"Reginald promised me some papers to-night--my father had asked me to get them for him. She does not know, this cousin of mine, what they are, what her father is! It is left for you to bring the shame upon her." "It had better be I than you, in your present frame of mind!"--and the pity welled in my heart. I must save her from the heartache that lay in the truth. If I failed in this I should fail indeed. "Do you want her to know that her father is a forger--a felon? That is what you are telling her, if you trick Reginald into giving her those papers he was to give me for my father!" "She hasn't those papers. I have them. They are in my pocket, quite safe from all of you. You are altogether too vindictive, you Holbrooks! I have no intention of trusting you with such high explosives." "Reginald shall take them away from you. He is not a child to be played with--duped in this fashion." "Reginald is a good fellow. He will always love me for this--" "For cheating him? Don't you suppose he will resent it? Don't you think he knows me from every other girl in the world?" "No, I do not. In fact I have proved that he doesn't. You see, Miss Holbrook, he gave her the documents in the case without a question." "And she dutifully passed them on to you!" "Nothing of the kind, my dear Miss Holbrook! I took them out of her cloak pocket." "That is quite in keeping!" "I'm not done yet! Pardon me, but I want you to exchange cloaks with me. You shall have Reginald in a moment, and we will make sure that he is deceived by letting him take you home. You are as like as two peas--in everything except temper, humor and such trifles; but your cloaks are quite different. Please!" "I will not!" "Please!" "You are despicable, despicable!" "I am really the best friend you have in the world. Again, will you kindly exchange cloaks with me? Yours is blue, isn't it? I think Reginald knows blue from red. Ah, thank you! Now, I want you to promise to say nothing as he takes you home about papers, your father, your uncle or your aunt. You will talk to him of times when you were children at Stamford, and things like that, in a dreamy reminiscential key. If he speaks of things that you don't exactly understand, refers to what he has said to your cousin here to-night, you need only fend him off; tell him the incident is closed. When I bring him to you in ten minutes it will be with the understanding that he is to take you back to St. Agatha's at once. He has his launch at the casino pier; you needn't say anything to him when you land, only that you must get home quietly, so Miss Pat shan't know you have been out. Your exits and your entrances are your own affair. Now I hope you see the wisdom of obeying me, absolutely."