'
"'Is it usual to--change sides so suddenly?' I asked.
"'You're not changing sides,' she explained. 'You've never had a side,
in the diplomatic sense. It is entirely regular in diplomacy for you to
take such a course as is proposed; there is nothing unusual about it.
And, my dear Mrs. Clephane, a position in the German Foreign Secret
Service is a rare plum, I can assure you, even though you may not care
to be--active in it.'
"Naturally, I understood. Mrs. Spencer thinking me the same type as
herself, without conscience, character, or morals, had evolved this plan
either to test me or to ensnare me. To test me, because she is jealous
of you; or to ensnare me because she wants to win out diplomatically--or
both, it may be. I am a poor hand at pretence; but I played the game, as
you would say, to the best of my ability. So I seemed to fall in with
her scheme; France was nothing to me; I had been given no option in the
matter of accepting the letter and attempting its delivery; I had done
all and more than could be expected of a disinterested person; I had
lost the letter but through no fault of mine. I was acquitted of further
responsibility; was at liberty to choose. And Mrs. Buissard agreed with
me in everything.
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