"I feared
interruption," he said, in explanation of the bolt.
In silence they returned to the upper deck. The intoxication
of sudden passion now under control, Theriere was again
master of himself and ready to play the cold, calculating,
waiting game that he had determined upon. Part of his plan
was to see just enough of Miss Harding to insure a place in
her mind at all times; but not enough to suggest that he was
forcing himself upon her. Rightly, he assumed that she would
appreciate thoughtful deference to her comfort and safety
under the harrowing conditions of her present existence more
than a forced companionship that might entail too open
devotion on his part. And so he raised his cap and left her,
only urging her to call upon him at any time that he might be
of service to her.
Left alone the girl became lost in unhappy reflections, and
in the harrowing ordeal of attempting to readjust herself to
the knowledge that Larry Divine, her lifelong friend, was the
instigator of the atrocious villainy that had been perpetrated
against her and her father. She found it almost equally difficult
to believe that Mr. Theriere was so much more sinned against
than sinning as he would have had her believe. And yet, did
his story not sound even more plausible than that of Divine
which she had accepted before Theriere had made it possible
for her to know the truth? Why, then, was it so difficult for
her to believe the Frenchman? She could not say, but in the
inmost recesses of her heart she knew that she mistrusted and
feared the man.
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