He hastily threw a few
things into his valise, and prepared to follow them. When he went
downstairs he informed the porter that owing to an urgent call of
business he should try to catch the through express at three
o'clock, but they must retain his room and luggage until they heard
from him. He remembered Don Caesar's letter. Had either of the
gentlemen, his friends who had just gone out, left a letter or
message? No, Excellency; the gentlemen were talking earnestly--he
believed, in the South American language--and had not spoken to
him.
Perhaps it was this that reminded Paul, as he crossed the square
again, that he had made no preparation for any possible fatal issue
to himself in this adventure. SHE would know it, however, and why
he had undertaken it. He tried to think that perhaps some interest
in himself had prompted her to send the colonel to him. Yet,
mingled with this was an odd sense of a certain ridiculousness in
his position: there was the absurdity of his prospective antagonist
being even now in confidential consultation with his own friend and
ally, whose functions he had usurped, and in whose interests he was
about to risk his life. And as he walked away through the silent
streets, the conviction more than once was forced upon him that he
was going to an appointment that would not be kept.
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