" It was on my tongue to scold him for
stopping even one moment, when he had been told to hurry, but he looked
so pleased at his own cleverness that I hadn't the heart to dash his
happiness. I would, however, have pushed the papers aside without so
much as glancing at them, if it hadn't suddenly occurred to me that, if
any accident had befallen Ivor, news of it might possibly have got into
print by this time.
When I read what had happened--how he was accused of murder, and while
declaring his innocence had been silent as to all those events which
might have proved it, my heart went out to him in a wave of gratitude.
Here was a man! A man loyal and brave and chivalrous as all men ought to
be, but few are! He had sacrificed himself to the death, no doubt, to
keep my name out of the mud into which my business had thrown him, and
to save me from appearing in Raoul's eyes the liar that I was. Had Ivor
told that he was with me, after I had prevaricated (if I had not
actually lied) to Raoul about the midnight visitor to my house, what
would Raoul think of me?
Ivor was trying to save me, if he could; and he had been trying to save
me when he went to the room of that dead man, though how and when he had
decided to go I knew not.
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