I think we ought to do what we can. I wish
I hadn't let her go the other night."
"I am becoming," Stella said, smiling, "a little jealous of my cousin."
He looked at her with steady scrutiny, as though he were curious to
decide how much of truth there might be in her words.
"You have no need, my dear Stella," he said, "to be jealous of Virginia
or any other girl. This is simply the dying kick of a nearly finished
conscience."
"If I come across her," Stella said, "I will do what I can. If you see
her again, and I should think you are the more likely, find out her
address and I will go and see her. By the by," she added, leaning across
the table towards him, "you seem very confident of preserving it. Tell
me, where do you keep that paper?"
He smiled.
"Ah!" he said. "All my secrets save one are yours, but I think that that
one I will not tell you."
She frowned at him, obviously annoyed.
"Do you mean that?" she asked. "Surely you do not hesitate to trust me?"
"Not for one moment," he answered. "On the other hand, the knowledge of
a thing of that sort is better in as few hands as possible. You will be
none the better for knowing.
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