He rose and walked swiftly toward the house, Ariadne trotting at his heels. Even as he approached, he heard the telephone bell ringing, and hastened his steps toward the house.
But as he entered, the girl Philippa stepped into the hallway, and he caught a glimpse of a slim, barefooted figure, holding with one hand the folds of a shabby chamber robe around her, and with the other the receiver.
"What?" she cried in answer to a question. "Yes, I am Philippa.... Oh! It’s _you_. I thought so.... What do you desire of me?"
What Wildresse desired of the girl Philippa intimately concerned Halkett. He coolly remained to listen.
"No!" she said in her clear, emotionless voice. "I shall not come back! ... Very well; if the Government agents want me, they can find me here.... You may threaten me with arrest by the Government if you choose, but I know that you are more afraid of the Government than I am.... _Why_ shouldn’t I say it! Yes, I know quite well that we are going to have war.... You say that the Germans are already across the Duchy? Skirmishing before Longwy? Very well; why don’t you inform _one_ of your Governments? ... No, I won’t keep quiet! No, no, _no_! ... What you say does not frighten me.... I refuse to return! ... Because I am now in an honest business for myself.... Yes, it is an honest business. I am permitted to pose for an artist of great distinction.... What you _say_ does not frighten me; but what you _are_ does cause me some apprehension. And knowing as much as I do know about you, I seriously advise you to leave France.... No, I haven’t said such a thing to anybody else, but I am likely to, so you had better hasten to leave for America. Yes, I will tell you why, if you wish. It is because there are always two millstones when anything is to be crushed. War is now beginning to bring those two stones together. The mill wheel already is turning! When the two millstones meet, the little meal worm that has remained between them so long in safety is going to be crushed.... Oh, yes, you _do_ know what I mean! You also know whom I mean. Very well, then, if you don’t I’ll tell you this much: _double wages_ never are paid by a _single_ master. I learned that yesterday when you gave me the _wrong_ paper to forward to Paris with the others. Fortunately for you, I read it. I then burnt it to ashes and took my clothes and my punt and my departure! I might have continued to endure what you had accustomed me to. But _two_ masters! Faugh! The horror of it! ... Fear? If you really think _that_ of me, then you have never really known me. It was disgust and shame that drove me toward liberty.... Yes, this that I say is final.... You _dare_ not interfere! ... Then I’ll say this: if you do not leave France now, _at once_, in this moment of her peril, I _will_ tell what I know to the first soldier of France who crosses my path! ... I am not afraid of you, I tell you.... Believe me, you are well rid of me.... I warn you, in God’s name, to let me alone!"