"There was a man in the case, young, handsome, and wealthy. Just such
a man as she should have married. They had planned an elopement to
Europe. Not together. She was to go to Liverpool, he was to follow
later to Paris, and there meet her. Quite ingenious, wasn't it? Our
agent at Liverpool was called to locate her and prevent her inamorata
from communicating with her, at the same time using his influence to
induce her to return to Boston without meeting her lover. His powers
of persuasion, I mean our agent's, must have been great, for she
consented.
"A month later she attended a reception next door to the house from
which she disappeared, and silenced the tongue of scandal by saying
that she had been hastily summoned to the bedside of a sick friend,
her chum at Wellesley, and had returned home only the day previous.
Her last statement was true. Good detective work by a good detective,
and a great, big white lie fooled her friends and acquaintances, but
if I were her husband she would not lack attention or admiration in
the future, and I would furnish it."
"When I get married, I will bear your admonition in mind."
"I have another admonition. If you meet Mr. Cass when you go down, be
nice to him. Why, when you know him, he is a treasure. I can bear his
inquisitiveness, for it shields me from others. This is my sanctuary,
and Mr.
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