It may be that you will
be willing to go then of your own free will. If I lay bare to you every
step I have taken since I have been in Washington; if I make clear to
you every obscure point in this hideous intrigue; if I confess to you
that the Latin compact has been given up for all time, won't that be
enough? Won't you go then?"
Mr. Grimm's teeth closed with a snap.
"I don't want that--from you," he declared.
"But if I should tell it all to you?" she pleaded.
"I won't listen, Miss Thorne. You once paid me the compliment of saying
that I was one man you knew in whom you had never been disappointed."
The listless eyes were blazing into her own now. "_I_ have never been
disappointed in you. I will not permit you to disappoint me now. The
secrets of your government are mine if I can get them--but I won't allow
you to tell them to me."
"My government!" Miss Thorne repeated, and her lips curled sadly. "I--I
have no government. I have been cast off by that government, stripped of
my rank, and branded as a traitor!"
"Traitor!" Mr. Grimm's lips formed the word silently.
"I failed, don't you see?" she rushed on.
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