His association with her under present circumstances was fast becoming
unbearable. Even though he was aware that she knew he was no ordinary
chauffeur, he loathed the necessity of having to wear his mask in the
presence of her family. He wanted to be free to come to see her, to
send her flowers and to go about with her. For him to take any
advantage of their present intimate relations to court her seemed to
him little short of a betrayal of his government, yet at times it was
all he could do to keep from telling her that he adored her. Love’s
sharp instincts, too, had made him realize that Jane was already
beginning to be attracted by the handsome young German whom they were
seeking to entrap, and the knowledge of this fact filled him with
helpless rage and jealousy.
Jane, too, angered and insulted at first by Dean’s outburst, had been
endeavoring to analyze her own conduct. Candor reluctantly compelled
her to admit that each time she met Frederic Hoff she had found herself
coming more and more under his spell. He had a wonderful personality,
talked entertainingly and ever exhibited an innate gallantry toward
women in general, and herself in particular, which Jane had found
delightfully interesting. Though she had undertaken wholeheartedly to
try to get evidence against him, she was forced to admit to herself now
that she was secretly delighted that there had been nothing damaging
found as yet, so far as he was concerned, beyond the one fact that he
had been in British uniform.
In vain she marshalled the circumstances about him, trying to make
herself hate him. He was a German, she told herself. He was an enemy of
her country. He lived with a man who had been proved to be a spy. He
surreptitiously associated with American naval officers. The dictograph
told her that nightly his uncle and he in the seclusion of their home
toasted America’s arch enemy, the German Kaiser. More than likely, too,
her reason told her, he was a murderer. She ought to hate, to loathe,
to despise him, and yet she didn’t. She liked him. Whenever he
approached she could feel her heart beating faster. She looked forward
after each meeting with him to the time when she would see him again.
What, she wondered, could be the matter with her? Assuredly she was a
good patriotic American girl. Why couldn’t she hate Frederic Hoff as
she knew he ought to be hated?
She was still puzzling over her unruly heart when they reached Getty
Square, and Dean brought the motorcycle to a stop in one of the side
streets overlooking Broadway. Dismounting, he looked at his watch and
made a pretense of tinkering with the engine, while Jane kept a sharp
lookout on the main thoroughfare, by which they expected the Hoffs to
approach. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, more than half an hour they
waited, anxiously scanning each car as it passed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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