He put his arm about her waist.
"Don't, dear," he said, hastily. "I'm sorry. Forgive me, will you? Of
course you're dead right and I've been talking like a jackass. I'll
behave, honest I will.... But what ARE we going to do? I won't give you
up, you know, no matter if every spirit control in--in wherever they
come from orders me to."
She smiled. "Of course we're not going to give each other up," she
declared. "As for what we're going to do, I don't know. I suppose there
is nothing to do for the present except to wait and--and hope father may
change his mind. That's all, isn't it?"
He shook his head. "Waiting is a pretty slow game," he said. "I wonder,
if I pretended to fall in love with Marietta Hoag, if those Chinese
spooks of hers would send word to Cap'n Jeth that I was really a fairly
decent citizen. Courting Marietta would be hard medicine to take, but if
it worked a cure we might try it. What do you think?"
"I should be afraid that the remedy might be worse than the disease.
Once in Marietta's clutches how would you get away?"
"Oh, that would be easy. I'd have Doctor Powers swear that I had been
suffering from temporary softening of the brain and wasn't accountable
for what I'd been doing."
"She might not believe it."
"Maybe not, but everybody else would. Nothing milder than softening of
the brain would account for a fellow's falling in love with Marietta
Hoag.
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