"Of course you'll go," Violet said softly.
"Oh, I don't know about that," he replied.
"I do," she returned. "It's your duty. What a dear old chap he must be!--so thoroughly prosy and honest. I'm sure I should love him. I know just the sort of man he is. A downright Nonconformist minister of the midland counties, who was consecrated a Bishop by mistake."
"Ah, yes," she replied, "the others. But perhaps you don't class them as your friends."
"Oh, it isn't that," he answered. "Only I was wondering--"
"What the Bishop would say?" she asked, looking at him with a roguish smile. "Well, why not take him at his word and find out."
"By Jove!" he exclaimed. "I will! I believe you've hit on the very best possible solution of our difficulty. The episcopal palace at Blanford is absolutely the last place in the world where any one would think of looking for a political conspirator, and, by some freak of fortune, the police are entirely ignorant that I'm in any way connected with your flight."
"Good! then it's settled!" she cried. "And we'll all accompany you."
"Ye-es, only the governor wouldn't go within a hundred yards of a theatre, and my aunt calls actors children of--I forget whom--some one in the Old Testament."
"You forget," she said, "I was brought up in a convent."
"It'll never do," he continued, "for them to suspect who you really are."
"Of course. We must have a dress rehearsal at once, and cast you for your parts. But there's Friend Othniel--"
"That's easily managed," she replied. "Pay his hotel bill, and leave him a note with a nice little cheque in it to be delivered after we've gone."
"Then we must get away quickly, or he'll suspect."
"I noticed that there was a ship sailing from Montreal for England this afternoon."
"That'll just suit our purpose," she said. "Friend Othniel told me he was going to walk up Mount Royal after lunch and wouldn't be back before six."
"And you'll really come to Blanford?" he asked, taking her hand.
"Of course," she said. "Why should you doubt it?"
"Because," he replied, "it seems too good to be true. I was thinking, hoping, that perhaps I might persuade you to come there for good, and never go away."
"Ah," she interrupted him, "you're not going to say that?"