"There might be a little fog to-night, but it didn't matter. Margot
knows the way across blindfold--Margot would row the lady. She would be
waiting with a lantern at five minutes to seven; and again at half-past
nine. Not too late at all! But Margot would not wait on the other side,
it was too cold. They would lend the lady a whistle, and she must blow
on it from the far bank."
"There's romance!" said Fanny, as they came away.
"Not if you are caught."
"There's my magic luck!"
"How dare you ask like that? Even if you are not superstitious, even if
you don't believe a word of it, why be so defiant--why not set the
signs right!"
"Oh, my dear Stewart, I hardly care! And to the creature who doesn't
care no suspicion clings. Haven't I an honest face? Would you think it
was me, me, of all the Section, to cross the river to-night, in a little
boat with a lantern, to creep out of the house, out of the village, to
dine forbidden in Chantilly, with some one who enchants me! You
wouldn't. Why, do you know, if I lived up in their house, under their
eyes, I would go out just the same, to cross the river. I wouldn't climb
by windows or invent a wild tale to soothe them, but open the door and
shut the door, and be gone. And would anybody say: 'Where's Fanny?'"
"They might."
"They might. But they would answer their own question: 'Innocently
sleeping.
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