“Nothing of the kind.”

“Oh, I know.  You mustn’t think me so stupid as all that.  It is a mortifying truth that I like you, and that you have no use for me.”

I have never known how to take a jest from a woman.  I suppose I should have laughed this off.  Instead, I made a fool of myself.

“I shall be as frank with you,” I said, “and declare that I like you, though I should be much happier if I didn’t.”

She blushed at this, if I am not mistaken.  Perhaps it was unlooked for.

“At any rate,” she went on, “I should deem it my duty to warn you of the consequences of this joke of yours.  They may not be all that you have anticipated.  The consequences for you, I mean, which you do not seem to have taken into account.”

“Consequences for me!” I exclaimed.

“I fear that you will think what I am going to say uncalled for, and that I am meddling with something that does not concern me.  But it seems to me that you are undervaluing the thing you have worked so hard to attain.  They say that you have ability, that you have acquired a practice and a position which at your age give the highest promise for the future.  That you are to be counsel for the railroad.  In short, that you are the coming man in this section of the state.  I have found this out,” said she, cutting short my objections, “in spite of the short time I have been here.”

“Nonsense!” I said, reddening in my turn.

“Suppose that the Celebrity is captured,” she continued, thrusting her hands into the pockets of her mackintosh.  “It appears that he is shadowed, and it is not unreasonable to expect that we shall be chased before the day is over.  Then we shall be caught red-handed in an attempt to get a criminal over the border.  Please wait until I have finished,” she said, holding up her hand at an interruption I was about to make.  “You and I know he is not a criminal; but he might as well be as far as you are concerned.  As district attorney you are doubtless known to the local authorities.  If the Celebrity is arrested after a long pursuit, it will avail you nothing to affirm that you knew all along he was the noted writer.  You will pardon me if I say that they will not believe you then.  He will be taken East for identification.  And if I know anything about politics, and especially the state of affairs in local politics with which you are concerned, the incident and the interval following it will be fatal to your chances with the railroad,—­to your chances in general.  You perceive, Mr. Crocker, how impossible it is to play with fire without being burned.”