You'll be certain to suffer from it, in any case.

But I'm strong enough at the Department to persuade them you're innocent.
I--" "Do you mean," she stammered, incredulously, finding hesitant words at last, "Do you mean you're a--a spy?
That you came to our house--that you ate our bread--with the idea of learning secrets that might injure us?
That you--?
Oh!" she burst forth in swift revulsion, "I didn't know any one could be so--so vile! I--" "Wait!" he commanded, sharply, wincing nevertheless under the sick scorn in her voice and words.

"You have no right to say that.

I am not a spy.

Or if I am, then every police officer and every detective and every cross-examining lawyer is a spy! I am an official in the United States Secret Service.