"I must not keep you," Lanyard broke the silence. "I merely wished to say
good-night and ... I am sorry."
"Sorry?" she echoed.
"That you had such an unhappy experience," he explained--"thanks to your
thoughtfulness for me. I do not deserve so much consideration; and that
only makes me feel all the more regretful."
"It was silly of me," she admitted with a shadowy, rueful smile. "I'm
afraid my silliness makes too much trouble...."
He commented honestly: "I don't understand."
"If I had only been patient enough to wait for you to call me...."
"Forgive that oversight. I was pressed for time, as you may imagine."
"Oh, it all comes back to my own stupidity. I might have known you had come
through all right."
"How should you?"
"Why not?--when you turn up here in New York safe and sound after being
drowned on the _Assyrian_!--as if that were not proof enough that you bear
a charmed life!"
"Charmed!" he laughed.
"And you haven't yet told me how you survived that adventure."
"You are kind to be interested, and I am unfortunate in never seeing you
save under circumstances unfavourable for yarn-spinning.
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