I must at
least ask you to sit down."
Virginia seated herself and pushed back her veil.
"You do not remember me," she said. "I am Phineas Duge's niece."
"I remember you now quite well," he answered. "You were having dinner
with your uncle one night at Sherry's."
She nodded.
"That is quite true," she said. "I have been looking for you for some
days. In fact, I came to London to look for you."
"That," he remarked drily, "sounds somewhat mysterious, considering that
I have not yet had the pleasure of your acquaintance."
"There is nothing mysterious about it," she answered. "You are a
receiver of stolen goods. Some papers were stolen from my uncle's study
by Stella, my cousin, and given to you. They were stolen through my
carelessness. Unless I can recover them I am ruined."
"Go on," Morris Vine said. "You have not finished yet."
"No!" she answered, "I have not. I followed you to England to get those
papers back, either by theft, or by appealing to your sense of honour,
or by any means which presented themselves.
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