Her eyes wandered to them and searched them through. At first, under the spell of Verrinder's denunciation, she saw them as two bloated fiends, their hands dripping blood, their lips framed to lies, their brains to cunning and that synonym for Germanism, _ruthlessness_--the word the Germans chose, as their Kaiser chose Huns for an ideal. But she looked again. She saw the pleading in their eyes. Their very uncomeliness besought her mercy. After all, she had seen none of the things Verrinder described. The only real things to her, the only things she knew of her own knowledge, were the goodnesses of these two. They were her parents. And now for the first time they needed her. The mortgage their generosity had imposed on her had fallen due. How could she at the first unsupported obloquy of a stranger turn against them? Her first loyalty was due to them, and no other loyalty was under test. Something swept her to her feet. She ran to them and, as far as she could, gathered them into her arms. They wept like two children whom reproaches have hardened into defiance, but whom kindness has melted. Verrinder watched the spectacle with some surprise and not altogether with scorn. Whatever else Miss Webling was, she was a good sport. She stuck to her team in defeat. He said, not quite harshly, "So, Miss Webling, you cast your lot with them." "I do." "Do you believe that what I said was true?" "No." "Really, you should be careful. Those messages you carried incriminate you." "I suppose they do, though I never knew what was in them. No, I'll take that back. I'm not trying to crawl out of it." "Then since you confess so much, I shall have to ask you to come with them." "To the--the Tower of London?" "The car is ready." Marie Louise was stabbed with fright. She seized the doomed twain in a faster embrace. "What are you going to do with these poor souls?" "Their souls my dear Miss Webling, are outside our jurisdiction." "With their poor bodies, then?" "I am not a judge or a jury, Miss Webling. Everything will be done with propriety. They will not be torpedoed in midocean without warning. They will have the full advantage of the British law to the last." That awful word jarred them all. But Sir Joseph was determined to make a good end. He drew himself up with another effort. "Excuse, pleass, Mr. Verrinder--might it be we should take with us a few little things?" "Of course." "Thang gyou." He bowed and turned to go, taking his wife and Marie Louise by the arm, for mutual support. "If you don't mind, I'll come along," said Mr. Verrinder. Sir Joseph nodded. The three went heavily up the grandiose stairway as if a gibbet waited at the top. They went into Sir Joseph's room, which adjoined that of his wife. Mr. Verrinder paused on the sill somewhat shyly: "This is a most unpleasant task, but--" Marie Louise hesitated, smiling gruesomely. "My room is across the hall. You can hardly be in both places at once, can you?"