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"We can remedy that very readily," he said, and pressed a button. His secretary responded. "Telephone our Consul-General in New York to ascertain immediately from the railroad officials the hospital to which Madame Durrand, who broke her ankle and wrist in the Pennsylvania Station, at ten o'clock on Monday, was taken." The secretary saluted and withdrew.
"I didn't fancy going out at midnight, yet I had undertaken the matter and I would see it through. I had not changed from my travelling suit and it hadn't a pocket in it; nor had I one such as Madame Durrand employed, so I was carrying the letter pinned inside my waist. Now I took it out and put it in my hand-bag, all the while thinking over the affair and liking it less the more I thought.
Now, unless Madame Durrand had written about you, it's a pretty good gamble that the Spencer crowd has forestalled you." "Forestalled me! What do you mean?" "Mrs. Spencer admitted to me that your release was someone's blunder. The normal thing was to hold you prisoner and so prevent you from communicating with the Ambassador until they had obtained the letter or defeated its purpose.
"I shall get out of it the instant this matter of the letter is completed and stay out thereafter. Even friendship won't lure me to it. Never again, Mr. Harleston, never again for mine!" "I wish you would let it end right now," he urged. "That wouldn't be the part of a good sport, nor would it be just to Madame Durrand. She trusts me."
I'll be so relieved to be out of it and back to my normal ways that I gladly promise never to try it again. I'm committed to seeing this affair through and to aiding the French Embassy in whatever way I can, both because I must keep faith with Madame Durrand, and because my inexperience and credulity lost it the letter. That done, and I'm for you, Mr. Harleston!" she laughed.
"'I don't want a consideration, I smiled; 'tell me what's the favour you seek? "'We ask you, she replied instantly, 'to take a letter to the French Ambassador and tell him that it is the letter Madame Durrand gave you in New York, and that it has just been returned to you by the American State Department. "'Have you the letter with you? I asked.
In the morning, we took a taxi to the Pennsylvania Station, were held up by traffic, and were hurrying down the marble steps to catch our train, when a man, hurrying also, jostled Madame Durrand. Her heel caught and she plunged head first down to the landing. Of course men sprang forward to her assistance and picked her up with her wrist and ankle broken.
"I'm not in the secret service of a government, as you doubtless can infer from my knowledge of matters and use of technical language!" she smiled. "And the affair rather fascinated me, I admit, by its unusualness. Moreover, I knew Madame Durrand intimately how intimately may be inferred from the circumstances. "Well, we landed, had our baggage chalked, and went to the Plaza for the night.
She knows all the material circumstance witness the telephone call that inveigled you into the drive up the Avenue, et cetera and she'll take the chance that you are not known to the Marquis nor any of the staff, or even the chance that Madame Durrand has not yet informed them. Indeed she may have taken precautions against her informing them.
"You come from Madame Durrand, I believe?" "Yes you know Madame Durrand?" The Marquis nodded. "I have met her several times." "I'm glad!" said she. "It may help me to prove my case." "Madame is her own proof," was the answer. For which answer he drew such a smile from Edith Clephane that in comparison the secretary's smile was simply as nothing. "Your Excellency overwhelms me," she replied.
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