"
This time the Sand Lady laughed. "Good-morning, gentlemen," said she.
"Go on with your duel."
XXVII.
A PERSON.
I fenced no more. "Walkirk," I cried, "let us get our traps on board,
and be off!"
My under-study looked troubled,--more troubled than I had ever seen him
before.
"Why do you think of this?" he asked. "Where do you propose to go?"
"Home," said I, "to my own house. That is the place where I want to be."
Walkirk stood still and looked at me, his face still wearing an air of
deep concern.
"It is not my place to advise," he said, "but it seems to me that your
return at this moment would have a very odd appearance, to say the
least. Every one would think that you were pursuing Mother Anastasia,
and she herself would think so."
"No," said I, "she will not suppose anything of the kind. She will know
very well on whose account I came. And as for the people here, they
might labor under a mistake at first, because of course I should not
offer them any explanation, but they would soon learn the real state of
the case; that is, if they correspond with the Mother Superior."
"You propose, then," said Walkirk, "to lay siege to the House of Martha,
and to carry away, if you can, Miss Sylvia Raynor?"
"I have made no plans," I answered, "but I can look after my interests
better in Arden than I can here.
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