There are ever so many ways of escape from a seaport. She might take
ship and embark on board the first steamer bound to the East, for
India or Ceylon, the Antipodes or far Cathay."
"Well, why not?"
"Henriette, my sister, has given way. Her courage has failed her at
this, the most critical moment, when she is within a hair's breadth of
success. She is afraid to go on alone with little Ralph, and is
running back to me by the first train to-morrow morning, at five or
six o'clock."
"Coming here? Into the very mouths of all the others!"
"Just so, and all my great scheme will be ruined. They cannot but find
out, and there is no knowing what they may do. Lord Blackadder, I
know, is capable of anything. I assure you, Colonel Annesley, I am in
despair. What _can_ I do?"
She looked at me in piteous appeal, the tears brimming over, her hands
stretched towards me with a gesture at once pathetic and enchanting.
"Say, rather, what can _we_ do, Lady Claire," I corrected her. "This
is my business, too, if you will allow me to say so, and I offer you
my advice for what it is worth.
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