“What do you mean?  Please, please Mr. Herriton, don’t be mysterious:  there isn’t the time.  Any moment Harriet may be down, and we shan’t have decided how to behave to her.  Sawston was different:  we had to keep up appearances.  But here we must speak out, and I think I can trust you to do it.  Otherwise we’ll never start clear.”

“Pray let us start clear,” said Philip, pacing up and down the room.  “Permit me to begin by asking you a question.  In which capacity have you come to Monteriano—­spy or traitor?”

“Spy!” she answered, without a moment’s hesitation.  She was standing by the little Gothic window as she spoke—­the hotel had been a palace once—­and with her finger she was following the curves of the moulding as if they might feel beautiful and strange.  “Spy,” she repeated, for Philip was bewildered at learning her guilt so easily, and could not answer a word.  “Your mother has behaved dishonourably all through.  She never wanted the child; no harm in that; but she is too proud to let it come to me.  She has done all she could to wreck things; she did not tell you everything; she has told Harriet nothing at all; she has lied or acted lies everywhere.  I cannot trust your mother.  So I have come here alone—­all across Europe; no one knows it; my father thinks I am in Normandy—­to spy on Mrs. Herriton.  Don’t let’s argue!” for he had begun, almost mechanically, to rebuke her for impertinence.  “If you are here to get the child, I will help you; if you are here to fail, I shall get it instead of you.”

“It is hopeless to expect you to believe me,” he stammered.  “But I can assert that we are here to get the child, even if it costs us all we’ve got.  My mother has fixed no money limit whatever.  I am here to carry out her instructions.  I think that you will approve of them, as you have practically dictated them.  I do not approve of them.  They are absurd.”

She nodded carelessly.  She did not mind what he said.  All she wanted was to get the baby out of Monteriano.

“Harriet also carries out your instructions,” he continued.  “She, however, approves of them, and does not know that they proceed from you.  I think, Miss Abbott, you had better take entire charge of the rescue party.  I have asked for an interview with Signor Carella tomorrow morning.  Do you acquiesce?”

She nodded again.

“Might I ask for details of your interview with him?  They might be helpful to me.”

He had spoken at random.  To his delight she suddenly collapsed.  Her hand fell from the window.  Her face was red with more than the reflection of evening.

“My interview—­how do you know of it?”

“From Perfetta, if it interests you.”

“Who ever is Perfetta?”

“The woman who must have let you in.”

“In where?”

“Into Signor Carella’s house.”

“Mr. Herriton!” she exclaimed.  “How could you believe her?  Do you suppose that I would have entered that man’s house, knowing about him all that I do?  I think you have very odd ideas of what is possible for a lady.  I hear you wanted Harriet to go.  Very properly she refused.  Eighteen months ago I might have done such a thing.  But I trust I have learnt how to behave by now.”