But it
is more than that--it is the functions of a gentleman--and my
mother, Captain Carroll, would like to say of--a friend."
He seized her hand and covered it with kisses. She withdrew it
gently.
"What have I to do?" he asked, eagerly.
She drew a note from her belt. "It is very simple. You must ride
over to Aladdin with that note. You must give it to him ALONE--
more than that, you must not let any one who may be there think you
are making any but a social call. If he keeps you to dine--you
must stay--you will bring back anything he may give you and deliver
it to me secretly for her."
"Is that all?" asked Carroll, with a slight touch of disappointment
in his tone.
"No," said Maruja, rising impulsively. "No, Captain Carroll--it is
NOT all! And you shall know all, if only to prove to you how we
confide in you--and to leave you free, after you have heard it, to
do as you please." She stood before him, quite white, opening and
shutting her fan quickly, and tapping the tiled floor with her
little foot. "I have told you Dr. West was my mother's business
adviser. She looked upon him as more--as a friend. Do you know
what a dangerous thing it is for a woman who has lost one protector
to begin to rely upon another? Well, my mother is not yet old.
Dr. West appreciated her--Dr. West did not depreciate himself--two
things that go far with a woman, Captain Carroll, and my mother is
a woman." She paused, and then, with a light toss of her fan,
said: "Well, to make an end, but for this excellent horse and this
too ambitious rider, one knows not how far the old story of my
mother's first choice would have been repeated, and the curse of
Koorotora again fallen on the land.
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