She felt the sympathy while it lasted, but it was the
effect as to herself, the selfish effect, that inspired the sensation.
When a beautiful woman stoops to sympathy, it is rare indeed that she
does not thereby arouse admiration for herself. Madeline Spencer may
have been cold and shrewd and selfish and calculating, yet with it all
she was warm-hearted; but the warm heart never got away with the cool
head--unless it was with that head's permission and for its benefit. She
played men--and men played her--but the man that had won was not yet to
be found. Two only of those whom she tried had failed to succumb to her
fascinating alluringness--and these two she had loved, and still did
both love and hate.
"Returning then to the code-book and the letter," said she. "How about
the latter; have you found Carpenter susceptible to persuasion?"
"To persuasion, no; to exchange, yes. Our agreement is that if I provide
the key-word, he will provide the letter in question. At ten o'clock
this morning the trick is to be turned."
"And if the translation concerns the United States, he simply would turn
the key upon you and hold you prisoner until the matter is cleared up."
"One must take some risks," Marston observed.
She nodded slightly.
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