The Crimson Blind by Fred M. (Frederick Merrick) White
page 22 of 453 (04%)
page 22 of 453 (04%)
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wretch who holds me in his power may have guessed my strategy and be
laughing at me. Some day, perhaps--" The speaker stopped, with something like a sob in her throat. "We are wasting precious time," she went on, more calmly. "I had better tell you my history. In _your_ story a woman commits a crime: she is guilty of a serious breach of trust to save the life of a man she loves. By doing so she places the future and the happiness of many people in the hands of an abandoned scoundrel. If she can only manage to regain the thing she has parted from the situation is saved. Is not that so?" "So far you have stated the case correctly," David murmured. "As I said before, I am in practically similar case. Only, in my situation, I hastened everything and risked the happiness of many people for the sake of a little child." "Ah!" David cried. "Your own child? No! The child of one very near and dear to you, then. From the mere novelist point of view, that is a far more artistic idea than mine. I see that I shall have to amend my story before it is published." A rippling little laugh came like the song of a bird in the darkness. "Dear Mr. Steel," the voice said, "I implore you to do nothing of the kind. You are a man of fertile imagination--a plot more or less makes no difference to you. If you publish that story you go far on the way to ruin me." |
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